//------------------------------// // You'll Be The First To Go, And When She Leaves You For Dead, You'll Be The Last To Know // Story: We Remember Everything // by Thunderscourge //------------------------------// A/N: Special thanks to only God of Physics, Amethyst Blade, kojivsleo, SilentMech, Killabyte, Evilhumour, Sidetrack, and Ketvirtas...kind of disappointing turnout for the largest chapter yet, but I am grateful for those who did comment for what they said. Hope to hear from more people this time, since there is plenty to talk about in this chapter with everything that goes on! Chapter title from "Last to Know" from Three Days Grace. Hope you enjoy, and I look forward to hearing from you in the comments below! Remember, comments are After Adagio, Aria, Trixie, and Kael all left the field the proverbial stage was left to Sonata and Tirek. Sonata was the one in power between the two, but not in the better position as she had no idea as to where Tirek was located. He could strike at any moment, and even though Sonata knew she was stronger in power she was worried about how large he was. He could certainly take a bigger hit than her, and Sonata was not intelligent enough to try to sway him through singing, though it may not have worked anyways. A swift movement to her right side drew Sonata’s gaze that way, revealing that Tirek had teleported back from wherever he was before and was larger than even before. While above Discord’s massive height previously, the bull-like centaur had grown to be as tall as a two story building after pulling what energy hung remained in the area. His demonic eyes, large upturned horns, and white mane gave him a surreal appearance even behind his frightening size, which in turn made Sonata wish to run away from him instead of actually engage him in combat. She could fit in one of his hands, and the idea of him simply crushing her with his palm like a fly came to her mind. Instead of running like what her brain was telling her to do though, Sonata held her ground. If she just ran away Adagio might take her power back, might leave her…and that was something that scared Sonata more than fighting a giant monster who fed on energy just like they did. Tirek had the opposite mentality, seeing the occasion as more of an boringly easy chore than something that could mean the entire restricting and defining of his life. So when Sonata let out a wave of sound that could have rendered someone immobile from agony, he instead teleported just as she opened her mouth and delayed his return for a brief second. The sheer force of her voice shattered the stands behind where he had stood, collapsing even more of it and plunging some of the ponies that sat there into the area beneath. Not at all effected though was Tirek, who had not been there to have his ears pierced. Instead he appeared directly behind Sonata, who turned around in both fear and anger to continue screeching at him like a banshee. Tirek managed to disappear again just as her vocals burst forward, the red gem on her necklace glowing with power as she demolished in the shape of a cone a whole portion of the back half of the stage. Once again the giant chose to appear behind her, though this time he chose to give himself a little distance. If she rendered him deaf he would not be pleased, nor would he enjoy having her hit him with a frequency that could actually harm him. Still, while Sonata was the smaller one of the two, she was the brute and they were both aware of it. She couldn’t do much beyond using her powers, and she could in no way outwit him. Before Sonata could look around fully and find him again, Tirek decided to start playing with her mind. After all, a distracted and distraught for would be easier prey than one that could solely and unthinkingly attack and attack. “Why do you fight so fervently? You are only delaying the inevitable,” he spoke to Sonata in a booming, sinister voice that echoed across the whole coliseum. Sonata was able to find him quickly enough by using her powers to feel out the various levels of energy in the area, eventually finding the closest and also largest source of it on the field. She could have just spun around to look, but last time she tried using only her vision it hadn’t worked at all because he had disappeared entirely from view. Where he had gone that time, Sonata had not a clue, but wherever it was he had come back far larger and with far greater power. Still, despite all of Tirek’s gains, in terms of pure magical energy he was still only at about seventy percent of Sonata’s own power. She had been siphoning it along with Adagio and Aria for a whole year beforehand, and they had also been skimming some of it off Celestia, though not enough to render any suspicious about it. She had also begun to take power from the crowd, only for Tirek to end up taking a lot as well. If it had only been one entity taking power from the crowd instead of all three Sirens at first they would have received far more than Tirek had in the end, but by splitting it between all three of them they each received substantially less than him. Tirek started at a lower level, almost nothing in face, but his draining of Discord and the crowd had put him at least on the same tier of power as those he sought to drain as well. Sonata just hoped that her advantage in terms of magical ability would grant her the ability to defeat him, though with every passing second she was feeling less and less confident she could. “I’m stronger than you! I can feel it!” she cried out directly before blasting out with her power, trying to use it to hit in every direction. This wave of circular energy expanding out from her in a ring was easily avoided by Tirek, who simply teleported a few feet forward just as it was about to hit him. The ancient conqueror who had once tried to take Equestria for his own almost felt sorry for his dull witted