The Comet, Part 3
Cadence could only stare at what Azula had become. The power of the comet had not been kind to her. Where her Chakras had been damaged glowing circles of light burned brightly as fire poured out of them. The flames had long since consumed her clothes, criss-crossing her body with burns. Cracks ran across her flesh like badly baked clay, and from within the cracks glowing light shone through, as though her body were merely a husk to contain an unfathomable amount of energy.
"Azula..." Cadence whimpered, staring at her cousin. "What...what happened to you?"
Azula laughed wickedly as her hair waved in a non existent breeze, flames burning at the tips. "Little Zuzu happened, silly pony!" she spoke out, a mad grin covering her face. "With my Chakras damaged, I can't control my fire...but the comet still fills me with power!" She staggered forward, like a puppet on damaged strings. "But I don't need to control it...when all I have to do is unleash it!" She thrust a hand forward, and a wave of flame in all colors erupted, hungrily devouring all in its path as Cadence barely managed to dodge to the side.
"Azula, stop!" Cadence screamed out. "If you keep unleashing that fire, it'll damage the very makeup of your body beyond repair!"
"Isn't it great?" Azula screamed out. "The fire builds and builds and builds inside me...and when the Comet passes, the fire will erupt and tear me apart!"
"But the blast will destroy the entire continent!" Cadence gasped, her face pale.
"Just as Father plans!" Azula screamed. "He always talked of a way to break the spirits of the Earth Kingdom so they would have no choice to surrender...I will scorch the Earth to a barren wasteland, and Father will always remember me with love for making his dreams a reality! I don't need Mother, or Zuzu, or Uncle, and especially not you...because Father will love me when I'm gone!" She laughed madly as she unleashed blast after blast of flame, not bothering to aim, but succeeding in melting the clay on which they stood, turning it molten.
Cadence winced as she felt the boiling clay spatter over her legs, but she pushed past the pain, using her magic to strengthen her body. "It doesn't have to be that way!" she screamed out. "I can help you hold together...and when the Comet passes, I can bleed the energy out of you safely! You've been through enough! We can help you heal! Uncle Ozai faces a fully realized Avatar, he's not going to win! You can stand with Zuko-"
"Oh, so I can sit around, smiling and nodding and eating cake while Zuzu destroys everything I, Father, Grandfather, and Great Grandfather ever sought to build, and what I should have inherited?" Azula snarled. "You think that's something that appeals to me?"
"Well...it's either that or death," Cadence mumbled. "Cake or death seems like an easy choice to me."
"It is for me as well," Azula replied. "I choose death! Yours!" She lunged forward, a wave of fire cascading with her to consume all in her path.
Cadence desperately took to the air, trying to dodge around the uncontrolled flames while using her Airbending to keep it at bay.
"Look at it!" Azula screamed out. "My power dwarfs yours now! I am destruction incarnate! I will destroy this land and make way for the reign of the Pheonix King! This will be Zuzu's final downfall, and Father will claim the world! Under the comet...compared to you, I am a demigod!"
Seeing how lost to the madness and power Azula had become, Cadence realized she had no choice. She only hoped she would survive what she was about to do. Bringing herself firmly to the ground, she spread her wings wide. The flames parted like a sea, leaving her in an island of cold. "Azula...my power comes from my magic. Through my magic, all my elemental powers are connected." As Azula stared, Cadence closed her eyes as the elements swirled around her. "The Comet flows into my fire, and through my fire to my magic, and through my magic to all my Elements! My air, my earth, my water, my ether...all are as strengthened as your fire is now. I've struggled to hold it back, as you should have. But you leave me no choice. So, Miss Demigod..."
Her wings flared. Her mane and tail leapt into the air as they lost physical form, taking on an ethereal state and waving like the pennants of a sunset. When she opened her eyes, they glowed white as her power condensed around her horn. "...let me show you the power of a Goddess!" she cried out, her voice echoing as white light poured out from within her mouth, along with her words.
Her blue magic erupted from her horn, joined by four other colors of energy. The white air, the red fire, the yellow earth, the green water...all swirled upward in a crazed spiral before it reached the heavens to seize the comet.
