= SMT Nocturne OST - Kagutsuchi Tower (3rd Movement) =
"Upper Levels, The Hamlet, Royal House, Royal Cambers, and Inner Sanctuary. And those on top look really small compared to the rest of the tower," Button Mash said looking at his map.
"So let's hurry up and get this last leg out of the way!" Scootaloo exclaimed, encouraging the others forward.
None of the foals wanted to talk about how they felt like their tails had been cut off with Spike gone.
Blanky, Daring Do, Spike, Pipsqueak and his crew, Silver Spoon and her friends.
Sweetie tried her hardest not to think about where this was going when she looked at Button Mash.
The ponies came to a gate... sort of... it looked like a huge mirror with the framing resembling the bars of a large golden gate.
"Didn't we do the evil twin fight already?" Scootaloo asked marching up to the mirror without fear.
"I Am The Mirror Of Regrets! All Who Look Upon Me, Know Thy Regrets, And Know Despair!"
Scootaloo didn't stop trotting forward at the booming voice.
"Know thy regrets, Scootaloo!"
Then the mirror showed countless rumor parasites.
"You killed us! You killed thousands of us! You are covered in blood! You are a killer!"
Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. "What? That's it?!" She looked bewildered. "That's the best you got?! I was expecting mom and dad to pop up and tell me that I failed them! That they were right to abandon me for not being able to fly! That I'd have to chose between my parents and Dash one day! That I was scared of something as much as I wanted it or some junk! And instead you try this?" Scootaloo's look was like one would have at seeing a clown whistling Dixie while the clown banged their head against a wall.
"They were alive and had a mother!"
"So were the bug monsters in that space movie that Rainbow Dash wouldn't let me watch. You're wasting my time! Now get out of my way!" Scootaloo kicked the gate and it shattered into pixels. She looked back at her friends. "Come on."
Button Mash said, "That kinda reminds me of some of dad's Oubliette and Ogres chats, Gaffer telling him his character HAD to feel guilty about something."
"I don't get what you just said," Scootaloo remarked.
Button Mash sighed and said off-hoofedly, "Dad and Gaffer introduced you three to an O&O game during one of your visits."
"Oh! Well-!"
"It's okay if you don't remember."
Apple Bloom looked around with both eyes as Button Mash looked at his map. "There are several more layers for us to go through," he said.
Apple Bloom double bucked a wall in just the right place. A door shape section fell inwards. She marched in, the others followed.
"Oh, a secret passage?"
On the other side lay a chamber that seemed to go up forever. The walls changed styles with each new floor. Numbered doors lined the walls like wallpaper, each one atop the other.
Off to one side was a numbered control panel. It had a keyhole and crystal in it.
As they approached, the foal crossed a short wide bridge over a seeming bottomless gap.
"An elevator?" Button asked.
"Way to go, Apple Bloom!" Scootaloo grinned.
"But how do we make it move?" Sweetie asked.
Apple Bloom looked at the locked control panel with both eyes, and kicked it. The floor began to rise, the levels pass as the foals stood.
"That works," Sweetie said.
"Enough games!" Apple Bloom shouted. "Diamond Tiara! Discord! We're comin' for ya!"
Button Mash braced himself. "If a fight starts on an elevator, we’ll never reach the top until we win."
Scootaloo looked at him. "Mash? We’re very grateful for all the help you’ve given us this far, but do you know anything besides game stuff?"
"Sure! I like to play with my trains whenever I can't play video games."
Scootaloo smiled. "That's something."
Button Mash looked up. "Ya know, if this was strictly following game rules, we'd have fought Tootsie and Alula independently by now, then fought them together, instead of just fighting Tootsie."
Sweetie said. "Remember what happened to Tootsie on board the MoonPearl?" Sweetie felt fear. "I think stuff's gotten thrown off track."
"Which means the game rules can be broken just like the ghost story rules," Apple Bloom said.
A cream colored meteorite slammed into the floor, shaking the foals off their hooves. A changeling with a cream-colored carapace stood up. Her eyes were blue, with wings and membrane pink and blue like candy.
A green changeling with golden eyes fluttered down besides her.
The two's forms flash changeling flames and became two familiar ponies.
"Bon Bon? Lyra? What are ya doin' here?" Apple Bloom asked.
The dark look in Bon Bon's eyes told why.
"Welcome to the World Tower."
= Shockwave Theme - Transformers Devastation =
The fight began.
