//------------------------------// // Hello my friends... Goodbye... // Story: The Blue-Haired Maiden's Sacrifice // by TheUltimateBrony-Class-S //------------------------------// There lay many beaten guards, some on the brink of death, others are just unconscious or are helping the wounded after surrendering to the Storm King's will. The Guards of the Storm King were going around, moving the caged ponies around, removing the proof of both Celestia's and Luna's rule, and replacing it with his symbols of power and propaganda. The three Princesses, trapped within their crystal prisons were placed on display before the entire city to show that the Storm King will not tolerate any resistance. A figure began to walk through the city, eyes colored gold, hair colored blue, a dress of white with blue patterns, a staff made of a white metal, and an odd, yet beautiful pendant around her neck. Some of the guards noticed her as well as the ponies in the area, the ponies looked at her in curiosity, while the the guards glared at her, waiting to see what she would do. "I would like to see the king," she stated with a neutral expression, "I have business with him." The guards looked confused at first and began muttering amongst themselves, before they began to look at her with fixed glares again as some of the guards began to approach her. As she saw this, she took her staff in her other hand and took a defensive position, prepared to fight. However, before it could escalate further, a voice boomed over the area. "STAND DOWN!" the voice shouted. Some of the guards either turn around or turned their heads, along with the ponies, to see the source of the voice was none other than the Storm King himself, with a staff radiating powerful magic from within. "Who are you?" asked the Storm King, looking this figure up and down with a nasty looking frown. "I am Azura," the figure announced, "and I am a friend to these ponies, the ponies you have hurt, I ask for a one-on-one battle, a duel. "If you win," she continued, "you will do with me whatever you wish, but please spare their lives," she pointed towards the ponies in the cages and to those that are injured." "And if you win?" The Storm King asked. Azura looked at him with a curious look and a knowing smile, "You actually think I will win?" she asked. The Storm King began to glare daggers at her, before responding with, "I accept." Azura nodded, then began to... dance? (Play this to go with the feeling of the battle) When she began to dance, the Storm King looked at her confused, then growled in annoyance as he lifted the staff and gathered some magic into its focal point, and fired it at her. The other ponies tried to warn her, but either she didn't hear or didn't listen, and as it approached, her pendant lit up with blue energy. *BOOM* There is now a small cloud of smoke where she was standing, and the Storm King grinned maliciously, "Finally," he stated as he began to walk away, "there are no more annoyances to deal with, now I ca-" Suddenly, a familiar voice sang out, cutting him off and making him stop where he was standing. "Yooou are the ooocean's gray waaaves, destined to seek, Life beyooond the shooore, just out of reeeach~" He turned around just as the last of the smoke cleared to see Azura still standing without a single scratch on her. "WHAT?! HOW-" he shouted, when suddenly he was hit by a wave of blue energy, that came straight from Azura. "Yeeet the wateeers ever chaaange, flowing like time~" The continued to dance, and when another blast of magic came at her, a small blue barrier appeared to block the attack like it was nothing. "The path iiis yours to cliiimb~" The Storm King charged towards her, however, she swung her staff towards him while she danced, sending another wave of blue energy. He blocked it with a shield of magic, it barely stood up to the energy as it cracked under the power of the attack. Azura looked out towards the crowd of ponies and the Storm King's Guard, and noticed a unicorn with a broken horn, wearing the Storm King's soldier armor. "In theee whiiite liiight, a hand reeeachesss throouugh, a double-edged blade cuts your heart in two~" She noticed the unicorn turned her eyes away, as if deep in thought. "Waking dreeeams fade awaaay, embrace the braaand-new daaay!~" The unicorn lowered her her head as she backed into the crowd, disappearing from sight. "You forgetting someone?" asked a deep voice, to which Azura, trusting her instincts, and jumped to the side, avoiding a blast of magic. She then twirled a few times, sending out a few waves of energy towards the Storm King, to which he blocked again, but the shield he made only blocked the first two, and the third destroyed the shield and hit him, sending him back onto the ground. Azura then looked at the crystal statues containing the Princesses and Twilight in her cage. "Siiing with meee a sooong of birthrights and love, the light scaaatters tooo the sky aboove!~" Some hints of blue energy began to appear on the surface of Celestia's crystal prison, then it suddenly started to crack, and from the cracks shown the light similar to sunlight. "Daaawn breaks throouugh the gloom, white as a bone, lost in thoughts all alone.~" The blue energy also appears in hints on Cadence's crystal prison, before Celestia's suddenly shattered. *CRASH* In place of the statue was the Princess in the flesh, yet unconscious for the moment. Twilight looked at her fellow Princess in shock, then to the other two, and finally to Azura as she smiled, hope filling her heart once more. Azura looked to Twilight once more, meanwhile, the Storm King is getting back up weakly. "Yooou are the ooocean's gray waaaves, destined to seek, life beyooond the shooore just out of reeeach~" He aimed once more at Azura and fired another blast of magic, which was blocked by another small blue barrier, which shocked him since Azura didn't so much as flinch. She looked toward him and noticed the hornless unicorn from before, behind him, looking directly at her. "Yeeet, the wateeers ever chaaange, flowing like time, the path iiis yours to cliiimb~" Azura then looked back at the Storm King before her, starring directly in his eyes. "Embrace the daaark you call a hooome~" She looked towards Canterlot Castle for a moment then back to him. "Gaze upooon an empty, white throoone~" Azura looked back to the hornless unicorn once again. "A legacy of liiies, a familiar disguiiise~" Then looking back to the Storm King, she then ran right up to him and smacked him aside with her staff at such a speed, he only had time to block her staff with his. After that she sent another three waves of energy at him, forcing him to back away further. "Siiing with meee a sooong of conquest and fate, the black piiillar cracks beneath its weeeight~" Blue energy, once again, appears as hints on Luna's crystal prison before it started to crack. "Night breaks throouugh the daaay, hard as a stone, lost in thoughts all alone.