Pony POV Series Dark World Gaiden: Sirens vs Nightmares

by Alex Warlorn

Sirens vs Nightmares

“Uh, Twilight, it sounds like that fight out there's getting pretty intense,” Rainbow Dash muttered as they dashed through the Castle...which unnervingly had suddenly stopped doing anything at all except decide to redecorate. The pictures and statues had began slowly changing to match those creepy fish monsters. Only they weren't creepy anymore: they were so beautiful Rarity at her prettiest looked plain in comparison.

“Is the castle gonna be okay?” Apple Pie asked, feeling concern for the entity she'd helped convince to be neutral.

“Don't worry, once we save the day, it'll be fine,” Applejack reassured, though wasn't sure if it was a lie herself or not.

“Think we'll get lucky and those nine will just kill each other?” asked Rarity bluntly, galloping along besides Twilight.

“If Eclipse hasn't beaten them yet, that means they're even more dangerous than I could have imagined, we're going to need help,” Twilight muttered, trying to keep her head in this situation. The group finally came to a sliding stop into the room she was looking for. “And we found it.”

The group looked up at the two statues towering above them, one gold, the other silver. They'd have saved them earlier, but they'd expected defeating Discord would've freed them anyway and their trap relied on him knowing nothing about their escape from his control. Unfortunately, there had still been the matter of preventing the floating ocean of sea ponies from dying.

Twilight was silent for a moment, noting there was no third statue. A few tears ran down her face she remembered centuries ago when she'd helped kill one of the people she loved more than anything. The lavender unicorn shook her head to clear it: she'd have time to mourn later, there wasn't time for it now.
-
Princess Minty shook her head. Millions of times, Evil Twilight had made sure not only that every new world path ended with Dissy's defeat, but also that every Twilight became more interested in hurting the meanies back than helping the ponies the meanies hurt so they wouldn't argue when they got mixed together, sometimes ... sometimes not even having to do it directly... Bad Dissy had hurt Twilight so much... it made Evil Twilight's job easy...
-
“The Princesses should have at least some idea how to stop them, and having two ancient senior Alicorns on our side can't hurt,” Twilight muttered, then gasped, noticing the Castle's changes creeping up their statues and changing them slowly to match the Sirens. “We have to hurry!” She quickly prepared a spell...before suddenly being sent flying across the room by orange energy blast.

= Evolution – Kamen Rider Build =

“What?!” Rainbow Dash asked, spinning around and having to dodge another blast.

“There you are!” Sunset Shimmer screamed, eyes glowing green.

Rarity quickly checked on Twilight. “Who's that?!”

“I don't know,” the lavender unicorn asked, regenerating a third degree burn on her side. As she looked up, she noticed Spike preparing to attack the new arrival to protect her.

*Notice anything strange?*

Twilight looked closely, seeing the sickly green glow in Sunset's eyes and remembered the Sirens' control over the crowd. “Spike! No! The Sirens are controlling her!” she yelled, prompting the mighty dragon to stop mid-attack before he could harm her.

“Well then what are we going to do?!” asked Rainbow Dash, dodging another blast. “Sit here and let her shoot at us forever?!”

“...Keep her busy, I'm going to try something.”

“You think you can steal everything that belongs to me and get away with it?!” asked Sunset, firing at Twilight again and again with beams that pierced holes in the walls until Rainbow flew over and gave her a quick kick in the face.

“What is even your problem?!” The pegasus quickly had to avoid a fiery blast of energy. “Twilight's never even met you!” A second beam hit her in the wing and blew it off, sending her crashing to the ground.

“Celestia replaced me with her! She's nothing but a thief!” the mare roared, right before Apple Pie and Pinkie jumped up and waved before dodging her attacks in a way only Pies could. Pinkie soon realized, however, how powerful her attacks were and had to push Apple Pie out of the way, having a beam go through her head.

“Aunt Pinkie, yah alright?!” Apple Pie asked.

“Yeah, just got to regenerate my fillyhood memories.”

