She could still hear those screams.
Those sad, pathetic screams for a saviour, a miracle, something to end the horrors that would surely end it all... if she didn’t have something else in mind, at least.
The little unicorn she had her eyes on was left to run, physically free from her torment, but still mentally trapped by her mere words even so much later, cowering and hiding below the supposed ‘god’ that was the Princess of the Sun.
But, tormenting the foal in an adult’s body was hardly why she did it; no, seeing the distressed and saddened face of Celestia staring back at her, unable to act as she was trapped by her self-imposed duty to protect her beloved student really made her day.
Sunset smirked back at her, her crimson unicorn self floating in a dark, phantasmal cloud beyond the moonlit balcony to Celestia’s bedroom, practically unnoticeable to all but the alicorn herself. The dark magic infused into her allowed her to feel the wrathful thoughts flowing off of Celestia like a pyre, while her face still remained a calm and worried frown as she attempted to soothe her pupil buried beneath her wings as they laid on her bed.
Celestia nuzzled into the top of Twilight’s head as she continued to glare at her former student, any of the regret Sunset had once saw in her having turned into a vitriolic mix of disgust and pity upon seeing how her lack of care forced the younger mare to become enveloped by rage, and turned herself into a Demon. Sunset had tormented her indirectly for the past few years, but when she had found herself replaced, and thusly getting wiped away from the memories of Celestia’s servants, she really started to crank up the heat on that bitch that had so burned her.
Turning away and flying off into the distance, Sunset relished her newfound abilities with the concept of ‘evil’ something she ultimately cared little for, but it had at least taken drawn her attention to another pony that had often been labeled as such, one where the systems put in place by the ‘perfect’ Celestia had failed and condemned them as well. An alignment of architecture failure, scientific mayhem, safety violations, and a mix of moronic and evil law enforcers had lead to a mare falling off a catwalk into a vat of chemicals that turned her into what many in Maretropolis called a ‘supervillain’.
Sunset wasn’t stupid enough to believe those stories about her being bested by a group of foalish ‘heroes’ was all there was to her, and with the creative and downright ingenious technology she had supposedly ended up creating, she might as well take this chance to visit her and see just how much strife they could cause for the all-too-caring-for-her-subjects Celestia together.
Hovering a short distance above the dimly lit streets of above Maretropolis, Sunset decided she may have gotten a little ahead of herself; she didn’t even know where this ‘Mane-iac’ lived or how to find her, not to mention just how confusing the city’s layout was in comparison to the very centralized Canterlot.
At the very least, the city wasn’t all that crowded due to the time, and Sunset was thankful of her cloak of darkness that prevented other ponies from seeing her being so lost, but with the few ponies that were still around and talking to each other at this time, she might as well magically listen in to see what they may know...
“So, how was the date?”
“Geez, it’s freezing out here...”
“Watch where yer goin’!”
“Where the heck did the supers attack, again?”
There. Sunset honed her hearing on the actually useful conversation between a pair of young mares apart from all the random ones.
“Right in front of the Equestria Bank, at 72nd at Solar!”
“Oh dang it, I use that bank. I really hope that idiot isn’t gonna screw things up there...”
“‘Idiot’? The Mane-iac’s pretty crazy but I wouldn’t say she’s stupid. Did you see the cool new sticky trap she made? That stuff takes talent!”
“Don’t really care, Core. I’d rather keep my money than think about how much you lust over her.”
“Hey! She’s pretty and smart, and her crazy tentacle-mane really makes me wanna--”
Shaking her head and tuning out the stupid conversation, Sunset looked around and saw the street-signs at a nearby intersection signifying she was at 84th and Aries, which she could tell wasn’t too far from where she could find more information.
Quickly darting forward and leaving a burst of air behind her, she flew down the streets for a short while before something caught her eye and made her stop dead in her tracks. Landing with a hard thump on the road, she quickly noticed the magical charge the thing had before visually tracking it down, forcing her to lean down to see it was a small follicle of green hair.
With what she had heard of this ‘Mane-iac’, Sunset could easily tell a mane with this much charge ought to have belonged to her more likely than any other pony, and she smirked at the revelation, only to get startled by a quiet gasp from around her. Sharply looking up and to the side to see a pony looking wide-eyed in fear at her, and then quickly turn around and gallop away from her down the sidewalk.
