//------------------------------// // Alicorns // Story: PONY POV SERIES SEASON 8: FINALE! // by Alex Warlorn //------------------------------// (Battle Log of Her Kindesty, Princess Gaia): Oh, no no! Just Fluttershy Breeze, please! (Interviewer's Note: (Unicorn) Huh?! Oh, alright.) (Battle Log, Fluttershy Breeze): Much better. (Interviewer's Note (Pegasus): Any object to 'battle?') Uh, no, but maybe you could think up a different term than "log," the trees might find that- (Interviewer's Note: (Pegasus): ...Offensive? Seriously?! Oh for the love of Mom… FINE!) (Battle Record, Fluttershy Breeze): Wait wait wait! I was joking! Twilight says that joking during a fight can help make things less tense! I was just trying to help! Please don't be angry! (Interviewer's Note: (Pegasus): ...Sometimes it's hard to tell with you.) It is? I'm sorry. You don't need to bend over backwards for me. I'll admit I was trying to learn from Rainbow Dash, I guess I didn't learn so well. (Interviewer's Note: (Pegasus): Oh... It's alright 'Shy.) 'Mom! Get yer head back in the fight before you lose it!' Oh dear! My harmony armor took the hit from Griffcord, so I'm not actually hurt. Griffcord swooped down on me, claws extended. The same way Gilda's ancestors used to prey on my people, in ancient times. I felt fear, but I was used to that. Fear was familiar. I could deal with fear. Was Gilda angry all the time because anger is the only thing she knows? 'MOM!' EEP! Fold my wings and use my armor? Grow plants as a shield? Summon a puppet as a blocker?! Which should I do?! 'Agh!' Fluttercruel manifested on top of me. Even though she was still just a foal, my baby leapt straight up and bucked Griffcord with divine strength, using his own momentum to gut-punch him harder. He wheezed and swore, quickly flapping back up. "YOU LITTLE BRAT!" He wildly clawed at her. Miraculously, she managed to dodge the flurry of talons. "RESPECT YOUR FATHER/BROTHER/COUSIN/THING!" "Buck you!" I managed to conjure a mass of pink flowers in Griffcord's face with my horn, a sweet harp chord playing as the flowers hit. I also summoned a bar of soap and stuffed it in my foal's mouth. I used up most of my power to time-out the bad puppets and shadows, but I can still fight! "Get back inside mommy at once, young mare!" That's a phrase I don't think any parent outside of a kangaroo ever thought they'd say. Fluttercruel and the bar of soap vanished. Griffcord clawed the flowers to shreds. Performing magic was a lot easier with the Elder Horn. "Face it, dweeb! You're a wimp and-" "And my friends accept me for who I am." Discord hadn't been able to turn me against my friends without cheating before, and a part of him couldn't do so now. Am I proud of that? To a certain extent, yes. But it's just the way I am, and I'm happy to have friends who DO accept me without judgement. What I'm truly proud of already punched him in the stomach. Griffcord hissed like a cat. "At least TRY to make this fun, loser!" "You're trying to hurt me and my filly," I said in my best 'stern mother' voice. "You call that fun? You should be ashamed of yourself." Griffcord roared in my face. I won't pretend that it didn't make me think of Gilda's terrible fury. I'm forced to dance backward as his beak, claws, tail, and wings all come down on me. Claws reaching for my eyes, beak snapping at my flesh, tail whipping at my side, wings striking like hammer blows... I have to pirouette through all of them. "Pfft, what was that? A goddess in divine armor, and you still fight like a foal. Yer worse than weak or helpless; yer pathetic!" The world warped around him, making him seem bigger, looming over me. "Your friends aren't here to fight your battles for you, loser. Heck, since you're 'the nice one,' maybe you should do something super-nice and just curl up and die." "I won't give up! My friends need me!" "And I'm here too, jackass!" My foal took control of our body, and in the middle of the storm she struck him hard in the chest, sending him skidding back so hard, his claws dug furrows in the ground. "First I'm gonna make you eat those words, and then I'm gonna make you eat your beak!" Griffcord clutched his chest and rolled his eyes. "She's using you, kiddo. Your mom's a coward that needs other people to fight her battles for her, her own foal no less! A real mom would do as the bears do and fight me herself… oh wait, she can't! She doesn't believe in violence!" "You think you can guilt trip Mom into throwing away my help?! I chose to help!" "Fluttercruel, let Mommy handle this." "Mom! Don't let him play you!" "I can feel the armor itch when you're wearing it, dear. You might be having an allergic reaction. I wouldn't be a good mother if I let you continue." "Mom! He just wants you to use up what mana you have left so you won't have any to fight the real Discord! I have plenty of fight left in me!" "If that's how you feel, kiddo. Come on, brat! Charge me! I'm the part of Discord that doesn't care about your mother or you! Let all that rage out! All that hate! My little spirit of tribalism, of 'us vs them'! Release the beast! Come at me without a hint of guilt!" "I don't feel guilty about punching out ANY part of you!" Fluttercruel snarled. She begins to leap at him to tear him and his grinning beak to shreds, but I force her back. "Come on!" he crowed. "Use what the old man gave you and let's really throw down! Or are ya chicken!?" "Dear. Don't. Now you're the one he's playing. He wants you to act reckless. Mommy will think of something. Mommy has plenty of experience with bullies." "Yes," he sniggered. "You've always had the perfect strategy: 'When bullied, hide behind Rainbow Dash.' Too bad she's preoccupied! Oh, and here's a thought… she probably wouldn't even if she could! I mean, how much does she really trust you, if she thought you could have become Nightmare Whisper again? Go ahead and tell me I'm wrong, princess. Let's hear about loyalty and friendship and all that crap." ... I'll admit, that did hurt a little. My friends should have known I wasn't Nightmare Whisper, if only because my cutie mark colors weren't inverted. "BUT AT LEAST WHEN YOU WERE NIGHTMARE WHISPER YOU ACTUALLY HAD THE GUTS TO FIGHT FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVED IN! YOU'RE MORE PATHETIC THAN POSEY, BRIGHT-EYES, AND ZIPZEE PUT TOGETHER! THEY NEVER HAD OTHERS DO THEIR FIGHTING FOR THEM! YOU HAVE SUCH HIGH BELIEFS BUT