44 - The Final Form
I opened my eyes and found myself in Twilight's embrace. She lifted a forehoof and slid it softly across my cheek, through my mane and down my neck. It stopped and rested on my shoulder.
She turned her head from the side and looked at me. Her eyes moved sporadically but eventually stilled themselves on my face. “Sweetie Belle, you were right... I underestimated you on many fronts. I believe you now. You demonstrated what you’re capable of, but this power struggle is meaningless to begin with. Nopony benefits from our strife. Maybe with words alone we can figure out what plan D should be. Let’s try talking again.”
I shook my head. “Talk is cheap. Your actions spoke louder than words. What you tried to do to me…”
“And what have you just tried to do to me? Look, be reasonable. Let it go.”
She had intended to cripple me, and I was just supposed to let it go? Never!
I looked away from her as I clenched my teeth. Her saddlebag lay beside her. Its content was spread on the ground. Needles, bandages, gauzes and... a circular blade. It was the same one they tried to use on me at the asylum! Her intentions became crystal clear to me. She had made preparations to cut off my horn even before she came to meet me. I gazed at her. “There won’t be any plan D. I’ll make sure of it!”
“Just stop the insanity, please! This isn’t you!” Twilight gulped. “I promise there won’t be any punishment for what you did today.”
“Oh, but I want punishment! I want to be the embodiment of it.” My lips crawled up my teeth to form a grin.
“No...”
“What’s this, Twilight? Can’t you even handle one runaway filly? Some princess you are.” I smirked at her.
“Let’s try talking again, okay? Please.”
I lifted myself on the hind legs “You talk way too much, missy. I’m grounding you!” Both forehooves impacted her wings.
“Aaa!” The cracking sound accompanied her screaming.
It was music to my ears! Yet cold shivers ran down my spine, wiping the grin off my face. I bit my lip and looked to the side.
She took advantage of my hesitation. A blast from her horn launched me on top of the newly formed dike of earth and boulders. Stones cut into my skin as I rolled over them.
“You broke my freakin’ wings, you ungrateful brat!” A voice echoed.
The remaining mana-pool reserves had been almost drained by my last magic attack, but there was still plenty of energy reserve within me to finish her off. I stood on all four and focused on a nearby boulder. Under the direction of my magic, it floated over the hole Twilight was in.
She wanted me to let go. It was sort of what I intended to do. Right on top of her! “I’m fulfilling your request, Twilight. Aren’t I a good little filly!” I let go of the boulder.
It didn't fall. The stoney mass just hovered above the hole in the middle of the circular dike. I squinted my eyes, but I couldn’t see any shields supporting it.
The boulder cracked in several places, and a white light glowed through the crannies. It shone ever brighter. I covered my eyes with a forehoof to shield them from the glare.
Bam!
The shock wave from the explosion sent me on my back again. Dusty air fogged up with more particles, making it harder to see through. That was a lot of energy. And the buildup didn't even originate from Twilight; the overflow burst out from within the stone itself. I didn’t know how she managed to fuse so much cosmic energy into it without any channel connection. It shouldn’t even be possible in principle, let alone the actual practice. I shook my head and swayed myself to the hooves.
A bright silhouette emerged in the smoke and hovered up from the hole. Her eyes glowed white. “Do you presume wings are the only thing I gained when I ascended to Alicornhood?”
I knew there was more to it than that. “Immortality?”
“Energy patterns—changed; Inner flows—rearranged!” Her furtight clothes evaporated from her body as she floated closer. “You should not trifle with an Alicorn, little pony!”
My body shivered, but I was far from done. I lifted a few rocks from the ground and accelerated them forward.
The projectiles flew straight for her, but she didn’t even flinch. The flying rocks dissipated into dust midair. If there was a disintegration shield between us, I couldn’t sense it. She kept coming ever closer with a dreadful grin on her face.
The broken wings hung loosely from her sides, yet her battered body floated on air. I looked below the approaching form, but couldn’t sense any focal points. I didn’t know how she was doing it, but it wasn’t really important. All that mattered was taking her down.
I charged my horn toward her and fired.
The beam was absorbed midair. Even if she was using a disintegration shield, the magic blast should still pierce the space between us, but somehow it didn’t.
I launched the channels from my horn, but the more I lengthened them, the more resistance I felt.
