The battle had moved on, far off into the distance. Morale had been high; the enemy was in retreat, and within a short time their position would be fully seized. The day was soon to be won.
None of which had stopped a bullet from piercing Sergeant Sunset Shimmer’s stomach, nor alerted a medic to her plight.
She couldn’t move; she couldn’t risk increasing the blood loss with a shift in position. Not while any chance of survival remained. But her window was almost closed. Even as she tried to apply pressure using what little strength she had left with one hand, blood had soaked her clothes, pooled around her, even mixed into her already-red hair.
And so she lay flat on her back, nothing more than a prone human form slowly expiring in a battlefield, with nothing but corpses for company.
She could sense it – death was upon her.
Or, at least, she thought it was death, at first. She could hear the sound of footsteps from her right; somehow, instinctively, she knew it wasn’t a medic. Or a human. Hence the initial assumption of the reaper. Yet, as she cautiously tilted her head to face the sound, she suddenly realized it wasn’t death at all.
She wished it was.
Her visitor stopped just half a meter away. Sunset could see its dark, black hooves that melded into bright red legs, a huge tail with hair the color of flame wrapping around them. Its hands were gnarled, each digit carrying a hideously sharp claw; and just behind where its arms met the torso was a pair of gigantic leathery wings, each boasting a hooked appendage of their own.
“Gods, not you,” Sunset moaned. “Anything but you…”
She didn’t have to look up to see its misshapen, fanged face, with a tall head of hair the same infernal color as the tail. Instead, it crouched down to Sunset’s level and peered at her.
No, not merely at her, she realized. Inside her. It was staring deep into her.
Finally, it spoke, in Sunset’s own voice. “Hello, Sunny-bun.”
“Leave me alone. Let me die in peace.”
“Awwww,” the demon moaned, crawling towards her. “Is that any way to say hi to your oldest, dearest friend? The one who’s given you so much, and you so much in return?”
“You’re not real, you’re just a thing in my head…”
“Now, now, don’t even pretend you believe that, Sunny dear,” the monster cooed, tapping its index digit to Sunset’s chin – Sunset could feel it prick her. “I’m the realest, truest friend you’ve ever had. I’m the only one here, aren’t I?”
It grinned, a sickening visage of pointed teeth, as elongated ears unfolded from behind to complete the horrific image.
“Of course, friend would be understating it a bit, wouldn’t it?” the thing continued. “I’ve been far more than that to you, haven’t I?”
“No one else can even see you…”
“Their loss, really.” The creature stood up again, and Sunset could tell from the direction of the hoofsteps and shadows that it had begun to circle her, like a vulture. “They’ll never know how much I’ve done for you… done with you…”
The demon paused, leaning over her again. “You never forget your first, after all. Especially if they’re also your second. Third, fourth, twelfth…”
“Just go away…”
“Now what did I just say about being nice to old friends? Old lovers. I’ve never stopped loving you, Sunny-bun, even if you’ve pretended to stop loving me. How could I even think about just leaving you here to die?”
“I’d rather die than be with you.”
“Oooof, now that one hurts,” the demon replied with a mocking laugh. “Or it would if I believed it for a second. I know what’s going through your head. You want me to save you, but you can’t do so at the expense of your pride, your arrogance. Maybe you really have convinced yourself it was all you, all along. That it wasn’t me who gave you the tools you needed to advance, to become the warrior you always wanted to be. To graduate with top marks, to have your own squad so quickly. That you weren’t drawing on my power, absorbing my essence.”
Sunset could feel the anger boiling inside her. “It was me. It was always me, because you are me. Do you think I don’t recognize that? My dark side personified. And yes, I embraced you, far, far too often. I loved you. I loved your energy, your rage, your strength… and it controlled me for too long. But it’s a love I regret. Mentally and physically.”
Sunset groaned weakly as she began to feel her doom closing in. “I’ll be happy to die knowing you aren’t part of me. That I cast you out. That I could never love you again, in any sense.”
There was a moment of silence. Then the demon shrieked with laughter, a high-pitched squeal that tore through her eardrums. “You– you actually think– you really did convince yourself that I’m just your old imaginary friend, didn’t you? That I’m just some extension of your mind, that I’m something you can just stop believing in… my goodness, Sunset. You’ve acted delusional before, but this… well, perhaps it’s to be expected with your level of blood loss.
