Encore of The Dazzlings: Cataclysm's Carnage

by Shadowmane PX-41

Sour Sweet: The Malefic Archer

When the explosion died down, everyone's mouths were agape after witnessing the total annihilation that had just happened around them. Both Ponyville and Canterlot had been wiped off the map, and now a massive crater of Malefic Energy stood in its' place. There were no signs of life in the air, on the ground, or nearby the blast.

"No..." Twilight shed a single tear.

"Two whole kingdoms wiped off the map by a single arrow?" Adagio surveyed the damage that had occurred. Aside from the completely erased kingdom of both Celestia and Twilight, there was a massive hole in the mountains close by, and a pol that seemed to serve as the gateway to another world. "What kind of monster could have done such a horrific thing?"

All of a sudden, laughter of malice echoed across the skies, getting everyone's attention. "A perfect shot if I do say so myself..." a projection suddenly formed from the crater. It was revealed to be Sour Sweet of the Crystal Prep Shadowbolts, only now, she was wearing a black mask with glowing runes that covered up the left side of her face. Her weapon was a black arrow with purple energy that served as both the string and arrows, and had two daggers at the sides for if she had to deal with close-quarters combat. "Good riddance, Equestrian meat! THE BALANCE OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS DOESN'T NEED YOU!" she shouted before vanishing just as quickly as she had arrived.

"That was one of the Shadowbolts; Sour Sweet," Sunset Shimmer explained as she quickly got the whole group back together from their emotional states. "We'd better check out the destruction..."

"You're right," Adagio said as the group got flying again. "No use crying over spilled milk when Malefic forces are still in the area..."

"But... Equestria..." Twilight was still shaken from the aftermath of Sour Sweet's assault.

"There'll be time for it later, Twilight," Adagio reassured her. "Right now, we need to see that surge of darkness in the crater and give the Malefics the old-fashioned bum's rush, since they still continue to fight without Annihilation backing them up..."

"Alright..." Twilight swallowed her pity, wiped the tears away from her face, and drew her swords for battle again. "Let's do this..."

"Why would this Sour Sweet say that the balance of light and darkness doesn't need us?" Celestia asked as they started fighting back against winged Malefics.

"The Malefics believe that light and darkness must be balanced to live life in harmony," Adagio explained after cutting another one in half. "They go out and kill the forces of light so that the darkness can forever be just as powerful as light. They won't stop until we all fall, and their balance is made equal."

"It's just like the Balance of Lyrica, but on a much bigger scale..." Sonata made it short and sweet.

"So basically, they're like evil Lyricans?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"That's not exactly the right term to use, Rainbow Dash," Aria said gruffly.

"But I'm in the ballpark, aren't I?"

"As you know, Malefics feed off of the evil and malicious intent of humans, ponies, and Lyricans," Adagio began as they approached the crater. "But this power is not for increasing their own strength; rather, to create more soldiers for their ever-expanding army of monsters and humanoid doombringers..."

Eventually, as they made it to the black mass of energy, they saw another world on the other side. It showed a forest spliced with a gun-firing range, an ocean, and a variety of other environments for hunters to abound.

"Looks like we can head in," Adagio said, performing a loop and diving headlong towards the portal. "Come on, girls!"

"This seems like a pretty messed up place..." Rainbow Dash said bluntly as she looked at the Malefics assaulting prey that popped up in each of the four corners of the new world.

"Welcome to my hunting grounds, Rainbooms and Dazzlings!" Sour Sweet appeared in front of the girls as another projection; one that tracked them as they flew through the air. "This is the place where I have my fun, and where you meet your demise!"

"Why would you dare assault Equestria?!" Twilight snorted as she slashed another winged Malefic in half.

"Your ponies prance about in the light, preventing the darkness from flourishing," Sour Sweet explained. "You sickos are preventing the balance of light and darkness from being equal, causing massive disruptions in the flow of true harmony!"

"But the harmony is already being broken down with your army's continued attacks," Adagio said firmly, "The balance must be made same with beings from the respective worlds. You have no right."

"NO RIGHT?! You monsters are quashing the rights of keeping these worlds safe!" Sour Sweet yelled back. "Should I just sit back and watch whilst you Lyrican dogs continue to rip the world asunder?!" then she calmed down and put a confident smile on her face. "No. I simply have to kill you all before it's too late!"

"She's stubborn for a human corrupted by Malefic forces..." Applejack said as they flew over the ocean area.