Applejack threw her lasso, grabbing one of Sunset's legs as she reared up while Rarity summoned the golems that still chose to follow her to hold the other. The Unicorn quickly used a heat spell, bursting into flames and burning away her restraints before spinning and sending both flying through walls with a powerful series of concussive spells that would've killed a normal pony instantly.

“Come out here and face me like a mare!” Sunset roared, teleporting to avoid a grab from Spike and smashing one of the Siren statues over his head. Giving a roar, she formed an orange barrier surrounding herself that rained down searing hot energy beams.

Rainbow Dash, wing regenerated, had to dive in the way and lose the other one to shield the very mortal Apple Pie. “Dang it!”

Fluttershy eeped, flying down and grabbing them both to get them out of the way of another attack. “...No, dear, you can't skin her alive,” she said to the voice only she could hear. “But could you give me a shield?” she asked, then gave a disappointed look. “Well that's no reason to be rude. If you want to stop Nightmare Eclipse for doing this to your father, then I'm going to need a shield.”

She let Fluttercruel take control for a few moments, the Demi-Draconequus slicing her leg open and forming the blood into a demonic looking shield before retreating back inside.

“Thank you, it's wonderful,” the Element of Kindness praised, trying to be supportive before using the shield to block another attack.

The group tried to charge, only for Sunset to rapidly grow a massive plant, grabbing and whipping them around the room (Spike included) before throwing them to the ground. Fluttershy used herself as a shield to break Apple Pie's fall. And regenerate her wings.

“Darling, this mare's almost as strong as you,” Rarity muttered, Twilight having to intercept several beams despite whatever she was planning as Rarity needed to make a shield of rocks that were quickly melted into magma.

“No! Stronger!” Sunset snarled as she kept firing without restraint. “You're just a half-flank replacement!”

Rainbow Dash groaned, getting back up. “...Okay, looks like it's time for the big guns,” she said, flying up to prevent Apple Pie from being caught in the crossfire and making herself a target that Sunset instantly took advantage of by taking aim.

“Hey! Over here!” Twilight yelled, causing Sunset to snarl and redirect her aim at her. Twilight ended up having to regenerate a lung.

Rainbow Dash gave a roar, erupting in an explosion of rainbow colored lightning. Ender Dash erupted out of the sphere, flash stepping through Sunset's beams and forcing her to quickly dodge a high speed strike. Sunset quickly let loose a massive rain of energy bolts that Dash had to evade while trying to catch her. “Dang it, haven't memorized your teleportation style...well, I've got something for that,” the super powered Pegasus called before spreading feathers out all around her. “Winglet-Chain Lightning!”

Sunset had to stop her next teleport when the arching rainbow colored lightning formed an interwoven web. True, Rainbow had to hold back monumentally to keep the voltage within 'knock out but not kill' range, but it stopped Sunset just long enough.

Twilight quickly teleported in as the lightning faded, putting a horn to Sunset's forehead and casting the Memory Spell. She may not know this mare, but she saw no reason to think it wouldn't break this mind control as it had Discord's.

---

“I'm so proud of you my Little Sun.”

---

Twilight gave a gasp, tears starting down her cheeks.

Sunset, eyes no longer green, snarled all the same and blew Twilight across the room where the unicorn skidded to a stop at the feet of Celestia's statue. Tears ran down the unicorn's face and she started blasting more and more intensely. “GIVE ME THE ELEMENT OF MAGIC! IT'S MINE!”

“She...She's right. Or half right,” Twilight muttered as Spike blocked the attacks (and herself and the Princesses' from Sunset's line of sight) but notably cringed back from them before Ender Dash was able to use her Lightning Scythe to deflect them while Fluttershy kept Apple Pie behind her rapidly melting shield.

Rarity blinked as she checked on her. “What, darling?”

“She was Celestia's student before me! She...she was practically Celestia's...” Twilight snapped over and looked at Celestia's transforming statue.

Sunset growled, charging up a massive spell and blasting Spike, freezing his arm solid as he gave a scream. “Hiding behind your friends?!”