foe, who was desperately trying to solve a problem in a way that would never work, “Strength alone does not dictate how combat plays out. If that were so, I would have never been defeated a thousand years ago by this nation’s royalty.” Sonata’s next attack missed him once again, causing her to growl in frustration much like how Aria might whenever Sonata was doing something idiotic. This time Tirek attempted to strike Sonata, since it would only take a few moments of draining her to completely end the fight. When he appeared behind her to reach down and grab her though he found himself surprised to find that she wasn’t where she had been a moment ago. Sonata had realized the pattern of his movements, and she had jumped to the side to prevent him from actually getting close to her. In Tirek’s moment of confusion she shot another burst of her empowered voice at him, destroying even more of the stage as she screeched out in as shrill a manner as she could manage. Tirek actually was hit by the beginning of this attack, the blast knocking him back and making his ears cause him immense pain as they were subjected to the loudest noise he had ever had to deal with. Despite his pain though Tirek managed to once again teleport, though he did it far more sloppily and only managed to move to the side and just out of the direction she was projecting. It was then that Sonata realized that perhaps she could sing and lure him in, but it was too late by the time of realization. If she wanted to seduce him to their side with music, she would have to not have her singing interrupted, and she was really only good at being backup vocals to Adagio. It’d be too difficult to start now, and she began to curse herself for her own lack of intelligence. Sonata tried hitting him again, but Tirek had learned from his last moment standing still and disappeared just as her voice rung out. To give himself a moment to recover from the pain that he suddenly felt wracking his body after his ears calmed, Tirek moved as far away from her on the field as he could, as well as away from the direction she was blasting with noise. Tirek groaned as he finally began to pull himself back together, his head in immense pain still but fine enough to continue his diatribe, “No, factors far beyond the simple trait known as strength are involved. My brother betrayed me. As family, I expected our bond to be eternal, for his loyalty to be absolute…” The mention of his own past would have made Tirek furious if not for his already slow burning anger at having allowed himself to be hit by the fool. Already angry, it instead gave him focus as he continued speaking to further impact his foe with words. At close range she could easily blast him back and harm him, but at range she could be avoided and distracted. Sonata turned around again to face him, though she had to take a series of long and deep breaths to make up for her constant shrieking and to prepare for another attack, “But if even family can turn on one another, what about friends?” Instead of merely yelling her frustration, Sonata actually carried it out through how she let out the most powerful blast of energy and sound yet, “Adagio and Aria didn’t betray me!” Having realized that he could catch her the most offguard while she was breathing, Tirek waited for her to tire as she began to sweep across the stadium with her voice as he continually moved to escape its focus. While waiting for her to run out of breath, Tirek continued his attempt to destabilize her mentally, “Oh, so leaving you behind to act as a decoy is not betraying. Forgive me, I thought leaving your friends to die was wrong to do, not that I would refrain from doing so.” Tears began to well up in Sonata’s eyes at the truth to be found in what he was saying, as much as she refused to actually admit it, “Just die already!” “I must apologize, I have no intention of doing that,” Tirek teleported again and let out a long laugh as he continued to evade her by teleporting from one side to the other, “In truth, I came today with the intention of killing you first, so this occasion is quite fortunate. I have had quite some time to plan, to research my foes, and I came to the conclusion that killing and draining the least intelligent foe would be the best course of action when I made my move.” While completely aware of her own lack of intelligence, Sonata despised hearing it be acknowledged out loud, especially by someone who wasn’t Aria or Adagio, who she believed did it in a love-hate manner, “I’m not stupid!” “Of course you are. You are so foolish as to think that your friends care about you at all.” His words pierced Sonata enough to relent in her attack, her breath heavy as she paused and felt her shoulders sink. Was he right? Did they really abandon her? Was she just some tool, some plaything to the others? Sonata stumbled back as she felt tears fall down her blue face, “I…I…” Tirek seized the opportunity to strike, moving in with his magic to grab her and drain every last ounce of power she had to offer. When he reached for her with a large, red hand though he found that he was grasping nothing. Looking down, he found that Sonata had fallen backwards off the stage into one of the parts she had destroyed and blown away with the power of her attacks. Before he could lunge and attack again though, the sobbing woman curbed her self-pity and diverted it into anger of a sort only one in denial could muster. Her voice blasted out and repelled Tirek as he attempted to grab her, knocking him back and farther away with every moment she yelled out, “Adagio and Aria love me! We’re like a family, and families can fight but they always care about eachother!” Ears ringing and in pain he had never felt before, Tirek lunged at her again as she continued to blast up and out of the hole in the section. He only needed to reach down and grab her, and it would be over. He