When everyone returned to the Hyperion, and docked Aphelion, they overheard Azimuth mention that using the Great Clock to save the Lombaxes would change history and would no doubt make the meeting between Ratchet and Clank void. None of them bothered to mention that they weren't planning on using the Great Clock to do such a thing, especially as that would tear Ratchet and Angela apart and would no doubt have disastrous consequences in regards to Sunset Shimmer. If Ratchet and Starlight's sister was supposed to become the God of Destruction, and the three of them were separated by the act of saving the entire Lombax race, there was no telling whether she would follow the same path she had been set on or turn to the path of a destroyer that existed to erase everything.
It was then that the group agreed that if they got a chance to even touch the controls of the Great Clock, which was a massive if at the moment, they would ignore what Azimuth wanted so they could preserve time... which meant that they needed to figure out a way to persuade the elderly Lombax to see their line of thinking.
During the time they spent going over what to do about Azimuth, and how to persuade him, Starlight excused herself and headed back to the room that she used to do most of her work in, where she had created a clone some time ago to do some research. When she entered the room she found that the clone had done as she had asked of it, research the connection between all of the strange creatures she and the others had been finding lately, as well as working on more weapons to send to Gadgetron. She guessed that it was because of the clone some of her unfinished weapons had been produced, though she was grateful that the clone had done the work, because she and Ratchet had put the weapons to good use already.
She also spotted a few more weapons that would be useful near the end of their journey, but she decided not to pay it much attention as she turned to the clone... who was sitting in her chair and sipping on the drink that was floating in front of her.
"I see that you have been busy," Starlight said, though as she looked at the board with the nine names she noticed that the clone had added a tenth name to the list, one that was labeled 'Innocence' for some reason, "and that you added another name to the pile."
"Yes. I had a thought while you and your family were busy saving the day," the clone stated, a smile appearing on her face as she finished off the drink she was sipping from, "There are nine known aspects of our sister, as you have demonstrated by all of the names you put on the board, but I considered that there had to be one 'pure' aspect that we don't know about. The only reason I added 'Innocence' to the list is because of the fact that the majority of the aspects we've seen are negative emotions, saving for Searing Flame, Sunset Glider, and Ysmir. From what I have been able to gather Ysmir has to be some sort of fighting style based on a different type of magic, based on what you and the others have seen of her and the fact that Sunset once told us that her that there might be another set of memories locked away somewhere in her mind."
"While at the same time Searing Flame seems to be more of a prideful unicorn," Starlight added, remembering the smile that the unicorn had been wearing on her face when she took out the Hydra Tank earlier, as if she had been extremely happy with her skills, "that's if she really is one of..."
"Oh come on, don't kid yourself Starlight," the clone said, cutting her off before she could finish her sentence, causing Starlight to glare at her for a few seconds, "We both know the same thing; Searing Flame and Sunset Glider are two more aspects that have been scattered throughout the entirety of the Polaris Galaxy. As you said, the other unicorn has to be Pride, but Sunset Glider, on the other hand, I have to assume is some sort of competitive spirit or something similar. This Sunset is also a pegasus, so its possible that she represents Flight as well, considering her sister would be representing Sunset's Magic, which would make sense considering that our sister was an alicorn before she became what she is now."
"I... I guess your right about that," Starlight replied, letting out a sigh as she basically admitted defeat to herself, which was odd to even think about considering that she was talking with a clone of herself, "though I think its safe to assume that we'll discover what happened to Sunset when we take out the rest of the aspects that are trying to destroy planets and ruin lives... which means that we'll need to find and defeat Despair, Doubt, and Hatred. I don't think it will be easy to take out the first two wraiths, considering that they'll be near each other if what we saw on Torren IV was any indication, but they will definitely be much easier to deal with than the pain that will come when we have to fight Hatred."
"Do you mind if I might make a suggestion?" the clone asked, to which Starlight raised her eyebrow for a moment, though they both knew what her decision would be regarding the question.
"Go right ahead," Starlight said, knowing that at some point she would come up with the suggestion that the clone would be giving her, but this method allowed her to get the idea way ahead of time.
"Use me and the other clones in combat against the wraiths," the clone said, though at the same time Starlight nodded her head, as she was understanding what she was hearing, "we should be able to confuse the wraiths, giving you and the others enough time to figure out how to take them out."
Starlight nodded once more and the clone pointed at herself, indicating that it was time for her to return to the magic that had constructed her, to which Starlight allowed the clone to rest until she needed one again. With the deed done she left the workshop and returned to where the rest of the group was waiting, where she discovered that they were nearly at the Agorian Battleplex. Apparently Azimuth was heading towards Zanifar so he could scout out what was happening, allowing them to take some time to see if the nearby arena had anything they might find useful in their quest to save the universe.
