Original Link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gyGHqBBP6pbRf4JMCTRhP0ZWz7yvUu_07_RjnHQM-qY/edit?usp=sharing

As expected, the last part of their journey was the most difficult. It required the full awareness of all rebels partaking in the assault to prevent them from being discovered. But although the demons seemed to know of their plans, as they could sometimes be found patrolling the paths Twilight accidentally revealed in her nightmare, the cultists seemed to be oblivious, staying in the towns and cities to hold sermons.They were finally home. Equestria… this land they once remembered to be so peaceful and beautiful now had a constant dread hanging over it. Only the cultists and demons remained. A paradise to them, of course. But for any outsider, anyone opposing their extremist ideals, it was a hellish place. The corpses of the ‘heretics’ these cultists punished years ago were still hanging in the air or remained nailed to walls, most of them now only being skeletons with barely any skin left on them. The roads of dirt and cobblestone still had traces of dried blood on them, as if not even the rain could wash all these sins away. Disturbing chants could faintly be heard in the distance at nearly all time. After having the reapers scour the area ahead in the shadows to ensure safe passage, it had become clear that the cultists had fallen so deep into their religion, they became completely obsessed with it. Anypony spotted that was still living in this corrupted land could be seen constantly giggling in insanity, shaking, grinning with wide open bloodshot eyes, speaking to themselves or whispering prayers. Every last one of them had completely fallen to the curse of madness, going so far that the reapers could even observe the birth of new demons here and there while other cultists gathered around their dying friend to observe in joy.

“It is hard to believe that I used to walk across these same meadows, or sit under these same trees, or even swam through these same rivers…” Fluttershy commented.

“I know what you mean, darling,” Rarity agreed, looking around with a sad expression. “I just can’t believe that this is Equestria. I mean, it mostly still looks the same, but that is about all that remained the same.”

“It’s like walking through a disturbing alternate universe. Something that could not be, that should not be, but still is…” Twilight added, having the same expression on her face as her eyes wandered around.

“This is not our home any longer. Whatever it has become, it is definitely not a land suitable for ponies… or anything other than cultists and demons anymore… Words are insufficient to describe how I feel…” Luna whispered.

“I wonder how the animals are coping with all this. I can see birds and squirrels hiding in the trees. These poor things look completely terrified…” Fluttershy continued.

Surprisingly and completely contrary to the general mood of the situation, that comment put happy smiles on all of her friends’ faces. Fluttershy immediately noticed and looked at them in utter confusion.

“Why are you all looking at me like that?” she wondered.

“Do you realize that this is the first time in literally years that you even spoke of animals?” Twilight inquired.Fluttershy opened her mouth to give a quick response. But as she thought about countering arguments, she found herself so surprised she didn’t have any that her own eyes went wide in surprise.

“Oh my goodness! You are right! Did I really become that lost in myself?” she wanted to know.

“Do you remember what I told you when you first came back to meet us in Ponyville? Just before the investigations and all this began? You were a completely different person at that time already and it only became worse and worse over the years. Your change of heart is so strong it even makes you speak differently now! The way you just worded that… You sound just like you used to before you became a reaper. Frankly, I’m so glad you are finally returning to your old self now, I feel like crying…” Twilight replied, her slightly hoarse voice and expression giving away that she really meant those words.

Fluttershy placed a front hoof over her mouth, her eyes filled with condolence and sympathy. She then immediately flew over to her friend to give her a hug. Twilight gladly accepted it and hugged her friend back tightly. She couldn’t believe she was about to give up on her. She couldn’t believe she was about to let her die. Yet, in the end, exactly this moment was needed for the spirit to take action. The purple mare was incredibly relieved that things ended up turning out like this. She wasn’t sure if she could have handled Fluttershy’s death.

“Yes… It’s good to have you back, darling,” Rarity added with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face.

“Um…” a little voice interrupted, which after a glance to the source turned out to belong to Amber. “My apologies, but we really must keep going if we want to catch the caravan in time.”