just had to fight through the pain long enough to manage that. As he toughened himself for what amounted to a bull rush into a constant stream of agony, Tirek bellowed as loudly as he could to further disturb his foe’s psyche, “You may have been right once upon a time, but feelings and relationships change with time. Your death will come about today because of the same principle that brought about my downfall! You trust your loved ones, and that is why you will be the first to fall!” The two more cerebral Sirens had entered the structure of the stadium and were heading on their way through it to where the seeming largest sources of magic still lay, that being the VIP section. Trailing behind them were the other duo of Trixie and Kael, who would have managed to catch up to them if not for the fact that Trixie was beginning to stumble and hyperventilate, which was stopping her from doing the easiest method of catching up to someone who was fleeing: teleportation. “Trixie…” came her companion’s worried response to how Trixie was beginning to use the wall to keep herself up, her head shaking back and forth as if she was trying to cast away some bad thought, memory, or feeling. Her response to his concern was a low growl as she clenched her eyes shut and did her best to not fall over. “You know I don’t need to explain it to you…” Trixie shook her head again and waved a hand towards the passageway ahead, where the Sirens were running at full speed towards their targets. “Go…I’ll catch up…” Kael shook his head sorrowfully as he began to leave Trixie behind, “I will start the evacuation of the audience, as also planned. That should give you the time to…” “Just go already!” Kael sighed, but let her be as Trixie slowly sank to her knees and gripped her head as if it were in inordinate pain. Just kill them all… No. It’ll be easy, and you can take everyone’s power for your own when they aren’t around to cling to it… No! Come now, you still prepared for my plan after all… That’s just a backup, something in case we… No, no, no…I am the Great and Powerful Trixie, I will not give in to your petty temptations! I will defeat the Sirens, I will rout Tirek, and I will kill Thanos all of my own accord! I… Farther ahead on the same path, the Sirens slowed their pace to regain their breath and grace before confronting the royalty they had manipulated for so long. With the focus of Loki being on Asgard and Luna’s own focus being disrupted by and directed at her pregnancy, it had been easy to just stay out of their way and go about their own plans. Not knowing that the people in the VIP section had not been already partially drained, and not knowing that they were not under their spell exactly, Adagio believed that the royalty were not exactly going anywhere, when in fact Luna was gone and Loki was still active. With this assumption in mind, she was comfortable in taking her time to get back to getting to them. They would come out on top of this situation so long as they reached them before the brute Sonata was fighting did. The leader found herself smug in the idea that, soon enough, she would be in control of not one but three races. In addition, she would control the entirety of the power from them, and could give and take it as she well pleased just as she did with Sonata and Aria. She was already growing intoxicated on the filling meal she had earlier, and the thought of feeding off even more power absolutely enthralled her. “Think about it Aria. Once we take their power for our own, we will be the most powerful beings in the universe.” Beside her, the purple Siren was not as confident about everything. While she was feeling empowered and on top of the world, she was still aware that their powers could be lost the same way they were taken, “You think Sonata can handle that guy back there?” The idea that Sonata would lose to some random outsider made Adagio want to laugh, but the fact that it was Sonata made her at least consider it remotely possible, “Even if she can’t, the two of us will prove more than a match for him after we steal what power lays within here,” Adagio brought a hand to touch her chest, her evil grin forming on her face once again, “Besides, once I’m Queen and control the universe I won’t really need extra muscle, just brains. ” The lack of mention of power for Aria made her quite skeptical, and she crossed her arms as she cast a doubtful glance over Adagio, “Uhhh, why do you get to be the Queen?” The fact that Aria did not seem to naturally know, or at least accept, the answer made Adagio roll her eyes derisively, “Because I am the mastermind behind this all. Any other stupid questions?” Aria forcefully planted the tip of her index finger into the middle of Adagio’s collar bone while still crossing her own arms, “Yeah, how about we discuss this little power trip you’re on? I know we’re more powerful than ever, and that we always win, but seriously, I think you’re gonna get us all screwed over if you keep it up.” That made her bedfellow laugh. Was she really being challenged at now of all times, when they were about to grapple ultimate power for themselves after starving for so long? Adagio brought one hand to her hip and the other to Aria’s chin to stroke it like one would a pet’s, “I know you are a born complainer, but this is bold even for you. After all, we’re winning, so why do you feel the need to nitpick every little thing?” The demeaning treatment infuriated Aria, who batted Adagio’s hand down and moved forward to put no space in-between their faces, “Maybe I’m just sick of listening to you blab on and on about how great you are. You’re no better than Sonata or I!” It had been quite some time since Adagio remembered showing Aria who really was boss, so Adagio actually found herself excited by the idea that Aria was rebelling against her, “Oh, do I sense that you want to test that theory?” Aria tried to grab Adagio