"Thanks for the amps, Vinyl," said Lyra, unsure of how the DJ pony had managed to make amps project the music of a magical harp forged from harmony and music itself. Sadly, she had a promise to keep to Bon Bon to not get directly involved in the fighting even if she gave musical support to her friends.
"No prob, I've been wanting to fight off an alien invasion for a long time!" said Vinyl, she politely left out Octavia had saved HER after Vinyl was brainwashed.
Octavia sighed, shaking off the strange feelings left over by from being effected by Chrysalis' power. "You're quite the conspiracy theorist."
"Hey, we're not aliens!" A changeling in support of Cadence protested while her fellows nodded.
The area around the two pink Alicorns was covered in smoking craters, shattered glass and rubble.
"I'd never imagine deadly Auntie Luna making such a brainless mistake," Chrysalis/Cadenza said flatly but a deranged smirk, "She brings me the most intense little love batteries she could hope to give me, to use against my changelings? Then she flies away to find Auntie Celly? She must WANT ME to win!"
Cadence blocked a trident strike from Cadenza with her crystal sword.
"Except your changelings aren't exactly managing to do much feeding."
Cadence pushed the trident back and retaliated with a slash of her own, getting caught between the points of the trident before she could hit the Queen's horn.
"So what? In case you didn't notice, they all have their backs to us now! I can feed on the cats, THEN accept my swarm's sacrifice, and you'll be nothing but dessert!"
Cadenza tried to fire a beam from her horn during their blade lock, but Cadence countered with a beam of her own, the resulting feedback forcing them to leap away from each other.
"One problem, I won't let you. No pony has died, and none are! I'm sick of tragedies and horrors! Nopony is dying today Chrysalis! Not even you! You don't get to weasel out that easily!"
Cadence charged and the two locked blades again.
"So trying to 'save my soul' didn't count as me 'weaseling out?'" Cadenza asked, but growled as a very annoying part of her head told her to agree her twin.
The two pushed against each other before Cadence intentionally released her blade, resulting in both weapons flying out of range and shattering before Cadenza could stop her weapon. Cadence bucked her in the face.
"If recycling garbage into somepony that adds to the world instead of taking is 'weaseling out' then sure!"
Another beam clash made them leap back from each other once more.
Chrysalis was taken back for one moment as Sweetie's face flashed in her head but growled, shaking her head. "Whatever, cat-love-bars need munching!"
Cadence flew right in front of the changeling queen.
"I said no."
"I said 'yes'."
"TOO BAD!"
Cadence fired a pair of beams at Cadenza, who dodged. However, the first beam caused a blue crystal to grow out of the ground and reflect the second one, striking Cadenza in the back. As the Changeling Queen roared in pain, Cadence tackled her, both punching and stabbing at each other with their hooves and horns as they crashed to the ground.
Cadenza blasted Cadence off her but the Princess caught herself in the air and fired a beam at her double. The Queen countered with a beam of her own, the two beams exploding after a few moments of struggle.
Cadence telekinetically grabbed the Queen's entire body threw her as far as she could from the battle and flew fast after her.
-flow - Hero (Kibou no Uta)-
The queen left a minefield of crystal spikes in her path as she righted herself in mid-air, but a sonic blast reduced them to dust.
"How can you be my shadow and be a monster!? You don't make sense!"
Cadence super charged her horn trying to skewer the queen.
"My soul's the parts you ditched and expected to politely die! You were born in high society with Auntie, I was born in a savannah with noling to teach controlling my power! All my ruthlessness and violence comes from you!"
"Don't you dare put us in the same context! Everything you are is because of only you!"
Chrysalis fired another beam, but Cadence instead of trying for another beam-clash, she dodged it and fired a magic blast at an alternate angle that Chrysalis also dodged and fired. The two flew wildly around each other like round lightning, not caring who or what their stray shots hit.
"That's a relief, I couldn't remember if I was lying about that or not. Who was I kidding! If I'd left I'd still be trapped to you! Killing you is my only way to freedom! I thought sparing you was a necessary evil with our link through fate, but I was an idiot! My only mistake was letting you live!"
