The Sirens Remorse: Resurgence of the Dazzlings

by TheronSniper

Ch.1 The Start of the Apocolypse

Author's Note:

Updates after this initial chapter will be very slow, I just had to write this as a start to book 2. I'll be putting much of my time into the sequel before this one Land of the Rising Sun. Halfway into that story I'll be kicking this back into gear. Enjoy!

Crystal Castle Library- Portal

Deep inside the magnificent abode of whose silhouette before the sun seemed like a colossal oak, formed of Harmony's generosity and nearly impervious gem-like body not a creature stirred nor a peep made. The majesty in its crystal walls and windows belonging to the newest alicorn stood silent and devoid of life, its owners far away in mythical lands. Though the dragon caretaker had taken care to clean every space and counter top of dust and cobwebs before locking the up, ensuring it would be mostly clean by the inevitable return of laughter and merriment of the ponies who'd come to celebrate. Yet not all was well within the innards of the castle, something churned and sparked with magic that gave a tremor of unease throughout the stunning structure. A bewildering groan that almost gave the castle itself a sense of liveliness, that it was feeling indigestion where the collection of knowledge resided.

The library, Princess Twilight's latest personal collection bore fresh and old books from all around the nation, some texts bearing scorch marks of their neigh end of their old shelves. The spines in multitudes of colors both muted and bright faced towards the roomy archive's corridor of a design layout where study tables below sat in quiet solitude, they awaited use from any curious mind of both the collector and her guests. Furnishings where the few friends gathered to look up vital information for any case needed were like the sentinels around every corner at Canterlot, never moving yet ready to leap at a moments notice. Pine wood round tables brought in to liven the otherwise rocky decor, the visual texture along their legs like dripping sand of an amber beach. Every few held upon their smooth polished tops tiny yet effective oil lamps for when the sun descended. All were empty of the combustible liquid making them light as a paper weight.

The metallic skin of their chrome plating glistened at pops of light from deeper within the library, all of them acting as mirrors which shone as beacons from lighthouses. The whole castle shook with a small quake, rattled oil lamps and slightly displaced study desks added to the panic enduing orchestra from all directions. When the tremor petered off the light upon the lamps spurned once more and brighter as if someone were sharpening a sword upon a wheel. A large device not far off had come to life as the contraption surrounding an ornate mirror started to arc with serpents of light, blinking in and out of existence somewhere new each time. Some made contact with the decorative wire at encompassing the edge of the reflective boutique object, sparking with a minor explosion which showered the apparatus of wood and bronze in hot embers. The wood covered pressure tank behind the armature which rose over the ancient portal creaked and moaned, its body bulged outwards like a slowly inflating balloon. The pressure gauge hissing for a moment before popping out, embedding into a nearby shelf whose books caught the metal.

Several new dancing ropes of energy cracked loudly as their power surged from the mirror itself nestled inside the machinery, tensing up and attacking the flanking electrical capacitors. At first they merely graced the copper gold components, yet after what seemed to be testing caresses the room became a ruckus of arcing voltage. In a mighty output, ship rope thick lightning made a final connection and blistered with a fury of an angry god, the metal gave out in moments under the onslaught. Such a force detonated the tank behind the support base, a gaseous substance violently spread out as fragments of wood and brass shredded the nearby book shelves in a hail of shrapnel. The white cloud whose particles shone like the rainbow under shafts of light from the windows expanded and tried to fill the rest of the library in its choking girth. It never made it past the first two sets of tables when something sucked it back in, the portal to the human world was once obscured by the cataclysm soon came back into view. In place of the arcane machine and fancy vanity, emerged not wire and strange devices but a substance like the oil lamps.

The vapors gone, a giant orb sat where the mirror had once been as if the reflective surface and been transformed into something entirely new. It grew with a pulsing nature like a heart, swallowing whatever it touched though it seemed to be held just an inch off the ground. Whatever touched its metal skin seemed to be pulled in by a hungry pull, in a minute the thing took over the entire back portion where the portal had once sat. Books on the shelves both unharmed and marred by fragmentation fell towards the ever enlarging sphere, as if invisible hands were plucking them off their perches. It wasn't until the shelves themselves almost came into contact that the orb finally ceased its strange behavior. Everything stopped and nothing fell into the gravity well anymore, a giant chrome marble just seemed to manifest in the library where it could not move for the tight fit it was in. Its body having apparently gained mass as it did not phase through the floor or walls around it.

It did however shimmer and undulate as if it were frightened by something, sparks fizzed out the front before something shot out. With the sound of splashing water three large bodies flopped with a heavy thud onto the carpeted crystal floor, the sound of bone smacking an nearly unbreakable surface echoed in the annals of the archive.

"AHAaahahahaha!!!" cried an angry voice.

Something else tried to speak yet all that came out was a muffled sentence.

"Owwww...." moaned another, large sail fins stretched upwards in a spectral display of mesmerizing patterns that caught the outside light just right.

One purple and another cerulean blue, two fish-like creatures writhed from the drop they sustained coming out of the chrome orb. Knocking the breath out of the third turquoise colored copy who was smashed under their weight like a pinned mullet. Desperately they tried to scramble out of the suffocating pressure, but a cloven hoof and forelimb kept their head down and pinned no matter what they tried.

"Anyone catch that nine o'clock bus?" Aria spat as she rubbed her eyes free of the dots that clogged her vision.

Dusk paused in her own soreness as her nose picked up on something new, "Hey?! Did we just land in a bookstore or something? Smells like musty old paper and wood?"

The scent of aged manuscripts had its own sweet pungent odor that wasn't too abrasive to their new noses, yet the differences were starting to become clear. Every little particle from the near scentless crystal walls to the few wooden pieces in the room, even the old smells left by previous ponies were as obvious as human perfume sellers. While both were trying to see even a single object without a wash of flash blindness clogging their view, things concerning their bodies were being registered and awakening something long forgotten within their souls. The chugging gears within their heads were running the ancient machine that had once run their birth given bodies.

"Hey, you know something? I don't feel my legs?" Sonata quizzically thought as colorful dots swarmed her as if she angered a wasp nest, "Like for realzies!? It's like their glued together?"

Deciding to have none of the none sense of her packmate Aria groaned, "You would think that and your legs are probably fine."

The mass underneath the two jerked thrice before finally gaining attention to her plight, in return for her need of air she gained what was for the better part a lack luster response. Her eyes glared upwards towards the primary bulk upon her that belonged to the purple one, half their weight crushing her rib cage and trapping her tail. With one forearm stuck under her own chest there was little she could do with both sirens above. Aria was all too pleased to see through the speckled eyes of hers of the trouble she caused the new comer, a gratuitous comment came forth from her muzzle as she sneered back to the hateful eyes.

"Ugghhhhh!! You're as lumpy as a reef you know that?"

Sonata gazed down as well and caught enough to register the fourth siren, "Wow! I knew the ground wasn't that bump."

Both laughed at the only other sister Adagio had left, in some fashion they had a disdain for her out of the surprise appearance. Natural as water flowed downwards, Oratoria did not sit well with them and they wanted it to be known. Even afflicted by the portal's magic they persevered as inner drives rose up from dust and time, of their race it was common place.

"Ohhh, what's the matter? Can't say anything? Perhaps that's because you're on the bottom tier!" cackled Aria before she ceased when the sound of strange noises came from behind them, like cracking sticks and coursing gravel.

In a swirling vortex upon the giant chrome orb, the metal gave to a new disturbance which it birthed more elongated bodies as if they were spurts of water. Adagio and Twilight soon appeared as they were ejected by the same mysterious force which treated the others in kind, dazed and confused as they flopped in the drop which deposited them upon their fellows. Blaze felt karma come back to slap her in the muzzle, she never knew how much more Dazzle weighted over her until that split moment where she knew how it felt to have the air knocked out of her. Sonata had turned around just in time to hear the familiar voice of Twilight screaming as she flew into her, where as the two slammed muzzles and front teeth together in an agonizing impact that shot the nerves. Both of the two seeing only stars and white hot pain flare upon their snouts, wishing they had cracked a tooth than endure the numerous nerves set ablaze by the incident.

