When Sonata could see the area around her, the first thing that caught her attention was how the riddle was spelt this time. Despite how large the letters were for her convenience, the entire riddle, as well as the answers, were spelt backwards.
?kcatta ot nwonk si naipotsyD hcihW .kcab pets a ekat ot deen ew ,semitemoS
The two answers that Sonata could see this time were "eeleM" and "tluassA"
"Hold on a second..." Sonata carefully glanced at the question, not being able to make a single word out from what she could see. Not only that, she had problems processing the answers for this riddle as well. "This question makes no sense at all! Why would this be part of my test?! I might be childish and easily taken by distractions, but even I know that this question and its' answers make no sense!"
"Miss Dusk! Remind yourself that the Rhythm Realm you wander is meant to test your concentration!" Symphonia appeared in front of Sonata once more, getting Sonata to stumble backwards and land on her butt once again. "This world will confuse and mess with you. You must NOT succumb to its' trickery if you wish to succeed!"
"I KNOW, Symphonia. But this entire question looks like it was written by a three-year old!" Sonata said, acting in a very frustrated manner as she addressed the Lyrican as loudly as possible.
"The question is backwards, Sonata Dusk. Everything you see has been written backwards, so you must be capable of reading the question backwards if you are to progress onwards with your perilous journey across the Rhythm Realm..." he vanished after reading the question and the answers that were in place for Sonata.
"Backwards?" Sonata looked at the question and answer again, slowly reading each different word backwards. "Sometimes, we need to take a step back. Which Dystopian is known to attack? Is it Melee or Assault?"
It was upon discovering the question and answers for real that Sonata returned to her dumbfounded state. Both Melee and Assault were equally valid answers, since they both revolved around words that were similar to attacking.
"Alright then. Guess it's all down to chance..." Sonata said as she walked down the path with the Melee arch. Once more, she proceeded until she arrived at yet another dimensional rip. As she stared into the tear once again, she took in a deep breath and threw herself into the light once again.
The next thing that Sonata knew, she was in the body of an actual horse, and she was galloping in what looked like a horse race. She tried to control herself, but it seemed like her equine body was in complete control in this certain scenario.
Suddenly, a jump appeared in the distance, made entirely out of hay that was held together by a number of metal rods and bars. As it appeared, time completely stopped and Sonata found herself sitting down on the horse's back. A horse whip appeared in her hands all of a sudden, and the question appeared in front of her.
Quick reactions and a steady hand, who among The Dazzlings has these planned?
Sonata saw that the answers were not on the jump itself, but rather on the horse's flank. On the left flank, it read "Adagio Dazzle" whereas on the right flank it visibly read "Aria Blaze"
"Hey! What about me? I've got both of those qualities as well!" Sonata said, looking a little peeved to know her name wasn't on the horse's flank. She then sighed and said, "Well, if I'm not the one with those features, it has to be Dagi, since Ari does tend to stutter a little when faced with impossible odds..."
When time started again, Sonata used the whip and lashed it against the horse's left flank, the speed of the equine drastically increasing as Sonata held on tight. She watched as the horse made it closer and closer to the jump, where a dimensional rip was just opening up for her.
Both Sonata and the horse leapt into the rip and were taken by the light once again.
Sonata rode the horse until she arrived at the fork in the road, then she stopped the horse and quickly leapt down from its' back.
"Thanks for the ride, Silver. I'll see you next time." Sonata petted her horse before it whinnied and vanished in a column of light. When her horse had vanished, Sonata looked at the next riddle, as well as the two answers that had appeared next to it.
The year of the war eludes us all, but when did everyone heed the war call?
The answers were both specific dates. One of them was "5th Verse, 24th of Murikralek" where as the other answer that was before her was "8th Verse, 1st of Luricreil"
"That's an easy one. It was sometime in Luricreil, since that was the day we earned the Souls of Song alongside The Blasters." Sonata said, sparing no time as she dashed down the path that read "8th Verse, 1st of Luricreil"
"And that makes fifteen pieces..." Sonata felt her pendant once she'd arrived at the next fork in the road. Smiling in satisfaction, she looked at the next riddle and answers that were placed in front of her.
There are many frivolous things in this world, but which malefic creature has its' talons curled?
