//------------------------------//
// Hoof of Legend: Scootaloo Must Die 
// Story: Atlas Strongest Tournament 
// by Bico 
//------------------------------//


ATLAS STRONGEST TOURNAMENT
~BICO
PART 11: HOOF OF LEGEND
ACT II: SCOOTALOO MUST DIE


A peal of thunder turned the gathered crowd's heads to the sky, where their eyes were soon met with a flash of cerise light. Floating above the Everfree's canopy, Scootaloo looked down upon the tournament contestants who had circled around the sinkhole where the changelings' tower had once stood. When the sparkling smoke that had followed her coalesced into the form of Princess Luna, she twitched her ear in acknowledgement.

"It seems the entrance to Chrysalis' stronghold is... obscured," Luna observed. She began to descend to the ground, and Scootaloo followed. "What is the current situation, my little ponies?"

"Princess," Spitfire hailed as she offered a sharp salute. "I'm afraid we were ambushed by a dragon in the forest. It chased us here, where Princess Twilight discovered a hidden tower. She and ten others managed to make it inside, but the tower sank into the ground before the rest of us could follow. We've made several attempts at excavation, but so far we've been unsuccessful in breaching the compound."

Luna returned the salute and the Wonderbolts leader relaxed. "Thank you for your report. I believe young Scootaloo and I can lend a helping hoof in this endeavor."

"Princess?" Scootaloo said. "How are we going to dig up a whole tower?"

Luna gave Scootaloo a sidelong glance and smirked. "Oh, I don't think we'll have to dig it out..."





Chrysalis scowled at Argent's face, which looked far from the handsome visage it had been before his fateful encounter with Twilight Sparkle and Trixie Lulamoon. "You haven't found the imposter's body?"

Argent snorted. "If you mean Trixie... well, I think she'd be considered the genuine article, wouldn't she? That is, she was supposed to be an imposter and..."

"Shut up," Chrysalis said, massaging the bridge of her muzzle with a holey hoof. "Don't care. You've subdued Sparkle, though, have you not?"

"She put up quite a fight, surprisingly enough," Argent replied, glancing off-screen to his left. "But, yes, after beating everypony else to a pulp, Lao Wu managed to knock her out."

Chrysalis sneered. "Well, then, it's not a total loss. Luna's little spy can lick her wounds, as I've no doubt she is. Bring the littlest princess to me. I'll drain her of every last drop of magic right in front of Spike, and then he shall let the Rainbow of Darkness take hold, and with that power at our disposal, we can take not only Equestria, but all the Atlantean continent!"

Argent was silent for a moment, his face tight with anticipation. "... I'm sorry, were you planning on laughing maniacally just there?" he said.

"Eh," Chrysalis replied noncommittally. "It doesn't quite feel right. Maybe some other time."

"As Your Highness desires," Argent said with a curt bow. "We shall continue to mop up the remaining insurgents." With that, his image faded.

Chrysalis frowned and tapped the globe. A new scene formed in its depths, showing a large, purple dragon thrashing at a smaller, armored Triton who was stabbing at him mercilessly with his trident. "Those idiots," she muttered. She winced as she saw Spike's massive hands clap together as Beach Comber leaped through the air, smashing him between Spike's palms. Spike looked into one hand, where Beach's body was embedded, and he made a disgusted face before wiping the body off on the sand. "Okay..." Chrysalis grumbled. "I'd hoped being infused with the power of Darkness would focus these idiots, but it seems like it's just made them more volatile. No matter... hey, you little larva, how about focusing some of that aggression on those two little foals sitting back and enjoying the show?"

The changeling Spike straightened, and looked around as he heard Chrysalis' voice, but couldn't see her. "Mom... my?"

Chrysalis growled. "Don't look around for me, I'm not there. Just do what I say, and Mommy will get you a nice treat later, okay?"

A razor-sharp grin cracked the fake Spike's face.





"Uh... Wavedancer?" Scales said, prodding her friend. "Looks like big, dumb, and purple remembered what he was here for." She got on her feet, bracing herself as the smoke-belching giant plodded down upon them. "Alright, if we double team him we'll bring him to his knees, easy."

Flanking Spike's huge doppelgänger, Wavedancer called back. "I'll take his rear, you take him head on and keep him busy." She splashed into the water and out toward the ocean depths.

"Yeah," Scales said weakly as she sized up her opponent. "I'll just take on a crazy dragon that's, like, fifty times my size. That's cool. I've done that before." She saw the changeling Spike begin to stomp toward the sea as he noticed Wavedancer swimming away, and she sprang into action. "Oh, no you don't! You're all mine, Spikey." She leaped onto his calf and sped up his leg. Taking careful aim, she sank her sharpened claws between the scales of his voluminous backside, eliciting a pained roar. "That's right! No ignoring Princess Scalestasia Finabella Hea—"

The changeling Spike cut her off with a swipe of his tail, and he turned his full attention upon her. He bellowed a gout of black fire at her, but she dove behind a large boulder near the cliff that overlooked the beach. "Rodi's royal rump," she swore. "You really need a mint, Spike." When the jet of flame ceased as its source paused to gasp in much needed oxygen, she shot into the air, taking advantage of her aerial mobility to buzz Spike with her own fireballs. "Death from above!" she declared.