Warily, Adagio was the first to power through the phantasmal effects of the magical transportation, as if by mental fortitude her sight cleared and everything was known to her in sharp detail. Planting her front hooves upon something squishy and protesting, she propped herself upwards and took in what was essentially a bookstore of sorts or something similar. The many shelves stacked with little space or none at all and awaiting study areas were a keep for information which she knew all too well.

'So we landed here. Well on the plus side we're not under attack... but a book place all of things? We've had no use for such places since they invented computers and convenience stores.' she focused her eyes down the length of the room towards the only obvious way out, 'We should be back home though, it smells of magic and ponies!'

"Can you get off me! Your grace!!?" came a voice that broke the pleasant bubble of success around the matriarch.

She gazed down towards the indignant sound with a miffed expression that someone dared ruin the moment for her, but that quickly passed like a tidal wave as she realized what had happened. Aside the fact that she could bend her long neck downwards in an wonderful curve, the golden scaled limbs that once were human arms had anchored her on the head of a growling siren who in turn laid partially on another. It felt as if her fingers were curled and the knuckles were what trapped Aria, phantom sensations she hoped would go away now that they had regained their birth given bodies.

She shifted off the pile of fins, tails, and teeth smirking at the misfortune of her little usurper but no more to avoid spoiling their rebirth, "We did it girls! We're back and better than ever!"

Sonata spoke as she rubbed her snout, "Wowey!! Bet my old body would have broken a nose if we did that... that..." she started to get what her leader meant which caused her to freeze up as her crest rose like a morning sun.

Adagio happily grinned as she took in what she knew was just the same as her form, while the rest were still recovering her little idiot smiled as wide as she could. Her eyes glistened, pupils dilated, every membrane sail head to tail stretched taunt before the sudden eruption of glee blew once the mirth could no longer be contained.

She squealed loudly as her vision came to clarity, "I'm ME!! I'm MEEEEEE!!!"

In that split second that Dazzle noticed the crater in the siren's breast plate devoid of the ruby that should have been there, the siren's joy elicited the most awful off key vowel that sounded like glass and fingernails scraping against a blackboard in unison. All four sets of ears, even Sonata's own, fell down sharply trying to block the spikes driving into their heads from the madness. It served to free the enraged siren under the entire pile having been a trapped sardine for the last few minutes. While the horribly ruined vocals were quieted, Dazzle's dreams came to an abrupt halt at the other obstacle she knew they would have had to deal with. It was said it would occur and she had the foolishness to believe there would have been a seashell of a chance she might still have some power with them. Her ire peaked for a spell before giving way to the scene before her, devoid of stones were her pack yet the new girl shone out of the group as a saving grace. Where upon her immaculate chest scales nearly as large as a walkway sat nestled within the protective armor, her gemstone twinkling in the light that bounced off the crystal structure about them.

"Poseidon..." Adagio whispered, her tail curled under her as she stood upwards.

The mass of eels had begun to disperse from the pile, it was clear that her two were fumbling with their own bodies. Their hooves scraped against the ground awkwardly as their hefty chests and elegant heads fought to carry on as if they were still in those ugly meat bags with spindly bones. Aria cursed quietly to herself as she too realized the loss of their second stones, relegating herself to a serpents prone while a wrist blinding groped the depression lacking a certain item. The large tail fin slapped the carpeted floor as her irritation grew like an angry cat, a fussy fur bag was often what Adagio thought Aria embodied. Never happy and always hungry, always the fussy eater.

"You weight as much as those filthy trucks they used to move their trash!" Oratoria spat as she checked her body once over then twice.

A low frequency rumble startled those nearby, but with the exception of the one who was just as aggravated as the one whose throat created the threatening sound. Adagio could only shake her head before speaking up to stop the two from going at each others necks, they had only so long of peace and she dared not risk chance that guards or another warden might appear.

"ENOUGH!!" three heads whipped towards her call, "Get use to her, she may be the newest member among us but she's still my... family." the admittance like a bittersweet taste upon her tongue.

"Serves you right." whispered the proud capable siren who emphasized the words by floating away while the others slithered to get anywhere.

Ignoring the lingering spite between Aria and Oratoria, the golden scaled female addressed the pack by clearing her throat. Serving to double as asserting her position upon them all and adjusting to her new lungs, their size were far larger and more capable than what she was use to. As if she thought a single breathe might perform a full speech with no pause, adapting would come pleasantly to her even if somehow it all felt natural still. Her gaze fell upon Aria and Dusk with the troublesome one to the right of the pair, a flicker of purple fins danced behind her lovable fool yet it left aside as her pride swelled. They were finally back and with help or so she thought, but improvement from their previous situation was more than enough to hold her over.

"As you all know we just escaped our exile. Everyone except Oratoria has lost their gem, meaning Yellow Tail was right about what would happen to the human siren stones once we crossed over. That being said!" she crossed her forelegs over her scale plated chest, "We're practically powerless if we trigger the ponies now. So I need everyone to remain calm and work together, you can settle your feuds later when we have a means to control ponies again. Our only way out of this weakened state is to wait for him so he can get us to where ever the promised gems he has stashed away are. Figure out how we use those ones when we cross that road."

Sonata piped up as she took to stretching herself on the rug covered floor, "You know now that I remember... wasn't he... some kind of big bad unicorn or something?"

The display of the the cerulean sail-like crest almost brought a tear to Adagio's eyes, among the conflict of different emotions rippling through her mind she was elated they were back to normal.

"Don't care, we have our goals to accomplish. The banished are useless to us once we regain our powers... for a second time."

A playful hum permeated the unbelievably crisp air, a gravity defying hippocampus twirled through the cavity of the library until she ended up beside the only one who did not embody a lowly serpent. Keeping her crest and fins lowered to show her subordination, Dazzle felt the nuzzle under her chin though she largely ignored it knowing she was incapable of the same levitation. It irked her that they may have acquired their large beautiful bodies only to scrap scales and damage the lower fins from the only other locomotion they had.

"SEE!! See sister! I told you we were family! Now that we're out of those filthy skins and with me your guardian protector. I mean with my stone and all I can easily mind control anypony who'd dare harm you or us." Oratoria had begun to do what Aria loathed would occur, ears flickered at the little conversation underway and two eyes met.

The golden siren could actually feel the Tartarus fires and lava pools in the insinuation her second in command conveyed, her little usurper was actually feeling threatened. A question without words conveyed by facial expression alone told her all she needed to know, they were not even a day in their old bodies and already as matriarch she had a pecking order dispute.

She sighed having been indifferent to the intimate contact her long lost family enacted, "The answer is no Ori."

The nuzzling stopped as the head withdrew, the siren the reply was for popped at the declaration. A hefty huff passed out her snout where she then darted before the head of the pack, still showing now aggression in her body language though she obviously wasn't happy with the decision.

"What do you mean no?" she furrowed her brows as the two fleshy appendages upon her forehead swayed back as her ears did, there was a hint of bitterness in the girl's tone.

Those magenta orbs soon found a mirror to stare at, the same color as hers even though the two of them were not blood related. She maintained a poker face any veteran gambler would tip their glass to, just like the days of the Restriction Era prior to the Great War among the humans. The situation quickly started to become a test of her mediator skills, probing her long held position where unlike the past all she had to do was bully her standing as the way of things.

"No as in you're not becoming my next in line. Aria has had that position since I began this pack, though you may be family and possess magic. I trust her with the rank because I've seen what she can do for the last several thousand years! You on the other hand have just been searching for me like a lost pup, you haven't been through what we have, struggled to feed as one, or lost your own stone and faced death's door by spitting at it." Dazzle pressed her snout against the other siren as if daring to protest further, "You may be family, but they are as well. Now that we're ourselves once again... you will follow the proper order we've been taught! Am... I... clear?!"

