Author's Note

Sorry for the lack of activity. I have been dealing with a lot, so I decided to take a break, try to balance some stuff out and I’m still working on it but I have decided to continue working on this story in the process.

I love working on this and it’s one of the only things that kinda helps clear my mind, same with the entirety of mlp. So, whether this is my last story or not, I will always be a part of this fandom and I will always appreciate the support I’ve gotten for these stories.

End of the beginning Pt. 2

As the others continued evacuating, they were also protecting the city and its inhabitants from ongoing attacks from Opaline's army which was easier said than done. They may have been drained of a lot of their fire, but what they had left was more than enough, especially due to the number of how many of them there were. They were also trying not to hurt the dragons but at this rate, they might not have much of a choice. Most of them realize this, and Sunny's friends were among those who did.

“We need to do something about these dragons! Maybe we can try lowering their numbers instead of just staying on the defensive!” Hitch yells so that everyone could hear him over all the chaos. Everyone thinks about it before Starlight speaks up.

“Ok, then some of us need to get up there and start trying to take a few of them out! A few will stay down here and try to split their attention between the ones in the air and the ones down here! Everyone else, focus on evacuation!” She says, and everyone nods then splits up to do their parts. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Zipp, Pipp, Firestar, the Dazzlings, the Princesses, and a few of the Alicorns all fly up there and start taking down a few of the dragons. Starlight, Trixie, Sunset, Izzy, Magma, and Twilight's friends, were all firing at them from the ground. Anyone else was helping with the evacuation and protecting the innocents. Thankfully, no one has been killed or seriously injured, now they just had to hope it stayed that way.

“Artemis, how’s it going with the front of the crowd?” Hitch asks through the comm in his ear. It isn’t long before the Alicorn's voice comes through.

“So far, so good. They don’t seem too concerned about the innocents escaping, but that could change at any time, so we’ve got Soldiers and Sentry droids standing guard as the crowd moves. We just need you and the others to watch the back of the crowd. Make sure no one’s left behind.” She says, causing Hitch to agree before letting Izzy and the others know and just as he’s about to let Artemis know that everyone else is aware of the objective, he hears her speak and she sounds confused and a bit troubled. “What the hell…? We’ve got Sentry droids going offline and some of our soldiers aren’t responding. Thunderbird, go check on them. We need to-“ She starts to say before a massive explosion of purple and blue fire draws everyone's attention.

They see Twilight and Sunny still fighting Opaline and they realize that… she wasn’t the one who did that. They go on high alert, looking around for any sign of their assailant. While they’re looking though, Titania and Nightshade show up and start making things harder for the evacuees. Hitch and Izzy decide to keep them both away from the crowd, Hitch going to take on Titania while Izzy faces Nightshade. Meanwhile, Sunny and Twilight were both giving Opaline everything they had. She wouldn’t go down easily though, that much was clear… but that doesn’t mean they’ll stop trying.

Opaline sends a powerful wave of fire towards them and they split up, going over and under it before charging at her at the same time. Opaline dodges an attack from Sunny but knocks the one from Twilight aside, making it hit Sunny instead before she sends Twilight flying down towards Maretime Bay. The impact causes a massive shockwave and shakes the ground, cracking it as well. Suddenly, Sunny tackles her and slams her on top of one of the airships and they both take quite a tumble before stopping. Sunny takes out her sword and Opaline does the same before they both clash in battle with Opaline quickly getting the upper hand with her superior combat skills.

Opaline causes Sunny to go on the defensive as she swings her sword at Sunny, causing her to block with her own sword. Opaline then separates one blade from the other and tries stabbing Sunny with that one but Sunny blocks it with her new shield. Sunny uses both her sword and her shield to push Opaline back before swinging at her but she dodges back before sending Sunny back with a wave of fire magic. Sunny grunts as she tumbles backwards before righting herself just in time to dodge a flurry of quick slashes from Opaline. Opaline was strong, but Sunny was faster than her.

Opaline slashes at Sunny some more but Sunny manages to dodge before blocking with her shield and knocking one of her swords out of her hand. Opaline growls angrily before kicking Sunny back and starting to get more aggressive with her attacks. Apparently, this is a distraction to call her sword back into her hand with her magic. Opaline gives a good strong kick that sends Sunny sliding back to the edge of the ship. Opaline then reconnects her swords and throws them towards Sunny. Sunny knocks them upwards with her own sword and Opaline instantly flys up while spinning, grabbing them, separating them, and bringing them both down on Sunny.

