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Pound and Pumpkin Tales 2

by Never2muchpinkie

Chapter 88: 11-12: Fighting for Flurry

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The entire Crystal Empire was shrouded in darkness. All the buildings had gown colorless and dreary.

Flurry felt a stabbing pain in her heart. She had let down her family. And all because she had been too stupid to remember the Crystal Heart was out of power. Of course it wasn’t going to defeat him without love magic. Their trip to obtain the Crystal Heart was all for nothing, and it was all her fault!

Sombra chuckled ominously. “This is fantastic! The Crystal Empire is mine again at last! Her Royal Highness and her husband are out of the picture, as well as that liar.

“My kingdom will expand, taking over all of Equestria. There may be another alicorn in the world, but I’ll have some important hostages to keep them all in check.”

He took a step forward. “The only thing left to do is to get rid of this last bit of resistance to my ascension. A brat you may be, but you’re still an alicorn, and three hostages is enough. I'm afraid it's time for you to go."

Pound growled. Hearing him threaten Flurry was all it took to restore his fighting spirit. For most of them it was the same.

Sombra’s horn lit up. “As for the rest of you… you brats are of no significance, so let’s clean up the trash.”

He shot beams of darkness into the ground, and out of it came dark crystals in the shape of ponies.

“A literal crystal pony,” he said with a chuckle. “Go get rid of all of them except for the alicorn brat. I'll take care of her personally.”

“No way!” said Flash. “You’re not taking me or any of my friends without a fight!”

“Same here!” said Masky.

Peppermint didn’t feel nearly as courageous, but she had to protect her friends. She looked to Flurry for hope, and saw her downtrodden expression. Though she tried calling out to her Flurry didn’t respond, too lost in her feelings.

She looked forward again, ready to fight. Flurry had protected her and the rest of her friends throughout their battle with Mayhem. She had to protect her friend in return.

They charged forward and the battle began. With magic and their various abilities they made short work of the crystal ponies.

“My, my!” said Sombra, sitting down and clapping sincerely. “I’m genuinely impressed. You’re not just any brats. You got through my crystal soldiers rather quickly.

“I take back my earlier dismissal of you.” An evil grin came to his face. “It seems now I should take you very seriously.”

With some flashes of his horn dozens of crystal ponies formed out of the ground.

Their faces fell. “There’s so many!” said Plum forlornly.

Pound squirmed. “Hey, Flash!”

“Y-yeah?” he said nervously.

“Can you and the rest of the Power Ponies crew hold down the fort for a little while?”

His head turned to Pound. “What are you planning to do?”

“We need to get Flurry to help us. It’s the only way we’ll have any chance at all.

“You and the others only met her today. We’ve known her far longer and should be able to get through to her.”

Flash glanced towards Flurry, then back to Pound. He saluted. “I’ll give it my all. I’ll protect you until you’re done.”

The two smiled at each other. “Thanks.”

Pumpkin kneeled next to Flurry as the others began to battle the crystal ponies again. “What’s wrong, Flurry?” she asked gently. “Why are you just sitting there?”

“This is all my fault!” she said, tears forming in her eyes. “I couldn’t protect my parents. I couldn’t protect Aunt Starlight. I couldn’t protect the Crystal Empire.

“Everything has gone wrong! If I hadn’t been so STUPID and forgotten the Crystal Heart was out of power we could have ended this already.”

“We all forgot that,” said Peppermint. “What makes you so responsible?”

“Because you don’t live here! You only just heard about the Crystal Heart ritual today. I should have known better.” Her eyes closed as she gently sobbed.

“So what?” said Masky. “So you messed up. Welcome to the club. All of us have done that. Does that mean that you give up?”

“It’s too late!” Flurry said, letting out another sob. “We lost from the moment Sombra corrupted the Crystal Heart.

“We have no other weapon to use. I can’t do my mother’s spell, and anything else we use will just go through him. It’s hopeless! We’re only delaying the inevitable!”

“So you think it’s impossible?” asked Mayhem.

“YES!”

“That’s fine, because you’ve done the impossible before when you defeated me.”

Flurry let out a groan, glancing up at him for a few moments before looking back down at the ground. “Today… today isn’t like back then. I’m not just going to be summoning the Fire of Friendship again.”

Pound smiled. “It seems like your heart has lost the light, but that’s fine. None of us have forgotten what you said.”

He closed his eyes, putting a hoof to his heart. The others mimicked him. “Back then, when we were stuck in Mayhem’s world, you were our pillar of strength. Without our memories we felt like we were fighting on our own.”

“I was terrified,” said Peppermint, “but you saved me from the Timberwolves.”

“You saved us from the Changelings,” said Pumpkin.

“And me from Nightmare Moon,” said Masky.

“And me from Sombra,” said Tree Leaf.

“And me from myself,” said Mayhem.

