Adagio's Trial (Part 1)
When the light finally died down, Adagio could instantly feel that things had changed. For one thing, the place looked a lot more spectral, and her friends were see-through. She eventually looked around and saw that Aria and Sonata were still with her in their normal states, but now something else had caught their attention.
"That's new..." Adagio felt her neck, feeling something that had long since been taken from her. She remembered that distinct black leather collar with a golden cornerstone anywhere. She was wearing a Lyrican pendant. She looked and saw that Aria and Sonata also wore pendants such as that, but the jewel parts had been replaced by what looked like a series of holes in rather complex leather case which was shaped like each of The Dazzlings' emblems.
The Dazzlings all took steps forward into the new room, which was quite bizarre. It seemed to be half of a room and half of outer space. Each one of their footsteps resonated across the entire hall, with a different musical note accompanying their every move. The whole room seemed to rather furnished as well, seeing as there were chairs and tables where others could wait for their trials, or to just watch other Lyricans training for their new pendants. At the end of it all, there was a massive dais with majestic patterns all over the walls and stairs. Atop this dais, a massive orb of light took a humanoid form before shining bright as the sun, causing The Dazzlings to shield their eyes once more.
When they finally readjusted themselves to the light once again, everyone else in the group was completely visible in this new room. The Rainbooms of both Equestria and the Human World were accompanied by the three princesses and Starswirl once again. They all looked towards the top of the dais where there was someone looking down upon them all.
"Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk," the new figure spoke to all of The Dazzlings, seing each one of them perform a Lyrican salute as he called out their names. He was garbed in regal golden armour with many stripes on each different part. He was also dressed in a Lyrican skirt made of gold and cloth, and wore a golden helmet with three prongs sticking out of the top of it. "Welcome to the Halls of Composia."
"Lord Symphonia, it's an honour to meet you." Adagio said, never leaving her salute posture as she addressed the Lord of the Lyrican Crystals in such a chivalrous way.
"Hi!" both Pinkie Pies waved before looking at each other in surprise. "Jinx! Double Jinx! Tripe Jinx! Cherry-flavoured ice cream Jinx!"
"Pinkie Pie, show some respect!" Aria said back to the two Pinkies, immediately stopping them and making them put their hands and hooves in front of their mouths. "Lord Symphonia is the second highest power in Lyrica, right behind His Majesty King Allure himself!"
"It is quite alright, Aria. They were unaware of my position in the Lyrican hierarchy," Symphonia said, his voice rather deep and mellow as he addressed the group. "I have foreseen your arrival, Dazzlings. I have watched you fight, and I know everything that happened..." he said, showing a series of projected clips showing events with The Dazzlings involved in them. "Even though you three were accused of tilting the Balance of Lyrica towards war, I see that it wasn't entirely your fault. Someone infused you with Dark Magic upon your resurrection, yet the true culprits remain beyond my sight..."
"Even so, that does not change the fact why you are here," Symphonia changed the projections to show silhouettes of The Blasters with red and blue eyes, and another proection showing Furen crystals in the shapes of Adagio, Aria and Sonata's Cutie Marks. "You three are here to undergo spiritual training in the Rhythm Realm to acquire new Furen crystals, which are a thousand times more durable and can accumulate ten times as much negative energy as your previous ones could..."
"Be warned, the Rhythm Realm is not for the faint-hearted, and many Lyrican warriors that went into that realm came out empty-handed, and accepted their fates to be without limitless power..." Symphonia warned The Dazzlings, his expression never shifting as he did so. "However, you three are destined Right Souls of Fury, so you will receive power beyond power, almost to the point where you shall be able to create your own worlds, and the inhabitants for all the worlds you touch..."
"I shall be assessing each of you, one at a time to see whether or not you are worthy of acquiring this new, unstoppable source of victory..." he put his hand out towards a large circular part of the room directly in front of everyone else, making the circle vanish and reveal a bottomless drop through a pillar of spectral energy. "Adagio Dazzle, as leader of The Dazzlings, you shall be the first to take on the Rhythm Realm's trial. Step up to the top of this dais and stand at the edge of the platform..." his dais suddenly opened up a hatch in front of him, extending a golden plank-like platform for Adagio to walk onto and stand above the drop.
Adagio complied with Symphonia's words, stood up from her salute and walked around the pit into the Rhythm Realm. She looked into the drop for a brief instance, then continued to walk around the pit to make it up to the stairs of the dais. Eventually, she climbed up the dais and watched as Symphonia moved aside to allow Adagio to stand on the platform's edge.
