“Nooo!” Radiant Hope screams from where she was knocked down, the other ponies slowly recovering. The words echo, elongating, or maybe that’s just the ringing from the shockwave.

Doug groans from where a cerulean blur had pushed him back, shakily rising to quivering limbs, barely able to make out the titanic dragon from the cloud of falling dirt and grass. Two other ponies made it through the shockwave unscathed, Celestia and Rainbow Dash, the former with a thin golden shield surrounding herself and the latter already airborne.

“You wish to test fire from the heavens?”

With a sadistic smirk Dragon Lord Torch scoops a giant clawful of earth and stallion, loose bits of soil and grass falling through his claws. His jaw opens wide as he inhales, revealing a swirling vortex of flame; he relishes the moment before loosing a torrent of fire that coats his claws, dripping like lava and scorching the contents to a smoldering husk.

“Stop!!” Tears stream down light blue cheeks that boil against the oppressive inferno, yet Radiant Hope’s plaintive cry has no effect on the gargantuan dragon. The rest of the ponies seem too stunned to intervene. “Sombra!”

Dragon Lord Torch shovels the lot into his massive mouth, lifts his head to the sky, and swallows as though it was no more than a random table of food.

Doug shudders. To see a pony, even an antagonist like Sombra, torched and then reduced to a mere meal… He feels sick to his stomach, understanding the revulsion the ponies got years ago when he claimed that he might, only in the most dire of circumstances, eat a fellow pony. To see it happen in front of him…

The monstrous dragon grins, swiveling his bulk to face Radiant Hope, and takes another deep breath, readying a second vortex of flame.

The despondent unicorn shifts, rage boiling past her tears. She stands defiant, heedless of Torch’s threat, and barks out a single word.

“Die.”

There is no warning, no flaring of her horn, no burst of green magic that might have been dodged. The light merely leaves the great Dragon Lord’s eyes as though flicked off with a switch. He falters, his deep intake ending as though choked off, and falls flat on his face. Dead.

The power of the word stuns Doug. C…can Harmony do that? A healer with vast power over life can just as easily rip that life away? He cannot tear his eyes away from the once-cute unicorn now consumed with fury as she races toward the downed dragon, tears still flowing freely. She shouts, but to no avail, the corpse doing little more than gracelessly settling to the ground.

“Why?” Radiant Hope wails, barely shifting the snout as she pounds at the teeth as large as herself. “You promised!”

High above, the circling red dragon, Garble, breaks away from the other fliers, racing to the southeast as fast as his youthful body can take him. A smaller teal dragon, Ember, shrieks from the opposite stands, thin claws scraping at widened eyes as if that might change the scene in front of her.

If Doug knew what part of him made him shift his legs forward instead of back, he would have excised it immediately. But there’s something about seeing a mare in desperate need - Luna, Trixie, hell, even Applejack when he first arrived - that draws him like a magnet.

At least, until Radiant Hope swirls around, focusing all her rage on him. “You! You did this!” She swaps between him and Twilight, the alicorn hurrying to catch up to the human. “All of you! If you hadn’t challenged us, then none of this-”

She cuts off as a scraping sound comes from Torch’s shuddering gullet, racing to press a hoof against the thick scales. Her desolate expression evaporates as quickly as her tears. “Sombra! You’re alive!”

The mouth slowly opens, revealing a smoldering but remarkably unharmed unicorn. “I made you a promise so many years ago,” he says as he welcomes Radiant Hope’s ecstatic hug, a chaste kiss to the top of her mane, “that no dragon would defeat me. Even when eaten.”

Radiant Hope’s whole face scrunches up as she glances at the body behind him. “Really?” she challenges, yet unable to keep the radiant smile from her muzzle. “I’m pretty sure he had you dead to rights.”

“Unlikely.” His smirk turns serious. “But what you did…”

“I did for you,” Radiant Hope claims, but doubt immediately scrawls across her face. “In defense of us.”

Sombra’s eyes light up, going for a kiss that would be far less than chaste, only to be interrupted as a teal blur smashes into the light blue unicorn, the small dragon raking deep wounds along her exposed side with claws as long as kitchen knives, and far sharper. Blood sprays out in a fountain, streaming down her sides and soaking the grass underhoof. Radiant Hope howls in pain; her horn flares, only for Ember to gouge her forehead, interrupting her concentration and sending rivulets of red into her eyes.

“You fiends!” Ember shrieks as she tears into Radiant Hope, only for a solid buck from Sombra to send her tumbling backwards. She spits in rage, shaking, barely able to control herself as she swiftly regains her balance.

A thin vertical orange line splits the air between them, then expands to a swirling portal. Ember dances backward, yelping at the sudden heat, while Radiant Hope shakes in shock at seeing the white of bone poking through her sides, when she can see at all.

“It is not yet the time,” a great blue ram states coldly as he steps through the orange portal, which closes behind him, “for such brazen displays of power!”

He surpasses Celestia in height and bulk, the tip of her long horn barely passing the spiraling blue monstrosities jutting from his thick skull. The sight reminds Doug of Tirek at the height of his power. Around the broad chest chest is strapped a crimson harness with six golden bells, together ringing a harmonious, almost cheerful sound completely at odds with his sour expression. The goat takes in the ponies at a glance, his stony expression barely dipping at Radiant Hope’s sorry state. “Vitality. Purity of Fire. Discipline. Determination.”

