Marceline's Sun

by Wanderer D

Chapter 01: Blue Harvest

Canterlot High's walls crawled with darkness, the inky, sticky and fluid type of darkness that crawled like goo out of the depths of the void. Lightning split the night for a second, and stumbling figures could be seen, wading through the miasma, struggling to lift covered arms and hands, forcing mouths open, their lips like splitting drying glue as gasps for help escaped the orifices that passed for mouths.

Voices echoed, judging and bitter resonating across the entire world.

"She really scared me and laughed about it, I don't want her around. She should pay for what she's done! I want to feel safe!"
 
Sunset turned around, floating in the sky as lightning crossed above her, highlighting seconds of spinning clouds. 

"Hello?" she called, but the only answer was the howling of the wind, voices singing with unknown words she couldn't make out, and a slow, pulsating red glow menacingly giving shape to the darkness around her, crawling to grasp her.

She heard her own voice suddenly, crystal clear against the background of moans and cries of pain: "I never knew there was another way! I'm sorry!"

She turned and gasped at the tombstone that had suddenly materialized in front of her.She stood on dried grass, staring down at the dirty stone, in front of which lay her old diary, rotting, the emblem of her cutie mark stained and rusting as the elements, time, and exposure had done their work on it. No flowers decorated the otherwise empty ground in front of it, and it was only adorned with a single mark: the yin-yang sun of her cutie mark and the date of the Prom. 

She stared at her grave, aghast, until a cacophony of voices behind her made her twirl around. "We will never forgive you."

In front of her, the entirety of the student body stood, eyes cold, as she was blasted by a rainbow, and unwilling to listen to her cries as the world was torn around her; as her body disintegrated into specs of light. 

The last thing she recognized was Twilight Sparkle, a sorrowful look in her eyes as she spoke one last time to her.

"I'm sorry. I tried to help them see."

Sunset sighed. "I'm sorry too."

"I'm a monster, Marcy."

Marceline glanced at the demon—her adoptive sister—who lay sprawled on her back next to her. Wings, arms and legs stretched as she stared up at the night sky. Sunset's lips were pressed together, and her eyes were wide as she contemplated the weight of her own admission. Even after all this time, it surprised the vampire how her sister's wavy mane and tail did not burn everything around them… given they were made out of fire.

Below the hill where they had sat down to nap/watch the rest of the open air concert happening outside the forest while they waited for their turn. It was a pretty good crowd too; party bears had arrived early on and were not giving any signs of stopping. They had seen people from the Candy Kingdom come up, and even some ghosts.

Marceline thought about Sunset's comment, then tried to guess the reason. "Eating the last of the chocolate-covered berry mushrooms does not make you a monster, Sunny." She shrugged. "Cruel, yes. Sadistic? Definitely. A monster? Eeeh."

Sunset refused to look at her, stubbornly focusing her eyes on the moon. "Sure it does, did you see how distraught that little ghost baby was when they had none left?"

Marceline rolled her eyes. "Dude, it would have just gone through their body. It's not like they can really eat them."

The other girl blinked. "Oh." She sat up. "I guess that makes sense."

Marceline snorted. "Why are you even worried about that kind of thing, Sunny? We're Alicorn Fall, we're sort of supposed to not be nice at all."

Sunset gave her a sidelong glance. "Really."

"Hey, it's all part of the presentation, we can be our normal anti-hero selves later." Marceline punched Sunset on the shoulder. "Marceline: the Vampire Queen cannot be seen with her sister moping around. What will the fans think?"

"Sorry, sorry," Sunset groaned, reaching over to pick her guitar up. She got into a more comfortable position and strummed it. "I just… I fell asleep for a bit... I had the dream again."

"Oh." Marceline felt a pang of worry in her chest, but quickly made sure it didn't show. Sunset's dreams had plagued her the first few years they had been traveling together, until finally they had faded for a long time after Marceline's transformation into a vampire. 

But even then, Sunset would occasionally fall back into them, and suffer nightmares of her previous life… the weight of being hated and judged and wished dead for her mistakes sometimes turning her into a small, shivering wreck of a demon, crying in her sleep and asking to be forgiven.