Before she could fire again, the enraged unicorn felt something wrap around her from behind. She prepared to fire...until two massive white wings with bits of gold still flaking off wrapped around her and she realized she wasn't being grappled, but instead being hugged. While at first they resembled fins, they quickly transformed back to white feathers.

“My Little Sun...I'm so sorry.”

“C-Celestia?” Sunset stuttered, turning back to find Celestia was the one hugging her...with tears running down her face.

“I didn't replace you...I lost you. I've wanted to see you again for over a thousand years,” the Princess of the Day muttered, Sunset stunned to see her so...sad. Heartbroken. “I wish it wasn't like this, in this place. But here we are...please calm down. I just want my Little Sun back.”

---

= Aizen's Theme – Bleach =

Nightmare Eclipse charged at Adagio, the two's beams slamming into one another as they got as close as the clashing energy would allow until it exploded. Both sailed through the smoke, a blade of energy forming over Eclipse's horn met by a blade shaped version of the Sirens' sonic cutter around Adagio's. The two slashed and cut at one another at blindingly fast speeds, Eclipse ducking a slash and the mere shockwave leveling a forest in an instant. Adagio flying over her counter strike struck a lake and sent its contents flying into the air and raining down around them.

“Time stop!” both yelled at once, clocks in their eyes. Despite Eclipse's attempts to overpower Adagio's time manipulation, all it resulted in was time freezing but none of the combatants freezing with it. Despite feeling the backlash of the spells clashing, they powered through and kept trying to overpower one another, only succeeding in locking time's gears. The two continued slashing at once another as each tried to make their time reversal go into effect, now surrounded by frozen water droplets hanging in the air around them. The clash continued until finally coming into a blade lock and pushing against one another.

“Me and my friends have suffered and sacrificed too much to lose to you! That's why we'll win, like heroes always do!” Eclipse snarled, though Adagio smelled her facade slipping like blood dripping into the water.

“Ha! You think that gives you some moral high ground on us?” Adagio asked, the two spinning around and delivering another rapid fire exchange of slashes...with the Siren growing a few inches larger during its duration. “Our world ended too! Our sisters died horrible deaths! You're not the only one who suffered!” The two blades locked as they once more looked the other in the eyes, Adagio smirking. “You're not the only one who the world took everything away from and who wants to take it back! You're just the only one who tries to pretend this is about anything else!”

The two threw one another off and flew around each other as they prepared their next blow. “Don't dare compare me to you!” Eclipse snarled, charging and letting loose a beam that separated into a sky filling number of individual blasts before converging on Adagio.

The lead Siren chuckled, lightning arching through her body before spreading her wings with a chaotic note and letting loose splitting lightning from each fin tip of her wings. The lightning filled the skies, slamming into the oncoming beams in a blinding explosion that blew away the time suspended water in a massive sphere for a mile in all directions.

“Alright, then how about I compare you to Discord instead?” Adagio asked with twisted pink energy in her eyes as the smoke cleared, prompting the two to charge again and continue their heaven shaking clash.

Sonata and Manacle raced through the rocky environment, the shockwaves reshaping the landscape as the two exchanged beams and lightning bolts faster than the eye could see. Shattered stone pillars' pieces suspending in mid-air thanks to the frozen time.

“How are you keeping up with me?!” Manacle asked in disbelief before ducking under a beam and charging forwards. The Nightmare of Loyalty managed to drive her horn through Sonata's chest...before the Siren disappeared in a flash of baleful orange energy.

Before she could recover, the real Sonata pounced on her from below like a great white pouncing on a seal before letting loose a sky igniting burst of lightning that sent the Nightmare flying back smoldering. “I wasn't!”

Manacle snarled and sent Sonata slamming through the ground with a massive beam until she hit the magma far below. To her annoyance, the Siren merely erupted right back out, seeming to not care she was presently on fire or was leaving magma droplets suspended in the temporally frozen air. This prompted Manacle to let loose her wing feathers and let them fill the sky, crackling with lightning. Before she could call the attack, Sonata let loose a twisted red sound wave that forced her to fly back as the Siren once more hijacked her move.