AREN'T WILLING TO GET YOUR HOOVES DIRTY! TYPICAL PONY HYPOCRISY!" The entire closed in space echoed his words, his spittle flying. I steeled myself. I'd be lying if I claimed everything he said wasn't like one knife in my body after another, but I knew better than to let a bully know he was getting to me. "I stopped pushing away Flutterage a long time ago. I learned that I don't need to keep her separate from me. And I learned that I don't need to be a bully to stand up to bullies like you." "Ooh, great plan! Turn the other cheek so bullies can slap that one too. The problem with pacifism is, all it does is encourage evil. Ask your brat. Go ahead Cruelty, tell me I'm wrong. I'll even let you sucker punch me and win this fight right now if you don't agree with me, Fluttercruel." My baby said nothing. "There are ways to resist evil that don't involve violence," I said with my best calm voice. "Pfft! Typical pony 'I'll find the third option!' You should know better than anypony that if you chase two rabbits, you'll lose both! Even your puppets are just you passing the buck on fighting duties. Most cowards are at least honest with themselves." He began to prowl around us, moving like a big cat, tall grass growing wherever he put down his paws. He eyed me like I was a field mouse. I kept my breathing even, trying to ignore the pounding of my heart. "I wouldn't have unsealed the Alicorn if I wasn't going to do anything." "You were just more scared of feeling guilty than of having your toys do the fighting for you." "I was afraid of my friends dying, because I could have helped them but chose not to! They're not just shields for me to hide behind!" I said, letting him get to me. "Could've fooled me! Ponies say friends give you strength. Greatest strength, greatest weakness!" Wait, that voice was… directly behind me! He sprang out of the tall grass. I dove to the side. His pounce missed me, but his tail whipped me in the face. He spun around, claws and beak bared, and leapt at my throat! I ducked and rolled again, and he sailed over me, back into the tall grass. I stood up, my ears flicking about, my nostrils trying to catch his scent, my eyes scanning every direction. I started trotting, trying not to be an easy target again. "I can't hide what I am. I had a crisis and I took the easy way out, and now I have to live with that. I'm Kindness, so it's my duty to stand up to bullies. That's what I believe. I must protect the peace so ponies can continue to be kind to one another. Kindness doesn't rush in to solve violence with violence." "You have so many fears, I guess you must be SO GRATEFUL that it wasn't Dragocord you ended up fighting. Now instead Spike'll get stomped into paste by one of his own kind. Won't that be a kick?! Ha ha!" I came to a stop, smiling as I lit my horn. "You made a mistake filling this spot with so much tall grass." Instantly, the grass came alive. One patch snared a griffon-shaped mass. The more he struggled, the tighter the grass wrapped around him, until he looked like a green mummy, tucked in nice and tight like a bug in a rug. A lion's roar shook me to my bones. Normally, I had no problem with wild beasts roaring. Griffcord's beak was wrapped up like the rest of him, but he managed to mutter, "Hear that, you namby pamby excuse for a princess? Even Twilight's having a hard time. The rest of your pals are gonna get creamed. Nobody's coming to save you." And that broke my concentration, just for a moment, but that was all he needed to break free and lunge at me again. I turned my head, and the claws came down on the piece of my chamfron where my Element of Kindness was embedded. Griffcord sprang away when his claw tips touched it, his talons smoking like they'd been lit on fire. "Yeeowch!" he hissed, poor thing scuffing his claws in the mud. "Must feel real good, eh, nag? Getting to pay back a griffon?" "I've never wanted revenge on Gilda, and I don't hate all griffons. She shouted at me. I'm not so naive or thin-skinned as to think that makes her the worst meanie in the world." "Mom... all this talking and playing games with us... he's trying to make us run out the spell keeping Discord's magic sealed... We can't waste time." "So we'd best spend it carefully instead of squandering it recklessly." "... So the plants are on your side, huh? Let's see how you like Ponigypt's scorching sands instead!" I felt bewildered for a moment. "Um... You're a griffon, not a sphinx. And most of Discord's magic is sealed." A spiral of hot sand began rise up from underneath Grifcord. He smirked. "So? Griffons and sphinxes share a blood history." He flew suddenly, launched into the air by a tidal wave of sand. I was swept away, tumbling in every direction, and then all was still and black. '... m.....' '.... om.... M....' 'Mom.... mom ... -ear me... can you... ' 'Mom! Mom! Can you hear me?' "Fluttercruel?" I tried to say, but gagged in the darkness. Grains of sand packed in my mouth. Waking up, I felt the crushing weight of sand on top of me, feeling like it wanted nothing more but to mash me into paste if not for my armor's polite objections. I'm a goddess right now, do I still need to breathe? I don't wanna find out! 'Fluttercruel,' I thought hard back at her. 'I'm awake! I don't think anything is broken. How long was I out?' 'Not long! But I can't manifest, I was about to take over.' "Fluttershy? Ohhhh Fluttershy?" I heard Griffcord's muffled voice from above as he stomped along on the surface, the Earth Pony in me feeling everything. "Where are you? I don't see your pathetic mug anywhere. What a great chance for you to ambush me!" he cooed. I felt Fluttercruel tense. "Nah, I'm totally pulling your leg! HAHAH! I can smell your blood! Stay right there, and I'll dig you out just enough so I can peel back that canned meat, and we can have a dinner date! Or dig yourself out, I won't pass up an easy meal! So which way, Fluttershy? Fast or slow? Haha! Choosy Woozy, Flutter-butter!" My throat tightened, my heart raced. The sense of helplessness was horrible. I was a rabbit cornered by wolves. I was like Daring Do in one of Rainbow Dash's books, except there was no convenient flaw for me to use to escape. Daring Do… Those books are a little scary, so I don't read them nearly as often as Rainbow Dash does, but I remember Rainbow talked about 'dry quicksand' in one book. Fine sand, combined with air, creates sand that'll make anything heavy on top fall right through. But did I even have enough air to pull that off? And I can't move my wings, and I've never been that good with pegasus magic... I really, really wish I had the Elder Horn right now. 