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// Sunlight Shimglim is Born! 
// Story: Rip offs, References, and Ponies 
// by All Art Is Quite Useless 
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"So, Princess Twilight, you have bought two other equines to die for you. You really must have an abundance of friends, all willing to die defending you." Tirek was a huge, imposing creature, with a muscular body and an intimidating stance. His voice boomed as he spoke, no longer amplified by way of magic, but still just as punchy. That is, apart from when he spoke the word 'friend'. The utterance was similar in tone to the guttural sound of retching. 

Tirek regarded the trio of would-be opponents, standing in the thick grass, in the wake of Whitetail woods, snarling all the while. "Look at you... With your styled manes and your fuzzy coats, you are weak! Weak and insignificant, relying on magical artifacts and the strength of others to fight your battles, it is pathetic." Tirek spat, eyeing each of the unicorns, and then Twilight, whom has gaze settled upon for the longest.

"You" A beat. A condescending glance. "are not fit to be named Princess of anything. It is by luck... blind luck, and coincidence alone that you found more magic at our last meeting. You would have given up everything for your friends: your strength, your magic, your ability to fight, even your kingdom. Now, where will it get you? Weak willed equines are little more than bargaining chips, and even then they are more trouble than they are worth."

Tirek then stopped speaking, and began to stroke his beard, grumbling to himself all the while. A moment later, he flashed a sinister grin, and pronounced, "In light of this, I will not capture your friends, nor shall I barter for their lives with you. No, instead, I shall kill them where they stand, as a courtesy." Before Twilight could voice her apparent confusion, marred by shock as it was, Tirek continued, his voice the smoothest she had heard it. "And it will be a courtesy, as they will be drained first. I will purloin every iota of strength in their bones, every bit of strain I can find, and I will leave them begging for death." 

Tirek paused, likely revelling in Twilight's apparent distress. "Then, as I am merciful, I will grant their pained, pathetic pleas." His voice lost it's lustre, and became serious and rough once again.  "This is the fate that would await those that stand against me. Princess Twilight, you should surrender now, rather than prolonging the inevita--"

The last syllable of Tirek's sentence, along with the rest of his breath, was stolen in one swift motion. Starlight had conjured a disk from the intangible, which was firmly wrapped around the neck of Tirek, and growing tighter with each passing moment. Her horn glowed with a mild intensity, but her view's focus upon the disk remained strong and uninterrupted.

Sunset began to cackle in spite of their situation, and Tirek's predicament, before throwing a hoof into the air and cheering with enthusiasm. "Thank Celestia!" She exclaimed, "I thought he would never shut up! Okay, so while you're all clammed up over there, allow me to make a few points. First of all, shit, we get it, you don't like 'weak willed equines', but seriously, you're like half pony yourself. What even is the other half of you meant to be, anyway? Not important. Second of all, about relying upon the strength of others, isn't that, like, your whole gimmick? 'Hello filthy equine, I'm Tirek. I'm a centuar, whatever the heck that is. Just gonna steal your power now, hope you don't mind."

Sunset's impression was inaccurate and degrading, just as she had intended. "Third, I don't style my mane. That much. Nevermind." Sunset's blush was transient, but noticeable all the same. "And plus, don't even act like you don't groom that beard! Look at it, all neat and even, there's no way that's natural, so who's a big red hypocrite? And finally, please. You ain't gonna be draining anyone, not while I'm around. I mean seriously, you're being choked out by just one of us right now, why did we all even need to come? For such a big guy you really aren't all that dangerous, are you?"

"Um, Sunset?"

Sunset slowed in her dissection of Tirek's evil monologue, turning to face Starlight, who appeared rather subdued. "Yeah, Starlight?"

"You know that big magic disk I was choking Tirek with?"

"Well, yeah, it's right--"

"He ate it." Starlight deadpanned.

"He--He what? What do you mean ate it? I can still see the--"

"Well, he's absorbed it at least. What you're seeing there is the restraint magic, still active, but it's inside him now, its glow is still emanating too."

