//------------------------------// // Canterlot: The Great Battle Pt 2 // Story: A Tale of Tails, Sunsets and Burned Bridges // by Ozone31 //------------------------------// "From here the ball is in your court." Large Creature Dialogue +Telepathic/Mental Dialogue+ (Kurama's POV) "MAGGOTS! I'LL TAKE YOU ALL ON!" It's a strange thing taking a back-seat to your own life, still seeing through your eyes but not controlling where they look. Feeling your arms move but not choosing which flies to strike down and which ones to leave. I could hear screams and feel pain but I was not the one reacting to them. 'Kyuubi', as I had taken to calling him (for some reason), had completely pushed me out, and was wreaking havoc upon the ponies clad in gold as they assaulted us. They were armed with little lances that spat beams of bright yellow energy onto my fur, they didn't get any further than that. After unleashing that 'Blast Burn' I had discovered the existence of a great and complex chakra network spread throughout my body. I didn't know how I knew it was called chakra, just as I didn't know how my anger had manifested into a separate conciousness, so I chalked it down to it being linked to that voice I'd heard in the darkness. "NINE TAILS!!" Speaking of voices. The larger pony with wings and a horn was coming back, unfortunately she'd caught more than just my attention. Kyuubi turned our head to screech at her as she came for us, but didn't get that far, as a massive, armoured and scaly fist cannoned into the end of our snout. I felt a sickening crack and a surge of pain as our massive body was tossed across the city. We would have continued off the edge if this city didn't have walls, which were meant to keep danger out whereas in this case it kept it in. "I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO HARM MY CITIZENS ANY LONGER!" The mare yelled from her position, atop the head of a massive white dragon, with royal purple dorsal spines and wings with a pale beige underbelly. It was clad almost completely in shining gold armour with a flag pole in its mighty claws. The flag was the same colour as the dragon's spines, and in the centre was an image of a white pony and a dark blue pony, both of this winged and horned variety, chasing each other around a sun and crescent moon. "You think you and your glorified, leather purse can beat me?" The words escaped our maw, under Kyuubi's influence, with a chuckle which (like before) soon erupted into an absolute cacophony of noise that was somewhere between a roar and a laugh. However it didn't last long and the sudden shift from mad laughter to an icy cold glare even scared me slightly. +I hope she has more than just a big pet dragon+ I found myself saying from the back of the mind I was sharing with this beast. Kyuubi ignored me, but he did relay my words to the outside world. "I HOPE YOU HAVE MORE THAN JUST THAT PET DRAGON TO HELP YOU, SUNBUTT!" +Where the hell did that come from!+ I was tired of being silent and helpless in the back off my own mind. +Get out off my head!+ +SHUT UP!+ Kyuubi's strength proved to be greater than mine and he pushed me back to my place in the background. "How dare you call me a pet?!" The dragon exclaimed as he stabbed his flag pole into the ground, spreading his wings wide as he did so. Undaunted Kyuubi forced us back onto our feet an roared his defiance, creating another shock wave as he did so."DESTROOOOOOY!!" All cognitive thought my roomate once had was lost as he charged, his kick off destroyed the wall we'd hit. We rocketed down the streets of the mountainside city, our tails tearing into buildings as we flew by them. The dragon raised his arms in defence, held in a boxer's stance except he held himself lower. The royal pony that stood on his head could be seen plain as day to be charging her magic, so I couldn't help but wonder if Kyuubi either didn't notice or just lacked the ability to care. I quickly discover it to be the latter, as a powerful burst of magic was launched from her horn and into our head. However we were undamaged by such an attack, so Kyuubi pressed his assault. We came in low and to the side of the dragon, delivering a strong leg sweep to his ankles and taking his legs out from under him. Using our leg's spare momentum to flip us over onto all fours, Kyuubi sent and unbelievably strong uppercut into our opponent's falling and exposed jaw, tossing the unnamed dragon into the air and knocking his summoner off his head in the process, but Kyuubi wasn't done yet. We now leapt into the air after him, quickly adjusting our angle and sending our right foot straight into the dragon's armoured gut. His body closed around this point, bringing his head back into range, Kyuubi threw an earth-splitting right hook into the scaly knight's face. He was sent spinning through the air and into the mountain's snowy peak before rolling off and into the castle gardens. Kyuubi now turned our gaze towards the pony. She was approaching fast from below, horn ablaze with magical energy. My sentient anger weaved a succession of hand signs, the same ones as before, and cried: "Blast Burn!" I watched as the pony halted her ascent and surrounded herself in another shield, the stream of red flame consuming them and a small portion of the city below, setting it alight and sending dancing shadow all over the city, swaying with the fire. The royal pony was no where to be seen, I held my metaphorical breath as both I and Kyuubi scanned the surrounding area, coming back down to earth with a crash. Our wet nose sniffed at the air but smelled only smoke, our keen blood-red eyes searched the entire city but saw only death and destruction. Our huge, pointed ears took in any nearby sound, trying to find his victim. The distant screaming of the city and burning of its buildings was suddenly broken by a roar of outrage and effort as the snow white pony burst from a pile of rubble and unleashed a pulsing ray of pure solar energy. The battle continued. (Third Person POV) Day Break had finally made it to the town square, summoning a massive sealing array into the plaza and in the center was a small crib, The Ceremonial Throne. She laid Sunset in it and began gathering every last dreg of her magic, she would've fallen over if she wasn't already sitting down upon her haunches. She quickly began to sweat and her breath became heavy for the second time that night. "Yeesh, never thought I'd have to give birth and cast one of my most powerful spells in one day, hun." She grunted to her small daughter the magical strain already beginning to take its toll on her. She gasped and almost lost focus completely, as Celestia flew overhead and crashed into a building. "Come