//------------------------------//
// Stormy Weather: Part 2 
// Story: The Cursed Prodigy and The Three Special-Grades 
// by I Ate Appiness 
//------------------------------//

"You still have a lot left to learn, Princess."

Twilight scowled and looked at the cursed pony. Finding herself now in the inner world of shadows. It was pitch black, however, through the darkness, she could see silhouettes of tendrils slithering up from the ground and up to a focus point in the air. Facing up, The Princess clicked her tongue, as she observes a giant skull of an alicorn pony hovering over the top of the domain with the same tendrils wriggling about through its sockets. The skull overlooking the two ponies from the heavens. silently judging, yet never acting. 

"Crap." 

The Pony of Shadows laughs at the simple yet accurate response. " "Craps." Right!! This battle's been decided!!" rearing his head back, he cuts through the air to point the tip of his horn towards the lavender mare. 

With a shine of his horn, tentacles born of darkness shot up and towards Twilight, and with the domain's guaranteed hit effect. No amount of spells could Twilight deploy to try to stop the assault, least slow it down.

That didn't stop her from trying though, erecting six of her strongest barrier spells, she stood her ground in an attempt to hold out as long as possible. To no use, as the sure-hit effect phased through all of her spells at such breakneck speeds that Twilight herself hadn't realised that they had stabbed through her legs, torso, wings, and stomach. Piercing her regalia with ease similar to that of a pen tearing through paper. Snaps and cracks could be heard in her limbs, as the princess cried in pain.

The barriers Twilight deployed vanished as quickly as they were put up, the tentacles weren't done, however. Instead, lifting the poor Alicorn up in an act of showing dominance. Causing Twilight to cough up gouts of blood which quickly translate into vomiting the crimson liquid. Air wheezes through her trachea, and a disgusting combination of blood and stomach acid leaked from the corners of her mouth, eyes, and nostrils.

Twilight tries to cast a teleportation spell as a last resort in order to get herself out of this mess she got herself into. Her horn shined, then died down with no effect. 'My spell isn't working? Is it because of the Domain's effects?' 

Due to many factors such as his inexperience with barrier techniques, inadequate training, unrefined domain, and the reliance on a structure to construct his own Domain which was shaky. Thus as a result, his domain could only last for 4.1 seconds before its inevitable collapse. The darkness of the domain crumbled around the two, releasing Twilight and The Pony of Shadows from the technique. Daylight reinviting the cursed pony back into the real world. 

Through shallow, hoarse breaths. Twilight managed to look up and faced the shadow pony. Who now stood in front of her. Beaming with a smirk.

"Still alive? I was sure I punctured your heart."

"H-how do you... know to cast... a-a Domain...?" As far as Twilight knew from Okkotsu's memories, Domains are the pinnacle of Jujutsu sorcery. Yet, this curse that didn't have the slightest clue about cursed energy now is using a Domain just one day after being freed.

He chuckles, "Looks like I could only maintain it for a few seconds. Since you're on your deathbed, I'll amuse you." Walking with a skip he circles around the bloodied princess. A joyous skip in his step.

"I hadn't actually known that I was a cursed spirit. Not until she came to free me from Limbo. Even then, she told me she sense a great amount of strength from deep within me. Explaining what I was, and what my potential could be. Apparently, using a host as weak and puny as Stygian." Tilting his body so just his head pokes from above Twilight's point of view, he looked at her through an upside-down gaze, a stupid child-like smile plastered on his face. "Can you believe it!? He was holding ME back!"

Pulling his head back, he continues with a cough to the hoof. "To further my development, she had me go on a rampage destroying Cloudsdale. I had no issue with it, being a curse and all. This was what I wanted, to realise my own innate domain via a near-death experience! And for that, I have to thank you, Princess. Only you could push me to greater heights."

Twilight spat a spit of blood on the curse but misses completely. "I-it isn't... over... my friends... the elements... they..."