“Cool! What do you call these thingies?!” Sonata asked as she turned the feathers back at the Nightmare.

Manacle growled, spreading her wings and filling the sky with another group of feathers. “Winglet Chain Lightning!”

The two sides both let loose massive torrents of lightning that collided and arched off, scorching the surrounding area. The Nightmare of Loyalty failed to notice that Sonata increased a few inches in size during the clash.

“Can you please just stop stop stop, Starsong?!” Granfalloon asked, teleporting around Aria, disappearing every moment that she was just out of her line of sight and landing a series of rapid fire punches and kicks from every angle.

Aria snarled, finally catching her leg and glowing with a baleful blue light. “How about you stop stop stop breathing?!” she asked, before spinning and slamming Granfalloon over head into the ground. She repeated this several times before spinning around and throwing her. However, as Granfalloon was hurled, the Nightmare let loose ribbons that grabbed Aria. Pulling her along for the ride, Granfalloon spun like cartoonish tornado and slammed her face first into the ground through several rocks from Manacle and Sonata's fight floating frozen in time.

“Aww, that's not fun fun fun!” Granfalloon called, a jack in the box on each hoof that launched a giant boxing glove when she threw a blow.

Aria simply struck back the old fashioned way, their blows sending shockwaves from the impact until Aria finally let loose a massive sonic blast. Granfalloon in turn met it with huge party horn and blew into it, the two sonic attacks pushing back and forth as the purple siren slowly increased in height.

Whisper ducked as Adagio's avatar swung a massive hoof at her, nearly leveling a rocky outcropping nearby and surrounding them in time frozen hunks of rock. The massive avatar let loose a mountain crushing sonic blast, forcing Fluttershy's Nightmare to meet it with her sweet lullaby as intensely as she could manage. As the two canceled one another out, the avatar Siren's horn glowed and several sonic cutters were unleashed, cutting Whisper multiple times and sending her reeling. Tears started down Whisper's face that formed into massive glass butterflies and flew forwards and sliced away at the avatar.

“I'm don't like fighting, but I'll do it for my friends!” Whisper called, using her magic to create a massive pink and yellow dragon that began grappling with the avatar...though the avatar kept growing slowly all the while.

Nightmare Mirror growled, catching one of Sonata's avater's beams with her wing and sending it right back at it, sending it reeling but having to cringe from the effort. “These gals aren't playin'...”

Her allies were too lost in their madness to really tell, but something was obvious to Mirror at this point. These three had been watching their fight with Twilight and her friends. They knew what their powers were. Was it any surprise that Mirror and Whisper, who's powers relied on effecting someone's heart and mind, had ended up being attacked by the avatars who had neither? These girls weren't attacking the big fish in overconfidence: they'd come to this fight with a plan.

Something that showed when Sonata's avatar retaliated with a sonic blast that her wings couldn't reflect and sent her flying backwards. Applejack's Nightmare caught herself on a time suspended boulder thrown into the air by the clash and flew straight down into the ground, sending massive spires of crystal as tall as mountains at the avatar. Sonata's shade retaliated with a sonic note, shattering the crystals as fast as Mirror could make them, the air quickly filling with floating crystal shards. Mirror's eyes widened as she noticed the avatar slightly increase in size as they fought.

Meanwhile, Banneret and Aria's avatar took to fighting each other like something out of a Dracozilla movie, slamming each other through mountains and anything else unfortunate enough to get in the way. The area around them looking like a floating archipelago of islands due to all the time suspended rubble left behind. The massive Nightdrake ducked under a lunge from the avatar and grabbed her tail, wrenching upwards before swinging down and slamming it face first into the ground. Repeating this twice, he swung around and threw it, only for the avatar to swing around and swim right back at him. Slamming into his stomach with a headbutt, the impact drove him backwards through several peaks. As they came to a stop with the avatar on top and charging an attack, Banneret unleashed a torrent of fire breath as powerful as a volcano erupting. The blast sent the avatar plowing back, but to his frustration prevented itself from falling before forcing back and stalemating his breath with its own sonic ray. As the two attacks fought back and force, Banneret noted he was having to look up a little higher to keep in eye contact.