After the hug ended, all rebels continued walking in silence and concentration. Amber just reminded all of them that they did not come here to rekindle friendships, for the sensation of coming home or the memories of a better past, anyway. They came to fight and this was what they had to focus on.

“Are you sure you want to fight with us? I don’t like the idea of putting a life on the line that is still this young…” Twilight asked, looking at the young clairvoyant.

“Don’t worry, my mistress. I may not be able to predict the outcome, but I can predict that this will not be my last fight. I will make it through,” Amber assured.

“If you insist… Still, be very careful,” Twilight demanded, to which the reaper spectralist bowed in response.

Avoiding every bigger population as far as possible without detouring too much from their path, they snuck through the land. Out in the open, yet not visible due to the mirage they used. Their eyes eventually stopped looking around and simply focused on the way ahead, towards their goal. After a few more days, during which some started to fear they would not make it in time, the rebels finally stopped. They found themselves at the edge of a forest, some more meadows to their right and the Neighagra Falls in the distance. In front of them stood a mountain range, behind which the Crystal Empire was hiding. To their backs, off in the distance, was Canterlot, towering on its mountain in the center of Equestria. This was the place. In just 10 minutes, Sombra would be passing through.

It was as predicted. Having known they would have no time to set up traps, they instead paced themselves for this final march. All rebels used up just a small portion of their stamina, only enough to be warmed up already. The majority of the attack force had split away from the leadership circle days ago, taking safer, but longer routes to reach the Crystal Empire without being discovered, as the spell remained with the assault troop for the best possible outcome. Now that they were in place and the battle was mere moments away from beginning, they all could only hope that the rest of the army arrived at the empire by now as well. Seamlessness was of utmost importance for this task. But having no way of communicating with the others, the assault troop would have to wait until after their attack to see the results.

Just as these last few thoughts wandered through the minds of the rebels, it already began. Sombra’s approach was easily detected by a massive dark figure approaching from the distance, causing the ground to shake with each step. Malice stood behind the comparatively tiny escort, scanning the area with great care. After coming closer, the other demons could be seen looking around as well. Twilight’s nightmare truly wasn’t just a regular one. They were being expected.

Twilight and Scorpan kept the hiding spell up while the troop split up in two, awaiting the escort to walk right between them. Scorpan was trying to hide with the trees in the forest on one side, Twilight standing out in the open and casting her part of the illusion on the other side, leaving a gap between them to prevent immediately being seen as the demons walk right through their combined magic. They all stood low, barely moving, barely breathing. Ponies acting like predators ready for the pounce. The quaking got heavier and heavier, making them as well as the reapers, griffons, minotaurs and beast men adjust their stance to prevent toppling over.

“We are ready when you are,” Fluttershy whispered to Twilight with a serious and tense expression.

The escort arrived. Despair was at the very front, her eyes darting around as if sensing something was wrong. Immediately behind her was Slendermane, as well looking around with his blank face. A large group of lower ranked demons followed, walking in a circle around a carriage pulled by two headless horses. No doubt, Sombra was in there. Finally, Toxica was following directly behind the carriage, showing an unusually serious expression.

Twilight and Scorpan exchanged glances. They waited until the carriage was exactly in between of them before they simultaneously canceled the spell and Scorpan instantly launched himself at Malice.

Right from the first move, the strongest of the demons was occupied dealing with the strongest of the beast men. Before the other demons even had a chance to realize the assault had begun, the reapers launched forth and consumed the first few of them. Despair was the first to react, showing a very tense expression as she teleported herself right on top of the carriage and shape-shifted into a layer of jagged armor, coating it entirely. Directly after, Toxica realized what was going on and immediately started looking around. As she spotted Twilight fighting against three demons at once, her expression changed into pure fury. She jumped into the air and aimed straight for the purple mare.

“Bad pony,” was all she said before inhaling sharply.

