A Harmonic Sonata

by keaton-furman-prower


Chapter 8.5: Meanwhile, Back With Luna...

Princess Luna looked towards the dark alicorn flying above her as she struggled to keep her shield from collapsing under Hellfire Sun’s powerful blasts of dark magic. While she had managed to lure her away from any populated areas, she had tired herself out quite sooner than she expected, while her foe seemed to be relatively unaffected.

“I won’t let you harm my subjects!” she yelled. “You have no place here!”

“Oh, please,” Hellfire Sun said mockingly. “If you truly believed that I have no place here, then why did you call upon me for help?”

Luna shuddered. As hard as she was trying to ignore the dark mare’s words, it was very hard to not feel some guilt for what had happened all those centuries ago. As her will faltered, cracks began to form in her shield.

“I could have given you everything you ever wanted! But you rejected me, and then banished me to the sun for a thousand years!”

Luna yelled out in pain as her shield exploded into a million tiny fragments. She flapped her wings furiously, barely managing to keep herself aloft.

“You think you can take everything away from me?!” Hellfire Sun yelled. “I SHALL BURN EVERYTHING YOU HOLD DEAR!!!

The blazing mare laughed as she gathered energy into her horn, ready to unleash her deadliest attack yet. Before she could do anything, however, she felt something smash itself into her.

“Agh!”

Luna gasped; she could clearly see a familiar streak of lightning clouds following the object. She then noticed four more streaks flying directly towards her. They then stopped right in front of her, revealing them to be pegasi dressed in black and purple jumpsuits.

“Princess!” one of them said. “We saw that the sun was rising earlier and hotter than usual. We went out to investigate, and we saw you fighting somepony! What is going on?!”

The blue alicorn recognized the stallion as the leader of the Shadowbolts, codenamed Skywalker.

“Commander! You must leave now! You do not stand a chance against her!”

“With all due respect, Princess, you hardly seem to be able to fight her either,” said Skywalker. “And besides, we have all sworn an oath to serve you until the end, no matter what.”

“What about the other guards?” Luna asked.

“They’re not as fast as us,” said Skywalker. “And many of them are busy calming the populace. Some of them may arrive, but it will be a while. Until then, we’re here to help.”

Luna sighed. She knew that there was no way to dissuade the Shadowbolts, and especially Skywalker.

“Just don’t die,” she said as her horn began to glow once more.

Skywalker nodded, and then looked towards the sky to see the one mare who was now dodging Hellfire Sun’s magic. He then turned to address his fellow Shadowbolts.

“All right. Blaze can only dodge that mare for so long before she gets herself killed. Muffins, I want you and Descent to get her out of trouble. Nova, you and I are going to guard Luna. Now let’s go!”

The other Shadowbolts nodded, and the group then flew off towards the shadowy mare. Immediately, two of them split off and headed off in the direction of Luna, white the other two sped towards their reckless companion.

“What’s wrong, ugly?!” Blaze yelled as she dodged Hellfire Sun’s blasts. “You know I’m right here! Are you blind or something?!”

I WILL MAKE A LANTERN OUT OF YOUR SKULL!!!

“You can try!” Blaze yelled. However, to her surprise, one of the blasts veered dangerously close to her head, burning a few of the hairs of her mane.

YOU SHALL PAY, YOU INFERIOR BEASTS!!!

The black alicorn then opened her mouth, revealing an ominous red glow. Blaze’s eyes widened as a huge ball of fire headed straight towards her. However, before it could hit her, she was pushed away by two of her teammates.

“Whoa! That was so cool!”

“You call that cool?!” yelled one of her companions. “If we hadn’t gotten you out of there, you’d be barbecue!”

“What’s barbecue?” asked the other pegasus. “Is that some sort of griffon thing?”

“Shut up, Muffins!” Blaze yelled. “I could have totally gotten out of there if you and Descent hadn’t pushed me out of there!”

“Well forgive me for not believing you,” said Descent. “But right now we’re trying to save Equestria, not show off!”

“Whatever,” said Blaze. “I’m off!”

And with that, she flew off towards Hellfire Sun, causing Descent to groan.

“Why does she always do this?!” he yelled angrily before he and Muffins flying off towards her.

