Encore of The Dazzlings: Cataclysm's Carnage

by Shadowmane PX-41

Mayhem in Manehatten

In the middle of all of the chaos in Manehatten, a red and blue portal opened up. Once it had done so, The Dazzlings, and the newly transformed Rainbooms of Equestria leapt out of it. They hit the ground knuckles first, then stood up to assess the absolute chaos that was going down in the city.

Skyscrapers were being torn to pieces, Malefic fleets were shooting down helpless Pegasi, and the entire population was in a tizzy. If this chaos wasn't rectified soon, then Cataclysm's fleet would destroy all life in Manehatten, leaving only a husk of what remained of the once flourishing city.

"Just another day in the life, huh?" Aria said in a smug tone of voice.

"You took the words right out of my mouth, Aria," Adagio smiled and readied her team for combat. "Alright, everyone. The fleets will arrive momentarily to repel the aerial forces. In the meantime, our goal is to stop the Malefics on the ground," she began to tell the team their battle plan. "No doubt that Cataclysm's Malefics will try to bring in some Anti-Air forces once the fleets arrive. So, if there are any Anti-Air Malefics around, take care of them too."

"On it!" Rainbow Dash said with a smile.

"As for your choice of weapons, you've been entrusted with Lyrican swords that will instantly be called to your hands at will whenever a Malefic strikes," Sonata explained. "Better get used to them, as Malefics are far more vicious than both the forces of Euphoria and Dystopia combined!"

"Alright, let's move out!" Adagio charged forward into the town with the girls following closely behind them.

For the most part of the ordeal, the ten girls were just dashing through the titanic city, hoping that the Malefics hadn't already exterminated all life. However, they felt some relief when they saw a bunch of ponies about to be taken down by a monstrous creature.

The beast raised a spiky black claw and was going to scratch at the ponies, when all of a sudden, it was struck by a massive blue sword and a equally large red sword. Enraged, it turned away from the ponies and saw the swords return to Adagio's hands.

As the beast got closer to the team, they were able to analyse it much better. It was a quadrupedal monster with a spiky black head and a carapace on its' back and front. As soon as it got up close to the group, it was suddenly joined by four perfect copies of the exact same monster. The five beasts then turned their arms into pure black energy, which they then used to transform their arms into scythes. They swung their weapons around for a while, then roared at the girls viciously.

Malefic Grunt

SLICER

"Ready, everyone?" Adagio asked as she tightly gripped her two blades.

"Ready!" everyone else said as they too drew their blades. Even Fluttershy mustered up some courage to stare the danger right in the face and defend her own kind.

The battle began with the Slicers quickly moving towards the ten girls with their scythe-arms ready to slice them up. However, The Dazzlings and The Rainbooms met their attacks with nimble dodges. Even though The Rainbooms had only been given a couple of minutes to get accustomed to bipedal forms, they were quite quick with their movements.

"According to the book, these are Slicers," Twilight said, opening the book whilst dodging another set of Slicer strikes. "Their arms are sharp enough to cut anything. From the weakest butter, to the strongest diamond. Not only that, but they can manipulate their arms into other weapons at will..." as soon as she said that, she watched as the scythes on her Slicer turned into scimitars.

"How can you be reading at a time like this, Twilight?!" Rainbow Dash dodged another strike and kicked the Slicer in the chest, knocking it backwards. From there, she drove her sword straight into the Slicer's face, erasing it from existence with a quick burst of black vapour. "Boom! One down!"

"Four more to go," Sonata said before vaulting over her Slicer and driving her sword straight into its' back, piercing its' carapace in the process. "Make that three..." she said as her opponent died just like the other one had.

The fight continued, but as it did, the Slicers began to know that they themselves were outnumbered. Even so, they didn't give up, and turned their scythes into massive claws. Once they had, they dragged their claws along the ground, creating cracks before they raised them in an upppercut-style fashion.

Adagio, Aria, and Sonata saw this attack and used their swords to repel the claws. After a long push, they broke through the Slicers' attack and sliced them clean in half, erasing them from the battle and from existence.

"We need to get moving, girls. If you can see any Anti-Air Malefics, destroy them." Adagio said as she once more led the team.

---

After a long run throughout the town, the girls eventually made it to a large square of Manehatten. The ponies here were all running away from it as fast as possible, as fighting would be a deathwish for them all.