Sonata had taken her last taunt pull when she picked up on the hard lesson to be learned with Dazzle, her ears perked up as she looked over. Seeing the turquoise newbie shutter and fall back, eventually the grounded big fish was the only one left toting over them. It reminded her of their first days together though hazy they were, an odd clarity had graced her for a moment as she remembered the fourth dominance battle Aria tried to enact against Adagio. It went the same way as she managed to catch in its ending proceedings, and it brought a smirk to her seeing things return to peace as much as they often did.

Nearly as soon as the tension fell away into a tepid serenity in the crystal walled archive, the four glanced to the only set of doors down the library as they all heard the sound of a turning knob echo through the air. The crystal handle of the amber door clinked to reveal two unicorns which immediately stunned the pack in disbelief. There before the sirens stood a skinny yet not lanky unicorn adorned in strange green and black robes fashioning a large wide hat like the mages of old in a deep indigo. The other horned pony albeit shorter and fatter, wore a red robe with silver edges though no head wear seemed apparent except for a golden chain upon his neck where an emerald hung encased in platinum. That same pudgy stallion sported a long flowing white beard to compliment the bushy snow brows, giving the pony the appearance of one in their later years. Contrasting the companion who had to be in mid or younger, gaunt around the cheeks and eyes slightly sunken in.

Adagio's first reaction was that they were caught and soon they would be surrounded by guards, though she felt a form of comfort in having Oratoria's voice to lend to an escape. What remained to be seen was if the crazed mage on the other side had time to alert the others, that idea was quickly coming to reality. However, as the leader poised herself on her front hooves with a summoned sneer shared by her little usurper, the unicorns quickly spoke up as soon as they realized who they stumbled upon.

"Frauleins! Quick! Ve must leave zis place soon before zey go through! Come on! Over here!" he called out with a waving hoof over, the harmonics pinged as the one known as the germane mage Paradox.

"Yes I'm afraid we don't have the luxury of time on our hands. Inferno may quite literally take up the whole stage and more with his wondrous personality." registered the other whom Dazzle knew to be Emerath of Maneland.

A certain rookie had begun to coolly warm their vocal cords as they lazily drifted beside her, it was a calling card of what would come if someone didn't act quickly. Compounding the statement about another banished, there was a sense of uncertainty that would likely lead her pack to ruin if they did anything to debilitate the unicorns up ahead. Thus she reached out with her left arm and clamped down on the glistening tail, putting a halt to what was to be a delightful number to have heard if time were not against them.

"No! Ori, they're with us and they'll lead us to our gems. No singing unless I give the go!" she vehemently glared, earning compliance though reluctantly from her pack sister.

"Fine!!" she scoffed as she fell back behind.

The bulging equine ellicited evacuation hastily once more, "I can't be any more serious! Ve must go!!"

"Cool your jets there tubby! We can't actually move like dunder head over there." Aria grinned, already digging the sharp ends of her cloven hooves into the rug as her tail pushed her towards the two.

A dainty giggle escaped Sonata who also had begun to move out, in doing so however she had begun to expose a coiled heap that had hid behind her crest and tail. No one the wiser, Adagio remained to be the last one out and as the rest filed in a staggered line she mulled over their circumstances. Knowing the cross going on with two of the group, she'd have to keep a tight leash on them or else squander what apparent secrecy they still had. A quick glance over her left shoulder and the giant ball of lively metal stood in place, the way back if something was horribly wrong with her that they'd dare return. She snorted at her image though distorted it was in the mirror quality of the sphere, going back was a death sentence even if they somehow got caught. All of their luck was in trusting what Yellow Tail had believed to be apparent with the portal in the way they forced it open, without the bridge between worlds it would take the ponies a long time before such magic ressurrected the pathway again. If what she had overheard while they were taken to the portal from Seraph had any truth to it, it would be an impossible stroke of luck that they'd be sent back to the same world. Anywhere else even if it was a volcanic fireball would be far more pleasing to endure than a fate as a human, she'd rather die than suffer such a life under duress of no voice or magic.

"Good riddance to that bog." she uttered hatefully, "Now... one to the matter at hand."

Flexing her cheek fins she counted her Dazzlings, coming up short she tried to remember who was missing as the wrath towards the void hole world of magic simmered away. A rush of a certain presence reminded her through the fading waterfall of ire that had befallen her mood, lying in wait for her to acknowledged that a certain young girl was the one in question. The portal jump had truly affected her in such a way as to be so mistaken in the initial appraisal over her pack, where and how Twilight Sparkle had been overlooked had come up as an unknown. Remembering where they had landed and that both of them had gone through the portal at the same time, it was assumed she'd see the girl dazed out of her mind from enduring the frightful experience in whatever strange form she took.

"Where is she?" came the question.

Every muscle pulled to swivel her view upon the deposit zone and there came a tremendous feature where she alone was privileged to. In all her life she'd never would have guessed how the great sea god might grace her with such fortune upon her once impossible return, the mighty Poseidon whose power could move the sea and sink continents was always preached to be the one who presided over all creatures born of the water. A subject of admiration, love, and fear for the daughters of the great entity, few ever spoke of gifts given when injustice was dealt towards one of his children. Faint as the sayings were she remembered from her long one family, she had long since given up hope that such a mighty force ever existed after the suffering she lived through. Yet there before her unraveling from a tightened notch was a jaw dropping present she'd never would have guess possible.

"By the depths!!" she whispered with baited breath, one foreleg hung in the air as the other started to burn from propping her up, "That snout... those fins... those hooves... that... that tail!"

Fazed by the flesh akin to her own kind, instead of what she figured would have been some pony just as they had been turned into humans. Another siren lay on her side feeble and weakened like a newly hatched pup, a grimace ruined the otherwise perfect snout though it served to showcase the pearly whites behind the supple lips. Scales of varying shade of mulberry with highlights of violet decorated the rest of the body, a sheen gleamed under the reflected light bouncing off the crystalline structure everywhere. Mesmerizing iridescence of the metallic beetles they use to see around lights of buildings, multiple colors which glowed with each movement like waves upon a shoreline. Sonata never failed to be taken by the little disgusting things even if they were almost somewhat close to a gemstone themselves.

"By the sea god!?" Adagio took a step towards the once human girl, her left leg prickling from nearly falling asleep after being left to hold her front weight.

"Owww..." came a whine from the young one, her hooves were rubbing her snout as if a biting sand flea kept jumping up for a meal.

The dark lavender snout wiggled and then came a full body jerk as some sort of pain kicked the younger siren without remorse, in that instant came a flurried flash of black which rose from behind Twilight. It startled the onlooker who figured it to be something dangerous or perhaps one of the gate keepers that had made it through with them. A giant obsidian shark fin which crest the water's surface where the rest of the body remained hidden from view, but it was not some fevered hallucination nor truly a threat to take on. As Dazzle reared back ready defend herself, the stirring leathery membrane in the air herald a cease of action once the transformed human rolled onto her belly. The fin which soon became evident as a wing flopped uselessly onto the crystal floor inches away from touching Adagio, she treated it like it were a sickly infected limb and backed off. A second appendage much like the first came into view and there the two connected to the back of her little Dazzling, flabbergasted beyond words her eyes ran along the entire length of the curves and lines along the thing.

"What... was is this trickery!?" her voice carried louder than before, drawing the others to the queer words with intrigue.

A groan escaped the thing that could only be the human girl, whose wings laid sprawled out with luminescent ice blue veins running along the arms up to the forearm wrist. Gasps shot through the room from the others who dared not move as they stared at the grotesque branches which sprouted off the ruined elegance of their kind. She appeared to have no control over them as they moved subconsciously outwards and inwards like fidgeting fingers of a nervous child.