It usually ended with several days of sulking and creative blockage that had complicated more than one gig. Still, her sister took precedence, so Marceline took a deep breath and turned her now-blank and totally-not-telling face to glance at the group of pastries playing what had to be the sappiest, sweetest, most cavity-inducing attempt at pop. 

She could already see the crowd was ready to run them out, so that meant they only had one more set before it was their turn. They should be going down there now. "We could just bail, you know?"

Sunset grimaced. "Hell no. This is the big break, remember?"

"Eh. Screw them. It's just another contest. We can come back next year. Or wait a hundred and come back when all the judges are dead. We literally have all the time in the world." She said each word with as much conviction as she could, although it was clear that Sunset wasn't buying it.

"Marcy," Sunset said, "I know how important this is for you." She sighed and stood up, her black, steel-studded boots glinting in the moonlight. "Let's go shred some tunes," she added, turning to offer her hand.

Marceline grinned and took it, pulling herself up to hover a couple of feet off the ground. "Let's make sure they never forget it!" She squeezed Sunset's hand and headed down to prepare.

Guitar riffs, screaming crowds, and songs about their failures, their fears, their almost humiliating attempts at reaching out to others. Marceline started strumming the rhythm, floating back and Sunset stepped forth for her own song:

Let's go to that place
where you messed up your life 
and your heart got turned around
and it's there, lying in pieces

That everyone hates,
and everyone forgets
and everyone judges and
everyone gets

What they want,
it just takes your life
with no chance to turn around
and you're there, lying in pieces

When you're gone,
the light shines
in the dead eyes that
everyone gets

And you're gone,
and all the good people cheer
and all the good people sneer
and all the good people 
are there, lying in pieces!

Sunset glanced over her shoulder, moving her wing just right to allow her to smile at Marceline, who grinned in return as launched into her sweep-pick and the drummer hit the last beats. 

The crowd roared around them, the sheer energy almost enough to lift away the bitterness left over from her dream earlier that day. She basked in the adulation, stepping to the side so Marceline could take center stage.

Her smile froze when her sister did, bowing and grinning at the crowd. She could see the marks the Vampire King had left on her neck… another failure to add to the many she had. And even if it had been several hundred years since she'd returned to find her sister changed, she still felt responsible for not being there.

Mareline caught her staring and rolled her eyes, taking her hand and forcing her to bow to their audience before a ghost with a bowtie floated up to them to shoo them off the stage to much abuse from the audience. 

Sunset gave the next band—a group of lanky wood creatures with equally rural instruments—a thumbs up. "Good luck up there, fellas!"

The lead singer, a racoon with a straw hat, shook his head and motioned for the others to follow him. She felt slightly guilty again. It wasn't her fault that they had been put before these guys, but they'd had a tough time playing banjos to a crowd that had not only survived but embraced hers and Marceline's brand of crazy.

She winced when something cracked behind her, sounding suspiciously like a banjo on someone's head, but refused to look back.

Once they were out of the crowd, Marceline rounded on her. "Hey, I thought you said you understood that what happened to me was not your fault."

Sunset winced. "Sorry… it's just—"

"Nothing." Marceline interrupted, poking Sunset in the chest with her finger. "If anything, it's my fault for letting Simon exile you into the Nightosphere."

Sunset batted Marceline's hand aside with a noncommittal grunt. "You couldn't have known he was going to do that."

"Yeah, well, you couldn't have known I'd run into a bunch of vampires while you were trapped." Marceline crossed her arms and smirked. 

Sunset chuckled. "Fine, fine." She drew Marceline into a tight hug. "I just get anxious about that. Especially after the dreams. They bring back… all the things I did before I met you… and all the things I failed at since. I know you went through a lot before, and I didn't want to add to it…." She leaned into her sister's hair. "I thought… I thought I'd come out of there and you'd be old… or dead."

"You've never failed me." The vampire leaned in, hugging Sunset close, then pulled back after a tight squeeze. "Well, now we're both immortal, and honestly, I love being a vampire." She tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Alright, enough of the mushy stuff, let's go find a place to crash. It's almost morning."

No… 

"She'd better stay away from us from now on!"

"Ah think we'd be better off without her."

"I hope this magic sends her away. And good riddance!"

"I don't want her around. I want to feel safe!"

"She-she's gone! What did you do?!"

The voices echoed in the void around her, four of them blasting her with their hatred, and one, horrified, pleading with them.