The Alicorns fought higher and higher above the city, switching between jousting with their horns and trying to skewer the other with crystal weapons moving as fast as possible to keep from being gripped in the other's telekinesis.
"I'm sorry the old us accidentally let a monster like you be born!"
"All I know for certain is that I want to live! And I want that life to belong to me and me alone! Not my family! Not Cocoon! Not fate! Not the changelings! Natural selection is the only thing in this world that fair!"
Chrysalis fired a beam into a crystal that split into several parts and bent all towards Cadence, Cadence created a crystal shell that redirected all the beams back into one right back at her double, who took a direct hit!
"You think I don't know what it's like to be surrounded by expectations without a buck about what I want?! Aunt, nobles, family, the common-ponies, shaping me and demanding I be what they want me to be!?"
"And I fought back and while you just smiled and nodded!"
Crystal chains formed around Cadence's neck that the queen pulled taunt, but Cadence simply broke them with a harmonic vibration.
"Say whatever you want! I'm a sword of justice sent to smite evil!" Cadence created a crystal sword the length of her body, Cadenza created one of her own and the weapons clashed at high speed and shattered, Cadenza sent a shot reflecting off the shards and hitting Cadence in her side, another sound blast pulverized the shards, and left the ponies below with ringing their ears.
"I can't stand going in circle!" Cadenza hissed a she made another straight charge at Cadence. At the last moment however, the queen was wreathed in green flame, and the pink pegasus ducked under Cadence's horn, and burst into flames again, belong a snake that wrapped around the Princess. Being crushed under the snake's strength, Cadence fell into the ground, the snake shapeshifting into a bison on top of her, crushing the music Alicorn into the street, before the witch shifted into a zebra mare who grabbed Cadence's neck with her rear legs and the zebra with her muscle strength slammed the princess into the street, and again, and again, and again!
She shifted again into her three-in-one Alicorn true form and elbow slammed into her back, creating cracks in the street. Cadence didn't get back up.
Cadenza snarled in her ear, "Did you think my shape shifting powers would WEAKEN? Alicorns embody all of the tribes… including changelings, as you were all so nice enough to point out! Nothing to say now? Good. About time. I can't believe how much time ponies waste talking during fights! If talking could solve anything there wouldn't be fighting! I could bring your broken body back to your friends so they get so eager for revenge they forget strategy, but it's smarter just to kill-"
= "B13a" Bleach =
Cadenza was grabbed in the face by a pink dragon. She was pushed through several walls.
"Impossible," the witch hissed, wide eyes staring at the Alicorn sized dragon.
"You shouldn't have boasted about a power to somepony with the same magic as you."
The dragon threw the queen into the room mirror of the restaurant she had pushed them into (after going through a few other buildings).
Jet Set and Upper Crust peaked out from the closet they'd pulled their...patient into when the battle crashed into the room, landing exactly where they would have been if they hadn't acted. The Changeling could only stare in shock. The couple had been at the closed business for hours, after they came back to their house and found monsters at their front door and brainwashed servants and friends marching out.
"Y-You saved me...twice...why?"
"...Even I don't know…" Jet Set admitted. "...I suppose it just didn't feel proper to leave somepony to die...even Canterlot high society isn't that cruel a place."
"We're ponies, you're a life, what other reason do we need?" Upper Crust clarified.
The Changeling could only stare in shock as if that one statement had caused an earthquake.
"Now come on, we need to get out the back entrance, quickly."
As the civilians escaped unnoticed out the back, Cadence inhaled deeply and breathed fire at her nemesis, burning her and melting the mirror, the witch Alicorn screamed as she brought up a shield to block the rest of the attack.
"That look in yours eyes," Cadenza whispered, she didn't sound scared so much as praising, approving. "You finally did it. You've decided to kill me."
Cadenza shape changed, and the pink panther leapt onto the ceiling with pure leg muscle and pushed itself off the ceiling before the ceiling was scorched by flames and she transformed into a griffin as she hit the floor and leapt at the dragon's soft underbelly. The dragon in a flash of blue flames changed into a deer buck that caught the griffin on his horns.
"AGH! How can you assume that bastard's species?"
