Protected by the shadows and the woods, Adagio and Ulysses were observing the Three Great Fairies Preparatory Academy.
“I can’t believe that, while the others are fighting at the war, we have to attack some little school” Ulysses said, grumpily. “I wanted to be at the battlefield, taking my revenge on that disgusting unicorn and that idiotic griffons who calls himself king.”
“Don’t get so touchy” Adagio said. “We have to do this. Don’t forget the children of some of the regents study there. If we get the school, we get the advantage over the Alliance, as Aspen’s son is one of the students… as well as King Gael’s and I also got to learn that Princess Gleaming Shield is also there. Don’t having your enemies’ children at your grasp count as revenge?"
That made an evil smile appear on Ulysses’ face and then he replied:
“I guess you’re right. But tell me, doesn’t our dear Moonlight go to this school? You must be feeling excited for seeing your dear sister after a while.”
Hearing him talking about Moonlight made Adagio feel some tightness in her heart. She was about to see the one that made her feel closer to goodness than anyone she knew, even Aria and Sonata.
“I just hope that affection you have for that half-thestral doesn’t affect our mission” Ulysses said in a provoking way.
Trying to ignore her feelings as much as she could, she replied with the same coldness that is normal to her.
“Of course not!” she exclaimed. “That stupid filly let herself be charmed by love. She’s a traitor and she needs to pay.”
“What a change!” Ulysses said. “And I was thinking you would ask me to spare her. Oh, well, let’s prepare ourselves. The raid is about to begin.”
At the academy, Moonlight was sitting at the window of her room, looking to the moon. She couldn’t stop thinking about the war, that if her parents were right or if Star was captured by the villains. That thought was immediately put away of her mind, as she knew that, if Star had been captured and had Nine-Tails extracted, Ten-Tails would already being destroying everything. She had to have hope that everything would end with a happy ending.
To distract herself from all of her problems, she started to sing.
It was a very beautiful song with the sea as the main set. It was obvious how much joy and tranquility that song transmitted. Her voice, that possessed the Thirteen Note, only spread those same feelings. When she ended, Moonlight could feel her spirit much lighter and she smiled.
“Wow!” a voice exclaimed.
She turned around and saw Galena inside, along with Gleaming Shield and a crystal earth filly with a grayish heliotrope coat with gold caduceus as Cutie Mark, a pale, light grayish arctic blue mane and moderate arctic blue eyes. Her name was Radiant Hope and was Gleaming’s best friend at her school at the Crystal Empire. According to Gleaming, she was also a prodigy like her.
“That was amazing, Moonlight!” Galena exclaimed.
“It was one of the most beautiful songs that I ever heard…” Gleaming Shield said.
“Indeed” Radiant Hope said. “I could feel the power, not only in your voice but also in the song itself. Where did you learn that?”
“Oh, well…” Moonlight said. “You see… It was song that came to me. I honestly don’t know where I heard it. It just came to me.”
“A song like that?” a voice said. “I doubt about that.”
They all turned and saw Sweetie Belle at the door with a smile. She had come along with her sister and niece to the academy to take refuge from the war.
“Sweetie Belle” the fillies and the griffon said.
“That song was made specifically for the ones with a powerful musical magic” Sweetie Belle said. “The fact that you can spread all that light with your Thirteenth Note only confirms it. I believe that you don’t want to tell us where you got it, probably because it’s very special to you. Am I wrong?”
Moonlight couldn’t believe that Sweetie Belle was able to say exactly what she felt about the song.
“How do you know that?” she asked.
“Ever since I got my cutie mark and get to know that I was a prodigy, I studied all about the Thirteenth Note with Melody” Sweetie Belle said, while getting to the inside and closing the door. “I got to know all of its nuances. That’s why I noticed the connection you have with that song.”
“I see…” Moonlight said. “It seems I still have a lot to learn.”
“Look, Moonlight, if that song it’s very special to you, then we won’t ask anything about where you learn it” Gleaming Shield said. “Right, girls?”
Galena and Radiant Hope nodded their heads with a smile.
“Thanks, my friends” Moonlight thanked, with a warm smile.
Sweetie Belle couldn’t help but feel happy to see such good friends. It made her remember the times when she was younger and played with her best friends.
It was then that something disrupted her thoughts. She could feel something bad approaching. Gleaming Shield noticed that and asked:
“What is it, Sweetie Belle?”
“Something is coming…” she replied. “Something… dark.”
And they heard a big bang, like lightning, coming from outside and hitting the school.
“What was that?!” Galena asked.
Outside, Ulysses was flying over the academy, while launching his lightning attacks, hitting it and damaging it.
“Oh, this is so much fun!” he exclaimed. “I love wrecking things with lightning.”