"Has... anyone seen my glasses?" asked the twisted thing, "I can't feel them on my face? Are they on the floor somewhere? I'd... like to see what I am, since I can't move my legs all too well."

Easily the feminine voice was that of their human ally, though the hybrid body spoke otherwise. Adagio's sense of hearing detected the same harmonics she had become familiar with since their paths had crossed that lead them back home. Voluntarily she hauled herself slowly towards the monster whose relationship with her made the initial disgust and trepidation waver, the mocking resemblance in ways that it was had become a misfortune to the girl having passed through the portal. What comprehension there was to reason with the wings Dazzle knew not of, with each step and curl of her tail to push herself closer were the wings gain more detail.

"Hello? Girls?" asked the blinded thing whose forehead tendrils sagged as if they had no life in them and fins seemed to be numb to movement.

Fighting to speak, the young matriarch forced herself to the front of their supposed ally until she was face to face with the multi limb disfigured. It would be presumptuous of her to treat it as a threat with what she knew deep down as that cowardly brainy human, there was no mistaking the soul in her voice. She wanted to feel relief and satisfied that she had another siren among her able bodied subordinates, but the wings were an eye sore in trustworthiness. Had the magic she gathered and used to wriggle them out of the warden's hold deformed her Equis body? Was there not something about how she stole the magic from the Rainbooms that might have anything to do with the circumstances they found themselves in? Was there a curse that Sunset Shimmer might have imbued into her mana that was a last spit in her face before they left?

Her questions went silent as alarm compelled the one before her, "I can't... my hands don't work? Why can't I move my fingers? What's wrong with my body?!" the winged hippocampus started to panic, "This... this doesn't feel right? What are those!!"

Her breath kicked up into a constant inhale and exhale as she hyperventilated, the muscular body of the siren convulsed as her brain rejected the new form of unearthly nature. The large wings had slapped hard against her barrel in an attempt to fold in, but in doing so they flapped open violently in a mirror to their owners state. Oratoria and Aria both commenting on the large monstrous limbs though Adagio missed it as she sought a way to contain scared juvenile whose bulk could hurt her if she were not careful.

"Hey! Wait!" she tried to call out but ducked to avoid being decked in the maw by a wing.

Twilight twirled in place as her long scaly tail trailed behind like a pythons, she couldn't register the new nerves which moved in strange ways unlike the linear anatomy she had been born into. Clumsy cloven hooves screeched on the crystal floor as her mass shoved the maroon rug studded with tapestries of pony lore to expose the glass-like ground. She slipped many times as she tried to splay what were suppose to be hands as a means to balance herself, but all she succeeded in doing was driving Adagio further away.

"Calm down! TWI!!" Dazzle shouted nearly receiving a tail fin to the ribs which she dodged in time, the huge fan collided with two tables and shattered them to splinters.

"ADAGIO!?!" the terrified girl cried for aid huffing as she started to exhaust herself, her squinted eyes telling all that the portal blindness still stuck to her like a persistent sea louse.

The black wings clawed the ground until they latched onto the hard floor with talons, in a brutish way Twilight surged forward towards the nearest wall hidden by bookshelves. The tail compressed and soon released itself adding to the siren's speed, inevitably she powered herself into a table with devestating effect, making quick work of the furnishing and finally reaching an unmovable object that was the ten shelf high column. A bone crunching thud broke wood and splashed manuscripts down as if a mudslide were sprung. The first few Adagio saw slammed painfully into Twilight where the one that struck her forehead, and the sensitive appendages triggered the giant wings to shield herself. She would endure the cascading paper tomes until one thick book slipped through the space between the webbed limbs and smacked her snout. Out of reaction the thick fish tail bent and soon shot the girl forward against the damaged storage space far harder than at first. That time the room had actually shook if only slightly before a ruckus of literature showered from their height near the ceiling, burying the unlucky individual in a way that put an end to the panic.

Blowing air through her nostrils, "For deep blue sake! Twilight! Are you alright?" Dazzle hopped over like a seal to the whimpering thing imprisoned under knowledge and wisdom.

She warily approached the trapped converted fully ready for a random punch or swing to come at her way, but the attack never came. Each step she took was a studied calculation, knowing which way to duck from any direction a throw might come. Even so her expression was nothing short of compassion, in some way she saw the cowering girl almost as how she felt so long ago. The fear palpable even without a gemstone, her race was empathic down to their very core and easily able to detect emotions. The raw state of Twilight had been a reminder and a call back to those days after she lost her family and left to fend for herself, with no one to turn to she simply ran a far as she could away from water. Just as the once human female did in the new body which horrified her, she needed help to come out of the dark mire which tried to drown her. If she didn't help quick enough then so many things would befall them out of losing time and being incapable, they'd be swallowed by some great beast and made meal of.

"Twilight, I'm right here and I need you to listen to my voice. I know you can hear me!" she began to say, "Let me help you as you... helped me."

Shivering as if she'd been placed in an icy ocean, "Aaaa... aaddaggioo?"

In a glimpse, the contracted pupils told Dazzle all she needed to know and where to go from there. Twilight was as blind as a deep sea denizen having got the worst of the portal effects, the irises were so contracted that she almost thought the girl actually had no eyes left. She needed a hoof to make her feel safe and as the matriarch it was her duty to keep her pack together and sound, as much as she hated wasting time it was only natural to feel the compelling draw.

She avoided humming a tune just as she stopped before the edge of the book pile, "Ya, it's me... I know you can't see. But I need you to calm down, you're safe but we can't stay here for too long."

"Where did we arrive?" Twilight asked keeping her snout covered by her hooves, ears pinned back against her skull as her near sightless eyes searched everywhere.

Dazzle sighed feeling safe in regards to the flailing that had finally passed and left the timid pup with no more energy to spare, "Some place where they keep books or something, point is there are no guard ponies here so it's just us. Now I need you to get yourself together, you've... changed."

"I believe I've come to that conclusion as well." she replied accidentally sounding sarcastic.

"No lip, you've become a one of us in both title and body, so you should feel proud of that fact! You're no..." she started to grin in growing ecstasy before the germane mage called out from afar.

"Fraulein! I request ve move now!? Herr Yellow Tail is vhat he is, ve be smears upon the glass here!" this time the pudgy stallion seemed really anxious to get them moving.

With a loud slap of a tail fin on the floor Adagio silenced any further interruption as the crack in the air shunned ears away, "We're leaving already so hold your horses!!"

She hated being interrupted and caste an evil glare over her shoulder, the one magenta eye her pack could see sent them reeling away like sharks retreating from an orca. Oratoria showed an extreme dislike towards the treatment the other received, showing it clearly before continuing on her way out. Blaze tipped her snout not wanting to involve herself with the strangeness of what had become of Twilight, her awkward locomotion spelled out what already consumed the usual irritation she had for life. Last was Dusk who appeared to be the most worried of them all, she even tried to step forward with drooping fins of supplication but once her sight matched the golden siren's she retreated quickly. A glance back as her finned tail flopped her on her way wordlessly displayed her concern, knowing her place it was all so could do as they were pressed to evacuate.

Sure of herself that the others would leave her be, Dazzle looked back to her little Dazzle and special weapon against the Equestrian version somewhere beyond her senses. That lingering threat they'd have to deal with hopefully down the line had been quickly shoved out of the way, with all her attention on her weakest yet most powerful asset in need of aid. How fortunate she was to see Sparkle just as another heavy book had apparently fallen from high up and smashed into her head.

"Gods..." she sighed knowing what was to come next.

The delicate sensitive nerves in the antanne-like feelers must have seared with incredible pain as the winged siren launched herself into the air through her tail alone. Leaping out of the pond of leather backed books with such strength that she reached the ceiling even as her back and second set of webbed limbs tore through the wood shelves with devastating effect. Dazzle could hear the hard thunk of bone on mineral contact, wincing as the very audio meant someone wouldn't be moving for a while even if they could.