Sunset looked at Tirek in shock, who indeed was stood with an irritable look upon his face, but with no magical disk crushing his throat. Rather, there was a pale blue light protruding from his neck, gradually dimming by the second. She then looked back at Starlight, who looked equally worried.

"Um, Twilight, any input?" Starlight hesitantly asked, warranting no immediate response from Twilight, but a sharp reply from Sunset.

"We should fuse now." Sunset stated, all jocularity dispelled from her voice.

"W-What? Are you sure? Do we really need to do it so soon?" Starlight stammered, the wind was mild and even as she spoke, but the tremors she felt in the blades of glass around her fetlocks mirrored her own trepidation.

"Starlight, come on. He treated your chokehold like a snack for crying out loud! He already said he's got no problem with killing us, and seeing as Twilight is so preoccupied with being scared stiff, this may be our only way to actually hurt him." Sunset sighed heavily. "Look, I don't wanna do it either, but if it's this or death, I know what I'd prefer, so can we please just do it?"

Starlight tried to consider Sunset's words.If we don't do this, we're basically toast. Ugh, why can't things be simple for a change? I knew he was toying with me earlier, but if Sunset and Twilight had actually bothered to join in when I first attacked him, this might already be over, and I might not be about to join body and mind with a stranger. Starlight had to keep herself from grinning. Yes, that would be too easy. Besides, it wouldn't make that much of a letter, if it had played out like that. Freaking letters. Maybe that'll be the upside about fusing with Sunset, maybe I'll stop thinking about writing letters to ponies all the damn time. Maybe I'll want to do other things with my time. Maybe I'll get Trixie to actually take me around Equestria. ...Okay, maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself here. Stop Tirek first, self-indulgence later.

Her mind made up, Starlight moved to stand parallel with Sunset. "Okay, we're only gonna get one shot at this, you sure you remember the technique?"

Sunset smirked at Starlight, throwing her mane back. "Girl, I'm a dance master. Break dance, contemporary, fusion, you name it!"

Marginally reassured, Starlight made to stand on her hind legs, with some difficulty, as Sunset rose to the same position with ease. As they eyed eachother, making sure their bodies were working in symmetry, they prepared to perform a feat of perfect synchronisation.

"Fuuuuu..." They chanted in chorus, forelegs initially pointed outwards, and then closing inwards in a crescent motion as they inched closer together. Their hind hooves pattered across the floor as they moved within six inches of eachother, neither of them breaking their fixed stare forwards as they did so.

"Sion...." By this point, Tirek appeared interested. He watched, without movement or comment, as both ponies moved onto just one of their hind legs, an incredible feat of balance for a pony, their forehooves pointing away from eachother once again.

"Ha!" With this last utterance, both unicorns struck their other hind leg back down to the earth, and pushed both of their forehooves together. When their forehooves connected, a harsh, bright blue glow was breathed into existence, seeming to completely envelop the pair, much to Tirek's confusion. 

After the light, a residual effect of the fusion dance, had faded completely, only one unicorn remained. A unicorn that was neither Starlight nor Sunset.

This unicorn had a large, flowing mane, like Sunset's, but it was made up of mainly purple hues, with a small line of light amber running through the middle of her mane and tail. Her coat was a pale, violet tone, and her eyes a brilliant, shining blue. Her cutie mark, a flaming star, with two smoldering streams, was orange and aglow, and her horn, lit with a dark burgundy aura, served to lift her a few inches into the air, and then lower her again.

As Tirek studied this new unicorn, she disappeared before his eyes. Then, she reappeared, a brilliant white grin present upon her face. When she spoke, she sounded as if she was both Starlight and Sunset, speaking the same words in conjunction.

"I'm surprised you fell for such an easy trick, you're lucky I didn't destroy you just now. Replace the air particles around my physical space with those from a few millimetres away, and it's as if I was never there, so long as I keep moving. I'll give you that little trick for free, considering you'll never get a chance to use it after I'm done with you." The fusion laughed, her tone snide and contemptuous. 