Like before, the tiny green demoness exploded into a massive cloud of poison and disease. But Twilight didn’t move or show any fear. Her eyes simply turned white and just by looking in Toxica’s direction, she caused the green clouds to stop expanding. Toxica was in disbelief as her wide open eyes and mouth indicated. The last time she fought against Twilight, this worked so well! But a lot had changed since then. Toxica’s clouds of disaster were no longer a threat as long as Twilight was present.

But Slendermane still was. While keeping up the spell which held the deadly fog in place, the purple mare quickly had to change her focus back to the battlefield and teleport herself away to dodge the black arms coming for her. She expected of Nightmare Moon’s firstborn to immediately focus on her, as she was just as big of a threat as Scorpan, but not yet having a direct opponent in this battle like Malice. He was still fighting against several other rebels at the same time, using his seemingly infinite supply of long black arms coming out of his back while he suddenly disappeared, only to reappear directly behind Twilight. Yet, again, Twilight had a lot of experience with the behavior of this particular demon. Directly as she finished teleporting herself, she turned around and wrapped herself in an arcane sphere to block off the arms which followed less than a second later.

Yet, this turned out to not be necessary. The arms could not even reach the sphere before Slendermane froze in place, unable to move. Now that Succubus is gone, there is no counter for Fluttershy’s Stare anymore. One quick look from the yellow reaper mare was enough to completely paralyze him before she returned her focus to the demon she was about to consume.

Twilight used the moment to transfer the sphere over to Slendermane. Careful as he always is, Slendermane made sure that there were no reaper close enough to consume him in case he would become incapacitated like this before he would be able to regain control. Twilight had to make sure he would not follow up immediately as soon as he snapped out of the Stare. Trapping him in a bubble of pure arcane magic would at least occupy him for a while, until he would figure out a way to vanish again. A break Twilight used to focus her attention on the carriage now.

Despair still covered the whole vehicle, having grown several eyes on her surface to observe the battle all around her. She instantly noticed Twilight coming straight for her and the carriage, growing long, flexible, bladed limbs to counterattack. Even without the immense magical power of the Alicorn Amulet, Despair was still a formidable shape-shifter for having claimed Queen Chrysalis’ soul. It was clear that she had not the slightest intention of moving away from Sombra, so Twilight really had to give it her all to break through, somehow.

The purple mare looked around quickly in between each dodge from the sharp limbs to search for potential aid. Scorpan was locked in a power struggle against Malice, the Right Hand of Nightmare Moon, trying to cut him with his massive red scythe while the gargoyle held onto the weapon and tried to turn it against its master. Rarity was having a hard time keeping the demons pursuing her at bay, rapidly going through her supply of gems to cast stronger spells while she aimed for the next best rebel, looking for aid herself. Shining Armor and Cadence were standing back to back against four demons surrounding them, Derpy accompanying the two and giving them protection from above against another demon charging in. Fluttershy was sticking closely to Amber and another reaper, teaming up against a single demon at a time. Yet, they were too far away to be able to help. Celestia had taken over keeping Toxica and her lethal clouds at bay, trying her best to hold the little squirming demoness while Luna protected her against any attacker. Everyone else was busy with their own opponent, some rebels receiving lethal blows as she looked while on the other side, demons were being consumed. For now, Twilight was on her own.

After dodging another strike, Twilight focused her arcane magic onto pinning down the limbs. As a response, more limbs with maws full of sharp teeth grew out of the shape-shifter demoness, which Twilight ended up pinning down as well. She hoped that this way, the Guillotine of Hope would loosen her grip on the carriage. But Despair seemed to know what she was planning on and ceased attacking altogether. It was no use. Twilight had to utilize brute force to gain access to their main target. Her magic wrapped around Despair and started to pull from all directions. The many eyes of the demoness closed and she seemed to struggle, holding onto the carriage as tightly as she could. Twilight kept pulling with all she had, but having to distribute her magic between Despair, her limbs, several other demons attacking her and the sphere Slendermane was still trapped in and frantically looking for a way out, it wasn’t enough. Despair’s grasp on the vehicle seemed to slowly slip, though, as deep scratch marks could be seen slowly appearing on the wood. After launching another demon away, a passage through the battlefield was created for a brief moment, which Fluttershy used to catch up with Twilight. She aimed straight for Despair, ramming her scythe underneath the demoness in a gap between her and the carriage, then started pulling on her scythe like a lever, trying to get the demoness away. The Guillotine responded by slowly expanding over the scythe like a viscous fluid, grabbing Fluttershy by the front legs and neck. It seemed Despair was really struggling and there just wasn’t any other demon able to get close enough to assist her. One more Stare was enough for Fluttershy to paralyze the demoness and free herself from the hold. The yellow mare succeeded in getting significant leverage moments later, pealing Despair away from the carriage. Twilight instantly charged into the opening, readying an arcane blast to finish him off.

