Iron Sunset chp 10
Horizons Beyond
Sunset watched with fearful awe as Riven rose high above the wall of crystals the being had made, a wicked grin on her fanged muzzle.
“Best be moving, Little Phoenix!” Riven taunted as she thrust her staff forward. A blast of Dark energy flew from it, hurtling towards its target.
Eyes going wide, Sunset Blinked out of the way, a shower of sparks left in her wake as she reappeared several meters from where the blast eventually struck. The follow up burst of Dark energy from Riven’s staff sent the mare reeling, but not hurting her too much. She did, however, hear faint whispers in the energy, like a Voice beckoning her to simply… relent.
“W-what is going on?” Sunset asked softly as memories she didn’t know she’d had surfaced in her mind, prominent among them a violet skinned human with glasses smiling at her.
“Keep moving!”Riven growled out, sounding almost like she was HELPING Sunset stay focused on the battle at hand, “The Deep has ties to memory while the Sky has ties to the very essence of lift itself! To be lost in one is to be vulnerable to BOTH!”
Riven dashed forward in an overhead strike with her staff. Sunset brought her sword up again and blocked the staff, but felt her Zephyr start to buckle under the power that the Dark gave her opponent. Blinking out of the way again, the Iron Lady looked at Riven curiously, but didn’t say anything.
“Is this the best you can muster?” Riven taunted, “I thought you were made of sterner stuff, Child of the Sun!”
“I’ve still got plenty of surprises!” Sunset snapped back and glared at the dark form of Riven, “Just try me!”
“Oh but I am…” Riven grinned wickedly. She stepped forward and was met with an arrow to the face, which was blocked perfectly by the staff of ice she still held.
Sunset huffed in annoyance as she Blinked further back once more, getting herself very near a wall. She took a step back, then looked behind her, a plan forming in her mind.
“What?” she taunted, “Can’t follow me?”
Riven laughed, then surged forward, a blast of Penumbral energy leaving her staff as she flew forward. Before either the blast or riven herself got close to Sunset, the being’s power suddenly dropped, the Dark crystals that had covered her form falling away to leave a speeding body swinging her Glaive down in another overhead strike at Sunset’s body.
Sunset, in a moment of ridiculous luck, Blinked just behind Riven before the blast was about to hit her, the Dark form of her opponent smashing into the wall mere moments after her initial attack.
“NO MORE!” Sunset bellowed as she flapped her wings once, gaining a little height, before she unleashed a tremendous beam of Arc energy from her horn. The blast struck Riven squarely in the back as she struggled to pull her now stuck glaive from the wall, forcing the not-pony to cry out in surprise and pain as the energy washed over her.
As the torrent of Arc energy began to wind down, Sunset Blinked closer to where Riven was still reeling and let out a furious cry, her wings wrapping around her body for a moment before she hopped up a little, then aimed her horn down, firing a massive bolt of lightning into the ground. Riven, still reeling a little from the initial burst of Arc energy from the Chaos Reach grunted in pain once more as the shockwave from the lightning bolt hit her, sending her crashing against the wall. Before Riven could stand or even think about mustering up some kind of defense, Sunset was on her, a new torrent of Arc energy flowing from her wings and into Riven’s form, causing the not-pony to screech in pain as Sunset’s new powers were turned against the being.
Eventually, Sunset’s Arc abilities ran out and the little mare hit the ground, panting heavily while Riven did the same, laying on her side. The not-pony eventually attempted to struggle upright, slipping once or twice before getting into a sitting position.
“Better, Little Sun,” Riven spoke, her voice breaking with pain once, “Midnight will be a challenge for you, to be sure… but for now… rest.”
Glaring up at Riven’s now kinder looking visage, Sunset just huffed and shook her head, her legs trembling a little at the lack of energy she felt.
“What now, you may ask?” Riven said with a smile, “Rest. Then, I shall give you a gift. One that may aid you in the trials to come.”
With that, Riven hobbled away. Nothing more to be said and an incredibly confused and tired Sunset Shimmer left in her wake.
