“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”
“Pinkie.”
“AIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!”
“Pinkie!”
“AAAAAAAAaaAAaaAAaaAAAAAAaaAAAAA!”
“Pinkie! We’re not falling anymore!”
“Huh?”
Pinkie snapped out of her fervor just long enough to look down. Sure enough, Sunset and all her friends were floating mere inches above the ground, each of them encased in a purple aura. Twilight let out a sharp breath, and Sunset was swiftly deposited onto her rear end. When she picked herself up from the ground, she turned to look at each of her friends at turn, quickly scanning them for injuries.
“Is everyone okay?”
“Looks like it,” said Applejack. “Nice going with the telekinesis, Twi.”
Twilight smiled, and gave a quick nod. “I’m just doing my part.”
“Aww,” Pinkie groaned, “but that’s so anticlimactic!”
“Anticlimactic?” said Rainbow. “We very nearly fell to our deaths!”
Fluttershy raised a finger, and quietly chimed in. “Um. You can fly.”
“So what?” said Rainbow. “Pinkie has her dumb ‘toon physics’ and I didn’t see her suddenly running back to the surface!”
“I can’t do that if I’ve already seen the ground, Rainbow. I mean, duh.”
“But you did run back to the cliff after you saw the ground. That’s literally what you did before we fought Gaea Everfree!”
“We didn’t fight that thing,” Applejack cut in. “We got our butts kicked halfway into next week, and then Sunset stepped in and saved our hides.”
“What exactly is your point, A.J.?” Rainbow shouted back. “Why does that even matter!?”
Applejack threw her arms into the air. “Because you’re the one that got us into that whole dang mess to begin with!”
“What!? How dare you!”
“Uh, girls? Maybe we should calm down,” said Sunset. By her side, Twilight had approached her, grabbing tightly onto her arm.
“Sunset?” said Twilight. “Why are they fighting? What’s going on?”
“Don’t deny it!” Applejack continued, completely disregarding the others. “If you hadn’t picked a fight with that monster to begin with, we wouldn’t have risked our lives getting dragged into it!”
“There was nowhere else to go!” Rainbow shot back. “We were at the edge of a cliff!”
“And Twilight could have levitated us down!” Applejack shot back. “You’re always doing this! Trying to solve everything by rushing forward without even thinking, and bringing us nothing but trouble!”
“Girls,” Sunset said, more firmly than before. “Seriously. You need to calm down.”
“And what were we supposed to do? Keep running? You know Gaea Everfree would have just caught to us eventually, and then we’d have been toast either way!”
“All we needed to do was find the sirens and get out as quickly as possible!” Applejack shouted. “We didn’t need to run keep running forever! Rarity, back me up here!”
“You leave me out of this!”
“GIRLS!” Sunset yelled, her voice resounding through the valley. It echoed off the rocky hills, reverberating so loudly that it could no doubt be heard for a mile. In the wake of her outburst, all others went silent.
“In case you’ve all forgotten,” said Sunset, “we still have a world that we need to save. And it’s not going to be saved as long as we all stand here bickering with each other. Got that?”
Sunset was met only with a series of grumbling affirmations. Everyone looked too ashamed to make direct eye contact with her.
“Good. Twilight, what does your amulet say?”
“Oh, um... right!” She grabbed the amulet, thankfully still fastened securely around her neck, and checked its directional pointer. She turned to the right, and pointed further down the valley. “It looks like the Dazzlings are that way. But that doesn’t make any sense. They were in the opposite direction we were running from Gaea Everfree before.”
“I’m not entirely certain a forest ruled by that thing would follow the normal laws of spatial dimensions,” Sunset remarked. “Hopefully now that she’s gone, it’ll be more straightforward.”
“R-right,” said Twilight, biting her lower lip. “You, uh... you lead the way. I’ll make sure to point you in the right direction.”
Sunset nodded. “Sounds like a plan. Let’s get going.”
Before Sunset went down the path Twilight pointed, she gave her friends one last look, making sure they were still following her. Ignoring the apprehension that had begun to churn in her gut, she moved forward, leading the group behind her.