'And I wish we had a ray-gun to vaporize this jerk into a puff of soot, mom, but we don't! Focus on what we can do!' 'Alright dear... here goes everything.' My horn glowed. Just beneath the surface, the grains of sand began to swirl with the color of my magic. = Sentou Danji ~Kitae yo Katsu Tame ni~ - G-Gundam = Suddenly, the confidently strutting Griffcord yelped and sank into the sand, flapping his wings madly to get out, while I flew up out of the sand, gasping for air and flapping as high as the walls of black wind would let me go. Griffcord pulled himself free and flew at me, claws bared and screeching. I lock eyes on him, staring into the place where his heart should be. "DID YOU REALLY THINK THE STARE WOULD WORK ON ME?!" I duck and let myself fall as he flew at me, missing me by inches. "Sorry! It was worth a shot." He banked and dove after me. "I'm not the part of Discord that can feel sorry!" "So there is one?" "Shuddup!" I pulled out of my own dive and flew low over the sand. I could only focus on flying well when I had to protect somepony else, and I'd had a year of experience flying for two! Griffcord landed hard, screeching. He flapped his wings in a blur, and I was blinded by a sandstorm. "Fear the unseen much, Fluttershy?" mocked Griffcord. His voice came from everywhere at once in the sandy winds. "Oh right, of course you are. You're scared of everything!" I braced myself for another charge, but he dropped on me from above instead! I felt his claws digging into the unprotected parts of my wings. His weight pushed me down into the ground, the sand now acting like hard ground. "I take back what I said before! Go ahead! Let Cruelty out! Maybe I'll gobble her up instead and let you go! You're running on fumes, 'goddess.' You must have used up, what, over half of your magic to do that trick with your toys! You're a such sorry excuse for a deity, I pity those swearing by you!" He shoved me harder into the ground. "I've only got a tenth of Discord's power, and that's still plenty enough to crush you!" To my sides, two giant stone minotaur hands slammed together, rising from the sand like a basalt mousetrap, looking like they were praying. Griffcord was sandwiched in the middle, and I was in the little arch. "Looks like you're the one who got crushed," Fluttercruel said through my mouth. "No, it's not over yet," I said. The stone hands began to tremble, cracking, then exploding as Griffcord forced his way out. His fur and feathers were quite ruffled. He also looked like he really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, disliked me. "GAUGH! I'm going to rip away that veneer of love and gentleness, and show you the panicking sobbing wreck inside who doesn't know how to fight back!" The shrieking thing stood on all fours, fur and feathers flaring up, bigger and bigger, his shadow falling over me. "Fluttershy! Fluttershy! Fluttershy can hardly fly!" I could make out eyes and faces in the sandy wind. That mocking, jeering laughter. 'Don't buy it, Mom! It's just cheap tricks!' "No no no! Anything but that! Please anything but that again! Please! No more flight school! Mommy, I wanna leave this horrible place! PROTECT ME, DASHIE!" I shouted tearfully. Trotting backward, I folded my wings against me tight, hiding my face behind my mane. Griffcord stomped closer, his beak grinning. "That's it, you stupid nag, you're not in charge here, I am. You don't call the shots, I do. You don't decide what happens next, I do. You're not the boss, I AM!" 'Mom! Let me take control! Let me help! You can't let him do this! Please! You're stronger than this!' "I-I'm s-sorry, Fluttercruel, I-I'm no good as a goddess, and ... and I can't protect you from him, I'm sorry!" The last word came out as just a pitiful squeak. Griffcord laughed. I smelled gumballs and sawdust on his breath. "Too bad sorry ain't gonna cut it!" Sand swirled around his claws, forming into a jagged spear with four edges like a compass. "But don't worry, you're not gonna have to worry about a thing ever again!" He reared up... I flapped my wings hard, throwing sand right in his face. Two vines shot out of the ground, wrapping around the spear and tearing it from his claws. With my horn glowing hot, I slammed it down on his head, breaking the sand spear in two, and it dissolved. 'Whoa!! Way to go, Mom!' I stood as tall and regal as I could, and spoke as a princess should, "My friends and family call me Fluttershy. Everypony else calls me Fluttershy Breeze. You shall call me Princess Gaia." = 'It Has to Be This Way' - Metal Gear Rising Revengeance = "Ah screw it, just disappear!" In a flash, Griffcord conjured up a pair of repeater crossbows and fired them with abandon, the ammunition being replaced as fast as he spent it. Again I danced, the bolts whizzing past me. "Will you friggin' die already?!" I moved with the wind, putting more and more distance between me and Griffcord, but the walls of black wind made it impossible for me to keep backing up forever, and Griffcord began closing in, never ceasing his fire. My horn glowed. Fog began to rise from the sand. I formed a flock of flying turtle constructs, yellow with pink shells and empty blue eyes. The bolts were embedded or flicked off. I felt everything they felt. "Cowards! Stop hiding and die!" "It's true what they say, isn't it, Griffcord?" I formed a yellow bull construct with pink hooves, which bellowed and charged. "Violence breeds violence." He flew up over it. "MORON! WINGS, REMEMBER?" I'll admit, I was thinking in ground terms. Still wasn't used to flying a lot. I conjured more flying turtles, and formed four rabbit constructs, making them hop from turtle to turtle towards Griffcord. He shot my rabbits down, and I groaned and clutched my chest, feeling their pain. Still, I recalled the magic that made them, and the bull too when it fell. I had to conserve every scrap of magic I could. I flew around him, my turtles blocking his shots and his view, so he didn't notice me shape a teenage drakaina out of the growing fog... not until she tackled and bear hugged him from behind, dragging him back into the fog with her. - Galaxy, Twilight The First, Mimic, Surprise, Firefly, Wind Whistler, Posey, Applejack, Shady, and little Lulu and Little Celly formed from the fog, smiling at him. "Come on, Dissy! Let's play!" Celly quipped. The construct of little Celestia was hit with a bolt between the eyes, along with the other constructs who dissolved back into fog. - "Buck you, and buck all that cutesy crap! I AM NOT THAT PART OF DISCORD!" I wondered what he had seen in my fog. He then grew and grew and grew until he barely fit inside the confines of the barrier. He snatched the teenage drakaina construct and pinned her to the ground. "You want it like that, huh?" He ground her into the sand beneath a massive paw. "Suffer!" I recalled the magic the construct was made of. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" I summoned a giant construct of Angel Bunny, who took up what space was left in our confines. Griffcord was gobsmacked, then pointing and laughing his head off. "A rabbit? Hahaha! You're gonna fight me with a rabbit?!" "Maybe now you'll understand that kindness isn't weak!" I shouted as dramatically as I could. 'Angel' began pummeling the giant griffin, forcing him back and kicking him and again and again. Then my Angel construct punched the giant Griffcord, but he caught the punch, then snarled and punched back, slamming the giant rabbit up against the wall. "No you don't! What did I tell you? I'm in charge here!" I quickly recalled the magic, and summoned a giant Zecora instead. "Does this mean I get to trash more of your pals and make you watch? Fine by me!" The giant yellow and pink Zecora leapt at him with Capoeira-style fighting moves, but Griffcord laughed in her face, catching her attacks and systematically breaking her bones with barely any effort. In the real world, my daughter stared at a normal-sized griffon, half-buried in a pile of colorful animal friends. 'Mom... why is he laughing while all your constructs are hugging him like that?' I could feel her smirk as she began to understand. ‘Moooom? What did you do?' 'He's just having the time of his life, dear,' I said, looking at his swirling colorful eyes. There was clapping behind us. "Well done Fluttershy... well done," said Discord in a praising voice that was not insincere. "More than anyone else, I was certain you'd come out on top." I kept one eye on Griffcord and the other on Discord. "He could have seriously hurt me and Fluttercruel, Discord. Don't you care?" He actually seemed confused. "What? I had complete confidence in you! Do you really think I'd put Cruelty in that kind of danger if I thought she'd be never heard from again?" "Yes!" She hissed. "Well, I wouldn't!" He stuck up his nose. "And you should think better of your father, dear!" "If anything, I think worse of you now, and I didn't even know I could!" "Seriously, I say that I knew that the two of you would be able to defeat a powerful aspect of me, and all I get is a brow beat? What do I need to do to get a positive reaction?" "How about destroy yourself?" "Wouldn't you rather do the deed yourself?" "Mom wouldn't let me." "And I wouldn't let you destroy yourself, Discord! You don't get to run away from your problems." "Fluttershy, I always get what I want." "No, he doesn't." Diamond Tiara interrupted. "That's the problem." "At any rate... congratulations, Fluttershy. You were able to beat my games without even trying before, and you've managed to beat the part of me that enjoys seeing mortals squirm." "You don't need to take him back," I said. "Actually, I do. He's part of me and he needs to go back where he belongs. Isn't that what Celly told her little ponies, after all the naughty things you did with such good intentions?" I appreciate him not bringing it up directly. Griffcord began to turn random patches of color, then became a mass of sparkles that flew and were reabsorbed by Discord. My animal constructs fell in a heap. I recalled the magic that made them up and dismissed the fog. I was... I was very drained. I wasn't sure if I had even one tenth of my mana reserves left. Discord snapped his fingers. Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes, her horn glowed, and the barrier of black wind around me in particular vanished. "I say again, Fluttershy, I knew you could do it, congratulations." +++ Her Dayjesty, Princess Celestia's word. I'm here to protect you, my little ponies. But the Nightfilly's barrier has trapped me with Discord's 'Quetzalcord' Detachment. I'd brute force my way through, but even in my ancient war barding, I dare not turn my back on a foe like Quetzalcord. "Ye'th, art'th bluffin'th, ye'th wouldn't'th unleash'ith the power'th of art sun'th, with thine pets and playthings nearby." It's right. But I don't give it the satisfaction of answering. I dare not use my full power with my ponies nearby, since I don't know how much of the blast the Nightfilly's barrier would absorb. It's not right of how I see my little ponies. My pet is protecting Canterlot. "The Greatest and So-Much-Better-Looking Discord wish'th to sayth that ye must be relieved that thine lie of Nightmare Whisper has'th been'th revealed'th, so'th none'th now'th blame'th ye for'th her'th sins... but what be of ye own'th sins? Strange'th how thin sycophants' yapping changed'th not'th with this reveal'th." Because I am such a practiced princess, I am able to just roll my eyes at all his ‘-th'-ing, instead of expressing my ire verbally and physically. Also, was Discord really this out of new material that he was going to try this again? Or did he simply miss that I'd overcome that, and accepted that I was feared and loved. "Forgive me if we skip the formalities, and finish this farce," I said coldly. I wanted to save Dissy, but this wasn't Dissy, this was a vile mockery of my family begotten from Discord's essence. The mock-Quetzalcoatl stretched out its wings and tail, and was engulfed in flames. "As thou wish'th!" The blazing Detachment grew in size and mass, its shape changing into something equine with wings and a horn. What I came face to face with was something I was very familiar with indeed. She was me... her coat with a hot orange tint, her barding far more ornamental and intricate than my own, her eyes like draconic burning coals. Her mane and tail a bright golden blaze and her teeth sharp like a siren's. Her cutie mark was yellow rays around an orange sun. "I am the shadow, the true self!" I snorted and pawed the ground, spreading out my wings and floating upwards, ready to