Spike waved his arms around wardingly, irritated by the tiny flier more than anything. He growled and shot his hand out grabbing Scales out of midair as she flew just within reach. He brought her right up to his face and unleashed his loudest and most terrifying roar, blowing her spines back with the force.

The dank, sulphuric smell of the Spike clone's breath wrinkled Scales' snout. "Blegh. I believe I must reiterate my earlier comment regarding that mint."

The changeling Spike raised a brow at this, baffled by Scales' nonchalance. The moment he took to consider this behavior suddenly alerted him to several new facts. The first was that his feet were now completely dry, whereas a minute before his feet had been immersed in seawater in this very location. Next, there was a distinct rushing sound growing by the moment. Finally, a dark shadow had just fallen upon them. Finding enough intelligence within his greed-addled brain to become suspicious, Spike's copy turned and looked over his shoulder.

"Surf's up!" Wavedancer cried as she rode one of the biggest tidal waves she had produced in her life. She spotted Scales in the changeling Spike's claw, and she leaped for her as the water came crashing down. She struck the thick wrist with her hooves, forcing the stunned Spike to release his grip, and then she wrapped her arms around Scales, blowing a protective bubble around them as the sea enveloped all three of them.

Scales and Wavedancer clung to each other tightly as their bubble bounced along the submerged beach. Scales locked eyes with Wavedancer and after a moment's hesitation spoke as softly as possible over the rushing water. "Wavedancer? I need to tell you something just in case we don't make it. I've always sort of had a cru—" She was cut off when Wavedancer put a hoof to her mouth, smiling as her eyes shimmered with tears.

"I know," Wavedancer said, ignoring the turbulence as their bubble bounced violently against a rock.

"Huh," Scales said with an embarrassed grin. "Well, I'm glad I got it out in the open about my feelings for Spike."

"Huh?" Wavedancer said, her forehead pinching in confusion. Her brows shot up. "Oh! Yeah, for Spike. Right."

Scales chuckled. "Why, what did you think I was talking about?"

Wavedancer's face darkened and she looked away. "N-nothi—" She was cut off as the bubble collided with a particularly pointy outcropping. It popped, and water crashed down around them, smashing them hard into the stony wall.

The sea water receded, leaving Scales and Wavedancer sprawled out on the sand not far from the laid out purple hulk that had taken the brunt of the tidal wave. The changeling Spike stirred, however, and opened his eyes, glaring fiercely at the two unconscious girls. He reached out a claw and dug it into the ground, dragging his massive body toward them. "Spike... want..."

The tinkling of a sweet chord stopped the fake Spike's progress, and his eyes widened. As the sound of a beautiful voice joined the strumming, he felt a pall of drowsiness settle over him. He scanned the beach lethargically for the source of the sound, and finally found it in the form of two unicorn mares, one playing a lyre wrapped in golden magic while the other sang, her horn glowing green as she did. They seemed to get larger as they played, or, from the look of the seemingly expanding groove in the sand where his body lay, he was getting smaller. His eyes began to clear until they were a dull gray. His energy had ebbed so much that he barely reacted when the sound of galloping hooves upon the sand reached his ears.

Apple Bloom and Babs Seed leaped from either side over Spike, who was now barely twice the size of the average adult pony, and landed with their backs facing each other, standing on their hind legs. "The Ponies' Elbow!" they cried, falling back with their arms hooked. Their elbows simultaneously landed on the changeling Spike's neck, knocking him out.

"Aww, yeah!" Apple Bloom cheered, hopping to her hooves.

Babs stood as well, rearing up and pumping her forelimbs. "Can you sme-e-e-e-e-e-ell..."

"What the Apples..." Apple Bloom continued.

"Are cookin'!" Babs concluded, taking her place at Apple Bloom's side and giving their audience a simultaneous eyebrow raise.

Sweetie Belle clopped her hooves together with a grin. "Wow, that was pretty impressive."

"Hey, fugetaboutit," Babs said, prancing over to Sweetie and Lyra with Apple Bloom trailing behind her. "I'm just happy I got to get in a winnin' blow." She looked back at the false Spike, who had now shrunk back to normal proportions. "Looks like that guy's down an' out. Means we ain't got nothin' else in between us an' Queen Blunderbuss up there."

