THE FORCE OF HATRED (2019 with MLP Version)

ACT TWENTY

Over the past few days, the team made all preparations they could.

Cadance showed special drawings of what she knew about Canterlot Palace.

“My spies have informed me that while the palace has change significantly, the rooms and corridors haven’t. That’s the good news.”

“Well what about the bad?” asked Cyborg.

Cadance sighed, “The spies have also reported that the Dark Soldiers swarm the palace in massive numbers, and more and more seem to appear by the second.”

“We’ll have to calculate what that means in battle strategy.” said Twilight.

Robin already figured, “There’s too many of them. Perfect! We can turn use their own numbers against them.”

He began to draw up battle strategies.

There was also much preparation and training done.

The Titans all warmed up their fighting skills and did target practice in the outdoor dojos where the pony warriors also trained with their weapons and/or magic to help the heroes.

Terra especially needed the training to stabilize her own power and she felt stronger than ever, but really, her one and only goal was to save Beast Boy.

“I’m going to help you.” she said to herself “We can be together again, like we should have been before, and I turned you down!”

She clenched her fists together, and large boulders combined with small rocks form large stone fists, and she crashed them both together shattering the rocks to pieces.

Many of the pony warriors were astounded.

“Are you sure they aren’t ponies like us?”

Robin also made sure to inform the fighters of what little knowledge they had of Yamimakai’s tricks, which left room for concern.

“We have no way of knowing if he has any other tricks.”

Still, with the little information they had, the heroes felt they could be better prepared to face Yami himself.

Twilight and her group were concentrating hard to focus power into The Elements.

Their bodies all glowed brightly as they felt the harmony and light flowing through them.

“Yee-Haw…! I’m feeling pumped now!” exclaimed Applejack.

Rainbow and Pinkie flexed their muscles, and slapped each other a high-hoof.

“Yay.” peeped Fluttershy.

Starlight was amazed at how powerful her friends seemed. “I wish I had an element of harmony.”

“Trust me,” said Discord “…You’re really not missing out on anything, but I can give us all these…” with a snap of his finger, everyone wore special armor over their torsos, plating on their limbs, and even helmets like the royal guards.

“I figured we could use a little style, as well as protection.”

“Oh, my word!” exclaimed Rarity as she looked at her reflection on her limb platting, “How elegantly stylish.”

Raven looked herself all over and gave a snide remark “…Cool.”

“It is the very cool!” said Starfire.

Discord felt flattered, but warned everyone “There’s no guarantee it’ll protect you from everything, and it can take so many pressure.”

On the eve before the assault, everyone was getting as much rest as they could.

Cadance was still awake as Twilight stood by her, watching over the village below.

“You should get some sleep, Twilight.” said Cadance.

Twilight sighed, “How can I sleep knowing the dangers that lay ahead.”

Her sister-in-law blinked once with concern, and Twilight looked outside at the entire village below. All the civilians were safely in bed, and the night guards were doing their rounds.

Twilight shut her eyes tightly, cringing softly. “I used to think that friendship, careful planning, and having faith and believing in your friends and loved ones would always solve all our problems and make things turn out right in the end.”

She could hardly believe herself from what she was about to say, “Now I’m not so sure. Even all this planning we've done may not be enough.”

“Twilight.” cried Cadance.

Twilight then told her what Robin had explained to her, how being a hero meant sacrifice, tragedies, and experience painful scars that would never heal, even with time or friendship.

“He was right. We’ve already lost so many. Even some of our best plans hadn’t worked out, and what if they don’t work out tomorrow?”

Much as Cadance wanted to say something positive or encouraging, she, in-truth, felt the exact same way.

The only thing she could possibly say at all was “…At least we’ll know for sure whether it works or not, but there is no sense in hiding from it forever.

It’s bad enough our world is suffering from all this, just imagine what will happen to other worlds if that villain escapes. He said he would!”

Twilight realized this, and it helped her find some confidence to be ready.

All her other friends were sleeping like babies, only Robin lay awake as he himself experienced doubts of the master plan.

He felt a little hot and sweaty, and he got out of bed to stand by the window where it was cooler due to the underground.

He thought of Beast Boy, and fully felt how cruel he had acted towards the guy, which played largely into all this chaos being unleashed, but they were going to have to fight him, be it Beast Boy’s body or not.

Like the other Titans, he, too, were really hoping they could free Beast Boy from the evil and the hate, but like all heroes he was bracing himself for the worst.

Starfire softly hovered next to him whispering, “…I, too, hope we are able to free our friend.”

He smiled at her, that she could tell what he was thinking, but then his features changed. “We’ve never faced an enemy like this before. There’s no way to tell how this will end.”

He felt Starfire place her lips over his softly, surprising him.

He closed his eyes and kissed her back.

When they separated, Starfire said, “Whatever happens, we shall all be in it, together.”

Robin said nothing more, but held her close as they both looked out over the village.

Early the next morning…

Though underground, the magical lights illuminated the cave to alert the dwellers of the time of day.

The Titans, the ponies and their allies all stood together ready to march onward, with Twilight and Robin at the head of the teams.

Cadance was going to stay behind and protect The Ark with her life. Her guards were all prepared and ready to help if need be.

Some of them mad numerous requests to join the fight with the heroes, but Cadance insisted, “No! There’s no sense in sending all of you into danger. Your place is here to guard and protect us, to ensure our way of life shall continue.

But remain on standby just the same should the heroes need help.”

The guards all saluted to her and wished the heroes the best of luck.

Cadance led the heroes to the starting point of a series of tunnels and passages that lead all through Equestria. Each one had magical spells that could instantly transport users across the vast distances.

“This passage will take you straight to Canterlot.” Cadance explained “Once you emerge, I am positive that Yamimakai will sense your presence.”