"I have deer who are my FRIENDS!"
The griffin changed into a cat tribe who clawed at the deer buck's eyes, small enough to get past the horns. The deer became the dragon again and tried to eat the love cat, but the cat shifted into a minotaur that gripped both her jaws and threw the dragon over their shoulder, breaking a table and chairs and cracking the floor.
"You think you can beat me in a shape shifter's duel? I killed Queen Cocoon with only my guile and skill! Maua, why don't you have anything to say about that?!"
The minotaur slammed the dragon's jaws closed to stop her from breathing fire, black smoke bellowed through the dragon's nose, the minotaur grinned and reared up a fist to punch her throat...and was struck by lightning that formed from a little black cloud above her.
"Weather wyrm."
=L'Oscurità dell'Ignoto=
The witch forgot herself and shifted into a dragon as well, tacking the other pink dragon, the two twisted and rolled over each other, claws and fangs were everywhere, stabbing into scaled armor and slithering out of each other's other grips. The floor underneath them gave way and they fell into the basement revealing the wine cellar, lined with wooden barrels. Cadence now had Chrysalis pinned, but she turned into a diamond dog that ripped through the cobble stone and into the ground below. Cadence shifted dragon species and breathed in to bellow flames down the dog hole.
Just as she did an alicorn sized quarray eel burst of the ground behind her and slammed its jaws around her neck. Her body shifted into that of an Earth dragon, the new shape, density, and extra armor stopping the fatal blow.
"How does a pampered flower like you know so many species?!"
"Unlike you I bothered to get to know them!" Cadence swung a club-like tail around trying to smash her in the back.
"I've come too far! I refuse to lose!" Her twin swore.
A giant spider to bite her right in the soft dragon eyes! A cave troll to crush the giant spider to death.
"I'm fighting for more than myself!"
Earth Pony kick resulting in a massive painful crack along the cave troll's stone body.
"What have you endured? What have you sacrificed for YOUR dreams?"
Cadence this time became the griffin and swooped down on the earth pony who became an Alicorn, crystal spikes popped out of the ground, making her fly up, but still stabbing her.
"What have you ever endured for somepony who's not YOU?!"
Alicorn form, sound spell shattering the crystals, then a lioness who landed on the wicked Alicorn's back the lioness clawed and bit into, the witch became a white tiger who engaged into a new claws and fangs brawl.
"When's the last time you even TRIED to help yourself?!"
The tiger found her mouth around a armadillo that then became a porcupine, she pulled back her mouth bleeding. Cadence assumed Alicorn form.
"Maybe if you weren't so self-centered it'd occur to you I like to be selfless!"
"LIKE A SLAVE!!!" Ram, head-butt. Cadence fell backwards.
Cadence changed into a hydra, she had the oddest feeling of being in four places at once.
All four heads shouted. "These ponies spend a year, SPEND A YEAR HEALING FROM DISCORD'S VIOLATIONS! And you think it's your Auntie's given right to rip those wounds open all over again!? WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!" The hydra's heads all tried to take a bite out of the ram. The witch became a creature Cadence didn't know could exist, a zebra ALICORN? This was no Virgasus. But Moth said changelings couldn't become made up creatures! The combined zebra and pegasus agility dodged the hydra heads easily, and dove under the hydra, she stopped at the ground, cause the entire basement to shake. "I won't let the world belong to monsters like you and Discord!"
Cadence tried again only to have a horn stab her in the foot, Cadence cried out and fell backwards, making the floor shake even more.
"I am an animal! I kill to survive, nothing more, nothing less! Don't compare ME with that worthless lunatic! I'm perfectly SANE, and I'm not part of your mindless system of 'right and wrong!' I AM A BEAST! EVEN MAUA KNOWS THAT!"
The winged and horned zebra leapt and became a manticore, raising its fully functional scorpion tall right into the hydra's head. The lion monster landed hard on the hydra, again making the room shake.
The hydra shifted into a pink Changeling and spat slime into the manticore's eyes, momentarily blinding it.
The pink changeling then switched to an Earth Dragon and slammed the manticore hard into the ground, once more earning a room shake, but it wasn't stopping this time.