Adagio and Eclipse flew forwards, both landing a massive blow to the other's face that stunned them long enough for their time spells to fade. From the outside world's perspective, the area had gone from somewhat damaged to a completely destroyed war zone in an instant, the combatants having to dodge the now plummeting debris their clash had caused while time had stopped.

---

“Normally our sister would handle this, but as you can see, she is rather busy,” the now free and transformed back to normal Luna said, watching as her sister sat off to the side talking to Sunset. The young mare looked...broken. No surprise, given she'd just learned she'd run away for a few years only to come back and find one thousand years had passed and the one she thought hated her had been waiting all that time with open arms. “So what has happened? A dimensional disturbance occurred and interfered with our astral projection. Obviously you've managed to save yourself from Discord.”

“And defeated him,” Twilight replied. She noticed Fluttershy having to restrain Fluttercruel in her head. “But then it gets complicated. First things first: do you remember the Sirens?”

Luna's eyes widened and her expression did little to make Twilight feel any better about the situation. “...Why do you ask?” she questioned...then noticed the depictions of the Sirens and realized the transformation magic that'd transformed them hadn't been Discord's. She swiftly put a silencing spell bubble around the entire group faster than Twilight could blink.

---

= Aizen's Theme – Bleach =

The area a few miles from the castle was unrecognizable as itself by this point, having been reduced to little more than a blasted, scorched crater. Blown so deep a few Lava Demons poked their way out of the earth before wisely retreating back down.

Nightmare Eclipse and Adagio continued trading spells and magical attacks with intense ferocity. Looking over as the moon remained frozen in the sky with Discord stone and Luna preoccupied, the Nightmare smirked, firing one magical portal behind Adagio at the ground in the center of the battlefield before firing another at Luna's celestial body.

“What was that supposed to do?” Adagio asked.

“Wait for it...” Eclipse said with a smirk...before the portal opened exactly 1.4 seconds later and became a vacuum she promptly blasted her enemy towards. “Have fun freezing in space!” she said as Adagio began to be pulled in. The other Nightmares all got the same idea and quickly threw their own enemies towards the portal.

Adagio, however, smirked and created a magical lasso with her horn and grabbed Eclipse around the throat with it. “Why should we be the only ones to get a nice space vacation?” she asked, her sisters and their avatars doing the same to the other five and the group being pulled through the vortex with it closing behind them.

---

A group of deer blinked, looking at the portal from a safe distance as it sat beyond the terraformed section protected by their ruler. “We should probably tell Mother Deer about this...” one said...before the 12 entities were violently shot out of the vortex and sent tumbling through space, prompting them to run for the hills.

“We're in SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!” Sonata chuckled. “In lunar orbit, about 238,900 miles away to be exact.”

Her sisters merely stared at her in shock for a moment.

“I think the smartypants side of my brain grew back, but I like this personality better than old stick in the mud me,” Sonata said with her typical air-headed chuckle that now sounded far more devious.

The battle quickly picked back up, the change in venue doing little but allow both sides to throw meteors at one another or smash each other through them and unleash attacks on a scale that may have caused the end of the world if done down on Equus.

However, slowly things began to take a decidedly different turn.

Adagio and Eclipse's beams clashed once more...but this time Adagio's overwhelmed the Most Vengeful Friend's and sent her plowing through several meteors.

“What?!” Eclipse asked before Adagio flew at her and nearly sliced her in half with a sonic cutter.

Adagio's avatar and Whisper's dragon puppet continued fighting...until the shade grabbed her dragon by the head and crushed its skull before headbutting her and sending her sailing back.

Nightmare Manacle delivered a miniature Sonic Darkboom punch to Sonata...who once more turned into orange energy. It was then the Nightmare heard a chorus of chuckles around her and looked around to find herself surrounded by several hundred illusionary copies of Sonata. The Siren began to blast her, swimming and teleporting around among the copies, never letting her find the real her.

“You're too slow!” Sonata's voice mocked before one more blast to the back.