Lyra took out Cadence's Harp, and began to send wave after wave of sonic blasts at the foals. Either to knock them dizzy or knock them over the edge.
Bon Bon rushed to the foals getting up close and personal, every missed blow showing how powerful Earth Pony strength was making the elevator shake. The nimble little foals didn't want to know what would happen if her hits she connected.
"We don't wanna fight ya!" Apple Bloom shouted as she dodged.
"But you do want to fight my family!"
"No, we don't!" Scoots snapped. "We want to stop Discord and Diamond Tiara!"
"And you want my little girl to stand aside as you attack her friends?"
"They're not her friends!" Scootaloo hissed.
"Who are you to decide that?!" Bon Bon snarled.
"Isn't Tootsie some super powerful perfect princess? Why not have her fight her own battles?" Scootaloo called.
Scoots was hit by one of Lyra's sonic spells and lost her focus hit the rising floor. Button Mash summoned his shield to block Bon Bon's punch; making his forelegs hurt from the recoil damage.
"If you can ask that, then you're an orphan," Bon Bon said.
"Where's Moth?" Sweetie asked concerned.
"She's busy getting Liza and Animatia out of the slime your traitor changelings put them in!" Bon Bon hissed.
"What about Cloud Kicker?" Apple Bloom asked, pressing the advantage of her opponent’s helpful chattiness. Maybe she could learn something to save Alula.
Bon Bon snorted. "That good-for-nothing is busy doing what she's always doing! Things that aren't right to mention around foals! With that equally good-for-nothing Thunderlane! They're made for each other!"
"That's a lie!" Scootaloo said getting her head on straight. "Dash knows every weather pony and Cloudkicker is a hard worker, and I've never seen her together with Thunderlane! That's just some stupid rumor!"
"What would Rainbow Dash's pet parrot know, anyhow?"
"I'm not a parrot!" Fast as a bullet, Scootaloo hit the mare in the head before finding herself caught in Lyra's telekinesis, but not for long as Scoots used her flight field to cancel it out. Then she just dodged Bon Bon's next blow.
"Lyra Heart Strings! Bon Bon Sweetie Drops! As Princess Royal of the changeling swarm I order you to stop!"
Lyra sighed. "Sorry, Princess, but for our filly's sake I can't obey."
"It's for her sake I'm asking!" Sweetie fired a magic bolt at Bon Bon that Lyra's magic blocked.
"She's our foal! What right do you have to judge her?" Bon Bon demanded.
"We AIN'T yer foals, so what right do yah have tah judge US?" Apple Bloom replied.
"We don't want to judge you! Just stop fighting and go home!" Lyra begged.
Bon Bon was so fast on her hooves, an Lyra running interference, it was all the foals could do to avoid her attacks.
"Don't waste your breath Lyra, they've always been thick headed!" Bon Bon said.
Using a wristwatch that the foals were sure wasn't on her before, Bon Bon fired a thin cord that wrapped around Scootaloo's neck. Scootaloo focused her flight field to keep the cord from closing off her windpipe. This would have made her fall, if she hadn't then used her wing blades to cut the cord loose.
"You're a dangerous little filly."
"Thank you!"
Bon Bon threw a smoke grenade between her and Scootaloo, who responded by doing what a pegasus does best and flapped the cloud away. A collapsible staff that had been hidden somewhere on Bon Bon sprang out of the smoke and jabbed Scootaloo in the gut, making her gasp from the force and slamming her into the ground. Bon Bon pushed down on the staff, keeping the pegasus pinned.
Lyra was still blocking Button Mash and Sweetie's distance attacks with her magic. Apple Bloom kicked crab apples at Bon Bon that managed to get past Lyra, but Bon Bon just kicked them back harder, forcing Apple Bloom to duck.
Struck with an idea, Apple Bloom began building right on the spot.
Button Mash shouted, "Don't ya know yer just bein' used as boss fodder?!"
"SHUT UP, about your stupid video game obsession!" Bon Bon then switched to a different feature on her watch, firing a laser beam at the colt.
Button Mash held up his shield as the laser hit. Then he quickly opened his menu and switched it out for another shield, this one a polished mirror with a crescent moon symbol.
The laser beam reflected off it and Lyra cried out as the laser left a burn on her while breaking her focus. Bon Bon instantly shut off the laser. "LYRA!"