“Even though we were scared you made it all better,” said Pound.

“Even if it seems impossible there has to be a way through if you keep trying,” said Peppermint.

“After all, we’ve done it before,” said Masky. “And if we did it once then we can do it again.”

“At the very end it was your light that ignited our hearts,” said Pumpkin. “And now that you’ve lost your light it falls on us to share ours with you.”

Flurry glanced between her friends, and slowly got up on her hooves as they all opened their eyes and gave her an encouraging smile. “Do you really want to depend on me? It’s my fault we’re in this mess to begin with.”

“Why are we here today, Flurry?” asked Pound. “We’re here because of screw-ups. Mayhem screwed up when he let his boredom get to him, and Spring screwed up when she went off on her own and her brother got hurt.”

“Today is about second chances,” said Tree Leaf. “The people who love them have already given them second chances, but today is about them getting the strength to give themselves another chance.”

“You need to forgive yourself and try again too,” said Masky.

“We need you, Flurry,” said Peppermint. “Without you there’s no way we can win.”

She looked around uncertainly.

“What’s wrong?” asked Pound. “Why are you hesitating? Don’t you remember what you said? ‘My friends, you showed me the magic of friendship.’ ”

Pumpkin knew exactly what he was referencing. “ ‘And now I want to return it you in kind.’ “

“ ‘I will become stronger than anyone,’ “ said Peppermint.

“ ‘So I can always be your light, ‘ “ said Tree Leaf.

“ ‘Even in the darkest of times,’ “ said Masky.

“And these are some very dark times,” said Mayhem. “All of us could really use your light.”

Flurry looked at her cutie mark, feeling a sense of disquiet. “I… I remember those words, but even if I chose to fight it doesn’t change what I said before. I can’t use my mother’s spell, and the Crystal Heart has been corrupted. We have nothing to use. The light is gone. The darkness is too strong to overcome.”

“The light never goes out!” said Tree Leaf. “Even if it seems that way.”

“Flurry, do you even know why you have light magic?” asked Pound.

She looked at him curiously. “Hmm?”

“The answer lies around your neck.” He reached out his hoof, lifting up the jewel. “This is something your mother gave you to protect you. The Crystal Heart is fueled with love, and your mother’s love is clear. It protected you from Sombra’s door, and protected us all when he tried to fill us with fear.

“Your mother’s heart and love is stored inside, always keeping you safe from dark magic. She gave you something to always protect you from someone like Sombra.

“Even if it’s just a tiny piece,” said Pumpkin, “that light kept you from darkness.”

“That’s how it was for all of us,” said Masky. “Mayhem tried to talk us into betraying each other to save ourselves. Even in the middle of the terror and the thought that we were about to die you stood tall. Even that little bit of light gave us the courage to fight on.”

“And it sparked a brilliant light,” said Peppermint, “allowing us to create the Fire of Friendship.”

“You even shared that light with me,” said Mayhem. “You could have easily decided to hate me, but you chose to show me forgiveness. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you.”

“So like we said before,” said Tree Leaf, “if you’ve forgotten the light then just look at us and remember. We’ll all share it with you, the same way you did for us back then."

“We’re all still willing to fight,” said Masky, “but we know we can’t actually win without you.”

Flurry looked between each of her friends, seeing their encouraging expressions. She acknowledged what they were saying, but she still couldn’t think of a way out.

Pound chuckled, seeing her hesitance. “Well, if that’s not enough of a motivation to fight then take a moment to consider this: in an Equestria ruled by King Sombra, what’s going to happen to your sister?”

Flurry glanced toward him.

Pumpkin smirked. “That’s right. Your baby sister is an alicorn too. Since he wants you dead he’ll probably want to kill her too so she won’t become a threat.”

Flurry twitched, going stone still. They could see the emotions boiling up in her.

Masky also had a smirk now. Her fighting spirit was starting to build up. They had found her driving force. “Oh, I don’t think he’d go that far. Babies are too dumb to know right from wrong. He’ll probably turn her into his heir, making her a princess of darkness. She’ll probably think of him as her real daddy, learning that torturing others makes him so happy.”

Flurry’s head whipped toward him so fast, with such a ferocious expression, he actually backed up a step. Her horn was sparking.

“No!” Flurry said darkly. “NO! I won’t allow it! No one threatens my sister and gets away with it!”

Magical energy swirled around her. “Sombra is going down!”

They were all grinning. “Now that’s more like it,” said Masky.

Twilight let out a little huff. “Scary,” she said to herself. “Child or not, it’s not a wise idea to anger an alicorn.

“This is so exciting! I can’t wait to see how this ends.”

Author's Notes:

Flurry's fighting spirit has returned. Tomorrow marks the conclusion of the Sombra arc, but the finale still has 2 weeks to go before it finishes.

Next Chapter: 11-13: Princess of Light Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 31 Minutes
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