Snickering at the cowardice that even non-Canterlot ponies held towards her, Sunset looked back down toward the piece of mane and grabbed it in her flaming crimson magic, quickly tuning her magic to better scan for it and allowing her soon notice the many other sparks of magic coming from the nearly invisible follicles strewn down the street. Hopping up to hover in her dark magic again, she let the hair in her magic fade as she started down the road, following the sparse trail of hairs for many blocks, leading her down into a dimmer section of the city.
She could occasionally hear ponies stop what they were doing as she kept going, their eyes pulled towards her sometimes in fear, though most of them remained merely confused, as if they weren’t sure if they actually saw anything. However, her disappointment at their lackluster reactions was soon enough cut off by confusion of her own as a light scent of smoke hit her, smelling vague and thinly spread, yet polluted and stale in a way that disgusted her.
Looking our around her, Sunset could hardly see the sky through a sort of fog, and traced its source down to the many giant factories visible across what she could see of the skyline through the skyscrapers around her, and she couldn’t help but wonder why anyone would bother living in such a filthy and tasteless place.
...Oh right; the ‘heroes’.
Shaking her head in irritation, she cursed those fools she had heard of, who had so often saved others from disasters and claimed themselves perfect and incorruptible, yet had still had to pull miracles out of their asses every single time they faced anything vaguely threatening. That went to such a degree, and happened so often, that she was beginning to suspect it was all a ploy to manipulate the crowds of Maretropolis to worship them...
...in a manner no different than Celestia sweeping her own failures under the rug and abandoning anyone that dared cross her, all to maintain her own image.
Pulling a bit more attention down to the ground, Sunset noticed the hairs picking up in abundancy as she went, and she started to wonder what was truly up with this ‘Mane-iac’, and if she was part of that ploy, which would explain how she ended up losing every time out of nowhere.
Looking forward, she saw the trail of hairs continue to increase in frequency, and stopped right before an odd massive metal door, which was built into the side of a large and oddly inactive factory, if the lack of smoke pouring out of the top meant anything. However, there was an extra scent she could start to notice, one smelled oddly nice and fragrant, but held an extra electric punch underneath, and while she couldn’t quite tell where it was coming from, she could assume it was coming from the building before her.
Sunset then wrapped her crimson magic around the entirety of the door and tested it, soon opening it by pushing upward and making the door slide loudly and clunkily up along the wall inside the building. Entering and pushing the door back down to slam it closed even louder behind her, she found the building to be very open and practically barren, with large sets of light fixtures hanging by long wires from the ceiling, illuminating the dull grey of the factory floor as well as the large white pieces of metal strewn sparsely across it.
Floating down to land softly on the hard floor, Sunset slowly walked over to one of the large pieces and noticed it looked bent and malformed, like it got forcefully wrecked. Looking at some of the other pieces, and then picking up one of them in her magic and bringing it closer to her, she could start to see that the metal pieces were meant to form some sort of round machine, with the one in her magic having some half-empty tank of fluid attached to its inside.
Spotting another tank laying on the floor, a torn rubber tube connected to it, she carefully poured some of the fluid of both tanks onto the floor near each other, having a suspicion they were meant to combine. The fluid from the first tank was white and somewhat frothy as it splattered loosely against the floor, and mostly lingered there before coming to contact with the second tank’s fluid, which was an almost clear liquid, at which point the two slowly started to stiffen and turn into a odd gelatinous mixture that, when pulled on with her own magic, Sunset couldn’t even manage to tear it apart.
Leaning a bit closer towards the mixture, she could start to smell it amongst the mix of smoke-fog and that odd fragrance, and despite these types of chemicals usually smelling sour and dry, this mixture had a soft and cool scent, almost like flowers...
Recalling her reason for being there in the first place, Sunset quickly realized that this oddly-scented and incredibly strong gel was a creation of the Mane-iac, one likely intended to trap those so-called ‘heroes’...
Letting her jaw hang slightly in awe for a moment, she slowly shook her head and placed the tanks and metal back down on the floor near each other, and took the time to grab the other pieces strewn about the large room and place them next to the other two.
BANG!!
Sunset jumped and twirled to the side to a normal-sized door to the room having been harshly thrown open, a massive dent in its side that bent the entire thing, presumably done by the tall, purple mare clad in a fur-tight magenta bodysuit, who moved into the room via green tendrils attached to her head and hindquarters--or, rather, parts of her mane and tail.
This mare, who Sunset could only imagine was the Mane-iac, immediately spotted the intruder and scoffed at the sight of her, speaking in a fed-up tone, “Oh, great, the Demon of Canterlot’s here to torment me further.”