When Tirek spoke, it was not with his usual air of superiority, but with a tone of general scholarly wonder, one that did not befit his large, bulky body. "What is this magic?" He grunted. "What have you become?"

With this prompt, the fusion responded, boastfulness in her tone, and confidence in her stance. "I, Sunlight Shimglim, have been breathed into existence with the sole purpose of vanquishing you! Um, wait." The fusion of Starlight and Sunset paused to consider their wording. Sunlight Shimglim? Really? ...Hold on, Vanquishing? Whose influence is that?

Embarrassment emblazoned across the new fusion's face, she attempted to produce a scornful laugh, aimed directly at Tirek. "What I meant to say was that I, Starset Shglimmer, have ascended beyond the ranks of any one unicorn, and become a legend." That's not much better. Sounds Neighwegian. Ah well, no going back now, have to stay assertive.

Starset, for that was apparently her name, knitted her eyebrows together as she glared in Tirek's direction. "We won't need any alicorn God powers today, I've got all the magic this bitch can handle. Sorry Twilight!"

At this point, Starset flipped around and blew a kiss in Twilight's direction. Twilight, once again, said nothing, did nothing, and reacted to nothing.

Tirek, although visibly intrigued during the fusion, was becoming impatient. and as such voiced his contempt. "Humph. You are still filthy equine scum. Being a benevolent ruler, I will make this fair in you. I will fight without using any of my assault spells. Think you can handle that?"

"I handled your mother just fine." Starset quipped.

"Ha! Keep that attitude up and see just where it gets you."

"Bitch I'm about to smack your ass all the way back to Tartarus, I ain't the one that needs to worry."

"Like that means a thing." Tirek growled. "I have escaped twice and I could escape again, let's see you escape death."

"Can you guys shut up for a minute?!" Both Starset and Tirek turned, shocked, to see a furious Twilight glaring at them, her forelegs spread out, as if she was ready to pounce on whoever spoke first and beat them to a bloody pulp. "This is all a joke to you isn't it?  I'm trying to charge up my attack, like we discussed, and you two wanna stand around and flirt with eachother? Seriously, what is this, a fight for the fate of Equestria, or the school playground?! Oh wait, none of you have been in a fight for Equestria before, have you? Starlight-- Sunset-- Whatever the hell you are, stop showboating and put up. Seriously, you could give Rainbow a run for her bits. Tirek, please stop talking, it's really irritating and I cannot for the life of me concentrate. In fact, I've made barely an inch of progress with charging this thing up, due to all of your incessant talking. From now on, I expect a level of consideration from the both of you. Are we all clear?" Twilight began lightly panting once her outburst had subsided, clearly her rant had more of an effect on her than she realised, or she had been putting a lot more into charging her attack than she thought. 

Tirek, for all his height and strength, had nothing to say. Instead, he averted his eyes, scared to incur Twilight's wrath further. Eventually, once a few moments of awkward and nervous silence had pased, he settled his gaze upon Starset once again. Starset, however, spoke up.

"I Suppose you expect us to fight quietly too, Princess?" The playful smirk upon her face was one of a friend. The joke was well intended, but Twilight didn't seem to care.

"Celestia help me, if you don't stop talking right now, I will not be held responsible for my actions."

Starset swallowed, not responding to Twilight but nervously shifting around to face Tirek, who looked equally uncomfortable. "Hey, um, I think we should fight now." Before mum chews us out again.

When Tirek responded, it was in a tremulous voice. 'Yes, I think that's a good idea." As they inched closer, Tirek added a soft utterance of "filthy pony" for good measure, earning a soul shattering glare from Twilight, causing him to inch a couple of paces away from her.

Heh, if Twilight keeps mad dogging him like that, I might not need to fight him after all. Then again, she might just decide to kill me first. I think I'll try and finish this quickly, for my own sake.