When Sonata had finished reading the question aloud, she could see that two more arches appeared for her. One of them read "Roc" whist the other one was "Phoenix"
This time, Sonata had trouble trying to place the two creatures apart from each other. "That's odd... Both Rocs and Phoenixes are malefic, at least according to Furen Sirens..."
"But..." Sonata slowly found herself walking towards the Roc arch, a sudden smile slowly creeping its' way onto her face as she processed both a Roc and a Phoenix's anatomy. "Phoenixes don't have feet!"
"Boom! Sonatelligence scores me yet another Furen Fragment!" Sonata said as she found another dimensional rip in the fabric of reality at the end of her path. Once more, she threw herself in and was once again consumed by the light.
The next part of the Rhythm Realm was entirely different altogether. Sonata was walking on what looked like a small planetoid with a sun about to go supernova in the distance. She eventually found the whole planetoid quite disorienting as she walked off what looked like an edge and walked to the bottom of the planet.
When Sonata finally concentrated once more, she saw that the sun was giving her the riddle, as multiple fiery snakes left the sun and latched onto each other and spelt out a rather bright riddle for her. In fact, it was so bright, that Sonata couldn't see it without having her eyes barraged by a large amount of light.
"I can't see a thing!" Sonata said as she shielded her eyes from the intense light that the sun snakes were radiating. It was almost enough to consume her once more.
Eventually, Sonata struggled and thrashed about as the light continued to shine even brighter than that of the sun itself. So much optical pain was happening at once that she needed to stop it for good. She curled her arms and legs to make herself ball-like, then let out a scream, unfurled her arms and legs and shone a rather bright shade of crimson as she screamed at the snakes to reduce the light they were emitting.
When Sonata could finally see again, she looked at the riddle for real this time. The snakes were much less radiant, and were now displaying a riddle that she could see without pain to her eyes.
Though the Moon is the Sun of the Night, which emits a more beautiful light?
Sonata saw that the answers were projected arrows that pointed to different parts of the planet. One arrow pointed her towards "Sunset" whilst the other one was directing her towards "Aurora Borealis" Before she could even react, though, Sonata could clearly see a golden line appear on the planet's surface between her legs. She knew that she had to stand on one side of the planet or the other to answer.
"Ooh... That IS a tough one..." Sonata said as she looked at each of the two answers as hard as possible. "A sunset is a thing of beauty, what with all the pretty shades of red, orange and yellow. But an Aurora Borealis has all the different colours of the rainbow in it, and is made even more pretty at night..."
Before Sonata could process her thought further, the sun exploded with a colossal burst of light, sending out an amber shockwave that would split Sonata's planetoid in two, and secure her answer for the question that she'd been posed.
Sonata yelped in surprise and leapt towards the Aurora Borealis side of the planet, just narrowly evading the amber slice that cut the planetoid in half. After she'd landed on Aurora Borealis, Sonata fell through a bright hole that appeared beneath her feet.
"Three more questions... I can do this!" Sonata told herself as she felt her pendant case, feeling seventeen out of twenty Furen Fragments tightly secured in it. Letting her case droop once more, she looked at the next question, and the answers that accompanied it.
The master of The Blasters, the Siren to heed, but now he is consumed by greed. Who is he?
"Easy!" Sonata didn't even read the other two answers when she saw Fortissimo Blast as once of the arches. Zipping down it with her wings unfurled, Sonata flew through yet another rip in the fabric of reality and was consumed by the light for the eighteenth time during her stay in the Rhythm Realm.
"Just two more to go, then I'll be able to sing for more power..." Sonata dreamt of her finished pendant as she landed in the next area of the Rhythm Realm. This time, she was taken aback by all of the wonderful sights that lay ahead of her.
Sonata was in a world that was entirely made out of her favourite foods. There were mountains of tacos, rivers of fruit punch, trees of ice cream, and many different foodstuffs that shaped a makeshift landscape. Her mouth dropped when she'd finally understood where she was.
Eventually, two small fortune cookies appeared in her hands, with a giant fortune cookie appearing in front of her. The giant biscuit cracked in half, revealing a strip of paper with her next question inside.
Many things are delicious, but are more than meets the eye. Which Dystopian can make others eat so much, that they die?