by the top of her shirt to hold her still to punch, but someone clearing their throat stopped the almost-fight from breaking out. Standing about twenty feet down the hallway from where Aria and Adagio were, Loki was looking with a bored expression over at the two as he got their attention, “I hope I am not interrupting anything. I hear that you two can really…go at it.” His flippant expression infuriated Adagio, who refused to be seen as something not worth anyone else’s time. Her pride shone through as she flipped him off, while also grabbing Aria hard enough to make the other woman gasp, “Buzz off, cadaver. Let the beings with actual magic talk.” Loki continued to show the two a bored expression, confident that he could cut them down in a fight if it came to that. So long as their magic did not increase their defensive qualities by too much, a glaive through the throat would still be fatal, “I may have to borrow it, but that does not mean it is any less effective. Your cohorts know a lot about borrowing power though I assume, seeing as how you fed them some of your own power out there.” With that Loki drew his blades and put himself into a defensive stance. He had watched the way the other one fought Tirek outside from the VIP booth, and he was well aware that they could blast him back with their magic. He could have let them fight one another, but even the tempered Loki had traces of his own pride to satisfy. He had not been in real, personal conflict in about a year and he did not want to let what might possibly be his last chance to win a fight slip away. After all, Thanos was bound to come and end him one day, but perhaps he could be remembered as the one who saved so many worlds from these menaces. Besides, Trixie and her pet Elf would be along soon enough if he was having any difficulty, and Twilight and Celestia were bound to wake up at some point. He only hoped that they would wake up without the brainwashing in effect. Adagio pushed her partner away and turned to face Loki with a snarl, “Aria, I would love to put you in your place, but it seems like we have a visitor.” “Seems like our song didn’t get Zombie man,” Aria snorted, turning her anger towards Adagio towards Loki instead. “Probably because he’s only what…eighty percent alive?” Aria found herself actually laughing at the whole thought of how they were about to kill someone who wasn’t actually even fully alive, “Does that mean that the blue bitch is into necro? I wonder how that works…” Loki shook his head sorrowfully. He had not intended to get his nice, regal clothing stained red at this event, but it seemed like he was going to have to eviscerate someone to act as an example for all future people about how you should and should not talk about your royalty. “I would be careful if I were you about what you say. Words have an awfully large effect on people,” Loki warned, though he had no intention of letting the two women learn from their mistake, “They can drive some to intense sorrow, grief, dismay, confusion…” Aria’s laughter was ended by the tip of Loki’s glaive brushing against her throat. It would have gone straight through it, but his other glaive had already slit across her stomach and, because of the immense amounts of raw energy running through her, some of it decided to leak out from the first slice. This had the effect of blasting her backwards just as his glaive would have killed her, with the very small explosion from her gut pushing her just back enough to not be killed instantaneously. Even after the initial force back, Aria continued to stumble back another few feet all the while gripping her stomach and the bleeding wound she now had. Fear gripped her suddenly as she realized that Loki, while not on their level magically, was far greater a threat in the physical realm of things. Adagio realized this as well, and attempted to blast Loki into one of the corridor walls to no success. Without much magic coursing through his body, Loki would likely fall to a single one of their attacks, but his speed kept that from being possible as he leapt forward to kick Aria in the gut and knock her off her feet. Planting one of his golden boots on Aria’s neck, but not yet pressing down on it, Loki decided to finish his little lecture if only to leave her with something before he gave her to Hela to forever toy with, “But most of all, they can infuriate. Enjoy your trip to Hel, for I will not allow someone to besmirch my queen in my presence.” Just as Loki prepared to let gravity do its work and Adagio prepared to blast Loki away from Aria, the sound of a familiar voice carried throughout the walls of the structure. “LOKI! WHERE ARE YOU HIDING OLD FRIEND?” The first to react was Adagio, who was wondering who the hell this new person was and how they thought they were welcome to also crash this party, “What the hell?” Loki had already taken his foot off of Aria’s neck by the time Adagio spoke, as he was now wholly concerned with the man who was calling his name. It looked like he wasn’t going to get the chance to toy with the two opponents there before being killed by Thanos after all. How Thanos managed to get to Equestria was something Loki intended to find out, but for the moment he needed to confront Thanos before the mass murderer decided to start killing people. “It seems that I have a bigger threat to deal with. I doubt I will need to lift a finger against you though.” With that, Loki sped down the hallway at a pace faster than either Aria or Adagio could keep up with. Magic could boost physical attributes, but theirs had yet to truly set into their bodies as evidenced by the outburst of energy from Aria that ironically saved her life. Once digested, the power would allow them to at least possibly keep up with Loki, not that they ever would get the chance to try. “Bigger threat? Who does he think he’s talking to?!” Aria coughed up some blood