Oddly enough Starlight found herself agreeing with the rest of the group that there had to be something helpful inside the arena, which was why she smiled as they got on their ships and flew over to the Battleplex.
When they entered the main lobby of the Battleplex they found that there were a large number of Agorians standing around, either talking with each other or playing what appeared to be some sort of arcade game that was based on Qwark. There were some Terachnoids walking around, to which the group discovered that they were either conversing in 'meaning' conversation with each other, pausing to watch whatever match was going on at the moment, or just walking around the lobby without a destination in mind. Ratchet spotted several statues on either side of the lobby, which made him wonder if those were the greatest Agorian warriors that the culture had, though as he thought about that he and the others made their way towards the Terachnoid hologram that was resting above everyone else.
"Welcome to Open Fight Night at the Battleplex!" the Terachnoid exclaimed, staring down at the group as they stopped in front of his station, though he seemed pleased to see them, "I can tell that all of you are looking for a fight. What are your names?"
"I'm Ratchet Cross," Ratchet replied, to which he moved a hand towards the rest of the group and introduced them all in turn, "this is my wife, Angela Cross, along with my sister, Starlight Glimmer, and our friends Searing Flame and Sunset Glider."
"Huh... so that's who you all are," the hologram said, though his tone indicated that he knew them by the fact that three of them were related to Sunset Shimmer, before he beckoned to the arena entrance behind him, "Well then, I won't keep you waiting."
As the group made their way towards the arena entrance they stopped by the weapon vendor and picked up the latest weapon that was available, which happened to be the Groovitron Glove. It was essentially the gadget turned into a weapon, though as Ratchet and Starlight picked it up, with a chuckle from Angela, Starlight had to wonder if her clone had created the weapon while she and the others had been busy with everything else. With the new weapon acquired they made their way to the entrance of the arena and discovered that there were five challenges that existed in the Bronze Tournament. If Qwark's message was to be believed, that he would be released once that tournament was completed, the entire group was going to have to fight through all five challenges and get whatever rewards the Agorians were handing out.
The first challenge, called 'Welcoming Party' was the basic type of challenge that they encountered whenever they entered a new arena, which was basically surviving five rounds of enemies before they could move onto the second challenge. When they appeared in the arena they took up positions so that someone was facing a single direction, allowing Sunset to glide over their enemies and attack them from behind. The enemies included some sort of small red robot that used lasers to damage people, the junk robots they fought back on Torren IV, and the Agorians themselves. It about three to five minutes they had torn apart all of the enemies that had been sent at them, allowing them to leave the arena with a small amount of bolts as a reward.
The second challenge in the line up, 'Armageddon Outta Here', was basically the same as the first one, but those that had to stay on the platform had to dodge spinning saw blades that were thrown at them as Sunset, once again, helped them from above. It was a rather easy challenge for them to over come, though once they had survived the waves that were sent at them Starlight spotted a Zoni that came to them and hid inside the vessel she was carrying, while Ratchet got the bolt reward. The third challenge that they had to face, 'Return to Sender', was one where they had to send bombs back at the person that threw them at the group, which proved to be rather easy as Starlight summoned a curved barrier to catch the bombs and Searing tossed the captured bombs back at their targets. Upon victory they earned another modification to their Constructo weapons, which was decent considering they weren't getting a lot in terms of bolts, before they accessed the fourth challenge.
'Death From Above' was a challenge where they had to survive the predetermined amount of waves that were thrown at them, while at the same time making sure to avoid being damaged by sinking platforms. Sunset was, once more, useful in taking out some of the Agorians that were targeting them from higher platforms, allowing the rest of the group to move around and take out their targets. In the end, however, the group managed to win the challenge and advance to the last one, where Qwark was allowed to join them for the final task they needed to complete before he was allowed to leave the Battleplex. The final challenge, they soon discovered, was called 'Bros Before Foes', though the description told them all that they were going to have to face three waves of obstacles and enemies before they fought something called a 'War Grok'.
Qwark was happy to see them, as he started cheering for all of them as he pulled out his silver bow and started putting arrows in whichever enemies weren't targeted by anyone else in the group. Even without Qwark's addition to the group they managed to cut their way through everything that the Agorians could throw at them, which only seemed to cheer the spectators on as the announcer declared that they were bringing in the creature that was supposed to kill them all. It was during that instance, where the elevator was bringing the War Grok into the arena, that Starlight could have sworn that she noticed a shadowy creature watching them before disappearing. She was sure that Hatred was lurking, waiting for them to make a mistake, but she kept her eyes peeled for the creature as they waited for the Agorians brought in their challenger.
