Mane Six In the World of Music

by Snakes0

Chapter 16

Azeun walks out of the bar and sees Mel waiting for him, already prepared. He and Mel were teleported elsewhere when Azeun walked out of the bar. They were sent to an auditorium stage.

Azeun chuckles, "You are here far faster than I thought... I knew you could see through your tricks but I didn't think you were already this close... Oh well. I have been itching to see where I fall in the rankings."

"Enough. You will comply with the Battle of the Bands format. You are too dangerous to be banished to another world. Once this is over I'll erase your song," Mel says no longer in a talkative mood.

"No audience? I thought you would at least bring those "heroes" from another world to watch," Azeun says grinning.

"... It's for the best they aren't here. They won't be able to do what is necessary and may even try to stop me. Wait... No. How?" Mel is confused as Azeun's mark hadn't activated to force his compliance to accept the battle terms.

"No. We'll do a musical duel. and for Pete's sake. Stop beating around the bush. Only one of us will be making it out alive and the other will die."

"... The world's law that me and my brother should still be in effect. Was the world's melody and harmony so imbalanced that the mark no longer works? In which case... yes. You must not be allowed to walk out of here," Mel says as he gets ready.

Azeun of course didn't wait. He had been busy and acquired more songs during his escape. He starts with Cylen's heavy metal and fills the stage with yellow disharmonic flame which then jumps towards Mel. He then shifts Anny's music of dread and overlays it with Thomas's heavy beats which sound like thunder and it resonates with the dread to create an electric aura that saps the will of all who hear it.

And just as quickly as Azeun did all of this it was soon undone. With three quick and precise strokes of his violin, all three effects were locked and organized, and restructured.

"No? No response? Not going to question how I have Thomas's song? You know. Your assistant?" Azeun asked

There is no point in asking. Getting emotional right now is dangerous and thus Mel said nothing as his draconic mask-like face starts to expand and Mel partially dragonifies and his performance creates hundreds of fiery orbs which start raining down and replenishing. Azeun realizes that using lesser melodies will truly do nothing against a Master Composter so he uses the melody of the Formal Master Composer "Phantom of the Opera" which contains his lingering resentment and it suffocates the flames which then change into orbs of lighting as Mel changes the melody. Azeun dodges one while stroking his violin violently and Mel is struck with a slicing black wave which causes black ichor to spray out of him.

"Hehehe... It was SO hard to kill the last Master Composer. And you are too scared to go all out. This will be easier than I thought." Azeun mocks before he uses another slicing wave which Mel doesn't dodge and gets hit.

"My music is a little slow. It's not a melody that goes all out from the start. The first strike was a surprise. The second was me testing the waters. I see now that you won't win. You can use the Songs of the Dead up to 100% of its capabilities. But that was not Master Composer level of skill."

"So much for not being in a talkative mood. You can die now. Thanks~" Azeun says as he plays on and creates a wave of disharmony that withers the wooden planks of the stage and rusts the metal it touches as it decays reality.

Mel's music picks up and suddenly there are three other spectral versions of him and each of them has its melody which overlay with Mel's which create more spectral versions of him and so forth until there is an entire orchestra and reality gets altered. The decaying wave dissipates, and the stage reverts to normal and is improved. Suddenly Mel and his spectral orchestra's performance play the primordial song of fire which fills the entire auditorium in a sea of flame before suddenly the performance changes to the Primordial song of ice which flash freezes everything before it changes yet again. Now the performance is the primordial song of water which shatters the ice and fills the entire auditorium. Azeun was only kept alive by overlaying The Phantom's melody with a shielding melody to create a barrier that keeps shattering and exposes him briefly to the extreme elements which are wearing him down to the bone in some places.

"This... Can't be... You can do that endlessly?! You can just create more and more versions of yourself to create an endless synchronization with yourself?! That's not possible! Six was supposed to be the theoretical limit!"

"As I play your last melody I'll tell you. No one can do that. Only someone already truly omnipotent would and by that point, it is pointless to build back up to infinity that way when such a being is infinite. But to cut my rambling short. I have a loophole that lets me synchronize my soul's melody with myself which is why I can never be beaten by the likes of you." Mel says as his performance ends with a deafening silence that brings the swiftest and painless death. "He wasn't weak. But in the end, it was a skill issue. hmm..... How did his soul melody sound again? Something like this?"

Mel plays the melody of Azeun. The melody was dry and lifeless as is playing the songs of the dead normally. He tries to give it more life and meaning by overlaying it with his soul melody orchestra so that he can replicate Azeun's ability at a lower efficiency. He tries to bring his daughter's song back. It failed as it was not at all dry and soulless but full of life just different as it has a hint of Equestrian melody which if he hadn't already experienced by playing multiple soul performances of the mane 6 he wouldn't have noticed. She wasn't dead nor was her song corrupted.

"She... Is alive?... I thought... I was so focused on how impossible it was for her to survive... I'll have to investigate later. I have to tell Twilight and send her and her friends back."

---

At Twilight Clef appears.

"Congratulations on defeating the lesser spirit of chaos," Clef says but is confused by the group's anger.

"Ya already said that. Ya can't just restart a conversation." Applejack says annoyed

"Considering this is the first time I met you Equestrian ponies that seems rather unlikely. That was probably my brother. Why would he want you to view me as hostile is beyond me. He killed Azeun just now. Your search for the Necromancer has ended."