Almost seething at the title recalled her traitorous teacher originally spitting onto her, Sunset tried to calm herself and stared firmly back at the other mare, stating, “That’s not why I’m here, Mane-iac.”
Raising an eyebrow in amusement, the Mane-iac herself asked mockingly, “No? Then perhaps are you here to ‘team up’, as all villains are know to get driven down to?” Smirking and laughing as Sunset hesitated slightly before leering at her in response, she shook her head and spat out, “Well, don’t bother. Those Power Ponies always pull some miracle out and win no matter what.”
Sunset was left staring at her in surprise and bewilderment for several seconds as the Mane-iac scoffed and turned around, wandering back through the door she came out of, though not closing it behind her. Shaking her head to try and recover, Sunset sniffed as something tingled her nose, and she started to smell that odd fragrance again, but stronger than before, and given what just happened, it was feasible it was coming from the Mane-iac.
Putting that thought on the backburner, she turned her attention back to the other mare and followed after her, swiftly trotting into the other room--which she immediately noticed had an even stronger fragrance, one she could now tell smelled nicely of nighttime flowers--and speaking in disbelief, “So, what, you’ve just given up at this point?”
The Mane-iac snorted as she went towards the back of the room, which had a bunch of tables with lab equipment place haphazardly across them, and replied, “What you see back there is another of my plans that has crumbled to ruins before my eyes, all thanks to them. Again and again they’ve bested me, but I’ll never truly let them win.” Setting herself down on the floor before the tables, she looked closely at the bottles and tubes, using her mane-tendrils to grab a couple of them to get a closer view.
“...I can only imagine that these ‘miracles’ are just you not being careful or thorough enough in your ‘plans’,” Sunset said, watching the other mare scan her equipment, her hindquarters wrapped in her shiny bodysuit facing the unicorn, but was partially hidden behind her splayed tail-tendrils that wafted more of that flowery scent back at her as they ungulated.
Shaking herself again to regain focus, Sunset heard the Mane-iac heave an irritated sigh and respond, “If you actually bothered to check, you’d know otherwise. But since you didn’t, I suppose I’ll have to lay it out for you.” Looking over her shoulder, she asked the other pony, “You do know what I had made back in the main room, right?”
“Yeah,” Sunset nodded, and some of the awe from before dripped into her voice as she continued, “It was an incredibly strong glue of sorts, and...” She squinted at the other mare for a moment, and asked, “...You were trying to use it to trap those ‘Power Ponies’?”
Nodding and turning back to her work, the Mane-iac replied, “Correct, and I had all of them except that useless little child, Humdrum. I think he only got separated from the rest because of a spider or something, and my minions were looking for him, but...” Sighing again, she hung her head and added, “Then he came in out of nowhere with a fire truck! There’s no way that foal should’ve been able to drive that thing, much less wield its hose and literally wash away all my work...”
Raising her eyebrows in bewilderment at the anecdote, Sunset looked at the annoyed Mane-iac, watching her mane-tendrils fiddle with the bottles and tubes in their grasp while the ones of her tail slithered and wiggled in place, looking almost cute with how clearly giddy and eager to do something. “...What even are you trying to accomplish with all of... these creations?” She asked hesitantly.
Slowly bringing her head back up to peer over her shoulder at the other pony, the Mane-iac stared at her for a couple seconds, then shrugged. “It doesn’t matter,” She spoke nonchalantly, and turned her head back to her work in front of her, “Those accursed Power Ponies keep getting in my way no matter what, so if I want to do anything, I’ll need them gone first.”
“...I’m pretty sure actually confronting those ‘Ponies’ would be a better way to deal with them rather than trying to steal something and fleeing.”
“They’re traps,” The Mane-iac shot back, then slammed her forehooves down on the desk before her, startling the other mare as she retorted with vitriol, “It’s not like you would know the difference, little ‘Demon’, especially since you never actually accomplish anything beyond scaring foals!”
Growling lightly as she lit her horn, wary of the sudden anger the Mane-iac possessed and angry at her accusation, Sunset responded with irritation, “I’m doing a lot more than that, ‘supervillain’, and you’re hardly one to talk with how nopony in this city actually seems afraid of you, mostly just bothered by your antics.”
Setting the things in her tendrils back down on the table, the Mane-iac twirled around in rage and lifted herself off the floor, glaring down at the intruder, “I don’t care for fear, unlike you, ‘Demon’. And strangely enough, for a pony so ‘scary’, you keep getting run off by a bunch of random guards!”