"We could have purified her of the magical corruption, teach her another way!" Twilight cried.

"Forget it, Twilight. She's gone, and I can't say I'm sad about it." Rainbow Dash's voice countered.

Sunset was suddenly floating above a smoking crater outside the front of Canterlot High. Rarity, Flutershy, Applejack and Rainbow Dash all stood around it next to Twilight Sparkle as the other students slowly emerged out of the building, now freed from her spell.

This had happened hundreds of years ago, and still their voices and hate haunted her as if it had just taken place the previous night.

"The magic of friendship is intended to heal—to help people change!" Twilight said, turning to all of the students. "It works on the principle that we all have some good inside of us! And together we can bring out the best in each other! Sunset could have been your friend, but you—you'd rather see her dead than give her a chance! What sort of monsters are you?"

"She tried to shoot magic fireballs at us, Twilight!" Applejack retorted. "And y'all might say that the magic corrupted her, but it was her or us, and she never made an effort to be nice to us. We owe her nothing."

"I'm sorry, Darling, but I do believe that the only reason you wanted to extend your hand at her was because you're the same species, rather than—

SLAP!

Twilight flinched and closed her eyes, holding her hand and visibly controlling herself before she spoke again, slowly and coldly. "Everypony should at least get a second chance. If they ignore that, then maybe they're not worth befriending. But when you had the chance to be better, to reach out and save somepony from themselves, you chose to kill them." She shook her head. "Come on, Spike, let's leave this place and never come back. They deserve whatever happens to them next."

Sunset sat up, eyes wide and breathing heavy. She shook her head, raising a claw to her forehead. Nearby, Marceline slept on her side, hugging Hambo tightly. She rolled out of her bed and stumbled as silently as she could out of the dark room, closing the door behind her.

The glare of the sun stung her eyes, and she flinched back before they adjusted and she was able to make out the trees around her. The Forest House Inn was one of her favorite places to spend time in the Land of Ooo. Most of the locals were friendly, and those that weren't… well, she and Marceline had a reputation for kicking ass for a reason.

She took a deep breath, enjoying the morning breeze as she ambled over to sit down at a wooden table next to the large group of trees that had grown together into the house. She sighed, smiling in gratitude as a small sapling wobbled up to her and set down some bread and juice for her. "Thank you."

She waited until she was alone before sighing and dragging a hand down her face. "Why now? After a hundred years they're all dead. They have to be. They're just human." 

"Ah!" a nearby bush screamed, "Your hair is on fire!"

"What?! Oh." She pulled her flaming hair back with her claw, extinguishing the flames and returning the look to her old, wavy hair. "Sorry, that happens when I'm upset…" she called out to the rapidly distancing shrub. 

It had taken her ages to get her hair down to looking normal, instead of what she liked to call "the angry Saiyan" much to Marceline's confusion over the years. "I've grown." She insisted, shaking her head. "I'm not… who I used to be. Why am I having these dreams again after so long?"

The top ice cube in her juice clicked against the glass.

"And even if they weren't… they wouldn't want me back." She glanced down at her claws. "Then why do I feel like I need to do something? Like someone there needs my help?"

The forest was quiet, save for the distant chirping of birds, and the wind rustling the leaves in the trees. It wasn't like she expected an answer anyway. She shook her head, thinking back on what the Elements of Harmony had said to her centuries ago.

Her chance for forgiveness was gone. The last humans died away while she was stuck in this world's hell, and by the time she was out, Marceline was a vampire, and had lived on her own for almost ten years. Honestly, her sister was more important to her than obtaining the forgiveness of people that'd rather see her dead than see if she could change. 

She had caused them a lot of pain, and now she was out of their lives because when the chance had come, they had proven to be no better than her and basically killed her for all they knew. Both sides won. Difference was, she regretted her actions, and if her dreams were true visions, well, they didn't. Her redemption, if it ever came, would not be from the human world of Canterlot High, or from the ponies of Equestria.

It would come from her friends here, and from her sister. If it was even necessary at this stage. Because, if Sunset was honest with herself, she didn't care whether it happened or not, as long as she and Marceline got to spend time together exploring this Land of Ooo. 

Her old life as a pony and then as a human was long gone. She had outlived that by a thousand plus years of being a demon (longer if she counted the dilated time spent in the Nightosphere), and she had a good thing going on here.