The pony of shadow wasn't pleased, not in the slightest. Summoning another tendril from below, He shot it up at Twilight through her jaw and up her skull. Twilight's eyes rolled back, and her mandible hung in place as the tendril lodged itself through her bones, preventing it from moving. Blood seeped down the black limb piercing her brain, and her crown clanked unceremoniously onto the ground. 

Twilight Sparkle, the princess of friendship, has passed.

The pony of shadows gave a crooked smile, satisfied with the outcome. Flinging the corpse of the princess to the side, he sets his sights back on the running Yuta.

"Now to chase the weird monkey, and after that, her "friends" ." Right as the Pony of Shadows was about to take a step, his body froze. "Huh?" Now he was really trying to strain his body, a futile effort to be blunt. "W-what is the meaning of this!?"

Then, a sudden familiar voice thought to be dead echoed through his mind. "Impressive, no wonder Starlight and the other pillars had a difficult time sealing you away." It was Twilight's.

The pony of shadow scrunched up his face, clearly pissed at the fact that Twilight's still alive. "How are you still alive!? And how are you speaking in my head!? Explain you witch!!"

"...Witch? That's rather... lame." Cracks in the air manifested in a purple glow as tiny chips of them fell like broken glass, it caused a cascade of shattering surfaces in reality. 

The pony of shadows turned to face the corpse of Twilight, but it too had faded just like everything else. Shattering into dust. The Phantom Pony tried to change forms, to do anything. However, he found himself helplessly laying on the floor, his body missing, with the tendrils he used in his domain to stab Twilight like a pin doll, now stabbing through his own head. 

"WH-WHAT *Hhrgk!!* DID YOU *Cough* DO!?" The Pony of Shadows demanded at the now approaching Twilight, seemingly cleared from her fatal injuries, with heavy sweat beading down her forehead and glistening her purple coat.

"Before you embarrassingly beheaded yourself, I casted a secondary illusionary spell above my original one in case of unforeseen circumstances. We never carried on our battle past your decapitation, you were high on a dream I conjured for you, that Domain Expansion and my "death" were all fabricated. From the very beginning."

The edges of his head begin to burn away like ambers, and his rage-filled eyes do nothing to stop his own self-exorcism. 

"This was my intended outcome for you, to perish by your own power. A humiliating death, befitting for a curse." As the last of the curse's head disintegrates, he cried out his last curse.

"I'LL MURDER YOU!! I'LL-!!" 

Twilight sighs, closing her eyes. "...Why couldn't we just... get along?... be friends?"

Finally letting out a held gasp of air and buckling faintly, a sharp pain zapped at the side of her body, turning her gaze, she lifted her left wing to look underneath it. Sure enough, a large gash was present on her torso. Though it wasn't bleeding as much as expected thanks to a combination of a small recovery spell Twilight casted earlier on and her Alicorn body already slowing down the bleeding considerably.

'Although he was under the influence of my spell, he still managed to cast his Domain on instinct, just for a split second, even as just a head, he caught me. I had to intensify my spell in order to trick him into attacking himself.' 

Twilight heaved herself back up, steadying her breath. 'That really hurt, had his domain lasted any longer, it might've neutralised my second spell, and by then, I'd really be a goner. The simulation that he experienced wasn't built on a foundation of complete lies, it incorporates aspects of reality to further enhance the realistic experience. But why is magic so easily disrupted by cursed energy? Even concentrated magic of my caliber had problems dealing with a domain.' Twilight thought. lighting her horn, the previous wound closes up with relative ease. 'I need to find Okkotsu.'







Dashing through the streets, Yuta hacked away at some lingering curses all the while rescuing as many ponies as he possibly could. He knew he was reaching close to the cursed object amplifying the curtain placed over Cloudsdale, but his mind wandered and his head was starting to split. As of right now, Yuta has been awake for 17 hours, and the fatigue is slowly catching up. 

'Exorcising all those curses in the middle of the night and not getting ample rest really did a number on my cursed energy reserves.' He thought. 