Once the space had been cleared out, a giant black Malefic ship flew over the town and opened up a hatch beneath itself. There was darkness erupting from the other side of the hatch, and a black stream smashed into the square before taking a physical form.

The beast that was emerging from the ship was large, half the size of a skyscraper. Not only that, but its' head had large spikes poking out of the left and right sides, and its' body was heavily armoured. It was a quadruped like the Slicers from earlier, but this time, it had a humanoid upper half, with arms that suddenly transformed into large cannons. It tested out the cannons on some nearby buildings, and blew massive holes in them with colossal blasts of black and grey energy balls.

Malefic Defence

SKYFIRE

"That's a Skyfire, according to the book," Twilight said, opening the book on the page that the Skyfire was described. "Made of the most powerful Malefic Anti-Air power, it has the capability to puncture holes in any ship if it hits its' mark," she then smiled as she read on. "However, it can also only aim skyward, meaning that it's helpless against ground attacks!" she smirked once she read it aloud.

"Which is why the Malefics are always a step ahead of us..." Adagio pointed as some more Malefics appeared from the hatch underneath the open ship. There were twelve individual streams of darkness, and when each one impacted, a new Malefic was created.

The dark streams gave rise to ten more Slicers, and two larger Malefics.

The two larger Malefics were different from the Slicers. They were bipedal, were carrying massive warhammers, had arms made of fire, and legs that seemed to be wrapped up in miniature tornadoes. They looked just as menacing as the Slicers, however, and their heads were the final part of their intimidating physiques. The heads were all shaped like lightning conductors, and they quickly called lightning straight down on top of their heads to electrify them and prove their point.

Malefic Brute

NATURE

The Natures both threw their fists out and arched them. In doing so, they called up a number of volcanoes that were slightly smaller than they were. From there, they punched the sides of each volcano, making each one spew lava and magma balls from the top. The two Natures let out roars of fury, and soon, all twelve Malefics charged after The Dazzlings and The Rainbooms.

The ten sword wielding girls all ran towards the Malefics. And when they were all within striking range, they performed nimble sidestep dodges to avoid the attacks of the Slicers. From there, The Dazzlings slid on their knees, right underneath the legs of the Natures. The tornadoes didn't even faze them as they leapt backwards and drove their swords right into the backs of the large Malefics.

However, the Natures didn't flinch and instead threw The Dazzlings off of their backs and pulled the swords straight out. Once they were carrying the swords, the Natures threw the swords at heads of Adagio, Aria, and Sonata, who swiftly dodged the thrown swords before leaping onto their feet and grabbing the hilts whilst getting up.

Whilst The Dazzlings clashed with the Natures, The Rainbooms began to cross swords with the Slicers. Within seconds, the Slicers went down, allowing each of the ponies-turned-siren to aid The Dazzlings with the Natures.

"Is that all you've got?!" Adagio shouted as she avoided a Nature's kick and landed near one of its' volcanoes. Within the heat of the fight, she had failed to notice that the lava was spreading out of the volcanoes that the Malefics had summoned, and she had just stepped in it. "Alright, I guess I'm mistaken, you've got lots..." Adagio said as she stepped out of the lava and spread her wings.

As The Dazzlings took to the skies, the Natures used their heads to fire streams of lightning at each of them. The shots were fast and precise, but Adagio, Aria, and Sonata were able to raise their swords to deflect the streams. They were about to cut the Natures in half, when they saw swords impale the chests of their targets. Looking past the Natures, they saw that Sunset and Twilight were the culprits behind the stabbing of the Malefics.

"Don't worry, Dazzlings. We've got your backs on this one," Rainbow Dash smiled as the Natures collapsed and vanished with a quick flash of darkness. As the volcanoes vanished as well, the girls all turned their attention to the Skyfire cannon. "Now we can take out the cannon."

"Girls, we have to do this together," Adagio said to each of the girls. "Skyfires are quite resistant, so it's going to take the combined force of all ten of our swords to even puncture this thing..."

"Alright, Adagio. We're at your command," Twilight said as she and the other Rainbooms drew their swords. "Tell us how to strike and we'll do it."

"Just follow me and do what I do." Adagio said as she took her sword and charged for the Skyfire.