Philomena took that chance to recompile and said, in a fairly deadpan tone, “Well THAT was a thing…”
`~`~`~`~`~
After a long rest and a couple applications of a Healing Rift, Sunset was ready to move back to the Library she had started from. She was, however, still more than frustrated with how the battle went.
“All of that, the fear, that weird bunch of crystals, all of it, just to get me to tap into my Arc Light…” Sunset groused as she walked around the area, “That thing… what was it?”
“I’m not sure,” Philomena replied, hovering next to her Guardian’s shoulder, “But whatever she was, she was powerful. If the circumstances were different, I don’t think we would have survived…”
“This way, Little Phoenix,” whispered Riven. Sunset looked around, then to Philomena once more, a question on her lips.
“Did you hear that?” the mare asked, “It sounds like we’re being called…. AGAIN.”
“Like I said, You lead, I’ll follow, Guardian,” the Ghost said, decompiling back into Sunset’s armor.
Looking around, Sunset spotted a portal of some kind hidden in an alcove off to the side of the room. Walking towards it, the Iron Lady held her sidearm off to the side in her telekinetic grip, ready to squeeze off rounds if necessary. The portal itself seemed to be fairly innocuous, and there were no pings on her radar to speak of, so, Sunset went through, finding herself back in the library on the other side. Riven herself, still wearing the guise of the not-pony from their battle, was laying on a fairly large plush cushion next to the pile of books Sunset had pulled out earlier.
“What do you want?” Sunset asked warily, ready to defend herself if necessary.
“I said I would give you a gift, didn’t I?” Riven asked somewhat pleasantly, “No strings attached, I assure you. Well, no strings for you or your Ghost that is.”
“And what is that supposed to mean?” the mare shot back, “What even ARE you?”
“Nothing that will harm you, your Ghost, or your loved ones in any way, I assure you,” Riven replied, motioning to her side, “Remove your armor and lets get you cleaned up. The Queen and her booty call will be returning shortly. We must get you presentable.”
Scrunching up her face at Shaxx being called a ‘booty call’, Sunset let out a slight chuckle.
“Alright… I’m keeping my Traveler’s Chosen though,” she replied, “That still didn’t answer my question.”
“I am an Ahamkara,” Riven said simply as Sunset nestled in between the not-pony’s forelegs, “Wish-Dragons we are called. Our powers come from the gradient between what was… and what might be.”
“Daddy talked about them once,” Sunset said, thinking back to his story of fighting a dragon, “...are you going to offer me a Wish?”
“No, Little Phoenix,” Riven replied as she started to preen Sunset’s wings, “For all my power, I cannot grant you a Wish. You are simply too much of an unknown.”
Closing her eyes, Sunset let Riven continue the preening, relaxing a little as the Ahamkara’s tugging realigned feathers, easing some aches and pains the little mare hadn’t noticed before. After a while, the feelings stopped and Sunset opened her eyes, the Ahamkara having left fairly quietly. In her place, there was an egg. Looking it over, the mare felt a sort of connection to it.
“My gift to you,” Riven whispered in Sunset’s ear from what seemed like an incredible distance, “The last un-Taken Ahamkara egg inexistence. I do hope you’ll take care of little Ray… He is, after all, an Ahamkara born of Light.”
`~`~`~`~`~`~
With Riven having left and the Egg she had left behind safely tucked away, Sunset made her way into the main entrance to the library she’d wanted to see, the mare’s thoughts swimming with questions.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea? Keeping that egg, I mean,” Philomena asked as she hovered over Sunset, “From everything on Ahamkara in the Vanguard database, they’re nothing but trouble.”
“Riven said we wouldn’t be hurt by it,” Sunset replied, “Daddy said that Ahamkara never lied. Twisted words, made things different, but never lied. More like… ‘they are the lie that makes themselves real’. I think that’s how he put it anyway…”
“If you’re sure,” the Ghost replied, “I trust your judgement.”
And with that, the pair met Shaxx and Mara Sov at the gate before the Queen patted Sunset’s head, sending them back to the Tower with a Wish.