The three headmistresses appeared flying and then Knotgrass said:
“Stop that, villain!”
“We won’t let you harm our students and refugees” Merryweather added.
“Ah, why, don’t you try to stop me, your old hags with wings?” Ulysses provoked.
And a battle between the evil griffon and the three fairies began, with him firing his lightning and them using their magic.
“Oh no…” Moonlight said. “It’s Ulysses… He’s savage. If we don’t stop him…”
“But we will” Galena said. “Let’s go help the headmistresses!”
The other agreed and then got out of the room, but while they were advancing through the hallway, they found their path blocked by…
“Adagio?” Moonlight asked.
The siren was looking directly to Moonlight, saying then:
“Hello, Moonlight. I can see that we’re good. You even have new friends.”
“Get out of our way, siren” Sweetie Belle demanded. “You don’t want to face us.”
“You prodigies really think high about yourselves” Adagio said. “Well, I’m about to change that.”
The fight between the headmistress and Ulysses was still being very intense, but the fairies were able to gain the upper hand. Ulysses landed at the front courtyard, while the fairies descended.
“Give up, you can’t win” Thistlewit said.
“That’s what you think” Ulysses replied.
And he snapped his claws and then a group of dark ponies appeared. The fairies looked worried as probably they wouldn’t be able to stand against all those enemies.
“Now, who will win?” Ulysses asked, while laughing.
“Not ya” a voice replied.
And Jonagold, along with Bramble, Gunter and other students appear. Following them, were teachers and other staff and some of the refugees, like Rarity.
“How dare you to attack a place full of innocent foals?” Rarity asked. “That’s just unacceptable!”
“You may think that, just because my dad is at the war that you can invade this place like this, but you’re wrong” Bramble said. “You’ll regret that.”
“And then you’ll return to the cell where you shouldn’t have got out from” Gunter added.
Ulysses chuckled and then said:
“I would like to see any of you try. The only colt that was ever able to cause me any damage is not here to protect you. Do you really think you can defeat an army of dark ponies?”
“Ya better believe” Jonagold said. “We’ll protect this school with our lives and we will succeed.”
“We’re about to see that” Ulysses said, turning then to the dark ponies. “Attack!”
And the dark ponies advanced.
“Let’s go, guys!” Jonagold exclaimed.
And he and all the others advanced.
Inside, Adagio was still confronting Moonlight, Galena, Gleaming, Radiant Hope and Sweetie Belle.
“Please, Adagio, you don’t have to do this” Moonlight said.
“You’re wrong about that” Adagio said. “I have to. You betrayed the Lord of Chaos.”
“Moonlight, you won’t be able to convince her” Sweetie Belle said. “Sirens are servants of the Lord of Chaos, and they won’t stop being that.”
“I was once a siren as well” Moonlight remembered.
“Yes, but because she turned into one” Galena said, pointing to Adagio.
“Yes, you can’t trust in one” Gleaming Shield said.
“Right, because you know so much about sirens” Adagio said. “Well, my dear, you don’t know anything about my kind.”
“No, but I do” Moonlight said, advancing. “I was one, like I said. And I knew that, at the beginning, you were just using me. But I could tell, with time, that we made a connection. Have you forgotten about that time when I didn’t know if I would be able to hold on the darkness in my heart?”
Those words really affected Adagio, who was quick to say:
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do” Moonlight said.
And so she started to sing the same song she sang before. To the amazement of the others, tears started to appear on Adagio’s eyes. When Moonlight finished, she said to Adagio:
“This was the song you sang to me and it made me feel better. This the proof that even sirens can sing good songs.”
There was a pause where Moonlight approached Adagio and said:
“You can choose what you want to do. You don’t have to serve the Lord of Chaos when you still have goodness inside you. Please…”
A raging battle was happening inside Adagio, as she tried to decide what to do. On one side was her duty to the Lord of Chaos, but, on the other, she had the affection she had for Moonlight. But the latter was the one that eventually won, with a smile appearing on her face. Moonlight also smile and then the two shared a hug. When they ended, they heard the sound of the battle outside.
“Now that Adagio is apparently on our side, we just have to deal with Ulysses” Radiant Hope said.
“Not just him” Adagio said.
“What you mean with that?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Our mission was to secure the academy to have the advantage over the Alliance, beyond to just make Moonlight pay for her betrayal” Adagio replied. “We knew the headmistresses and the teachers could be a great obstacle, so we brought an army of dark ponies.”
“That’s bad” Gleaming Shield said. “Dark ponies are savage.”
“But the worst is not that” Adagio said. “Ulysses is much more powerful. He can even… destroy everything around him.”