Lyra opened her mouth to reply, when a rainbow blur streaked in front of her, taking her lyre from her grasp. She gasped, but before she could react, a sharp pain shot through the back of her head and she collapsed to the ground, revealing a cleaned up but still rough-looking Rarity levitating a large rock with her magic. "A lady does not sucker punch," she said to the unconscious Lyra. She smirked. "However, turnabout is fair play."

Sweetie Belle breathed deeply, preparing for a loud scream, but dragon smoke suddenly surrounded her, and she sucked in the rancid pollutant. She coughed violently, fighting for air as her eyes watered, and she was given a swift chop to the back of her neck by Lao Wu.

Ran Biao's changeling landed between the two Apple cousins and bucked Babs in the gut. Seeing Apple Bloom drawing her Apple Rifle, she then set it ablaze with her breath while simultaneously kicking Babs in the head, knocking her out cold. She charged at Apple Bloom, striking her in between the eyes with the top of her head. She grinned fiercely upon hearing a satisfying crunch and seeing her foe collapse to the ground, moaning pitifully. "Was too, too easy," she said. She turned to Master Wu's clone and shot him a sour look. "Gau tzeng tzu fu, did little singer tire you? It would have been my honor to take them all out at once. No problem."

"No problem, indeed," Lao Wu's copy said with a snort. "We gather these ones up and cocoon them, now. Will soon have plenty of new warriors for Her Majesty's conquering army." His eyes narrowed as he saw the changeling copies of Spike and Beach Comber still laying prone in the sand. "Revive stupid ones, too. Even with no horse sense, still will be useful. And…" his expression softened marginally. "Still family."

The false Ran Biao nodded curtly and executed Lao Wu's orders.











Luna's horn was beginning to ice over as the blue beam emanating from it continued to pour into the deep ditch the Diamond Dogs had dug in their attempts to reach the changelings' tower. At this point, the soil within the hole was frozen solid, the moisture within the dirt having expanded into ice several meters deep. She cut off her spell and breathed deeply as she recovered her energy. "That should be sufficient."

"Alright!" Scootaloo replied, flapping her wings excitedly. This caused her flight aura to burst outward, singeing Luna's fur. "Oh... sorry."

"It is... fine, young Scootaloo," Luna replied, patting her frizzed hair down with her silver shod hoof. "Simply make a path for us into Queen Chrysalis' lair with your Jupiter Lance. The ice will ease your travel through the earth."

"You sure this is gonna work?" Scootaloo said with a grimace as she eyed the frozen ditch. "I mean... I know this move can cut near pretty much anything, but..."

Luna nodded with a light smile. "I am intimately familiar with this technique's limitations. It takes a prodigious amount of skill, but it is quite possible to pass through the earth and into the tower using the Jupiter Lance. I shall be with you as well." With that, her body vaporized into a sparkling mist and she surrounded Scootaloo's body, letting herself be breathed into her lungs.

"Whoa, this is weird," Scootaloo said with a shiver as Luna's icy essence settled within. "I never thought I'd have Princess Luna inside me." She shook her head and flew into the clouds, determined to complete her task. She began to manipulate her aura into concentrating the lightning of the Jupiter Wave Orb in front of her, the eddies forming a glowing triskelion as she began her dive. She picked up speed, the symbol in front of her growing brighter and her vision tunneling. As she approached the icy hole, she thrust her hoof forward, and thunder pealed through the air as the lightning shot forward like a blade and she felt her own body shifting into an energy form.

The cerise bolt of lightning struck the ground, burning through the ice all the way to the peak of the buried tower. The atomic point of the Jupiter Lance pierced the onyx roof of the structure. Scootaloo's heart leaped into her throat as elation at having successfully infiltrated her enemy's lair filled her.





"Dam!" Aurelia cried.

"What is it?" Chrysalis responded, diverting her attention from her Argent, who was delivering a report as their captives were being transported to the top level.

Aurelia turned from her viewing globe with a tight expression. "Scootaloo has breached the roof of the tower. I don't know how... she didn't have that kind of raw power before. She'll break through to where we're keeping the captives, though."

"That won't do," Chrysalis said. Her horn glowed and a stone cylinder rose from the floor with arcane symbols written upon it. She began to tap on the symbols like keys on a typewriter, the stones on which they were inscribed lighting up briefly as she did. "That's the good thing about having an entire tower built with whole levels of time and relative dimensions in space. It's quite easy to reshuffle." A whooshing sound filled the air for a moment before it died down, and in the next instant, a bolt of lightning burst from the ceiling, exploding between Chrysalis and her daughter and resolving into the physical body of Scootaloo.

"I've come to save Spike!" Scootaloo declared.

"Sorry, Scootasuck," Aurelia commented, smirking out of Scootaloo's own visage. "But your dragon is on another level."

As Scootaloo scraped the floor aggressively with her front hoof and snorted, Luna's body reformed from starry mist. She turned to regard the Changeling Queen with an unamused expression. "You call yourself Chrysalis, yes? I'm rather cross that you would impersonate me in my absence."

