Twenty Seven - Love and War (3)
Adagio gave them mere seconds before she was upon them, weaving through the air as fast as Rainbow Dash on a good day. Animal fear washed over Sunset in waves as she felt the siren’s magic dance around her—Adagio’s body clearly wasn’t meant to contain so much mana. It was spilling out of her and diffusing into the air, and whenever a particle of it brushed Sunset’s coat, it sent an awful shiver down her spine.
“CHRYSALIS!” bellowed the siren. The sound was deafening, like a thousand different voices screaming at once. “YOU DARE USE ME AND MY SISTERS AS BAIT?!”
Sunset had never seen Chrysalis so frightened. She deserved some credit, though; she didn’t back down, and she kept up her snarl. “You brainwashed my children,” she called back, bitter as ever. “Where’re your sisters? Or did they fall to the humans?”
A portal appeared between them, and Twilight, in her Midnight form, flew out of it. She held her arms out to each side, a swirling purple vortex in each of her hands. “So you’ve come out to play, too, siren? My, those gems look very interesting… so much magic! Too bad I’ll have to get them bloody before my examination!”
Adagio opened her mouth, but Sunset couldn’t hear her song. Couldn’t hear it, no, but she could see it—the air between Adagio and Midnight warbled with vibrations, and Twilight froze, her eyes glazing over and her body shaking so much she was practically a blur.
“TWILIGHT!”
Light surged up Sunset’s horn, her cutiemark tingling furiously. A miniature phoenix poured out from her horn and sped towards Adagio, cawing and flapping, leaving a trail of thick black smoke behind it. But just as it was about to connect, a portal opened up and swallowed it.
Seconds later, she was staring straight into Midnight’s eyes. They didn’t seem to be focusing properly on her, no doubt a sign of Adagio’s enchantment.
“Twilight, snap out of it!” Sunset begged, her whole body trembling.
“And why should I?” she whispered, her voice level and cutting. “So I’ve been charmed. Big deal! I never liked you anyways.”
“Twilight, I know you’re in there. Please! We need you!”
“You always need me! All you ever do is drag me into your problems! I’m long due to get rid of you!”
“Twilight—”
And then Sunset was tumbling downwards, a portal shutting closed behind her. She knew she needed to teleport, to get her out of the fall, but where to? She could be anywhere, and if she tried to warp someplace in a different dimension, who knows what would happen to her body?
She let out a grunt as she slammed into something—was that the top of Canterlot High?
She didn’t have time to find out, as she bounced straight into another portal and found herself being flung off of a balcony. Her eyes watered against the air she was shooting past, but she made out the familiar shapes of buildings and statues. She’d just been thrown off of Celestia’s personal balcony, and was plummeting fast towards the royal gardens.
Just before her face made a lasting impression on the top of a stone Applejack’s head, yet another portal opened, and she was flung at high speeds through a large fire. She closed her eyes as she passed through the scorching flames, hissing in pain as her skin charred, and opened them just in time to see Discord playing a game of checkers with some old centaur wearing manacles. Discord waved as she entered the next portal and whammed painfully into none other than the Eiffel Tower, shocking a group of tourists on the viewing platform below. She hacked up a mouthful of blood as she peeled off the side of the tower and began to fall yet again.
This time, she was dumped onto a rough stone staircase. She didn’t have the strength to stop her tumbling descent as she rolled from step to step, finally coming to a groaning stop on a hard stone floor. She felt like every bone in her body was broken multiple times over, and her breathing was starting to sound like sharpening a sword on a grindstone.
They’d been so close. If the sirens hadn’t decided to rear their ugly, Celestia-forsaken heads, everything would’ve turned out dandy. Chrysalis would have been defeated no sweat, and they could all go back to school like nothing had happened. Pinkie would throw a party, they’d have a great time, and they’d have some thrilling stories to share with their loved ones.