With each barked word a shimmering aura surrounds the new arrival and his three acolytes. The deep wounds quickly close, Radiant Hope rising to rapidly steadying hooves with Sombra’s help. The goat then turns his attention backward to survey the bulk behind the apologetic unicorn, disappointment clear as he strokes his blue beard.

“You killed my dad,” Ember screams, whizzing forward, a whirlwind of razors that open no more than paper cuts that quickly heal. Radiant Hope flinches away at first, though her surprised laughter at the ineffectual attacks only makes Ember more infuriated.

“Princess of the Dragons Ember Everburning,” the goat greets as though they were at a fancy dinner, completely disregarding her seething temper and furious blows as she turns her rage on him, “Whose Scales Gleam Like Moonlit Jewels.” He glances down as she huffs, exhausted from her onslaught. “Your distress is understandable, if misplaced.”

“W-wha?” Ember stammers, torn between incredulity and indignity at his brusque manner. She backs off, bloodlust still in her eyes, searching for any weakness she might exploit.

“You must be Grogar,” Twilight greets as she steps forward, clearly intent on diffusing the tense situation. Doug follows reluctantly; he often steps in between his mares when they argue, but this seems an entirely different beast.

“Grogar the Necromancer, Servant of Harmony.” He appraises her openly, coming up with a respect Doug didn’t expect. “Princess Twilight Sparkle, Courtesan of Friendship.”

Twilight blushes, intensely cute even as she makes no move to deny the title. “I-I’m sure we can work this out!”

“Indeed.” Introductions seemingly over, Grogar turns back to regard the dead dragon. His imperious tone echoes against the stadium, a choir of one voice.

“Rise, Torch Everburning, The Unquenched Flame!”

One massive eye opens, followed by the other. Torch coughs out a bit of dirt as he rises, sitting on his haunches like an obedient dog. It’s completely at odds with what Doug remembers, a firebrand willing to go to war with Equestria over Spike’s potential punishment, or Sombra’s thinly veiled threats of what the ponies would do if they followed his strictures.

“Might need to change that,” he remarks, twisting his head this way and that as if all he is doing is stretching after waking up from a long nap. He regards Sombra with a familiarity opposite his earlier actions, going so far as to smile and nod at Radiant Hope as though he wasn’t about to incinerate her moments ago, or that she hadn’t (at least temporarily) killed him.

“D-dad?” Ember asks, hesitant to accept the change that’s come over her sire. If she even trusts it is him. “You’re okay?”

“More than okay.” Torch looks to the sky, then to his daughter. He barely seems to recognize her as such. “I have finally been shown the truth. It’s real, my precious Ember. Harmony, and all that. You and the rest of the dragons have best be ready to accept her.”

“No.” Ember backs away slowly, warily, as though the much larger dragon might lunge at her at any moment. Her face scrunches up. “Give me an order. Something. Anything!”

Torch merely gives his head a somber shake. “I am no longer Dragon Lord,” he confides. “The title will pass to the next dragon to claim the Bloodstone Scepter.”

Ember scans the sky, searching for Garble, but the red dragon has already pierced through the blue bubble. “What happened to you - it isn’t right!”

“It is more than merely right,” Grogar states in his overwhelming tone. Ember shudders at hearing it. “All dragons shall share his fate. Indeed, all creatures shall share it. They shall die, their flaws purged, and be reborn in Harmony’s service. ”

“Mind control,” Twilight stammers. She slowly backs up, afraid a sudden movement might provoke a drastic response. Doug follows, sharing her trepidation, glad to put as much distance between himself and the giant goat.

“Not in the way you claim,” Grogar states absentmindedly, paying Twilight as little mind as he did Ember. “No more than when persuaded by an argument, by the holy power of Harmony at work in their lives. For they have seen the light, and know its awesome power.”

“We must stop him,” Twilight says, low and hopefully only heard by Doug. “But how?” She races back as her Friends and fellow rulers once again line up, ready to face the oncoming threat.

Grogar’s expression darkens as he focuses entirely on Radiant Hope, admonishing her as though her slip is more important than anything Twilight is planning. “We are called to keep that faith, to trust in Harmony at all times and with all things.”

“I, I’m sorry,” Radiant Hope mumbles, looking stricken. “I lashed out, I wasn’t thinking. Please, forgive me.”

“All shall be forgiven by repenting,” Grogar says, grasping her hoof and lifting her up, the bells around his chest singing a joyous song. He looks up at the sky as though searching for something, but Doug can’t see anything but the blue bubble of the Crystal Heart. “Yet there remain those whose faith must be tested by Harmony herself.”

Princess Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic gracing her mane, stands with her Friends. Each looks eager, even Fluttershy, confidence bolstered by their unity. Doug rejoins the line of ponies on the other side, standing with Princess Luna. He would much rather be relaxing, caressing her lovely coat while she snuggles against his chest. But he stands tall, resolute against whatever threat Grogar sends their way.

“We stand together,” Twilight claims loudly, “united as one!”

“Their connection to the Elements is strong,” Sombra states, the three acolytes standing alongside Grogar. “But those that they follow?”

“The Princesses,” Grogar concurs with a weighty nod, “and their two consorts.”

“Wh-” Twilight starts, cut off as the six golden bells around Grogar’s chest flash a brilliant white.

The four Princesses of Equestria and their two consorts slump to the ground, eyes rolling to the back of their heads.

Next Chapter: Ch. 193 - Brittle Barrier Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 24 Minutes