The comet stopped.
Azula stared, stupefied, as the impossible was made real before her very eyes. Her flames flickered in fear.
Cadence was nearly as stunned as Azula. I didn't think that would actually work! Why'd I even try it in the first place? Seeing how stunned Azula was, Cadence pressed her advantage, steeling her will. "You see the difference between us, Azula? You can draw power from the Comet...but I can control it. I see the fear in your eyes...because you're imagining just what I could do. I could change the comet's orbit so it never returns to this world. I could set it in permanent close orbit around the planet, so I will always have the power of a Goddess. Or I could bring it down to Earth, and crush you beneath it." She slowly walked forward as the land melted beneath her hooves from the sheer force of magic and elements being brought to bear.
Azula staggered backwards, terror in her eyes. "K...keep away from me! Y...you're a monster!" she shrieked.
"Perhaps I am..." Cadence replied, her voice still echoing. "But it takes one to know one, Miss Demigod. But what's wrong, you were so confident before? Show me the power of destruction incarnate!" She lunged forward, sending Azula staggering backward until she was backed up against a tall stone tower. "Fight me! Burn me! Beat me!"
As her magic spoke deep inside her, Cadence lunged up close to Azula, millimeters away from her face. "Give me a hug," she found herself whispering, an offer of mercy.
Completely broken physically and emotionally, Azula threw her arms desperately around Cadence, holding her tight against her.
The magic of love surged forth. Deep inside Azula's brain, a crossed synapse in development had made her incapable of feeling the emotion of love. Unable to love, she was never able to grasp when she was being offered love...and she desired that feeling, being loved, more than anything. The magic of love found that synapse...and uncrossed it.
Azula's eyes shot open as her memories flowed through her, every moment in her life when she had been close to someone, when they had offered her love, affection, closeness...and now she could feel it. And she saw how she had tarnished and destroyed each and every moment because she couldn't understand what was being given so freely. Tears of fire poured down her cheeks, and a broken sob escaped from her throat.
Seeing the memories with her, Cadence found tears pouring from her own eyes, and a lance of pain shot into her heart as she saw how much it had hurt Azula when she - a creature of Love - had rejected her, as though Love itself had rejected Azula.
"I'm so sorry," they whispered together, clinging to each other as the flames swirled around them, gently waving in their own breeze as Azula's fire blended with Cadence' ethereal mane.
Azula flinched, a lance of pain shooting over her face as the fire inside her once more struggled to escape her body. In her mind's eye, she could see every life that would be snuffed out if the fire escaped as it desired. With love inside her now, her empathy awoke, and she felt the pain of every soul she would destroy. "C-Cadence..." Azula stammered. "H...help me..."
"Control it, Azula," Cadence whispered encouragingly. "It's your fire, you can bring it back, put it out..."
Azula closed her eyes, struggling to bring the flames under control...and a new hole erupted on her back as flames poured out, one of her chakras bursting from the pressure. A scream of agony cut the air. "I can't!" Azula gasped out. "It hurts...it hurts too much!"
Cadence stared up at Azula, her magic showing her only one solution. "Azula..." she began, choking on her own words. She pressed her hooves against two of the burning holes, feeling the flames lick at her flesh but ignoring it. "I...I can stop the pain..." She slowly gathered her magic.
Azula met Cadence's eyes. Seeing the pain in them, she knew what was coming, and nodded silently. As the tears of fire poured down her face, she barely managed to whisper, "I...I don't want to go..."
Tears all but blinding her, Cadence sent her magic forward with a sweep of her wings.
The first to dissolve were the tears of flame, blowing away on the wind in sparkles of light. Azula's body slowly, painlessly dissolved from her feet up, sparkles blowing away on the breeze with each flap of Cadence' wings. Last to fade were the crying eyes...and then there was nothing but sparkles of light floating into the sky.