Halfway to her, I couldn’t even move them forward anymore. It felt as if the air was more solid than a brick wall. Then, the force of my channels reversed. It affected me, instead of the other way around. They pulled me toward the terror with increasing force. The pull stopped when I cut off my stolen channels. I tried to think of a different approach.
First, I needed to gain some distance from her. Yet, when I tried to turn around, both hind legs stayed fixed on the ground as if they were nailed down. Dense earth clutched around them, creeping ever higher. The dirt was coming to life around me. Elemental magic!
I charged my horn and blasted earth shackles off me.
A moment after, new socks of grime grew in their place, keeping me trapped.
She was coming closer; too close.
I spread out my channel along the ground before me, hoping to feel the sweet caress on my fields. There! Just below the surface was a grain. It was almost unnoticeable; like a whisper, but I was driven to turn it into a shout. I narrowed my channel, piercing through the ground to the crystal shard. It wanted to grow. Self-formation was in its very nature. All it needed was a catalyst. A caress of my energies would sustain its development.
The crystal resonated with my energies. I released my full inner flow, and it burst through the ground on Twilight’s path. I forked my channel, nurturing the crystal to the left and right. It launched edged branches to the sides, erecting a vast wall between me and the approaching alien.
I cut off my channels and breathed in. There was silence. I jerked with a leg, and the earth that entrapped it gave in. After freeing my other hooves, I turned around toward the Everfree Forest where my last hope resided. I bought myself some time. She’d have to go around my obstacle. If I managed to escape into the dense growth, I could find some cover and rethink my strategy.
Just when I was about to break into a gallop, a cracking sound emanated from the crystal wall. I looked back. Everything was still. I sighed with relief.
Another crack resonated from the crystal. And another. The cracks merged into thunder.
I gasped when the wall burst asunder. By spreading the channels around me, I formed a magic dome. It wasn’t a moment too soon, as the shattered pieces bombarded on my shield and all around it.
“I never taught you how to grow crystals,” her voice boomed.
“You were too busy showing me betrayal!” I yelled back at her through my magic shield.
The scream clogged in my throat and was replaced with gurgling sounds as something invisible grabbed me by the neck. The force lifted me from the ground. I didn’t understand how she managed to spread her channels through my shield. That was against the laws of magic. It shouldn’t even be possible!
I waved both forelegs before me, but there was nothing there to touch. The air itself choked my throat. A silhouette approached just outside my shield. White eyes gazed at me.
The aura around her horn changed its color. It shone in dark, bubbly purple. The energies were of the same sort I used—Alicorn magic!
A white circle appeared before her horn. As the dark bubbly aura thickened, the circle morphed into a disk. It floated in an arch to the side of me.
Whatever it was, I hoped my shield could protect me from the cast spell. To be safe, I used all my mana reserves to increase my flow to the maximum, making the barrier so dense that my magic carapace lost its translucency. The dark coloring of the protective cocoon turned to pure black. Not even light could reach me anymore. I was isolated for a time. Though trapped by grabbing earth and air, the shell of darkness was bound to defend me against her direct assault.
A spark of light blinded me from the side of my dome.
It was the disk, coming through! I should have felt all and any interaction on my shield at my endpoints, yet I didn’t detect the intrusion. It slipped inside as if there was no obstacle on its way. The unstoppable blade of light slowly approached my horn.
The invisible, surrounding force squeezed tighter. My vision tunneled. The protective shield dissipated as my inner flow cut off along with my blood circulation.
Twilight’s eyebrows pressed together as she leaned in. “You chose the hard difficulty for yourself.” She faced me with a grin as the last flicker of my horn faded out. “Now face the consequences.” The upward force on my neck increased and stretched my body. The aggressive pull lifted me, breaking the earth’s shackles on my hooves. Despite dangling freely in the air, both hind legs still felt heavy as a dray.
With my last ounce of strength, I tried to flap around with all my limbs and tail, but there was nothing within my reach to bang against. It was pathetic fighting against the air itself. I was useless against her unworldly power.
The pressure squeezing my neck spread all over my body. Both forelegs bent on my chest as the hind legs pressed against each other. It was as if the air itself was mummifying me. I couldn’t move at all.
I struggled, but none of my limbs responded. They were utterly bound. Only a tear drifting down my cheek disturbed the stillness of my body.