Down came the sailfish who crashed upon two study desks who flattened under the bulk, wood legs flew outwards and twirled as they bounced off what few tables remained. They landed off somewhere while more books fell like loose boulders off a steep cliff all around, a latter fell backwards and added to the chorus of chaos.

Once the dust cleared Adagio had worked her way to Twilight's new location and chuckled, "You're really going to have to stop doing that."

A sad little reply responded quietly, "Mmm... my head."

"Are you done?" she asked while inspecting the growing lump between the left ear and the crest in the middle of the mulberry head.

Twilight shifted in place as her forelegs fought to get her up, the bruise forming fired in pain as she gave up from the exertion which accelerated the sensitive injury. The black reptilian wings folded as a bird's would and seemed content to stay glued to the girl's barrel, giving the notion that the knock to the head finally corralled the rouge things into some control. It gave a chance for the young matriarch to inspect her Dazzle up close in better detail, and she was amazed to see what condition the young one was in.

"My! Aren't you reborn? You know... there are humans who we met that lived in tall snow capped mountains of the far East, I believe they would call this... reincarnation?" she gingerly noted while running the smooth side of her cloven hoof along the soft iridescent scales of Twilight's neck.

A shutter ran along the young hippocampus which was exactly what Adagio wanted to see, to confirm what her suspicions pointed at. The sensitivity meant the natural armor her kind possessed was as supple and receptive as that of a youngling, it meant that Twilight was weak and vulnerable to weapons. Whatever the portal did to her it quite literally gave her a fresh body unlike her and the rest of the pack, where their forms were as they had left them as. Pristine from the musical tournament against the ill timed mage's appearance, scales hard enough to stop a spear, and the flesh of their fins plastic yet durable against tearing.

With shaky breath Twilight said, "I'm sorry, I never believed in such things. But I believe you met monks in a monastery, I did find their meditation practices useful though."

"So it would seem of someone like you, nonetheless can you move at all?" Dazzle's eyes drifted towards the breast scales as immaculate as her crest, where there her eyes feasted upon something to make up for the sorry state her Dazzling was in.

"I'm not sure I can? I... I'm afraid I don't know how to move this body? Wait?! What am I!?!" she blinked repeatedly as her sight only just began to recover, "I'm not a pony!! These are not hooves of the equine species!? I thought I was..."

A cough silenced her with something propping her chin upwards which she squinted to see past the spectrum of colored orbs making vision anything but perfect. The formation of her anatomy ellicited quick thoughts into the manner of which her new head and mouth functioned, no longer did she have a simple jaw and round cranium. Feeling ever bend and taunt flesh she could feel the thing under her lower jaw hook what was some kind of protrusion under the chin itself, it yanked her neck close to which she assumed was Adagio.

"Is there something wrong with being a siren?" asked the tone that threatened to say another word in favor of the hated race she so despised.

Twilight felt the gentle wind from the other's breath, she did not wish to be reprimanded by Dazzle of all people or beings. She needed to chose her words carefully to avoid alienating herself after traveling to the magical realm they belonged to, there was no alternative and no going back. While initially she hoped to have been turned into a unicorn to at least be magically capable naturally and genetically, she supposed a siren body might allow her the same capabilities if just barely. If it pleased the gang that would keep her safe from all the known dangers of Equestria, she'd accept the outcome of her choices in life that lead up to the present.

With a nervous gulp, "I'm quite livid actually! Your species is superior to the pony race with all things considered, your gems alone speak for themselves." she grinned, "In fact I'm already considering how singing with an enchanted voice might be altered to cast spells other than drawing out negative emotions and siphoning them off of sustenance!"

A placated huff received her acceptance, "Good. That's what I knew you'd say. Come now we must leave as those two kept telling me. The others will come through and we cannot be here when they arrive. Can you try to move?"

"I can see a approximately twenty percent of my original field of vision... my progress in terms of distance covered with the short of time we're in is handicapped however." Twilight admitted shyly looking away.

Instead of hearing something mockingly insulting she instead felt something dart under her as her head dropped, startled she squirmed like a nervous wreck of a worm. The odd things under her forearms, behind her cheeks, and what trailed down the spine down to what she could only understand as being previously her legs flared reactively. Muscles undulate below her covered by a rough surface like a fresh pine cone that hadn't bloomed yet, something tightened close against the ribs though she knew not what they were.

"Adagio!!" she cried out sensing herself jutting off the ground a few feet off from where she laid, "What's happening!?

Her arms clasped around what felt like a neck, a very thick tense neck connected to a deep core that a pulsing heart thumped calmly. A strange covering protected her skin that slipped almost effortlessly over whoever lifted her up, it felt as if she wore a jacket of sorts that clung to her body as if it were a suit. Tiny individual units like the sequence jackets some of the popular girls wore to special occasions shifted slightly as she was adjusted over the ridge poking into her underside. The whole ordeal making her all the more aware of her new form which she'd need to learn about on the go, never would she have dreamed that such a thing would happen. Where her legs no longer bent and supported her upright, it felt as if her spinal column went on and on and she could move it down to the four digits at the very end. Bewildered beyond words she clamped her mouth and eyes shut not wanting to encourage vertigo that crept into her head, it was making her sick to her stomach.

"I am the leader of the Dazzlings and there fore it's my duty to look after my Dazzlings, hang on tight and we'll get out of this place quickly. I'll teach you everything you need to know about your body and then some." Adagio's voice brought some relief to the antsy girl she carried.

Though as she said that, the banished shouted from the door, "In three minutes or less you won't be nothing but a smear on the ground if you don't come with us!!" Emerath yelled eagerly.

Dazzle shot them an angered snarl but as she did Aria's tail fin disappeared with the lanky mage to the outside or whatever qualified for it. She'd have to huff it to make up for the lost distance, her legs and tail worked to push her across the rug as the young siren slung over her tripled the effort. She would endure the struggle to move both of them at a decent pace, the new found worry of being squished by whatever the last two were hadn't yet made her list of things to experience.

"We're coming! Hold your mustangs!" the golden siren chipped away at the hard mineral surface with sharp jabs of the hooves tips, the luster scaled tail mimicking that of a snake. Twisted onto the side the powerful swimming muscles went to work using fiction upon the soft maroon rug to hastily shove the hefty bulk of both marine tuned physiques. Momentum grew with each push until barely a pause existed in Adagio's trek, she had forgotten how capable she use to be before the curse of being turned human.

Every able bodied banished evacuated the library whose door shut behind the last two, the locking mechanism clicked shut with a crystal ping like glass on glass. Quiet returned once more to the sanctity of the archive if only for a few breathes before something shattered the silence with a foreboding hum and whoosh of air. The portal's reflective surface vibrated at the anterior as water would dance upon a drum struck with a stick, the huge orb quivered queerly before an intense light poured out from the lively surface.

In a fantastic flush of tri colored magic, out flew a hapless pegasus unceremoniously dumped in the same place where the Dazzlings had formerly been upon ruffled and scuffed red rug. The designs near the border chaotic as the beings had dragged themselves over and speared holes into the cloth as if it were a drawing whose papyrus was crumbled up to be tossed away.

Front hooves just managed to keep the mares snout from kissing the unforgiving ground barely cushioned by the walkway fabric that had been shoved off to expose the crystal floor below. A set of wings dashed forward like a bird that had fallen from the air after being struck by a rock, mane and tail in disarray as if a gale force wind had sullied the natural flow of the locks. A pink fur coat glimmered under the light that bounded off the crystal walled room from the light that filtered through the thick quartz from the sun far outside.

"Oooohhhh.... for the love of..." said the pony who forced herself up on shaky unstable legs, all two sets.