Sunny rolls out of the way, causing Opaline to hit the ship, which makes it tilt downwards. Opaline pulls her swords out of the floor and turns just as Sunny delivers a kick to her face and tries to follow up with a stab of her sword. Opaline recovers just in time to block it though and push Sunny's sword down to the ground and headbutt her.

“You are the most pathetic excuse of an alicorn I’ve ever seen! All that power… and yet-“ Opaline starts before kicking Sunny in the side, knocking her to the side of the ship. “You won't even use it all! You’re just as bad as Twilight Sparkle or worse! You’re both weak, you all are! But I will be the one to heal the world… by ridding it of pathetic creatures like you until I’m the only alicorn! The only Queen!” She shouts before jumping at Sunny and trying to stab her with both her swords.

Sunny quickly catches them both, stopping them just as they’re inches away from her face. Another explosion draws their attention after a few minutes and they both look to see a huge fire… and Misty standing in front of it with both of her eyes glowing purple. Sunny goes wide-eyed as she realizes she must’ve made a mistake in the spell. “Misty…? No…” She says regretfully but Opaline uses this distraction to raise both her swords and try stabbing Sunny again, but before she can, she’s blasted away with a powerful beam of magic.

Twilight lands by Sunny and helps her up. “Are you alright?!” She asks, getting a nod from Sunny. “Good. Look, I’ll handle Opaline. You go down there and help your friends, they look like they’re about to need the help.” Twilight says and Sunny nods again and turns to go down and help… until she remembers what happened last time she left Twilight to fight by herself… and that was when she was at full strength. Narrowing her eyes, she uses her Alicorn empathy to warn the others before turning back to Twilight.

“No. The others can handle Misty and Opaline's Army. We'll take care of Opaline together. You and me.” Sunny says, giving Twilight a look of pure determination and Twilight can see how much she believes and trusts in everyone… so she decides to do the same, giving Sunny a nod before they face Opaline again.

The others could handle Misty… hopefully before she hurts anyone else or herself.

When everyone else got Sunny's message in their heads, they were confused and shocked to learn that Misty was still on a rampage, despite Sunny’s best efforts. They would handle her though and Izzy was the first one on it. She quickly makes a path of ice to propel herself forward and slide around while looking for Misty's exact location. Currently, she was fighting with Askari, Skylight, Nebula, Firestar, and Magma. She swings her whip around at them and they all dodge it before Skylight goes in for a strike, landing one right in her stomach which sends her reeling back. Askari fires her powers at her but Misty dodges out of the way of the blast and the explosion before swinging the whip at them again, causing her own explosion which stuns Askari while Skylight gets out of the way in time because of her speed.

She then tackles Misty and kicks her into a building and tries punching her but Misty dodges and slashes both her legs before the whip wraps around them and she swings her through another building. From there, Firestar, Nebula, and Magma try attacking her at the same time but she dodges all their attacks and takes them down one by one until she’s blasted away from them by a beam of ice magic.

“Leave them alone Misty! You wanna fight someone, fight me!” Izzy shouts as Misty breaks free before jumping up and swinging her whip at Misty, sending a few blades towards her, only for them to be deflected by Izzy’s sword. Izzy quickly turns tail and starts sliding around town as Misty chases her, leading her away from the others. “That’s right… just follow me! Follow little old Izzy!” She shouts while still using her powers to slide around and using her magic to swing around and teleport out of the way of waves of fires. On one specific time that she turns a corner, Misty charges at her from an alleyway and Izzy reacts just fast enough for their swords to clash, blocking Misty's deadly attack.

The clash between their weapons, Izzy's Ice Magic, and Misty's borrowed Fire Magic causes a magical backlash that sends them flying away from each other while also damaging nearby buildings. They tumble for a bit until they both stop and struggle to get up, facing each other and preparing to fight. Just as they’re about to charge at each other, a massive nearby explosion causes the ground beneath them to collapse and they both fall in, landing in what was left of the factory beneath Canterlogic. They tumble again and slowly get up but Misty is the first to speak.

“No friends to help either of us now. It’s just you and me. All alone.” Misty says, circling Izzy as she does the same. Izzy smiles sadly and shakes her head.

“We’re not alone Misty. I know you’re still in there… and I’m gonna fight like hell to get you back, even if it kills me… you’re my friend and I’m yours.” Izzy says and for a bit, Misty doesn’t respond until she grunts in pain and holds her head, reeling back until she hugs her sides and looks at Izzy with tears in her eyes as they flicker between purple and green.

“Y-You… promise…?” Misty asks in a distorted, weakened, shaky voice. Izzy gives a determined nod and steps forward a bit.