Sonata cracked open the two small fortune cookies in her hands one at a time. In her left hand, the fortune cookie read "Starvation" whereas the fortune cookie in her right hand read "Gluttony"
"Wait... Am I supposed to eat the right answer?" Sonata pondered as she looked at each of the two fortune cookies, alternating her gaze from each of them every two seconds. She wasn't even allowed to ponder that further as she heard an alien screech from the bottom of the hill she was standing on.
Tearing her gaze away from the two foodstuffs, Sonata could see a number of Song Seekers climbing the hill, clinging on to all of the different foods as they continued in their ascent.
"Oh, to heck with it!" Sonata ate the Gluttony fortune cookie, and then saw a massive cake appear before her eyes. She threw the other fortune cookie off of the hill and then dove her face directly into the massive cake.
Sonata finished up the cake, licking the last little morsels off of her face as she finally saw where she was. She was standing on what looked like a stained glass floor in the middle of a pitch black realm of nothingness. When she looked at the floor, she saw a rather interesting picture.
It showed all of The Rainbooms, The Dazzlings, The Snapshots and The Illusions staring at The Blasters, who all threw their hands into the air to welcome the descent of a being with red and blue crystal wings. To her eyes, it looked like a vision of the final battle involving The Blasters, who were about to summon King Allure with the Souls of Song.
Suddenly, in a flash of light, Lord Symphonia appeared before Sonata, no longer as a projection, but more so a physical manifestation of himself.
"You have fought very valiantly, Miss Dusk, and have come to the end of your trial..." he began speaking to Sonata, his words reaching her effortlessly. "However, one more obstacle lies between you and your new Furen pendant..."
"And what would that be?" Sonata asked as she looked at Symphonia with a curious look in her eyes, not sure as to where we was going with his words.
However, Symphonia took up a battle posture and held his hands out to his sides. With two more flashes, one red and one blue, Symphonia was wielding two large Lyrican tomahawks, one of them laced with Furen crystals and the other one laced with Blissen crystals. "Me..." he then charged towards Sonata, making her leap backwards in surprise and draw her own weapon.
"Why would I want to fight you, Symphonia?" Sonata asked as she narrowly dodged another one of his attacks and kicked him in the back when she vaulted herself over him.
"To prove that you are truly worthy of your new pendant, you must show me your worth to The Dazzlings... You are quite a smart one, Miss Dusk, but Lyricans are truly Lyricans when they apply logical, magical and physical prowess in combat..." Symphonia swirled his tomahawks around in his hands, creating tornadoes that were slowly dragging Sonata into them.
Sonata eventually saw through Symphonia's little plan and thrust her sword straight into his armour, making him recoil in surprise as he was pushed towards the edge of the stained glass platform. She saw that Symphonia was teetering on the edge, so she pushed forward with her swords pointing towards him.
Symphonia recovered from the edge of the platform and his tomahawks met Sonata's blades. The two of them were locked in a tight power struggle for ten seconds before Symphonia kicked Sonata in the stomach and smashed her into the ground with both of his tomahawks.
"You are lucky that I am holding back, Miss Dusk. Had this been the great war that destroyed our kind, I would have called upon some of the most cataclysmic magic I can muster..." Symphonia said as he watched Sonata get up onto her feet once more.
"I didn't come this far just to leave with nothing, Symphonia..." Sonata said as she glowed a radiant shade of red and charged towards Symphonia. She swung her sword around, but every attack was accompanied by Sonata's Hippocampi, knocking Symphonia back, into the air, and all over the place to break his guard. Sonata then swung her sword around rather rapidly, with at least twenty different projections of her Hippocampi barraging Symphonia violently. Then, with one final vertical slash, Sonata's blade called forth a rather large hand directly above Symphonia. The hand that Sonata called forth knocked Symphonia into the stained glass floor, then repeatedly smashed him back into it when he bounced in pain. With her opponent taken aback by her power, Sonata drove her heel directly into Symphonia's back, making him cough up some blood as Sonata was enveloped by light once more.
Sonata was once more in the column of light which she'd used to enter the Rhythm Realm. Only this time, she was flying up it instead of falling down it. She saw her pendant case disappear, with all twenty of her hard-earned Furen Fragments coming together in a rather majestic fashion.