"Oh?" Chrysalis asked, putting a hoof to her mouth in mock scandal. "Well, perhaps you shouldn't make abandoning your friends such a habit." Her face twisted into a facetious grin as she rose to her full height. "Most interesting behavior coming from the former bearer of the Element of Loyalty. I guess there's a reason you're no longer connected to it."

Luna bristled. "You shall relinquish your captives now or face my wrath, daughter of Darkness."

"I suppose that makes us sisters," Chrysalis said, cocking her head to the side smarmily. "Sisters really shouldn't fight, should they?"

Luna stomped a hoof on the ground and from the floor a bright blue light flashed as a scythe with a blade as long as Luna's barrel and a handle twice that size rose out of it. "Enough of this castigatory parlance. Have at thee!" She hoisted the scythe with her magic and charged.

Hissing, Chrysalis reared up and caught the point of Luna's blade in the hole of her foreleg, jerking it aside and delivering a forward kick to Luna's barrel. Releasing the scythe, she leaped into the air, gossamer wings buzzing as she twirled around and smashed her rear leg into her foe's temple in a midair buck. She landed gracefully on her hind hooves, laughing as she watched Luna stumble back before regaining her hoofing. "Foolish princess! I may not have the power that allowed me to best your sister, but with all the fighting spirit I've absorbed from the tournament and the tower fights, I still have enough to best you."

Luna wiped her mouth and spat, giving the queen of the changelings a smirk. "My sister may far outclass me in raw magical power, and you may well, too. However, neither she nor you are true warriors, of that I am certain. I, on the other hoof…" She broke into a gallop, her horn blasting an icy beam of magic into the floor in front of her.

With a step backward, Chrysalis readied herself for the attack, but Luna teleported at the last moment. Anticipating the next move, she spun around and struck blindly. Her hoof passed through a starry mane while Luna ducked under the attack, striking at Chrysalis' hooves with the butt of her scythe. She wobbled, unsteadied by the combination of her overcommitment to her punch and the low attack, and her opponent took the opportunity to deliver a heavy strike at her core. She found herself sliding back on the ice that Luna had conjured behind her and flailed in vain to regain her hoofing.

The ice allowed Luna to quickly close in on her foe as she skated upon it with her silver-shod hooves, and with a wide sweep of her scythe she caught the changeling queen with her blade. The edge only cut a shallow groove in her opponent's carapace, but Luna followed up with a flying kick which sent Chrysalis flying into the wall, shattering it like glass. Luna landed on her hooves and rested her scythe casually over her withers. "I did not officiate the Atlas Strongest Tournament for nothing, my dear queen."

Chrysalis coughed as she pulled herself out of the rubble of the wall, which had revealed the dining chamber where several changelings had been going about their business. One, who had been sitting at the table lightly sipping a glowing green liquid out of a Chardonnay glass, popped her monocle. "Oh, my word!" she exclaimed. She and the other assembled changelings quickly evacuated the premises upon receiving an acidic glance from their queen.

"Argent!" Chrysalis spat, turning back to the changeling garbed in unicorn flesh.

"I will assist you, my queen!" the changeling Argent declared, preparing an attack spell.

Chrysalis snorted. "No, you foal. Get to the dungeon. We must not delay our plans any further. Meanwhile… I will teach this silly little princess the proper etiquette when dealing with her superiors."

Argent's copy gave his queen a sharp salute and galloped away, leaving the two royals to face off once again.

Luna snorted. "Are we warmed up, yet?" she asked with derision.

"Oh, yes," Chrysalis responded, her voice thick with sardonicism. "It's time to get seri—" She was cut off when the room erupted with unleashed power.

Luna turned her face away from the blast, but grinned warmly. "It seems as if young Scootaloo and your daughter are getting serious as well."

True to Luna's observation, Scootaloo and her double were skimming along the ground at dizzying speeds, juking around furniture and away from the walls at only the last possible moment as they traded blows. Lightning crackled from their limbs with each strike, and Scootaloo's aura visibly flared, dwarfing Aurelia's own as they continued to fight.

Aurelia growled as she unleashed a flurry of punches upon her foe, but Scootaloo's body would flicker with a bright light and seemed to teleport out of the way of each punch. How can she be so fast? Aurelia thought. I can't even see her move. I can't predict her moves!

An intense flash blinded Aurelia momentarily as Scootaloo moved once more, but this time she seemed to disappear completely. Before she could react, Scootaloo roundhoused her in the back of the head, sending her crashing into Chrysalis' throne, cracking it in two.