Cadence' magic faded as she collapsed, and the Spirit Realm flexed, correcting the imbalance by thrusting the comet back into its proper position in its orbit. Cadence wept as she stared at her forelegs, her coat burned away leaving scars climbing her flesh, red as blood. She could feel that her coat would grow back someday, when the physical pain faded...but those scars would always be there, the mark of the blood of kin she had shed for the world. The innocent victim of her own biology, who Cadence could have saved if that day of their first meeting Cadence had acted the dutiful Princess she was as Iroh's adopted child...instead of a spoiled child.
Sinking to the ground, not caring if anyone would ever find her, she wept, the flame scoured land around her an echo of the agony in her heart.
Stats
Page generated in 0.024 seconds
Total duration
933 users online
234,966 hits today, 2,244,100 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Um... that was deep.
you made me feel bad for Azula...Amazing job!
OH SHI-
My eyes are on fire. Help.
Azula has become the first nightmare moon...PONINATI CONFIRMED
that is all.
They're going to need more cake.
... I'm feeling bad... for Princess Azula...
Well, it's official, I've lost my mind. Fire's raining from the sky, plagues are spreading across the globe, natural disasters are rampant, cats and dogs are living together, MASS HYSTERIA!
Seriously, it's like something out of a freaking horror movie!
I'd make an Ultron/No Strings On Me joke, but this is too terrifying.
She's gone bad, not just drunk on power, but her damaged psyche combined with her damaged body and all the pain this power must be giving her, it's gotta have done a number on her...
She has gone mad, this is unironically the most terrifying thing you have ever written.
Same.
Azula used Blast Burn!
But it missed!
Imma leave this here.
Oh that is hardCORE!
Translation, Release Restraint, Level One.
What?!
Yikes...
And unlike Alucard, she DOES mean it.
She unsociopathed Azula. not sure how to feel about that.
Well, she WAS a Sociopath...
You're making me feel bad for Azula. WOW.
Well, I suppose it's for the best. Also, Cadence'S.
This is honestly impressive. As much as I adore Another Hatchling, and I do, as well as the other fics of yours I've read, this is to date my favorite story EVER. Yes, even trumping Frozen and Inside Out. You're THAT good. And, you get a round of applause.
You, my friend, have done the impossible. You have made me feel sorry for Azula!
I am extremely pleased with the reference to one of my favourite comedians ever.
Extremely pleased.
Also, touching chapter. I found myself feeling a lot of feels. As one tends to do. Another very well-written chapter, dear.
...I seem to have got some tears caught in my eyes, excuse me a moment.
Curse you for making me feel for one of the villains I hated most!
I would feel sympathy for Azula after that, except for how much this smacked of a Deus Ex Machina, as an attempt to have an emotionally conclusive ending with her, rather than just the vague emptiness of defeating someone already beaten.
Still pretty good.
Rest in peace azula. Cadence actually did the impossible. She taught azula to love.
Slightly lost. How old is Cadence now?
I STILL WANT PONY AZULA!
TASTE THE RAINBOW!!!!!
Even with the great comedic references, you still managed to get me to feel bad for a character that I enjoy seeing get taken down in other fan-fiction.
Congratulations, you deserve a reward, but I'm not quite sure which one to give you.
7018516 I've been wondering the same thing
7018601 money? He is still asking for donations I think.
Wow...that's....harsh.
7018354 Don't forget that Satan's probably ice skating to work
7018359
dude, you gonna have these big long comments all the time? I'm not complaining, but how much spare time do you HAVE?!
7018665 Nah, that's not as manic.
Everyone makes mistakes Candace its facing them that shows your true strength.
I never thought I'd see the day where someone would make me like and feel sorry for Azula...
Worst-case scenario, she went the way of Pyrrha from RWBY...
The TFS reference was a nice touch amidst the river of feels.
7018516 Yes.
memecrunch.com/meme/18UC8/hug-alucard/image.png?w=500&c=1
That...That was something else. I think this might be your best chapter of any story to date. Well Done.
okay... you made me almost cry for the most un-sympathetic human villain before the Purple Guy. (i... think.) That gets you an extra
on this story's final score.
... So, it's finally happened, has it?... Time for some mood music.
Let's do this.
This isn't going to end well.
Hmm... OK, I give this a pass.