"I have to agree that she has a valid point," Sunset said calmly. "But committing genocide is never the right answer."

"I agree completely," Adagio Dazzle smiled back at Sunset, then looked Sour Sweet directly in the eyes. "You've given us no choice but to oppose you, Sour Sweet." She declared.

"Well, that's brave of you. But thanks to The Blasters, we're not the Shadowbolts of Crystal Prep that you remember..." Sour said before her projection vanished.

When it did, the girls all arrived in the jungle area of the new world. They were all attacked by Malefics who were shooting arrows from the treetops, as well as ones who were armed with cannons shooting black fireballs. They managed to dodge and repel most of the attacks, but they soon found themselves outmatched.

"Fly up! It's too hot down here!" Adagio commanded the team as she sharply turned upwards.

The girls all followed Adagio's orders and shot upwards, with the three alicorn princesses creating a magical shield behind them so that the Malefics didn't shoot them down as they escaped. The shield lasted until the enemies stopped firing at them, and once it did, Celestia, Luna, and Cadence regrouped with The Dazzlings and The Rainbooms.

"Well now, you're pretty impressive for a bunch of horses and sirens..." Sour Sweet returned only to taunt.

"We'll just take that as a compliment." Rainbow Dash said.

"But you should know that I've got power that you dweebs would never be able to compare," she then leaned close to Sunset Shimmer and said, "No surprises on guessing what it is...

"Tonight's forecast: An Arrow Storm!" Sour Sweet brought up her bow and drew an arrow, causing thousands and thousands more arrows made of energy to appear in front of the heroines, blocking off their escape. She released the arrow she was holding, flying past Adagio, but causing the others to launch towards the group and prevent any chance of them avoiding them. "Hope you brought your umbrellas!" she joked, laughing as the group tried evading the falling arrows.

They dodged most of them, but eventually, the arrows pierced the wings of everyone from Equestria. They fell towards the ground, screaming as they spiralled out of control with their hurt wings spread out to the sides.

"GIRLS!" Adagio raced after them when the arrows had stopped, desperate to tend to their wounds and prevent them from taking any further damage.

---

"This Sour Sweet is an impressive new addition to our line-up..." Cataclysm watched as The Rainbooms and the three princesses careened towards the ground at breakneck speeds. "And you say you were interested in her because of a simple high-school rivalry?"

"Not just her; but the rest of the Shadowbolts we have now," Fortissimo explained, "As it stands, the Magic of Friendship is called forth by Honesty, Kindness, Loyalty, Laughter, Generosity, and Magic. That is the power that emanates from The Rainbooms of both Earth and Equestria," he said, showing a projection of the Main Six with their power. Then, he created another one involving the six Shadowbolts. "However, these six girls emanate the same kind of auras as these six ponies. They too have the principles of using the Magic of Friendship, but with darker, more cruel effects..."

"Yes. Lemon Zest is one who uses laughter, but is more zoned out and is a free-thinking entity," Allegro pointed towards Lemon Zest, causing a pink aura to appear, and then turn black. He then proceeded to point towards the other Shadowbolts, giving them coloured auras before they too turned black as night. "Sugarcoat can use honesty, but is very brutal with it. Indigo Zap is a loyal one, yes; but her loyalty can be used in the exact same way as Rainbow Dash's. Next up is Sunny Flare's generosity; she's fine with giving her opponents some help, but is a powerful force with or without giving the advantage to her foes. Sour Sweet right now is a special case; able to use kindness, then follow it up with a sting of cruelty to throw her opponents off-guard. And finally, we have Twilight Sparkle, whom you know full well..."

"Yes... The Princess of Friendship and a powerful user of magic..." Cataclysm said, "If only we could grasp her power and make it our own... Then the Malefic Army would be nigh unstoppable!"

"We have her darkness, that much is true," Orchestral added in. "But now that we have the Twilight from the other world, we're close to reaching that power," she showed off both Twilight with the half-mask on, as well as Midnight Sparkle next to her. "If there was a way we could somehow infuse Midnight's essence with that of the Twilight of this other world, we could make a human with the pony's level of power, therefore acting as if it is our own Princess Twilight!"

"But as it stands, it is impossible for us to make infusions with the power we have, even if it is almighty," Cataclysm silenced the former Lyrican with a wave of his hand. "We can only steal, manipulate others with, and feed off of darkness. Bleeding the life-force out of a magical entity and enhancing a human with it is something that not even I can do..."