"Now then, before you take the leap into the Rhythm Realm, I must advise you to exercise caution. The enemies you shall confront in this world are not Euphorian or Dystopian. Instead, they shall all be illusions meant to damage your mind and attempt to sway you off of your goal. Do not be deceived!" Symphonia said as he watched Adagio focus her balance whilst standing on the edge of the platform. He then waved his hand once more, showing a projection of a human and a pony with spectral designs. "Most, if not all of the enemies you shall be battling in this realm are fake projections of humankind and ponykind. They might look and feel real to you, but the Rhythm Realm is proof positive that they are spectral disguises for the beings that inhabit this world."
He then waved his hand once again, showing another projected image for everyone to witness. This time, it depicted Adagio's new Furen pendant draped around her neck, but all of the pieces suddenly broke off and were suspended in mid-air. Waving his hands once more, Symphonia changed the background of the projection to show an otherworldy plane of existence where the pieces of the pendant were floating.
"The pieces of your new Furen pendant are scattered across the Rhythm Realm. It is up to you to find them all before the Song Seekers find you..." Symphonia showed a separate projection which showed an alien creature with keytars for legs and electric guitars for arms. "On your journey, you will meet an alarming number of Song Seekers, all of them disguised as humans and ponies, attempting to deceive you and make you stumble off of the path for your new power..."
"When you find each individual piece of your new pendant, it will insert into the correct hole every time. Upon this event, the piece will weld the into the frame. Then, when every piece is found, the frame will disappear, and all the pieces will link together and transform into your new pendant." with some final waves of his hands, Symphonia showed a picture of the Furen pieces linking together into the shape of a treble clef overlapping a gem-like shape.
"Now then, Adagio Dazzle, jump into the Rhythm Realm," he saw Adagio take a deep breath, put her hands together and crouched her legs for a rather large leap. As she finally took the jump, he said, "And earn your new Furen Pendant!" before he and everyone else watched Adagio fall into the pillar of spectral light and vanish in a bright flash shortly after that.
Adagio found herself falling through one of the most spectral light shows she'd ever seen in her life after she'd taken the leap. She could see nothing but bright, disorienting lights as she descended into the Rhythm Realm where she'd undergo her trial. Eventually, all the lights had made it into her head, and she found herself closing her eyes to avoid any further injury to them.
Eventually, Adagio landed on a floating platform in a completely different plane of existence altogether. She was atop a platform in the middle of a spacial plane of existence with no landmass beneath her, nor sky hanging above her head. She was just standing atop a platform in the middle of nothingness with a variety of other platforms in the distance, floating around with no regard for the laws of physics.
Adagio could then see twenty red lights from where she was standing. They shone so bright that they were the easiest things to find in this world beyond the other platforms that surrounded her. Such a sight bewildered and confused her upon first glance, then she shrugged it off when she was reminded that the Rhythm Realm was only for Lyricans who'd lost or had their pendants destroyed.
"Adagio Dazzle, welcome to your Rhythm Realm," Symphonia suddenly appeared when a number of spectral Rhythm Realm lights merged together. He was only a holographic projection made out of many different spacial colours, though, since Adagio was in a completely different existence from him. "This world is made entirely out of your experiences on the three worlds, and the relationships you made with all of your new friends..."
"This particular realm is called Adagio's Acapella, since you shall be running this world alone, without anything to guide you along your path," he said as Adagio continued to gaze out blindly into the star-filled world around her. "Here, you will find twenty Furen Fragments scattered across the different areas. Collect them all, and your new Furen pendant will be bestowed to you and linked to your voice alone."
"How do I do that?" Adagio asked as she saw no other way to reach the other platforms without flying. And even then, not all of them were perfectly balanced. Some of the platforms were even revolving, making it impossible for Adagio to land on them and keep her balance whilst they spun.
"This world has absolutely none of the laws of physics from the other three worlds, which is the key explanation for why you are even breathing at all. There are many other consistencies that this world ignores, but you will discover them in due time..." Symphonia said as Adagio returned her gaze to him.
"Just float through this weightless world of music, and let the lights guide you to your new power," Symphonia then vanished into her body, making her glow rather radiantly. "I shall be with you in case you are curious to know more on this world. But, that is all I can do at this moment. I am in no way able to help you overcome the Song Seekers that plague this world, and I am surely in no way able to help you recover the pieces of your new Furen pendant," he seemed to make Adagio glow and stop glowing in sync with his voice patterns. "This is a trial meant to test both your body and mind. It is a trial that will strengthen you, and grant you the power to stand up to even stronger adversaries such as your brother..."
