//------------------------------// // Chapter 17: End // Story: Mane Six In the World of Music // by Snakes0 //------------------------------// "Did you know how hollow Mel's words and intentions are? Even his reality alteration magic is nothing but an illusion that tricks the mind into thinking it's real and acts as if it were so. The reason why I am explaining is to tell you that you will find no such gimmick from me," Clef says while wiping away a drop of blood from his face. Clef manifests a violin and with just three strokes he creates five puppets each with an instrument. They are all supported through Clef's melody. Rainbow Dash steps up and takes the lead. Rainbow Dash's wings glow and she zips around trying to disorient Clef and be as unpredictable as possible. The others are doing what they can to support and harmonize with her soul melody. "Well? Aren't you going to strike?" Clef taunts. "Why you!" she says aggravated and strikes Clef and pauses as she was surprised she didn't feel flesh and blood nor armor. Clef's body had been replaced with one of the puppets just before she hit. Suddenly the mane 6 hears Clef start playing Rainbow Dash's soul performance. He gains rainbow dragon wings and Rainbow Dash pauses as if she feels compelled to listen. It was similar to how Mel did it... But it highlighted all her mistakes and regrets making her remember those haunting bad memories that will forever leave a mark. The music brings forth the memories that had loosened their hold over her life after spending time with Twilight and the rest and when she started healing. Mel had undone it. "N-no! I'm the Element of Loyalty! I'm n-not..." Rainbow says shaking. "Loyalty? Hardly. You are loyal to yourself. A simple glance at your soul reveals everything. You are a narcissistic pegasus who complies with your friend's requests when you rather do something else because it is a necessary "chore" in your friendship." Rainbow Dash winces as she knows it is partially true. She silently and for just a moment wished she had no ego. Rainbow Dash suddenly turns into a puppet as she allows her past mistakes to become the puppet strings that Clef is puppets. The mane 6 is baffled. Rainbow Dash maintains her own melody though now to Clef's tone. "No!" They shout as they witness what happened. "Is that all it takes to make you all crumble? Let's move on then and expose your true natures," Clef says. He knows that he can intercept anything they do by themselves and do the same as he did to Rainbow Dash. The group knows this too and changed up. Twilight, Applejack, and Fluttershy harmonize their songs while Pinkie Pie tries to harmonize with Rarity. Nature starts to take over and vines and roots grow and lunge while a sparkling blizzard forms and sends colorful crystals toward Clef. "You should have done that from the start. It won't work." Clef says as he harmonizes or in this sense directly takes control of Rainbow Dash's melody and imbuing it with the primordial song of fire. Rainbow Dash flaps her wings and flew in a spiral creating a flaming vortex that evaporates the colorful blizzard and burns away the roots and vines. "Ok. I'm done playing. I'm not going to target each of you and give you time to make a plan." Clef says as he changes his instrument and melody to Twilight's. Twilight feels a chill and she can't move or sing as she starts to have her sins and mistakes replay. Twilight realizes it was a mental attack by trying to warp her own experiences and use them against her. She quickly reaffirms over and over that she is Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship and the Element of Magic and she has her friends at her side. "It's pointless to raise your mental guard. Princess of Friendship? Friendship is magic? How tedious." Twilight is haunted by her mistakes. The memories of her forgetting her old friends at Canterlot, her arrogant attitude before coming to Ponyville thinking she was better than everypony else and had nothing to learn from them, The times she kept trying to push her ideals and interests onto her friends, all the harmful things she said before being captured by Tempest. All the times when she was a hypocrite and the times she hasn't truly forgiven others while forgiving others. "I... Made many mistakes... But I'm-" "Let me finish for you Princess. You never wanted to become a princess. You never wanted to be the princess of friendship. You hated it. You just wanted to selfishly stay with your group of friends and go on fantasy adventures rather than sit on a throne and guide your kind to a bright future." Clef interrupts Twilight to hammer the nail in deeper as she is about to become a puppet to her own bad memories. Applejack stomps her hooves in an angry rhythm, "Shut ya mouth! Friendship ain't selfish! What would ya know of