Sunset Shimmer broke into a sprint upon realizing what she was seeing. It was so unexplainable, one second there was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, and the next, well, he just appeared. Of course, there was no way Sunset could know if who she was chasing was actually him, but for one, normal people don’t just spawn in random places, two, his appearance, and three, the fact he started running once Sunset started giving chase, she was pretty certain.
“Sunset, what’s going on?!” Twilight called. No response. But, given the talented mind she possessed, she quickly put two and two together, seeing Sunset start chasing a being so otherworldly it almost broke her logical mind just looking at it. She quickly turned around, before dashing into the building, intent on finding their missing friends.
Rob continued to look around in horror at the predicament he now found himself in. Not only had he completely exposed himself, but he now had a very angry and determined Sunset right behind him, closing the distance very fast. And all because he had wanted revenge... He flipped the remote over, quickly lifting the flap, digging the dead batteries out, and throwing them at his pursuer, to little effect as you’d imagine. He noticed something, however, a small flap buried under where the batteries usually lay, poked up slightly at an angle. It was hard to read, but he was just able to make the words out while sprinting.
Emergency LP44 button cell battery, for emergency use only.
Realizing that this could be his saving grace, he quickly fixed the flap covering the emergency battery, before quickly opening the tools menu on the fly, the hologram-like projection it created keeping pace with his sprint.
Emergency power enabled.
Rob's body filled with hope, all he needed to do was get away, find batteries, and leave this world filled with more of his own mistakes for good. He quickly pressed pause-
Insufficient power, battery level critical.
Of course, the power was still low, he was on the absolute last traces after all.
” Ugh! What CAN I do?!” he thought to himself. Without really thinking, his thumb moved over to the first one he could think of that used little power-
Blur.
In an instant, everything turned blurry, and I mean everything. Fortunately, this wasn’t the first time Rob had used this otherwise obscure function, and he was still able to somewhat run towards the vague outlines of houses in front of him, albeit with frequent trips.
***
Sunset tripped, falling and landing hard on the pavement below her as everything turned blurry. She felt dizzy, very dizzy, what she imagined a hangover would feel like if she’d ever done drugs or drank. Despite her blurred vision, she was still able to discern Rob's figure in the distance, and with major difficulty, was able to get back on her own two feet and continue the chase, albeit much slower to avoid falling again.
***
POWER LEVEL CRITICAL, PLEASE REPLACE THE BATTERIES IMMEDIATELY.
Rob's hope once again dimmed as the blur effect ceased, what he could assume were precautionary measures kicking in to preserve power. Everything clear again, he lost the one advantage he might’ve had over Sunset, who once again started closing the distance fast.
Panicking, he hurriedly pointed the remote at Sunset, pressing the first thing his thumb landed on in the hope of doing something.
Info.
The holo menu appeared in front of him again, but this time it was different. Now there laid a wall of text in front of him, along with a picture of his pursuer-
Sunset Shimmer.
Sunset Shimmer is a female unicorn-turned-human and a main character in the Equestria Girls franchise, initially appearing as-
He ignored the rest of the wall of text. Although utterly amazed at what had just happened, it wasn’t doing anything to stop “Sunset Shimmer” from chasing him. What does “Unicorn-turned-human” even mean? Didn’t matter.
He finally made his way to the front yard of the house he was running for. Frustrated, he smacked the remote against his hand, before turning it at Sunset and pressing Eject.
Seemingly having overridden the safety features temporarily, this function just barely worked, forcing Sunset backward and to the ground as though she’d been shoved. Unfortunately, however, the remote completely died after this, even the floating menu flickering out as the last power was used. It was all he needed though, running up to the house before grabbing a stray brick and throwing it through a window, quickly catapulting himself inside.
Rob got up quickly, running through each room of the house he found himself in. There, a TV setup, a normal, run-of-the-mill remote sitting on a coffee table in front of a large sofa. He quickly ripped the batteries out of it, before shoving them haphazardly into his own. Thankfully it flickered to life, the power LED in the top corner briefly flashing red. He wasn’t sure how much power those batteries had, but all he needed was enough power to escape. He lifted it, before pressing Change Channel.
Or at least, he should have.
Before he could press it, Sunset threw herself into him, arriving just in time to stop his escape. She quickly got herself on top of him, holding the arm wielding the remote down-
“Who are you?! What are you?! Why did you hurt my friends?!” She yelled.
Her geode flashed a bright orange.
***
” Be careful with this universal remote, it has a power only a fool would not fear. Tell me, for what will you use it?
“Oh you know, TV’s DVD players...
VENGENCE!”
“No! It cannot be used for evil!”
***
”You turned me into the villain, Gumball Watterson, you left me with this broken body, and you gave me this ridiculous voice! But now, I am in control. And the time has come for you to pay.”
***
”Why? This is where my story ends! I belong here with the rest of the universe's mistakes! Like socks and sandals, the helicopter ejector seat, and ...whatever that thing is.”
