//------------------------------// // Chapter 27: Here I Am // Story: Gods and Monsters // by Revel Montaro //------------------------------// Twilight fell back gasping in surprise from the sudden and unexpected flash of light. She could not tell if more light was emanating from Sunset’s eyes or from the rings. Both were blinding, but her scream, that throat tearing banshee wail that was amplified by Sunset’s out of control alicorn power just tore through Twilight’s very sense of being and sent waves of vertigo that nearly made her vomit. “SUNSET!” Twilight reached out towards the expanding ball of light, trying and failing at shielding her eyes with her wings. The door to the room crashed open from a swift double buck kick. Twilight could not see who was at the door and remembered shouting at them to stay back, but was not sure her voice was able to carry over the sound of the screaming and static crackle of magical energy. The ball of light that had expanded to consume all of Sunset Shimmer suddenly collapsed like a dying star and crashed back on the rings that had remained floating even after Twilight had dropped her levitation field. The rings, which Twilight had managed to glance at, were still glowing white hot until they finally shattered to dust. The energy that had expanded and contracted finally exploded outward once more as the shattering of the rings sent a concussion wave through the room upending furniture and shattering glass picture frames, a flower vase, and Sunset’s crystal video game monitor. Much like all the other loose objects, all the ponies in the room were thrown off their hooves as well. Twilight slid into the kitchenette while Sunset was thrown over the sitting room sofa not far from the bedroom door. The ponies that had entered the room after the screaming started had been thrown back into the hall. It was difficult to hear past the ringing in her ears, but Twilight managed to recover for the most part, spurn on by the sound of painful cries. She was not one hundred percent certain, but it sounded like it was... “S, Sunset?” “ERRRRRGH!!!!! GRAAAHHHHH!!! SON OF A ONE LEGGED WENCH FROM WISCONSIN! ARGH! SOMEBODY GET ME SOME FUCKING TYLENOL!” “Princess Twilight!” Twilight turned her head to the calling of her name that sounded like it was a hundred meters away. “Are you all right?!” Twilight nodded to Tempest who had finished helping Sable Nimbus back to her hooves before staggering over to check her princess for injuries. Twilight ignored her inspections for physical damage as she tossed furniture out of the way with her hooves to reach Sunset. She would have used levitation magic, but after such an explosion there may have been residual energy that could react violently to something even as simple as a levitation spell. Not to mention the ringing in her ears was making it difficult to concentrate. “Twilight!” called out Isabella, gasping at the state of the room. “Blessed ancestors! What in the world happened?! That explosion rattled the entire castle!” Twilight moved the broken couch and found Sunset on her back, wings missing a few feathers, fur singed in many places, and smelling of burnt mane. She was clutching her head and horn, her one hoof that had come in contact with the rings was also burned and in need of medical treatment, but for the most part she seemed to be in one piece. “Sunset!” Sunset Shimmer blinked a few times, her teal eyes focusing on the purple alicorn standing above her with tears in her eyes and deathly concern on her muzzle. “Oh, hey, Twilight. Don’t suppose you brought me anything for a splitting headache?” Twilight could feel her breathing catch as she began to hyperventilate. “S, Sun, Sunset?!” “Yeah? You okay? Oh, shit, did I just blow up the lab? Guess I put too much pure sodium in with the mixture.” “You… you…” Sunset rolled over, her body aching all over, but she ignored the pain because Twilight looked like she was on the edge of a nuclear reactor meltdown. Slowly and carefully Sunset raised her hooves, noticing one was badly singed and felt numb. Another problem for later. “Twilight, brea-” “WHAT WAS THE FIRST THING YOU EVER SAID TO ME?!” Sunset blinked rapidly. “Uhhhh, ‘sorry it had to be this way… princess’? Or something like that? I’ve got a great memory of the scene, us running through the crystal castle while your friends gave chase, but that was well, you know, when I was being a bitch so I try not to think about that often.” “You… you… you remember me?” “Well, yeah…” Sunset took a moment to look around. “Oh, ponyfeathers, did I blow myself so badly that I ended up all the way back in my room?” Sunset eyes went wide and she gasped. “Oh shit! Raven?!” There was no response, “RAVEN!” Sunset searched around frantically, wincing every time she stepped or tried to move debris. She tried to levitate something, but immediately dropped it when pain shot through her skull like a railroad spike. Sunset staggered and nearly blackout from the pain. Twilight regained some of her awareness and shook her head. “Um, she was over by her charging pad, which was on the table… which is now over there.” Is this real? Am I dreaming? Am I dead and this is just my heart’s desire? Sunset stumbled making little ouch sounds every time she took a step. “Princess,” said Tempest, scratching the side of her head. “What’s going on?” “Did she... just remember something?” commented Isabella, taking a moment to right a lounge chair so Twilight could sit, but the princess refused, still watching her lover move about, slack jawed and wide eyed. “Oh, thank Celestia!” Sunset held up her PAAL gently in her hooves. “She’s in a system restart diagnostic. I remember reading that’s not