As soon as Adagio went after the weapon, the whole group was following her in a single file line. Then, when she jumped up, they jumped after her. Finally, they all performed wide vertical swings that damaged the Skyfire's heavy armour. They followed their combined assault up by charging straight through the cannon with their shoulders first.

After Adagio looked back and saw the other girls appear next to her, she clicked her fingers and saw the Skyfire instantly fall apart. She smiled at the occurrence and sheathed her sword.

"Alright, that's one cannon down," Adagio said. "The fleets should be arriving at any second to take out the ships and clear the skies..."

"Forgive me for asking, Adagio Dazzle, but what do you mean by fleets?" Rarity said as she put one of her hands on Adagio's shoulder.

All of a sudden, a massive explosion came from one of the ships, and it began to tilt and fall out of the skies. A massive laser pierced the ship, and carved up a portion of one of the branching roads as it did so. Another massive explosion came from the Malefic ship, and this one was so big that the ship vanished after the flames had died down.

The skies were now clear, revealing a number of ships with silver and golden hulls and a wide variety of weapons. The ships were large enough to hold thousands, and the artillery was quite intricately designed. There were some rudders that had been opened up to reveal massive cylinders. These cylinders charged up with red and blue energy and began to fire at more Malefic ships. These lasers were accompanied by a number of missiles that leaved behind steams of blue and red energy instead of smoke. All of this was accompanied by fully automatic shots of Lyrican energy from a number of machine guns on each side.

"Rainbooms, say hello to the Lyrican Fleets!" Sonata smiled as she stretched her arm out and revealed the fleets to Twilight and her friends. "Each different ship is loaded to the teeth with the most advanced Lyrican weaponry we can muster. The rudder lasers are known to pierce anything they touch, and the missiles never miss their mark. And the best part? It's all fueled solely by Furen and Blissen energy."

"These fleets will be accompanied by our private flagship, the Show Stopper," Adagio said. "And if you think these ships are impressive, wait until you see ours..."

"Oh! That reminds me!" Twilight said, thinking about the Skyfire she and the others had just destroyed. "We need to take out the other Skyfires so that the fleet don't have any problem with Cataclysm's fleets."

"Then let's get to the next one, girls!" Pinkie Pie began running down one of the open streets. "My Pinkie Sense tells me that something rotten's down this way! Follow me!"

"Are you sure that's the right way, Pinkie?" Sonata called before she was too far away to hear.

"Sonata, it's Pinkie Pie. Try not to question it," Twilight said in a little bit of a smug tone.

"Let's just say that Pinkie Pie's... a special case." Sunset said to The Dazzlings. "But if she says that way, she means that way..."

Interesting... So Pinkie Pie has the ability to predict certain things with greater accuracy than the average pony? Adagio thought to herself as the whole group began to follow Pinkie down one of the roads. I shall have to study her once this charade is all over...

---

Just as the group walked ran down one of the roads, they suddenly saw a quick flash of dark purple energy strike a skyscraper. The impact was so powerful that it blew a large portion of the structure into the air. As soon as it was high enough, a mysterious figure kicked the statue at The Dazzlings and The Rainbooms.

Whilst Twilight, Sunset, and their friends were shocked to see such an event, The Dazzlings rushed forward, leapt up at the building, and began rapidly slicing through every floor of the skyscraper that was sent their way. It didn't take long before Adagio, Aria, and Sonata eliminated the building and prevented any harm from befalling their friends.

"Move on!" Adagio shouted encouragingly. "We need to stop the Malefics from taking out our guys in the sky!"

The group did as ordered and ran down a path. However, unbeknownst to them, the figure that had kicked the building was now standing on one of the girders of the destroyed structure. As it watched the ten of them run past, it held out its' hand and readied a Dark Magic attack. "Pitiful Dazzlings, thinking that they can rely on the help of others to win this war? Such pathetic toddlers..."

Suddenly, he watched as the group ran down another street and faced off against a number of Malefic forces. The figure stood by as Adagio, Aria, and Sonata started to sweat with how intense the fighting had become. "Then again, I love to see prey like that run around. I shall wait until they take out the other Skyfire, then I shall move in for the kill..." and with those words, the figure leapt from building to building, pursuing the ten girls without being noticed.