“Hoof… to heart.” She says, gaining a sad but hopeful smile from Misty before she screams in pain and her eyes turn fully purple and she gets in her stance, causing Izzy to do the same. Soon, they once again clash in a battle that would not only decide Misty’s fate, but would also help decide the outcome of today's fight.

Sunny was horrified when she saw Misty fall into the hole with Misty, but then she checked to see if she was ok with Alicorn Empathy, happy to discover that she was only a little banged up, but alive. This distraction; however, allows Opaline to send her flying with a very powerful attack. She bumps into a few dragons and ships but manages to catch herself and dodge incoming fire from dragons and ships until she’s grabbed with dark magic and thrown into a speeding kick from Storm Cutter that sends lightning through her body and sends her flying.

Meanwhile Twilight was still fighting Opaline with more skill and precision than Opaline saw from the last time they fought. “You’ve learned a few things over the years I see!” Opaline points out while getting more aggressive with her attacks which almost catches Twilight off guard until she counters one and sends Opaline sliding back.

“And yet you’re still using your old tricks. Only thing that's changed is the amount of power you’re using.” She says and that seems to get to Opaline a bit because as soon as she says that, Opaline's eyes narrow and fire blasts from her wings and eyes before she launches herself towards Twilight at an incredibly fast speed. Twilight manages to block the first swipe of Opaline's swords, then the second, and the third but not the fourth and it just barely avoids going through her stomach, leaving a deep gash on her side instead.

Twilight almost falls over from the pain but she knows she can’t falter. She leans backwards so the next swipe goes over her and she grabs Opaline, pulling her with her and sending her into the air with a magical kick to the chest. Twilight then throws both her swords towards Opaline and sends a magical blast towards her afterwards. Opaline blocks the swords but that leaves her defense weakened enough for Twilight's blast to knock her sword out of one of her hands and before she can guess what happens next, Twilight appears right in front of her with a magically formed blade on her right fist raised and ready to strike. Twilight brings it down with a mighty yell just as Opaline positions her sword to protect herself.

The shockwave from the attack is enough to knock dragons and ships off balance and part the clouds even more and the shockwave when Opaline crashes spreads throughout Maretime Bay and forms a massive dust cloud. However, it also causes a lot of damage to the old Canterlogic factory, causing some of the floor to collapse around Izzy and Misty. Some explosive containers had also fallen which caused more damage and set fire below them. However, they continued fighting despite the danger they were both in. Misty had a better advantage now though since she didn’t have any problem pushing Izzy into the fire below and killing her, but Izzy was fighting to save her. It was already hard enough to keep up with Misty since she was faster and more agile than her and definitely more skilled, but now it was more difficult while also trying not to fall off the makeshift catwalk.

On one particularly mean, powerful, quick swing, Izzy slides under it while blocking it with her own sword with ice magic going through it and it ends up freezing Misty’s whip then magic kicking her backwards while still sliding. Misty tumbles backwards when she lands and she starts trying to defrost the whip. Izzy charges towards her, ready to end the fight. She knows she could just end this quicker by going into her new “super form” but she didn’t wanna hurt Misty and she didn’t completely trust it yet. Whenever she uses it, it feels a bit hard to control, so she’d rather not use it unless she absolutely has to. She jumps at Misty and prepares to deliver the final blow.

The whip unfreezes just in time and Misty swings it at Izzy, causing her to swing at it with her own sword while ice magic courses through it. The clash causes a massive magical explosion that knocks them both away from each other and injures them. Misty groans in pain and looks towards her weapon, seeing that it's damaged then she looks towards Izzy and sees she’s unconscious. She tries grabbing her weapons… until the spell fades and she passes out too, both of them taken out of the fight that’s raging on above ground.

Currently, Twilight and Sunny were teaming up against Opaline while Zipp and Pipp were handling Storm Cutter and Ragnar, Hitch and Sparky were handling Titania, and Askari, Nebula, Skylight, Firestar, and Magma were handling Stormcutter. Everyone else was handling the airships and the dragons and the evacuation was almost over. If there was ever a time to start giving it their all, it was now, so that’s exactly what they would do. Opaline tries her best to defend against Sunny and Twilight, but when they send her flying back for like the third time, she screams angrily and a tornado of fire forms around her as symbols appear on her body while fire comes out of her eyes and off her wings.