annihilate this thing. "Is that the best you can do? I've had to look you in the face every night, since I remembered my divine life." I'm bluffing. The sight of her disturbs me greatly. I'm always afraid I'm one horrible loss away from becoming Nightmare Daybreaker. Fear is healthy, and this is one fear I've learned to live with. "That so?" She turned to flames again, becoming another blazing Nightmare like my own but very different: more consuming, more wild, her barding more risqué. I did not know its title... but I know who she is. "What legacy have you made for yourself… Mother?" I cringe. I know it's a performance by a piece of Discord, but it's unpleasant all the same. I shake my head. "I know I failed you, Sunset! That pain isn't going to go away with one brave speech in the middle of a battle, but I will not fail myself, not here and not ever again!" I blasted the imitation, heat radiating from my body. The faux Quetzalcoatl didn't expect me to go on the offensive with the psychological stage of our fight still ongoing. My beam burned a hole through the fake, which then screamed, "Mother, why!?" I hide any reaction I have from the vision taken from my worst fears. It turned to flames again to survive as I swung upward to bisect it. I could have absorbed the flames, but I didn't want to risk infecting myself somehow with Discord's essence. Fire still needs air to burn, though, and I conjured up flames of my own, eating up the precious oxygen around it. The thing turned solid again... and this time I couldn't hide my gasp or my stammer. It was my precious Twilight Sparkle as the Alicorn I knew she could become, but dark and twisted. I saw the draconic eyes ringed with flame, the inverted cutie mark of Twilight Sparkle's Nightmare. I won't lie and say it didn't hurt more to see a vision of Twilight like this. Maybe because a part of me has reached a sad acceptance of the road Sunset was on when she left, knowing that she probably still resents me even now. I put on my bravest and most confident 'Invincible Sun' face. "A poor attempt! I've already seen, this very hour, my student defeat this possibility! I trust in her and her friends!" Then the thing shifted into a half-and-half bisected fusion of the Nightmares of both my students, a split image glued together. "This is your legacy, Mother! All you do is create Nightmares! You're like any god who tries to help, all you do, all you will do, all you can possibly do, is make things worse! You should just bury yourself inside an asteroid some-!" I blasted the thing again, this time square in the face. "You're not the only one weary of the same old rambling, Dissy," I said matter-of-factly as it turned into flames once more, returning to the faux Quetzalcoatl. "My love for my students surpasses my shame." I formed gold chains around the faux Quetzalcoatl and began punching it in the face with a conjured white and gold gauntlet. "My sins will never vanish, but the light and warmth I've given to countless civilizations and the inspiration and love I've given my ponies surpasses them all." Quetzalcord shed his skin and slithered out of the chains. "I admit, we were a lot alike in the early days; a pair of rebellious teenager deities. But I grew up." I brought the hoof-gauntlet down on the snake's head in a mighty stomp. "Blasphemy! Ye shall pay'th for-" "The only blasphemy here is you." "Ye dare interrupt-" "I'll interrupt you as I please. This my home. My kingdom. My herd." Quetzalcord grew to twice the size he was before, his tail splitting into a bouquet of snake heads with a rainbow mane and blue feathery wings. His wings multiplied, shimmering. "For'th thine crimes'th! Thine only'th redemption'th is'th-" "To live the best life I can, helping others, day by day." (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Celestia, Princess, will you be alright?) Absolutely. Do not worry, dears, please focus on my sister and little ponies... this won't take long. This is no boast, this is fact. (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Alright, Princess, I trust you.) = Sorairo Days - Gurren Lagann = I dissolve into a mass of light, transforming into a large white snake with feathery pearl wings, and a mane with the flowing colors that are uniquely my own. "Ye mock our light!" As a proper Quetzalcoatl, I speak, "The gods' light guides, our light guards, our light enlightens. It doesn't mislead or enslave, and most certainly does not blind. You're a mockery invented by an impertinent child." "Ye're'th the'th child'th!" I smirk. "Come, Discord, since when have either of us ever been afraid of being childish?" "Taste'th our'th wrath'th'th'th!!!" It lisped furiously. Lasers shot out of the nest of snakes' mouths and the main head. I slithered and twisted among the net even as they tried to close it in around me, moving like lightning. "No, taste Mine!" I condensed the light around me into a buzzsaw shape and send it spinning, cutting off several heads at once. Naturally, several grew back to take their place. Or would have, if I hadn't blasted and cauterized the stumps with good old reliable fireballs. It summoned six giant swords, one behind each wing like giant feathers. The swords tried to cut me to ribbons from multiple angles, but they were so huge in comparison to me they merely got in each other's way, clanging and throwing sparks. They then began to spin like propellers, lining up to grind me like a sausage. I merely flew up parallel to them, conjuring six golden sword hilts of my own with violet flames for blades, which sliced through Quetzalcord's swords like hot knives through wax. The broken pieces dissolved into light. The fake Quetzalcoatl snarled, conjuring forty-nine floating crystal balls around me in a great spherical formation. They glowed, and less than a moment later, laser beams shot directly at me from 49 different angles at once. I simply teleported out of the center. The spheres quickly spun, tracking me, but now they were no longer coming at me from all angles. I summoned The Mirror. The beams didn't damage it at all, and the concentrated reflected laser fire made short work of Quetzalcord's crystal balls, the leftover force striking him hard! The deed done, I dismissed The Mirror. I doubt Discord's Mother would appreciate me using her 'gift' as a weapon against her own. Quetzalcord let out a frustrated hiss. Our arena practically filled with replicating crystal balls this time, too many to count, but I had a strange hunch there were 490 of them. I don't let any of the worry or fear I'm feeling show on my face. I reach inside, thinking of what Discord has done, and all that he could do to my beloved ponies, and the friend I lost. I grasp that anger, shape and mold it like iron in a forge, to protect those I loved. My eyes turn molten red with green pupils and yellow flames streaming from the corners. White crystals burst from the ground around me like a sprung trap, just in time to catch the apocalyptic laser barrage. The beams hit, were reflected and refracted about inside the crystal dome surrounding me, and flew back out to strike the orbs again in a mad shower of light, shattering them again. 