The silence grew as the prisoners were dragged along by Cacophony. Natalie squirmed, struggling to keep the changes from being spotted by their captor. They were soon let into a throne room of sorts, and upon the throne of crystal was the Starlight from Equestria, with a new pair of bat wings protruding from her back. She had a menacing and triumphant grin upon her face. "So, here we are at last. Face to face." She looked at the group, and her expression grew sour. “So Twilight is not here with you? I was hoping to gloat about my new wings to her personally… such a shame.” She shrugged, and snapped her fingers. A new cage appeared, holding “Renddown” inside. “Is she the reason that you came here so grossly underprepared?”
“Slighthand” growled. “Let her go this instant!”
Starlight giggled incessantly. “Very well.” she turned her head to call into the back. “Jet! Come over here.” The aforementioned unicorn in bodysuit appeared from the shadows. “Let little Rendy out of her cage for me, okay? Show them… what the truth of the matter really is.”
Jet growled and clenched a fist, yet obliged nonetheless. He lit his horn, and the cage disintegrated from around Renddown. He caught her as she fell, and stabilized her on her feet as Cacophony snickered. “Oh, your reactions to this will be good~! I can almost taste them!”
Natalie lit her new horn with indigo magic as her hair grew out pale blue with a silver streak down the middle. “You don’t know the half of it!!” An explosion went off, tearing the bars to bits- but the group was stopped from rushing forward by a force field.
Cacophony chided them as he shook his head with disappointment. “Oh, as if we didn’t expect the last of the Star clan to anthrofy. It was inevitable, really.” His grin grew as he turned his attention towards “Renddown”. “Wake her up, Jet! Time for the show to start!”
“Renddown”’s eyes fluttered open as Jet shook her slightly, and she held her head as Jet stepped away. “Slighthand” called out to her. “Don’t worry, Renddown! I’ll get us out of this mess somehow! I promise!”
Her eyes took a scan of the room as her hand fell away, and her fear started to melt away as a new look of… amusement took its place. She shook her head, and stretched a bit. “Oh, zip it. You still don’t get it, do you?” A magic aura lit up around her as her amused look became a smirk. “Maybe this will shed some light on the situation!” Then, the entire room went white as everyone attempted to shield their eyes.
Back with the others, Tirek scoffed as he dodged Alex’s attempt at fighting. “Please. Do you really think that wise?” Slowly, a grin grew upon his face. “Allow me to enlighten you as to how foolish you are!” He reached out and grabbed Alex by the tail, and held her up. Tirek smirked. “Your magic? MINE.” He opened his jaw, and started to drain Alex’s magic.
It was then that Ayumi attacked, forcing Tirek to stop mid-way. “Hey! Why don’t you tousle with somebody on your own level!”
Tirek snorted in irritation. “You dare cut off my feeding? Now you’re in for it. Sure, your friend still has some magic left… but you only served to get me mad.” He summoned magic between his horns, anger boiling. “You really should’ve quit while you were behind!”
The ball of magic fired out a beam, and Ayumi fired her magic back- but her s was slowly yielding to Tirek’s brute power. Twilight then stood at her side, and poured her magic into the attack as well, bolstering it. “You may be powerful Tirek, but in the end you are still alone! And nothing can stop those in the right when they work together!”
To compound her statement, her friends stepped forward, each aglow with a power that Tirek did not seem to understand at first. “What is the meaning of this? How is you magic getting stronger!?” But then, as Twilight and her friends took upon the Rainbow-esque look from the show, it clicked as a look of shock lit upon his face. “No! That isn’t possible! This is madness!”
The Rainbow power glowed brighter and stronger as Twilight linked hands with her five main friends. “No, Tirek. This is what the Magic of Friendship can do!” Acting all as one, they fired the blast of rainbow power, and watched as it encompassed Tirek.
He looked in horror as the power started to ebb out of him. “No! All of my power! All of my strength! It’s going away!”