The floor began to sink beneath them, and suddenly gave way, and most of the floor did as well. Cadence shifted to a Virgasus to avoid falling and debris. The mere sight of it filled Cadenza with rage, without thinking she became a dragon and breathed fire at the offending shape, Cadence dodged. The wooden barrels of semi-legal super-hard draco-cider did not dodge the open flames.
Both changed to Alicorn and brought up a shield just in time to save themselves from the resulting explosion, but both were knocked further down into the underground.
The explosion was funneled mostly downward, and the two shielded Alicorns were like cannonballs, smash through Canterlot's stone rain drainage system underneath the basement, breaking away what was underneath...and further down the disoriented pair went.
As they regained their senses, both ponies were in awe at where they were. Both ponies looked above to see daylight...it seemed the explosion had created a new skylight.
"...of all places...we end here..." Cadenza/Chryalis said, both Alicorns landing and keeping their shields up for the moment. "As much as I hate that old nag fate, she has a wonderful sense of irony."
Cadence shivered. "The crystal mines."
"Where I should have killed you twice! I don't like mistakes, time to correct this one!" the witch screamed in sudden psychotic rage.
The witch flew right at Cadence, but twisted her straight course into a curve, avoiding the 'surprise attack' of crystal spikes Cadence summoned that would have impaled the witch in the heart and brain.
The two shields collided and canceled each other out, Cadenza's horn stabbing Cadence in the side, making her cry out. The witch flew with Cadence like a piece of meat on a stick slamming into a crystal wall. Their reflections scattered everywhere.
"Die die die! Kill or be killed!" The Hunger Tarot electrified her horn, making Cadence feel even more pain.
Cadence fought THROUGH the pain, and grabbed a giant jewel with her own horn magic and slammed it face first into the queen, sending her flying backwards, Cadence snarled as she flew forward. "You first!"
Cadence became a timber wolf, Cadenza became a dragon and breathed fire, Cadence became a gremlin and stuck a claw right in the dragon's eye, the witch became a Virgasus who spin kicked the gremlin, both shifted back to their true forms as Cadence stopped herself along the crystal ground, leaving skid marks, her twin coming right at her. Their horns glowed and became harder and sharper than any sword and struck each other, the force knocking each other back, they struck again for the same result. Cadenza struck the other Alicorn in the face with her forehooves, drawing blood, Cadence did the same striking her enemy in the chest.
The two enemies snarled and hissed at each other in their Alicorn forms.
"I'll kill you!" They echoed in the cavern.
A crystal blade slid along Cadenza's side, one slid along Cadence's wing muscles.
"I hate you! Just disappear!" Snarled one Alicorn at the other.
++++
I've had enough. This nag is going to vanish! She's ruined what I waited years for! She dares call herself royalty when she can't do a ruler's duty and put her power to good use! She doesn't deserve to call herself a goddess!
"Will you just die already!" I snarl. I summoned a crystal guillotine blade that sadly missed her neck!
"Not until you go first!" She snaps back as she fired a series of shots reflecting off the crystals around us and leaving me dodging one only to be hit by another.
I'll crush her like the vermin she is! I'll show the cattle under her sway she calls subjects what a real ruler is!
I dive through the attacks, taking the beating, it doesn't matter as long as I get her! I slammed into her, she blocks with her legs, and is sent into a wall. And stay down!
Awesome! Yee-haw! Yippie! Yay. Cool!
She gets back up. Oh well! That just means I get to knock her down again!
The little bug growls at me, I growl right back.
A large crystal is knocked loose from the ceiling, and lands between us.
And.... oh Auntie Celestia…
I can't tell the difference between us!
"No..." I whisper as I fall back on my haunches. Oh Shining...what was I...what did I...
Hating the enemy is fine. Despise them. Crush them. Make them suffer again and again. Compassion for the wicked is a crime against the inno- "NO!!! That is NOT justice!"
"Hmm. Has she finally gone crazy Maua? Maybe she is...are you upset with her Maua? Is that why you won't talk back to me?" Chrysalis, no, Cadenza said flying on top of the large gem that shown me my reflection. "Don't worry Maua, this is the ending. It's gone on for far too long already."