"I'm sorry, but your regularly scheduled fight has been cancelled," a voice said, to which Ratchet, Angela, and Starlight gasped as the elevator finally connected with the platform they were on, to which they spotted the shadowy version of Sunset Shimmer standing in front of them, "but don't worry, I have something much more grand in store for all of you."
Hatred looked like Sunset, with shadows wrapped around her entire form, but that was before everyone noticed that she was wearing some sort of metallic suit that covered her chest, her legs and waist area, had metallic boots on her feet, and was wearing metal gauntlets over her hands. Hatred was also wearing some sort of red cape, though on the top of her head rested a silver crown, that looked blackened by the shadows, that made her look like an evil queen or something. Starlight stared into Hatred's red eyes, with the sickly green color surrounding them and the dark purple color rolling out of her eyes, telling her that the aspect was infused with Dark Magic, which seemed to be well attuned to her nature.
A few seconds later Hatred chuckled as she looked at everyone who was standing in front of her, because they all had jumped backwards and switched to their handheld weapons, as experience told them that using guns never worked against creatures like her.
"I'm glad that you understand that guns won't work on me, not like the other aspects." Hatred commented, a grin appearing on her face as she took a step forward, while causing most of the group to take a step backwards at the same time, "Ratchet, Angela, Qwark... why don't the three of you leave the arena? This is going to be a magical battle and, as none of you possess any sort of magic of your own, you'll only get in the way... besides, I'd like to leave you alive so you can see the future of the universe once I obtain what is rightfully mine."
Ratchet and Angela glanced at each other for a few seconds, mentally debating whether or not they trusted Hatred to leave them alone, before they sheathed their weapons, pulled on Qwark's shoulder, and left the arena, leaving the three ponies to face the creature that wanted to duel with them.
"Now that its just the four of us, we can get started," Hatred said, to which her eyes darted towards Sunset and Searing, though the moment made Starlight a little confused, "thought I must applaud the two of you, Searing Flame and Sunset Glider, for being able to hunt down and defeat Fear, Rage, and Violence, along with you, Starlight, taking out our Dragonborn powers. Even without a touch of our godly power you were able to bring about the downfall of four of our fellow aspects, granted that they were significantly weaker than the three of us, but this is where your ride ends."
"Stop acting like we know each other," Searing commanded, her magic dancing around her horn for a moment, which was mimicked by Starlight as Sunset readied her wings for flight, "and my sister and I have no connection to those creatures that have been ravaging the worlds we found them on. We save people, while they hurt people."
"Oh, there's more between the three of us than you understand," Hatred stated, snapping her fingers and summoning a dark crystal pillar off to the right of where she was standing, "I mean seriously, who else has a mastery of magic that allows them to defy the natural laws and bend the very elements to either destroy their enemies or protect their allies? Our original state, the magical alicorn known as Sunset Shimmer, used her powers to do exactly that, but then she ascended to a state above what all of us are capable of... gaining the power to end worlds whenever she desired. I thank the two of you for ensuring the defeat of three of the other aspects, four if you count Ysmir, because this puts us one step closer to being made whole... and I shall be the one to take over the position of the God of Destruction.
Besides, I have already proven that I am the one that should take over... as I was the one that obliterated Fastoon when Fear was trying to detonate a rift so she could wipe out all of existence."
Starlight was shocked to hear that Hatred was the one behind the destruction of Fastoon, and she already knew that Ratchet and Angela were going to be furious when she returned to them, but at the same time she was surprised to hear that her assumption that the two ponies next to her were aspects of her sister was correct. Another thing that shocked her was Hatred's plan, which was basically her forcing them to defeat the rest of the aspects so she could swoop in and take the seat that Sunset Shimmer had left behind. Starlight didn't like that Hatred had been playing them the entire time, especially when the universe was at risk of being destroyed, but they had to beat her now, before she did something worse than destroying Fastoon.
"So, you are the one that obliterated that planet," Sunset growled, anger flashed through her eyes for a few seconds, which only made Hatred smile at her, "I'm going to enjoy beating you to death!"
"Sunset! Stop!" Starlight shouted, though instead of heading her warning Sunset burst into the air and raced towards Hatred, throwing her hoof, with its extended blades, at her target.
