Sunset groaned as her eyes fluttered open, her head resting on something soft and glowing in a faint gray light. A rich floral scent assaulted her senses as she forced herself to her feet. She staggered to her left and just managed to get a grip on what felt like a wall in that direction before she slammed into it. Slowly, the world stopped spinning around her and she was able to get a better look at her surroundings.
She was standing in the middle of a long dimly lit hallway. The walls and ceiling were made of some sort of black stone while the floor was covered in dark gray glowing lilies. Aside from her breathing, the hall was completely silent. A chill shot down her spine from how empty everything about the place felt. Her thoughts instantly jumped to her friends and girlfriend. Where they in this place too? Where they safe?
An image of Derpy laying on the ground crossed her mind, the girl's eyes wide with terror as a puddle of blood formed around her. The image made Sunset's blood boil as she leveled a glare into the abyss before her.
She thinks she can take her from me? Hell no. No one will take away my hoard! I'LL BURN THAT MONSTER'S ASHES TO ASHES!
A deep growl crept past her lips as she moved forward, her hands clenched into tight fists as she glared into the darkness beyond her line of sight. As she walked, the flowers nearest to her started to let out small trails of smoke, but this didn't matter all that much to Sunset. All that mattered was finding her friends, saving the CMC, and destroying her enemy.
Several turns and forks greeted her as she tried to find her way through the tunnels towards her goals. As she did, her anger continued to grow. When she found her tenth dead end, she let out a furious cross between a yell and a roar as she slammed a fist into the wall.
Calm down Sunset, she thought as she took a deep breath. Getting mad won't get you anywhere. You need to calm down and figure something out.
She cradled her chin in the crook between the index finger and thumb of her right hand as she tried to figure out what to do. It was clear that she was in a maze, a fact that nearly reignited her anger again as she stared at the wall in front of her. It was also clear that wandering around aimlessly wasn't going to help her get out all that quickly. At least, not unless she got insanely lucky, but considering that this was "Lily's world" the odds of luck helping her was hilariously low.
A frustrated sigh slipped past her lips as she turned around and started walking back down the hall. Ten steps into her walk, something below her caught her attention. In the middle of the hall, a straight line of dead flowers greeted her. A smile spread across her lips as an idea started to take shape in her head.
***
Lily lounged in her throne, a confident smile gracing her lips as she stared at several oneway portals hovering before her. Through them, she could see Sunset and her friends struggle their way through the new additions she made to her home. It took a considerable amount of power to reconstruct her pocket dimension, but it was more than worth it to see the fiery hared girl let out her frustrations on a wall. The construction was simple, but extremely intricate in scale. Her normal flower garden sat at the heart of her world, but now the twenty miles wide field was surrounded by a series of labyrinthine dungeons that surpassed the heart by twice its size. While it was far from impossible to navigate, the maze was very difficult to get through quickly if one were to try to rush through it. In addition, each of the eleven girls had a seed that they needed to get past in order to get to her. A fairly simple set of obstacles, but the kind that gave her more than a reckless direct attack. There was something about these girls that made them different from her usual prey and she was not going to take any unnecessary risks. This went double for the safety of her children as far as she was concerned
Her children giggled as they watched Sunset loose her temper, something that brought a bit of warmth to her heart as she watched them sit by her feet. She chuckled as she summoned a vine, wrapped it around them, and brought them onto her lap. She let out a happy hum as she pulled them into a tight hug, each of them smiling as they playfully struggled against her show of affection.
"Mom, c'mon," Scootaloo giggled. "I'm trying to watch!"
"Yeah," Applebloom smiled. "Ah want ta' learn how to hunt!"
"But I want to hug my darling daughters," Lily pouted, nuzzling the tops of their heads one by one. "Or are all of you too big for momma's love?"
"Nope," Sweetie smiled as she hugged the Wraith. "Never!"
"No fair," Scootaloo pouted, a dark gray blush coloring her cheeks as she stopped resisting and hugged her back.
Applebloom just smiled as she melted into the hug.
"Besides," Lily smiled. "It looks like one of you already knows how to hunt."
Sweetie giggled as she playfully stuck her tongue at her sisters. Scootaloo and Applebloom rolled their eyes at that as Lily let them all pull out of the hug.
"Why, before I know it, you three will all grow strong enough to head out and make your first kills. Oh how I will miss you all when that happens," she sighed, her smile turning wistful and sad as she lightly moved Scootaloo's hair out of her eyes.
"Mom, are there others like us out there?" Scootaloo asked.
"Yes my child," the Wraith smiled. "The Queen has made many brothers and sisters for me and I have done the same for you."
"The Queen? Who's that?" Applebloom asked, tilting her head.
Lily's gaze turned distant as a soft smile spread across her face.