As they went through the valley, Sunset couldn’t help but notice that there was something different about it. Evergreen trees grew from the rocky crags and pine-scented dirt, and a small brook trickled beside them as they traced its path downstream. Yet despite the choking shadows having dissipated, everything about the forest seemed less vibrant than before. The green on the trees was duller, almost grey in coloration, and the air was thicker, taking more of an effort on the part of Sunset’s lungs to breathe. She wondered, briefly, what could have caused such a change, but her query was answered when she saw something slick against a nearby rock.
Right away, Sunset froze. Her friends very nearly crashed into her from behind as a result of the sudden stop, and before long she had earned their full attention.
“Sunset, darling, is something wrong?” said Rarity.
Sunset said nothing. She raised a finger and pointed to a sharp, pointed crag sticking out of the stream. Atop it was a black spot, slick and glistening, and rapidly spreading.
Twilight let out a gasp. “That’s... the glistening oil! But how? I-I thought the forest wasn’t infected!”
“I don’t think it was,” said Sunset. “At least, not while Gaea Everfree was protecting it. She attacked us because she knew she was being threatened by something, but I don’t think she could tell that thing from us. Now we can see what that thing is.”
Twilight shuddered softly. “B-but if the oil is already here, then that must mean that the Phyrexians—”
An unearthly shriek cut through the valley. Then, before Sunset could even react, a grotesque form barreled out from the nearby trees, lunging at Twilight with deadly force. It swiftly tackled her to the ground, pinning her against the dirt and rocks.
————————
Phyrexian Antlermaul 3{g/p}{g/p}
Creature — Elk Horror
({g/p} can be paid with either G or 2 life.)
Infect (This creature deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and to players in the form of poison counters.)
When Phyrexian Antlermaul enters the battlefield, you may have it fight target creature you don’t control.
In Phyrexia, ‘survival of the fittest’ becomes ‘survival of the cruelest.’
2/3
————————
The creature resembled a deer, but only on the most superficial level. All four of its legs had been pried open, seemingly bisected from the cleave of each hoof to the center of each knee, resulting in bifurcated limbs that split into eight spindly appendages. It had leathery brown skin that was covered in welts, boils, and scars, and its eyes were pure black and dripping with globs of oil. Its antlers branched out and tangled together in ways into a miasma of sharp, serrated razors tipped coated in silvery metal. As it pinned Twilight to the ground, its insectoid mandibles clicked and hissed, foaming saliva dripping freely from the orifice.
The very moment Twilight’s cry reached her ears, she was channeling her magic into her palms. The valley lit up with the bright orange flare of a solar prominence and the crackling of plasma, and the deer was blasted backwards. It let out a soft hiss as its charred body slumped motionless against the ground, though whether the sound came from the deer’s mouth or its scorched flesh Sunset couldn’t tell.
Running over to check on Twilight was an act so deeply ingrained into her instincts that she didn’t have to put a single conscious thought into it. In a mere second she was leaning over Twilight, scanning her body for injuries. Twilight trembled and as Sunset gradually grasped her hand, holding it up to her. She failed to notice Sunset’s touch, her eyes screwed shut as a terrified whine escaped her lips.
“Twilight!” Sunset called out. “Twilight! Speak to me!”
“No!” Twilight whimpered. “I’m sorry... I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it!”
“Twilight! Open your eyes!” Sunset pleaded. “It’s me, Sunset Shimmer! Your best friend! I’m here, Twilight!”
Twilight’s eyes pried themselves open, red and soaked with tears. “S-Sunset?”
Sunset held Twilight’s hand tighter, gently pulling her up. As she sat upright, Sunset reached around and pulled Twilight into a tight hug. Twilight returned the gesture, her shivering body slowly becoming steady within Sunset’s arms. Her ragged sobs began to fade, and before long she settled into gentle, rhythmic breaths that Sunset could feel through their embrace.
When Twilight finally pulled away, Sunset looked deeply into her eyes. She reached forward with her hand and brushed a tear out of Twilight’s eye, pushing away a loose strand of hair. Twilight sniffled slightly, and returned the gaze, though her lips remained pressed into a frown.
“You saved me.”
“Of course I did,” Sunset replied. “And I promise I’ll never let anything happen to you. No matter what.”
Twilight’s eyes drifted away, avoiding contact with Sunset’s. “...Why, though?”
Sunset blinked. “’Why?’ What do you mean ‘why?’ Twilight, you know I care about you more than anything! Why would I ever let you get hurt?”