She fumbled the first few steps as the wings dragged behind, sightless she inevitably slipped on the ground decor with an acute soreness firing where the chin banged on the mineral structure. The sensation of vulnerability speared her dazed mind, everything was off from her posture she tried to right to the extremities of her arms and legs. Her neck even felt longer with an alien thickness as her heart pumped blood through the vital arteries by the throat. Teeth and tongue made reality from the accidental fall, they were far from their original position as if they had been stretched like a child's clay model. Something on her back and aft end tickled the nerves with unfamiliar movement she never had, as much as the sudden full body coat of hair that she could feel with every second of life.

"Twwiiiiliiight??" she painfully twitched as the crippling blindness kept her from moving for fear of more falls, "Ugggh? What? My everything..."

An air of stupor captivated the young woman as the mind tried to cope with the off kiltered anatomy she then faced, sight gradually coming back to her though she wished it hadn't. In all her years she'd never experienced such a jarring experience, even the car accident in which a deranged woman had attempted to use to swoon Shining Armor from her in some convoluted and sick plot fell short of. How she would have rather relived that stockholm syndrome event than begin to see hooves in place of her hands and a snout before her eyes.

"By the gods! Did I... did I die?!!" she gasped squinting at what she could pan her vision to as she kept to the spot she fell to.

"Wings?! Are these... hooves? Not exactly what I thought the afterlife would have been like to be honest?" she told herself while calming her heart rate, everything she could feel and move willingly nearly overwhelmed what the fragile soul could take.

She tore herself from the body she possessed and went back to how she ended up in another life, past the searing whiteness of earlier to vague images and a voice that talked to her. No matter how hard she tried to pry however she could only formulate what was at best a powerful telescopic image taken of the universe beyond earth's solar system, and then the portal at Canterlot High. Calm persevered through force of will, being the Dean at Crystal Prep it came with the employment as the culture that bred in the halls and classes often made or broke employees no matter the job. Even though the air of serenity teetered on the brink of panic, she tip toed along the precipice as memory of her past self flooded in.

It was as if she separated herself from the new body, a mind from the shell she knew wasn't hers. An old university professor had taught her that trick whenever the chips were down, though it took a few years to master the mental shroud it came through for her in dire situations. Whether she was actually dead or not, dreaming or in a near death comatose, her main objective stayed true that guided the rambunctious mind away from the hole of despair. The primary reason she ended up in such a predicament was to find Twilight, her little sister in law to be that had called out to her before she jumped into the indescribable object.

"Twilight!" she shuttered in the strange flesh as the hold upon sanity faltered.

As all seemed to fall back on her, unsure if she could even find the lost girl whom she had seen turn into some awful parody of the sweet intelligent young woman she was deep down. A noise that to her sounded like an audio device experiencing feedback and static rifled her animal ears, her shadow extended from whence it was under her prone form to an extended blot several feet before her. Some kind of illumination behind her came to life in conjunction with the ear drum rattling cacophony, before she could turn to see what was in the making she felt two sacks of sticks land upon her back with a painful impact.

"Oooopphh!!" yelped one of the unknown globs.

"AAAHHHH!!!" shouted another, both whose tones and pitches matched exactly as they sounded as, the brightness immediately went dead when the pink pegasus endured more suffering.

No sooner had she tried did the mirror portal shine brightly enough that Cadence tried to glance behind her only to block her sight from the intensity coming from the mirror. It rippled and disgorged an earth pony and an unicorn who tumbled with one another just behind Cadence a few feet from the gateway. The Dean knew who new arrivals were by the oddly similar appearances of Indigo Zap and Lemon Zest. Their colors in their hair were a major tip off, surprised at first the stun wore off quickly when she went into full on worried mode. Feeling guilty that the two unwittingly followed her through against her word after she recklessly committed herself to what could have been her doom. The two ponies in a small heap were as groggy as her, acting like they drank a whole case of adult cider kids their age were opt to do for fun. Zap on the bottom and Lemon on top, the two were just beginning to regain their senses unaware that they were another species in another world of some kind. Cadence shifted her frame so she could scold them properly, but as she did she second guessed herself seeing as they were in her position. Biting her lip, Dean Cadence withdrew what she initially planned to say and instead went with a less abrasive response to their presence.

The Dean breathed in deeply and struggled to say the first words to the two girls who managed to lift their weary heads and ears swiveling as a horse would, "Why did you follow me?"

With a swaying head and clamped eyes Zap answered, "Like... like we're gonna... gonna let you have all the fun!" she grinned for a second before rubbing her large eyes to try and see with clarity.

Zest added as she swiveled her head towards the Dean, "Just as metal as the most metal album on the net. I never knew you had it in you Mrs. Dean?!" she smiled as her headphones which survived the transfer over remained over her neck pumping tunes even then.

Before trying to remind them of where they were and what was at stake, Cadence heard the distant sound of Twilight out the doors as some kind of cry for help. She turned her head and pivoted her new ears locking on to the source only to be provided no new information to go by, but it was clear she needed to move out quickly. Knowing what needed to be done she gazed at the two Crystal Prep students turned equines and brought her muzzle close to the two who were barely able to see.

"Girls... Twilight's left already and we need to follow her. Can you get up and follow me?" she asked with hope that they'd be able to move unhindered.

Lemon groaned, "My hands feel weird? My legs feel weird... everything feels soo off?"

Zap struggled to rise with the body on top of her, "I feel like I've been put through a meat grinder and remade into something new! Dean Cadence what happened to us?"

Drawing on what little focus she could muster beyond wanting to leave to locate her would be niece, "Girls listen to me, we've changed going through that thing on the other side. I don't know quite well myself but we're alive... if just a little different. When you can see properly you'll understand, but I can't... we can't stay here. The longer we do the further away Twilight gets away from us. Can you move at all?"

To the question, the two ponies fought past the awkwardness of their forms in the Equis universe they had to live with. Their sheer willpower worked their equine legs to their breaking point since they knew not how to walk. They balanced themselves past a single childhood as a foal where such coordination was learned and used their teenage minds to learn how to ride a bike. Combating the different muscular structure, the girls rose up and made due with their lack of knowledge of how to even operate, they too did not want to get stuck in this world for too long. Not after they could see what the Dean was warning about either, a multicolored winged horse stood before them with the same coloration as Cadence. Both then simultaneously rotated their heads to see each other, knowing immediately they were not human nor on earth anymore.

"You know I should be freaking out right now but somehow... I feel okay with this?" Lemon noted as she touched her headphones hanging around her neck making sure her tunes were at least with her on this strange journey in her life.

"Great now I really gotta scrub hard for practice if this is how I'm going to be when we get back! A whole coat of fur! Really? Can I even still be the Captain of the sports team and president of the Sports Club?!" Zap complained.

"GIRLS!!" Cadence stomped a hoof to get their thankfully somewhat calm demeanor back, "I understand we all are in this... mess now, but if you're here then you are my responsibility. If something happens to you..." she trailed off looking at her own hooves with pink hair.

The two students bit their tongues when they noticed how distraught their Dean had become. Though they studied each other as well as themselves, they were in another world and as they were things could become bitter really quickly depending on who lived outside the library they found themselves in. With the books and shelves showing some form of disturbance before their appeared, they were on edge as it looked like a very powerful creature had ruined a section of the place. There could be other humans who'd tether them and make them nothing more than pets and show pieces, or there could be monster outside that might feast upon their lithe bodies. Perhaps they had yet to register with their pony forms for the moment and they were too shocked to be paralyzed by the reality of being horses?

In any case, Indigo leapt at the chance, "Dean Cadence? We came with you because we thought you'd need help. Of course this wasn't what we expected... don't we have a Twilight Sparkle to catch and bring back?" she gave a confident grin to the older mare in love themed colors, she was ready to head out.

"Ya, the longer we stay here babbling the less of a rocking time we have to save her from whoever they were she came here with?" Lemon added as she shakingly moved her hooves forward.