At that moment, doubt began to fill her mind. This was too easy. Those were too few demons for the fact they knew of their plans. Could this be a trick? Would her blast destroy a carriage containing nothing? After all the trickery she had been through, especially thanks to Despair, how could she not question things at this point?

Just before she fired her arcane beam, a dark stallion hastily escaped the vehicle. He could save its own life, yet the carriage got blasted into pieces and Despair was launched out of the battlefield. The stallion attacked immediately, sending several daggers made of dark crystal at Twilight, who could barely react in time to block them off with a magic shield. The daggers dispersed into darkness on impact. Twilight became very relieved to see that the stallion was, indeed, King Sombra in person. It couldn’t be a Skin-Walker either, as Despair was the only one capable of using magic. Their main target was now exposed, out in the open and vulnerable.

The other rebels were still too busy fighting their own opponents. Fluttershy and Twilight quickly exchanged glances and nods. They both knew what they had to do in order to end the battle now. Despair had already recovered from the blast and flew back into the battle with fleshy wings as quickly as she could, but Twilight was waiting for her. Being forced to keep the Guillotine of Hope occupied, it was up to Fluttershy to deliver the killing blow. As Twilight and Despair started fighting again, Fluttershy came running for the Crystal King. He bombarded her with a barrage of corrupted shards. Fluttershy had no chance to block them all, so she decided to simply take the attack. Her cloaks would give her enough protection to withstand anyway and indeed, she only received some minor cuts along the exposed legs. She was in striking range now, but Sombra struck first, summoning a large sword made of black crystal and swinging it at her. Fluttershy ducked beneath the strike and used her scythe to prevent the sword from coming right back at her. She gave Sombra another Stare, leaving his guard wide open… and her scythe impaled him.

The yellow mare was breathing heavily, standing on her hind legs while holding her weapon with both front hooves. The blade was deep inside of Sombra’s stomach, his head lowered from the heavy blow. This was it! She did it! Any moment now, he would collapse to the floor. Their assault was a success. After all this suffering, the rebellion finally, finally got the upper hoof.

But Sombra kept standing. After a few seconds, he grabbed the handle of the scythe close to the blade and started pushing it away from him. Fluttershy’s eyes went wide open. How could he not be dead from this blow? Even if it weren’t a reaper scythe, that kind of injury is fatal! As she observed in disbelieve as Sombra fought back, the scythe shaking as it was being pushed in two opposing directions, she came to realize that there was no blood on the blade as it exited Sombra’s body. Her eyes moved up to meet his. It was then that she noticed they were no longer green and red with a strange purple aura emitting from them. They had become entirely red now. A confident, yet sinister smile on the Crystal King’s face confirmed her suspicion. There was no explanation as to how this was possible, since even the BloodClaw Cult completely failed at this despite wanting it the most. But somehow, Sombra managed to turn himself into a demon.

Fluttershy quickly tried to adapt, dispersing into a dark cloud in attempt to consume Sombra. But he was still at the peak of his strength, so he could repel her attempts. Fluttershy condensed back into her normal form, striking with her scythe again and again. But she failed to change the outcome. She mustered up another Stare, hoping the moment he was incapable of fighting back would be enough to consume him, but she did not get the chance. Before she could even make eye contact with Sombra, her eyes became covered by black hands, reaching from behind. Slendermane finally got out of Twilight’s trap, forcing Fluttershy to her to split her attention between both of them now.

