//------------------------------// // Part 23: The Devil Comes Back to Canterlot (The Final Battle Part 1) // Story: MLP: The Magic of... Music? // by The Bricklayer //------------------------------// Twilight had never been so happy to hear her marefriend's voice. But this raised one very important question. How had she even returned to Equestria? Not that Twilight wasn't happy she had returned or anything, but last she checked the portal to the Human World was closed for 30 days and nights, and it hadn't nearly been that amount of time yet, so why was Sunset and Sonata along with her as well? And also, since when were there two more Elements of Harmony? Twilight had read nothing about them in her many books back at the Golden Oaks Library or even the even bigger one here in Canterlot. "S-Sunset?" Twilight stammered out in shock and genuine confusion. "W-What are you doing here? How? Just how?" She asked her marefriend, who simply smirked a triumphant smirk of victory. "Two words, Twi." Sunset began, her Element of Harmony glowing a duel selection of yellow and red as the sunset it represented. "The Doctor." Twilight's eyes widened in realization. This explained everything. The Doctor must have used that fantastic machine of his known as the TARDIS to cross dimensions (As she knew from personal experience it could do this.) and go to the Human World and retrieve both Sunset and Sonata. But this still didn't explain the new Elements of Harmony. But Sunset still had more to explain. VWOOP! VWOOP! WVOOP! The Doctor stepped out of his TARDIS and back once more into the Human World and found himself in front of Canterlot High. He smiled, despite his enjoyment as his time as a pony and his livelihood with his wife Derpy, he felt good to have proper hands and feet again, along with a good old fashioned hairstyle. He quickly put on his old blue suit, tennis shoes and his brown trench coat, knowing humans frowned on nakedness, even if he didn't himself. He could never understand why humans frowned on being naked, as it was just showing of the body that Rassilon had given you! "Now, to find Sunset and Sonata as well, my guess is that both of them will be needed to defeat King Grogar and help the Rainbooms stop him for good this time." He theorized, and with a cry of his old saying of "Allons-Y!" he rushed through the doors of Canterlot High and looked from class room to class room (With everyone looking at him strangely, for this stranger who was seemingly a madman who had no certainty of where he was going or what he was looking for.) Finally, he found both humans that he was looking for, in the middle of Written Script's History Class. Both Sunset and Sonata both looked shocked to see the Doctor, but they both knew from the urgent look on his face that something in Equestria had happened and the situation was very grave indeed. "Sorry, gotta go!" Sunset said hurriedly as the Doctor pulled both her and Sonata out of the classroom by both arms leaving behind a very confused Written Script and class. "H-Hey, don't forget to pick up your homework when you return!" Script stammered out in shock before muttering "...Whenever that is..." Leaving no time to explain the inner workings of the TARDIS to a very shocked Sonata Dusk, he flipped the dials and switches and was soon rushing through time, space and dimensions back to Canterlot. Soon, they were there, and Sonata quickly found herself getting sick from the faster than normal trip through the worlds. But as soon as she was done releasing the contents of her stomach, she found, to her surprise, a necklace with a musical note on her neck. Sunset was surprised as well, but she too found herself now bearing an Element of Harmony, a golden tiara with a sun on it. "I... I don't get it." Sunset said in confusion. "I thought there were only six Elements of Harmony, n-not eight!" "Yeah, that's what I thought as well? Are we really bearers? For realizies?" Sonata asked in shock, and as usual, the Doctor had a theory. "Hmm, from what I can guess is that you've both proven yourselves to be worthy of two more Elements." He guessed before he began to explain his theory. First, he gestured to Sunset with a hoof. "You, Sunset Shimmer, and might I say, I'm soooo proud of you and your new marefriend's new relationship, have redeemed yourself from being a former school bully and embraced the magic of friendship so you now bear the Element of Redemption." He explained before then gesturing to Sonata. "And you, Sonata Dusk, have sung your heart out with true passion many times over, unlike those bloody "Sisters" of yours, so you are now the bearer of the Element of Music." He explained, and now both Sunset and the former Dazzling felt