In a brazen move by the teens, Cadence was happy to see they were resilient to even this whole nearly dream-like reality. A sense of jubilation made their dismal outlook on rescuing the fellow C.P. student have some hope, giving Cadence enough energy to move.

"You're right girls, let's go. Twilight cannot be far from here we jumped just after her." To which the three made their unsteady gait out of the library in the same route the exiles had taken, with a few trips and falls they managed onwards.

No sooner had the library main doors closed shut did another traveler enter into Equis, with a bright flash of light from a violent exit as she was sent flying onto the roll rug. For the new arrival, the world swam sickeningly around in her head as if their very soul wavered around in the body like a rocky boat. All that welcomed her hearing was the cackling laughter of the chaos god who she met once again passing through the intermediary zone between the two worlds. Though once she entered the realm of Equis everything she saw, everything Discord did or say became fuzzy and unrecognizable to her prodding thoughts. It was as if whatever happened jumping universes had been almost a passing ghost of a moment, like it never happened at all.

Sunset had fallen face forward, but she managed to catch herself and avoid flat out landing hard and likely breaking her muzzle she knew she'd have. However, what she realized all too soon was that she had stuck the landing and held herself up by arms and legs. Even though her eyes were contracted and blinded by swimming blobs of alternating colors of the spectrum, she could still feel with her nerves and movement of joints that shouldn't have been there. Half wondering with a spike of horror that she might have been too late to have gone through in time, that maybe she was still on Earth having been thrown out as the portal closed before she even touched it. That whatever had happened seconds ago in the intermediary was in fact the barrier of space and time shutting her out from traversing, Discord would have loved that to happen to her she was sure of it.

With wide eyes trying to stare through the fading optical barrier, below her was a terrible scene becoming clearer by the second as she huffed from the portal use and making it through by a hair's width. Her limbs which should have been equine legs and hooves were instead human in a sense. Once vision was at half strength, her very hands had still existed only with Arachnodactyly inflicted upon them and ended in sharp fingernails that could cut skin. They only looked like that on one other occasion and that was something Sunset began to feverishly beg to not be the case.

"No No no no no!" she cried as her breath and heart rate soared into the three figures range.

Shaking her head to flush the remnants of her temporarily blindness, she glanced about and noticed she was that creature of hate and greed who wanted it all. The red skinned vessel she morphed into from the forced use of the element of magic mirrored every similarity to the She-Demon of her darkest moment in her life. With her hellfire themed skirt and rather whimsically designed rib cage like boots, she was every bit the villain that the Princess of Friendship had defeated with the Rainbooms. Her wings moved to her thoughts like an extra set of arms though they were largely different by having a greater wingspan as they expanded out for her to inspect. The back side a charcoal black with their undersides a wonderful transition of oxblood red to a nice raspberry. They sported no holes as if they were freshly made with a sheen of their velvety surface reflecting the light off the crystal surfaces in the room. Her ears twitched and revealed that their length had also increased, but she feared to touch them as if it would affirm reality. The final edit to her body had been to her hair which then stated to tickle and sway as it floated up by some wisp of mana wind.

"I'm... I'm... I'm not her anymore! I was freed by Princess Twilight!? I can't be..." she gasped as if she threatened to cry out before the books as witnesses.

Taking her right clawed hand, Sunset sent a fist down into the floor sending the ground a series of fractures which webbed out by the sheer application of force she had at her disposal. A terrible echo reverberated throughout the library and traveled throughout the castle, a few dozen books fell out of their slots haphazardly to join their kin Twilight had disturbed.

"I'M NOT EVIL!!!" she cried out and let her eyes heave out tears, "This has to be a dream! Please be a dream?!"

She pounded the floor again and again as she relived her fears born in the human world, having done everything she could to will herself to go home. Only to end up with the very body she so despised before the cleansing spell removed it, the aftermath had been so isolated and lonely. What else was there to do after being transformed as she was? Could Celestia even want to see her much less hear a single word she'd plead to be heard?

Having came to home to save it, everypony would only see her as the enemy and not the Dazzlings or the others they came with. Shimmer could almost feel some kind of comfort in it though, perhaps she was truly suited to being the cursed and she could use it to her advantage? It then occurred to her that being in this form meant she must have some kind of fell magic reborn into her? How odd as she never even saw all her selfless acts after being reformed could have painted her into this situation?

'Well, it might be a little because of me?' a dark and sinister voice spoke to her as if she mentally monologued.

"YOU!?!!" she hissed, remembering that demon from earth, "What are you doing?!!"

He chuckled, 'You should have listened to the that chimera...'

"What are you talk..." Sunset was about to ask when the portal behind her released an arch of lightning that snapped to the ceiling, impacting a crystal branch support and illuminating it with a glow that slowly faded away after twenty seconds.

Sunset had shielded herself until the incident disappeared, the portal never did that before but she knew so little of it that only alarm bells came to mind. The mirror itself had started to bubble outward slowly, like one of Pinkie's mishaps with cornstarch and sugar to make a balloon shaped candy treat as a cake topper. The entire surface was as metallic as it had been in the human world, and it seemed to be following suit though why she couldn't figure out. Two more snaps of electricity nearly blinded the She-Demon again, striking the crystal castle's supports on both sides of the room caused the entire room to light up from the attack. The smell of ozone was evident from the action, sending Shimmer backing away with a scrunched up nose.

'You have no magic which made you a tempting prize for my lord... as well as a pleasant little toy to amuse myself with.' to which a thousand voices descended upon Sunset from no physical source other than the demon's doing, she screamed as she put her claws to her ears in vain to shut them out.

'This... world you brought me to... it is ripe for war and destruction. I shall earn my Lord's favor by bringing it to an age of war none shall ever forget for years to come!!' he exclaimed as she rolled on the floor, the many whispers, cries, shouts, and roars simply tormenting the former unicorn.

Then, as soon as they came they vanished and left in their place a static white noise. Breathing heavily, Sunset creaked open her eyelids with cyan irises darting every which way as if something more were to befall her. Seconds turned to minutes before she willed herself to move her new hooves off her then furry ears, shivering in ghastly paranoia until nothing occurred beyond another lightning arch above her clapping again. Looking about herself, she realized she had gained her pony body she'd been born with. She wanted to curl into a ball and wait out the insanity swarming around only her, she needed to regain herself after that assault she weathered. Just as her heart managed to mellow out after an inner battle, her mind numbed itself in order to save her sanity.

Lying on the roll rug beneath her which spanned the whole length of the main library thoroughfare, self paralyzed to anything Sunset glued her gaze in front of her, viewing the world sideways. She felt a cold creeping feeling fall upon her as if she'd been rolled into a fridge, the portal behind her continued to cough out destructive energies. Refusing to think of anything while she attempted to forget about the demon form she thought she had and refocus on why things had apparently gone south. She kept the glimmer of hope with Rose Luck, Flash, the girls, and her other verse as a means to stay tethered to a reason to not just quit and give up. A sliver of wishing that Discord gave to her from the strange purgatory zone between universes she floated through before ending up in what was somewhere in Equestria. She almost wished for Lord of Chaos to pop into existence and be there as an anchor, even he would have been better than a human world demon and she had no knowledge of them to make the spiraling lunacy even worse.

The tapping of claws echoed in room, her ears swiveling and tracked the sound as it emanated not far from her. Her tail reacted and curled to her hooves as if trying to protect herself from whoever was in the room with her. The clicking of something soft yet hard muffled as they walked upon the floor fabric, thudding lightly until they appeared before her perspective. She wanted to get away, to leave to anywhere if it meant saving herself from an encroaching source of malice like a manticore hunting a pony. All ponies still had that ancestral ability to sense a hungry monster in a general area and from there hone in on their location with the rest of their senses. For her it was like a heat source coming around, a hot lamp being moved across her body till it shone upon her muzzle.

