//------------------------------//
// 17 - For Victory 
// Story: Velvet Underground 
// by MagnetBolt 
//------------------------------//

“I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this,” Velvet admitted.
“That means a lot coming from somepony who can see the future,” Sunset said. “But you know, it all kinda looks familiar…”
Walkways and bridges of obsidian hung over the boiling magma below. Stately buildings in a chaotic disarray of shapes and sizes poked out of the caldera like stalagmites, the lava and rising columns of ash making it look like a city burning from below.
“It’s Veneighs,” Night Light said. “Sort of. It’s like if you tried to build the city from what you saw in a few postcards and old vacation photos.”
“These buildings are empty,” Cadance reported, flying up to a second story to have a better look. “There aren’t even walls and floors in most of them. They’re just… facades.”
“Creepy,” Sunset said. “It’s a ghost town. In a volcano. Then again, it’s sort of less creepy than the town full of zombie ponies, you know?”
“Where’s the pooka?” Velvet asked, looking around as if worried the buildings would come down around them. “I thought it would be here to meet us.”
“If I had to guess…” Cadance, perched higher than the others, pointed ahead. If it was a real city, she’d be pointing into the next street. There, just visible from where they stood, fireballs and streamers of flame crested over the rooftops like fireworks.
“Somepony else go first,” Night Light said.
“Just follow me,” Cadance said. “It wants me, after all. Might as well let it see it’s getting what it wants…”
She swallowed and touched down ahead of them, the group carefully picking their way across the city of stone. The whole thing was missing details - windows were empty frames, signs were blank, and places where there should have been sculpture or art were filled in merely with unfinished stone.
A wave of heat caught them as they turned the next corner. A fountain stood at the center of a wide platform, filled not with water but magma and fire. The molten rock splashed as the creature lounging in it turned over lazily to watch the ponies approaching.
“What do we have here?” the monster asked, in a husky tone, obviously pleased. “And just when I thought my day couldn’t get any better!”
“My name is Mi Amore Cadenza,” Cadance said, trying to keep her voice from wavering. “I am here as demanded.”
“You know, the way you say it really sucks the fun out of it,” the pooka sighed, standing up. Like the others, it could only be mistaken for equine if one was observing it from a great distance and had particularly poor eyesight.
The creature before them was even taller than Princess Celestia, skin smooth and black and as perfectly formed as a statue. With every motion, the pooka’s skin cracked, revealing glowing heat underneath, healing when it slowed.
“What do you think of my little villa?” the pooka asked. “I decided to model it after that wonderful little place where I woke up.”
“So it is Veneighs,” Night Light muttered.
“As my servants have hopefully told you, my name is Danger Zone,” the pooka said. It would have been beautiful in an abstract, statuesque way, if not for the way it moved. It was like some kind of boneless slug or blob wearing that statue-skin as a disguise. “I was hoping we could talk.”
“Since you’re holding my people hostage, I don’t have much choice,” Cadance said.
“It is a clever little ploy, isn’t it?” The pooka smiled, which was its own variety of unpleasant. “My siblings love throwing themselves at problems with brute force. I prefer to, hm, think more about the easiest way to get what I want.”
“And you wanted me.”
The pooka nodded. “And I wanted you. I could have chased you around, tried to outsmart you. That’s what my siblings did. Why should I go to all that effort when I can just make you come to me, though? I could smell you in this island chain somewhere, so all I had to do was threaten to destroy the whole thing and your precious little pony friendship and herding instinct dragged you here like you were on a leash.”
“If I do what you want, you’ll agree not to force this volcano to erupt? You’ll leave the ponies here alone?”
The pooka nodded. “I’ll even let your servants leave here alive, even though you’ve practically served the helpless little things up to me on a silver platter.”
“I’m not helpless!” Sunset snapped.
“Hush, the adults are talking,” the pooka said.
“Don’t you dare look down on me!” Sunset’s horn flashed, and before anypony could stop her, she threw an ice spell at the pooka, a sharp shard of ice that boiled to water in midair and only splashed against the monster’s side, evaporating with a sharp hiss.
“I can see you didn’t get any tips from Coldplay,” Danger Zone said. She stretched, steam pouring from her skin. “It’s too bad you won’t have a chance to learn anything else at all.”
The pooka’s static, sculpted mane shattered, a dozen tentacles of liquid rock studded with shards of obsidian erupting from its head and neck.
“Wait!” Cadance yelled. “You agreed to let them go!”
The pooka paused, tentacles pausing in their dance towards Sunset.
“I did,” the pooka said. “Well, I suppose I can at least be a gracious winner and forgive your servants for being poor losers.”
“Thank you,” Cadance sighed.
“My siblings would have killed her in an instant. I’m more civilized.” The pooka tossed its head, the whirling lashes of death curling back into a perfectly coifed mane, the obsidian barbs twisting like puzzle pieces and interlocking into that smooth skin.