"But until we're given the chance, we still have both a Malefic Twilight and the darkness of the alicorn princess," Fortissimo reminded his overlord. "Our deck is still stacked against these maggots, and it's only a matter of time before we draw our trump cards..."

---

The females from Equestria all landed on the firing range earth violently. They groaned as the arrows vanished from their wings, letting the blood trickle out of the holes that were left behind. Even so, this didn't stop them from getting back up on their feet.

"Are you OK, everyone?" Sonata asked as she and The Dazzlings began tending to wounds. "That was such an unexpected ambush..."

"We'll be fine, Sonata," Applejack said, wincing as Aria tried to stop the bleeding by applying pressure to the holes. "Ya'll said it yourselves; Lyricans are tougher than the average human or pony..."

"Yes, but those attacks were nothing like Malefic attacks..." Adagio had been thinking about the power that Sour Sweet had during her ambush. "In fact, they seemed to be more powerful, as if they were powered by an otherworldly force..."

"What do you think it is?" Fluttershy raised a finger as Sonata filled the holes with Blissen Energy.

"I'm not sure..." said Adagio, "But I think it was on a level of power similar to that of the Magic of Friendship..."

Sour Sweet then appeared, but as yet another hologram. "Now, Adagio. You are the new ruler of The Dazzlings, and part of the supposed queen of Lyrica, yes?" she asked, seeing a nod afterwards. "I look forward to seeing how you fare against my Hunter Malefics..."

"Why are you siding with these ruffians, Sour Sweet?" Rarity asked as her wings were finally healed. "Don't you have friends and family over on Earth?"

"When you ally yourself with the Malefics, there are no friends or families anymore," Sour said, her bow still drawn, as if she was waiting for something to happen. "All that there is is devotion to Overlord Cataclysm, or death..." she then smiled. "But on the bright side, he did give me and the other Shadowbolts power that you couldn't comprehend," she bragged, "Oh, and Twilight? About you and your friends? You are gonna want to plug your ears when you meet the new-and-improved Sugarcoat..." she laughed maniacally and then vanished once more.

Adagio, Aria, and Sonata shrugged Sour Sweet's words off and stood up. As they did, they felt the ground fly up and break away from the world. This happened with other sections of the Malefic's world, ultimately culminating in creating a makeshift path for the girls to all walk along.

"What's the plan of action, Adagio Dazzle?" Princess Luna asked when they had been given time to identify the path in front of them, made out of different sections of a gun-firing range, a forest, the ocean, and the desert.

"I... guess we move forward from here," Adagio was unable to process what exactly to do, so decided to follow the path that was set out. "But be sure to keep your guard up, everyone..."

"Also, I don't advise flying for a while now," Sonata added in, "Your wings must still be aching and bleeding internally from those arrows that Sour fired at you..."

"Whoever this Sour Sweet is, it's safe to say that we've lost her to the Malefics..." Princess Celestia hung her head, but still followed along with the rest of the group.

"I don't think it's entirely like that..." Sunset said, thinking about Sour Sweet and the rest of the Shadowbolts before The Blasters began their ritual to extract the darkness of herself and her friends. "They seemed like ordinary everyday humans from Earth before The Blasters drained us dry and knocked us out..."

"Yes, and that mask she wore looked awfully suspicious..." Rarity added in as they strolled down the path. "Almost as if it had a hold on what she was saying and doing..."

"So you think that that mask might be what's causing her to be this way?" Twilight asked.

"Not precisely, but it does seem to be generating a massive amount of Malefic Energy," Adagio had taken notice. "It might not be removable, but if we can break it, then we should be able to either weaken her, or cut off the Malefics control over her," she then hung her head. "But still, it's up for debate, and the outcome is still unclear, even for me..."

"But that's not what matters now," Aria motivated the group. "What does matter now is finding a way out of this godforsaken place, cleaning up after what Sour Sweet did, and returning to our war with the Malefics," she too lowered her neck. "Even if it means sacrificing six humans to win it..."

Comments

[DazzleMLP84]

I'll just say this right now! Sour Sweet, I'm sorry, but you're going down along with the other shadowbolts and you guys just don't know it yet!

[Shadowmane PX-41]

6546652 Interesting fact: I was inspired to make this chapter because of a certain chapter in Kid Icarus Uprising. And, no surprise, I wrote Sour Sweet's appearance similarly to how Viridi first appeared in that very same game.