The pain that wracked Aurelia's body was dutifully ignored as she rose back to her hooves with a determined fire in her eyes. She didn't even allow herself a groan as she launched herself back into the air. Her mind, however, raced even as her body moved on pure instinct. How is she so much faster? Aurelia wondered. I'm absorbing her fighting spirit even as we speak, and yet she's overpowering me easily. As she reengaged Scootaloo, she received a fresh dose of energy, and her mind was suddenly filled with pain as she vividly recalled chains wrapped around her body, rubbing her skin raw and pulling her joints out of their sockets as her insides melted in a roaring internal flame. She gasped but was unable to breathe, and her mind didn't even register the blows that Scootaloo rained down upon her.

Puzzled by her foe's unresponsiveness, Scootaloo hesitated. "Wh-what's up with you? Are you giving up?"

Aurelia's mouth hung open for a moment as she floated in the air, and then she violently coughed. Tears stung her eyes as she gulped oxygen into her lungs and stared with a disconcerting expression of awe at Scootaloo. "I... I see... you... you..." She swallowed loudly before continuing. "You cheated!"

"Huh?" Scootaloo said, her face pinching in confusion.

Rising higher into the air as she folded her arms across her barrel, Aurelia scowled down at Scootaloo. "That's why I can't keep up all of a sudden. I'm absorbing your abilities through your fighting spirit, but you have another source of power inside. That Jupiter Wave Orb is feeding you all kinds of extra power, and since it doesn't originally come from you I can't use it."

"Looks like you're out of luck, then," Scootaloo said with a smirk. "Might as well give up, now."

Aurelia grit her teeth. "Don't be so cocky. I may only be able to use the powers of other ponies, but... yours isn't the only skill set I can use!" A dark aura began to swirl around her, and violently bloomed as she reached out to her compatriots. "I will defeat you with the power of all your pony friends combined!"





Spike jolted awake as a familiar cry pierced the heavy veil over his consciousness. He found himself back in the cocoon chamber which was lit in a dim and sickly green light. He was no longer encased in a cocoon, but was shackled to the floor. Not far from him his best friend and closest thing to family he had lay prone, her mane and fur a dirty mess. She was conscious but too weak to move and appeared to be trapped in a magic circle inscribed upon the floor.

"Glad to see you back among the living, Spike," the clone of Argent said smoothly. "I wouldn't want you to miss what we're about to do to your... maternal figure?"

Spike hesitated. "Uh, well... technically, Princess Celestia's my mom. Or 'guardian,' I guess. Twilight hatched me, though, and was always there with me since I was born. Let's just say it's complicated."

"Regardless," Argent said with a snort. "I'd like to show you something. You may recognize these." He levitated five roughly cut stones of various shades running from a medium gray to nearly black.

"No," Spike said, recognition sparking in his eyes. "It can't be. I thought those were lost. Those... those are dangerous!"

"Indeed," Argent confirmed, lowering each one into a circle drawn at equidistant points around Twilight's containment circle. "They hold some of Erebos' Darkness of their own, though nowhere near the scale that the Elements of Harmony held Aether's Light. Still, they have a useful property when used together..."

A cold wind whipped through the chamber and the lights dimmed even further. Dark smoke spewed from the eyes, noses, mouths and ears of each of the changelings, and they swayed unsteadily. Their black sclerea became pure white, free of even the smallest blemish. They all blinked and looked at each other in confusion for a moment.

A wary expression set upon Spike's face as he took this turn of events in. "Something wrong, Captain Javelin?"

"Of... of course not," Argent's copy said with a laugh. His eyes darted from side to side, unwilling to meet Spike's gaze. "Our princess is, as usual, ahead of the curve. As I was saying, these artifacts are attracted to great sources of magic, like your friend, here. The Darkness empowering us might have caused them to drain us, and as it is we do not currently require that power." He snorted irately. "Still… she needn't have taken quite so much…"

Spike clenched his fists and pulled his wrists against the shackles experimentally. "Is that right?"

"Don't worry," the copy of Argent said confidently, closing his eyes and smiling with satisfaction. "They won't injure her. Well… for certain definitions of 'injure'."

"I won't let you!" Spike cried as he lunged forward, heedless of his restraints. He strained against the chains that bound him with all his might, breathing green flame.

"Spike…" Twilight said wearily as she struggled to a kneeling position, her breath short. "Don't…"

The air around the monochrome stones began to darken, and a black ribbon snaked out, with only a greenish, purplish yellow glow to highlight its edges. The black magic encircled Twilight, whose eyes flashed red as purple smoke began to pour out of them. Her alicorn magic began to burble out of her horn, and she screamed as it was forcefully pulled in five different directions.





When the miniature dark storm cleared, Aurelia was wearing the body of Rainbow Dash. Her eyes still retained Scootaloo's purple coloration, however, but the whites of her eyes had now turned pure black. "How's this, Scootaloo? Now I have all of your mentor's speed along with your talent."  Her voice sounded like Rainbow's, but her voice was distorted and reverberated much like her mother's.