But instead, she was laying there dying in some bucking nowhere cave where nopony, no human, no anything would find her.
She choked back a sob and slammed the hoof that felt least broken against the ground. It wasn’t supposed to end like this. She shouldn’t have to die. She couldn’t afford to.
She set her jaw. She wouldn’t.
She mustered up some of the last of her mana into her horn and let it flow throughout the cave, searching for something, anything, that could help.
Because, dammit, if she was still breathing, then it wasn’t over.
It wasn’t long before her magic encountered something: a huge reserve of magical energy stored in a crystal. But it was sealed, an ancient seal; if she couldn’t breach it, then—
Wait. That magic. It was familiar.
“No,” she breathed. “Anything but that.”
But there wasn’t anything but that, and she could feel the pool of blood under her growing thicker by the second. If she didn’t do something soon, well. Then that was that.
But she couldn’t. Not again. Never again.
But I could, she thought. They’ll all die if I don’t.
But you promised, she argued back. Vowed.
But I changed. I’d have control this time.
But you have no proof.
But I have no choice.
Sunset grunted as she shifted her body, her muscles yelling at her to stop. Raising her head one agonizing inch, she looked upon the crystalline tree before her.
She gulped, apologized in advance, and absorbed the Element of Magic.
The sky above the Everfree lit up with explosions and lasers and portals and soundwaves as Chrysalis, Adagio, and Twilight’s battle raged.
Twilight, still enthralled by Adagio, gestured towards Chrysalis, and a portal appeared beneath her, threatening to swallow her. Chrysalis jerked to the side on her wings, ducked under a burst of sound from Adagio, and shot an ugly green laser at Twilight. It hit her straight in the forehead, and Chrysalis kept the beam shooting for a good three seconds before Adagio finally hit her.
The powerful vibrations locked Chrysalis in place, but she only smirked. The sirens weren’t the only ones with mind control.
Adagio zipped towards the frozen Chrysalis, but before she could reach her, the air ripped open in front of her. A purple boot with a glowing sole kicked out from it and struck her in the neck, knocking her backwards. She turned just in time to see Twilight pull her leg back out of the portal, her eyes green with glamour, and fire a beam of energy towards Adagio.
“How do you like a taste of your own medicine, fishsticks?!” Chrysalis yelled, a victorious lilt in her voice.
Adagio dove out of the way of Twilight’s laser and belted out a note at Chrysalis. It slammed into her like a tidal wave, and she was thrown down into the forest. Adagio snorted in gruff satisfaction.
Twilight’s face contorted with anger. “Don’t you dare hurt the Queen!” she shouted, firing off another laser with one hand, and gesturing with the other.
Adagio twisted away from the laser, but let out a roar as the laser from before slammed into her back. Before she knew what was happening, Adagio found herself inches away from Twilight, who slammed an open palm into her chest. Immediately a portal materialized next to her, and the laser she had just dodged flew out from it; Adagio dove away, but another portal popped open and spat it back out.
She loosed an A flat at the beam and disintegrated it on the spot. She turned back to Twilight and sang before she could fire another laser.
Twilight’s eyes lost their green tint and her pupils shrunk to pinpricks. A second later, she vanished.
An explosion of purple left a gap in the canopy of the Everfree, and Chrysalis shot up from it, firing a slew of lasers at Twilight, who sent each one straight back. From behind, Adagio let her soundwaves connect with Chrysalis and pull her forcefully backwards towards the siren like a tractor beam. Right as she would’ve smashed into Adagio’s mouth, she flipped, her powerful tail sending Chrysalis straight up.
And, conveniently, straight through a portal that led to about twenty feet about the forest floor.
Chrysalis hit the ground with enough force to leave a crater. She struggled to her hooves, spat a glob of blood from between her fangs, and conjured the last of her emergency love vials. She downed each in a single gulp, sighing with pleasure as the warm liquid trickled down her throat and filled her second stomach to capacity.