Marching on, he could see it, a book with cursed marking all over it, from the cover to its pages. Raising his arm, Yuta gave a thorough swing, only to be interrupted by Usowamoto summoning a portal in front of Yuta that, if he had swung his sword, would have slashed the back of Yona. Rather than forcing himself to halt mid-motion, Yuta instead aimed for the ground beside the cursed object and swung his blade there. 

Cracking the asphalt and nearly splitting the clouds, both Usowamoto and Yuta jumped back, glaring at one another. Wasting not another second longer, Yuta sprinted towards the curse. Swinging his katana with overflowing cursed energy, he sent a wave of destruction towards the cursed child. 

Which was easily deflected with an opening of a portal back to Yuta, however, Yuta was already behind Usowamoto, delivering a swift left kick to her sides, he sent her flying in the opposite direction. Capturing this opportunity, Yuta reached for the book, but a sudden flying kick to his face sent him tumbling backwards.

'Did she open a portal behind her to use the momentum from my kick to distribute a counterattack!?... Not yet! The timing isn't right! But...' Sliding to a stop, Yuta held his blade in front of him in a defensive position. Gasping for air. 'I finally understand her cursed technique.'

Yuta javelins his sword imbued with cursed energy into the nearby building, transferring the cursed energy from his sword to the concrete, exploding off the walls and straight to Usowamoto.

'You must be tired from fighting so many curses for an extended period of time. Now it's time for me to go on the offensive." The faceless child took note of this, opening a portal where the rocks would've made contact with her and redirecting it to where Yuta was standing. 

However, Yuta was already bolting for her a third time. This caught the curse off-guard. "How!?" was what she thought, not anticipating for the sorcerer to still have stamina left to charge at her. As he closed the gap, he charged his fist with cursed energy, before delivering a nasty right hook straight to where her liver would be. Sending her crashing into the nearby building.

"You use yourself as a beacon for establishing connections with portals, or else you've had been on the assault. In short, you can't focus on attacking and defending at the same time. That little window where you have to switch strategies is my golden window of opportunity."

Not wasting another second, Yuta sprinted towards Usowamoto, picking his blade up, and punching the nearby concrete wall imbued with cursed energy in the process. Dashing up, Yuta was prepared to give the killing blow. Until the curse of no-face raised her hand, commanding a portal to open where Yuta was headed. Teleporting him high up into the middle of the sky above Cloudsdale whilst still remaining in the curtain.

"I was waiting for this. Rika!!" 

Shocked, Usowamoto was on high alert. Only to see from the corner of her peripherals that a partially manifested Rika had just crushed the book she was so desperately trying to protect.

"Done!!" Rika called out excitedly.

With that, the curtain shattered, reinviting the blue skies into Cloudsdale once again. Along with the blue skies, came a thunderous boom. A Sonic Rainboom, aiming straight at where Yuta was.

"How did Rainbow know when the curtain was going down!?" Usowamoto yelled. That's when it hit her, Rika hadn't been joining in on the fight. She deduced that Rika split from Yuta in order to communicate with Rainbow when Rika was going to take down the veil and to prepare a Sonic Rainboom in advance. "Shit!!"

...They say, being a jujutsu sorcerer is a demanding occupation that requires one to constantly face fear-inducing curses and risk their life. Naturally, there are several drawbacks to working as a professional exorcist. As it happens, Gojo Satoru himself says being a little crazy is a requirement to being a jujutsu sorcerer. 

And crazy's an understatement to what Yuta had planned for the world-hopping curse.

Zooming through the air faster than the speed of sound, Dash aimed her trajectory at the human. "I hope you know what you're doing!!"

Still falling from the skies, Yuta muttered calmly. "Now or never," Reaching for his ring, he fits it on his ring finger. Summoning the complete manifestation of the Queen of Curses to his side. "Emerge, Rika. All of you." 







On the other side of Cloudsdale, the young six were busy freeing some of the trapped ponies under the destroyed houses and buildings. 