"Wh-what?" Scootaloo took a step back, her wings flaring. "Th-that's not…"

"'Possible'?" Aurelia suggested with a smirk. "You're about to see exactly what's possible." She seemed to dissolve into a rainbow streak which painted a multicolored path through the air toward Scootaloo.

Luna dropped her belly to the floor as two pony-shaped missiles of magical energy flew over her ethereal mane. She was quickly forced to roll to the side as Chrysalis then took advantage of her momentary distraction to take a potshot at her with her changeling magic. She sprang back to her hooves and backhooved another blast, her earth pony aura tracing a glittering arch as she did. She saw Chrysalis' haunches tense as her foe prepared to lunge at her, and she snarled contemptuously. Her horn lit up and a circle of blue magic formed below Chrysalis' holey hooves.

The chain holding up the chandelier above Chrysalis groaned as Luna's spell went into effect. Chrysalis, herself, taken off guard by the sudden change, hit her chin hard on the ground. She strained to rise, but her muscles were unable to compensate for the addition of ten times the usual weight.

A blue glow surrounded Luna an instant later, and she felt her own weight lift off of her. She leaped up to the ceiling, the increased gravity having no affect on her as she kicked the chain of the chandelier, causing the light fixture to break free and fall quickly to the ground. Luna dispelled the magic keeping her aloft and followed it down, simultaneously casting anvil fall on herself. She caught up with the chandelier before it hit Chrysalis, pushing it down even faster and striking her foe with enough force to crack the floor. Luna allowed her magic to dissipate and she backflipped off of the broken decoration, tapping down on the ground several meters away.

Chrysalis hissed and her magic exploded around her, tearing the candelabrum apart. "You won't defeat the queen of all changelings that easily, Princess Luna!" She whipped her head back and forth, and caught sight of Luna pondering thoughtfully over the stone cylinder that protruded from the floor before Chrysalis' broken throne. "You… you get away from there!"

Luna gave Chrysalis a sidelong grin. "You know… I have a very old friend with one of these. Let's say… I'm familiar with its operation." She gave one of the buttons a casual tap and it began to glow, a whooshing sound filling the hall. "Aha. Just what I thought. Let's unpack this little place, shall we?"

"N-no, stop!" Chrysalis cried, her horn bursting into green flames. "You don't know what you're doing!"

"Bet I do," Luna replied with a quirk of her brow. She gave one last button a purposeful push and the throne room began to rumble.











Before any pony noticed a change, the Diamond Dogs popped out of the ground and began to run for the trees. This unusual behavior was immediately followed up by a light trembling of the ground which built in strength until the ground-bound fighters were thrown to their stomachs while the flying types were forced to take wing. The earth around the burnt hole that Scootaloo's Jupiter Lance had caused collapsed into the depths, the hole widening rapidly. Panicked land dwellers crawled for their lives away from the widening chasm, and while some were far enough away to make it beyond the radius of the sinkhole and some were rescued by their airborne compatriots, many tumbled into the darkness.

When the shaking stopped and the hole ceased its growth, those who had escaped its reach looked cautiously within. The crevice was fairly deep, but the bottom was visible, lit by a ring of magical light that revealed the writhing form of an alicorn, whose cries of pain were just reaching their ears.

Argent's copy snarled as he looked around at the new arrivals who had fallen into the chamber as they struggled wearily upright. "This is inconvenient. Hey, how about you guys go run interference for us while we finish draining the princess." He gave his compatriots a sharp-fanged grin in encouragement, at which point the other changelings bolted toward the various targets littering the ground. He turned to Spike and gave a sigh. "Well, it looks like we're going to have to speed things up. Too bad, it's going to make it much more painful for your precious friend, here." He looked over his shoulder at Twilight, who thrashed on the ground and screamed as the dark magic intensified. "At least it will be over quicker, though, right?"

Spike tried to lunge at the false Argent, his pointy teeth bared as he hissed and his pupils shrinking to their most reptilian slits. "Let go of Twilight. Take me. Take everything from me, I don't care."

"Oh, we will." Argent sauntered beside Spike and leaned in conspiratorially. "Problem is… you've got a little something inside you that's keeping us from doing that. I figure that little problem will be taken care of once we take out your little caretaker."

Spike snarled, but his mind was racing. "Something… inside?" he echoed. He knew he had to figure out what that meant. Even if it meant giving up his own life, he wouldn't allow Twilight to be harmed. He huffed in frustration, a ruby-red flame pouring from his mouth. Spike blinked. He watched the strangely colored fire waft into the air and disappear in smoke. His mind went back to the strange orange-yellow fire that he had breathed at Applejack, and her reaction to it. Even further back, he remembered other random times when his flame had been different from his usual green fire, all the way back to the return from their first trip to the Crystal Empire when he had been blasted with the Element of Love from the Crystal Heart.

"The Master Rainbow," Spike said, his eyes widening. "It disappeared after the Rainbow of Darkness was defeated… and… it's been inside me this whole time?"