The battle suddenly came to a full stop, even on the demon’s side, as a loud slashing sound filled the air. A noise like a large boulder falling to the ground followed, accompanied by a short earthquake as if their battle caused an avalanche on a nearby mountain. But this noise didn’t come from rocks.

It was Scorpan… Or more accurately, his head. Eyes went wide as everyone came to realize what just happened. Blood started washing across the battlefield, quickly forming a shallow red river. Malice stood tall and proud, holding the lifeless body of the enormous gargoyle and watching as the blood came spurting out of the open neck while he held his scythe low in his other hand, blood dripping from it. For the beast men, the unthinkable happened. The strongest of all of them was killed. They all had to watch helplessly as the giant skeleton opened his jaws and held his mouth over the bleeding neck, drawing Scorpan’s soul right into him.

Instantly, the red aura of the demon commander intensified. The tremendous feeling of threat coming from him nearly multiplied. Malice let go of the corpse, a huge shockwave going through the ground on impact and massive amounts of blood flooding from it. As the rebels tried to dodge the blood, recollected themselves and resumed the combat, Malice let his scythe disappear. Some brave reapers immediately started attacking him, yet he simply ignored them. The demon commander reached out with both of his black skeletal arm in front of him, creating a small black sphere between them and rotating his hands around it as the sphere grew quickly, seemingly drawing in darkness from all around it.

Twilight witnessed all of this, yet continued fighting Despair until she felt the sphere of darkness growing between Malice’s hands. This, of all things, terrified her more than anything she had just witnessed. She did not know the spell he was performing, yet all her instincts were telling her to flee. She instantly let go of Despair and started running, canceling all spells she kept active to instead gather up her friends and fellow rebels via levitation.

“The battle is lost! Run! Run for your lives!” she shouted while sprinting away from the demons.

Sombra, the Underworld League and any other demon remaining didn’t even bother to chase after them. They knew what would happen next, just watching with wide sinister grins. The orb Malice created grew larger and larger, starting to affect gravity and lifting pebbles up from the ground. Very fast, increasingly larger objects became drawn into it, entire trees uprooting and patches of ground tearing away. Now having Scorpan’s soul on top of his already impressive powers, Malice became able to cast a spell only the demon queen herself could perform so far. He could create a black hole.

Celestia was the only one who recognized the spell. Traumatic memories of the first time she witnessed its dreadful potential returned. Once again, she became unable to fight, overwhelmed with the burdens of the past returning to haunt her. She just remained hovering in the air through Twilight’s magic, shaking in terror while she stared at the orb devouring everything around it.

The gargoyle’s head became sucked in. Then the whole body started lifting off the ground. Yet, the demons were unaffected. Malice seemed to be able to make this spell selective, not drawing in those under his command and leaving patches of grass beneath them to stand on. Toxica prefered to hover in the air, though, gigging with her left front hoof in front of her wide grin as she happily watched the first rebels falling into this orb of death, screaming as they got torn to pieces by the immense gravity.

No matter how fast any of the rebels ran, the gravity of the sphere spread faster. Twilight once again gave it her all, using her full magic potential to keep the rebels together. She could not look back, but she could both hear and feel that her efforts were in vain. The gravitational force of the black hole was greater than anything she could muster up. Her troop became decimated from the back to the front and she just couldn’t teleport this many individuals at once. Minotaurs, griffons, zebras, donkeys, beast men, fellow ponies, even reapers. For the purple mare, it was a terrible sensation to feel as the rebels slipped from her magical grasp and fell into the void. But with each rebel she could not save, her grip on the remaining ones got stronger and she could gather up increasingly more concentration. No matter what, she just had to pull off a teleportation, taking as many rebels to safety with her as she could.