Twilight didn’t answer. Her gaze remained distant, drifting ever further away from Sunset’s attention.
“Twilight,” Sunset pleaded. “If there’s something wrong, you have to tell me. I can’t let you hurt like this.” She grabbed Twilight’s hand, holding it in both of her palms. “Please, I—”
And then, at that exact moment, Sunset felt herself being pulled into Twilight’s memories. A powerful magic pulsed deep within her chest, and she saw through Twilight’s eyes, experiencing all that she had experienced over the past two weeks.
She saw Twilight heading deep into the highest security clearances of the Hexagon, handing over the vial of glistening oil to Shining Armor, with a four-star general present to observe. She saw Twilight observe the military scientists studying the oil, coming to no apparent conclusion about its magical properties. She lived Twilight’s life, feeling every ounce of frustration that Twilight did as the Magical Containment Unit obtained no new results.
She saw Twilight smuggle the vial of glistening oil back to the school so she could study it further in the chemistry classroom during lunch. She saw how, after the first day as substitute, Ether Seeker disappeared entirely, and she noticed that Handy Craft had been seemingly unaware that he was absent at all. She saw students gathering into the auditorium on the day of Starlight Glimmer’s presentation, and watched as Starlight unveiled a portal built of pitch-black metal circled by golden rings of light.
She watched through Twilight’s eyes as the portal activated, and from it emerged a four-armed monster with leathery wings, porcelain skin, and a vicious polearm dripping with black ooze. She watched as the monster raised her weapon in the air, enveloping the entire city in infectious magic, proliferating the disease that had been lying dormant for days. She watched as the students spasmed and writhed, their bodies snapping and twisting into horrifying amalgamations of bone and porcelain. She watched, powerless, as the world ended.
When Sunset returned to reality, she found herself staring once again at Twilight. Her head hung low, and she turned her eyes upward to meet Sunset’s.
“I guess you know the truth now,” Twilight muttered. “I’m the reason the Phryexians succeeded. I gave the oil to the most top-secret operations in the entire military. I allowed the contagion to spread through the highest echelons of the most powerful government on Anthropia. And then I took it back to the school, and allowed it to continue spreading. I... I did this, Sunset. E-everyone’s gone. Except for you guys, everyone I-I’ve ever known and loved is gone. And it’s all because of me.”
“No!” said Sunset. “That’s not true! You didn’t do any of this! You had no idea!”
“Ignorance is no excuse!” Twilight shot back. Her voice quivered, barely managing to hold back a sob. “W-what kind of aspiring scientist takes such dumb risks with an infectious substance they know nothing about!? I’m immune to the oil; I could have quarantined it before it had a chance to affect anyone else! But I didn’t! I... I let it spread, and now the whole world’s gone to hell because of me!”
“But you didn’t do anything!” said Sunset. She grabbed both of Twilight’s hands and gripped them tightly. Her mind raced, searching for anything she could say. “You... you weren’t the one who brought the oil to this world! It was Ether Seeker!”
Twilight froze. Her body went steady, and her pupils dilated. She looked as though she had just been physically struck. “...Ether Seeker?”
“Yes!” said Sunset. “Him! The substitute! You found the oil on his desk! And you saw that arm of his, there’s no way something like that came from this plane!”
Twilight let out a soft gasp. “You... you think he’s a planeswalker?”
Sunset nodded. “It’s the only explanation I can think of. And I have a hunch that he’s the one that infected Starlight, and gave her that portal. I think he’s been planning this from the beginning.”
Twilight stared blankly. Her mouth moved silently, attempting to speak, but ultimately coming up short. It took seconds for anything resembling an emotion to cross her face, but when it did it became an image of anger that Sunset didn’t even think her capable of. Twilight’s entire body tensed, her hands clenching so hard that they nearly crushed Sunset’s bones in their grips. “I... I don’t believe this! I won’t forgive him for what he’s done! I... I-If I ever see him again, I’ll kill him! A-and don’t think I don’t mean it! I’ll swear to God, I’ll tear him apart with my bare hands!”
“Whoa, careful!” said Sunset, wincing. “We’re still holding hands, remember? You’re, uh.. kinda crushing me.”