“Back for more?” the black alicorn said. To her surprise, the other two pegasi joined their companion and flew straight for her. In response, she unleashed another blast of dark magic, only for the pegasi to scatter.

“Catch us if you can!”

The three pegasi began to circle Hellfire Sun, changing direction each time she attempted to fire. She in turn tried to focus on a single target, but their movements made it hard for her to focus on any one target.

“Gotcha!” Muffins yelled as she slammed into the blazing mare. She then flew off once again, before slamming into her a second time. Hellfire Sun screamed and let out a blast of fire from her mouth, only for the speedy pegasus to dodge once more.

“You think you can mock me, fool?!” the angry alicorn yelled. To her surprise, she was then hit by a blast of blue magic.

“Perhaps you should focus on your real opponent!” Luna called out in response. For a moment, she grinned as she shot another load of magic straight towards her. However, as Hellfire Sun took the hit, her mane began to grow in size and brightness.

THIS ENDS NOW!!!

She opened her mouth and got ready to unleash a huge burst of flame. Luna’s eyes went wide, and she turned her gaze towards the three Shadowbolts still circling the madmare.

“Get out of there!”

Time seemed to move in slow motion as a massive fireball spread from the enraged alicorn’s mouth. Descent and Muffins seemed to realize the danger just in time, and flew away as quickly as they could. While Descent managed to escape the blaze, Muffins was not so fortunate; a rogue blaze managed to reach her face.

“AGH!”

Temporarily thrown off by the surprise attack, she spiraled out of control. Her teammate quickly flew in her direction, grabbing her just in time to stabilize her.

“Are you okay?” Descent asked quickly, before checking over her. Overall, she seemed to be in good condition; even though the left side of her suit’s face had been burned off, the fur underneath seemed to be relatively unharmed. On the other hoof, there was a disturbingly large amount of smoke coming out from around her left eye. However, before anything could be said, they heard a scream coming from above him. He looked upwards, and gasped in shock.

Perhaps Blaze had been unable to fly fast enough to escape. Perhaps she’d gotten too confident. Whatever the case, she’d taken the full force of the attack.

“BLAZE!!!”

Descent flew upwards, hoping to catch her before she hit the ground. Fortunately, this proved to be unnecessary, as Nova and Skywalker got to her before he did.

“Nova! Take her! I’ll distract the sun demon!”

As Skywalker flew off, Nova brought the injured pegasus down. Descent shuddered as he looked over her; most of her suit had been burned to ashes, and the fur beneath had been incinerated as well. Her entire right side, including both her right legs and her right wing, had suffered from severe, potentially fatal burns.

“She needs medical attention, fast!” said Nova. “Descent, can you get her out of here?”

“Wait! Let me do it!”

Nova jerked her head towards Muffins in surprise. She then gasped as she saw her face; her left eye seemed to be flickering between its normal appearance and a strange metal orb glowing with red light.

“Muffins! Your eye-”

“Got damaged when that psycho tried to kill me,” the mare concluded. “I know, Nova. I’m not blind… yet.”

She chuckled nervously at her own joke, then gently placed the injured mare on her back. As she began to fly back towards Canterlot, Nova couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.

“Can you imagine what it’s like having those weird eye things?” she asked Descent.

“Not really,” said Descent. “It’s kind of hard when you’re being chased by a crazy fire alicorn of doom!”

Brought back to the present by her teammate’s jab, Nova flew upwards to regroup with Skywalker.

“What’s the status?” she said.

“This mare is tough like you wouldn’t believe,” said Skywalker. He then flew towards Hellfire Sun, who was blasting Luna with dark magic. The blue alicorn was doing her best, but her own spells were having little effect, and her shields were full of cracks.

“Well, what do we do?” asked Descent. “What can we do?”

Skywalker grimaced. For as long as he had been in the Shadowbolts, he had been used to fighting all sorts of threats. Dragons, ursas, and even rogue changelings were just some of the many threats he'd become used to fighting. However, never in all those years had he even imagined fighting a being so powerful that even Princess Luna struggled against it. And that wasn't even taking into consideration the fact that it had seemingly hijacked the sun and was now making it unbearably hot all around Equestria.

But that wouldn't stop the Shadowbolts. Nothing would.

“We keep fighting,” Skywalker said finally. “It's what we always do.”

With a look of grim determination, the three pegasi flew off to rejoin the fight.