Eventually, Twilight herself felt how she began to float. She desperately kicked her legs through the air for a moment before she surrendered to the fact she could not reconnect to the ground. She turned around and faced the dark sphere, having now grown nearly as large as Malice. More and more rebels fell into it, screaming, kicking around, flapping their wings in panic. There was nothing she could do. She had to watch them getting stretched to thin strips by the gravity of the black hole, skin tearing, bones breaking, screams distorting and the bodies eventually becoming completely dissolved into their atoms which then dispersed around everywhere.

Twilight clenched her teeth. Just a little longer. If she could just endure a little bit longer… Having to sacrifice those who trusted her disgusted the purple mare, but she had no choice. If she wouldn’t willingly let go of a few in order to achieve teleportation, they would all die. At least she could make it look like her concentration slipped, so her allies would not turn on her later for obviously letting them go.

As Twilight was getting ready for the teleportation, Slendermane suddenly started moving again. It seemed like he wanted to give her a little payback for humiliating him by trapping him in what he perceived to be a goldfish bowl. Jumping from floating rock to floating rock, he rapidly approached. Toxica cheered him on, having been unable to contribute to this battle at all. Despair just grinned. At last, they would be able to avenge Succubus.

The former princesses were helpless. Twilight’s magic was all that prevented them from certain death at this point. It was Rarity who first became aware of this and the fact that Slendermane was coming right for them. Using her own magic, the undead mare pulled out another gem from her bag, but she instantly lost control over it and it fell into the black hole. At least, she managed to make them and Shining Armor aware of the incoming attacker. All four immediately started casting spells at him, but not a single even managed to reach him. If a black hole was capable of even sucking up light, what chance would their spells have to hit him? Twilight didn’t even notice any of this. She clenched her eyes shut, trying her best to pull off the teleportation spell.

The faceless demon was close now. His arms reached out, trying to grab all three fallen alicorns at once. In an act of desperation, they created magic shields. But Shining Armor knew that would do nothing. He couldn’t let this happen, especially not to Cadence. So his own horn began to glow.

Finally, a bright flash appeared, fighting the darkness of the black hole for a moment before disappearing again. Twilight and her friends escaped.

---

A few days had passed since the meadows of Unicorn Range had last seen rebels. Now, with a sudden flash, a hoof full of them reappeared out of nowhere. A shamefully small group of survivors compared to the large assault troop that originally split away from the army of rebels. Twilight had once again exhausted herself. She could barely stand upright and was panting heavily. Yet another miserable failure. Yet another way too close call. The purple mare tried her best to recollect herself, gaining a more stable stance and turning around to her friends.

“We need to… get to the others… as quickly as possible… if they-” she started before becoming interrupted by Cadence.

“Shining! Where is Shining?!” she shouted in panic.

Twilight’s eyes went wide. She and the rest of the leadership circle quickly looked around. He was nowhere to be seen. Maybe he landed somewhere further away. Maybe he was unconscious and unable to respond. They kept looking. They still kept looking. But he wasn’t there. Twilight’s and Cadence’s eyes gradually filled with tears as the knowledge sunk in that he didn’t get teleported with them.

“No… No… Not him… He was all I had left of my family…” Twilight conceived, unable to even raise her voice.

Cadence couldn’t even conjure up a single word. She collapsed right where she stood, covering her face with both front hooves as she cried loudly.

The others were still too shocked to act. This could hardly have backfired even more. Not only did they lose Scorpan and made Malice even stronger. No, they also lost Shining Armor? They both survived impossible odds, only to die now in the same battle? Even worse was the fact that they now had a widow in the group.

Twilight remained standing. She stared off into the distance, constant streams poured down from her cheeks. Her ears were hanging down, a strong frown on her face and her eyes revealing her unimaginable heartbreak. For a moment, she could see the black hole far away before it vanished, leaving behind a crater where it was cast. Twilight was shaking, her mind incapable of coming with the situation. Her focus shifted to Cadence, still laying on the ground, completely emotionally broken. She was suffering at least as much as Twilight was, maybe even more. At last, the Underworld League got even with them.