Part 36 Duel To The Death At The Dawn Of Time note
The chapter begins with Amicitia finally having enough from the countless battles on her adventure and she really wants to leave the “unreasonable enemy” wait for all eternity for her at the Dawn of Time. But to be a complete goddess with complete access to reality, she simply needs to start influencing the world at the Dawn of Time. She will not limit her abilities to help others because of somebody whose name she doesn’t even know. So the Alicorn prepares herself emotionally, mentally and physically for the confrontation and swears that she will continue with her life afterwards. She goes to when the very first version of the Heart World was born and this is the very starting point of all of the multiverse.
There is almost nothing here, no worlds, no life and not even souls. But here Entropy’s sweet silence comes to an end and here her hatred for all existing life begins. Pensilis and Puerilis are both here to protect the newborn universe and Libra, alias the universe that Twilight knows so well, has still yet to be born. But they seem so far away and suddenly the Alicorn sees Mortis himself, Alicorn of Death, standing before her. He proclaims that they are destined to fight and Amicitia gets ready for the confrontation.
But Death is quick to point out that he is NOT her enemy here, much to Twilight’s confusion. Instead he predicts that their battle will take place when G4 is coming to an end and G5 is about to become reality. Besides that he also lacks almost all of his powers as there is no life or death at this point of existence but he wanted to tell her to DUCK RIGHT NOW!
Thanks to him the deadly attack narrowly misses her and Mortis points out that he will not fight his own siblings and this was his way of upholding this neutrality. It turns out to be Cadence in this case.
And she isn’t insane or a Nightmare either, she made this decision all by herself. She is here to protect all of creation from Amicitia alias Magic itself and intentionally chose this background for their battle to not kill any bystanders.
Both Havoc and Rancor are here to watch the very first act of violence and neither of them is behind this battle. Havoc clearly points out that IF he had arranged a battle not only would BOTH be hot-headed with hero-complexes but he would NOT show up to hint at his involvement. It is clear that the Alicorn is doing all on her own free will.
At this point she has already defeated more experienced incarnations of Cadence so there is little doubt that she can kill this opponent. The catch is that she REALLY doesn’t want to repeat her sins again, no matter how good her reason to protect Magic from Cadenza is.
It is also completely pointless to argue with Cadenza. Even offering to simple go with her to Judicium or their Parents to get an official punishment is rebuffed. But the Alicorn of Harmony is fully ready to murder Twilight and then accepts whatever consequences it has for her. She isn’t stupid and likely knows that her Parents will NOT like her killing one of their children.
As the enraged Alicorn continues her brutal physical assault, Twilight realises that she could very well die if she keeps holding back anything. Not only would that mean that Magic itself will vanish, the process might very well make Cadence a Fallen Alicorn as well. Cadence keeps up her erratic attacks with giant swords, Sonic Rainbooms, scythes and laser-reflecting crystals all while she begins to sing her song at the same time. It is similar to how she fought against the Chaos Six but this time the song is much simpler and the beginning does sound a lot like the “This Day Aria” from the Changeling Queen.
But now Twilight does try to hurt her and she has literally an eternity of memories of how to do that. All the combat experience she gained as Nightmare Eclipse is extremely useful in situations like this.
Now as the battle has turned against her, Cadenza does try to finish it quickly by giving it everything she got. It seems the Alicorn decides an attack that sounds a lot like what she used to mortally wound Havoc’s Avatar. She charges herself up with all the power of Harmony and rushes at Twilight. But Cadenza can’t stop her own acceleration now and so a sun is created in her path, shockingly she has enough power to actually fly through it.
But on the other side another trap awaits her and she is impaled by the same black rods that Discord used to kill her countless times. This results in knocking her back into the sun which finally kills Cadenza. She leaves her body behind to learn more about mortal life herself. She even calls her body a chrysalis.
Now Twilight knows that it is finally over and that the dark threat of meeting again actually does have a very different meaning considering what kind of person Cadence will become later on. Rancor and Havoc are quite happy and Havoc even admits that he is in her dept for this wonderful show. Rancor admires, almost worships her and in turn the little incarnation of violence gets Cadence’s ribbon from the victor.
But the story isn’t quite done with Cadenza’s corpse. The twisted shadow that she left behind is taken in by the Old Ones, the cousins of the Draconequui. They bring her into Pandora’s maze of imagination. The shadow still seems to be somewhat alive and even has its own name, so Pandora and her cousins try to heal it out of curiosity and since they are genuinely impressed by its strong will to live. In the end Pandora even gives it its own light so that it may have its own life and own story after all. She has become the Changeling Queen.
Meanwhile Twilight closes another circle by telling Mortis exactly what he needs to do once Cadenza asks for his help to kill his sister. But then she wonders how far she could go on her quest to help others. But one of her friends and family members is here to help her: Libra. After her experience as a Nightmare, Twilight is quite understandably worried that she might go too far but her sister points out that time is more then just past, present and future. She can guide ponies towards better lives and she has the ability and knowledge to help the mortals like she helped so many already.
Now the complex time loops are all closed and she did everything she HAD to do. Now it is her own choice what she WANTS to do next. The Alicorn is standing before the timelines that are dark, twisted and horrifying, often ruled by the Draconequi or the Old Ones. Twilight wants so much to help these mortals trapped in these worlds but she is still afraid of repeating her old self or starting a journey that would turn her into someone that forces her vision on others. She knows better then everybody how horrible even the best intentions can turn out. But again she is not alone. Fauna Luster, her second mother, arrives to aid her.
But the point is that her mother is proud on what her daughter had done and does trust her to keep making good decisions in the future. Her Nightmare self was incomplete and arrogant but the Alicorn does fully understand the weight of her decisions. Her mother trusts her fully to not become a curse again but to be a blessing to everybody. There will be worlds that will keep getting worse and worse unless somebody is willing to aid them. Knowing when to interfere and when to not interfere isn’t always easy but the trust of the kind Elder is overwhelming. And so the Alicorn continues her journey into the light.