She hadn't even bullied a single creature since her start in this world. Well… kicking ass didn't count as bullying if she was saving people right? She had changed more than just in species. She had fully embraced her new chance… and even if the Elements of Harmony had wanted that change to happen in Canterlot High, it was too late now. Her home was here, and she had grown as a person here.

She held her head with both claws as she rested her elbows on the table and groaned.

"More juice?" one of the sapling waiters asked, filling up the glass without waiting for an answer, only to meep in panic when Sunset picked him up and brought him up to her face with a manic look. "I already went over all of this soul-searching bs. Why again? Why now?"

Her question was answered by a distant crack. Sunset frowned and looked up to the clear skies. She could see a swirling portal of blue-white light had suddenly materialized high up ahead. Out of it fell two humanoid creatures in an uncontrolled, but inevitable date with the hard ground.

Sunset sipped her juice.

"Um…" The sapling, who was still being held in place by one of her claws, pointed up at the falling figures. "Aren't you going to help them?"

Sunset glanced at it, then at the woodland creatures, and other humanoids around that were giving her judgemental looks. She sighed, letting the sapling go. "Fine."

She put down her glass, then stretched her wings, pushing off with a powerful leap to gain speed quickly as her magic helped raise her into the air. Once she was above the Forest House Inn, she flapped her wings hard, magical fire flashing in their wake as she accelerated, dodging flying birds on her way.

When she was close enough to the falling figures, she pulled a quick loop around them and matched their speed to grab one of the figures, then the other by the arm and pulling up enough so she could hold them tightly by the waist while their arms were around her shoulders.

Once both were firmly under control, she spread her wings again, allowing the air to help her slow their descent until she was hovering a couple of feet above the soft grass outside the Inn and could safely drop them onto the ground. A couple of animals ran up to check on the unconscious humans, just as she covered her mouth, not quite believing what she was seeing.

"Put them all together in a room…" she ordered one of the Inn's staff. "I'll watch over them."

Marceline yawned and stretched in her bed for a few seconds before nimbly sitting up the exact moment the sun was gone from the horizon. She rolled her shoulders and glanced around the room, her eyes scanning for her sister and their guitars, finding the latter, but not seeing the former.

A flash of worry crossed her mind before she forced herself to calm down. "Just because she's not here, it doesn't mean dad kidnapped her again."

She floated up and went out of the room, searching for Sunset. When she spotted a gingerbread man and a lemon tart making their way through the hall, she floated up to them, tapping their shoulders and quickly turning invisible when they turned, floated up and around them, and materialized behind them.

"Hey."

"Aaaah!"

She grinned a fanged smile at the cowering couple, chuckling evilly and looming over the cowering pair before relaxing into a more normal expression. "Hey guys! I'm looking for my sister. Red. Tall. Hair on fire. Wings. Tail?"

"O-oh…" the tart said, gulping, "y-yeah, her! We saw her!"

The gingerbread man nodded quickly. "Y-yeah! Uh, I think she went into one of the rooms near the entrance."

"Thanks!"

Marceline flew away from the shivering candy people and towards the entrance, where the fox lady attending the front desk recognized her and pointed her to another, nearby room. She didn't bother knocking, not hearing any noise inside, and found her sister sitting while two humans slept on the beds. 

For a moment, she panicked, thinking back to when Sunset had confided in her long ago about the magical items that had trapped her in this world, and how she needed to earn some sort of forgiveness from humans to be able to go back. But Sunset's look wasn't hopeful, or resolute. If anything, it was as if she was scared of them.

"Hey." Sunset didn't look at her, keeping her eyes on the sleeping women, as if she expected them to suddenly jump and bite her.

"Hey yourself." Marceline hovered over each human, studying them, before turning to look at Sunset with a blank expression. "So?" She motioned at the unconscious pair with her hands. "What's the deal?"

Before Sunset could answer, one of the women groaned and slowly opened her eyes. Then, she immediately sat upright, glancing around in a panic before recognizing the girl beside her. She took in the room before her eyes centered first on Marceline, who gave her a toothy smile, and then went over to her sister.

"S-Sunset Shimmer…" the woman spoke, eyes widening and growing progressively wetter by the second. "Y-you're alive!"