“It makes me curious just what you’re planning on doing with my magic,” Cadance said.
“I’m not much for planning.” The pooka started pacing around the edge of the lava fountain, walking on the ridge of obsidian blocks at the perimeter. “I prefer going with the flow. If it makes you feel better, though, I’ll probably take care of my siblings for you.”
“What?” Cadance took a step back, surprised.
“Well, only one of us can be perfect,” Danger Zone said, with a liquid shrug rippling across her body. “Obviously I deserve it more.”
It stopped pacing and looked down at Cadance.
“Now, it’s time to hold up your end of the bargain. You’ve been polite, so if you have any last words, go ahead and make them now.”
“There is just one thing I wanted to say.” Cadance lowered her head. “Princess Celestia told me that I had to learn how to face down threats on my own. But… I couldn’t have come here on my own. I couldn’t have faced you down without the others here.”
“How touching,” the pooka said. “The power of friendship and sacrificing yourself for others, yes, yes.”
“Actually, the reason I wouldn’t have been able to come here is that I wouldn’t have had this.”
Cadance pulled a bundle out from under her wing, tearing cloth away to reveal the shining Sun’s Heart, the glare even painful to her eyes, reflecting from all the dark glass around them.
Danger Zone fell back, losing its concentration. Its graceful, smooth movements turned turbulent as it scrambled away, the black smooth sculpted skin peeling away and falling to the ground as shattered stone.
“You had that this whole time?!” Danger Zone hissed.
“That’s right,” Cadance said. “And you’ve got nowhere to run!”
The pooka dove into the magma, vanishing from sight.
“...you have somewhere to run,” Cadance said. “Sunset? What do I do now? We didn’t plan on it doing this!”
“Improvise!” Sunset yelled. “It’s gotta have a weakness!”
The platform under them cracked, railings falling away and empty facades mimicking a real city starting to crumble under the strain.
“I think the city just realized it’s in the middle of an active volcano!” Night Light yelled. “My hooves are burning!”
“The ground is heating up like a skillet,” Velvet said. “We need to get somewhere cooler!”
“Hold on, I’ll make a path!” Sunset cast an ice spell, the beam wavering and weak. “Mmph! This is harder than it should be!”
“We’re in the middle of a volcano, of course cold spells are barely working!”
“No, it’s like- it’s like something is disrupting ice magic!” Sunset yelled. “It’s why the first spell I cast didn’t kill it!”
“Wait, I know what to do!” Cadance threw the Sun’s Heart to Velvet and flew up, using the thermals to quickly gain altitude to the gathering clouds overhead. With a few swift kicks, the clouds rumbled and opened up, rain coming down first and trickles, building into a full storm.
“Hot hot hot!” Night Light yelled, his tail catching on fire from a shower of sparks.
Sunset rolled her eyes and turned her wavering ice beam onto his flank, putting the fire out. “This plan sounded a lot better back on the boat.”
“That’s because we were just glad to have a plan back on the boat,” Velvet said.
The ground shook, a roar building from all around them. A lash of obsidian blades and magma erupted from the caldera below, nearly hitting Sunset as it slammed into the buildings, going right through the streets and walls like a battering ram.
“I won’t let you leave here alive!” the pooka roared. “You think you’re so clever because you have a weapon against me? I am a weapon! No living thing in the world can survive against the power of the earth’s volcanic heart!”
Danger Zone pulled herself out of the volcano, the remains of the perfect black skin falling away and melting into nothing. Without it, she was nothing like a pony, just a horrible collection of tentacles and half-formed limbs made of glowing rock surrounding a mouth ringed with sapphire teeth and burning like a furnace.
“Stay back!” Velvet warned, holding up the Sun’s Heart. “I know you can’t get closer while I have this!”
“You idiot pony!” Danger Zone hissed, lava dripping from its body like a trail of molten gore as it lumbered towards them. “That would have worked when I was weak, but not now!”
Everything went white.
The pooka roared, a crater blasted out of its body.
“I might not have a formal education but I’ve had to bust a bunch of storms on my own!” Cadance yelled. “How do you like the taste of lightning?!”
The pooka just roared, beyond any kind of rational thought now.
“Take this!” Velvet yelled. She threw the Sun’s Heart into Danger Zone’s open maw, the glowing gem disappearing down its glowing furnace of a throat.
The pooka’s shrieks changed from cries of pain to ones of alarm, stumbling back and tearing at its own flesh, its skin starting to darken and solidify.
“Why did you do that?!” Sunset yelled. “You fed it our only weapon!”
“It’s working, though!” Velvet countered.
Danger Zone fell backward into the volcano, the cooling effect seeming to spread from her like a plague, the whole mountain cooling as she sank into the magma, turning from bubbling white-hot death to cherry-red taffy before finally solidifying with a cracking snap.
“Is it over?” Night Light asked, peeking past the edge.
Danger Zone’s claw was the only part of the pooka still visible, frozen in stone and clawing at the sky.