Apple Bloom had finished building a large spring loaded boxing glove. She launched it at Bon Bon, hitting the changeling head on and sending her flying, freeing Scootaloo.
"Bon Bon!" Lyra shouted, sending a sonic blast right at Apple Bloom. The filly spun her hastily constructed device around, revealing the other side had a sound funnel that redirected Lyra's attack right back at her.
Lyra again cried out and held her hooves to her head.
"Where'd ya get all that stuff?" Button asked.
"Just random junk from the Midway of Hilarious Pain."
Scootaloo flew back into the air, which was actually harder than it looked since she was constantly flying up to stay above the rising floor.
Bon Bon and Lyra helped each other up. Both battered but hardly beaten.
Button Mash said, "Uh, would you believe me if I said you're not really changelings, and somepony used a reality changing curse on you?"
Lyra glared daggers at him. "Next you'll say that Liza isn't really my foster foal."
Button waved his hooves. "No no no she is! But she isn't really a princess-"
Bon Bon punched Button Mash in the face, the foals could see a flock of broken hearts flutter away from him. Then Bon Bon got blind-sided by Sweetie Belle's magic at close range; Lyra wasn’t able to bring up a shield in time.
"Button, you okay?!" Sweetie asked.
"Just... let me drink a healing potion."
Scootaloo knocked Sweetie Belle out of the way of another of Lyra's sonic attacks, and got hit herself.
Sweetie brought up a shield for Scootaloo as the pegasus' ears wouldn't stop ringing.
Bon Bon got back up. "If you think that's enough to keep me down young filly, you've got another thing coming."
'I'm more worried about 'too' much,' Sweetie Belle cringed.
Apple Bloom used the boxing glove again, but this time Bon Bon blocked it with a punch of her own, canceling each other out.
"BONNIE! LYRA! STOP!" Tootsie flew down the elevator shaft and landed perfectly. The fighting paused.
Instead of her Magical Filly costume she was now wore foal-sized gray and pink barding with Blank Diamond's emblem on the front. The CMC+1 took note that she had a new bow with her. She was also fully healed.
"You mended fast, Toots," Scootaloo noted, getting her wits back.
"... Aphrodite was sorry she hurt me so bad. She sent me a gift."
The CMC+1 were relieved at least by the implication that Aphrodite was no longer a statue.
Tootsie looked at Bon Bon and Lyra. "What are you DOING HERE?! It's my job to stop them! Not yours! You don't have to get hurt for me!"
"We know you're a Princess, dear," Lyra said. "And we know that means you have responsibilities... but..."
"But you're still our filly," Bon Bon said. "And if we can fight in your place, we will. Even if you're the strongest Princess ever, it wouldn't be right for us to just stand back and do nothing."
"And, I don't want to see four little misguided foals get hurt just because they've been brainwashed into fighting for the wrong side," Lyra said.
"We don't wanna fight YOU! But we gotta save the world!" Sweetie shouted.
"See?" Lyra gestured.
Apple Bloom looked at Bon Bon. Then at Tootsie. "...Still havin' a good time, Tootsie?"
"... I'm doing what needs to be done for the sake of everypony."
"That something Diamond Tiara told you too?!" Scootaloo hissed.
"Yes."
"Can't you get it yet all she's been telling you is a bunch of lies?!"
"DON'T YOU DARE!" Bon Bon snarled. "My filly and Alula are the only ones Diamond Tiara is even LETTING IN! That filly has blocked herself off from everypony! Even her own parents! If you're so eager to destroy friendship to get what you want, you have no business calling yourselves heroes!"
"I told myself lies," Tootsie said. "I told Truffle lies. I'm the liar here, not Diamond Tiara."
"Dear! You don't tell lies! You're not that kind of filly!" Lyra said. "And you won't talk that way about yourself again!"
Tootsie sniffled.
"...Tootsie...Princess. We and Bon Bon had a disagreement on something. She thinks that Cloudkicker and Thunderlane are awful, good for nothing ponies, we disagree. We remember them being good, great big siblings and hard workers...mind clearing up the confusion?"
Tootsie was shaking. She lowered her head so her mane hid her eyes. She said, "If that's what Bonnie and Lyra say, then that's the reality we're living."
Apple Bloom felt a shiver.
"Bonnie, Lyra, PLEASE just go! I ... I don't wanna have'ta fight with you watching."
"Dear we've watched you fight plenty of times," Lyra said.
"I mean... fighting... other fillies."