Twilight blinked. A brief flush appeared on her cheeks, and she released her ironclad grip on Sunset’s aching hands. “Sorry,” she mumbled, looking away briefly. “I’m still mad, though.”
“You have every right to be,” said Sunset. “I’m honestly surprised you’re not even angrier. That man is a monster, and he probably deserves everything you were thinking of doing to him, and then some.”
“...Yeah,” said Twilight. “But I don’t think that’s going to happen. He probably fled the plane a long time ago.” She let out a heavy sigh. “I-I can’t let myself get distracted by thinking of him right now. We need to focus on finding the Dazzlings. They’re the only chance we have at saving everyone.”
“Are you sure?” said Sunset. “You don’t need another minute to collect yourself?”
Twilight shook her head. “No, I’m fine. We need to get moving. I don’t want to be around when another one of those things attacks.”
Sunset turned her head, briefly glancing at the nauseating corpse of the horrible deer that lay several feet away. Already it was beginning to smell, its odor assaulting her nostrils the moment their attention was called to it. “Good point,” she said.
Sunset helped Twilight to her feet, Twilight wiping away the last of the tears from her eyes. The gave one last checkup with their friends, stopping to make sure each of them was ready to move, and continued down the path led by Twilight’s amulet.
————————
“There!” said Twilight.
As she held her amulet, Twilight pointed a finger pointed to a cave that opened beneath a series of mossy rocks, concealed enough by the surrounding foliage that Sunset wouldn’t have noticed it had she not been looking. Even from the outside, it looked far from the sort of cave that would be a suitable shelter, no doubt crawling with filth and fungus.
Rarity cringed, sucking in air through clenched teeth. “You... you’re not seriously suggesting the Dazzlings are in there, are you?”
“That’s what it says,” said Twilight. “If we’ll find them anywhere, it’ll be in there.”
Rarity groaned loudly. “Ugh! Typical. I spend all this effort doing my hair before we go out, and I have to ruin it by crawling in some moss-encrusted cavern.”
“Oh, come on!” said Rainbow Dash. “It’s the end of the world and all you care about is your hair?”
“You lay off of her, Rainbow,” Applejack retorted. “We ain’t got time for this. If we’re going into them there cave, we’re going into them there cave.”
“She’s right,” said Sunset. “We should definitely head in sooner rather than later. We’re lucky we haven’t run into any more, uh... ‘wildlife.’ We should definitely finish up in this forest before our luck runs out.”
“I refuse to call those things wildlife,” Fluttershy said. She wrapped her arms around her body, and shivered subtly. “I didn’t even feel a single spark of life coming from that last one. I-It’s like someone killed a deer, mutilated its corpse, and then put it back together. I’m getting chills just thinking about it.”
Sunset sighed. “I know,” she said. “Everything’s scary now. I don’t think there’s a single thing about Phyrexia that isn’t deeply disturbing. But we need to get moving, and we need to get moving before something we don’t want to catch up with us catches up with us.” She trudged forward, ducking into the cave entrance as she gestured for her friends to follow.
“W-wait!” Rarity called out. “Don’t leave me behind! Don’t I get a say in this?”
Inside, the cave was dark, as expected, and filled with slippery moss that forced Sunset to hold onto Twilight to stop herself from slipping. She held out her hand and conjured a simple orb of plasma in her palm, allowing it to illuminate their passage, but even then the shadows made it difficult to make anything out. The cave was winding and cramped, its corridors branching out into a maze of twisty little passages, all alike. It felt like hours had passed, and none of them had gotten anywhere. Sunset absolutely dreaded what would happen if her friends hadn’t decided to stick with her as a group.
Thankfully, after who-knows-how-many dead ends, they managed to arrive in a much larger chamber. It was no bigger than the size of a standard classroom at Canterlot High, yet compared to the claustrophobic passages before that had resulted in many a bruised funny bone, it practically felt like a wide open field. Mossy stalactites hung from the ceiling and dripped watery cave residue, tickling the top of Sunset’s scalp. At the far end of the chamber, she could see three female figures sitting between a pair of stalagmites.
“Go away!” cried a voice. “Nobody’s here!”
There was a sound remarkably like an open hand striking something. “Idiot!” said another voice. “Don’t give us away!”