Starlight watched as Sunset's hoofblade struck Hatred right in her chest, in the area that would be her heart, but her eyes widened as the body distorted and turned into pure shadows, though at the same time Hatred reappeared on Sunset's right and punched her in the side of her face. The force of her blow sent Sunset flying into the ground, to which she rubbed the area she had been struck in and glared at the aspect that had struck her, clearly pissed off that she had been hit like that. A few seconds later Sunset got back on her hooves and charged into the battle, swinging her hooves and her wings at the shadowy creature that seemed to be ducking and weaving instead of actually fighting her.
This went on for a few more moments before Starlight noticed that Searing had appeared behind Hatred's back, where she wouldn't be able to see the unicorn until it was too late, and spotted the magical blade that had been constructed from her magic, which was apparently how she was intending on finishing off the evil aspect. Hatred phased for a second and slammed her fist into Sunset's face, knocking her against the crystal pillar she had summoned earlier, before spinning towards Searing and shattering the magical blade with a wave of her hand. That was rapidly followed by Hatred slamming her hand against the floor and summoning another pillar behind Searing, to which she picked the unicorn up and threw her against the pillar, before using her magic to pin Searing against the crystal.
Starlight took a step forward, intending on joining the attack, but Hatred glanced at her for a brief second and her magic flared, to which a half circle of dark crystals sprung up in front of her and stopped her from advancing, causing her to stare at the creature that Sunset and Searing were fighting.
"Starlight, you're not invited to this fight." Hatred stated, confusing Starlight as to why the aspect hadn't just told her to leave with the rest of her family if she wasn't going to fight at all, before she turned her attention back to Searing, "You know Searing, its actually kind of sad to see you in the state your in; unable to remember anything about yourself, bound to a form that you have never used before, and unable to use any of your true power. I was hoping for a decent fight... so maybe I should fix you."
Hatred pressed her right palm against Searing's forehead, without touching her horn, for a few seconds and her hand started to glow, though that was followed by Searing's body shifting before Starlight's eyes. Her body changed from a unicorn and shifted until she looked like Hatred, but she was wearing a flaming dress that she had worn every time she had taken over Sunset's body, though oddly enough the demonic wings didn't return this time. Starlight assumed that the reason behind that change was because Hatred was just going to rip them off anyway once the battle started, so considering that the aspect wanted to have a decent fight she guessed that pain wasn't important to her at the moment.
That was swiftly followed by Hatred tapping Searing's forehead once more after pulling her hand back, the purpose of the contact was unknown to Starlight, before the evil aspect stepped back... where Searing shattered the pillar she was held against and braced her new hands against her head.
"Wh... what have you... done to me?" Searing growled, though at the same time she managed to land on her feet and stand like Sunset would, which told Starlight that Hatred must have done something to her memories.
"I imparted some of our memories into you," Hatred stated, a smile appearing on her face as she raised her hands, as if she was entering a battle stance of some sort, "When you, your sister, and I were created, back when our original form was shattered, I grabbed as much power as I could before I was created. In the process I managed to retain some of my own memories, or rather the memories we had before the separation... so the memories I gave you will allow you to remember who you were and how to properly fight in that form, for about ten minutes. Anyway, we don't have a lot of time for me to explain everything to you and have time for us to have a good fight, so come and fight me... Pride!"
"That's not... my name!" Searing shouted, though that was followed by her magic wrapping around her as she burst into the air and soared right at Hatred, to which she planted her fist in the evil aspect's face and sent her flying into the side of the arena.
The force of the attack shattered the barrier between the stands and the arena, sending Hatred flying through both the seats and the metallic structures that rested behind them, though the Agorians were smart enough to move out of the way before they were wounded. Searing changed her magic into the shape of at least a dozen small spear shaped objects, to which she glared at where Hatred had been thrown into and loosed the barrage of arcane attacks she had prepared. A series of small explosions rocked the area that she was targeting, though that was followed by Hatred jumping through the smoke and slammed into Searing's side, throwing her into the other side of the arena while ignoring Starlight and Sunset.
Searing stood up the moment following her impact with the arena wall, though as she did so she leveled her right pointer finger with Hatred and loosed a small charge of magical energy at the aspect, who fired one in return. The resulting explosion shook the entire arena, damaging many of the panels and breaking the entire barrier between the arena and the stands, causing the Terachnoids to sound the evacuation alarms. The Agorians seemed to sense that this was a fight that they couldn't even participate in, based on the magic that had been thrown around already, which was why they made their way out of the stands and headed somewhere safe. As the Agorians did that, and Ratchet and the others followed suit, Starlight noticed that the two combatants were charging at each other again and were exchanging blows with their hands and feet.