"Liza! We're fighting alongside you! And that's that!" Bon Bon said.
Princess Tootsie looked back between her family and at the opposing foals around her.
"Looks like we got ourselves here a stalemate," Apple Bloom said. "Yer not gonna try ta kill us with yer folks watchin', and from the look on yer face you're not gonna let 'em try tah kill us while you're here. And we ain't gonna give up. Just stop it already Tootsie! Pipsqueak, Moonlight, Ruby Pinch, Noi, Dinky, Olo, they're ALL YER FRIENDS, and they're all waitin' for ya come back."
Tootsie gritted her teeth.
"..." Scootaloo looked to her. "...You know...not to brag, but what's it say about this situation that us 'bad guys' are the only ponies in the room who aren't prepared to kill another pony?" she asked. "...It's sad..."
= Macross Plus - Information High =
The look in Tootsie's eyes, was all Scootaloo needed to see, to know she'd just said the wrong thing. Tootsie let out a scream, and a massive shockwave of white magic exploded from her horn. Button and Sweetie brought up their shields, but it passed over them without damage. If anything, it made them slightly feel better.
Lyra and Bon Bon on the other hand, made derp-looks and waddled drunkly. "L-Liza, wh-what did you-"
"Animatia! Auntie Moth!" Princess Tootsie shouted.
Moth in her changeling form flew down to meet the ever rising floor. A golden bombshell zipped past her and hit the floor, causing a dent. It was Alula, but she was now waring the same barding with Blank Diamond's symbol. She had her polearm with her. She stomped her hoof into the ground, creating another indentation in the floor, and actually STOPPING the lift.
At the same time, Moth, buzzed down, grabbing Lyra and Bon Bon.
"MOTH!" "STOP!" "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
"Sis, Lyra, sorry, but the girls and me talked it over, and we can't stand to see you caught in the crossfire here."
Alula's horn glowed, and one of the seemingly endless doors opened up, and Moth fled the shaft with Lyra and Bon Bon in tow, Bon Bon squirming and trying to free herself all the way.
"MOTH! WAIT! COME BACK!" Sweetie Belle shouted but to no avail. "Don't... don't just leave... "
"Ya sure ya wanna take us on two-to-one?" Apple Bloom bluffed, in reality, she thought Tootsie's family was her best bet for getting through to the Faux Princess.
Alula faced the dumbstruck foals. "The original plan was for Liza to join in the fight halfway, then for me to join in halfway through that... but we talked about it... and Liza couldn't bear to see her family hurt over this... and I couldn't bear to see her sad... Besides... " A golden aura of magic surrounded Alula. "We didn't want them to get caught in the collateral damage."
Apple Bloom looked back at them. "...Yah sure yah wanna do this?" she asked. "Because we all know winnin' fer yah...means doin' something yah ain't gonna ever be able tah take back."
Alula spoke and her horn glowed brighter. "We can turn you into a set of chineighs statues, brain-zap you into maids, send you a thousand years into the future, turn you into babies, banish you to the moon, turn you into smoke and seal you under a mountain of ice, trap you in a story book, turn you into breezies and put you in a terrarium-"
"Animatia, let's skip the speeches and get this bad business over with," Tootsie said. She was holding a ruby, and tossed a sapphire to Alula.
Sweetie tried to pry the mystery gems from the grasp of the Faux Princesses, but they wouldn't budge.
The two did a short dance, Tootsie's bold and heroic, Alula's kind and outreaching.
"FUSE-SON-HA!"
In a flash of light, where there had been two fillies, now was an adult full grown Alicorn. She had a green coat, one eye blue, the other purple. Her mane was a long flowing violet with sparkling stars. Her cutie mark was a white flower with pedals made out of feathers. She wore an adult version of the same barding as before.
The new Alicorn struck a pose. She didn't speak in an echo of the two fillies, but a voice all her own. She sang,
"This Amethyst
Here together.
And I'm never going down at the hooves of the likes of you, because I'm so much better.
And every part of me is saying, Go get her." She pointed at Sweetie Belle.
"The two of us ain't gonna follow your rules.
Come at me without any of your fancy tools.
Let's go, just me and you.
Let's go, just one on -"
"Exitium Herba!" Sweetie's voice boomed as a blade of 'black' magic slashed across the room leaving a gash in the floor as it went. It bisected Amethyst right between the eyes. The spell continued on past her and stuck itself in the wall behind her and dissipated.
