Once all safely across the bridge, it was time to venture back into the forest proper and end this. The weald started picking up again on the other side of the canyon, and soon I was trudging through the jungle again, batting away flies and trying my hardest to ignore the cries of the hopefully well-fed animals. The spires of the Castle of the Two Sisters disappeared again beneath the trees as we walked and the now-familiar chill darkness returned with a vengeance.
And now we only had one lantern. I hope those ants liked my present because I am sure regretting giving it out now. It feels like something is going to jump out from beneath a bush or from behind a tree and bite me any second now. And, as usual, the persistent hangover wasn't making life to easy either.
“How big is this fucking forest? I feel like I've been walking for days. I can't wait to get out of here and fly properly again.” Indigo complained.
“You said it. Once we get back to Ponyville, I'm not touching the filthy ground for days.”
“What a good idea, Sour. I’ll be sure to fail to catch you when you pass out from exhaustion.” Sugarcoat said.
“Come on now, living on the ground isn’t that bad, right Sunset?” Sunny said, walking behind me, carrying the lantern.
“Best sex I ever had was in Cloudsdale. Now can we stop arguing and hurry up? I’d guess we’ve been walking for at least a few hours, and I’d really like to finish this before we all die.”
“Hey, we’ve got, like, a month before everypony actually dies. What’s wrong with a little banter?” Lemon said.
“No, we don’t. I know you’ve got good taste in music and all.” I said, and Indigo tried to stifle laughter, “But can you turn off and think for a minute? Daybreaker said the crops would die after a day. Now, I don’t know about you, but I kind of need to food to eat and there’s no way in Tartarus that Equestria has enough stockpiled to feed the whole population for an entire year.”
“Oh. Shit.” Lemon grimaced, as did the others.
“Yeah. So shut up all of you and stop wasting time.” I said. Sour and Indigo sighed, looked amongst themselves, and followed me. Good.
I don’t know if my little pep talk helped or not but we’d actually managed to get to the ruined castle only an hour later. Most the grey stone buildings were weathered from centuries of neglect and disuse. Wilted vines clung to the spires and terraces, while the uncut grass grew long and dry through cracks in the tiled floors. The Castle of the Two Sisters stunk of rotting plants and ancient dust, but at least it was respite from the Sun. The brief hike out the forest and through the palace gardens was brutal and it felt like had been stuffed in an oven.
“Alright, so Sunset, what’s our plan?” Lemon said, after downing an entire canteen of water.
“We split up and find the Elements. I’d reckon that if they are here, they’d probably be in a dungeon or treasury somewhere. Stuff like that is too valuable to just show off.”
“That should be easy.” Indigo scoffed, “But what comes after that?”
“You each get one Element and hope for the best. I honestly don’t have a clue how they’re supposed to work, but that seems like a decent place to start. Sour, Sunny, you two are with me. If we don’t find anything in an hour or so, we meet back here, in the throne room.”
“Good luck then, don't die. We need you.” Sugarcoat said, before leaving with Lemon and Indigo to explore the castle’s east wing.
I went to the west. Now, I’d say that I’ve spent enough time in castles to basically know how these things work. All the valuable stuff goes in the biggest building, the keep, because it's the easiest to defend. Useless crap is kept in the outside buildings, like the library.
“I wouldn’t exactly say that its useless, dearie. Just think, we’ve got books here from before Equestria was even founded. Imagine how useful all this knowledge could be, imagine what this could do for our culture.” Sunny said, marvelling at a stack of moth-eaten tomes.
“Imagine what we could sell this for! We’d never need to work again.” Sour said, stuffing a few into the other mare's saddlebags while she was distracted.
“Can both of you please stop dicking around? If you really want to come back here and the loot the place, go ahead. But let’s do that some other day, when our lives aren’t at stake!”
Both flinched, “Sorry.”
“Alright. Now let’s get out of this place before I choke to death on the dust.”