That good for nothing fish was going to wish she’d never been born.
Sunset’s hatred blazed as she shot out of the cave, her aura singeing leaves and branches off of trees in passing. Her demon form looked just as it had on the day of the Fall Formal; but she didn’t pause to admire herself, however much she loved this form.
Hated this form?
Black electricity raced down her arms as she wrenched nearly a dozen trees out of the ground with her telekinetic grip; she hefted them above her head as she rose into the air, eyes locking with Adagio. Her anger surged at the sight of her, and the trees caught fire as she flung them towards her.
No, she loved this form. Definitely loved.
Not a second after she had launched her attack, she put her claws to her temples, her eyes morphing into black and white swirls. Twilight froze as the hypnosis set in, her eyes turning creamy and solid.
Somewhere in her mind, she felt a twinge of disgust for herself, but it soon passed. Twilight was her friend! She was only doing what Twilight would’ve done herself—making them pay.
Adagio saw the mass of burning trees coming with plenty of time to react. She opened her mouth and expelled waves of vibrations that would turn them into mere splinters.
Expect they never connected. Swirling wormholes appeared left and right, each one catching one projectile tree and spewing it back out directly behind Adagio. She was helpless to fight against the sheer weight of the attack, and disappeared beneath the small uprooted forest as it crashed into the ground.
Suddenly, shadowy figures rose from the forest to surround Sunset. They resembled changelings, but were magical constructs. Dark magic, by the looks of it—no doubt Chrysalis’s work.
The shadow-changelings swarmed Sunset. They poofed into smoke after getting hit by any of her attacks, but there were so many of them that no matter how quickly Sunset shot out lasers and crackling balls of energy, they still managed to gain ground on her. By the time she had destroyed them all, she was peppered with with cuts from their fangs and hooves. For creatures that looked like they were made out of smoke, they sure did hurt.
She looked around for Chrysalis, and found her off to the side, boring a laser into Twilight’s head.
Sunset groaned. “Oh, give it up! She should serve me!”
Before she could worry about that, though, flaming shrapnels of wood exploded into her, tearing her clothes and skin. She looked down and saw that Adagio had dug herself out of her wooden prison and was fast approaching. Sunset snarled and prepared a ball of energy between her hands, but before she could fire, a portal opened in front of her and a sharp hit to her back sent her tumbling through, into someplace completely different. Were they were trying to trap her in another dimension?
She turned around to see Twilight retracting her fist from a portal, Chrysalis smirking next to her. Before Twilight could seal Sunset off, however, Adagio flew up behind the two of them and slammed their heads together with a painful-sounding clang.
Sunset took advantage of the distraction. Magic slithered up to her fingertips, and dark coils of energy shot from them, wrapping around her three opponents and binding them tight. Sunset yanked, and the cord whipped them through the open portal, pulling them all onto Sunset’s side.
She took a brief glimpse of her surroundings; they were in a human city. Tall grey buildings flanked busy, car-packed streets, and the throngs of people that bustled along the sidewalks had stopped to stare at the spectacle in the sky.
Sunset, still holding the other three in her lasso, moved her hand sharply downwards. Her prisoners sailed towards the street, about to crumple the cars that idled there, when somebody below screamed in terror.
Sunset’s hand jolted to a stop, as did her whip.
What are you doing? she thought, involuntarily. You’ll hurt Twilight and kill innocent people!
It’s worth it, she tried to think, but the words lacked conviction.
What’s going on? What’s wrong with my head?
Sunset screamed and clutched at her skull.
Twilight was floating, yet it felt like there was a thousand feet of water pressing down against her. The layers of enchantment and glamour and hypnosis each felt like a giant needle piercing through her head and into her brain, right along with the constricting mental blanket of Midnight Sparkle.
It was all Adagio and Sunset’s fault. At least Chrysalis cared for her. She would give her unending love, and all she had to do was kill the others. Such a simple task, and it would make her so much happier.