---

Meanwhile, The Dazzlings and The Rainbooms were moving in on the second Skyfire, seeing that it was already firing shots at the Lyrican fleets. As the group were about to take down the Skyfire, a large group of Slicers arrived with three more Natures. However, that wasn't all that arrived at the site of the second anti-air weapon.

A new Malefic descended from the sky. It was a bipedal life-form with buzzsaws for feet and chainsaws for arms and legs. Its' chest was one massive trash grinding machine, but its' head was the only thing that wasn't to do with cutting things into thousands of tiny pieces. The head of the new Malefic was quite sinister, with a couple of black orbs looking down on the ten girls with fury in both of them. The new Malefic swung its' arms and roared to the sky.

Malefic Heavy

SHREDDER

The Shredder charged in on the girls with its' arms ready to cut them in half and spill their blood and guts. However, just before it performed a sweeping slash, it was kicked in the face by The Dazzlings and thrown onto its' back. It quickly got up, but once it did, it had its' legs cut in half by Rainbow Dash and Sunset.

As the balance of the Shredder was skewered, the Slicers and Natures moved in to avenge its' loss. However, The Dazzlings and The Rainbooms had analyzed the monsters' attacks inside and out, and were able to dodge and counter-attack accordingly. With that, they began to grow cocky, and failed to notice that the Shredder finally got its' balance back and prepared to strike back at them.

The beast charged forward, using its' buzzsaw feet at rollerskate wheels. With the advanced mobility that it had, it quickly flanked around the group and swept them off of their feet with one of its' chainsaw arms. Once the girls were airborne, it shot its' chest out of its' body and tried to grind the girls into paste.

As Adagio, Aria, and Sonata saw the grinder chest shoot out of the creature's body and snare them all, they raised their swords and began to cut through the chest like it was butter. Though it was easy to destroy the body, the grinders were still going, determined to cut them up into thousands of pieces. After narrowly dodging being sliced to death, The Dazzlings flew out and saved The Rainbooms by charging back into the body and breaking it up with the sheer force of their impacts alone.

Once everyone was back on their feet, they moved in to take on the Shredder. Even without its' chest, it was still quite powerful, and no doubt one of the toughest Malefics they had fought yet. The chainsaw arms and legs were quite ferocious, and the revving noises that they all made were deafeningly loud.

Adagio, Aria, and Sonata joined with Twilight and Sunset to perform a devastating combo of sword strikes on the giant Malefic. Each of the five girls performed a diagonal slice, making a star out of their combined attack. Adagio went down and left, prompting Twilight to go up and right. When she arrived at Aria, she performed a straight horizontal strike. Her actions touched Sunset, who performed a downward left diagonal strike. Finally, Sonata slashed upwards and to the right, reaching the point that Adagio had been in before.

"Dimquel Endrayu!" Adagio, Aria, and Sonata said, using their wings and red pendants to summon another beast to aid them.

The new beast was one from Dystopia, as it turned the sky red as blood. As the streams combined together to take a physical form, a bipedal monster with massive claws for hands appeared behind the Shredder. As it roared, it watched the Malefic try to run away in fear, but the beast impaled it by the dome of its' head and began to brutally rip it apart.

Once the Shredder was split in half, both halves were thrown at the second Skyfire. The second before it was about to crash into it, the beast from Dystopia performed a cross slash with both of its' arms, cutting both the Shredder and the Skyfire into dozens of pieces. Those pieces all collapsed and exploded in a burst of darkness, prompting the Dystopian to vanish.

"Good work, Disposal," Adagio said to her pendant when the beast returned. "You truly were a cut above the rest..." she then chuckled to herself, prompting the other girls to share in her amusement.

"Very funny, Adagio Dazzle," the figure said from the rooftop above where the Skyfire had been firing. "But you should know that you're just asking for trouble, standing up to the Malefics like that..." he then jumped off of the building and punched the ground when he landed.

"Who are you?" Adagio said to the figure that had watched her defeating the Malefics. "I demand you reveal your name and intention!"

"I am merely one of Overlord Cataclysm's commanders," the human figure said when he suddenly materialized two black wings onto his back. The wings were very demonic, and had black flames where the wings ended. "To the world, I am nothing more than a bringer of death and destruction. But to you ladies and innocents dragged into battle, you may call me Pandemonium, Overlord Cataclysm's Seventh in the Malefic Hierarchy..."

Comments

[MrB]

very nice