“I will not let you defeat me!!! I’m ending this right here! Right now!” She yells before flying into the air with fire trailing behind her. She flys thousands of feet into the air before diving right back down towards Maretime Bay with enough speed and power to flatten it entirely. Twilight and Sunny just look at each other and nod before Twilight goes into her super form and Sunny enters her rage mode. They both fly up and meet Opaline halfway, their magic clashing with a very powerful shockwave. “I can’t fail when I’m so close to reclaiming what’s rightfully mine!!!” Opaline screams as she pushes against Sunny and Twilight even harder.

“Equestria isn’t yours to rule!” Twilight says as she increases the effort and power she’s putting in and so does Sunny as she speaks up.

“And it deserves way better than tyrants like you!” Sunny yells as they both push forward to protect Maretime Bay from complete destruction. As they feel the teamwork and feelings of hope and determination around them, they hear everyone rooting for them, telling them to beat Opaline and with that, comes power from the Unity Crystals which allows them to start overpowering Opaline.

“No… NO!!!” Opaline screams as she tries increasing the power and pushing harder against the two princesses… but to no avail… they were overpowering her. She then tried summoning more fire through the dragon stone and that gives her a huge boost but still, Sunny and Twilight were gaining strength and power faster than she was and soon, the clash ends with a literal bang that shakes all of Maretime Bay and downs both sides of good and evil, bringing the battle and evacuation to a pause. For minutes, there’s complete silence… until Sunny and Twilight emerge victorious, carrying a disheveled Opaline who was greatly injured by the backlash from the amount of magic she used to try and counter the Harmony magic they were using.

Everyone cheers when they see them, glad the battle seemed to be over as Twilight and Sunny also had the dragon stone and the dragon lord staff. Because of that, the dragons have stopped fighting and landed. Sunny holding the dragon stone towards them gives them some of their fire back that Opaline hasn’t used. Twilight uses her magic to try and undo whatever spell Opaline put on it to control the dragons like this. Opaline growls in annoyance as she’s dropped on the ground, weakened from what just transpired.

“Let this be a lesson Opaline. No matter how strong you are. No matter how much you try to divide us. No matter how much chaos you bring, harmony will always prevail.” Twilight says while looking around at everyone celebrating. She smiles a bit until she hears Opaline chuckling and looks to see her sneering up at her.

“Counting me out already Princess? Thinking you’ve won… thinking I don’t have an ace up my sleeve?” She says while still chuckling. “I expected better…” She continues and suddenly she surprise attacks Twilight, kicking her feet out from under her and punching her in the face hard enough to dislocate her nose. Sunny tries attacking her but she elbows her, sending her flying back. Opaline then grabs the staff and uses what’s left of the spell to control at least one dragon that fights through the others to get to her and start flying her away from Maretime Bay and towards her castle.

Sunny quickly goes after her, determined not to let her get away after everything she’s done. They make it about halfway before Sunny catches up and gets close enough to swipe her sword at Opaline, who tries blocking it but it ends up knocking the Dragon Lord Staff out of her hands. This causes the dragon to be free from the spell but before it realizes that, it crashes with both of them on it's back and they all tumble towards the castle until they stop but the dragon ended up rolling onto Sunny’s back, giving Opaline time to get to the castle herself. Sunny, not worrying about the dragon, pushes it off with some of her Alicorn strength and continues chasing Opaline.

“You’re not getting away!” Sunny says as she bursts through the doors, knocking them so far off their hinges as they go flying down the hall. She sees Opaline giving it her all, sprinting towards where her throne room was as best she could with her injuries.

“You might be right, if that was my plan!” Opaline shouts as she makes a hard left and uses her magic to close and lock the door behind her, using a spell to make it durable enough to tank the full power of a dozen alicorns. She also puts a spell over the room so Sunny couldn’t teleport in and interrupt her, then she goes over to her throne, pushes it over, and opens the hatch under it, taking out the container holding Midnight's magic. She was skeptical about using it but right now, desperate times call for desperate measures. She hears Sunny banging against the door but just as she’s about to open the container, she hears a scream as the temperature raises drastically, similar to what her own powers could do, and hears Sunny absolutely destroy the door and the wall around it in one attack, the shockwave knocking Opaline over and making her drop the container.

That should be impossible… she knows she did the spell right. It should’ve taken Sunny way longer to get in, which means… she’s way more powerful than Opaline thought. Sunny slowly walks in with orange, gold, and red magic coming off of her, letting out long, enraged breaths. As Opaline looks at her now, new feelings of respect and slight fear creep into her until she snaps out of it and tries going for the magic, and meanwhile, Sunny hears a voice in her head right before she attacks her.

“Kill. Opaline.”