~" More blue energy appeared on Cadance's prison, which in turn started to crack, until both her's and Luna's shattered. *CRASH* Once more, like Celestia, both Princesses appeared in the flesh rather than in pieces. The Storm King looked this time to see what was causing the noise, and his eyes widened in shock, then he looked to Azura with fury. "You will pay for that!" he shouted as he began to charge more magic into the staff than he had done before. "The paaath you walk ooon belongs to destinyyy, just let it flooow~" As she continued to dance, she closed her eyes to concentrate on the energy that started to charge around her, making it look like she was surrounded by water. "All of your joooy and your pain will fall like the tiiide, lEt it flooow~" The staff the Storm King was holding began to generate a ball of pure magic just in front of it, and all of the light in the area seemed to be coming more from it than from the sun. "Liiife is not juuust filled with happineeess, nor sorrooow~" As more energy gather around her, she opened one eye towards the hornless unicorn behind her. "Even the thooorn in your heart, in time it may becooome a rooose~" She then opened both of her eyes fully and looked towards the Storm King in front of herself as she held out her right hand, just as he let loose the large ball of magic at her. A barrier in the shape of a hand appeared in front of the blast, angled backwards just enough to reflect the large blast upwards, to avoid others from being harmed by this attack. Everyone watched as as the blast was reflect upwards into the sky, the display of power put them in awe despite the circumstances. When the blast ended, the Storm King was left stumped, shocked, appalled, by the being in front of him, and started to show something he hadn't felt in a long time. Fear. "A buuurdened heeaart sinks intoo the groouund, a veil faaalls awaaay without a sound~" Some of those that were injure began to be healed by blue energy, as Azura took a step towards the Storm King, she felt something in her chest, she knew what it was but ignored it. "Not day nor night~" He noticed this and when he started to back up he tripped and landed on his back. "Wrong nor right~" She continued to walk towards him and he tried to crawl backwards to get away from her, his staff on the ground. "For truth and peeeace you fiiight!~" She kicked the staff away from him and he continued to crawl. "Siiing with meee a sooong of silence and blood, the rain faaalls, but can't waaash away the muuud!~" More energy gathers around Azura the closer she got to the Storm King, whom bumped into something when he was backing away from her and realized that he was backed into a wall. He looked back to her and noticed something different, they were still the same color, but hey became draconic and glowed with energy. "Wiiithin my aaancient heart dweeells madness and pride, can noone hear my cryyy?~" She stopped as was mere inches away from the Storm King, and glared at him with eyes that felt like they belong to something ancient, something... powerful. When she sang out this time, there was slight echo in her voice, and everyone could hear it. "Yooou are the ooocean's gray waaaves, destined to seek, life beyooond the shooore, just out of reeeach!~" She had all of the energy gather into her staff and it began to glow a beautiful, yet terrifying blue light. "Yeeet, the wateeers ever chaaange, flowing like time, the path iiis yours to cliiimb!~" On the last word, Azura taps the Storm King's forehead with tip of her staff and he began to turn into blue dust until there was nothing but armor and blue dust where he once was. Her eyes reverted back to their normal selves and she started to fall to her side, but was caught with a bright blue aura and lowered gently onto the ground. "AZURA!" many voices shouted at once, and 5 ponies, 4 alicorns, and a baby dragon all ran over to Azura. Azura's eyes opened a bit, and she saw her friends, and her family, "Twilight, Spike, Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity, Rainbow, and Fluttershy, it's good to..." she said, then took a shallow breath, "... to see you guys again." She looked over to Celestia, Luna, and Cadence, "Hello mother, Aunty Luna, Cousin Caddy, I'm glad all of you... *inhales shakily* ... are OK." "Azura, what's wrong?" Cadence asked, looking worriedly over Azura, "are you hurt?" "No," Azura said weakly, "I do know what is happening though, and I'm sorry." "Sorry for what?" Spike asked, "You saved everyone, there is no need to be sorry." Some blue start to cover her hand making it look like water and everyone around her noticed it. "There was a side effect of using that power," Azure stated quietly, "it always hurt to use it, even if it was a little bit, and I realized what would happen if I used too much. "However," Azura paused to take another shallow breath, "I'm sorry because, I think that this will be the last time I see any of you for a while." All of their eyes widened at that statement, realizing that she was dying. "DON'T GOOHOHOH!" Pinkie cried out as she hugged Azura, "There are so many parties that we haven't had yet, and I don't want you to miss any!" "Hey," Azura said weakly, but firmly, "don't be sad, I want to see you all smile," she looks to everypony, plus one dragon, "I don't want the last thing I see to be of you all sad... *inhales shakily* ... so could you please smile for me?" As she says this more and more of her body is covered in blue, and they all smiled thinking of all the times she had spent with each of them. "Thank you," she said with her final breath and with the last of her strength, she smile back with a soft smile. She fell still as her body began to slowly turn into nothingness and all of them cried their grief at the loss of a friend, a daughter, a niece, and a cousin.