"She is the oldest and most powerful Wraith in the world. With but a flick of her wrist, I have seen her level mountains and split seas. Armies have tried to slay her, but none all of them were nothing but ants before her power. All Wraiths aspire to be like her, even a little bit. A goddess of power and bounty to herself and all of her children that could end all who crossed her path."
The girls stared at Lily in awe, the thought that a being of such great power too much for them to comprehend. The fact that their mother had met this person, this great progenitor of their kind, made them look up to her all the more. A pride that they didn't properly understand started to fill them as they basked in their mother's presence.
"But," she continued. Do you know what the greatest fact of all is about the Queen?"
They shook their heads.
With a proud smile, she pulled them into another hug and said, "That she has such beautiful Grandchildren."
They froze, shock widening the young Wraiths eyes as they processed that, only for wide smiles to spread across their faces.
"W-We're The Queen's Grandchildren?" Applebloom asked.
"For real?" Scootaloo gaped. "That's so awesome!"
"Can we meet her?" Sweetie asked, pulling out the hug just enough to meet her mother's eyes.
Lily's face fell at that and said, "No my dear. Mother has been allusive lately and no one can find her unless she wants to be found. That is why Wraiths try so hard to become strong. If you can reach her level of power, then she will show you the way to her throne."
The three girls traded glances, then smiled as they pulled out of Lily's hug and as one said, "We will do it! We will meet The Queen one day!"
As they said that, a black burst of power shot out of their backs like an inky mist. The sight earned a proud smile out of the elder Archwraith.
"Perhaps," she purred. "You all will need a lot more power to do it, but you are off to a good start. I don't know what happened to you all in that other world, but you each have much more power than any youngling should have at your age."
They beamed up at her.
A bit of movement from one of the oneway portals caught her attention.
"Well now," she said with a venomous smile. "It looks like she's closing in on one of the seed chambers. Let's see how well she fairs against it."
***
Sunset's eyes scanned her surroundings with the precision of a raptor as she walked, the air growing heaver with each step as the oily tainted energy grew thicker around her. It wasn't hard for her to figure out how to navigate the maze. Thanks to the dead flowers, she quickly figured out where she didn't need to go and used a simple process of elimination. The fact that Lily's magic was so rancid didn't hurt her chances all that much either. Even a complete novice should've been able to sense such a foul build of power blindfolded, the only difference being that a novice would know to go the opposite direction of such a source.
Sunset was silent as she made her way towards the magic's source, her own magic raging in her core in response. It was as if an inferno rested inside of her, filling her with power with every step she took.
Was this what a dragon felt before a fight? she thought idly. No wonder they were such jerks back home. I feel so strong, like nothing can get in my way.
"And nothing will," she whispered coldly.
As the words left her lips, she made a turn and stepped into a new addition to the maze. It was a massive circular room easily the size of a football field. Like the rest of the maze, glowing flowers grew out of the floor, but now they also grew out of the ceiling and shined twice as brightly. The change in scenery meant little to her compared to what stood at the center of the chamber. At its heart stood the very same monster she saw on the bridge, its shredded paper-like mouth the only facial feature it held twisted into a long sadistic smile.
"Welcome Sunset Shimmer," the creature said, its voice gurgly and wet. "To the last few minutes of your life."
"Really?" Sunset snorted, stepping further into the room. "I don't see that happening. I don't plan on dying here."
"You say that like you have a choice," it said with a hissing laugh. "My mistress has marked you for death. Therefore, you shall die."
"Mistress? I guess that means you're not Lily, right?" she asked.
"No," it hissed. "I am a seed she crafted to end you. A miserable whelp like you is not worth my mistress' time."
A moment of silence filled the room before Sunset let out a humorless chuckle.
"Funny," Sunset said as she gave the seed a cold smile. "I feel the same way about you."
https://youtu.be/st483RdmSQY
The seed's smile fell and with a savage scream its arm stretched as it lashed it out at her like a whip. In a flash, a Unicorn horn appeared on her forehead followed by pony ears appearing on her head. A second later, a flaming whirlwind surrounded her, completely incinerating the incoming limb before it could even touch her. The seed screamed in pain before it tore off the damaged appendage, a new one growing in its place mere seconds later. Sunset stepped through the flames, a look of cold indifference on her face as she stared at the seething seed.
"I'm going to make this simple for you," she said coldly. "Get out of my way or I'm going to kill you."
The seed hissed like an enraged cobra, its tendril-like hair writhing spastically on its head.
"You think yourself worthy of the mistress' presence? Don't make me laugh! A paltry fire trick such as this will not make me yield!"
"Fine," Sunset sighed as she pointed her palm at the monster. "Then die."