Another needle stabbed into her head, and she screamed, the body her conscience had dreamt up thrashing and spasming in the white void. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, it was over, replaced by waves of pleasure.
Sunset was there for her. She was such a good friend; Twilight wished she could be her slave for all of eternity.
“NO!” she screamed, blood curtling and heard by nobody in the limbo of her subconscious. “Sunset, why? It’s bad enough with just them!” She choked on her tears. “Sunset, help me…”
Sunset was her everything. She lived to do her bidding, and she was better for it. She’d have unending happiness. Be liberated from the toxicity of free will.
Twilight smiled as she trembled and shuddered, waiting for the next needle to come.
After almost slamming her into the asphalt, Sunset had re-hypnotized Twilight, but it hadn’t lasted for long. Twilight’s allegiance changed four times more before they found themselves back above the Castle of the Two Sisters in Equestria. They were all battered, bruised, burnt and bleeding (with the notable exception of Twilight, who was just getting mind-controlled, not attacked), but they each had a fiery determination, too. The fight couldn’t last forever, though; eventually, someone would fall.
As the massive portal to Earth close behind them, Chrysalis kicked things off, sending another beam of glamour into Twilight. However, this left her open, and Sunset pegged her with one of her signature exploding energy spheres. Twilight then proceeded to fire laser after laser into a small vortexin front of her, giving Adagio one hell of a time trying to dodge and dispel all of them as they bounced from portal to portal around her.
Chrysalis recovered quickly, and sent a web of dark cracks through the air towards Sunset. She opened her mouth and belched a barrage of flames as a counterattack, but wasn’t counting on Twilight’s interference. The flames flew straight through a portal and into Adagio’s backside, which Sunset wouldn’t have been too mad about if it hadn’t left her open to Chrysalis’s magic. The sharp, thin lines of dark arcana snaked towards her; she tried to dodge, but they chased after her, ripping the membrane of her left wing to shreds.
A scream tore itself from Sunset’s lips as she spiraled to the ground, landing right along side her trapped friends.
Luna awoke to the sounds of explosions and lasers and screaming. She blinked the sleep from her eyes and tried to sit up, immediately regretting it as pain burst up her leg.
“Don’t try to move,” a voice said softly. Luna turned her head to see Velvet kneeling next to her, bandaging some of the cuts on her body. “Your leg’s broken.”
As if on cue, another wave of pain jolted up her leg. Luna’s jaw clamped painfully.
She looked around her, if for no other reason than to distract from the pain. They were in the entry hall of the Castle of the Two Sisters; she was lying on the carpet, Velvet next to her and Lyra Heartstrings a few feet away. The girl looked bored, and was fidgeting with the medical supplies in the first aid kit by her feet.
She craned her neck upwards and saw a gaping hole in the side of the castle. Judging from the many small cuts and scrapes she had now that she hadn’t had before, she assumed she’d used that as the front door after Adagio had sung Celestia and her into the seventh ring of hell.
Crap, Celestia. Was she okay?
Luna saw her sister lying a few feet away from herself, still unconscious. She’d been stripped down to her underwear, and was doing a fantastic mummy impression with all the bandages around her. Luna’s brow creased with worry.
“She’ll be fine,” Velvet said. “Well, I think so. She’s pretty bad, but she’s not getting worse. Not that she’ll be up on her feet soon or anything, I don’t want to give you false hope! But it could be worse. You know?”
Lyra rolled her eyes. “She’s worse off than you are, but she’s not gonna die.”
Velvet glared. “I was trying to be polite.”
Luna ignored them. “She took the hit for me, didn’t she? When we smashed through the wall?”
Velvet pursed her lips.
“She wasn’t nearly that bad when we’d just killed Aria and Sonata,” Luna continued. She always had loose lips right after waking up, and that was without taking the blood loss into account. “But now she’s like that and I’m awake and talking. Figures. Always gotta protect little sister… ‘cause little sister already got the only other people who’d protect her killed.”