Amethyst stood paralyzed mid-sentence, a glow line where she's been struck. She began to split apart like an orange, but in a flash, a bewildered and disoriented Alula and Tootsie sat in her place, the ruby and sapphire (sliced in half) dissolved into chaos magic.
"How... how did you use a spell that calls upon HIS power?" Alula asked, looking bewildered.
Sweetie ignored her.
"I don't wanna hear that song again!" Sweetie rambled, stomping her hoof. "I had to listen to it over and over and so many remixes at our shop home, because Rarity loves it. And I had to pretend I wasn't sick to death of it when Rarity made a PERSONAL remix of it for me! I-" Sweetie Belle stopped and blushed. "Uh, that is."
"I really like that song," Button Mash said, rubbing his head.
"Oh-oh! Sorry!"
"It's okay, we don't have to like EVERYTHING each other like, just each other." Button Mash smiled.
Sweetie slowly smiled and nuzzled him. "... You're right."
"I still think 'Let It Go' from Frosted is more annoying," Scootaloo said.
Somewhere far away, Princess Trixie sang, "Let it gooo! Let it gooo! Can't hold it back anymooore!"
The monster put their claws and tentacles to their ears, and ran away screaming.
"I knew the power of music would drive them away."
"Yes it did." Princess Starflower smiled and nodded discretly taking off her ear muffs.
"My mom listens to Understory's soundtrack all day sometimes," Button Mash offered. "I love the game but... it's kinda too much of a good thing."
"Can we focus on savin' the world, girls?" Apple Bloom injected.
"That song worked in the play!" Alula exclaimed.
Button considered a witty one liner about how the character singing it hadn't let her guard down when she sang. "...Girls," Button muttered. "That attack actually WORKED."
The others nodded slowly, getting what Button was implying.
"You hear that, Alula?" Scootaloo said. "The curse made this all like a game, we spent all that time running form you... but if Sweetie's magic hit, that means that this is the showdown! You're not unbeatable!"
= Corpse Party - Shangri-La =
"Well, we're not the heroes, and this is a deconstructed magical filly story anyway," Tootsie said. "So I guess in the end... it makes sense."
The Cutie Mark Crusaders' jaws all dropped.
"W-wait! I thought- when did- how did-" Sweetie's words spilled out like so much saliva.
"But... BUT THAT'S NOT FAIR!" her Button Mash shouted out. "You can't spend so much time thinking you were the good guys then realize you're the bad guys when we weren't watching! That's against the rules!"
"Looks like that game rule's kaput," Apple Bloom said.
"I guess we're more like anti-heroes or anti-villains... I could never keep those straight," Tootsie said.
"Alula! You! You KNOW you're working for the bad guys now, and you're STILL helping them?! I know you're not stupid! What's going on?!" Scootaloo snapped.
"... Sometimes, when a pony breaks their legs, the bones can set wrong... and... and the only choice... is to break them again... my big sister told me that once," Alula said, rubbing one of her legs gently.
Apple Bloom looked at her. "...So yah know everything? How the world outside this tower is one big horror show? That my brother got turned into a monster and tried to kill us? That Granny Smith got turned into some loon who wanted tp sacrifice Sweetie Belle? That Applejack was made a drunk? That Winona got turned into a monster? That Zecora got turned into an evil witch and tried to eat us? That 'Umbra Breeze' and...his buddies were some kinda thing outta Hoofcraft/Horsecraft that did all this for FUN? Yah know all that?"
The fury in Apple Bloom voice rose with every sentence. "If yer willin' to STILL help 'em when ya know all that... then yer just as bad as them!"
Alula lowered her head until her mane hide her eyes. "... I know." She used her magic to lift her polearm... and slashed her own left arm with it.
Tootsie covered her mouth. She quickly began applying her white magic to heal it, but it was slow going.
"Alula! Why?!" Scootaloo asked horrified.
"I'm guilty... I brought Liza into this because Diamond Tiara asked me to... I thought it would make Diamond Tiara happy..." She looked at Tootsie. "And I thought it would make YOU happy." She gave a sad smile. "I tried to bring Silver Spoon into this, because I thought it would make her happy. I used the magic on my sister and Rumble's brother, because I thought it would make them happy...thank Princess Celestia, that Silver didn't join after all... If I had it over again, I'd have kept you out of this Liza."
"D-don't say that, Animatia!"