Nightmare Mirror landed on a meteor and turned it into a crystal spiked sphere before bucking it at Aria's avatar. The massive projection merely plowed straight through the oncoming crystal like it wasn't even there and pinned both of her wings to another meteor behind her. Inhaling, it let loose a massive sonic note (the new Alicorn aspect creating air for it to resonate through)...set to the resonance frequency of her wings. Mirror screamed out in agony as she was blown through the space rock, her wings shattering to shards and her barely able to keep one attached with a little filly looking back worriedly inside.

Banneret smashed an asteroid over Aria's avatar's head and prepared to unleash a torrent of divinely powered flames...before the shade launched its head up and let loose its sonic cutter. The Nightdrake grasped his throat, fire leaking out between his claws as blood droplets leaked into space, unable to even roar in pain.

“We can't lose! We're the good good good guys! You should join us, Starsong!” Nightmare Granfalloon cackled madly, forming a giant cupcake around her opponent. Aria merely exploded out of it and slammed into her with enough force to crack a few ribs.

“Don't you get it yet?” asked Aria with a chuckle before punching her in the throat several times until the Endless Laughter was left coughing up blood.

“Yeah! It's like in Pokemon!” Sonata called, slamming into Manacle from behind and doing a good job of nearly wrenching her wing off.

“Don't you mean Ponymon?!” Manacle asked, trying to dislodge her.

“No...what's Ponymon?” the blue Siren asked before dislocating the wing with a sickening sound. “Now let's make both sides match!” she chimed before latching onto the other one.

“In other words...” Aria said, throwing Granfalloon upwards before speeding behind her, “rock beats scissors...” The purple siren let loose an earsplitting sonic note and sent the Endless Laughter sailing backwards at the same time her avatar did the same to Banneret and Sonata and her avatar did the same to their respective opponents, leaving them all with blood pouring from their ears. “Siren beats Nightmare!”

Adagio and her avatar chuckled, following up by spinning Eclipse and Whisper around and sending them crashing in their friends. More green energy flowing into them, the trio and their avatars. They suddenly doubled in size, their Avatars now dwarfing Banneret and the trio dwarfing the other five. For a moment, Eclipse let herself think their size would be a weakness, maybe they'd be slow...right before the trio came sailing forwards with not an ounce of speed lost and cloaked in a crimson aura that soon turned into a baleful rainbow. Despite barriers put in their way, the Sirens plowed through all of them and right into the Nightmare Gallery with enough force several felt their spines fracture.

---

Back down on Equus, the brainwashed crowd all looked up, seeing six shooting stars plummeting from space and crashing in the ground not far away with an earthshaking impact.

Nightmare Eclipse groaned, forcing herself to her hooves in the resulting crater, battered and bleeding with her armor cracked, dented and broken. Her friends were in little better shape, Banneret having to take time and regenerate his throat before vomiting up some blood caught in it. “This can't be happening...”

Nightmare Mirror carefully checked on a specific shard of her shattered wing as the group regenerated as best they could. “It can and it is. Haven't figured it out yet, but the purple one wasn't lying: Nightmares can't beat them.”

“Then we'll have to stop fighting like Nightmares,” the lead Nightmare replied, looking up as the trio of Sirens descended from space, their front legs crossed smugly. She narrowed her eyes. “Formation.”

Adagio raised an eyebrow as the Six floated up, summoning their giant Elements. Her sisters began to summon their avatars...but the lead Siren smirked and held up her hoof. “Wait a second. That's the same song but one note is different...”

"Loyal even into the gates of Tartarus!"

"A never-ending laugh on meanie-pants everywhere!"

"Kinder to end the pain than continued suffering."

"Face the truth you never had a chance."

"I give my soul itself to you all."

The six boulder-sized elements shone brighter than the sun and came together. Like a wave motion gun firing, the ocean of rainbow light was unleashed and crashed upwards on the sirens like a tidal wave...

Except it didn't sweep through them. Instead it stopped in its tracks like it'd hit a dam.

Eclipse's eyes widened as their rainbow flickered and began destabilizing. The color slowly drained out of it until it was black and white before it crumbled like shattering glass. “W-What?”