“But in case you truly need a reminder,” the monster continued, before flapping its wings and lifting itself into the air above her. “I am very real. And while perhaps I may have acquired a few traits from you over the years, I assure you that I’ve put far more of myself into you.”
And with that, the creature folded its wings and dropped directly onto Sunset’s right arm, shattering it. She howled with pain as the pressure on her stomach was instantly relieved, blood beginning to flow freely.
“Oh dear, now I’ve gone and done it, haven’t I?” the demon asked with a smug look of faux-innocence. “Well, I suppose time is running out, so I guess it’s time for a choice. I could just let you die, but that wouldn’t be much fun for me. But saving you is going to come at a price, I’m afraid.”
“Wh–what price?” Sunset stammered between hyperventilating and yelping in agony.
“Oh don’t worry, it’s one you’ve paid before, though not in this exact sense. Like you mentioned earlier, no one else can truly see me, and… I’m a little bored of that. So I’m going to take your body, and I’ll finally be able to interact with the world outside of you, Sunny-bun.”
And with that threat, Sunset mustered the energy for a final act of defiance.
“No. Never. I will never take that deal. It’s my body, and I’m not interested in sharing it with you. I’ve let you have too much of me already, and I won’t ever make that mistake again. So you can take your deal and shove it. Like I said, I’d rather die.”
Sunset smiled weakly. It faltered a moment later, when she realized the monster wasn’t staring angrily at her, or cursing her name or raging against the heavens at its failure. It was just looking blankly at her for a moment, before bursting into another round of raucous laughter.
“Oh… oh, you thought the choice was for you? That it was your decision to make? Oh no, Sunny dear… the choice was for me. I already told you that you’d given your body to me a long time ago. Now if you’ll just give me one second…”
Sunset could feel her heart plummeting into the abyss as the creature crouched down beside her. It placed a hand on her wound, and Sunset screamed as it cauterized and repaired her body. And then it reached forward, plunging a claw deep into her heart, and the world went black.
It was still black when Sunset regained consciousness. She was standing upright, her body seemingly healed – cleaned, even, as there was no blood to speak of. But she was standing in pure darkness.
“Hello?”
She called out, but heard nothing but distorted echo in reply.
“Hello!”
Please, she thought. Someone answer...
Still no reply, but now she heard a faint, staticky noise. She turned around to see a soft glow in the distance. She ran towards it, and found herself in front of an old-looking TV box.
She peered close to see what was on. It was a black-and-white image of the battlefield. The feed appeared to be from a handheld camera; it was shaking and moving rather erratically as it scanned the area. Then it looked down, and…
Sunset froze as she realized it was looking down at her lower body.
That’s not a camera…
“Oh, you just realized?” The booming voice of the demon blasted all around her, and Sunset immediately covered her ears as more twisted giggles filled the air – or whatever this was.
“Where am I?” Sunset asked.
“Don’t worry, dear,” the voice cooed. “You’re still in your own head. I found a little space to put you in for safekeeping, and I gave you this little TV set for entertainment! It only has one channel, but it’ll have to make do. 24/7 SunsetVision, all day every day!”
“No! You can’t do this to me! It’s my body!”
“And I’ll take good care of it, don’t worry.”
Sunset swung blindly in the air, hoping that thing was lurking somewhere in the darkness, that there was something she could fight, take back control from… but there was nothing but empty air.
“Why…” Sunset whimpered. “Why are you doing this to me? Why didn’t you just erase me… why are you torturing me like this?”
“Torture? Sunny-bun, I kept you here because I love you. I wasn’t lying when I said I never stopped loving you. You’re here because I want you here. You just need time to remember what makes us special.”
“I hate you!”
“See, that’s exactly the attitude we have to start working on.” The voice paused, just for a moment. “Unfortunately, I’m going to need to put you on mute for a while. I’ve got to find my way over to the battle and regroup with your squad. They’ll be expecting me, after all – well, they’ll be expecting you, Sergeant. But what they’ll get will be so much more fun…”
And as the last word echoed around the empty space, Sunset could only drown it out with another scream.