There it was, clawed dull grey toes walked before her and stopped where they turned in place. Sunset beheld muscular legs covered with a thin short coat of fur barely discernible from flesh as they were, leading up to powerful thighs that could give any body builder a run for their money. Something made her look up as tears began to accumulate and fall down the side of her face anew, like an invisible hand holding up her cheek.

"Please..." she whimpered.

A chain mail skirt covered the groin, studded with blood red gems and gold lacing as the belt. The only few things to break the dreary color of the being's form. Unclothed like a minotaur much akin to a human chest, abdominal muscles were well defined as were the pectorals which hinted at the physical prowess of the source of caution. Arms were slightly fur coated though nonetheless just as muscular and likely capable of ripping heads clean off the shoulders. In one hand, a long sword held firmly by meaty hands just as grey blue as the legs, though she barely gave much notice to the weapon beyond the glowing glyphs and coursing aura of the gemstone inlaid into the rain guard. Her breath shuttered as she finally saw the head of who stood in all their menacing glory and intimidating miasma of caged rage. What could have passed for a griffon if the body were any less humanoid, was an owl's head with the same kind of dark wings Twilight had during her transformation. In fact, they almost were exactly the same even with a glowing red line along the bony portion of the arms. They dominated the background and bordered the demonic hellspawn so that his shining golden eyes drew her full attention into them. Sunset, awestruck, could only wait for whatever it wanted to do to her, it already held some kind of control and without her magic as it felt she was at the thing's desire.

'I wanted you to see me...' he said as his black beak moved, the woody coloration of his feathers and two plums above the eyes which resembled horns shuffled from the words.

'I wanted you to know where your powers will come from here on out little horse.' he rose his giant sword and guided it towards her horn, Sunset tried to cringe away and keep from the sharp point but no amount of will could do anything.

She closed her eyes and prayed that Celestia would make a sudden appearance and stop this from happening. A life of endless scolding from the alicorn was far more preferable than to be taken by such a vile entity she unintentionally brought with her. What would he do to Equestria and everypony would be her crime alone if what he spoke of was his mission was in store for everypony else. At this point, her list of failures no longer had an end to them, it was an bottomless scroll disappearing into the distance of her mind.

The sword touched her horn and the zap wracked her body with an unearthly hotness that both hurt and felt unimaginably euphoric. Her eyes opened to the sensation and Andras had vanished from her vision, she knew he was within her as her back arched to the powerful magic she then possessed. For a few moments she adjusted to the feeling of her mana well at full capacity once again, so jovial her spirit had felt she nearly lost all the guilt and terror she bathed in since she faced off with the evil human Twilight. Whatever consequences and dues she'd have to take for being forcefully gifted the ethereal energy from the demon would be a problem for future Sunset. Her mind blazed with scenes of victories over the siren menace and the others they came with, she'd show Equestria the new her that wanted to save everypony. She would sacrifice herself to stop the rising evil that had dastardly plans for all of Equis, that was why they returned wasn't it?

'When the sickness rises, and your magic fails… the heavens will glow as the world crumbles. No help will come… forsaken you shall be… and Equis will be left to the inept.' the phrase from the Saandie echoed in her ears, bringing her out of her introspection as the memory pushed itself up through Andras' magic for that one brief moment.

"Whaa..." she looked around only receive an answer from the portal which had tripled in size and nearly touched her before she caught sight of it.

Scrambling to her legs she leapt backwards with agility she'd never known herself to have. Just in time as the portal had engulfed the mirror gateway and started to suck in anything the weight of a book that was close enough. Though what was even more surprising was the sudden tanker truck long claw which sprung from the tear in reality and slammed into the nearest wall of books and shelving to her left. Thick claws embedded themselves easily into the furnishing and gripped so hard that the crystal structure underneath cracked like glass as wood simply crumbled into toothpicks and particle board. The bubble kept on growing as if whatever the appendage belonged to was forcing it ever larger as it entered. Another scaly limb appeared and reached even further with a rumbling anchoring into the other wall of books, though this one had what appeared to be digits webbed with leathery membrane to every finger after the third one. Both body parts were covered in armor of vermilion scales, each reflecting the light that bounced off the huge orb behind them like some kind of solar array pointing to the center molten salt solar power tower.

The claws tightened their grip even further on the agonized walls and crystal infrastructure signifying that they were hauling something from the other side by the noise of the strain. Sunset remembered then that there were two others she evaded before a fight distracted them, whoever they were their size was impressive and it would be even more jaw dropping if she remained to see it as well as the last thing she'd ever see.

'Get moving horse! I may have given you magic but you are still flesh and blood. I cannot save you from what is about to come through and your magic won't hurt it either! MOVE!!' the demon shouted in her head and jarred her from her stupor.

She galloped away and burst through the doors with her new found magic which easily tore them off their hinges. In her attempt to escape she found the winding corridors to be far too time consuming and confusing, hallway after hallway there were no stairs to take or elevator to ride. Rumbling began to shake the structure she was in as the crystalline surfaces glowed with burning intensity. A muffled roar of some titanic beast vibrated even her own body as she slid to a stop after putting a good miles worth of from the room, if she could not locate an exit soon than she'd meet the source of that sound.

"Whoever built this place if I ever find them..." she cursed before noticing a window a good stride away.

Another tremor rocked the building around her as cracks began to form all along the surfaces from the floor to the ceiling. Another bellow sent further webs of fracturing crystal architecture all the way down every wing and way she could see. With the progressing inevitable destruction approaching her, Sunset made it for the window with her hooves pounding on the abused pathway. Shards and fragments of the ceiling were starting to rain down upon her, sharp and small enough that if any fell into her eyes she'd likely be blinded. Summoning a shield above her, she noticed in her stride that the magic was not the same color as it use to be. Her horn's aura was a deep red as was the transparent shield which saved her from the debris. The sound of shattering glass and utter destruction began to reverberate throughout the halls and it pushed Sunset to hurry further even as her muscles started to burn.

Behind her as she undoubtedly heard, the right side of the corridor began to smash into the other side as if an outside force began exerting itself upon the inner structure. It was following her as well, the compaction crushing and annihilating anything the path once looked like in a tidal wave of destruction threatening deafness for the unicorn just as she neared the only way out. Thinking sharply, she teleported herself even though she was still cautious of the magic she'd been given. Reappearing just feet away from the intricate green glass pane from the outside sunlight, she powered her horn and fired a deep crimson beam of magic that had not only removed the window from her way but blew out the wall around it cleanly. She'd marvel at her magic later.

"Note to self, be careful with any spell from here on out!" she huffed and caught sight of home as she remembered it.

Wherever she was she was high off the ground from the scenic view she had to take in. Admiring home as beautiful as it was with doom looming behind her, her eyes locked onto a distant orchard and farmhouse. Using another teleportation spell she set the way point in the area before the large red barn, summoning another spell that would put her in the air as a precaution in case her magic would have off shot the point. Last thing she needed to do was phase deep into the ground and find herself an early tomb. Just before the crushing walls reached the amber sunny haired equine, she vanished with a black wisp which sucked her in before her spot was inundated with pulverized wall and crystals.

Another loud bellow far more guttoral than the last ripped through the air and all of Ponyville looked up to Twilight's magnificent home. Most having already rushed out of their homes or businesses, shopping or carrying carts to the chorus of birth where something massive erupted from the royal building. The garden balcony and the tall section above it in the castle where the princess' quarters were became a scene of pure Tartarus. No pony moved, every airborne pegasus hovered in place, all they could do was stare in shock as the beautiful structure that brought a sense of comfort and safety was violated. Every stallion, mare, and foal stared blankly at the gout of fire that shot high into the air, most looking away as the pillar of inferno grew to such intensity that it was as painful to watch as looking into the sun.

The apocalypse had begun...

Comments

[enderchangling]

Wait what happened to spike?

[TheronSniper]

8276979
He's still in the story, he'll pop up soon enough.