'Thank you for playing with us, miss.' A ghostly mass of hands in the shape of a foal says. 'You're welcome, dear,' I think. Finally realizing that this strategy wasn't going to work, the fake Quetzalcoatl conjured a clear crystal bell and rang it. A visible wave of death spread out from it, the sphere of force killing grass, flowers, insects, and bacteria as it went. I focused my magic through the one purple gem that was a part of my normal barding. A transparent and beautiful, (if I do say so myself), shining white sea pony floated up from my Quetzalcoatl form. She spread out her fins as if they were wings, and let out a wordless uplifting tune full of life that pushed back the tone of death, all the way back to the bell, which imploded. I recalled the seapony vision into myself. "My turn. Lady of Noonday's Fist." I conjured a sphere of burning white hot flames above my head, and from it shot a pillar of burning plasma. Quetzalcord hissed out as the brutal destructive force hit him dead on, piledriving him into the side of the black wind wall and shaking the entirety of our cage and the ground underneath us. He was almost annihilated by the attack, but began to regenerate. "Light'th magic'th versions of'th Sombra's, Adagio's, and'th Tirek's... how'th?" "Spell-Copy," I said. "I held the Element of Magic, once." Sadly, that last spell was meant to be loud, destructive, and terrifying, not collateral damage-friendly. I couldn't risk it twice. "There is nothing so ugly in this world, that proper application of light cannot make it beautiful!" "Praise'th mine name'th! Witness'th, bathed'th in the glory'th of mine countenance'th! Praise'th my name'th!" It fired a beam of light out of its mouth, drilling right towards my heart. "A true god needs only speak something once." I fired a orange beam of my own against a drill that could dig through anything... and my beam split apart into several before it made contact, then snaked into the grooves of the drill... and right into his mouth and down his throat. The light drill broke apart and dissolved just as it touched my scales. The fake Quetzalcoatl coughed up golden blood, twitching and squirming on the ground. "Huawk!" The thing coughed. "How'th, agagh!" "I got an up close and personal demonstration of that spell at point blank range, thanks to Chrysalis." "How can a witch that is deader than dead, possibly be such a constant thorn in my side?!" it said, dropping its bad early form of Equestrian. I smirked. "Maybe she was just a better villain than you. After all, unlike her, you have a conscience." "I SOLD MY CONSCIENCE!" bellowed Quetzalcoatl, his voice closer to Discord's than his own. "But did Dissy sell his?" Quetzalcord tried to fire his breath beam again, and coughed up blood instead. The internal damage was greater than I thought. Then again, what did I expect from a combat spell made by a sadist? "Return to Discord, or I'll force you back. I don't want to be a party to suffering." HIs response was to shed his skin, over and over and over, creating a glowing spear aimed right at my heart. I sighed. "Burn." (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Celestia, I'm back: Is everything still... Celestia, I mean Princess, why is the ground covered with ash instead of grass? And why does it smell like roasted blasphemous snake?) Many have asked what the difference is between myself and Galaxia. I will admit this much, if you do not ask again: Galaxia is Light, mine is the Fire. Quetzalcord finished dissolving back into chaos magic and returned to Discord from whence he came. I changed into my 'normal' Alicorn shape. It's fortunate that I had shifted shape at the time. I'd rather not have this barding melted into slag. I call out, "I am ashamed for you, Discord. There's no way you could have thought Quetzalcord would stand a chance against me. He was a distraction to keep me busy and a thorn to borrow under my skin. You shouldn't treat your Detachments so frivolously." "Come now, Celly," his voice called back. "Are we still doing the lecture thing? You know I have no respect for myself." "Only when it suits you, as usual." "Maybe I should just keep you in there. This could be more fun and interesting if it's just the little ponies for this big bang and not the big horsies too." "You know I can brute force this barrier open if I wanted to." "But you don't, because you don't want to accidentally damage your ponies." "And the Diamond Dogs who have helped Moon Dancer. Don't mistake my love for my ponies for indifference for everything else that thinks and feels. That's something you failed to grasp, Discord, but you have as Dissy. Now open this barrier, or else." "Or else what?" He really should have known better. I began to sing a lullaby. "What? No! Shut up! I said shut up! You want to hog the spotlight with your little ponies that much?! Fine! Princess!" The barrier dissolved, and I stopped singing Dissy's favorite lullaby that Shady had sung to him. ( Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): "Could... could you have done that at any time, princess?) I wasn't sure if it would work, and it's hard to sing a lullaby while fighting for your life. +++ Her Nightjesty's Princess Luna Nyx Equestria's War Chronicle "We suppose a rematch with Dracocord was too much to ask," we said. Having fought Discord's dragon Detachment through our avatar Selena, we'd have enjoyed an advantage of having seen how that one fought. But since when have things been easy or simple for us: Princess Luna of the Night? We were surprised to find ourselves facing what we'd come to know was Discord's cunning given a body of its own. Though