My trembling gaze slowly turned up to the white-eyed Alicorn before me. Her stare alone made me yell in panic inside my mind. It wasn’t just a pony leaning over me. My breath ceased at the sight. She was something more. Something alien—out of this world.
I felt a warm liquid streaming down my inner ties across my hooves.
“I'm cutting this cursed horn off here and now!” Twilight’s booming voice made my ears tremble. “Take your medicine, little pony. Accept the consequences you have wrought on yourself!”
There was just blackness around me. Only the center of my narrowing vision defied the encroaching darkness. Twilight's white, glowing eyes were like a light at the end of a tunnel.
“Your evil escapades end now!” Twilight’s voice boomed.
A white eye of my dominator got covered by the crossing disk, which gleamed even brighter. The shining terror approached the center of my vision, creeping closer to my horn.
Suddenly, a force drifted through me. It happened in an instant.
I found myself on the ground. My ears perked when I heard a crash from the direction of the hole Twilight had levitated out of before.
She squeaked, “What the—”
My vision slowly returned. The surrounding ground glowed green. I rubbed my eyes with a foreleg, but the glow remained.
A slick appendage slid from behind me and wrapped itself around my body. It lifted me up and slung me in the air.
The ground rushed by under me, drawing closer fast. The moment I hit the dirt ramp, my body spun around. I crashed at the outer edge of the giant, cylinder-shaped earth pile. Like a runaway marshmallow, I tumbled head over hooves down the slope. The rolling came to an abrupt stop when the back of my head lunged itself into the ground at the bottom. I was sprawled and sore, with all four legs spread out and unresponsive. I just lay there on my back, facing the sky.
“That’s it!” Twilight screamed. “You're losing that cursed horn here and now, even if I have to rip half of your skull out with it!”
I heard—my own voice from above the ridge “You'll have to catch me first!”
Green light reflected off the dust particles in the air, then faded out.
“A changeling? This whole time? No! This makes no sense!”
“You want to rip out my horn, do you? Come and get it if you dare!” said the changeling with my voice.
“Scrap what I said. I'll rip your whole head off! Right after I make you tell me what you did with Sweetie Belle! I know you can’t transform without getting into the proximity of your target at least once. If you harmed as much as a hair on her coat, I’ll make you sorry you were ever hatched.”
“Try to catch me, pony.” I saw a black figure in the sky, flying away from the ditch I was in. Did Zex just save me? He actually kept his promise...
A white cloud with Twilight on it was in hot pursuit. She fired bolts of energy in his direction.
I closed my eyes and lost myself in the void.
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Comment section minigames for the The Final Form chapter of the story Sweetie Belle Gains a Soul. Anypony can play them in this comment section of this story.
GAME 1
Does this story remind you of a song that you know? If yes, post it in the comments in the following format:
- Chapter of the story that this song is relevant to.
- A link or embedded Youtube video of it.
- Percentage of correlation (0% being an unrelated song, 100% being a song written exactly for this story).
- A reason why this song reminded you of this story or the excerpt of the lyrics.
Twisted Sister - The Fire Still Burns — Correlation: 50% (Lyrics)
I have enough pain and anger in my brain — To last many lifetimes — Yet still it grows, and the more that it shows — I won't have peace of mind
Rage - Down — Correlation: 50% (Lyrics)
See you going down — I am a real survivor
Battle Beast - Madness — Correlation: 50% (Lyrics)
No one can hear you scream — No one will find you — There's no way out of here alive
Rhombus - What You Wanted — Correlation: 45% (Lyrics)
No constraints nor time to wonder why.— Match the pace, orbiting the moment. — Fall to earth, reality applies
LACUNA COIL - I Like It — Correlation: 45% (Lyrics)
Today I'm gonna fly — There's nothing that can keep me on the ground —Touch the sky
Disturbed - The Game — Correlation: 40% (Lyrics)
Is she not right? — Is she insane? — Will she now run for her life — in the battle that ends this day?
GAME 2
Record yourself reading this story aloud. Upload your mp3 to MLP: Audiobooks, for instance, and paste the link to your audio or video in the comments.
That is a surprise, also, I don't think Sweetie could teleport, right?
9752766 What is a surprise?
And yes, Sweetie Belle can't teleport. That was established in the Changeling chapter.