Robin agreed, “And that’s when we attack as quickly as possible, before he can unleash a swarm of his soldiers against us.”

Twilight hugged Cadance warmly, hoping with all her might it wouldn’t be the last time they saw each other.

“For Shining Armor, as well as the rest.” she whispered.

Cadance pecked her softly on the head. “Come back alive.” she said, and she looked up at everyone “…All of you.”

The teams bowed to her.

“Thank you for everything.” said Robin, and then he addressed the teams “Let’s go!”

“For Spike!” shouted Rarity.

“For all Equestria!” hollered Rainbow Dash.

“For all worlds everywhere!” shouted Starfire.

“…And for Beast Boy!” Terra said softly to herself.

“…Here go!” shouted Twilight, and they all jumped through the tunnel and waraped along their way through a song.

By the end of the song they had emerged, from under a large boulder, in a field with the fortress in view, and it looked just as nightmarish and wicked as Cadance had described, and surrounded by Dark Soldiers.

Fluttershy trembled in fear.

“Easy, now.” said Applejack “We’re all in this together.”

Twilight and Robin looked at one another and nodded, and with their might they shouted “CHARGE!!”

The soldiers all heard this and saw the team rushing forth.

Before any of them could react, the heroes fired whatever magical or energy projectiles they could, and Terra unleashed a bombardment of rocks and boulders, hitting the soldiers hard.

Other soldiers watching from the upper battlements and the windows saw this, and blew horns calling for support.

More soldiers came rushing into action with their weapons and power ready, and in almost no time, the heroes were surrounded.

The soldiers all charged up with their weapons flaming, and at the very split second they fired.

“NOW!!” shouted Robin.

Twilight quickly teleported everyone off, and the soldiers struck each other and wiped themselves out.

The teams then reappeared in a clearing by the unguarded and opened gates of the fortress.

“Boo-Yah! Worked like a charm!” cheered Cyborg.

Robin agreed, “There’s many more of them than there are of us, which gives them less space to spread out and attack us without risking attacking themselves.”

Pinkie Pie gasped, “Look!!”

More soldiers were appeared and coming out from the gates.

“Get ready to take them!” said Twilight.

Discord cocked a machine gun he made materialize shouting, “Locked and loaded!”

“Go!!” shouted Robin.

Everyone charged forth, and kept well to Robin’s plan not to immediately attack, but rather dodge and evade attacks from the massive groups of soldiers, thereby causing them to strike more of themselves down.

This allowed them all to trek deeper into the fortress, and all this time, they tried to maintain their growing anger and inner hate.

With their strategy, the soldiers took more and more of themselves out allow the heroes to make it into the main throne room where a whole army of soldiers were gathered and surrounded them, ready to fire.

“This is what we trained for.” said Twilight, and she addressed the other ponies. “Ready…?”

Her friends nodded proudly, and together they activated the powers of their elements conjuring a strong barrier of light.

“Don’t leave us out.” said Starlight as she and Discord added their own magic to strengthen it.

“Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!” Raven concentrated hard and waved her hands in circles, using her aura to further strengthen the shield.

The soldiers opened fire; their massive amounts of power collided with the shield and were repelled back with twice the hate and mixed a little love and positivity.

The blasts struck the soldiers with such force that a huge explosion erupted, blowing a huge chunk out of the throne room, leaving a massive mountain of rubble behind.

The barrier was dispelled and Terra cleared away the rubble surrounding them. Everyone was astounded and somewhat shocked by what they had just done.

The sound of slow clapping was heard, following by a familiar and evil snicker.

From within a dark corner, He stepped out of the shadows. “You have all done far greater damage than I ever could have.”

Everyone’s features hardened at the sight of him.

“We’ve come for you, Yamimakai!” declared Robin “You’ve caused enough trouble for one lifetime!”

“On the contrary,” sneered Yami “I’m just getting warmed up, especially after watching you take out my soldiers.”

Everyone gasped softly.

“He played us for a bunch of saps!” groaned Applejack.

“Now he knows what we’re capable of.” added Starlight.

Still no one was willing to back down.

“We’ve come to put a stop to you, once and for all!” said Twilight.

“That’s right!” agreed Terra “So give yourself up, and give us back Beast Boy!”

Yami only laughed loud and hard, “Still on that same old kick?” he mocked at Terra “My dear, when will you ever learn? Beast Boy is no more, and you’ll never be seeing him again.”

He then conjured up an image of Beast Boy, floating freely as if he were chained to a wall. His head sagging down to his chest and his eyes were shut.

“Beast Boy!” cried Terra “Beast Boy, try to fight him off!”

“You’re wasting your time!” hissed Yami “I’m afraid your little lost lover can’t hear you. He’s grown too weak now-- consumed by the hate, enraptured by the darkness, and doomed to forever remain a prisoner of The Vortex, contained within my sword!”

Tears of misery and anger escaped Terra’s eyes. She angrily rubbed them away.

“You heartless monster!!” thundered Rarity “I say it’s time we got down to business!”

Everyone else nodded in agreement and looked ready to fight!

Yami narrowed his eyes at everyone, and drew his sword. “It’s time for me to finish what I started back in Jump City!

…I’m going to be rid of you vermin forever, and then nothing will stop me from spreading the hate, the destruction, the chaos, all over.

Every world in every dimension will burn with anger; suffer in misery and with nothing but pain, discomfort, and chaos beyond imagination…!

…AND I SHALL RULE ALL!!!”

“Not if we have anything to do with it!” sneered Twilight “In the memory of all our friends and loved ones you destroyed and in honor of all that we stand for…

…LOVE WILL TRIUMPH!!!”

The heroes stood, bathed in a harmonious light, while Yami blazed with hateful fury.

This would be a battle like no other for either side!

Who would triumph was all in fate’s hands now.