Vinyl had been expecting the entire Terminal to shut down. Hell, she had been told by Oblivion at the beginning that when Vegna was being charged up that this was going to happen sooner or later. The only gateway that was going to be operational was the one that Oblivion was going to open into the heart of the Terminal. He was going to steal the keys and open the way to his own world in one fell swoop, which was going to cause the greatest of chaos ever known.
While she was prepared to deal with the whole invasion of Oblivion's world she knew what else was to come when the gateway opened. Oblivion himself was coming to gather the keys and there was absolutely nothing any of them, not even the Princesses themselves, could do to prevent him from gaining the keys. They were doomed to lose all the keys, but while they lost one opening to defeat Oblivion they had another chance to get him when his gate was open.
Vinyl looked at her allies; the ever destructive Derpy Hooves, the brave Lyra Heartstrings, her ever vigilant partner Octavia, and ... the fez wearing Doctor Hooves? Wait, how had the Doctor gotten into the Terminal and how had he bypassed Vinyl's defenses? At least he wasn't sporting the eyes of Oblivion's allies and was actually standing still by Derpy.
"Doctor, I'm surprised to see you again," Vinyl remarked, looking for the stallion's signature weapon, "Last I heard you were supposed to be dealing with the robotic legions in the World of Machines. How did that go and how the buck did you bypass my defenses?"
"I did quite well," the Doctor replied, pulling out a long covered weapon and placing it before the mare, "I terminated the legions of Clockwerk, which is no small feat I assure you, and found this beauty laying in a pile of scrape metal. Clockwerk was going to have this turned into a weapon to use against us and I decided to bring it to you, the one mare who would appreciate the value of this item."
Vinyl took a look at the package and levitated the cover off, nearly gasping as she recognized what was laying under the cloth. It was a long barreled weapon, made of a fusion of wood and metal, with a single trigger. There were a variety of buttons and nobs around the entire barrel, but the inside of the weapon was what she zeroed in on in an instant. In the direct center rested a crystal, a light blue colored one that was fueled with the power of love, and what appeared to be a dozen connectors that allowed something to gather above the gem.
"This is definitely a beauty," she whispered, nearly lifting her glasses off to get a better look at the weapon, "A cannon containing a powered up shard of a destroyed Crystal Heart, one that had to have been located in the world you found this in. Even the connectors seem to have smaller fragments of the heart embedded in their centers."
"Any idea what this is Vinyl?" Octavia asked, eying the weapon with curiosity.
"I have a perfect idea of what this is," Vinyl replied, running a hoof over the weapon as a wild idea popped into her head, "and I have an even better idea of what to use it for."
~The World of Oblivion~
"Get moving!" Fluttershy yelled, whipping a soldier as the entire line gathered in front of where their enemies would gather, "We have to be ready for when the war begins."
The place where their enemies would gather was across the plateau, a long stretch of land that allowed Lord Oblivion's forces to have a better view point of where the enemy was going to arrive. They had an assortment of weapons aimed at that location, dozens of weapons that would tear Vinyl and her forces to shreds in a matter of seconds. Still, they were prepared to have a defense in case some of the soldiers survived the blasting.
"Give them a break Fluttershy, darling," Rarity said, cleaning her claws, "We don't need broken soldiers to face what could be coming our way."
"Let them come," Rainbow growled, grinding a stone into pure dust, "They must pay for what they did to me, my soldiers, and the Hatebolts."
"Oh Dashie, that was your fault." Pinkamena remarked, her mace hitting the ground and crushing the stone with ease, "Next time you have a day off, if you ever get one again, I suggest you spend the day training your body and mind so the enemy doesn't get the better of you. Of course that also means that the rest of you might as well train yourselves every day to be sure you don't get bested."
"I've been training since day one," Applejack replied, changing her old gun for a cannon sized one, "but I would love to blast them all when they arrive."
"Dear Oblivion they're fighting again." Twilight moaned, the black cloud the surrounded her seemed to lower itself as if they were tied to her emotions, "For once I wish they wouldn't fight over the dumbest of things."
The six were always fighting, it was something that Lord Oblivion never got rid of and so they would fight over everything in every world. That meant everything from whose world it was to which of them would get the most resources for their various home worlds. The one thing that Twilight knew about their enemy was that she didn't trust the wildcard they held, that being their commander Vinyl. That mare was unpredictable at times, so when she appeared from the gate, alone, Twilight wondered what was up this time.
"Yo yo yo, this is DJ PON-3," Vinyl shouted, her voice being carried by her magic as she lifted up the cannon, "and this here is my BASS CANNON."
Before any of Oblivion's soldiers could react Vinyl pressed the trigger and the cannon fired an orb of love energy it had been gathering for the last ten minutes. The pink energy soared past the Elements of Hate and crashed into the evil heart of the fallen Crystal Empire, shattering the large gemstone with ease. The resulting explosive shockwave knocked down all the weapons the enemy had brought to bare and tore a giant hole in the area.