“Too late,” said a third voice. “Admit it, we’re already pretty much elemental food by now. There wasn’t any point in hiding in the woods to begin with.”
“And what’s the alternative, huh? Leave the forest and get turned into freaking zombies? I don’t think so!”
“Um, Adagio? I don’t think that’s the scary forest monster thingy. I think it’s something worse.”
As Sunset stepped forward, the orb of plasma in her palm shed light on the three figures. As she expected, the voices from before had belonged to the Dazzlings, and all three of them were sitting before her.
But the Dazzlings that she saw were not the fearsome sirens that she knew. They were gaunt, so emaciated and thin that their bones were visible through their skin. It looked like every one of them could snap in two from the slightest breeze. And as Sunset approached, they did nothing but stare at her, faces held frozen in abject terror.
Sunset’s brow shot upward. “Huh? What happened to you?” A creeping dread began to slither into her chest, constricting ever more rightly around her heart. “Are... are you okay?”
None of the Dazzlings responded. The merest sound of her voice caused all three of them to flinch simultaneously. Sonata whimpered, huddling up to Aria and gripping her on the shoulders. As Sonata trembled, Adagio’s bony face twisted into a vicious scowl.
“Why?” she said. “Why would you come here? Was what you did to us not enough?”
“Um... well, no,” said Sunset. “Actually, I was wondering if—”
“It wasn’t enough, was it?” Adagio continued. She stood to her feet, legs wobbling, yet eyes burning with a fire so intense that Sunset could feel the heat radiating from their hate. “Because it’s never enough for you! It wasn’t enough that you took everything from us! It wasn’t enough that robbed us of our way of living and then left us for dead! No! You had to come back so you could gloat! So you could kick us while we’re down!”
Sunset threw her arms up “Hey, no! That’s not it! I just thought—”
“It’s not enough that you killed us, is it!?” Adagio shouted. “It’s not enough for us to die, you have to come all the way out here watch us die! You had to come here so you could laugh at us!”
“What!?” Sunset blurted out. “N-now hold on, I don’t know what you’re talking about! I’d never try to kill you! As bad as you were, you don’t deserve that!”
Adagio jabbed a finger at Sunset’s chest, with enough force to leave a bruise. “Don’t you play dumb with me, asshole! You know what you did, you... you... you...” Her sentence was left hanging. The rage that was burned into every pore and crease in Adagio’s face slipped away, replaced with a look of equal parts shock and disgust. “Oh, dear Discord. You really don’t know, do you?”
“No!” Sunset shouted back. “I don’t know anything about what you’re saying! Just what is going on here!?”
“What’s going on!?” said Adagio. “What’s going on!? You destroyed our fucking magical cores, that’s what’s going on! In case your dumb ass hasn’t figured it out yet, we need those to live! You’ve killed us!”
Sunset’s jaw hung loose. She could very nearly feel her heart skip a beat. “I... I did what?”
“Yes! That’s exactly what you did!” Adagio continued. “We’re emotivores! The anger of mortals is what we eat! Human food can only provide us with so much nutrition, and it isn’t enough to sustain a siren’s body! With our magical cores gone, we had no means of causing strife and conflict, so we were left with no choice but scrounge up any animosity we could find! And we still couldn’t find what we needed to feed ourselves! We moved to the slums and risked our lives getting shot at during gang fights just so we could scavenge something, anything, and it still wasn’t enough! We are literally starving to death and it is ALL! YOUR! FAULT!”
Sunset was left speechless. She could only stare back, her legs trembling, breath stolen away by what felt like a dozen simultaneous punches to the gut. Her stomach did backflips within her, her head feeling so light that she half expected to keel over on the spot.
“Sunset,” said Twilight. “Is... is this true?”
“Yes, it’s true!” said Adagio. “You were there! Or do you think our lives are so unimportant that you don’t even remember what you did!?”
“No!” Sunset interjected. She held out an arm to the side, barring the path between Adagio and Twilight. “Leave her out of this! The Twilight you’re thinking of is a different person! Be mad at me all you want, but please don’t go after her!”
Adagio paused. For the briefest moment, her indignation faltered, if only slightly. “Oh, I get it. You’re her counterpart. I guess you think that changes things, huh?”
“Uh... maybe?” said Twilight. “To be honest, I’m not actually that familiar with the Princess.”