Without any further prompting, Adagio merely nodded her head, ran towards the edge of her platform and leapt right off of it. She was no longer expecting herself to fall, as she was now floating across the Rhythm Realm with no sense of gravity whatsoever. She then tried using some graceful swimming maneuvers to traverse the spacial plane and draw herself closer and closer to each of the Furen Fragments.
She then found herself noticing that her body suddenly shifted without warning when she arrived at another of the nearby platforms. It seemed like this one was tilted slightly, however, Adagio was able to stand on the thing with perfect balance. It no longer seemed like she was about to climb up or down the platform either, since gravity was making it so she was on the same balance at the platform itself.
She then found herself a few leaps away from the first Furen Fragment, and leaped into space once more. Floating around for a brief instance of time, Adagio landed on the next platform and bent down to collect the first Furen Fragment.
The Furen Fragment glowed brighter and brighter the more Adagio reached towards it, and when she finally touched it, it instantly flew into one of the empty slots on her pendant at a rather rapid pace. When it glistened in the spectral light, Adagio smiled as she felt how secure the new piece of her pendant was.
"I don't know why everyone else decided to give up, this is easy!" Adagio said to herself as she looked around for the next Furen Fragment. She was about to leap, when she heard a sudden noise resonate across the entire Rhythm Realm. It sounded like lightning ripping through the world, deafening everything in its' wake. "I probably shouldn't have said that..."
"The Song Seekers have been alerted to your position, Adagio Dazzle," Symphonia said, getting Adagio to stress even more. "Should they touch you, you will fail the trial, and shall have to start all over again, should you wish..."
"Well, what do I do, Symphonia?!" Adagio began panicking as she heard a rumbling noise echoing on her ears as a number of lights appeared in the distance and began getting larger and larger. "I can't just stay here forever!"
"A wise choice, Miss Dazzle. The Song Seekers will not be able to track you as long as you keep on moving, but they can pick up on the noises you make when you land on a platform," Symphonia spoke as Adagio quickly leapt off into the space once again to try and evade the Song Seekers that were slowly closing in on her. "Make haste, quickly! And do not let them lay a single finger on you!"
Adagio's fears eventually died down when she leapt over onto a nearby platform and saw even more platforms appear in flashes of bright light in the distance. Each one of the new platforms had a house of some description, and were the residencies used for all three species. There were houses from the Human World, Equestria and Lyrica on platforms in the distance, so Adagio took one more leap into this town, as that was where more Furen Fragments would be.
She began hopping from platform to platform in an attempt to confuse the Song Seekers that were closing in on her. By doing this, the Song Seekers found it harder and harder to keep track of her as she neared another Furen Fragment. Adagio's footsteps resonated on each different platform that she landed on, so that gave the Song Seekers a slight hint as to where she was, but not a big enough hint to expose her location to them.
Adagio then found a Furen Fragment on one of the platforms she was about to leap to, and directed her jump to there. She found it to be more effective to simply float over the platform and grab the pendant whilst she flew over it. She remembered what Symphonia had said, and saw a red shockwave fly out of her pendant when the next piece inserted itself into it. This informed the Song Seekers more accurately, and they were beginning to slowly pick up the pace to keep up with Adagio.
It then occurred to her that Song Seekers could only follow her if she touched a platform. With this in her mind, she began resorting to her swimming techniques once more to give her pursuers the slip. It turned out to be rather effective as she saw the Song Seekers stop at the platform where the previous piece was, and scour it for her, whilst being blissfully unaware to the fact that she was already long gone.
With her pursuers long gone, Adagio found herself leisurely drifting throughout the cosmos once more, a smile appearing on her face as she took this moment to accept the beauty of the Rhythm Realm for what it was. She eventually found another three Furen Fragments in the distance and casually flew over to them, not a care in the world as she did so.
This time, though, when Adagio picked up the three Furen Fragments, she was engulfed in a bright light. She tried not to fight against the brightness, but eventually found herself shielding her eyes to prevent herself from being blinded. When the light died down, she found herself in a rather nostalgic place...
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Ooooooooo nice suspense there :)
*Eats a bunch of tacos*
Oooh, I wondew wat wiww appen next.
5690517
And hey, save me a taco.
OMG
!!!!!!! I knew what I meant about Dagi being like Katniss!
This is so exciting!