At the entrance of the academy where the fight was happening, the dark ponies were defeated by the staff, students and refugees, but Ulysses couldn’t care, because he knew they couldn’t defeat and so, accessing to both his light and darkness, he summoned the blacklight nature and casted his Inducing Pain Spell, what caused everyone to fell on the ground with pain.
“Now, do you still think you can beat me!” he exclaimed to everyone.
And then he summoned his Warrior of Dark Light, which then regained musculature. Both fairies were shocked to see it, as they knew very well what it was.
“Let’s breaks some legs” Ulysses said, with darkness on his eyes.
But before he could do anything, a voice exclaimed:
“Stop this, Ulysses!”
He turned to the entrance of the academy and saw Adagio, along with the Moonlight and the others and said:
“Well, well, well, I knew you didn’t have to courage to finish one simple task. What did that half-thestral told you to make you betray our master? Did she remind you of the good times you both have together?”
Adagio advance towards him, while the others went to see if the others were okay, and said:
“Stop this madness. You know what will happen if you use the blacklight nature like that. Your body will not endure the pressure.”
“Like if you care what happens to me” Ulysses said. “Know, if you excuse, I have a job to do. Or rather, I have two, as you weren’t able to finish yours.”
And he turned to Moonlight, ready to use the Warrior of Dark Light, but Adagio put herself in front of him.
“No! I won’t let you.”
Ulysses didn’t like that affront, but then idea appeared in him.
“Very well… I have a better idea. I’ll show you a spell that the Lord of Chaos taught me. Maybe this will show you the true power.”
And then the Warrior of Dark Light just started to fell apart, with the musculature disappearing and then the skeleton, both being absorbed by the griffon and then a dark dome involved them. It was a dome made of thick darkness with lightning.
“What’s this?” Adagio asked.
“It’s called the Dome of Doom” Ulysses said. “One of the most powerful blacklight nature spell.”
And lightning hit Adagio, making her moan in pain. She could see that the same lightning was also hitting Ulysses, although he remained still with his smile. Adagio could see how much that spell was deteriorating him.
“And do you want to know the best part?” Ulysses asked. “You’re not the only one suffering damages.”
He was telling the truth, as dark lightning was getting out of the dome and causing destruction indiscriminately. All the ones who were present tried their best to not be hit.
“But what the hay is that thin’?” Jonagold asked.
“Everyone, don’t get close to that dome!” Knotgrass warned.
Moonlight was very worried for Adagio. She just hoped shed was okay.
Inside the dome, Adagio continued to try to make Ulysses to stop all that.
“Stop this, Ulysses! Don’t you see that this spell is consuming all your strength? You will perish and you’ll take everyone around with you!”
“I don’t care!” he replied. “You and all the other villains always made fun of me, thinking that I didn’t have what it takes to be a servant of the Lord of Chaos. But now, I will make a scar on the Enchanted Forest that it won’t disappear, taking with me traitors, fairies, prodigies and so much more…”
“No, I won’t let you…” Adagio, trying to get up.
But the dome electrified her, making her fell on the ground again.
“You can’t stop me” Ulysses said. “NO ONE CAN!”
The intensity of the dome increased, with the lightning causing even more damages. The headmistresses made most of the present to the inside of academy.
“What is happening in there?” Galena asked.
“Don’t tell us Adagio was defeated” Radiant Hope said.
Moonlight couldn’t believe that. She knew that wasn’t truth. That dome could have separated them, but she knew something that would be able to reach Adagio. And so she started to sing their song, the one she taught her and now she sang to feel herself good.
“Moonlight…” Gleaming Shield said.
“Why are you…” Galena asked.
But Sweetie Belle and Radiant Hope, who could feel Moonlight’s feeling through her Thirteenth Note, knew what she was trying to do and then joined her with their voices. Their power combined was able to break through and their started to be heard inside. Listening that, Ulysses chuckled and then said:
“Those fouls really think their voices will stop me? Pathetic…”
But that song was not intended to affect him, but to encourage Adagio. Feeling that, Adagio said:
“Everyone…”
And she looked to her pendant. That object made her voice always powerful, but only to hurt others to do the Lord of Chaos’ bidding. It was time to use it in the right way. She then got up and started to sing with Moonlight, Sweetie Belle and Radiant Hope.
“What the…” Ulysses started.
It was then that he started to feel pain in his head due to the effects of the combined voices, what led him to take his talons to his ears.
“Adagio… stop!”
But she didn’t. She continued to sing. She would make what she should have done with her voice long time ago, starting by saving Ulysses from himself.
“Stop singing!” he continued to exclaimed.
When the song ended, Adagio knew what she had to do and asked:
“Lord of Order, I beg you! Please, save Ulysses’ soul!”