We continued walking through the library. This place was big, like four stories of boredom big. I really wanted to set it on fire. Like, I would give up alcohol and one-night stands for just one little spark. All this dry paper would make such a beautiful fireball. Yeah, that’d show them. Sunset Shimmer doesn’t need to learn anything. Especially not from some outdated pile of nonsense. I’d bet that they could see all the way back in Canterlot. Hey, when I’m done here, I’ll go there. Torch that too. And then, maybe I’ll check out my old stomping grounds. Luna’s School for Gifted Unicorns always felt a bit cold. It would be so generous of me to warm it up. Toast the ego out of a few upstart prodigies.
“Sunset!” Sunny yelled, grabbing me.
“Get off!” I yelled, summoning a ball of flame. Finally, my magic was back. It felt amazing, like a full-body massage after a long day’s work.
“Listen, you psycho, I agree that maybe this isn’t the right time to steal something but we’re standing in the place you want to cook. Did it occur to you that we can’t save the world if set us on fire?” Sour said.
“Back off. Both of you.” I smiled. I didn’t need them. All I needed was magic, and I had all I needed right here. Right now.
Both pleaded. I ignored them, channeling more magic into my fire. So, what if Daybreaker’s made of the stuff? Mine burns hotter. Why bother fucking around with the Elements if I can just turn this world into a new Sun and imprison her that way?
“Sunset! Stop this, please. This isn’t you. The Sunset I know is smart, she wouldn’t do something like this.” Sunny said, hugging me. I picked her up with a spell and tossed her into a bookshelf. Crack.
“You know what, I’ve been waiting to do this ever since we met.”
Something crashed into my skull. A wave of pain followed it. Blinded by it, I fell down. My fire, my precious fire, dissipated and the air turned to snow. I gasped for air. What just happened?
“I hit you. And I’ll do it again if you don’t stop trying to murder us. Daybreaker was screwing with your mind and I got rid of her. Now get up and starting being useful again.” Sour said, extending a hoof.
I took minutes before my body responded. I blinked the tears out of my eyes and stood up alone. “I don’t know what happened there. Let’s just keep searching, alright?”
“It’s alright, Sunset. We’re just glad to have you back.” Sunny said, brushing herself off.
“Sure. Sure, it is. Let’s just get this done before something else happens.”
The three of us left the library. Taking a flight of stairs downward, we finally found the treasury. A massive gilded door stood between us and the Elements, it had six circular slots in it and each slot had a plaque in some alien language beneath it. Otherwise, the room was blisteringly hot, just like the rest of the castle, with a window that opened to the outside. The Sun loomed over the forest like a magnifying glass over an anthill. Everything was done up in shades of orange, red and brown and everything smelled faintly of sweat, blood and smoke. Time was running out.
“Well, it seems like great minds think alike, Sunset.” Sugarcoat said, walking down the stairs on the opposite side of the room with Indigo and Lemon in tow.
“Sazaori tasa brungona. The Vault of the Elements.” Lemon translated, “Interesting choice to write that in Zebra.”
“You’re fluent in Zebra, dearie?” Sunny asked.
“Sure am. All this used to be Zebra territory actually, before the Princesses moved in. One them taught me how to rap and brew amarula.” Lemon said proudly.
You learn new things every day. I may have to keep Lemon around. I have a feeling that she'd be great at parties. That and I haven't tried amarula yet.
“Anyway, let’s crack this baby open.” Indigo said, walking over to it, giving it a kick. Flesh sizzled against the metal. She screamed and hopped back, clutching her wounded hoof.
“I’m not done yet.” Said Lemon, “Laibasaj porsa aizbonya wat laibzas anvar tiscort. Okay, that’s pretty tricky. And it doesn’t rhyme either, so this place must be ancient.”
“Obviously, dearie. It is a thousand years old, after all.” Sunny said.
“Okay, cool, we don’t care. What does it say?”
Lemon scratched her head, “I know the first bit means ‘No entry’ but my mind’s blank on the other half. Zecora taught me mostly how to insult other ponies, not to solve magic riddles.”
“You know, the best solution is always the simplest one.” Sugarcoat said, charging her horn.
“And that would be?” Sour asked.
“Brute force.” She said, firing off a bolt of magic at the door. It ricocheted off, severing Sunny’s ear and flying out the window. Great, another injury to fix.