And Sunny lunges at her, tackling her into the wall beside her and pinning her there before releasing a flurry of quick but powerful punches on her. At this point, Sunny was just venting all the built up frustration and anger, taking it all out on Opaline.

“You took a little fully and turned her into a killer!” Sunny says angrily before delivering a particularly hard punch to Opaline's face, knocking her to the side. Opaline tries crawling away but Sunny kicks her over and gets on top of her before continuing to beat her within an inch of her life. “You recruited some of the most dangerous criminals in history, stole dangerous, world-ending magic, brought back a monster! Got innocent ponies killed! Kidnapped Sparky! Brainwashed the dragons! Attacked my town! Hurt my friends!!!” Sunny screams angrily, listing all the horrible things Opaline has done or made her cronies do while unleashing hell down upon her. Meanwhile, the voice just kept chanting in Sunny's head, increasing her aggression.

“Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.”

Sunny suddenly grabs Opaline by her throat with both hands and starts furiously picking her up and slamming her back into the ground repeatedly before she pins her down and just worries about choking her to death. Try as she might, Opaline in her weakened state, was no match for Sunny in her enraged state. No… this wasn’t just enraged… this was bloodlusted. Sunny suddenly screams angrily and tightens her grip, making Opaline struggle more and more. She wasn’t getting out of this one, Sunny would make sure of that.

“Sunny stop!” She hears someone yell and she looks to see Solaris and Sky Blazer standing in the destroyed doorway.

“What the hell are you two doing here?! You’re not stopping me!” Sunny says as she continues choking Opaline. “This is the best way to protect everyone!”

“You don’t mean that! I know you don’t! I know you Sunny, and I know that you would never willingly kill someone without trying to offer them a chance first! That’s Opaline and Midnight's way of doing things, not yours!” Solaris shouts as she slowly moves closer, hoping to get through to Sunny before she makes a mistake that would haunt her for the rest of her life.

“Don’t compare me to them!!! I’m nothing like them!” Sunny shouts as more magic starts coming off of her, causing Solaris to keep her distance but stay where she already is.

“Then prove it! I know you’re not a bad pony Sunny and that you’re still in there underneath all this anger and hatred! So fight through it! Just focus on me, let both the hate and Opaline go… and just walk away!” Solaris says but when Sunny barely reacts, she presses on. “Damnit Sunny, I can’t lose you! None of us can! If you really were serious about never being the pony Midnight made you into, then let her go… please!” She pleads and Sunny finally looks at her again and sees the worried, heartbreaking look she was giving her. She wasn’t doing this for Opaline's sake… she was doing it to save Sunny from becoming a monster.

Knowing this, Sunny looks between her and Opaline before closing her eyes and thinking of her parents, what they would want for her, and who they raised her to be… and she screams in anger before letting Opaline go, allowing her to breathe in and cough, gasping and desperately trying to get air back into her lungs. Sunny slowly backs up while not taking her eyes off her until she feels a hand grab hers and looks down to see Solaris smiling up at her before giving her a tight hug, one that Sunny returns. Before it can last long though, they hear something and look to see the container… opening on its own.

Sunny quickly gets in front of Solaris and Skyblazer, shielding them with her own body and vowing to protect them with her life. The magic slowly rises out of the container as Opaline just now notices it and slowly gets up. It moves closer to her and stays still for a bit… before two purple glowing eyes form… and snap to look at Sunny. Before any of them can react, the magic pushes past Opaline and sends her flying, going straight to Sunny as she shields Solaris and Sky from it, allowing it to hit herself.

She screams in agony as her entire body glows purple and mist starts coming off it. Solaris and Sky Blazer try getting closer to see if they can help but she looks at them and warns them.

“Stay back!” She shouts through the pain and she falls onto the floor, laying her forehead on it and holding her sides… as if she’s trying to keep her body from tearing itself apart. She screams one more time before the magic leaves her body and goes to the center of the room, right over the mirror pool and starts swirling in a small cloud of mist.

“Thank you Sunny for making this all possible…” A distorted, echoed voice says and Sunny has a feeling she already knows who it is.

“I stopped you once, I’ll stop you again… Midnight.” Sunny declares and the voice says nothing for a bit until it chuckles and responds.

“No… not quite.” It says and that confuses Sunny… until she pieces it together. She’s seen it multiple times, had nightmares about it.

“Wait, if… if you’re not Midnight, then you’re…” She starts to say before the voice responds in a sort of sing-song voice.

“That’s riiiight~. Hello me…” It says before the mist slowly disappears… and what looks back at Sunny… is her greatest fear… “Hello you.”

…Herself.