"Darling, while I can accept that you might be a different person seeing your dementor is different... You can't expect us to" Rarity says as Clef tosses a disembodied hand. Rainbow Dash remembered the details of Azeun well and she knows that is indeed Azeun's hand. She holds her hooves to her mouth as the urge to throw up rises. Fluttershy hides, Pinkie Pie covers it up, Rarity dramatically faints, Applejack does end up throwing up, and Twilight is horrified.

"There is my proof. Sorry. But I don't have a single ounce of tact in my body, "Darling". We thank you for saving our world. However, we have much to do here. Much to rebuild. With all due respect. Go play princess and fantasyland back home." Clef says as he plays a harmony.

"Hold on! Can't we at least say goodbye to all the non-jerks?!" Rainbow Dash protests.

"No. Because in case you haven't realized it yet. You all aren't the heroes of this story. And that story is over. I don't have to humor any of you. You all belong in Equestria. Don't come back. It's for your own good." Clef says as music surrounds the ground forcibly sending them back just as Mel arrived.

"Brother. Was that really necessary? Granted I was mad and did paint a bad picture of you, but you are anything but petty." Mel says.

"Brother. You have been to other worlds. You saw them. Chaotic. Disorganized. Even Equestria has power-hungry villains with childish logic. In the end, does not all the chaos that ever occurred in this world due to outsiders? You pitied Discord. You know we aren't that different from a Draconequus. His chaos gave birth to chaotic ideas and it all snowballed to Azeun." Clef says.

"I know this. Can I ask why you wanted to bring this point up?"

"Because. We have the power. We CAN bring our music, our MAGIC into other worlds. We can bring order to them. We can hunt down Discord! You had him in your sights! You know where he is! You could have possibly killed him when he wasn't looking!"

Mel sighs, "I did. I Loath Discord. It took all my willpower to stay focused and remove my biases. He is currently not a threat where he is. He has... Settled down. And... My Octavia is alive. I did not want to interfere too much with the world."

"Not possible. And you changed. You were kind and loving AND logical, but never emotional. I never once tried to take your title for myself. Because I believed you were someone who could bring about greatness and fulfill everyone's dreams and so I had no reason to want to change that."

"My Daughter... She is in Equestria. But I can't go there... I have to remain here and rebuild. Come, brother! The future is bright!"

"Brother. Your heart is in the right place. But your ambition is lacking. And now you are a threat to my plan. It's time for a rank assessment."

"Plan? It couldn't be... You were helping to fight against all of this chaos!" Mel says confused.

"I was. Because the chaos has outlived its purpose. The song of Creation is exposed as all the chaos has unraveled reality and brought it back to its true harmonic form. The last step of my plan was for Azeun to die. I planted the seeds and whispered suggestions to make him think this was all his idea. To make him think he was the puppet master. Now that he is dead and my soul's harmony resonates the closest with the Song of Creation I'll be able to rewrite and restructure worlds."

Mel realized the insanity of his brother's plan. He was shocked and wanted to ask why, but he knew he needed to strike first and question later. He was still partially dragonified and so they both use primordial elements attacking and canceling. Mel was slowly overpowering Clef until he clawed his ears and made himself deaf. Suddenly the elements no longer had any effect on Clef. Clef created a ball of fire even while under Mel's water and struck Mel. Clef used the primordial song of Earth to create a lance of metal and Mel tries to use a wall of flame to melt it only for it to do nothing and Mel gets stabbed through the chest and pinned to the wall.

"Brother. We both alter reality. I found it strange how whenever you stop playing all that you create or change disappears and goes back to normal while anything I create remains. Some say you use illusions. I figured it out. Your creation music creates solid illusions. But only for the listeners. I can't hear your harmony so it is an illusion to me. Mine is very much real." Clef explains.

"I didn't think you would piece it together.... and use that against me... Well played brother... Now... You won..." Mel says before closing his eyes.

---

Back in Equestria

"Hey! Something fishy is going on! He clearly didn't want us in that world!" says Rainbow Dash.

"Like he is some sort of evil bad guy who set everything up and he is the secret mastermind and the only thing in his way now would be Mel?" Pinkie Pie says with far too much meta insight than she should be entitled to have.

"I agree with Rainbow Dash. I looked into his eyes... He couldn't care less about the lives of anyone. We have to go back there. We are missing something...." Twilight says.

"Um... I don't think Discord will be too happy with sending us away... again...." Fluttershy says.

"I don't think we need him this time. I think the magic from that music world lingers. If I combine that with my alicorn magic I can make a portal back by reversing the magic matrix and vectors-" Twilight says as Rainbow Dash pretends to have fallen asleep. "Basically we can go back right now while the magic and music is still fresh."

And just like that before anypony else could even comment they are back and they are horrified to see Clef stabbing Mel.

"Oh? You came back. You all are not heroes-" Clef began.

"Actually we are. You can shut up because clearly, you aren't one either. Being a hero is more than saving the day. It's making life easier for everyone! So yeah. WE ARE heroes." Rainbow Dash says clearly annoyed.

"No. You are all misled. Tell you what. I'll face you all using nothing but your own soul melodies. ugh... We need an official name for that. I'll show you what you all truly are. Weak. prideful. and hypocrites. It's because of 'heroes' like you who make things harder on others whenever you save some but fail to notice others that I am doing this. Maybe if you succeed I'll change my mind." Clef says as he watches them get ready to attack him.

Of course, he was lying. He wasn't going to change. But he knew that if they even believed there was a chance to redeem him then they would never strike the final blow. He was going to first make rainbowfication impossible.