“Maybe, don’t do that!” Sunny shouted, clutching the side of her head.
“No, she’s on the right track. The door shook when she used magic on it. Sugarcoat just didn’t have enough.” I said, starting to gather my own power. It was agonizing, and the usually-cool taste of magic was boiling hot.
Before shooting the door myself, I imagined it was Daybreaker. She got me into this mess, I’ll take her out of it.
A cyan beam flew out my horn and into the centre of the door, causing it to rattle and shake. The pain grew, pounding into my skull. The world blurred and muted as I pushed more magic into it. I was not going to lose to a lump of metal. I was not going to lose to a deranged demigod. I am Sunset Shimmer, and I do not lose!
The door shattered as the last of my reserves hammered into it. I felt my chin hit the ground with a scream. My back spasmed as the world flashed in colour. I coughed. Blood.
“Fucking wow. Do you do parties?” I heard Lemon say over the ringing in my ears.
“Only orgies. Now help me up. We have a world to save, remember.” I muttered once my senses were mostly back to normal. Everything looked a bit sharper than I recall it being. It sounded clearer too once the tinnitus had faded.
Five pairs of hooves pulled me back to my own. Each mare bore an expression somewhere between shock and awe.
“What? I’ll live.”
“You have a pair of wings, dearie.”
“Yeah.” I coughed, “Her name’s Lightning Dash. We’re friends with benefits.”
“She means that you literally grew your own pair of them trying to get through the door.” Sugarcoat said, tapping one of them. That felt weird.
“Did I get through the door?”
“You definitely did. And the wall behind it, and the wall behind that and so on and so on.”
“Good. Wings later, Elements now.”
We walked into the remains of the Vault. Almost everything but a small pedestal holding five stone orbs was a pile of ash. Guess those were the Elements then.
“I thought they’d be cooler.” Indigo said.
“Nonsense, I’m sure they’ll work just fine.” Sunny said, walking over to them, picking one up.
“Be careful with those.” Sugarcoat said.
Sunny dropped it and the Element shattered on the hard tile floor. “Oops.”
“Oops? Oops? You just destroyed the world you clumsy motherfucking imbecile!” Sour screamed.
Sunny winced, “I’m terribly sorry, but she made a better offer. It’s for the best, really.”
“What? You got ten seconds before I defenestrate you. Explain.” I said.
“Remember our talk at the bridge, Sunset?”
“Yeah. You telling me that Daybreaker somehow convinced you stab us in the back?”
“More or less exactly.”
“You bitch. You utter fucking bitch. I’ll kill you!” Sour said, drawing her knife, jumping at Sunny. Indigo followed. I didn’t stop either of them. What was the point? We’d lost already.
Just as Sour was about to decapitate the traitor, both were enveloped in a burning orange glow. Daybreaker exploded into the room, shattering the rest of the Elements and knocking me off my hooves.
“Nopony but me is killing anything today. Especially not you, Alicorn.”
“Say that to my face, asshole.” I said, standing up, charging up a Kill spell. Don’t ask me how I knew how to do that, I didn’t know either. But damn if I didn't want to use one.
“Very well. Begone, mortals.” Daybreaker said, and all the other ponies but me and Sunny disappeared in a flash of blood red light.
“Alright. Cool. It’s just you, me, and the moron who thinks siding with you is a good idea. By the way, my name is Sunset Shimmer and you killed Princess Luna.”
“I am well aware of that. It was almost an effort to do so. I doubt you will be, Sunset of Clan Shimmer.”
“I’m not done, firehair. My name is Sunset Shimmer. You killed Princess Luna. Prepare to die!”
I threw the white orb of death at Daybreaker. She rolled her eyes as it hit her, doing nothing and dissipating into the air.
“What did you expect, Alicorn? That you could ever amount to a tenth of what I am capable of?” She said, smiling.
Her horn glowed with all the colours of the Sun. I screamed as the fire touched me. Every muscle I had tore itself off the bone. Every bone I had shattered to dust. My hair burned. My eyes melted. My blood boiled. The world turned to fire as everything turned to pain.
“Fuck you.” I stuttered, before dying.