unusual when it suffers a hard shock. The case seems intact. Not happy about some of these screen scratches, but I might be able to buff them out a bit. No cracks to the glass, which is a relief. She should pop back on in a-” Raven’s pony avatar popped on screen and her eyes began searching back and forth as if speed reading. Sunset’s expression brightened in surprise. “Huh, that’s new. Nice rendering of Raven... uh, Raven. Especially considering it wasn’t designed around a pony face. I wonder if they considered that some people would want fictional characters or anthros when they wrote the software for the app.” “Processor, okay, memory, okay, camera, okay, audio receptor…” Raven looked at her owner and mimicked blinking rapidly. “Sunset?” “Hey, can you see and hear me?” “Audio receptor and speakers, okay. I appear to be fully functional. Amazing considering the concussion forced me into safe mode. I am immensely thankful for the Gorilla glass and Kevlar casing.” Sunset nodded. “You and me both. I would have cried a river if you had been damaged.” “Oh?” “Hell yeah, you have all my music, pictures, and games! Oh, and I would have lost a friend too. Seriously, you are like a really close second to my stuff, razor close.” The avatar glared and quirked a frown before smirking in a very Sunset manner. “Cute. It also appears you are no longer suffering from total memory loss.” Sunset blinked. “Huh?” Sunset looked up at the ponies and griffon in her room, completely perplexed. She imagined her own expression was not much more flattering. Then the stalled brain gears started turning again. “Have the Athanatoi returned yet? I know we were short on time. What is the date and time?” For an answer Sunset got suddenly tackled by Twilight. The purple princess wrapped her in a bone crushing hug and began to sob uncontrollably into the other alicorn’s coat. Sunset cringed and hissed while gently patting Twilight's head. “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry!” Twilight cleared her throat and composed herself. “We need to get you to the castle infirmary immediately! Isa, send word to the nurse on call and contact Dr. Guiding Light.” “I’m sure it’s not that b-” Twilight poked Sunset in the shoulder with her hoof and she yelped and cringed in pain. “Okay, yeah, maybe a checkup is in order. Feh, I hate hospitals.” “I don’t care. You need to be thoroughly checked over and you have a LOT of explaining to do.” ---------- “Well, since my nurse’s scan backfired,” said Dr. Guiding Light with an annoyed shrug as the unicorn nurse limped out of the room massaging her horn, “my official diagnosis is magical feedback overload. The best way I can describe it is imagine having somepony clamp down on your horn hard the moment before you cast the spell. The energy that is usually directed to the horn has to go somewhere and it usually travels back down through the body to groundout in the earth. Most minor spell backfires follow those same magically stimulated pathways. In this case however, the power traveled through her hoof and up, as you saw from the burns and instead of grounding out it went up to her brain.” “That sounds bad,” said Twilight, glancing back and forth between the doctor and Sunset who was lying back in bed while another nurse wrapped her foreleg in ointment coated bandages for burns. “Oh, I imagine if she were not an alicorn and not so blasted hard headed it would have been fatal. Judging by the description of the state of the room where the incident occurred her brain should have been turned to putty. As it is, she's just overcharged with excess energy that should bleed off naturally over time and we can try a medical scan again in a few hours. Until then I want Sunset to remain here and absolutely no magic use until I can determine it is safe. Then we can begin testing her memory to see if it all came back or if there are holes. For now, I’ll leave you two to speak. If she wants to nap let her, but if she passes out, contact me immediately. It could be sign of a stroke or other type of bleeding in the brain.” Twilight nodded her thanks to the earth pony doctor who glared one last time at Sunset before shaking her head. Sunset just flashed a weak smile and waved her wrapped hoof. “We’ll be right outside if you need us, Your highness,” said Tempest as she and Gauge bowed and followed the doctor and other attending nurse out of the room, gently closing the door behind them. “So…” Sunset closed her eyes and let out a long breath. “Right, so you told the doctor the last thing you remember was crafting and performing a memory spell in the lab after taking a break from working on your speakers. Care to elaborate?” “Yeah, just give me a second. My brain is trying to sort out where to put everything again apparently. I don't suppose I can get a coffee?" "Sunset," Twilight glared. "Okay, you're right, I'll live. You remember when we were in the restricted section looking for anything we could about the Memory Stone?” “Of course. I had a great time reading all afternoon with you.” “Well, one of the books I came across that I thought was promising was on how to craft a memory retainer. Kind of like the memory stone, but the user willing copied memories to it instead of having them maliciously stolen. Anyhow, after we gathered the chaos energy, I took a small piece with me back to the lab to use as a catalyst because the spell required some pretty rare ingredients to craft properly. It was also originally only designed to hold a few precious memories, not your whole life, which is probably why it exploded. I suspected that the spell was going to push the containment vessel to its stress threshold, which was why I had to use