“Doesn’t matter!” Adagio snapped. “If you’re still willing to stand with the Rainbooms after knowing what they did, that’s on you! You’re no better than any of them!”
“Huh?” said Twilight. “B-but, hold on... I-I didn’t...”
“Wait!”
Everyone froze. Sunset turned around, towards the voice, and saw Fluttershy stepping forward. Her eyes were reddened and moist, and yet still they remained firm as she met Adagio face-to-face.
“I... I’m sorry,” said Fluttershy. Her breaths were ragged, only just managing to hold back tears. “For what we did to you. And, I... I-I know it doesn’t matter what you did before, or that we didn’t know what would happen. Nothing can excuse what we did to you. You’ve every right to hate us.”
Adagio snorted. “Yeah? And what’s your point?”
“W-wait! Hear me out!” said Fluttershy. “I can fix this! I have healing magic! I-I can help you grow your gems back! I... I can help make things right! Look!”
Before anyone could speak a word in response, Fluttershy’s body pulsed with magic. She was surrounded by a warm glow, and a pair of wings sprouted from her back. She closed her eyes and pursed her lips in concentration, and swirls of green wind began to coalesce around her hands.
Adagio blinked. “Wha...”
Then, with a forward thrust of her palms, Fluttershy channeled her magic outwards. Spiraling bodies of wind surrounded each of the Dazzling, the wind intensifying further and further, causing their hair and loose clothing to flap about uncontrollably in the air current. Sonata let out a shriek as her ponytail flew straight into her eyes, while Aria simply opted to cover her face with her arm.
Fluttershy let out a grunt. Her arms quivered, her fists clenched by her sides, and her teeth began grinding together in a tight grimace. With every second that passed, her groans of exertion became more pained than before.
“Fluttershy, stop!” Rainbow called out. “You’re pushing yourself too hard!”
“N-no!” said Fluttershy. “I have to do this! It’s the only way! I have to... to...”
Her sentence was cut off by a shriek of pain. It was immediately followed by one last intense blast of wind, as well as a brilliant flash of light, both so powerful that Sunset was nearly knocked off of her feet. When her vision came to, she almost couldn’t believe her eyes.
There, standing right in front of her, was Adagio, the ruby-red gemstone around her collar restored. Behind her, Aria and Sonata both sat with their eyes fixated on their own amulets, also restored to their normal state.
“I... I did it,” Fluttershy said breathlessly. Her chest rose and fell rapidly as she struggled for air, stumbling around as she struggled to stand. Rainbow gently placed a hand on her shoulder, steadying Fluttershy as her wings retracted back into her body.
“Huh,” said Adagio. She prodded at her amulet, caressing it between her fingers. Her face was blank, the slightest hint of emotion occasionally showing, but she never got far enough with any of them to show more. “...Alright, so you got our gems back.”
“Great!” said Rainbow. “So you’ll help us now, right?”
Adagio’s eyes bugged out. “Whoa! Hold on a minute. What the hell are you talking about? Help you!? Are you nuts!?”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Trust me, I thought the same thing. It was Sunset’s idea in the first place.”
“Wha— Rainbow!” said Sunset.
“What? It’s true!”
“Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa. Time out,” said Adagio. “Time out. The reason that you came here is that you want us to help you? Are you serious? You can’t be serious.”
Sunset gave out a deep sigh. “No... it’s true. It wasn’t my first idea, but there isn’t anyone else we know of that we can turn to right now. We can’t win this war on our own, and there’s nobody else we can reach. We need someone that can break the Phyrexians’ hive mind, and your song is the only thing I can think of that could do that.”
“You know, I could say I’m offended that you came all the way out here to beg for our help after what you pulled,” said Adagio. Her lips curved into a devious smirk. “But in this case, I’m going to laugh at you. Because you put all the hope you have left in the world in us, and we can’t help you. So ha ha.”
Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Cant, or won’t?”
Adagio’s smirk vanished. “Can’t. Even with our gems back, we don’t have enough energy left to use our magic.” She sat down again beside the other Dazzlings, and let out a sigh. “And believe me, I want to get rid of those zombies just as much as you do. We won’t have anything to eat in a world with no individuality. But even if we could just put what you did behind us, none of us could do anything to help you. So I’ll settle for taking some pleasure in knowing you’re all just as doomed as we are.”