cunning was not what we would call it. There was none of Discord's typical taunts, or reminders of our flaws, failures, and vices. No slideshow of our sins, or psychological games. Or maybe this was Discord's cunning unfiltered by his other traits, for while his games had worked on me once before, in our last encounter they'd been a stepping stone of his undoing. Or put simply: his cunning without his ego blocking his view saw that his silver tongue had been repeatedly been beaten dull in this battle. And more to our point, we didn't intend to give him any chance to play such games. Unlike most here, I had no interest in what this piece of Discord had to say. Bedecked in our full war armor, we'd remind Discord why we were Princess of both dreams and nightmares. We know everything about bats... and have very sensitive hearing. Our Royal Canterlot Voice sadly didn't provide an echo against the walls of animated Mu, but it was more than enough to shatter eardrums. Batcord wailed and twisted on the ground, covering his ears. We summoned a dragon slayer's sword, and shot it straight at his head. Batcord instantly stopped squirming, sat up, rolled out of the way, and in fluid motion grabbed the sword and threw it back towards us. We are ashamed to say that our weapon managed to cut through our mane. It bounced off the barrier, and We dismissed it. We were relieved that even Discord's cunning by itself couldn't resist explaining how clever it was. "Surgically-implanted earplugs that only activate at a certain volume. I saw it coming, because I'm Batcord." "Thank you." We tried to grab the contraptions within and crush them, but our telekinesis couldn't seem to grip him. "Anti-Telekinesis personalized forcefield, of course I deduced your strategy, because I'm Batcord!" We frowned, vexed. "You anticipated nothing, knave! You conjured your defenses in a moment of chaos, as you always do." "I deny your slander. Also, I knew you'd say that!" With none watching, we decided to up the ante, and released 'Triangle Crown,' the Tantabus, our personalized spirit of nightmare. She flew from our head, a sparkling mass of purple darkness right for Discord's detachment. Batcord whipped out a proton pack from nowhere and fired on our creation, then threw out a shoebox sized ghost trap, which opened and sucked her inside. "As if there was anyway I wouldn't have seen that coming!" We'd free our dutiful creation later. We blasted him dead-on with what Celly calls our Instant-Sleepy-Zap-Ray, except he didn't fall asleep where he stood. "Before this battle I drank a highly concentrated concoction of herbs, caffeine, sugars, and other chemicals. I can't fall asleep!" - "Hey, where'd that All-Night-Party mix that Pinkie Pie ordered go?" Coffee Swirl asked, perplexed. - We teleported right behind the braggart, and skewered him on our horn. He sparked and exploded. We were thrown back by the explosion, electronics and machinery scattering everywhere. Getting back up, we saw the crater left behind. The smoke parted, and Batcord stood. "Let us guess, you had a 'bat-decoy' planted from the beginning of the fight?" "Oh no, that would be absurd. I used ninjutsu to swap places with the replica at the last possible moment." That manega has so much to answer for, for its muddying the waters of how ninjas actually work. = The Dark Knight Triumphant/ End titles - The Dark Knight Returns OST - Christopher Drake = Batcord pushed a button on a belt I had not noticed before. Thick black armor unfolded and clamped around him, perfectly shaped to his body. Glowing yellow sunstones adorned the armor's 'gauntlets.' We knew where this was going. He wiped out a sonic gun that wouldn't actually be invented in Equestria for a hundred years or so. "It's a sound cannon!" He shouted as sonic vibrations covered the entire enclosed space we were in. My armor rattled, ready to fly apart, my horn ached, my ears and nose might have bled, I was in too much pain in notice. But the seapony tribe is still a part of me, and I used their magic combined with the Canterlot Voice to create an opposing soundwave that canceled out his. Tossing that weapon aside, he pulled from somewhere a wire coiled lightning rod. In spite of the Mu barrier sealing us off from the outside world, the weapon came to monstrous life with electricity. He threw the make-shift spear, but the lightning within arched towards my metal armor before I would have teleported out of the way. "All the lightning in Cloudsdale into one attack!" - "What's going on?! The Weather Factory's entire lightning reserves are gone!" Rainbow Shine shouted to Medley. - It was very painful, the lightning coursed through me in an endless circuit. But pegasi do more than fly and sit on clouds, I bent the lightning to my will, channeling it into my hooves, tighter, and tighter, creating my own version of balled lightning, and threw it straight at Batcord, who covered himself. As the brief lightning show ended, the ground around him was scorched, but he was unharmed. "Anti-electrical coating!" Batcord boasted. "Why wouldn't I have thought of that?!" He leapt into the air, impossibly light with the weight he was carrying, and began to fall towards me. This time I easily dodged, but a panel opened exposing his mouth, and he spat a wad of chewing gum with yellow sparkling bits on my horn. Disgusting. I felt my horn quickly grow numb. "Sunstone-mixed Anti-Magic Chewing Gum!" He pummeled me with his sunstone gauntlets, each strike like fire to my ice, the burning sensation going through my own armor like it wasn't even there. The strikes came hard, fast, and relentlessly. Discord hasn't lost his sense of irony, with us being beaten senseless by his aspect in the shape of one of our own creations. "I told you! Because I have to make due with less than you do! That's what makes me better than you! I wasn't born with your insanely huge amount of power, but I do have my mind, my will! Something a brute-force baboon like you could never hope to match as long as you huddle along on that crutch you call your 'gifts'!" - = Okami Soundtrack - Reset (Thank you) = "Wow, that's a big storm they have brewing over Canterlot," Pipsqueak said in his backyard looking at Canterlot Mountain. "Are you worried about Princess Luna?" Moonlight asked. Pipsqueak was happy she'd come for a visit. Earlier, Pipsqueak had asked her what those letters she'd given Featherweight and Button