Canterlot Academy Trials

Nearby, at the other end of the ballroom…

Bonetail had wriggled out of Grimrose’s grasp, and turned into an eerily similar--nay, outright identical winged krampus creature to Grimrose. Apparently, he was able to even mimic the appears of those whose souls he had not yet absorbed. Even down to her voice…

“All this time, I’ve been waiting for you to show yourself,” Bonetail commented from his newfound feminine krampus form, “I’ve been wanting to show you what I can do and possibly take your hand in marriage as well. I know the Orcus Family fortune is drying up…”

“I don’t need you!” Grimrose shouted back as she leapt forward with help from her wings. In this form, she completely tossed away all of her previous sense of tactics or strategy and instead went in for the kill as quickly as possible.

From her hand, she launched a sigil that blasted forwards and released an even larger fist made of dark purple energy. Bonetail would block this with a mere grasp of his hand and retaliate by pulling her towards him with force magic and grabbing her by the neck.

But before he could take advantage of such a thing, Grimrose activated the magic puppetry threads from her fingers and launched them at Bonetail’s hooves. With a swift pull, she lifted the krampus doppleganger off its feet and tripped him, causing him to fall and let go of her.

This allowed Grimrose to grab ahold of him via the threads and with a turn so powerful, she launched him into the air and leapt after him to drop a viscous elbow upon the fake krampus as they both landed, and crashed through a nearby buffet table.

Nebula meanwhile, had to wade through a series of psychotic kobold ghouls in order to get there.

“Rose!” he called out as he headbutted one kobold, and generated a violet barrier around himself, “Gimme a sec! I’m gonna back you up!”

The stallion levitated his flute to his lips. Now that he had a flute instead of a recorder, he was able to play a more complex series of notes than before. Though, he was by no means an expert at it, he was still able to summon a greater number of magical musial notations that flew into the air within his barrier.

And upon the final note…

EEEE!

The barrier broke and sent explosive musical notes all around himself. Treble clefs and bass clefs spun around like a swirling vortex that he could control at will with the power of song. With higher notes, they flew into the air and released ear-piercing screeches that overloaded the koblod’s mental states.

Then, with a few lower notes, they exploded around the kobolds and sent them flying away from his position which gave him an opening to rush over and assist Grimrose. Unfortunately both Grimrose and Bonetail were locked in a fierce battle and it was difficult to tell who was who…

“Rose! Talk to me!”

Bonetail would take advantage of this.

One of the krampus’ looked up at him, “...I’m glad you’re okay, but don’t get involved!”

“No, don’t listen to her,” the other hissed, “I’m the real one!”

Both of them were functionally and physically identical down to their voices. Nebula raised his flute to his lips and prepared to fire off a musical spell of some kind, but he needed to be absolutely sure he knew who was who.

“...think…how would the real one respond to me…”

That’s when it hit him.

“Freeze! Both of you!” he called out as he stood in front of them, and caught their attention just as they were about to punch each other. “I just have one small favor to ask you,” he paused, and grinned at them both, “Say my name.”

“Your name is Nebula! Why wouldn’t I know that?!” the demonic goat on the left called out.

“It’s me, Atomic. You know that!” the one on the right yelled.

Nebula smirked.

And immediately zapped the ‘krampus’ on the left which successfully deactivated Bonetail’s cloaking ability, catching the lich dragon temporarily off-guard.

“Wh--HOW--?!”

CRACK!

Grimrose punched his face in so hard that his skull cracked in numerous places. Then, without hesitation, she clutched onto his ribs and flew into the air before spinning, and piledriving him into the floor--a move commonly known as an Izuna Drop--which successfully snapped his neck bones and separated his head from his body.

“Gargh! How…how did--?!”

Grimrose stomped her hoof on his severed skull, threatening to destroy him beneath the weight of her body. “Odu Eransa. His weakness. Now.”

Unable to fight back or access the rest of his body, Bonetail was at a loss. While he was powerful, he had never been in a situation where someone was able to see through the ruse of his disguise which had put him in his current position. “F-fine…his weakness is…raw plutonium.”

CRUNCH!

With that, Grimrose stomped on Bonetail’s skull, shattering it. But it would have the adverse effect of causing the decapitated lich dragon’s body to shine brightly and flicker--indicating that it was about to--!

“...!” Abraxas took notice before anyone else, and rushed over, reaching his right arm into the exposed ribcage of the bony body. “EVERYONE GET BACK!”

As soon as he gave the warning, everyone had stopped fighting the kobolds and retreated outside just as--!

BLAM!