"Ready? 1,2,3. *Hump!!*" grunted Smolder, along with Sandbar and Yona, lifting another chunk of debris off two ponies. One pegasus mare with a pale, light-grayish cornflower blue coat with an orange mane with light scarlet streaks, and her husband, another pegasus stallion with a pale light grayish-blue coat and a striking rainbow mane.

"W-wha!?" Yelled the stallion, pushing his wife behind him in a protective manner. "G-get away! Back!!" He said, closing his eyes shut while fanning his wings like a hand trying to swat away a fly.

"Say, doesn't he look like Professor. Rainbow?" Yona asked curiously.

Smolder nodded, "Yea, He's got that same mane and everything."

"What's "and everything"?" Yona questioned, earning a side-eye from Smolder.

"Y' know. Over supportive parents vibes that caused the brat of a kid to not be properly listened to and in turn cause more damage than good?"

"Hmm, yea, I can kinda see it." Sandbar replied.

This laid-back conversation between the three mysterious figures registered in the two pegasus's minds that maybe the voices that were talking weren't here to do nasty things to them. Slowly opening their eyes, they were greeted by the sight of three of the young six.

"Y-you guys are... you're our Dash's students!" Bow uttered with hope in his voice.

"Bullseye." Smolder flexed.

"Mr. and Ms. Dash we're here to get you out of here." Sandbar reached to pull the two out, finally freeing them from their collapsed house.

"Wait, do Dash's parents share the same last name as her-" Smolder was promptly cut off as a surge of bottomless cursed energy rendered the air unbreathable. The five began to sweat, their flight or fight instincts kicking in.

"Guys!?" Yona shouted in panic, struggling to move her legs.

"O-oi, keep it together, Yona. We've got a-a-a-a p-p-p-plan- Dang it!!" Smolder yelled, punching her trembling thigh and taking a deep breath. But even her throat was shaky.

"W-we gotta hope Y-Yuta can handle w-whatever that w-was..." Sandbar added. "C'mon! The sooner we get outta here, t-the better!" 







Yuta continues falling down to Cloudsdale, cold wind rustling through his hair and clothes in a frenzy. Slitting his wrist, he allowed his blood to flow freely out of his body, before giving Rika the katana for her to store. Right as he passed a certain range, he activated a cursed technique he had copied not too long ago from his battle with the Kyoto Goodwill Event.

He clapped his hands.

In an instant, he was now next to Usowamoto. Stunned the curse tried to raise a portal to prevent Yuta from attacking her from the side, all the while thinking to herself how he managed to teleport next to her. 

and punching the nearby concrete wall imbued with cursed energy in the process.

It was thanks to imbuing the wall he had previously punched with cursed energy that he had used it as a target for "Boogie Woogie". However, that was another mistake that Usowamoto made was expecting Yuta to instantaneously use the same move on her. 

"Don't move!" Switching cursed techniques, Yuta's voice echoed with static noise. His mouth and cheeks now bore the Serpent Eyes and Fangs of the Inumaki clan. As the command says, it strips her of the will to control her body, changing back to Boogie Woogie, Yuta clapped his hands again. 

Now switching the places of Rika and Usowamoto. Forcing her to fall helplessly high up from the sky, spinning in all directions, mixing up her sense of vertigo. This was exactly what Yuta wanted. Clasping his hands together, he manipulated blood to flow from a cut on his wrist he inflicted on himself earlier whilst he was falling into his enclosed palms as he focused on his hopelessly falling target. 

Enhancing the blood flowing from within his own body, he activated Flowing Red Scales, along with amplified reinforcement of his boundless cursed energy to better improve his ciliary muscles and the way his suspensory ligament pulls and relaxes on his lens, automating his visual acuity manually to have better vision looking at far away objects. Similar to that of a manual lens of a high-spec camera. Locking target, Yuta Jets out a Piercing Blood attack towards her with such strength that the building glass around him shattered and caved from the recoil.

Usowamoto tried to readjust her sense of balance, but there's only so much she could do with restricted movements. Then, she realised, a stream of blood racing to her face from her right, along with Rainbow Dash closing in from the other side at mock speeds. A trail of sparkling rainbows followed close behind.