If there was one thing that could be said for the eternal nothingness of a destroyed world, it was that it gave a mare time to think. After making sure Twilight was okay from the re-introduction of Midnight’s spark, Sunset had done just that.
The first thing that had crossed her mind was the Talisman problem. Lady Twilight’s universe had apparently been some kind of pocket-dimension. The fight between her and Discord had annihilated everything; not just the planet, but the entire universe. While she conceded that the pair were powerful, Sunset highly doubted that even they could have destroyed a full-size ‘verse. The amount of power that would take would be…
Hell, she could probably ask every voyager ever and still never find the answer.
The net result was that the destruction of the mad alicorn’s fiefdom had taken every ounce of magic with it. The Talisman wasn’t charging, and neither could Sunset feel the familiar tingle of magical fields, her horn itching at their absence.
She reached up to scratch it, which was when she discovered that her mane was completely gone. After a mild panic attack over the loss of her hair, she quickly guessed that this was likely due to the lack of a universe. Settling down, Sunset turned her mind to the current predicament.
No magic meant no charge. No charge meant no way out of here. Even if “here” wasn’t anywhere, since everywhere she looked was just black… forever. Even the “ground” they sat on offered no relief, just as featureless as everything else. It grated against Sunset’s sanity to look into it, and who knew how Twilight was taking it?
She looked over at the other unicorn, something which should have been impossible without a light source, who was just staring into the nothingness, apparently lost inside herself. And who wouldn’t be after all this?
Just days ago, Sparky had been minding her own business, and then this coarse, ungrateful, violent girl had appeared in her room and dragged her across the multiverse on account of her own drama. As a result, she’d been terrorized countless times, subjected to foul magicks and literally had her mind rent asunder. If Sunset were Twilight, she’d hate her guts right now.
But that was just it, wasn’t it? Even though there probably was a Twilight out there just like Sunset, this one wasn’t. And she’d deserved none of this. She didn’t deserve to be snatched from her home, to be the center of something that didn’t involve her, to have been made a shell of her former self. She deserved to be in her own universe, in her own home, with her own friends and family.
She deserved better.
Twilight watched with dispassion as Discord pulled his hand from his head. Dimly, she was aware of words being passed between him and Sunset, but she wasn’t really listening. It didn’t matter. Nothing did. She felt the draconequus press his finger against her forehead, just under her horn.
For a split second, there was nothing, just the remnant feeling of pressure on her skin. Then, deep in the grey recesses of her ailing personality, something tiny cried out. It was a primal cry, one of anger, pain and hunger. And apparently, Twilight was the perfect source of food.
What started as the tiniest of sparks in her head exploded almost instantly into a full-blown entity, sweeping through her collapsing mind and shoring it up against further decay; consuming the empty spaces left behind for itself. As it went, the entity emanated the impression of a ravenous hunger being sated, like a beast that had been starved for weeks. Twilight gasped, the sensation not unlike jumping into a pool on a hot summer’s day.
The whole thing was over as quick as it started, leaving Twilight a little breathless but finally able to think, at least in a limited capacity. She targeted this returned ability straight at the new entity in her mind.
‘Hello?’
For a moment, there was nothing but silence in response. Then, just as she was about to try again, she got a weak response:
‘Never thought I’d be glad to hear your voice again.’
‘Midnight?! What happened? I thought you were gone forever!’ Midnight chuckled croakily.
‘So you did miss me. As for what happened, your so-called friend decided to use me for his own purposes.’
‘His own purposes? What do you mean?’
‘I mean he wanted to turn this little dimension into his own personal playground, and he was going to use me up to do it. He must’ve scraped some of you out with me, because I was going to let him, too.’ Twilight ignored the barb.
‘Are you alright?’ she asked. ‘You feel... different.’
‘I’m about as far from alright as I can be, but we have bigger problems. Lady Twilight got sent back to her home universe, and she’s going to set up again.’
‘How do you know that?’ Twilight caught the mental equivalent of a shrug.
‘It’s what I’d do. Now, I’ve been poking around your brain, and I’ve seen what happened while I was gone. I have a plan, but I need you to listen closely…’
“I don’t know if you can hear me right now, but… I’m sorry,” Sunset said, unable to look the silent Twilight in the eye. “I’m sorry I dragged you into this, Sparky. If it wasn’t for me, you’d still be at home right now.”
She sighed and held the Talisman in her hoof where it dangled from her neck. Unsurprisingly, it hadn’t charged any. Without ambient magic, it never would.
“Because of me,” Sunset continued. “You’re far from home and hurt. Lady Twilight may have created that MegaMidnight, but I’m the one that got you involved in this whole mess with my selfish actions. I stole something I shouldn’t have, and now you’re stuck in this… nothing.”
Still looking at the Talisman, Sunset cast her mind back to when the two of them first met. Stood opposite each other in that bedroom, the Talisman suspended in a glowing field…
There was no ambient magic here, but there was still magic. In Twilight. In her.