... Spite. Hatred. Revenge. Wrath. Zealotry. Bloodlust...what right does an Alicorn of music and harmony have to feel such things? Harmony shouldn't have any extremism.
Even when I fought Makarov and that fear monster I didn't sink so low as to ENJOY it! Justice isn't punishing evil, it's protecting the innocent. Everypony I'm sorry, I betrayed the pony you love, the pony you know, the pony I need to be, the pony I want to be. I'm sorry.
- Shurrey Hills - Tales of the Abyss Music -
Yes. I am harmony. I am music. Every song is a piece of me. Every melody is me. Every smile between friends is me. And those things, should never be instruments of hatred, they're supposed to be part of bonds between those who love each other! Friends! Families! Parents!
...
I've been a fool. The 'Concept' part of me: That mysterious me inside me is me. The me that's right here will never vanish. That me, that's part of harmony and music, that was already a part of me. The me who was me before I was born: I never needed to fear her. I am her.
I stand on my rear hooves, and do a few meditative gestures before bringing my front hooves together silently and close my eyes.
These crystals...they're raw, wild, lifeless. There's no harmony to them, only structure, no life to them, only patterns. They're pale, weak, they can't hold a candle to what real beauty that can be done with crystal, when it's empowered by love and harmony.
Standing before the king of fears. But I won't break. The sun and the moon are on their way. I have nothing to be afraid of. I've done my part. My body, my soul are like diamond. No matter how he corrupts and twists this beautiful place. No matter how hard he tries to break it to his will and infect it with his fear and hatred. His poison will soon be cured.
"Any last words, rebellious slave?!"
I look into the eyes of fear and don't tremble.
"Love and harmony will return soon. Then the real beauty of these crystals will return."
"...Bow. And I'll make it quick."
"I am crystal. Do what you will, I will never break.."
"Now die a second time!" The whistling of the summoned scythe came down around my neck.
I transform. The blade harmlessly bounces off me. I open my eyes.
My lost half looks at me at me in alarm and confusion.
"What...what are you?" She says, loud, desperate, and afraid.
I look at myself, an equine body made of living crystal.
"I am harmony, I am music, and you won't devour my home nor my friends!"
"No matter what barrier appears in my way! I will break it! Shatter!" She lets out a sonic attack that pierces my eardrums, but I don't break. I slam her into the large crystal behind her that does shatter, and I summon crystal binding to hold her in place, she shatters them as quickly as I can make them, but she isn't going anywhere.
"You think I'll ever give up!" She screamed.
"No, and I'm not going to either. We're equal. We both have an end we can't bare to see come to past. We'll keep the balance between us forever, I'll keep the world safe from you for eternity if I have to. We'll be two immortals locked in combat until the end of time in the depths of the earth where there's no emotions for you to absorb so you can't become a worse horror, if that's how it must be! My resolve is strong enough for that Cadenza, is yours?"
"No offense sweetie, but that has to be one of the dumbest things I've ever heard."
"Shining?!" I turned towards my love who was using his force fields as stepping stones as he descended into the pit, looking a bit battered.
"Hey honey, you look beautiful like that."
I blushed a little, realizing I was still made of crystal.
"Dumb distraction!" Cadenza charged at me with my eyes on Shining, but rammed into a pillar of Shining's force field magic as he jumped into it, too swift for her to simply negate this time.
"That's cheating!" Cadenza yelled. "This is between us!"
"I just put it there, you were the one who ran into it, I was just using it as a stepping stone to get down" Shining smirked. Smartflank as always. But he's still my smartflank.
"Don't be such a smartalec! You could have seen through my performance if you wanted! A Cadence who knew what she wanted and took it? Admit it, you loved it. I gave you the Cadence you wanted!"
Shining laughed. "Oh, Cadence knows what she wants. It just happens to be happiness for everypony else."
"Guess it's true what they say, stallions just want mares who will do they say, like servants! Believe me! I'd bucking know! Just ask my first boss! If you can find him in Tartarus!"