things had fully been explained. "Now come along you two, we've got a city to save!" The Doctor cried before rushing off towards Canterlot Castle with another cry of "Allons-Y!" as Sunset and Sonata followed, confidence etched on their every feature. And so, with the Doctor now standing behind them, Sunset and Sonata both glared harshly at Grogar, who looked annoyed from being cut off from his moment of triumph. "Are we done yet?" He asked sarcastically. "I've got a world to take over here!" He exclaimed, before with a glowing of his twin ram's horns, both Celestia and Luna were locked in iron cages. They struggled as hard as they might, but they found themselves trapped. "And now, for you..." Grogar said menacingly as he advanced towards the eight Element Bearers and the Doctor. But with a flash of magical energy, the instruments of the Rainbooms appeared before them, with three new instruments, triple microphones for the Doctor, Twilight and Sonata to sing as backup singers if needed for a song that required them. "Alright, let's do this!" Twilight said in complete confidence, before Sunset strummed the first chords of one of her favorite songs... The song started off slow, but soon picked up with thundering guitar chords, and every time Sunset sung "You make me breakout!" Grogar was forced back as the floor cracked under the sheer noise from the song and the song just got more and more intense with each passing minute and as soon as Sunset started screaming "BREAKOUT!" over and over for four times, with a mighty blast of energy Grogar was sent flying out of the Canterlot Throne Room and into the streets of the Equestrian Capital. As soon as the Foo Fighters song ended, Grorgar smirked. He didn't just have the powers over shadow and iron cage imprisonment, if you remember. He, with a glowing of his eyes began to raise an army of hundreds of undead even as the Rainbooms teleported themselves and their instruments out to see this horrific sight. "See, I'm unstoppable!" Grogar laughed in his evil manner. "I'm a monster now, just like you and your "Spike" once was! Twilight was shocked. How could Grogar have possibly known about that? "Oh yes, I've heard the rumors, even in my imprisonment." Grogar began to laugh even as more and more skeletal ponies began to rise up from the ground all around them, cackling and laughing in demonic tones as their eyes glowed various shades of red, green and yellow. "I've heard about how your Spike, that adoptive son of yours became a monster due to his greed and nearly destroyed that precious little town of yours you call home!" Oh yes, Twilight remembered alright, but she also remembered how she reassured Spike, her son, that he'd never become a monster again as long as she lived, and that she and her friends would always be there for him. "You alright Spike?" She asked of her son, only to get a rapid shaking of the head in response. Twilight was now growing very concerned indeed. Something was definitely bothering Spike, that was for sure. "NO! NO! I'm not alright!" Spike suddenly shouted, all of the stress getting to him. "W-What if I go greedy again, or worse, grow up and become a monster full time!" He panicked. Twilight knew she had to calm her son down, and she knew just the way to do it. "Spike, you won't become a monster again, I guarantee it." She assured, with a hoof on his shoulder. "H-How?" Spike sobbed. "Because we're always there for you, and we always will be, me most of all. Remember, I care for you. And even if you go and turn into a monster again, we can stop you, remind you who you are inside." Twilight said calmly and without a trace of doubt in her voice. She knew her son, and he was no monster. Meanwhile, Spike was having another flashback, of Rarity's words to him that brought him back to his true self. "Oh, no. You are not getting this gemstone! This was given to me by my dear friend Spikey-Wikey. The kindest, sweetest, most generous dragon ever. And it is too precious to me to give to a greedy, old beast like you!" "T-Thank you mom, I needed that. Pinkie Promise I won't become THAT ever again?" He asked nervously, and was reassured with a wink and a calm smile from his mother. All his doubts were erased forevermore with these two things. "Pinkie Promise." 