friendship?!" "Twilight has stepped up to her duties! She still gets to hang out with us. No matter what you say our friendship isn't that fragile darling." Rarity expresses singing to Applejack's rhythm. "Twilight gets to be a super awesome princess! If she can't hang out in Ponyville we'll just have to visit her often!" Pinkie Pie says cheerfully clapping along. "Twilight is kind... She puts others before herself. She knows that the future will be different and that is scary... But she will never be alone." Fluttershy says as she also claps along. "Guys... Thank you for believing me!" Twilight says wiping away tears before her eyes widen in horror. The group follows her gaze and where mortified. Clef had Rainbow Dash impaled on a spear while they were talking. "No. Don't let me stop you. Keep having your conversation in this battle. Go on. See what happens." The group backs up. They lost the spark of determination. Despair sets in as they know even if they win it will be a hollow victory and the fear of death looms over them as for the first time they got a wake-up call that death is very much a real danger. They remember Discord's warning and despair further as the chance of an afterlife was also taken from her. Clef walks away. He knows they are done for and he succeeded in his plan. He could leave and take over and control the song of creation itself. It didn't matter where he did it so he didn't bother teleporting somewhere isolated. He mocks them one last time by playing all of their Soul Songs at once and he takes on attributes of all of them as he activates dragonification and starts connecting himself with the Song of Creation. "We... We... Failed... Rainbow Dash..." Fluttershy says before breaking down into tears which quickly made them all tear up. Applejack cries, "That monster... It wasn't enough for us to suffer by draggin' us through the mud and our mistakes?!" The others were quiet or sobbing too much to say anything. Mel watched from where he was pinned to the wall with a spear. He knew what had to be done. Even if it did nothing in the end. Even if they aren't likely to win he knows all too well the pain of loss and he made a promise. Mel sings his soul song. A tale of his joy and his sorrow. He hides nothing. His pain, and his mistakes, but doesn't undermine the good and reveals everything forcing himself not to cough up blood while singing and only on pauses. His song changes reality even if it is a faint illusion it allowed the impossible to occur. The spear vanishes and Rainbow Dash turns back to normal. Every note was painful and forcing himself to sing and imbue it with magic quickly hastened his death. Instead of final words, he would finish the performance which would reflect his guiding nature. He has given them one more chance and with one final fading note he closes his eyes. The group hugs Rainbow Dash. "Ow... I'm sore everywhere..." Rainbow Dash complains. Her strength and will were renewed. Mel's performance undid the highlighting of their past and drew their attention to the future and hope that they could be better and different from how they once were. They turn to Mel but his body was no longer there. They were about to despair but the lingering death notes of Mel's final performance would not let them. It was as if he wasn't gone just watching over them and was there aiding them even from the beyond. And that was when the group finally understood why they couldn't fully harmonize. Their hearts were in the right place, but they weren't true to themselves and tried to hide their flaws and it was only now after Clef had exposed and forcibly brought forth some of their flaws and contradictions that they realize that they were scared to admit certain facts and hidden thoughts to each other. "Um... You all are still ok with me? E-even if I-" Rainbow Dash starts. "Of course. You are our friend. That goes for everypony. We all made mistakes at one point and sometimes we had moments where we weren't being true to ourselves... But I accept you all no matter what. No matter what any of you have done, thought, or said in the past. Rainbow Dash... We thought we lost you... We kept secrets and brushed off the bad and that came back to bite us and that is why... We must move forward..." Twilight says closing her eyes before opening her eyes with determination. She looks around and sees that everypony nods and agrees. They would make peace with their past and they will become closer than ever because of it. Meanwhile, Clef is branching himself and adding himself to the harmony that made up reality, The Song of Creation. He suddenly feels a melody picking up that intensifies more and more. He turns and sees that The Mane 6 had Rainbowfied. He ignores them and turns back to focus and sings in draconic and applies his will to the song of