With that said, a stream of fire shot out of her hand towards the seed. The monster smiled as a hole opened in her body where the blast of fire was about to hit, passing harmlessly through her and searing the ground. Sunset's eyes narrowed with annoyance while the seed laughed manically.
"Fool! My body is like liquid!" the seed boasted, its form rippling as if to prove a point. "A pitiful attack like that will never touch me, let alone kill me!"
"Really," Sunset growled. "Good to know."
As she said that, she gathered some of the fire covering the battlefield into a tight ball in her hand and threw it at the seed. It just laughed as it let the attack pass through another hole before running towards Sunset, its lower body like that of a snake as it slithered towards her. Sunset summoned a wall of flame when the monster made the five-foot mark, but it dove through it towards her. Sunset gathered some fire into her hand again, but instead of making it into a fireball, she compressed it as hard as she could and aimed her flaming palm at the creature's face. At the last possible second, she jumped back as the spell touched the seed's forehead. It exploded instantly, tearing the whole top half of the creature's body apart. Sunset stayed on guard, flames already forming in her hands as she stared her enemy's remains down. There was no way it was that easy.
As if to prove her point, the creature laughed as its body reformed.
"Impressive," it grinned. "But futile. You can blast me apart as many times as you like, but it will do nothing. Just surrender and let your death come. I promise to make it as quick and painless as I can."
"Tempting," Sunset smirked. "But I think I'll pass. I have a girlfriend I need to find and a monster to kill after all."
A deep scowl grew on the seed's face and with another furious scream, it charged at her. Sunset smiled as she ran forward, flames covering her hands and arms as she decided to put all of her training to use.
In the past, she would've simply coated her hands or hooves in flame, now whirling tempests of fire surrounded her hands and arms. The result turned her punches into devastating flame drills that tore into her opponent's body and ripped apart anything she blocked. The seed's attacks were relentless, each as fast as a viper and just a touch less precise as its temper continued to grow. Every now and then Sunset would break away from melee combat to release more long range blasts, her opponent snarling in fury and the battle field becoming further consumed by Sunset's blaze.
Almost there, she thought, panting as she stared down her opponent, flames raging around them and growing wilder by the second
"Not too bright, are you?" the seed sneered, not even winded as it stared Sunset down. "As a human, you need air to live. All this fire is going to make that rather hard soon."
"Your right," Sunset smirked. "A human would have a hard time here, but let me tell you something interesting."
"What?" the seed chuckled.
Sunset's smile grew as she said, "I'm not exactly human."
A second later, gold and red flames manifested all over Sunset's body, all of it writhing and surging like liquid gold as it moved. The heat in the room skyrocketed as the same flames appeared on every surface not previously consumed by the growing inferno. The seed's smile wilted as it looked around, genuine fear making itself known in its features. Slowly, its body started to bubble as a rancid gray steam wafted off of its body. The seed screamed as right before its eyes, its liquid body started to turn to vapor.
"No! Stop! Please!" it begged, its body slowly shrinking as the heat gradually took its toll. "H-Have mercy on me!"
"Why?" Sunset asked, her eyes cold as ice in spite of the raging inferno that surrounded her.
"I-I can take you my mistress," it stammered. "I will be your servant for the rest of my life! Please, spare me and I will do anything you wish!"
Sunset stared at the seed for a few seconds then sighed as she said, "I told you to get out of my way."
The seed gaped at her, then growled as all of its previous desperation gave way to anger.
"Then if this is to be my fate, let it be the one we share!"
As it said that, the seeds body melted into a large black puddle and surged towards Sunset. The girl barely blinked as she was enveloped by the viscus black sludge, the monster forming into a large sphere around her. The seed laughed, the pain from the flames that surrounded her mostly forgotten as it tightened its grip on its target.
"Die! Struggle! Gasp for air as you are erased from this world along with me witch!"
The seed laughed harder as it continued to squeeze, all the while wondering if her bones would break before her lungs. This was it, the seed had won.
Then it felt the heat. Not from the flames that surrounded it, but the prey it held tight in its clutches. It was faint at first, almost pleasant compared to the hell that surrounded it, but it quickly grew to match as the seconds ticked by. An unbearable pain surged through the seed, a blood curdling scream filling the room as it was cooked from the inside out like a hard boiled egg. A gold torrent of flame blasted out of its body, merging with the existing flames and filling the room with a whirling hurricane of golden fire. The seed let out one last fading scream as it was completely annihilated and in its place stood a lone teen, her hair waving wildly in the heart of the firestorm as her spell ran its course.
In a matter of seconds, everything in the room had been reduced to ash and total darkness took the flame's place. Sunset sighed as she conjured a small fireball in her hand to help guide her through the darkness.
"I forgot about the flowers," she grumbled.
Irritated that she now had to wander the giant room nearly blind, she carefully walked forward with the hope that she would find a way out of the chamber quickly.