{Tatsurou: What do you mean?}
Simple. With the slight vagueness of this part, it actually strengthens it rather than hinders. Whereas some people who chant "BURN THE BELDAM!!" will be satisfied, others who say "Hmm, perhaps there is more to this character than what is EXPLICITLY shown." will be fine with it as well.
To think... this all started because a pink pony princess from another dimension yelled at an impressionable child... I'm sorry, Cadence. Azula is no longer here. What remains is a phantom, a repository of negative emotions hellbent on destroying you in totality. Only one question remains: Who shall be the one to extinguish this revenant?
Ah, there's our exorcist.
She's probably just going to destroy it or something. That would solve pretty much everyone's problems. I mean, imagine if some megalomaniac decides to raise a full-scale offensive due to vague political reasons?
...
....
..... Azula better not pull a Lord Shen.
... Well then. It would seem that, Azula is not a complete monster, nor is she going to be killed by Cadence. Similarly, rather than wanting to be loved, she wanted to feel it... bad Tatsurou!
{Tatsurou: Wh-huh?! What did I do now!?}
How DARE you make us experience this whirlwind of emotions! What do you have to say for yourself?!
{Tatsurou:... I'm a decent writer?}
Nah, you're more like good writer who has moments of greatness.
Sweet, I caught that.
Sorry, but Cadence didn't destroy the meteor yet, and it looks like you will be the unnecessary death of this PWNY-Verse story.
{Tatsurou: *Insert explanation to why she couldn't destroy the comet here.*}
Ah, that makes sense... hopefully,
Firstly,my thoughts on this chapter as a whole...
character development.
Secondly, about that last point... So it WASN'T pointless. You had this all planned out from the start. You had no intention of half-assing this at all, did you? Thanks for showing us all that you care. You really, truly care... I mean, there's little to no inspiration from Korra, but no matter, the story itself is still good.
Well then, see ya.
Sniff all that's missing is the right kind of background music for Azula's death scene.
Honestly I always pitied Azula, what she wanted was something she couldn't give to others: love and trust. She used fear and violence along with deceit to get what she wanted and in the end she succumbed to madness.
7018997
She couldn't destroy the comet for three reasons.
One, because it was a part of the gravitational system of the planet, and destroying it - especially right there - could have resulted in knocking the world out of its orbit.
Two, the comet has a spiritual presence as well, and destroying it right there could have drastically damaged the Spirit World.
Three, destroying the comet would have had the same effect on Azula as it passing out of range of the planet, and made her go nuclear.
7019038 See? Good ol' Tatsurou, having explanations for everything (and it makes sense).
Heartbreaking to see Azula go in such a way. But very well done Tats, another amazing chapter.
K, that was heart melting and wrenching all in a few paragraphs. It was absolutely amazing.
wow...to be able to make folks FEEL BAD for azula, and not for the 'damn b
went crazy', but actually FEEL SORRY SHE DIED...
Masterful. Truly masterful.
DEAR GOD!!!!!
I'm an emotionally challenged ( I have Autism and have trouble with understanding other people's emotions) person and even I wept after reading this chapter.
Oh, oh yes. Makes sense, really, alicorns do have the known skill of controlling heavenly objects.
And now I feel sorry for Azula. Will wonders never cease?
Why... Why must you make me sad. My heart hurts. You get all of the cookies, I need to go get some hot cocoa and cuddle with my dogs now...
With the references just before the ending.... Just.... Dear God, the boomerang emotions! I laughed so hard, then my chest swelled and then it went cold... jeez, take it easy....
You bloody brilliant artist of a writer, you brought me to tears with a character I never liked in the show.
Not gonna lie, didn't expect my review last chapter to be that accurate concerning Azula's fate... Nor that if it turned out true I'd actually feel bad for Azula...
DARN IT SHE ALMOST DID IT!
7019786 there is no almost here...she did. Azula was redeemed, but could not be saved, not wholly. this was the only option left Cadence, though it tore her soul, she had to dispel all of Azulas energy to end her pain. it was not easy for her, Death is the ultimate enemy of Love, and for Love to gift Death to another goes against its very nature