“Don't worry, they'll probably just overload and explode,” Nightmare Manacle said hopefully...before a massive growing shadow fell over them.

Towering over them, the Sirens hovered laughing, now each the size their avatars had previously been, twice that of Banneret.

“No fair! That's cheating!” Granfalloon said, only not showing terror due to her inability to show any emotion but joy.

“HOW?!” Eclipse snarled in disbelief.

“Well with these, it wouldn't have worked anyway,” Adagio said with a chuckle as she tapped her jewel, “but you see, I noticed your Elements had a different...rhythm than Celestia and Luna's. Six of the same instruments, just played a lot louder and clumsier. But it was the seventh that caught my attention.” The alpha Siren leaned down, eye bigger than Eclipse at this point. “I don't know what it was, but whatever they had, you don't have it. So you had to fill the void with something else. Something darker and more extreme. Unfortunately for you, you filled it with something as negative as you six are. I always wondered if we twisted Celestia and Luna enough to taint the Elements into their negative side we could feed on them, but you six already did! And it was delicious!”

Adagio pulled back a hoof and swung it, slamming into the six and sending them sailing miles away and crashing harshly into the ground.

“We can't win this,” Nightmare Mirror muttered as they forced themselves up. “It all makes sense now! Adagio said it herself: those three eat the dark crud we've twisted ourselves into! We're a livin' buffet to them! The longer we fight them, the stronger they get!”

“Maybe we should head back home and convince Twilight to use the time spell?!” Whisper exclaimed.

“...That might be the only chance we got,” the Cruelest of Truths said, looking to Eclipse.

Eclipse stared at the oncoming Sirens with loathing and hatred approaching what she had for Discord in intensity.

“Twilight!” Whisper exclaimed, shuddering as they kept coming like Great Whites preparing to chomp down on a bleeding seal.

“Fine! Back to the Stable!”

When the Sirens arrived, they found only six corpses on the ground that obviously weren't the Nightmares they'd been fighting before.

Where Nightmare Eclipse had been now laid the obviously mangled body of a filly with a Poison Apple Cutie Mark. Apple Pie hadn't been happy with that. Eclipse hadn't even known or cared, it'd just been a nicely preserved corpse Fluttercruel had in her freezer to butcher later.

Nightdrake Banneret had left behind a blue hippogriff named Skystrike, a general who'd died recently trying to make a difference for his family. He gave his all for everyone he loved.

Nightmare Granfalloon had left behind a yellow Virgacorn named Charlotte, a baker Angry Pie had beaten to death that morning before being rescued. The Endless Laughter had viewed it as giving back what her 'meanie-pants' other self had taken.

Nightmare Mirror had left the body of an blue Earth Pony named Half-Note, descendant of Noteworthy. She'd died when her husband's body rose from the grave and killed her.

Nightmare Manacle had departed Half-Note's husband's body Sonnet, a red Earth Pony. This way what Discord had separated and perverted could on some level be loyal to his wife in death.

Nightmare Whisper's body had belonged to Caring Heart, the descendant of Red Heart, and a motherly nurse who had sacrificed herself for her son by holding off one of the many chaos abominations Discord had made. She'd made sure to put her family somewhere safe and under her blissful spell before leaving.

---

Back in their lair beyond time, Nightmare Eclipse gasped, the group still feeling the phantom pain from their injuries. Quite understandably, she looked absolutely livid. In all the loops, the only enemy she'd never been able to defeat had been Tirek, and their fights had all ended in ties. For the first time since this began, she'd truly lost. “I can't believe we had to run from them!”

“It was either that or we'd keep feedin' 'em,” Mirror stated truthfully.

The lead Nightmare took a moment to steady herself then headed over to the transparent glass sphere she used to observe. “I'll just contact Twilight and then...”

She growled as the Sirens came into view, looking down at the corpses they'd used to manifest...before Sonata slowly rose her head, sniffing like a shark for blood. The blue Siren turned and looked right at Eclipse, followed by Adagio and finally Aria. Not in the direction Eclipse was observing from, exactly at her. All three smirked.