It was at this point that somebody appeared in a puff of magic. It looked like Maestro, but… different. He shook his head. “Oh, Tirek. How the mighty have fallen!” He stretched out his hand, a grin on his face. “I’ll be taking that!” A wisp of orange energy flowed out from Tirek as his anthrofication was undone and Ramona slumped down. A grin spread across the face of the not-Maestro as he flexed his arm. “Ooh~! Drain magic. The fourth key.” He chuckled incessantly. “Now.” He turned towards the others, just as they were getting ready to square off against him. He yawned. “Oh, please.” He snapped his fingers, and all their wings and horns disappeared, and Alex’s magic was blocked. “You won’t be using that now. I’ve something to show you.” He lifted them into the air with his magic, and grinned. “Alley-oop!” They all vanished into a puff of dark turquoise magic.
Just as the light was fading, another Cacophony appeared, with the rest of the group in tow. He tossed them into the force field and gave them their magic and wings back. He chuckled. “Just in time.”
He merged into the first, and the light faded entirely. In the place of Renddown was a familiar, unwelcome face. “Starfall!?” “Slighthand” spoke in abject horror and shock. “Don’t tell me...!”
She cackled, doubling over slightly. “It seems that you finally get it!” She stood, a victorious smirk on her face. “I was the mole the entire time. Your precious “Renddown” is still back home where you left her, while I took her place to follow you! It really was quite simple to fool you…”
“Slighthand” cursed himself as Starfall laughed haughtily. Twilight turned to look at Maestro. “What’s going on here? Tell us the truth.”
Maestro sighed as he shook his head. “Nothing good. Cacophony’s gone awol, Starlight has ascended, and Starfall has just broken ‘Slighthand’’s spirit. I think that it’s about as bad as it gets…” He looked up, straight at Jet. “But then there’s you. I understand why you are doing this, truly I do. That’s why… I came to help you.”
Jet shook his head. “You cannot possibly fathom why I have sided with Starlight. I-”
Just then, a portion of the wall exploded. Out came another Maestro, holding an exhausted unicorn Trixie- the one from Equestria- and the Prism from Equestria. The other Maestro smirked. “Did you really forget that I can make doppelgängers? How sloppy are you?”
Jet was frozen stock still for a moment as Starlight started yelling. “Jet, Why did you fail to inform me of this power?” He did not respond, only going towards the pair in the Maestrogänger’s arms. She practically growled. “JET! Answer me!”
Jet chuckled. “Ace in the hole.” He took the two rescued in his grasp, and turned to look at Starlight. He took off his helmet, revealing that he too was a Maestro- though this one was clearly the one from Equestria. “I frankly don’t like you dragging me into this mess that you’ve made. It’s one thing to attack another reality. It’s another when you endanger those I care about. You almost twisted this world’s Maestro, until you took opportunity against me.” He lit his horn, and surged with power as the Maestrogänger went back into the Maestro behind the force field. “I am not to be trifled with. This world may have-”
It was then that he was interrupted, as a blast of magic struck him. Everybody saw Cacophony with a glare on his face. “Oh, Shut up. Go home.” He snapped his fingers, and a portal opened behind the second Maestro. Cacophony smirked. “After all. This isn’t your world. It’s MINE.” With a flick of his wrist, he forced the Maestro from Equestria through the portal with his passengers, and sealed it shut behind him.
Starlight turned to him, confused. “What did you do that for? We could have destroyed him! And what are you on about, your world? We had a deal!”
Cacophony chuckled, and shook his head. “Oh silly, naïve Starlight. Did you really think that you could pull one over on me?” He snapped his fingers, and suddenly Starlight found it impossible to move or use her magic. “You were lied to. This is my world, always has been. Ever since my daughter convinced you that she was yours, you’ve been listening to her guide you to this end.” He grinned at Starfall. “Now that’s what I call double-cross. Who’s daddy’s little girl?”
Surprise lit upon everybody’s faces, all except “Slighthand” and his entourage. He spoke grimly. “This is how it ends. At the hands of a madpony.”
To Be Concluded...