Growing more infuriated at the villain’s condescension, Sunset floated upward in her own dark cloud of magic and spat at her, “At least they’re actually royal guard, rather than a bunch of stupid ‘heroes’!”
The two continued to throw heated glares at each other for multiple seconds, both hovering via mane or magic as if to assert that theirs was superior to their opponent’s, but soon enough the Mane-iac’s expression gained some level of disgust on top of her anger. “If all you’re going to be doing here is spouting questions and arguing with me...” She started firmly, slowly spinning herself partially around, “Then just do us both a favor and leave!”
Heaving an frustrated sigh as the other mare lowered herself back to the floor and resumed her supposed work, Sunset noted the wild green tendrils of her mane and tail, and how they contrasted with the archetypical bodysuit that clung to her tall and toned figure very tightly. Cursing herself for losing sight of her goal, she refocused on how much trouble those silky, strong, and nice-scented tendrils could cause for Celestia, and said back, “I’m not done here yet.”
A scoff and a faint motion of her head that indicated she likely just rolled her eyes came from the Mane-iac in response, and she asked sarcastically, “Really?” Shaking her head, then pushing herself up onto the tips of hooves as she stretched her slender and strong legs, first straight upward, then pushing her chest out and tilting her body upward, then leaning down with her hind legs remaining mostly vertical.
Slightly perturbed, yet mesmerized by the performance, Sunset was startled with the Mane-iac sharply turned her head back to see the mare watching her, and she spoke thoughtfully, “Maybe I’ll help you...” Pausing for a second or two, she then smirked and added casually, “At least if you stop staring at my ass.”
Sharply jerking her head away from the other mare, Sunset’s face immediately flushed a bright crimson while her levitation faltered, gracelessly tossing her down onto the floor, where she slowly backed away and hopelessly sputtered, “W-wait, n-no, I wasn’t--uh, I-I can’t, er--”
A powerful and boisterous cackle swiftly burst forth from the Mane-iac as she witnessed the so-called ‘Demon of Canterlot’ acting like a schoolfilly with a crush, stuttering and sputtering in a vain attempt to deny her perverted actions. The attraction Sunset had towards the so-called villain were only made worse by the mare’s enchantingly vile and loud laughter, so unrestrained by public image or common decency that her eyes could help but stray towards her...
However, as the laughter continued and only grew more vociferous, to the point where she put her work back down and pulled away from it so she wouldn’t break any of it, Sunset’s tumultuous mind full of confusion, lust, and embarrassment, soon became tinted with concern as the Mane-iac couldn’t stop laughing.
Taking a moment to sift through the many articles she’d seen the ‘supervillain’ in, Sunset vaguely recalled that, beyond the foolish accusations that she was worse than those ‘heroes’ that destroyed a lot of public property to try and stop her, she was often described as ‘insane’. Obviously the title of ‘Mane-iac’ was more than just a villain-sounding name with a mane pun, but she had never actually seemed insane in anything she did that was reported in those papers, or really even anything she did before Sunset herself...
Returning her attention to the Mane-iac herself as she slowly came down from her laughing high, her voice having become somewhat dry and raspy by that point, and she eventually fell into a short coughing fit as Sunset continued to watch her, before finally calming down and turning around to meet her gaze.
“If...” She started with her still dry voice, but cut herself off to swallow some saliva and try again, “If you just came over for a good time, Demon, I’d be happy to oblige!”
Sunset sharply pulled her head back again as a flush retook her face, and she scrunched it up in annoyance, trying to remain calm.
“But, seriously, if you really want my help,” The Mane-iac said, pulling the conversation back and getting Sunset’s eyes back on her, even if her head still remained turned partially away, “I know that that ‘Princess’ Celestia always gives the Power Ponies a slap on the fetlock for all the damage they do, and I can only imagine how much it hurt her to lose her precious heroes, and after all...” She leaned forward, leering at her guest, who involuntarily pulled back a bit in response, “That’s the only thing you want, isn’t it?”
Eyes training down onto the Mane-iac’s hoof as it came up off the ground and hung before her as an invitation to shake it, Sunset paused for just a moment to reflect on the actual insanity present deep within the other mare, and how much trouble that may be to navigate in the future, but with how determined the Mane-iac was, and how often she came so close actually emerging victorious. All it would take is just a bit more care, and a bit more of a push, one that she could provide, so...
Turning her head to fully look the Mane-iac in the eyes, Sunset the Demon raised a hoof of her own and firmly grasped and shook the other mare’s with it, stating, “Yeah, it is.”