on Day Break, her majesty can't keep this up for long." This was true Celestia dodged and weaved as best she could, but she couldn't block the torrents of red flame and bullets of wind that were continually flying her way. One of these bullets had been moving too fast for her and when it hit her, it had exploded launching her into the multi-story office block. "Argh, I can't take another hit like that, let alone that fire and who knows what other abilities he possesses" she groaned as she pushed desks and stall walls off herself. "I hope you're almost ready Day, or I'm a goner." She didn't have much time to tell herself this before another bullet barrage came her way. Leaping from the hole in the building's wall and taking flight, just before the attack obliterated the office's lower floors, causing the upper ones to come crashing down upon the smaller apartments and businesses below. The princess' patience was running out, the sheer amount of damage he was doing was on par with that caused by Discord, though the lord of chaos hadn't been trying to destroy, simply control. Despite this he had still done some major damage in his time and now this...monster was replicating such destruction, Equestria didn't need such financial and emotional strife, especially with the return of Nightmare Moon just around the corner. Celestia had to put a stop to this, one way or another. "If I can hit the right spot with the right technique I could..." Celestia cut herself of when she noticed something new happening over with the Nine Tails. (Kurama's POV) +No. No you can't+ I tried to shout as I realized what Kyuubi was doing. I didn't know how I knew the jutsu's name or what it looked like, but I did and I quickly recognised what was forming in front of our maw. +YOU CAN'T USE A TAILED BEAST BOMB!+ It was fruitless, the dark purple ball of positive and negative chakra slowly grew in size until it was about the size of a carriage. I had to do something, anything, to prevent the destruction of (possibly) the only being who could stand against us. Just as Kyuubi was about to launch the attack, I gave a psychic roar of determination and took control of our shared body, veering our head as high as possible in the time given to me, managing to aim just above the crest of the mountain's peak before, with an almighty bang, firing the Tailed Beast Bomb. It sailed high into the air, above the castle, above the snow covered mountain top and away. There was silence for a few seconds. Anypony who was still both in the city and above ground would see a great explosion in the distance, as the bomb collided with another one of the mountains that formed the (unbeknownst to me) Central Equestrian Ridge. That mountain's peak was reduced to a crater, as the detonation shook everything in a multi-mile radius. The blast was so strong it blew off and melted all of the snow on top of the mountain we stood on and shattered any and all of the surviving windows in the city. I stood for a second, looking at it. "I did that" I breathed watching as the light faded. I didn't have long to stand and contemplate however, as Kyuubi struck back, having my control wrenched from me and being stuffed back into the back of my mind. Strangely, Kyuubi didn't say anything as he took back control, his presence simply 'brushed' past mine, like he didn't even know I was there. Upon taking back the driver's seat, he let loose a roar and charged straight at his opponent, but he didn't get far, when roughly 300 tons of dragon crashed down from above pinning us down. It was then we both noticed it, a huge amount of charged energy and it was nearby. Looking down to our right, we saw (what I assumed was) her. A unicorn with matted red mane and bright yellow coat stared up at us her expression blank and unreadable. From memories I could not recall making I recognized the strange black ink array that surrounded a small, cot-like object. "A seal" +A seal+ Kyuubi tried to move but a mass of glowing, magical chains wrapped themselves around our entire body. Linking our nine tails tightly together, firmly entrenching themselves into the ground to hold down our limbs and to top it all off, a golden muzzle forced itself around our snarling snout. Looking up we noticed the white, winged unicorn staring down at us, breathing heavily, her once majestic, rainbow coloured, flowing main was now still and coloured a dull and faded bubblegum pink. But all of this would not stop Kyuubi, a simple brush over his thoughts told me. With a mighty grunt of effort, he was able to free our right arm from its restraints and sent it, claws out, straight for the sleeping filly in the crib. I watched as its mother desperately tried to throw herself between the claw and her child. +No+ I sent. +NOOOOO!+ Once again I rested control from Kyuubi, spread our palm wide and sank the claws deep into the cobblestone on either side of and behind the crib. I fully expected Kyuubi to try and take back control, I was waiting for it. But no tug at my consciousness came, no furious attempt to lock me away again. Little did I know that his consciousness had fled as soon as I'd taken the helm. I looked down at the mare clad in gold, and was shocked beyond belief when I saw what I saw. She was smiling at me. A sincere smile, displaying kindness and gratitude. I watched her lips move as she said something to me, but the world had lost all sound so I didn't understand and I wouldn't understand, not for a long, long time. Suddenly her horn, which had been steadily glowing the whole time, let out a brilliant, blinding flash and everything went numb. (Third Person POV) Kurama had disappeared, the flash burst of magic had reduced him to nothing but raw chakra, before sealing him within Sunset Shimmer. Day Break collapsed next to her daughter, she didn't have long. Reaching out a hoof she gently stroked her foal's little cheek and whispered, "Always remember, my Shimmering star, momma will always love you. And know that one day you will come to terms with your new eternal companion, and when that day comes you must find it in your heart to move past your hatred and grief to see him for what he really is." She sniffed, trying to hold back her tears. "I'm so sorry *sniff* that I have to leave you, but *sniff* I'll always be with you, in here" she said as she breathed her last, touching her hoof to her daughter's stomach where the seal was slowly fading. "Good bye, Sunset Qrow Shimmer". With that, Lieutenant Day Break, lay still, her helmet rolling from her head across the ground where it came to rest, next to a raven's feather the morning sun shining off its golden crest as it rose slowly from over the horizon. "Make your move."