"You don't get it, do you?" my knight in shining armor said, glaring daggers at her. "No...I guess you wouldn't. You said it yourself. There's no room in your heart for anypony but yourself. Just because my sis gave you a heart doesn't mean you understand having one. How could you ever get what it's like to be selfless? "
"At least I have a self!"
"Ya know?" Shining said simply. "I don't love Cadence because I want a servant. I love her because she loves me. Because she cares enough to tell me to get some sleep when I'm dedicated to staying up and doing my work, when she makes me do things I don't want to do, not to force me or dominate me, but because it's what's best for me. But she cares enough to listen to my side of things. She's willing to put herself aside for me too. We've BOTH risked our lives to save the other! I don't want a sycophant or a dominatrix. I want a mare who cares and who will compromise with me and expect me to do the same. And you can't comprehend that, because the only thing you can care about is yourself and at your core, Chrysalis, you're still just an evil greedy beotch."
"I won't let them speak to me like this! Right Maua?! You're making Maua ignore me!" she yelled, looking to me with a psychopathic snarl. "That's the only thing that makes sense! She didn't stop talking until you and the Earth Pony witch cursed me like this sister! Say good-bye to both of you! Be together in oblivion! Death Song Requiem!" A howling green electric wind with the faces of countless horrors came at us as Cadenza suffered the magic surge of magic surges.
"Every time I stop and stumble
in doubt and darkness
I close my eyes and think back to you." I began to sing.
"We made a vow, a promise,
To carry onward,
We'll see it through." Shining picked up.
"Now our hearts alive, and racing
Towards our future,
We didn't hesitate.
There's no doubt that
Could dare hold us back.
We're gonna fly on forward into that blue sky, bound-less and bright.
We still pray and hope
That one day we'll be together." We sung.
Soundwaves matching our magic colors collided with Cadenza's death song and the horrors began to crack.
"What?!"
"We'll fight onward
And see them again, our friends.
We won't stop until the end,
We won't give in.
To-mor-row's look-ing bright...
To-mor-row's...look-ing briiiiiiiiiighhhht…"
Our song obliterated the Death Song, sparkling bits of mana raining down around us.
Cadenza took a step back in shock.
"That doesn't even make sense! This is absurd! A delusion!"
"Cadence," Shining said, "If those changelings can give THEIR love to their one and only and it's not cheating...then, I can give you my love, and it's not cheating either. Accept my love... our love TOGETHER, and finish this."
Cadenza's eyes went wide in terror. "No! We won't let you! Not again!"
"Yes dear."
"Maua!!" She flew right at us screaming. Shining touched his horn to mine, and I felt his love for me. And it was more pure and beautiful than any stolen love.
=01 - Precure Rainbow Burst!=
I remembered the throne room when I'd freed Shining. "This is what you were afraid of from the beginning, Cadenza, isn't it? You didn't keep Shining behind a personal shield and hide him if he'd be out of your sight just because he was your shield against our aunt," I said as the queen tried to force her way through the shockwaves of our growing magic. "You did it because our love scares you!"
Wow, so this is what it's like to channel magic through a bond with somepony like Twiley does. Cadence and I were one.
(Friend's Notes (Noon): Yep.)
So is there a certain way I'm supposed to do this?
(Friend's Notes (Dawn): Twilight gives the friendship lesson she learned, then says something cool!)
Okay, I think we've done the first part… so how about...
I don't know which Manega Shining stole his next line from, but I loved it! "These hearts of ours are burning red! Their loud roar tells us-"
"-to grasp happiness!" I remembered.
Cadenza tried to fire on us...but every beam dissolved as it reached the growing power surrounding us.
She recoiled, looking like a frightened animal with her leg caught in a trap. And like a trapped animal, she kept attacking with the same result.
I won't say I felt how dearly Shining loved me, I already knew that. And he knew already how much I loved him. And together we were unbreakable!
"Twin-"
"-love-"
"-flare!"
I took aim with my horn, and unleased our love upon the witch, in a form that she couldn't hope to comprehend or claim as her own, and this time, her hidden aces were all used up. As it burns through the air towards her, it takes the shape of a charging beautiful Alicorn mare in rose red armor. Her night was over, and our dawn was just beginning. This was our happy beginning.
We won.