Mash were, and she'd told him, "They're special instructions from Princess Luna, in case the Princesses and their friends need to go away for a while and need others to help look after everypony, but don't tell anypony, Privateer Fleet Rear Admiral!" Pipsqueak had saluted, "I'll never breach security with Her Nightjesty!" "No I'm not worried for her Nightjesty," Pipsqueak in the present answered, getting a surprised reaction from Moonlight. "Because I believe in her. I know she'll come out on top. She's smart, she's loyal, honest, generous, she's scary but fun, she's generous, and she's really pretty too. She's best princess after all." Moonlight stood on her rear legs, and held her front hooves together in a prayer pose, "Yes, she is." - Pipsqueak. ... = Superman Theme - John Williams = If all you have is a hammer, use the curved end like a screwdriver. "... Like you rely on all the contraptions and resources your creator has provided you?" We asked as the punches fell like rain. "Your creator gave you all that knowledge, he gave you resources to create all the tools you're using. All your 'wits' and 'cunning' wouldn't be anything without the material you've been given to work with." "I'd beat you with a paper bag if I had to!" The attacks kept coming, my armor dented and warped. "Sweetie Belle informed me Queen Chrysalis defeated a giant with nothing but a stick and bag of three potatoes." "She was obviously lying!" "Was she? She was so much lesser than you, are you saying you couldn't accomplish a similar feat?" "I don't need to!" "But you're Batcord. Certainly you could. Unless you've been cheating this whole time. And all your 'cleverness' has been nothing but cheap tricks and retcons: like a child's fantasy." Now the giant armored bat lost his temper and his attack began to hit harder, but at the same time more spaced out and more simplistic. "I. Am. Not. A. Child!" "How do I know you're not? You could be making all this up to make yourself look smart." I gave him a raspberry. "I. AM. SMART!" Bits of our armor began to crack. We laughed in his face. "Prove it." "I DON'T NEED TO!!!" "You sure say that a lot. It's like you're scared to prove it," I said slyly. I'm happy my fur covered all the bruises. Batcord's armor exploded off him, pieces flying everywhere, including the sunstone gauntlets, I hadn't noticed he was so muscular before. "Direct physical combat? No magic. No gliding, flying, or non-ground based locomotion of any kind," I said. "You'll just break the rules when you feel like it!" "My servants never disobey their princess' commands, even when I wish it were not so, you know this to be true if you have Discord's memories. Therefore." We magically conjured Olo The Owlbear into this reality. A body of magical construct energy. "Olo! You Princess Commands you, enforce those agreed upon rules for this single particular duel upon us both! Ignore my commands to ignore my previous commands!" Olo hooted in understanding. We removed our armor. It was now a duel, after all, duels had rules. I worried for Moon Dancer and her friends, but Celly had faith in them. Olo also took the chance to free his little sister, and Triangle Crown returned to my dream realm. = Mortal Kombat - Movie Theme = We bowed to each other, and then we attacked. We moved like lightning, each strike moved like liquid into the next. We circled each other like steps in a dance. Each strike we made was blocked, and each strike he made we blocked, and each block and strike was but an opening for another strike. He swept my legs. I landed on my front hooves with joints a mundane horse of Earth just didn't have. I wrapped my tail around one of his feet and pulled, making him topple over backwards, but he turned it into a summersault and landed perfectly. I used being on my front hooves to buck him as he landed, he grabbed my legs and used the impact to his body from my own attack to flip me hard into the ground, but my jointed legs saved me again. I spun around like a corkscrew, and he was forced to let go. He was not incompetent, and We could appreciate the wild brazenness of his style, but we did not have time to spare. He made to strike me, and We blocked it with one of our wings, and proceeded to pummel in him in the gut. That made him momentarily lean over, and We kneed him in the jaw sending him upwards. "Cheater!" "We did agree, no flying, but you never said we couldn't use our wings at all." Batcord tried to claw our face. We forced our way forward instead of trying to block or get distance. We struck the sides of his head, blocked from loud sounds or not, it still played havoc with his inner ear. We kicked him in the chest. "You think I spent eternity sitting on my cosmic flank eating bonbons, Batcord? This is several thousand years experience of hoof-to-hoof combat!" = G Gundam- Shining Gundam/Finger Theme = Batcord pulled a gun out and took aim at us slowly and dramatically, while the barrel rotated and extended and lights began to flash in sequence with a ominous rising tone... which gave us plenty of time to seize it and shove it to one side before he could fire, breaking two of his wing fingers in the process. We emptied out the sunstone bullets that Olo put into an onyx box. I crushed the gun into a ball with my bare hooves, and ate it. Swallowing, I said, "I do not play god. I've been playing pony." I swiftly break his wings and other limbs, his jaw, finishing it with a strike to his spine that left him twitching on the ground on his back. We command, "The fight is over. Go back to Discord. You lose." His body dissolves back into chaos magic and is assimilated back into Discord. "Hoot hoot!" "Thank you, Olo, but this is not the end of the battle. You served me well, we'll speak later my old friend." "Hoot Hoot!" The magical construct body We'd given him dissolved, and he returned to the realm of the unconscious. We applied our magic and healed the damage to our body, and did as quick a job as We dared repairing the damage to my armor as well while placing it back on myself without the help of a squire. The Mu barrier around me dissolved. "Nothing to say, Discord?" We called. "I thought not." "Your sister won without getting nearly as hurt as you," said the Nightfilly. "In fact, I don't think she got hurt at all." "Good for her." "Not jealous?" "Jealousy has earned me nothing. Did it earn you anything, little filly?" She didn't respond.