creation. The Mane 6 are enveloped in a dark sphere which was a demi-plane where they would have to fight a clone copy of Discord, Sombra, Empowered Chrysalis, and The Pony of Shadows. He thought that would keep them busy. The Demiplane faded and turned into a wave of calm. Fluttershy's harmonized Soul Song brought out the best and kindness in the clone copies who had the memories and personalities of the originals and they turned into a wave of peace and kindness. Clef who wasn't very expressive or overly emotional was still affected by it. He was going to kill them and make it painful if they resisted but now he "lost his appetite" for Death. Clef applies a new song and the Song of Creations responds. The Mane 6 were being undone and their souls were being unwoven as their contradictions and past came back. They were ready this time and their song transitioned to Rainbow Dash taking the lead. Rainbow Dash's Harmonized Soul Song kept them all together. A wave that restores what was damaged back to normal comes out of Rainbow Dash. Clef now "lost his appetite" for Manipulation. "Leave. This has nothing to do with you all. Outsiders will inevitably harm worlds not designed for them." Clef demands. "Darling, you need to learn that not all outsiders are the same. We didn't come here to be heroes. Perhaps it is you who needs to look inward and realize that in general others are generous and have good intentions." Rarity refuted as it was her turn to lead the song. Clef starts to wonder if he is going too far for peace. He wonders why they haven't attacked. He puts his guard up as Applejack took over to lead. He then realizes they were trying to reform him despite what he did. They were mad at him, but they somehow knew there was something worth saving in him. An aura of Kindness, Loyalty, Generosity, and now Honesty overlap the area and bring back memories of the past when he was more innocent. He realized he had stopped connecting to the Song of Creation subconsciously. Pinkie Pie's turn came and she lead with her Harmonized Soul Song. The memories of the past were his only source of joy and he wanted to cling to them and he blamed the cruelty of reality for the end of those days. He wanted to use the Song of Creation to force that view of peace, happiness, and ignorance on others. Those memories were his motivation and now he was reminded once again of his goals. His dragon form dissipates. He knows even if they somehow redeemed him he would always be tempted to return to this same goal and with his lifespan it would be inevitable. He turns to The Mane 6. "This makes little sense. Where is the puppet master controlling your strings? There is no way after experiencing true despair and death that you can still act as you all are doing now. You all act as if you know me. Ah... Mel. I see. So what are you all going to do now? Shoot me with a rainbow beam of friendship? Go ahead. It better kill. Because even if I do change there will always be the possibility I return to my old ways," Clef says to Twilight. Clef expects Twilight to then take the lead and use her harmonized Soul Song, yet nothing. No magic rainbows, no insane feats of magic. It suddenly clicked. Twilight had been singing this entire time. Her true and harmonized Soul Song was the combination of all of them together rather than just her alone. He sighs as he accepted his defeat. He was stronger. He could submerge cities in an ocean of fire, freeze entire oceans, and more but he ran out of reasons to fight. All this self-reflection made him realize he can try to create peace with his own power and didn't need to force it unto others. Clef played one final note to create a portal and he leaves without a word. "That was so anti-climatic. If it wasn't for Mel's final wishes for us to try and redeem him I would have totally kicked his butt," Rainbow Dash says sighing with relief now that it was over. Fluttershy nods, "Mel let us see Clef's soul... If we couldn't then we wouldn't have been able to get through to him... But now I think he is going to find himself and become a better pon- err... Person." Applejack huffs, "I'd rather kick his hide to next Tuesday. He got off scot-free despite his actions! Sigh... This was one tragic adventure." "Oooh! Ooh! Everypony! Look! It's the ghost of Mel!" Shouts Pinkie Pie. Everypony turns and sees a translucent figure of Mel. Their harmonies allowed him to manifest for a time. "I must thank you all. Harmony has been restored. I am at peace. I think I might choose to be reincarnated in Equestria. But seriously... Thank you. I'll be going now." Mel says before he fades. "I don't know. I think this was a success. But for the record Darlings, I think we shouldn't do this again." Rarity says half joking and half meaning it. Twilight smiles and they return back home.