"I think he's got it," Argent's copy said with a sneer. "You've been very good about giving it a nice home, but your grief upon Twilight Sparkle's death will be its eviction notice."

Clenching his fists tight, Spike's face went taut. "But… how do I…?"

The stone floor shuddered and cracked with an impact from below, causing Spike and the changeling Argent to pause. Another thump from below cracked the floor, and with a third the ground burst outward. A starry cloud rose up with Queen Chrysalis entangled within, her gnarled horn glowing a sickly green. They tumbled on the floor, the queen frantically striking at the amorphous blob with her hooves as well as with her changeling magic. After a moment, the nebula coalesced into Princess Luna, who was panting with effort as she faced off against her foe.

"And what did that accomplish?" Chrysalis asked with a shaky laugh. "So you've disabled the dimension pockets. Big deal. It's too late for any back up you have to accomplish anything. Even if Princess Celestia, herself, were here!"

Luna shrugged. "I always did prefer fighting under the sky." For the briefest of moments, her eyes shifted to the magic circle which was even now draining Twilight, turning her coat an unhealthy gray.

A smirk crossed Chrysalis' face. "I see… you won't have the chance, I'm afraid. You may be a match for me, but you aren't so powerful that I can't keep you from freeing your dear friend."

Luna's muscles bunched and with a push that shattered the stones beneath her hooves, she shot toward Twilight. True to her word, Chrysalis was right on her tail, and she pulled at Luna with her verdant aura. Crashing to the ground, Luna twisted her barrel around in a display of superequine elasticity and let loose a bolt of magic.

In a blossom of green fire, Chrysalis sank into the ground just as Luna's magic would have struck. She rose out of the ground on the other side and lunged at Luna. The two mares rolled upon the ground, biting and stomping at each other in a wild display of violence.

Scootaloo, meanwhile, shot out of the hole in the floor with Aurelia in Rainbow Dash's body hot on her lightning trail. She zig-zagged through the sky, using her naturally superior maneuverability to counter the raw speed Rainbow Dash's talent brought to Aurelia's table. Her ears pricked when she heard the crack of a Sonic Rainboom, and she quickly changed course, barely missing the washed out arc of the Sonic Wavebow that Aurelia had unleashed.

Capitalizing on the distraction, Aurelia zipped behind Scootaloo and in a flash changed into a much larger pegasus body, driving her bulging arm into Scootaloo with a gleeful bellow of victory. In the next instant, she was Rainbow again and chasing after Scootaloo's falling form.

Scootaloo channeled the power of the Jupiter Wave Orb within her as she tumbled tail over head. Lightning crackled from her hoof and streaked toward Aurelia, who changed again in mid-flight to old Master Wu and absorbed the electricity with a hearty laugh. Scootaloo snarled. Her own ability to understand and reproduce moves was one thing, but being able to actually change into any of the fighters in the tournament was something else altogether, she realized. "I can't hold back anything," she determined. She bolted toward her foe, screaming like a wild mare.

Thunder clapped as Princess Aurelia and Scootaloo exchanged blows at supersonic speeds. Aurelia shifted into Rarity's body and expertly countered Scootaloo's superior speed and almost clairvoyant instincts with sheer skill and grace, boxing her up before shifting into Applejack and delivering a swift buck in the mouth. Scootaloo's flight aura exploded behind her with one strong stroke of her small wings, stopping her from falling back.

"This isn't getting me anywhere," Scootaloo said to herself. "Her style's just so… chaotic. Worse than Mrs. Hooves." She scowled. "What was it that Rarity said? I… I have to stop trying to understand how other ponies move and… understand how I move?" She considered this as she kept an eye on her opponent, who looked just as exhausted as she felt. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, concentrating on the way the lightning of the Jupiter Wave Orb coursed through her body and aura just as she had been forced to do to survive her training. She could feel every eddy and vortex of energy both within and without. She focused every bit of her talent on herself, analyzing every way her body could possibly move.

Aurelia had apparently taken her closed eyes as an opportunity to attack. Scootaloo knew this not from seeing her move or from being hit by any attack. She could feel the disturbance in her very flight aura as Aurelia invaded. That's definitely not how I want to move, she decided as her mind instantly calculated her likely position in the near future. I need to regain my balance… She moved her hoof, feeling contact with another, quite muscular arm, and pushed it up while executing an inside turn. With her haunches toward the other body, she performed a storm cloud busting kick.

This didn't seem to stop the insurgent object from continuing to disrupt Scootaloo's flow, and she performed a grand plié beneath it and when the force threatened to imbalance her from another angle, she rose higher in a grand jeté, her hind legs spread wide over the irritant. I see… it doesn't even matter what the other pony is going to do… I just need to know myself. She pirouetted around yet another attack, and flung her leg out in a fouetté, knocking the pest away. She followed on, however, with a devastating frappé from the other back hoof, sending the source of her upset far out of her field.