“Found you.”

Eclipse's eyes widened.

Inhaling, the three Sirens let loose the mightiest sonic note possible, the sphere seeming to crack from the inside. Eclipse backed away before they continued the long note, cracks spreading until the sphere exploded into shards of glass.

“They found us?!” Manacle asked, putting herself between Eclipse and them as she pulled shards of glass out of herself. “How?! Even the Concepts can't find us!”

A hole in space and time itself floated where the sphere had once been before two massive yellow hooves grabbed its sides and pulled it open.

“Did you really think with as much of your energy as we've been eating we wouldn't be able to smell it the moment you opened the connection?” Adagio mocked as she emerged from the portal, her sisters following suit. “We're not finished with you yet.”

She looked down, seeing a small draconequus hybrid charging her with a Concept Killing Blade. One song later and the little one was under her spell.

“Flutternice!” screamed Whisper, but stopped as her own daughter held her deadly weapon at her, eyes glowing green.

Aria scoffed, looking around at the stone walls and branching tunnels surrounding them. “This is your lair? Eh, roomy, but the decor leaves a lot to be desired.”

“You know, I bet they'd be really mad if something were to happen to this place,” Sonata replied innocently...before her smirk showed her thoughts were anything but.

= Who Will Know? - Shin Godzilla =

The trio opened their mouths and let loose three beams of sonic energy, forcing the Nightmares to hit the deck as they tore through the chamber, leaving lines of crimson energy before walls exploded in shrapnel and the entire place began to ignite with crimson flames.

Looking through the shattered walls and doors, Adagio let loose a beam through Whisper's yarn Everkind Forest, burning and blasting it to bits.

Aria spun around, sending her beam ripping apart Mirror's recreation of Sweet Apple Acres and reducing all the hard work she'd spent millennia growing by hoof to blazing ruin while Sonata laid waste to Granfalloon's domain, sapient plushies of her lost friends from the Third Age running around in panic and terror as they were destroyed. Banneret's soon followed, the Nightmare shedding tears as he watched his mountains of gifts for when Rarity finally joined them someday went up in smoke.

“No no no!” Granfalloon screamed, only not crying due to her inability to as she cradled the burning plushie of Minty. She looked up as the Gallery's personal game console was melted to slag. No, the millions of years worth of memories they'd made playing them together that were saved on it, lost forever. “This...this isn't funny! Stop it, Starsong! Please!”

“Who the buck is Starsong?” Sonata asked, burning a doll of the pony in question without even realizing it.

Aria turned and saw Manacle's replica Ponyville. “Look, more adoring fans.” One shockwave of music and the entire town was cheering for the Sirens.

“LEAVE THEM ALONE!” Manacle screamed, trying to charge all three by herself until Mirror held her back.

“That's exactly what they want!” Mirror yelled, catching on instantly. “They're trying to get us mad enough to feed 'em more!”

“Well it's working! Now let me go!” the Nightmare of Loyalty roared, green energy pouring off of her into the Sirens.

Adagio swung her head up, her beam slicing through Eclipse's personal tower and bringing it down in blazing rubble.

Eclipse stood, watching her and her friends' home for the last several hundred million years collapsing and burning around them.

*Is this what Twilight felt like every time we did it to her?*

The lead Nightmare ignored the voice in the back of her head and noticed the void between worlds outside the window. “...Back to the universe! Now!”

“What?! But Ponyville!” Nightmare Manacle screamed, tears in her eyes.

“We'll get you new NPCs next loop!”

"I won't go!"

"YES, YOU WILL!"

Manacle felt a pounding in her brain, and reluctantly nodded.

“Flutternice!” Whisper screamed, having to be held back as well by Nightdrake Banneret.

“I'm sorry, Fluttershy, but we can't stay for her,” Eclipse said sadly. “Come on! Now!” Eclipse roared, grabbing her friends and jumping back through the portal.

Comments

[Alex Warlorn]

10090253
I can imagine Adagio mocking, "You ain't seen nothin' yet!"