as she rose to her feet, one hand still on her stomach even though the energy coursing through her had sealed and partially healed the wound, “An idiot.” Annoyed by the snark given to her, Adagio pushed the still recovering Aria back onto the ground, “He wasn’t speaking to just you, Aria. After all, who has kept us alive all these years? Who is the real genius? It surely isn’t the one who complains ever step of the way, who doesn’t act out of her own initiative, who just follows the leader both at work and at play.” Even as she was knocked over, Aria threw a leg out to take Adagio’s legs out from under her, “And you have some real dumbass ideas sometimes, you overconfident bitch!” In a display of fortitude, Sonata had managed to keep up her attack on Tirek as the latter tried rushing her time and time again. She screamed until her lungs were starved of oxygen, the power of her voice blasting him back and keeping him at bay just enough to give her the brief moments she needed to breathe to do it again. She had managed to partially crawl to her knees so she wasn’t on her back on the ground, making it easier to turn and blast her opponent back every time he appeared from a different direction of attack. Her determination to survive and win surprised Tirek, who had expected the fool to fall apart when she realized her friends had abandoned her. To be met with her complete and full resistance was surprising, though he knew that her tears were indicating that she was effected. She would crumble completely, he just needed to keep applying pressure to her mental wound. “Aria might be a jerk, and Adagio may be full of herself, but they’re my friends!” Sonata shouted as her voice repelled Tirek once again. Her attacks had begun to do less to him after he began to use his own magic to form a barrier focused entirely in front of him which diverted enough of the force and sound to let him not suffer the same debilitating headaches as before while still being pushed back. Before Tirek could gather himself enough to cut her with words, the Siren continued to shout, “They were the ones who protected me from all the other mean people! They made me feel better when people called me stupid! They may have forgotten, but they’re not just evil!” Sonata began to completely bawl, and her sobbing granted a pause in her defensive offense. This granted Tirek a moment to recover, as well as begin his assault anew as Sonata softly cried. “They loved me, even if they couldn’t say it out loud…” What she might have said next was cut off by Tirek’s giant fist slamming down into her side. She forcibly tumbled across the wreckage of the stage before finally stopping face down on top of some broken materials from the ruined structure. Sonata did not move to get up, and Tirek assumed that his strike had been enough to break a few bones. This would be over soon enough. Ever malevolent, Tirek laughed at her tragedy as he walked over to her, “Even you are using the past tense now. It is good that you are realizing the truth you will have to live with in the afterlife for eternity. Perhaps, when madness overtakes your mind you will be released from your pain.” Tirek reached down to grab Sonata, who had finally felt her entire reason for fighting crumble. She had wanted to do it for her friends, to make them care for her…but if they didn’t care for her anyway, what did she have left? “I just want everything to be like how it was…” Sonata closed her eyes as her opponent’s giant hand just about reached her, ready to just let her life go, “Just the three of us, together…” Her eyes did not remain shut for long, however, as Tirek howling in pain and stumbling a few feet away made her curious. What just happened? Sonata rolled over and looked up to see that a large axe had buried itself in Tirek’s forehead, and the giant being was pulling it out as he continue to scream in pain. As Tirek diverted his attention to the axe that had been deeply buried into his head, Sonata found herself being lifted to her feet by someone behind her. She looked back to see a familiar pretty man with a goatee and mustache, whose slight frame for an Asgardian made him quite unique when not compared to the half-Asgardian Loki. “F-Fandral?” With Sonata on her feet again, the warrior smiled to her and pushed her back and away from Tirek, “I can stall him long enough. You had best go, since I am sure things will be better if he does not have your energy too.” The fact that Fandral interrupted her attempt to let herself die actually angered Sonata, who didn’t even begin to run away, “What are you doing? This isn’t your fight! You run!” By this time Tirek had managed to take the axe out of his head, and with fury he tossed it down to the ground. Fandral frowned at the sight of the axe being discarded, as it was one he had brought for an empty chair he had reserved for fallen friend Volstagg. He had been given the axe by Volstagg’s widow when he had given her the news of the burly man’s loss. Not being much for shows of strength, Fandral had not really found much use for the weapon, but as an Asgardian he still had the strength to twirl and hurl it with deadly strength and precision as Tirek found out. Fandral laughed at Sonata’s suggestion as he planned his next action, which was to rush to the weapon and use it again to wound his foe, “What kind of gentleman would I be if I did that?” Since Tirek was only wearing basic clothing, not actual armor, the sharp weapon would be effective even with how powerful Tirek had become. Like the Sirens, his power had yet to settle down and so when the axe collided with his forehead some of the raw power escaped which is what truly caused the hit to be so painful. As Fandral enacted his plan and grabbed the weapon while swiftly dodging a furious punch from Tirek, Sonata found herself dumbfounded by the sight. He was helping her, even after what she and the