“I don’t…” Sunset started, but her words caught. She knew what she had to do, and that made what she wanted to say even harder, somehow. She finally looked over at Twilight, who remained placid.
“I don’t know if you really feel the way about me I think you do, but I hope you do. I don’t deserve it, and you deserve so much more than me, but I do care about you, even if I’m terrible at showing it sometimes.”
With a sigh, Sunset looked at the Talisman once more before looking into Twilight’s eyes. She thought she saw a glimmer of the life that had formerly been in them, but dismissed it as a trick of whatever was allowing her to see in this void.
“If you asked when I started feeling this way, I wouldn’t be able to tell you, I just know I do.” The orange unicorn gave a wry chuckle. “I mean, you’re a Twilight and I’m a Sunset, that’s how it works, right?”
Sunset felt a tear roll down her cheek. With a tug, she pulled the Talisman from round her neck, clutching it in her hoof.
“I’m stalling,” she said, emotion furring her words. “You were right, though. I can’t get you home, but I can at least get you back to some people who can.”
Leaning forward, Sunset planted a gentle kiss on Twilight’s cheek.
“Don’t forget me, Sparky, okay?” She shook her head. “Hell, maybe you should. After all, you deserve better.”
With that, Sunset powered up her horn and took the Talisman in her magic.
Slowly, the device began to glow.
‘Do you understand?’
‘I think so.’
‘That’ll have to do. We don’t really have a lot of time.’
‘What makes you say that?’
‘Mostly that Lady Twilight isn’t going to hang around and wait for us, but also because I think your little girlfriend is about to do something monumentally stupid.’
‘My what? What are you-’
Twilight was hit by a sudden rush of mental imagery, all of it of a bald Sunset sitting in front of her, talking about…
Oh. Oh no. No! She couldn’t!
As she realized Midnight must have been holding her awareness of the outside world at bay, Twilight was rocked again by the emotional backwash of what Sunset had said and was clearly planning to do. It wasn’t much emotion, but compared to the total lack of anything she’d felt since Discord had ripped Midnight out of her, it was like an ocean had crashed into her all at once.
And just like that, Twilight was looking at Sunset, instead of just thinking about her.
The other mare’s eyes were closed, her face was pale and she was sweating profusely. A guttural groan escaped from behind her clenched teeth as she poured her magic into the TPT. The fields surrounding her horn and the magical device were diffuse, the void around them sucking the energy out of both almost as fast as Sunset could pour it in. Twilight’s knowledge about magic wasn’t extensive, but from what her Sunset back home had said, magic was an essential part of life for ponies.
And this Sunset was pouring all of hers into the TPT.
“STOP!” Twilight yelled. Her own horn lit up and grabbed the TPT in her magic. Sunset’s eyes flew open at her shout, though her magic didn’t stop.
“Twilight!” she managed to gasp out. “You’re okay!”
“Yes, but you won’t be if you don’t stop!” Sunset just shook her head.
“It’s okay, Twilight. I’m going to get you out of here.”
“Not like this! I won’t let you sacrifice yourself for me!”
“It’ll be alright, Twilight, just-”
“No, it won’t! I’m no different from anyone else! I’m not worth it!”
“You are to me!” Sunset shouted back, tears running down her cheeks. Her hind legs gave out and she fell on her rump. She looked down at her hooves and repeated quietly, “You are to me…”
Twilight reached out with a hoof and gently lifted Sunset’s chin, bringing her teary, cyan eyes up to meet her own.
“I know,” she said softly. “But you’re worth the same to me, too.” With those words, Twilight leaned over to Sunset and placed her own gentle kiss, right on Sunset’s lips.
While she remembered kissing Sunset in both Serena’s cottage and Twily’s world, the feeling was dulled compared to this. Now, she felt like someone had laid a mains cable at the base of her skull and plugged it straight into her spine. Her heart thundered, her lips tingled, her cheeks burned and as intense as the feeling was, it multiplied when she felt Sunset purse her own lips in kind.
As much as she wanted to stay like that forever, Twilight knew she had to break it off. When she did, she smiled at Sunset, who returned the expression.
“Now let go,” Twilight said gently. “Let me take over. Please.”
It seemed like an eternity before Sunset nodded, but eventually she did, her horn extinguishing. With the TPT firmly in her own grasp, Twilight focussed as much of her magic into it as she could, watching as the device glowed even brighter. The feeling of pouring her own essence into the vessel made her nauseous, and sweat ran down into her eyes. Eventually, though, the TPT pulsed with energy and a portal unsteadily tore itself into existence.
Panting from the effort, Twilight stood and turned to Sunset, gesturing to the newly formed portal. Nodding, Sunset stood and leaned into her slightly. Together, they staggered their way across the threshold.
As they did so, a little voice, carrying just the hint of a smirk, spoke proudly in the back of Twilight’s mind.
‘Good girl.’