She looked back at the CMC, a dark determined look in her eyes. "I'm no Princess... I'm a little Nightmare, serving a bigger Nightmare. I'm a filthy little monster. I'm happy you girls got to stay the heroes... we're going to need you once we've achieved true freedom."
"GIVE ME A BREAK!" Scootaloo heard herself shout. "You're STILL going on about that 'ponies are so much better off if they don't feel bad about doing anything bad' junk? If that was a the case, then there'd be nothing to stop us from making YOU never-heard-from-again! Some things are called bad things FOR A REASON!"
"I know."
"Stop agreeing with me and stop agree with yourself!" Scootaloo said her wires crossed.
"It's not that kind of freedom anymore, it's to free the whole world. Only once we're completely free of Them, can things get better. Until then, we have to hold you back."
Apple Bloom started laughing a bit. "...This? All of THIS is to free us from somethin'?...Get a clue, Alula, sounds like the medicine's worse than the germ."
Alula was unfazed. She didn't get angry or even frown. She actually took some of her blood and put it under her eyes like war paint. "... If you knew what the 'somethin'' was, Apple Bloom... you'd be as broken inside as me."
Apple Bloom narrowed her eyes. "...Is it the thing Umbra Breeze went on and on about? The things that MADE him?...If it is...My sister kicked his sorry flank, so Ah ain't about to think this Tartarus is the only thin' that can save the world."
"No, Apple Bloom..." Alula began to slowly trot forward on her two rear legs, leaving a thin trail of blood behind her. "They... are much... much worse..." Then she dug her pole arm into her own shoulder, making her bleed more! "Every time I try to do good, bad things happen! All I ever do is mess up!"
"ALULA STOP HURTING YOURSELF!" Scootaloo hissed, but she was ignored.
"Animatia, that isn't true!"
"Yes it is... I wanted to be as 'take charge' as Diamond Tiara and I teased Dinky, I made friends with you and stole you away from your real friends-"
"You didn't steal me. I LIKE being friends with you!"
ALula looked at the CMC. "I asked Silver Spoon not to hang out with you because I thought it would Diamond Tiara's feelings and I didn't think how it would hurt you! I was nice to Diamond Tiara and everything went wrong!"
"ALULA, WHAT ARE YOU EVEN TALKING ABOUT?!" Scootaloo shouted.
"... That's the problem with you and your friends, Scootaloo, you're so focused on yourselves you never notice the ponies in the background even when they're right next to you... You think the world stopped moving while you gave Miss Cheerilee your card? You never think the bully might be hurting too."
"Yer right... we are."
The others looked at Apple Bloom.
"We were so focused on gettin' our cutie marks, we didn't think about makin' new friends, we didn't see Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon as anythin' but a pain in the neck. We didn't notice there were foals around us just as lost we were and could have used help too..."
"Hey! Don't be like that!" Button Mash said. "You became friends with me! You helped me."
Sweetie hugged Button Mash.
"... I now understand why Diamond Tiara doesn't like herself... because I don't like myself," Alula said.
Tootsie sadly nodded as her white magic finally made the cuts heal.
"I wanted Diamond Tiara to see what it felt like for somepony to be nice to her for change, maybe she wouldn't be so mean then... instead... I made everything worse... This way at least, me being the bad pony can at least do some good."
"I've BEEN THERE Alula! It doesn't work!" Sweetie said. "And you Tootsie? You believe all this too?"
"... I'm a bad pony," Tootsie said ashamed. "But a bad pony needs to be the one who'll do the stuff that needs to happen to free the world. I'm already a bad pony. So not me?"
Sweetie Belle merely frowned, having bad flashbacks.
"AGH! ENOUGH WITH THE RIDDLES AND YOUR NONSENSE!" Scootaloo snapped. "We don't have time to argue before Diamond Tiara ruins the world for good! We can argue all you want after we stop her and Discord! PLEASE Alula! This isn't who you have to be!"
"But it's what has to be! If I have'ta be the bad guy for my friends I will!" shouted Tootsie.
"But how!" Button asked still wheeling from this violation of game narrative. "What made ya know ya were workin' for the baddies!"
Tootsie said sadly. "I... when that flaming pegasus came at me... and when she spoke, I somehow, just KNEW what she was saying was true... she began to say I wouldn't meet my real special-friend... that means... Truffle was never my special-friend... then... she sent a letter saying how she was sorry she hurt me so bad... a bad guy wouldn't do that... I... " Tootsie did NOT look happy at all. She looked at Apple Bloom. "I'm sorry for hurting Twist."