others did minutes ago. She wasn’t even telling him to do this…she had left him inside when the show began, which meant that he wouldn’t have had the controlling music wash over him. “Aren’t you mad that I’m hurting your people?” Mad? Oh, Fandral was furious. He had actually begun to like the occasional visit from the exotic foreigner whose voice was so beautiful, especially since she was as interested as he was in intellectual discussions. But he had heard the back and forth between Tirek and her. He had heard about how her friends abandoned her to what amounted to a death sentence, and he found that inexcusable as an honorable knight. In addition, his ladykiller ways would not allow him to just let a poor woman be brutally murdered, even if she was evil in her own demented fashion. Fandral danced around Tirek’s fist while using his momentum to drag the blade across the man’s thick red arm as well as to quickly draw his sword from its sheath, opting to use his continual movement to keep swinging the blades instead of slowing down and only being able to use one or the other. While by no means in love with the woman, Fandral was ready to make up for his inability to help the last time a friend was in need. Inside of the other parts of the stadium there were still some stragglers who were not rendered unconscious and drained like the rest of the people at the event, and those people included the majority of the athletes. Kael decided to first go to the shared locker room of the athletes instead of one of the three individual ones, as it would be most efficient to warn each of the three races at once and let each of them then warn and help their own people. Unfortunately for Kael, upon unlocking the door to the room and entering he found himself face to face with a Pegasus who appeared as if she was about to ram it. Rainbow Dash stopped her charge at the now open door and instead decided to address the situation, “Hey, dress guy, what’s going on out there? People are yelling and stuff, and there’s a lot of screaming too, but the doors in here have all been locked from the outside this whole time!” Kael realized that this too was something Trixie planned. Because she couldn’t be everywhere at once, and because once the crowd was drained their purpose was fulfilled, there needed to be a group to get innocent bystanders out of the way of everything. Not about to explain that part to Rainbow, Kael instead offered the information she was actually seeking, “There is a group of three that are currently trying to drain the magic from everyone here, and they have succeeded in doing so from the crowds. A fourth, separate, individual is doing the same.” While not dumb, Rainbow Dash was impulsive and so she tried rushing out of the door as the rest of the room of athletes just watched and listened with various levels of confusion and distrust, “Let me at ‘em!” Kael grabbed Rainbow by the scruff of her neck and sighed, “They are far more powerful than you by several figures, and if they tried they could manipulate you into serving them. Your princess is instead asking that you rouse the crowds and help begin an evacuation.” Saluting him, Rainbow Dash prepared to rush out of the room again, “Yes sir! I’ll go wake everypony up in no time at all! I didn’t work off all that fat for nothing, you know!” Once Rainbow took off, all of the many gathered athletes approached Kael. They didn’t know him personally like Rainbow did, and so they did not exactly trust him or his authority, but he quickly addressed this issue by gesturing to the door. “All of you, are you going to let a flying horse take all the credit for saving lives here, or are you going to go and help save your people?” The pride of the Jotuns, Asgardians, as well as Equestrians forced all three races to begrudgingly agree, since the sounds from outside did seem real enough and none of them wanted to see their families harmed. “This may be asking a lot, but do not engage them in combat. Help your people out of here, and leave. We will mop everything up here, as them draining you of your powers would do no-one any good.” When Luna appeared in Canterlot her first stop was the nursery, where she found Scootaloo tending to the light blue foal she had mentioned was her sister that she had wanted to be a brother. Looking around the room Luna could see all of the others, and they appeared to be asleep in the cribs provided for them, but her motherly side forced her to ask still, “Scootaloo, are the foals all well?” Scootaloo tried to play off how surprised she was for Luna to just suddenly appear next to her, and so she laughed as she finished bottle feeding the foal in front of her, “Yeah, all the foals are doing just great. Sleep Near keeps shifting forms though, from the monkey one to his foal one and back.” Luna knew firsthand that Hela would not speak up to let her needs be known, so she decided to further inquire about her daughter instead of her son who was at least vocal, “How is Hela?” “She’s just staying in the monkey form now. Why, is something the matter?” Luna sighed at the thought of what she was about to say. Things were really in a bad place if she had to be telling the foalsitter of her children to watch out for danger, “Scootaloo, I need you to lock the door and do whatever you can to keep people from coming in, okay?” While usually trying the play the part of a tough filly, Scootaloo found herself frightened by the fact that a Princess appeared worried about something,m “What’s happening?” “Some bad people are likely going to be coming to the castle, and I need to stop them, but I can’t be there stopping them and with you all at the same time. I don’t want them to hurt anypony, as it is my duty to protect everypony who lives in my nation in one way or another.” Luna paused at the sound of yelling and screaming outside, only to then turn around and rush to the door at