Starlight noticed that the magic that Hatred and Searing commanded was clashing with each other, even if they weren't using any spells at that moment, as the arena beneath them was breaking under the pressure of their clash... though that was followed the both of their fists colliding, which released a surge of energy that brought down small sections of the ceiling.
"Much better," Hatred said, to which the two of them separated from each other for a few seconds, where her magic gathered around her as Searing did the same, "You may not like being called Pride, but you remember how to fight like your old self... now show me what you are really capable of."
Searing burst into the air and slammed her magic into Hatred's chest, pushing her through the air and threw her into the hole she had created earlier, but this time Searing wrapped her magic around her opponent and detonated a charge that blew a large hole in the wall, larger than the last one. A few seconds later a beam of energy raced towards her and she dodged it, though it continued into the wall behind her and tore the other side of the room to pieces around where it had landed. Hatred followed the attack and continued to exchange magically enhanced blows with Searing, forcing her into the smoke she had created as the ship fell apart around them.
As Starlight tried to get onto her hooves, and somehow help Searing, she had to use her magic to brace herself as the entire ship shook as the two aspects dueled with each other. She had expected a duel between the two more powerful parts of Sunset Shimmer to have some destructive consequences, but even now she could feel the ship shaking, as if the shock waves of their powers clashing was tearing the Battleplex apart. She noticed Sunset Glider moving and gathered her magic so she could teleport over to her, as she knew that they needed to get out of here before something happened to the two of them, because in all honesty she knew that she couldn't stand up to Hatred... not without any of the Cores backing her.
Before she could actually teleport over to the pegasus, and get her out of the way, part of the ceiling collapsed and the two aspects crashed into the floor in front of her, shattering all of the crystals with the force of their landing as the two separated from each other. The force of their impact sent Sunset flying closer to where Starlight was standing, though it meant that she was out of harms way for the moment, unless one of the aspects did something.
"You know, this was a nice warm up for later on, when you unlock your potential on your own," Hatred commented, though at the same time the shadows behind her parted as an ebony colored sword, one with a wider blade than anything Starlight had ever seen, was pushed out of the darkness, "but you are like me and the other aspects, rage and anger will fuel your drive to do improve yourself... and there is no greater target for me to take out at the moment."
Searing eyes widened as she realized that Hatred was talking about Sunset, who was trying to move at the moment, but before she could say anything she noticed that the sword was already flying through the air towards the evil aspect's target. Searing made the ultimate decision and used her magic to do the one thing that she knew Hatred would never expect... she teleported between her sister and Hatred, allowing the rest of her power to form a barrier that was supposed to slow the blade down. The weapon penetrated the barrier and pierced Searing's chest, and even continued to reach for Sunset, but Searing grunted and stopped the blade before it could reach its target. As she coughed up blood she could see the pain and shock in her sister's eyes, and could hear the pain in her voice, but she blocked those out as she felt Hatred grab the hilt of the blade.
"Only you, Pride, would have done something as stupid as sacrificing yourself for an aspect that has no magical power inside her," Hatred growled, to which she pushed the blade in a little more so she could ensure that the aspect shattered like all the others, "You know, out of the other aspects that were created, you were the only one that I felt that could stop me, when you regained your memories... and then you went and did this. You have ensured that I will become the God of Destruction... to which you have my thanks."
"Go... to hell!" Searing shouted, raising her leg for a second and planting her foot in Hatred's chest, using a lot of her energy to send the aspect flying through the air and into the wall behind her, before she turned to Starlight, "Get us... out of... here."
Starlight ran over to the dying aspect and teleported them to the Hyperion, where they would be safe from the evil aspect for the time being and give Sunset time to say farewell to her sister. Ratchet and the others, who had been aboard the Hyperion due to the evacuation, were shocked to see what had happened to Searing, who weakly wished that Sunset would remain safe until she could take out Hatred. As Sunset promised to do her best to do that, and take out the aspect, the group was forced to watch as the life faded from Searing's eyes, to which she broke down into the same crystal that had appeared after the defeat of Fear and the other strange creatures. When the Zoni appeared to collect the crystal Sunset begged the time creature to restore her sister, to which the Zoni sadly shook its head and left with Searing's crystal.
Starlight had known that something was going to happen at the Battleplex, because of the fact that Hatred had been seen there, but this was something that she hadn't been expecting... and it made her and the others more determined than ever to make sure that Hatred didn't acquire the power that Sunset Shimmer had left behind.