The pieces that Sonata collected all merged together into one, with red lights merging each piece together. When all of the pieces had combined, Sonata's new Furen pendant, which showed a musical note overlapping a heart, attached itself to the golden cornerstone and shone radiantly once it did. The new light enveloped Sonata and carried her out of the Rhythm Realm, returning her to the Halls of Composia where all of her friends and family were waiting for her...
The circular cover opened up once more, getting all of the chatting friends to stop what they were doing and witness Sonata's return from the Rhythm Realm. They saw a red light leave the Rhythm Realm, which suddenly showed Sonata's body for a brief second before the red light consumed the room once more.
When the light had died down, Sonata could be seen by everyone now. The only noticeable difference was that she now had her new Furen pendant, which showed a musical note overlapping a heart of sorts. After Sonata opened up her eyes, the first thing she said was, "I'm back!" in a sing-song voice.
"Indeed you are, Sonata Dusk." Symphonia was soon next to Sonata, commending her for her valiant actions in the Rhythm Realm. "You managed to not only think of your strategies and push forward, but you also utilized your upbeat attitude as a motivational booster to overcome doubt..."
"Thanks, Symphonia." Sonata said as she reunited with the rest of The Dazzlings, smiles spread across their faces as they pulled each other into a rather large hug.
"Now then, before you leave, I imagine that you wish to know the reason as to why The Blasters are acting so uncouth?" Symphonia asked the question once The Dazzlings had finished their hug. His serious eyes were a dead giveaway that he had something very important to tell everyone.
"Yes, please. Know your enemy, after all..." Adagio said.
"The Blasters were once some of the most purest of Lyrican Sirens to ever wander the worlds, their hearts devoid of all darkness, and their souls cleansed and uncorrupted," Symphonia began an explanation that detailed The Blasters' madness. "However, years and years of wandering the worlds after the war, have left them in a state of denial and in desperate need of their fellow kind..."
"Fortissimo, Allegro and Orchestral have been consumed by emotions of denial, perseverance, loneliness, regret and rage. Because their emotions control them, they will no longer listen to reason, and will do ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING to resurrect the Siren species, even if it means stealing the Right Souls of Fury and killing The Dazzlings in cold blood."
"The Blasters also see the humans of Earth and the ponies of Equestria as the most horrific scourge to wander the worlds. They classify anypony and anybody as Lyrican terrorists, who know nothing but murder and destruction," Symphonia continued. "However, they are still unaware that it was the Six Euphorian Deities that made Starswirl murder their kind, and as such, they pinned the blame on all of humankind and ponykind..."
"Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk. Fortissimo Blast, Allegro Maelstrom and Orchestral Chill will no longer show mercy for anyone except for their own. If The Rainbooms or the princesses of Equestria try to fight back against them, they will simply be signing their own death warrant..." Symphonia spoke to the whole group. "While your friends will still be able to aid you in these war-torn times, everyone must remember that it must be you three that duel your brothers..."
"And to aid you three on your quest, I shall provide you with a hefty amount of negative energy to awaken your Furen pendant's powers..." Symphonia waved his hands around, spawning red Furen energy as it did so until his hands became red orbs of negative energy.
The Dazzlings merely stood there and puffed out their chests as Symphonia pushed both of his hands forward, firing three powerful streams of red energy that collided with the Furen pendants, making them glow rather radiantly as all of the red energy was consumed by The Dazzlings, making them shine rather radiantly once more. Once it had stopped, they felt their new pendants, feeling that they were rather warm after that massive feast of power.
"That is all the negative energy I can offer you now. To gather more energy like this, you must travel to places that are filled with too much harmony, and sow the seeds of discord with your voices," Symphonia reminded The Dazzlings as he waved his hands once more, creating a portal to the Human World behind the group. "But before you go, you must remember the Balance of Lyrica's rules. There cannot be too much harmony, and there cannot be too much hatred. Now, go! Go and uphold your duties as Furen Sirens once again!"
Everyone shot a smile at Lord Symphonia, then waved him goodbye as they all dashed through the portal. They all vanished from the Halls of Composia within seconds, with the ponies being morphed into humans as per the rules of interdimensional travel between the three worlds. The Rainbooms of Earth once more took their human forms, with Celestia, Luna, Cadence and Starswirl adopting guises of their human counterparts as well.