“But y’all feed off of folks fighting, right?” said Applejack. “Couldn’t y’all just... fight with each other?”
“Uh, no?” said Aria. “That is quite possibly the dumbest thing I’ve heard in my entire life. And considering how long I’ve lived, that’s saying something.”
“And why not?” said Twilight. “Um... not to be insensitive or anything, I mean. I’m just curious. I don’t know a lot about sirens.”
Sonata looked up to meet Twilight. There was a wistful gleam in her eye that Sunset couldn’t quite place, even as her gaze drifted away from Twilight.
“...We’re sisters,” said Sonata. “We might not always act like it, but deep down we really do love each other. We can’t feed off of love.”
“Ugh,” Aria scoffed. “You always have to be the sappy one, don’t you?”
“Shut up, both of you,” said Adagio. “They don’t need to know about our personal lives. All they need to know is that they’re out of luck.”
Sunset blinked. Sisters? The information came as a shock, and yet... in a way, it made sense. There was no other reason she could think of that the Dazzlings would still choose to stick together, much less tolerate each other.
But the thought was quickly pushed away, replaced with a much less pleasant one. “...So there really is nothing you can do to help us? Even if you wanted to?”
“No,” said Adagio. “Do you want me to rub some more salt in that wound? Because I could do that.”
“No, that’s... that’s fine,” said Sunset. She let out a sigh, and turned to face the others. “Sorry girls. Looks like we’ll have to go back to the drawing board.”
“What!?” Rainbow blurted out. “Oh, come on! Are you seriously telling me we came all this way out here for nothing?”
“Rainbow, calm down,” said Sunset.
“No! I won’t calm down! I risked my life for this mission, and it turned out to be a total waste of time! I nearly watched all of my friends get slaughtered! I nearly broke my wings flying through the canopy, for crying out loud!”
“Oh, come on,” said Applejack, “you’re being ridiculous. It was your idea to fly through the canopy to begin with!”
“Yeah? So what? What’s your point?”
“The point, Rainbow Dash, is that you’re responsible for getting yourself injured there!” Applejack countered. “And Ah reckon you slowed us down long enough for Gaea Everfree to catch up, too!”
Sunset moved to interject, but stopped when she noticed something. It was tiny, insubstantial at best, yet she could already see it begin to waft from Applejack and Rainbow’s bodies.
“I did not!” said Rainbow. “You have no way of knowing how that thing even caught up to us to begin with! Maybe we could have still outrun it!”
“Ain’t you the one who was going on about how we couldn’t run from Gaea Everfree forever? Make up your mind for once!”
Sunset felt a tap on her shoulder. She looked to see Rarity staring at her anxiously. “Sunset, darling? Maybe we should—”
“No,” Sunset whispered back. “Let them fight.”
“Are you absolutely certain about that?” said Rarity. “Because I don’t really see the value of...”
“Shh!” said Sunset. She clasped a hand over Rarity’s mouth. At first she gave a muffled protest, but quickly fell silent when she saw what Sunset was referring to. As Applejack and Rainbow continued to bicker, shooting back and forth arguments Sunset didn’t bother listening to, green smoke billowed off of their bodies. It swirled higher and higher towards the cavern ceiling, until there was no space left above, and it began to drift further towards to the ground.
“...And another thing!” said Applejack. “Why in the heck do you always treat everything like it’s some sort of contest?”
“I don’t think it’s a contest!” Rainbow Dash replied. “I’m just being awesome! There’s nothing wrong with being awesome!”
“This ain’t about being ‘awesome!’ Our priority right now is surviving, not showing off like we’re trying to impress someone who ain’t even here to see it!”
“Girls! Girls!” said Pinkie. She bounced in from seemingly out of nowhere, slinging each of her arms around Applejack and Rainbow’s shoulders. “There’s no need to fight! We’re all friends here, aren’t we?”
“So?”
“So?”
“So... look on the bright side!” said Pinkie. “We may have all gone through a lot, and we may have all lost people we care about, but it’s not all bad!”
“Are you kidding?” said Rainbow. “That’s your spin? ‘Not all bad?’ What part of the end of the world isn’t ‘all bad?’”