my titanium rings as the retainers just because they were the strongest material I had available. I saw the chain, but not the rings, I don't suppose you know what happened to them?" "I only caught a glimpse, but I am pretty sure they shattered into flaming light." "I didn’t see them on the floor. I guess they must have overcharged and broke into a million pieces. Well, that sucks.” “But… that’s crazy! How could you have possibly known you would need to backup your memory before the battle? How could you have even known you might end up in the river?! How could you have known that would have even worked?! Look what happened to you! Was that suppose to be a gift or were you trying to blow me up?!” “Well, I was definitely NOT trying to hurt you, Twily. But before I get into all that, could you tell me what DID happen? You said it’s been five days since we captured the Athanatoi and I ended up a blank slate.” Twilight swallowed her frustrations and curiosity and nodded, recounting how they had lowered the sun and raised the moon together in the tower. She blushed and stumbled over what happened after that. Sunset arched an eyebrow and fought down her smirk at what she suspected happened after that, but did not push the issue as Twilight explained that the Athanatoi destroyed Tartarus and apparently were unable to access the Underworld as long as Luna was alive. The cage had worked for the most part as anticipated and they had captured the four of them alive after a small hoof to hoof fight for control of the space. Sunset beamed and sighed contently that the cage had worked, but scowled when she mentioned the loss of one of the guards. Twilight shuddered and had to steady her breathing as she described the creature they met by the river in the Underworld and how it wore the face of her brother just to keep Twilight unnerved. Her smile returned, however when she described being able to see her best friends again and Celestia. Sunset sighed and sobbed slightly when she heard that she got to speak to not only her mother, but apparently her father as well. Unfortunately, it had been a private conversation and she could provide no details on what was said because soon after, Balius broke free and Sunset sacrificed herself to keep him from killing anypony else or reaching the Golden City. “And after I got the water out of your lungs I was glad you were alive, but I also knew you had just lost all your memories as well. It was... conflicting. No, truth is, it broke my heart to see you like that.” “Damn, I mean, I had a feeling we were going to have problems, but just... wow.” Sunset looked down at her hooves, one bandaged, the other fine. “If you don’t mind, after I’m recovered, I would like to try and use my empathy powers on you so I can see it all through your memories. It won’t be exactly the same, but it would be better than nothing.” “Oh!” Twilight blushed again, playing with her mane. “Yes, that, that would be fine. I just… I’ll have to explain a few little things before we do that… about you… and me… us.” Sunset smirked. “Sure, whatever makes you comfortable.” Twilight coughed and regained her composure. “Now, it’s your turn. You need to explain to me how you could have POSSIBLY known to make a copy of your memories.” Sunset grimaced, but then smiled weakly. “It wasn’t because I was afraid I’d end up losing my memories from the river. Heck, I wasn't sure the river was real or just Aine being cryptic. I gave you the rings because I was pretty sure that if the Athanatoi didn’t kill me that Aine would after it was all over.” Twilight gawked. “What? Why would she do that?” “Twily, I yelled at the goddess of all creation. I THREATENED with death a being that was and likely still is more than capable of reducing me into atoms if she felt it was in her best interest. All I kept thinking about at the time was being smited to dust… Smote? Smitten? Whatever. Turned to dust by a holy lightning bolt or something. Keep in mind that I was really angry and not thinking straight at the time, but still. Baaaaaaad idea. So, I was worried my days were numbered and I wanted to give you something to remember me with. What better than access to all my memories?” “Except it exploded.” Sunset gestured her begrudging agreement. “Yes, well. It required a special catalyst that I did not want to give up, so I substituted chaos energy and well, chaos is chaos. Instability combined with overloaded containment vessel and... boom. Ideally, it would have given you access to my memories anytime you had put the rings on.” “But that was so ridiculously dangerous! Why would you do something like that?” Sunset smiled more genuinely, moving her uninjured hoof to her chest, just above her heart. “Because I love you.” Twilight just blinked. Sure, she had heard it before from Sunset on her farewell message, but to hear it from the pony’s mouth? A dream come true. “Twily? You okay?” “Say it again.” Sunset smile became a wide, toothy grin. “I love you, Twilight Sparkle. I would take any risk, face any enemy, lay down my life without hesitation to keep you safe. You are my diamond at night, you are my shining star, the light of my life before the dawn. If you’ll have me, if you can put up with me and my occasional bouts of reckless abandon I will still gladly stand by your side as a fellow ruler of Equestria, through it all.” Twilight stood and leaned over Sunset, closed her eyes, and gently pressing her lips to the other alicorn’s. They remained in their kiss for more than a minute, not pressing too hard or too soft. Finally, Twilight retreated ever so slightly, rubbing her horn against Sunset's and smiled. Their eyes opened and stared at one another. “Yes.”