the sound of a window breaking in the hallway as some object crashed through it. “Please, keep them safe!” Scootaloo saluted Luna as the mother rushed away, leaving an empty doorway behind her as she ran to confront whatever threat was coming her way, “Yes ma’am!” Once Luna was gone, Scootaloo placed her sister back in her crib and went to go close the door. When she reached it however, an orange guardsman was there in the doorway to greet her. Scootaloo smiled at the sight of a guard, thinking that it meant that she would have somepony to protect her from whatever was going on. “Hi mister, did Princess Luna send you?” His blank eyes and lack of speech made Scootaloo quickly realize that, no, Luna had not sent this guard. “Uh oh.” “Kill the tyrannical royalty!” “Take back the power that is rightfully ours!” When Luna reached the site of the uproar she found herself pleasantly surprised by how the ponies making a ruckus were the nobles gathered at the front gates along with their servants, some of their sympathizers, as well as some guards. The crowd was using magic to hit and destroy all of the things in their path, and it would be soon enough that they breached the inner castle as the few still-loyal guards did not know what to do to quell the uprising. The faint green glow coming from the eyes of the ponies in the mob gave Luna the impression that they were indeed being controlled, as before Celestia and Twilight were rendered unconscious they had a similar ailment. “So they have gotten to you too. I know not how to cure your ailment through magic, but perhaps brute force can convince you to stand down…” Luna took to the sky before skydiving down right to the point in front of the crowd so as to cut them off, her voice picking up in its strength as she began to project to them all. “All you nobles and fools who dare tread upon the land of my castle, listen to this: if you so hate me, now is your chance! I am not running, so if you think you are so righteous and noble in your cause, your rebellion, come and take my crown from me! Prove that you have the strength to carry out your ideals, prove to me that you are better than the weak cretins I have always known you to be!” Without another word, the crowd rushed at Luna feverishly, intent on doing just as she said. Unfortunately for them, even out of practice and outnumbered, Luna was more than willing to beat them into the dirt with her far superior power and magic after all the trauma these ponies had inflicted on her student and daughter. Had this been a year ago when Luna was the one in possession of the Nightmare’s corrupting influence and not Trixie, this rebellion would have been put down in a most lethal fashion. When Trixie finally caught up to the Sirens, she was surprised to see them grappling on the ground as each tried to overpower the other. They would grab, punch, kick, bite, and even headbutt one another as they continued to fight for dominance, with Adagio currently winning due to her superior power and previously unwounded status. Aria climbed on top of Adagio, only for the latter to lift her legs up and use them to forcefully kick Aria both off of her and into the air before landing on her back. This done, Adagio stood up and approached her rebellious colleague, “I knew you liked it rough, Aria, but this is surprising even for you. Need you humiliate yourself any further?” Aria spat out some more blood onto the ground as she prepared to say something, only to have her attention be caught by the now present Trixie. Trixie was glaring at them both, though Aria realized that perhaps this would be a good time to enact that betrayal pact of sorts Trixie had proposed… Adagio grabbed Aria by the front of her partially ripped shirt and dragged her to her feet before pushing her towards Trixie, “Oh, new girl, mind helping me remind Aria why I’m the one on top?” Aria winked at Trixie, who ignored her and sidestepped the purple Siren to instead have a perfect view of Adagio, “On top of the ground, maybe.” Before either Siren could speak further, Trixie blasted them with a quick burst of magic that took them off their feet. From the ground, Adagio began to growl. She had not waited this long just to be backstabbed by two of her conspirators, as well as be interrupted by two outside entities, “Trixie, you…you…” “I am not your pawn. No-one tells me what to do, not that either of you will be doing much bossing around after this,” Trixie proclaimed menacingly. She was not in the mood to deal with the bickering of these two, and they had each played their part. Still, Adagio was not about to just give up without a fight, so she rose to her feet and snarled at how Trixie was turning on her, “How are you not under our control? By now even you should be under my command! You were right next to us in the performance!” Trixie pointed to the necklace hanging on to Adagio’s chest from her neck before gesturing to herself, “The power of your necklaces is far weaker than my own. I have the power to create and destroy as I please. Your little trinkets are just baubles when compared to my magnificence.” While Aria got back up again and stumbled over to Adagio’s side, preferring to side with someone who would actually work with her, Adagio saw something behind Trixie that was of interest. “Well, perhaps your assistant would like to show you what happens to traitors?” Trixie did not need to turn around to know that Kael had rejoined her. She already knew. Adagio waved a hand at Trixie dismissively, wanting to see just what he could make the once loyal Elf do to his master. Adagio had spent quite some time singing and winning him over after all, and so she would enjoy seeing Trixie have to fight her own companion, “Kael, kill her. We don’t need her anymore.” In response Kael bowed, “I live only to serve the mistress.” And then summoned forth a large torrent of fire to knock the