'That's where you're wrong Grogar!" Twilight exclaimed in fury, not even bothering to acknowledge his title as the Necromancer King, making him very furious indeed by Twilight's growing impudence against him. He was even more furious by her next statement. "Spike will never become a monster again, not as long as I'm around!" Twilight snarled in fury. "I'll always be there for him, and how dare you suggest otherwise!" Meanwhile, as the Rainbooms began their next song, beginning with a thundering guitar chord and launching into a dueling solo played by both Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer, with Rainbow playing a sky blue Jackson Warrior guitar and Sunset her usual Gibson Flying V with Sunset singing "His evil highness, born from disaster, to dominate and kill!", Trixie had joined the fight and had teamed up with Lyra Heartstrings, who had both been in Canterlot on visits to the city just in time to see what was happening, to either launch magical explosions from Trixie's horn or Lyra firing blasts of sonic energy from her Lyre which had been upgraded by the Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver (As he wasn't singing at the time just yet) to smash and destroy undead ponies, reducing them to just piles of bones. As they fought, they remembered the last time they talked, with their discussion over the White Stripe's "Seven Nation Army". "Okay, well that was... interesting." Octavia commented after a brief silence of taking the song in, not really a fan of the song's bluesy sound if she were to be honest, but Vinyl disagreed. "Are you kidding?" She asked in disbelief, she'd been banging her head throughout the whole song. "That was awesome man! But I don't get the lyrics though. Was this a song about war or something?" "Well, the fact that there was the phrase "Seven Nation Army" would seem to say that." Lyra mused, but she still wasn't entirely sure. "The person singing this song seems to be a violent one, doesn't he?" Octavia agreed, as she'd picked up on the "Seven Nation Army" lyrics as well. Spike groaned, he remembered how badly the misconceptions about the human race went last time, and hoped things wouldn't turn in that exact same direction as before. "I'm curious though, what are these Hounds of Hell that the singer mentioned?" Octavia wondered before Lyra theorized "Could they be a counterpart to the guards at the gates of Tartarus?" Trixie herself had her own theory on what the song was about, and hers was possibly the most spot on. "I don't know, Trixie thinks the singer is protesting about something. But about what she asks?" The showmare wondered aloud to herself, not really expecting an answer. But she got one anyway. "Hmm, to me it sounds like he regrets something, and everyone is still talking about that, whatever it is." Spike thought and Lyra couldn't resist commenting towards Trixie and the irony of it all. "Yeah, and you'd know a lot about that don't you?" Lyra asked dryly. Trixie's little Alicorn Amulet incident was still a talking point, and it was a sad fact of life she wasn't particularly well liked in the town because of what she did under it's control. "Trixie was brainwashed! She wanted to show Twilight Sparkle how great and powerful she truly was!" The showmare defended herself with a furious expression on her face. "She is the Humble and Apologetic Trixie now! Ask Twilight Sparkle, she'll believe you!" Suddenly, an undead pony just nearly blindsided Lyra from behind had Trixie not smashed it to bits by throwing a magical flaming spell at it reducing it to a pile of ashes. "T-Thanks Trixie..." Lyra stammered in shock, surprised that Trixe had saved her, given their past history together. "Y-You saved me, but why? I was so mean and distrustful of you..." Then Trixie said something that truly surprised Lyra. "Trixie did say she was reformed, didn't she?" She said, and with this Lyra finally realized that Trixie had been speaking the truth. No more had the influence of the powerful and dangerous artifact known as the Alicorn Amulet had any sort of control over her like Lyra had long suspected. "T-Thanks... Trixie." Lyra said, hanging her head in shame for her previous actions. "I never thought I'd say it, but can we be friends?" "Of course Trixie and you can be friends, but we can save the getting to know each other better for later." Trixie said as she bucked a skeletal pony into pieces. "After all, we have undead flanks to kick!" Lyra grinned, and blasted another into bones. Meanwhile, the Rainbooms were still playing Megadeth's "Sudden Death", with Sunset singing "Now death descends upon you, like a bloody white dove." before launching into another solo where she dueled once more with Rainbow Dash while Twilight and Sonata blasted energy from their Elements into more undead ponies while Pinkie's drum kit thundered out a heavy beat. Finally, after five minutes of intense heavy metal playing, the song came to an end, but Grogar wasn't defeated yet. He still had an army of undead ponies to serve his every whim, and so with great fever, the Rainbooms launched into another song, the prefect one to deal with the rising dead... (To be continued....)