“So, do you still have your powers?” Lyra asked, trying her hand at a casual subject change. “Maybe the Moon could fix your injuries and then you could go help Sunset and Twilight beat the snot out of a bug and a fish as hot demons.”
“Nope. Pissed off the Moon. It’s gone.” Luna’s eyebrows knit together. “Sunset’s a demon again? She promised Celestia she wouldn’t do that. Though, I suppose it’s extenuating circumstances.”
Luna closed her eyes and laid her head back. “Still, though. She’s too much like me. Good heart, bad choices… Next thing you know, she’ll hurt someone she loves, and she doesn’t have a sister to look out for her when she does…”
With that, Luna fell back asleep.
The room was silent for a few minutes before Lyra spoke up: “She accidentally killed her parents?”
Velvet shot her a withering look. “I don’t know, and you shouldn’t try to find out. I suggest you forget that conversation ever happened.”
“That actually explains a lot. Like, a lot.”
“Young lady, if you don’t start acting respectful, I’ll force feed you some of Zecora’s medicine once she gets back.”
Lyra shut up.
Sunset was growing real tired of lying on the ground in pain. At least the dirt felt better than the hard stone from before, though that was a negligible comfort. She couldn’t fly anymore, and she wasn’t a hundred percent confident she could stand, either. All her injuries that had been tempered by adrenaline were finally catching up with her, and not even her demon strength could weather them all.
But it wasn’t over. It wouldn’t be over until she’d gotten her revenge.
Until she’d saved her friends?
Until Chrysalis and Adagio were dead?
Until they got back home?
Her headache was coming back. Ugh, this form didn’t deal with morals very well.
Shakily, she clambered onto her feet. She could still feel her magic within her—that dark, icky mana that smelt of burnt rubber—which meant she could still channel it. She could still fight.
But she needed some advantage; she couldn’t beat them as she was, with one wing nothing more than a stick of bloody flesh.
She looked around, and noticed wispy trails of multicolored magic floating through the air all around her. She traced them to their sources: her imprisoned friends.
The magic was all being channeled towards the same point in the field. What could be taking her friends’ magic? When Sunset hobbled over to it, she found Twilight’s locket lying discarded on the ground.
Of course… She must’ve dropped it when she transformed, just like during the Friendship Games! Sunset could feel an idea coming on. Looks like its passive absorption effect triggered when Twilight released the inhibitors. It recognizes the signature of their friendship magic, so it latched onto it…
She smirked. And that means I can use it.
Sunset picked up the locket and examined it. Sure enough, it was stocked with friendship magic.
She wondered what would happen when a single body channeled both pure and corrupted friendship magic. Hopefully it wouldn’t rip her apart.
“Welp, here goes nothing,” Sunset said, throwing the locket onto the ground.
As the magic washed over her, the left half of her body faded from blood-red to light orange. A necklace bearing her cutie mark materialized around her neck, and a wing made of pure light spiked out where her leathery one had been torn to pieces. Half of her skirt turned to a neat-hemmed multilayered white, somehow seamlessly blending into the roughly cut orange-yellow fabric at the middle. The dress above changed to match, heavenly on one side and hellish on the other. She felt her left claw somewhat painfully crunch into a regular human hand, a white fingerless glove adorning it, and one of her boots shrunk down into a much slimmer and more regal gold one. A glowing horn shooting out of her forehead completed the look as she shot up through the air, a ball of half-light and half-dark energy crackling between her discrepant hands.
The monotony of Twilight’s personal hell inside her mind was suddenly broken by a golden light, and Sunset appeared. Her right half was her demon form—the one Twilight had sworn to serve several times in the past hour—but her left half was her angel form, the one that had pulled Twilight from this place the last time she’d become Midnight.
For the first time in what felt like forever, Twilight felt a spark of hope.