Answering to her call, a very bright and warm light appeared and it made all the blacklight to disappear, including the dome.
“Adagio!” Moonlight exclaimed, going to her followed by Sweetie Belle and Radiant Hope. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, thanks to you” Adagio said to the three.
They then turned to Ulysses who, recovering from all the pain, said:
“You’ll pay for this…”
He tried to use his blacklight nature, but then he noticed he couldn’t use it.
“What… I can’t use my blacklight nature? Why?!”
“Because I’m preventing you from accessing to it” a voice replied.
And, from the light, the Lord of Order appeared. Everyone present became astonished and bowed before him. Ulysses tried to attack him, but the pain assaulted him, preventing him from moving.
“You better stay still” the Lord of Order told to the griffon. “That blacklight really caused you a lot of damages.”
He then turned to Adagio and said to her:
“Adagio… No time no see.”
“My lord, I… I don’t know what to say. I’m sorry for everything I have done. I was blind.”
“Yes, you were” the Lord of Order said.
“Wait, what are you talking about?” Moonlight asked.
“It’s time for all of you to know everything about the sirens” the Lord of Order said. “Everyone knows that the Pony Reality is made with realms, each one different from each other in a way and all separated, with the exception of the Pony World and the Enchanted Forest. But there are a few realms that serve to connect all the others, like the Dream World and the Mirror Realm. Another one is the realm that connects all the realms of the Pony Reality only through the oceans. I’m talking about the Sparkling Ocean.”
“That is my home realm…” Adagio said.
“The Sparkling Ocean is inhabited by a great variety of creatures, including the seaponies, who dominate the ocean in the same way ponies dominate the land” the Lord of Orders continued. “Between them, seven mermares stood out from the others because they possessed the power of the Thirteenth note, just like the Prodigies, whose power was given to them by powerful pearls. With their power, they evolved and became beautiful creatures. In a way, they became guardians of peace and tranquility. They started to be known as sirens. The sirens took great pride of their voices, but soon they became overconfident and then arrogant. They started to use their voices to make others to bow before their will. That forced me to take action and so I sent Melody, the General of Music, to deal with them. She, with her magic, took the pearls from the sirens and then turned them back to their former forms, all except three, who escaped and started to serve my brother in exchange from magic pendants that gave them back their voices to spread disharmony. The rest you already know. But today, I could witness three brave Prodigies who deserve their actions rewarded.”
And, before Moonlight, Sweetie Belle and Radiant Hope appeared three pearls: pink, green and blue respectively.
“These are three of the pearls I told you about… and now they belong to you, so you can spread the light of your voices with everyone.”
And lockets with the shape of shells appeared, each one with the color of one of the pearls, opening and making the pearls be placed inside. Their new owners took them and then thanked, while putting the lockets:
“Thank you, my lord.”
He then turned to Adagio and then made a gesture, making an orange pearl appear, along with its respective locket.
“But… that’s my pearl. My lord… are you sure?”
“You have shown sincere change in your heart Adagio” he replied. “Furthermore, didn’t you ask for salvation to anyone? Well, I think only you can do that.”
Understanding his words, Adagio took out the pendant, smaching it with the hoof, and then she took the locked and put it, then turning to Ulysses, who was still recovering. She would save him in the same way she used to.
And so she, along with Moonlight, Sweetie Belle and Radiant Hope started to sing a special song that their pearls gave them.
That song was obviously having effect on Ulysses, but the pain he was feeling was not physical. It was the light trying to get inside his heart and he being resisting it. He tried to cover his ears, but that didn’t work, on the contrary, in only gave him more pain. The pain was such that he was brought to his knees, giving up resisting.
They finished and the Adagio said:
“Ulysses…”
“I can’t believe…” he said. “I don’t have any power left…”
“But instead it was given to you another chance” the Lord of Order said. “Although, I don’t know if after everything you did…”
“My lord, I have an idea” Adagio said. “You could send Ulysses to a place where he could start over and I could go with him to guide him.”
The Lord of Order thought about that and then replied:
“That’s a good idea, Adagio. And also it’s a better way to ensure your change. Very well, I’ll do that.”
Adagio turned to Moonlight and then told her:
“Be careful, the Lord of Chaos doesn’t accept betrayals. He may come for you again.”
“Don’t worry, I will” Moonlight said. “Good luck.”
Adagio smiled to her and then she went to Ulysses’ side and then the Lord of Order extended his hand and they were involved by light and disappeared.
Moonlight was happy that Adagio was finally free from the Lord of Chaos. But, with that worry now down, she couldn’t stop thinking about Star and her parents. She just hoped they were okay.