"Ah'm not who ya gotta apologize to," Apple Bloom said without malice.
Alula sighed. "Mr. Discord showed me what Mr. Umbra Breeze was really doing...I saw his notes, what he was really like..."
"WHAT?! DISCORD SHOWED YOU!? WHY?! WHY!" All their brains threatened to explode.
"He didn't say."
"He wanted to enjoy you being miserable finding out you'd been the bad guys all along," Sweetie Belle said.
Alula shook her head, "No, that wasn't it."
Apple Bloom said in shock, "Alula's right."
"It was just his random junk!"
"...No."
"...True again."
"We're not fighting for our fantasy world anymore," Princess Alula said. "We're fighting to help Diamond Tiara. She showed us the truth."
"We're fighting for our friend, and to free the world!" Tootsie said.
"So please just stop, or we'll make you stop," Alula said.
"...And we're fighting for the ones we care about and to free the world," Scootaloo said simply. "Looks like only one group can be right."
Alula...seemed to just accept that and nod. "Looks like it...Let's go."
Button Mash shouted. "You can't beat us as long as we're together!"
= Melty Blood Actress Again Soundtrack - 空の境界 俯瞰風景 - (Ryougi Shiki's Theme) =
The doors fell away like stone slabs into slots. Beyond were infinite landscapes alien and mundane. Sweetie found herself caught in Alula and Tootsie's telekinesis. She struggled against it, but it seemed to get stronger the more she struggled. The pair flew with her in tow towards one of the portals. Button fired a grappling hook, caught Sweetie, and his hooves then had heavy horse shoes. Alula cut the chain with her spear, but it did slow them down. Simultaneously Apple Bloom used the contraption she used to shoot Spike to launch herself to grab Sweetie, but was blasted back by Alula.
Scootaloo struck in that moment. She'd have lamented if she'd been her mentor, she could've broken the pair's grip with her flight field and saved Sweetie. But she didn't have time to think or plan. Instead, she rammed into Alula, knocking here away Tootsie and Sweetie Belle, the force of Scootaloo's surprise attack sent both into one of the doors. In the moment of chaos and confusion, Tootsie and Sweetie Belle fell into one of the doors as well. A barrier formed over the doors as the pairs fell through them.
Button Mash looked at where his friends had fallen through and then at Apple Bloom. "Oops."
A large comfy couch materialized on the beaten platform. Then a large duel screen appeared in front of it, showing Scootaloo and Alula on one monitor, and Sweetie Belle and Tootsie on the other. On the sides of the comfy couch appeared a selection of refreshments.
Button Mash drew his sword at the couch. "It's a Mimic!"
Apple Bloom narrowed her eyes. "No... it's just a couch."
"The snacks are poisoned!"
Apple Bloom stared intense at a bowl of potato chips... "No... they ain't."
"It's must be a duel hypno-screen!"
"We're both protected against that stuff remember?"
"Oh yeah. Well, um, they want us nice and relaxed, and slowed with a full stomach for they spring and attack us?"
A little note appeared on the snack table. 'Nope. This is just some nice creature comforts for you while your friends epically duel it out with my little filly's playmates.'
"It ain't a lie," Apple Bloom said in disbelief.
"Uh... is this from Discord? Did he just call Diamond Tiara 'his little filly?' That kinda creepy."
Another note popped into being. 'No it isn't creepy! It's a sincere expression of familial endearment! ... It feels weird that it doesn't feel weird writing down. Sit back and enjoy the show, you can't do much else.'
The screen's sound turned on... only... it wasn't Equestrian their friends and enemies were speaking.
A third note appeared. 'Sorry, left the dub channel on Neighponese, and I forgot to turn the subtitles on. Just as well, some of the things they say to each other is a little private. But since when do you need dialogue for a cool action sequence? Or did I set it to Equestrian after all and put on Neighponese subtitles? Well you'll find out soon enough. We tried telling the girls they didn't need to do this. But they wanted to apparently. Enjoy the show.' The three notes exploded into new paper clippings, confetti, and fish sticks.
"Sweetie Belle," Button Mash whispered looking at the screens.
Apple Bloom put a hoof on his shoulder. "Don't worry, she'll win. And Scootaloo too. No way are they gonna lose. Believe it."