“Sunset!” she called. “Obey the sirens. I live to serve you, Sunset. Save me, please! Die!”
Sunset cringed. “I’m so sorry, Twilight. I should never have used my powers on you.”
“I was honored to be your slave. My Queen comes before all else. I need to learn! Save me…”
Sunset frowned and approached. “This might hurt some, but it should remove the spells.” She wrapped her claw around the crown of Twilight’s head, and placed her gloved hand directly in front of her face.
Twilight screamed, and everything turned a golden black.
When Twilight came to, she was floating in the sky, far above where she had transformed. She felt lightheaded, and she had a few minor injuries, but other than that, she felt perfectly fine. Perhaps the weirdest sensation was having Midnight’s body without her overwhelming presence haunting her mind. She opened her palm, and a portal appeared; she had Midnight’s powers, too. So where had she gone?
An explosion rocked the air around her, and she whirled around to find Sunset going head to head with Chrysalis and Adagio. Lasers, sound waves, and lightning flashed between them, all far too fast for her to follow. After a minute, Sunset was launched out of the fray, and Twilight quickly cast a portal to catch her before she hit the ground. Sunset righted herself and flew to Twilight’s side, giving her a grateful look.
“What did you do?” Twilight asked. “I’ve still got this form, but my mind’s perfectly fine.”
“I purified your mind and strengthened the curse on your body. It won’t last much longer, though; the magic I used was self-contradictory, so it’ll burn itself out. Same with my own transformation, actually. My angel half is trying to purify my demon half as we speak.”
“So we have to end this now, basically.”
Sunset smirked. “Exactly.”
“Having a nice CHAT?!” Chrysalis roared from afar, firing a massive laser at them.
With a flick of her wrist, Twilight sent it straight into the side of the queen’s head.
“Got a plan for how to end this?” Twilight asked.
Sunset reached out her angelic hand and dissolved some approaching sound waves with a cleansing laser. “No, do you?”
“Yeah. Can you push them backwards?”
Sunset didn’t need to ask why. Not because she knew what Twilight was planning, but because there was this look in the girl’s eye, the same look that she got whenever she was developing a new device, or unraveling the newest ‘unsolvable math problem’ she’d found online, or playing chess against Sunset.
It was the look she got whenever she knew she wouldn’t stop at anything until she succeeded.
So Sunset didn’t ask any questions. She just shot forward, one hand glowing gold and the other black. Chrysalis and Adagio shot attack after attack towards her, but she wove back and forth, dodging the vast majority of assault. Those that did manage to hit her she shrugged off. They’d leave a mark, but she wasn’t about to stop now.
When she got as close to them as she needed to be, she took her hands, one bristling with black magic and the other with light—the opposite extremes of the thaumic energy scale, the two magics that every unicorn filly is told to never dabble in, the two magics that were never meant to be mixed—and slammed them together.
At the same time, the largest dimensional rift Sunset had ever seen opened up just behind Chrysalis and Adagio, and through it, Sunset glimpsed the tumultuous, rippling flames of the human sun.
The explosion that erupted from between Sunset’s hands blew out her eardrums and exhausted the energies of both her transformations. She shrunk back down into her true form and flew backwards faster than what she thought was a reasonable terminal velocity, unable to move a muscle as the air ripped at her fur and skin.
She was unconscious before she hit the ground.
Twilight was barely able to hold the portal open for the time it took for Chrysalis and Adagio to sail head-over-tail through it (which, with the force of Sunset’s explosion, wasn’t much time at all). Their screams went dead silent as soon as they passed through the filter of the portal and entered the vacuum, but wouldn’t have been audible anyway with how quickly the wormhole collapsed in on itself as Twilight’s dress and accessories were replaced with her school clothes.
She tumbled downwards and into the waiting arms of her mother, who stroked her hair and smiled.
“You did it, honey,” Velvet whispered. “It’s all over now.”
She sighed. “I think it’s finally time we got home.”