“Ah’m going to have to agree with Rainbow here. Ah don’t rightly see what’s so good about any of this.”
“W-well...” Pinkie’s eyes darted about the room. The corners of her lips twitched, her face spasming in very uncomfortable ways. “W-we’ve had a lot of time to bond with each other, right? A-and we’ve had so many fun adventures! Think of how exciting everything has been this past two weeks!”
“EXCITING!?”
Both Applejack and Rainbow cried out simultaneously. Pinkie flinched backwards from the sheer volume, and when Sunset looked closely her hair even seemed to sag just a little bit.
“Exciting!? Exciting!?” said Rainbow. “You call having to endure the loss of your entire family and most of the people you care about exciting!?”
“You think this is all just a ’fun adventure?’” said Applejack. “You think having to fight a losing battle every day just for the slimmest chance of survival is some kind of bonding exercise!? Just what is wrong with you?”
“W-well...” Pinkie twiddled her thumbs. Beads of glistening sweat dripped down her forehead, and her hair began to sink even further, going so far as to lose some of its curls. “I-I just... I... um... I just want us to have fun?”
“Have fun?” Rainbow interjected. “Have fun!? You call surviving the apocalypse fun? You call having to live in constant worry that today will be the last day you ever see your friends fun? We’re not even trying to save the world anymore! We’re trying to salvage what we can from what’s left of it! Why would you ever think that any of this would be fun?”
“BECAUSE IT’S ALL I HAVE LEFT!”
And then, just as quickly as the argument had started, everything stopped. Applejack and Rainbow were left staring at Pinkie, now a quivering mess. Her hair had gone nearly flat, what little curls that were left shaking from the quiet sobs that escaped from her throat.
“I... I’ve lost... everything.” Her words were barely intelligible through her whimpering. “M-my f-family, m-my friends... e-everything ex... except you. M-making people happy i-is... is w-what I live for. I-if I... if I can’t even d-do that, then, I... I-I have nothing.”
Finally, Pinkie’s legs gave in. She collapsed onto her knees, burying her face in her hands. No sound was left in the cavern but that of her wailing echoing off of the stone walls.
Before she knew it, Sunset was already moving to meet her. She held Pinkie by the arms, lifting her up and pulling her into a a tight embrace. Her friends soon joined, and before long Sunset’s friends had surrounded Pinkie on all sides in a massive, seven-person group hug.
Pinkie sniffled, opening her eyes to meet her surroundings. As the embrace ended, she looked at each of her friends in turn. Even with Sunset’s orb of illuminating plasma dropped onto the ground nearby, the light reflected clearly off of Pinkie’s shining irises.
“You... you don’t hate me?”
“Of course not!” said Rainbow. “And you don’t have nothing, either. You have us. And... I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for yelling at you like that, too,” Applejack added. “Ah should’ve figured you’d be struggling with the same feelings as us. It’s just... tensions were high, Ah guess, and Ah made a mistake."
Already, Pinkie’s curls seemed to be returning to their normal shape. Her lips trembled, subtly curving ever upwards, until she broke out into a giant grin. Lunging forward, she reached out with her arms, somehow managing to wrap them tightly across all six of the others at once.
“Gah!” Sunset cried out. “Careful, Pinkie! Some of us still have lungs we want to use.”
“Oops, sorry!” Pinkie pulled away, an even darker shade of pink tinging her cheeks. “And I guess that was kind of silly of me, thinking you’d hate me. It’s a good thing we got that all sorted—” She paused, a quizzical look crossing her brow. Her head swiveled around rapidly, daring back and forth across the chamber. “Hey, where’d the Dazzlings go?”
“A-hem.”
Sunset swiveled around. Standing behind the group, right in the direction they had entered the chamber from, were the Dazzlings. They stood tall, their bodies now fully restored to health, facing Sunset and her friends with a shared confidence that sent a chill down her spine.
Adagio smirked. “Thanks for the pick-me-up. I take it you still want to save the world?”
————————
The Dazzling Triad UBR
Legendary Creature — Human Siren
{u/r}, T: Goad target creature you don’t control. Activate this ability only during your turn. (Until your next turn, that creature attacks each combat if able and attacks a player other than you if able.)
Whenever a creature you don’t control attacks an opponent, defending player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.
3/3