9752879
That the changeling decided to help her, that is the surprise
9752997 Zex said to Sweetie Belle in the Changeling chapter:
Is it really so hard to imagine that a loyal Changeling would keep his promise?
This chapter violates Rule of Acquisition # 285:
285 No good deed ever goes unpunished.
Zex kept his word.
9753113 Who's to say the punishment isn't lingering?
9753009
Yes, if she tried to kill him even after that
9753919 True, but Zex already gave his promise and he did survive an encounter with Sweetie Belle. It's kind of a gray area. Besides, he didn't even save her life, merely her horn and kept her from reeducation facility. Everything is a mess, but Zex found a way to navigate the chaos.
9753928
Who knows, maybe Sweetie will return the favor to him or Chrysalis in a future, and seriously, anything to annoy Twilight could also be good.
9754119 Sweetie Belle didn't kill the Changeling, so that's basically like saving his life. I doubt she feels indebted to him. As for her dealings with Twilight, I doubt this clash was the last time they'll gaze at each other.
If Twilight wants to retaliate, she'll have to break Sweetie Belle's wings. But Sweetie Belle doesn't have wings, so if Twilight has any chance of retaliation, she'll have to make Sweetie Belle an Alicorn prior to breaking her wings.
9754428
Or Sweetie Belle could try to make a surprise attack to Twilight, or her castle or her friends
9754634 A surprise, you say? Let's just hope Twilight likes surprises.
First thing's first, though. Sweetie Belle needs to wake up first... Lol, she's been falling asleep throughout this novel. She's almost more time asleep than awake. Maybe this novel should be called Sleepiness in Sweetie Belle.
9754663
Well, is not like Sombra is also awake, and seriously, Sweetie should think a little better but is not her fault, she is after all a filly that turned terrorist because she wanted to defend herself. Is she wrong or is the world wrong?
As one little girl commented in a comic
Sure, there could be better options, but she is doing what she thinks she can do, fueled by the idea of short-term revenge, instead of thinking in the long-term
9754792
I wouldn't be so sure about that one.
Or maybe both her and the world are at fault.
Whatever her long term plans may be, Twilight was sure to stand in her way. Dealing with the Princess was both short-term and long-term beneficial. Alas, Sweetie Belle failed, and now she's back at where she started.
9755479
I follow the theory that this Sweetie Belle is mainly part Sombra and part Sweetie... And I'm not sure if she could had more power as a adult that as a filly, or if she manage to transform into a alicorn somehow, we managed to see in the previous chapter how she had a problem when Twilight began to fly.
Also, the best place to fight could be in the middle of Ponyville, collateral damage could prevent Twilight from using spells, while she could not have those problems
9755610 That's a good theory. Sweetie Belle is indeed physically still a filly Unicorn (and not an Alicorn). She can only fly the way Starlight Glimmer flies.
As for the next meeting with Twilight, I'd say your suggestion holds much merit. They should, indeed face each other in Ponyvile the next time they meet.
Yay! Sweetie's saved, and she can continue being evil!
11086895 To quote Xerath:
But yeah, Sweetie Belle does flirt with the dark side quite a bit.
Is it weird that I kinda wanted Sweetie Belle to be victorious here? Twilight Sparkle was a bitch for setting her up like that, without at least first trying to talk to her! It was Cozy Glow all over again! (I actually touched on that in one of my stories!) Although revenge fast like that is a bad strategy. "Revenge is a dish best served cold!" Sweetie Belle should retreat to the Everfree and lay low for a long while, before attacking later on, when nopony expects it... That's what I'd do!
11156046 On the other hoof, she completed her mission. She wanted to deliver the letter, and that's what she did.
But in Twilight's defense, Sweetie Belle isn't a perfect angel, either.
11156093
Okay yeah but sweeties "crimes" are defending herself against 2 earth ponies who were attempting to physically attack her, and talking back to her parents.
Like I know sombra bad and sweetie is being taken over by sombra, but cmon! She hasn't done anything wrong yet. (Besides clone murder but that doesn't really count)
11680103
Sweetie Belle was stubborn and rebellious. But pony society is more equine than human society, so they wouldn't stone her to death. They would only cut off her horn.
Yes, but there's an order of events. Like, first one event happens, and then another event happens, both after and because of.
11680103
I agree with everything you said except the clone murder thing. I think Sweeombra posted cringe on that front.
11722896 When one is cornered, rationality flies out the window.