"Where did she get a Crystal Love Cannon?" Twilight shouted, her shield fading as she faced the mare, "None of those are supposed to exist anymore."
"Warriors of Harmony!" Vinyl shouted, a second charge primed and readied as her army appeared behind her, "CHARGE IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS GOOD. CHARGE IN THE NAME OF FAUST!"
The second charge tore through the enemy ranks, tearing apart the armor and flesh like it was nothing compared to the power of love. Thanks to the first blast the cannons were disabled and that allowed the army to flood the Crystal Empire, easily colliding with the enemy. Pony clashed with pony as Shining made his way towards the one pony he wanted to see since the beginning of this whole mess; his little sister. Maybe this one time he could finally breach the barrier of hatred and reach his sister, hopefully to make her see the truth of her actions and turn her on Oblivion.
That was his plan until Pinkamena landed right in front of him, crushing the ground as she heaved her huge mace up in front of her.
"Ah, Co-Commander Shining Armor, I have been waiting to fight you since you turned against us," the draconic mare said, smiling to herself as she prepared for battle, "You tore a hole in Cadence's heart the moment you turned on her and the rest of us. Why would you do that to your ex-wife?"
"Because she helped me escape the hate before it could consume me," Shining answered, a marriage ring appearing on his horn, "I have been wearing this since that day, the day I lost the one mare I gave my heart to. I promised her that I would return and rescue her from the depths of hatred that would have taken root in her heart, no matter what the cost."
"No matter the cost eh?" Pinkamena asked, her mace leveled with the stallion's head, "Then I hope you don't mind being killed in battle like every pony that you have lead here."
Shining barely had time to raise his shields, one magical and one metal, to prevent the mace from passing right into his body and crushing his bones. His shields were supposed to repel the strongest of attacks, but considering he was fighting the Rider of War he wasn't surprised when one began to crack. Pinkamena was, to some extent, exactly like Commander Vinyl reported in terms of strength and power.
"Very good," Pinkamena remarked, almost as if she was toying with him, "A Class-A ranked personal shield spell backed by a mithril shield. Strong defenses, but not enough to stop me."
Shining's spell shattered like it was made of paper as the mace continued through and crushed his shield, the pieces falling as his front left leg was crushed. He screamed in pain as he backed up, his leg limping as the demon pony smiled in what appeared to be glee. On second thought he now realized that the report on Pinkamena was accurate and he had paid the price for being sightly arrogant.
He growled and swung his sword at the mare, who lifted her mace up to block the attack as she got blasted in the direct center of her chest. Now that she wasn't wearing the chest piece that belonged to Vegna her scales were vulnerable, which allowed him to damage her. Pinkamena wounded his leg and he blew a hole in her chest, barely missing her heart by a few inches. He could have taken her out in an instant, but she was lucky he had misjudged the width of the attack.
"Damn you Shining Armor," Pinkamena growled, her spare arm holding the hole where her left lung used to be, "Your lucky that I'm not wearing the chest piece of Vegna, otherwise your attack would have had no effect on me. Too bad for you that the power of hatred is much more powerful than you could possibly comprehend."
Just as the hole suddenly began to heal it abruptly stopped as a pink aura surrounded the wound, preventing the power of hate from running its course. That didn't matter to Pinkamena very much, she could survive without one of her lungs for a few hours. It gave her enough time to kill a couple of her enemies and open a gateway to Twilight's world so she could repair herself.
So that's their weakness, Vinyl realized as she hacked an enemy to pieces, I should have known.
Unfortunately for Shining Armor Pinkamena picked up her mace and threw it right at his chest, the head turning into a blade as it pierced his chest. The mace-turned-sword stuck out of Shining's shield, piercing the magical barrier and his heart at the same time.
"Do you feel death closing her hooves on you?" Pinkamena asked, smirking as she approached the dying stallion, "She's been waiting to get her hooves on those who fight against Lord Oblivion, such as you and her counterpart and the rest of your allies."
"Get away from him you monster!"
Pinkamena was thrown to the side by some strong magic, but when she looked to see who had tossed her to the side she was surprised. Cadence, the Princess of Hatred, was kneeling by her fallen husband. Somehow the old Cadence had broken through and was affecting her judgement, making her relapse.
"There's the Cadence... I fell... in love... with..." Shining wheezed, coughing blood as his wife held him close, "The Cadence... that I promised... that I would... save..."
As the life faded from Shining Armor's eyes Cadence gave him one last kiss, the love that they had shared shattering the hold that Oblivion's hatred had on her. She was going to destroy Oblivion, but first she was going to end the hatred that he had brought to everypony from each and every world. And she was going to start with Pinkamena.