still recovering Aria off her feet. The Siren swore about continually being the target of everything while Adagio looked back and forth between Aria and Kael with awe, not at the burning shirt Aria was wearing, but at how once again her powers failed her. But this time she had no idea how it would not work, since Kael was puny in power compared to Trixie the last time she checked… With a moment of sensing magic, Adagio realized with horror that there was a magical link between the two Elves. While Kael may have had very little a year ago, he did not need much of his own magic if he was sharing with the immensely empowered Trixie. Trixie placed a hand on Kael’s shoulder, finding herself pleased by how badly she played Adagio for a fool, “He’s under my control, not yours. Like I said, your power is trivial compared to the power I now hold. I can destroy this entire planet if I so please, I only don’t because my hatred of those who live here is not quite there yet.” Having everything turned against her on what was supposed to be a day of triumph infuriated Adagio, “Aria, get the hell up!” after her partner finished putting her fire out and get up, Adagio realized something that made her confident again that she could win, “You can’t possibly use your full power against us. Not without killing countless civilians.” Trixie shrugged. She had come completely prepared for all of this, and felt no fear of actually losing, “I don’t need my full power for you. Even after all the power you have drained, each of you are only just above two thirds my strength. You are powerful, but not enough to win. Submit now and I will be lenient. I will take your power, permanently, and you will live under house arrest for the rest of your long lives.” Adagio and Aria taking in breath to use their vocal attack made Trixie realize that they had chosen to do this the hard way. They had their chance though, and so she was going to make them regret ever daring to put her family in danger. Tirek had initially only failed to wipe the floor with the wounded Sonata and the relatively puny Fandral because the pain coursing through his head, but once that calmed down some he turned the tables. After Fandral had entered the fray he had taken to hacking away at Tirek’s legs, while Sonata used her sonic attacks to assault him and keep him from doing much of anything. However, a single magic blast directly to the ground threw the warrior to one side, his weapons hurling away from him as Tirek revealed some of his own magical ability. He had hoped to save all of what he had for the remaining Sirens since they were the largest threat he knew of, but Sonata and Fandral had pushed his patience too far. Tirek looked down with interest at the blade that had burrowed in his head, and he realized by observing it that he wanted nothing more in this fight than to bury it in the body of the puny being who dared to cut him with it. Tirek took the weapon in hand, and just like Fandral threw it at him Tirek hurled it down at the sole member of the Warriors Three present at the event. Only, the axe never found its way into Fandral’s flesh. “This…” Fandral, having landed on his back and having been nearly rendered unconscious by the burst of magic, opened his eyes to see that the person who spoke was Sonata, who was leaning over him. It didn’t take him long to realize that blood was pooling on him, dripping from her back where the axe he brought had embedded itself in her after she shielded him. Tirek laughed maniacally as he realized that he had finally won, and without another word to her he began to drain her power as it seeped out of her body from the gaping wound it now sported. Fandral gasped as Sonata slowly slumped onto the ground beside him, tears welling in her eyes as she tried to smile at him. “I-is this what dying feels like?” Having taken all of the power that seeped into the air, Tirek decided to survey the area once again and reassess his priorities before taking what remained in Sonata’s body. This process was interrupted, however, by the sight of some approaching silver contraptions in the sky. He had never seen anything like them, and so he squinted as he tried to observe them. “What are those?” In this time however, Fandral had scooped up the rapidly fading Sonata and begun to carry her towards an exit where some others were making their way out of the stadium. Given that Sonata would die in moments and that the wounded Asgardian could not likely travel far in his wounded state, Tirek decided to let them run as he studied the approaching…things in the sky. After he found a way to handle them, he could just take whatever still remained in the blue corpse. “Cowards, I will deal with you as soon as I deal with these new variables!” Once Fandral brought Sonata out of sight of Tirek, he let her down again gently. The axe had fallen out of her a few feet back, and Sonata was still bleeding profusely. Dreary from her blood loss, Sonata thought in her mind that he was bringing her someplace to be helped. Only, Fandral didn’t know where someone with medical expertise was, so he was just trying to find a peaceful place to let her down. “Just let me die. I don’t want to live anymore…” In an attempt to humor her delusion, Fandral smiled at her as he fought to keep tears from his face, “When I lost my best friend, you helped me with my loss. Now you want to go and die too? I am afraid I cannot let you do that to me…” Her eyes closed, causing the warrior to grab a hand and clench it. While evil and genuinely a villain, she had just saved his life… “Sonata?” Her eyes flickered once before slowly closing again, a smile on Sonata’s face as she looked at someone who actually cared, like her friends used to. “I wish Adagio and Aria were like you. You really care for your friends…” And, with that, her head softly fell to the side and her slight grip on his hand became nothing.