Gritting her teeth as she hurtled toward the trees, Aurelia focused her changeling magic on her back legs, independently turning them into the big, red appendages of Big McIntosh even as she kept Rainbow Dash's lithe body and Scootaloo's eyes. A white horn sprouted from her forehead as well, and she created a magic bubble above the ground. Big Mac's legs landed on the bubble, which gave with the force of Aurelia's impact before bouncing back into shape. Aurelia thrust Mac's powerful legs at the same time, using his speed to launch her back toward Scootaloo fast enough to create the sonic shell that was a prelude to the Sonic Rainboom. Utilizing Rainbow Dash's wings, she pushed herself faster, breaking the shell in an explosion of light and sound. Her white horn became smaller and began casting a sound dampening spell in front of her, which lowered the density of the air. This allowed Aurelia to push herself even faster, and another explosion sounded, and her entire body became awash in multi-chromatic light.

Scootaloo could feel the oncoming storm in her bones, and with a subtle shift, completely dodged the muscle-bound arm that preceded Aurelia. At the same time, she struck at Aurelia's body, her hoof bursting into cerise lightning. "Jupiter Lance!" she shouted, opening her eyes to see her energy blade piercing a scaly longma chest. The next instant Aurelia's composite body dissolved into a rainbow streak which exploded in a multicolored mushroom cloud upon almost instant impact with the ground below.

"That was…" Scootaloo began hoarsely before her ears flicked to the side. She only had a moment to turn and notice a wave of prismatic light rushing toward her. "Oh, horse feathers…" she said before the trailing Sonic Wavebow struck her full force, and she fell as a bolt of lightning to the earth.

Luna tensed as she saw the twin explosions on either side of her and Chrysalis. "It seems your daughter is defeated."

Chrysalis growled as she lunged at Luna. "At least she took that precious pegasus of yours out with her!"

Swinging her scythe so the butt of it rammed into Chrysalis' barrel, Luna hoisted her foe into the air and slammed her onto the ground. "I've watched that little pony grow. You underestimate her fortitude." She continued to hammer her scythe into Chrysalis, cracking her black carapace as she did. "And you have sorely… underestimated… me!" Bits of exoskeleton pelted Luna's face as she delivered one more powerful strike to Chrysalis, sending her sliding across the ground. "And now…" she said, her face darkening as she raised her weapon high. "I will end…"

Chrysalis coughed as she looked up into Luna's eyes, which had grown wide with shock. "What? End this conversation?" She sneered. "What's wrong, Princess?"

"It cannot be," Luna said. "Y-your flank…" Her magical grip on her weapon weakened until she finally dropped it to the ground.

"Pff, didn't think you swung that way," Chrysalis said, glancing to her rump, which looked quite a mess with most of her outer covering torn away.

Luna frowned. "I swing every way," she declared with a stomp of her hoof. "But that is not the point. You have… a cutie mark." She pointed her silver shod hoof.

Chrysalis idly observed the mark of a big white flower with an orange center behind a smaller flower of similar design but with the colors reversed, all upon the background of her soft, yellow inner hide. "So I do…" she remarked curiously.

Tears sprang to Luna's eyes as she continued to stare, her stoic façade crumbling. "You… are… the Princess of Ponyville," she said with a cracking voice. "My friend… Zipzee?"

Chrysalis gasped and straightened as one of the troublesome flashbacks that plagued her marched through her head. Five alicorns, Luna among them, each holding a different colored gem. Luna laughing boisterously as she bumped Chrysalis' oddly small and whole hoof. That monstrous beast of Chaos, Discord invading a field of flowers and a swarm of gossamer-winged ponies fleeing in panic. A gray-coated Luna abandoning her friends, and the gems being shattered under Discord's cloven hoof.

When the visions passed, Chrysalis' face was taut. "It… can't be," she said flatly. "Those were dreams… fantasies. I was born in the bowels of Tartaros by the power of Erebos."

Luna took a step forward, remorse written on her visage. "Zipzee, I'm so sorry I…"

A feral roar interrupted them, and they turned to see Spike flailing against his restraints before Twilight, who had gone still and was completely washed of color. He opened his maw and spewed forth flames every color of the rainbow. The fire surrounded Twilight, becoming a shield which cut her off from the black circle of magic. He continued to pour out flames until he finally sputtered out, his eyes growing dim.

"So you finally did it," Argent's copy said with a smirk. "The power of the Rainbow of Light. And here I thought we'd actually have to kill her to release that power." He laughed derisively, his horn glowing silver as he cast his magic upon the circle once more. "Of course, with the Rainbow of Light protecting Princess Twilight, there's nothing left to protect…" His eyes flashed dangerously, and the dark band of magic slithered like a serpent behind him. It reared up and struck at Spike, choking him as it slid its way right down his throat. "You!"












To be continued…