Sunset fell backward, losing her hold on Rob. She held one of her hands to her head, her mind completely overwhelmed with what she’d seen. It hadn’t been much, only lasting a fleeting moment. It was like how she imagined someone's life flashing before their eyes in a near-death scenario. In her haze, she almost didn’t notice Rob get up, ducking out of the way just in time as he used a newly powered remote. The aforementioned sofa from before shot through the wall as the Eject function was used, bringing down a large piece of drywall that clouded the air with smoke, hampering visibility and causing the two to cough and gag. Sunset was the first to recover, quickly going for the remote itself. It became a tug of war, their hands fighting over the remote as they yanked it between one another. Various buttons were pressed accidentally, activating many functions and draining a lot of power. A window broke, a ceiling fan disappeared from existence, and things briefly became blurry again as they fought.
Sunset eventually came out on top, she jumped back, before aiming the remote at Rob and pressing a button without thinking. As you can imagine, this was never going to end well.
Zoom.
Sunset fell backward as she felt something cold and hard smack her in the face. Sunset is not aware of the fourth wall, and Rob barely. By pressing zoom she caused the camera we’ve all been watching this with to, well, zoom, and smack her in the face as a result. You’d think that a function called Zoom would just zoom in on a target like a camera, but nope.
Sunset still dazed from being hit with the camera faltered while Rob took the chance and grabbed the remote, before running outside to hopefully have enough time to press Change Channel. Now that he’d finally been caught, revenge all of a sudden didn’t seem too appealing, all of his prior hate and malice giving way to fear and regret. It was in his best interest to leave as soon as possible. But once again, before he could press it, Sunset was again on him, engaging in another tug-of-war for the remote with him. With one final yank, the remote flew from both their grasps, but not before activating another function.
Slo-mo.
Everything now moved in slow motion, and while this had numerous advantages, such as giving the two time to re-evaluate their strategies, there was now no way either of them could surprise the other, or wrestle for the remote effectively. Sunset’s eyes widened in surprise at what had just happened. No matter how much she willed it, her arms refused to move at a pace faster than a few inches per second, ditto for Rob. The same applied to their surroundings, pieces of grass, dirt, and dead leaves moving at the same pace through the air as they struggled. They both glared into each other's eyes, before moving back towards the Remote. Now able to get a good look at it, Sunset couldn’t help but become even more confused. To her, it looked like quite literally any other remote one could find. But what it was capable of was undeniable, and it was paramount that she get it away from him, for her friends’ sake.
“Give me that remote, you little-” Rob managed to say despite the slow speed, his words coming out slurred and drawn out. Both of their hands reached the remote at the same time, and while Sunset had gone only for the remote itself, Rob had gone for the slow-mo button again to stop the agony of moving at that speed.
Slo-mo: Off.
Sunset's geode activated again.
This time, she saw- Darkness, endless darkness, and static. She saw Rob again, this time a much more recent version of him. While before she’d seen a far less flattering part of him, the part that used the remote as an instrument of vengeance and domination, she now saw something completely different. She saw him wake up in the Void, to a world consumed by static and corruption, and a completely new side of his character. She didn't see an evil, vengeful monster this time, rather, a scared, desperate victim of something completely beyond his control.
Sure, he was a bad guy, always was, but later on, he still had good intentions. He was the only one who knew what the Void was all about, and what was destined to befall his world if he didn’t do something. Unfortunately, his attempts bore no fruit, his past sins against the citizens of Elmore coming back to bite him. He was labeled as the villain once again, and as the paintings foretold, the apocalypse had come to pass. She watched him evade various characters consumed by a glitch-like corruption, before re-harnessing the power of the remote to not only fight back but escape. In his mind, he’s a hero, the sole survivor of what would become the Cartoon Apocalypse that befell his world.
Sunset stepped back again, holding her hands out and in front of her in a non-aggressive manner. “Wait!” She said.
Rob took advantage of the opportunity, yanking the remote away, before aiming it right at her. At her sudden exclamation and step back, however, he hesitated.
Sunset, upon realizing she had his attention, continued. “I- I just want to talk.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” He snapped back.
“Look, I know this might sound hard to believe, but, I can read minds,” Sunset replied, holding her geode out.
“Do you really think I’d find that hard to believe?” He said, holding the remote up and pointing to it with a deadpan face. “Just to be sure...”
He paused things again, Sunset included. He aimed the remote at her, before using his newly discovered Info function for the second time ever.
It took him a good minute of scrolling, but he eventually found what he was looking for-
In the film Legend of Everfree, Sunset Shimmer appears as the secondary central character, serving as moral support for human Twilight. At Camp Everfree, Sunset is paired up with Twilight in the Sapphire Tent. While at the camp, Sunset's magic undergoes a dramatic change, and she develops the ability to sense others' thoughts, memories, and feelings through physical touch.
He chose not to think about the implications of “In the film” too hard for the time being. There was still so much he didn’t know about the truth of their existence, but what he did know terrified him. This confirmed what “Sunset Shimmer” was telling him, she really did just see into his mind, his personal thoughts and feelings. Part of him felt offended that his very personal thoughts had been violated not once, but twice. Another part of him felt scared, scared that she’d unintentionally exposed herself to the same knowledge he’d been cursed with.
He looked up at the top right corner of the menu. His battery was slightly below 50% from what he could tell, there wasn’t a whole lot he could discern from a battery icon with a rough estimate and glowing yellow.
He saw the icon flash before the battery on screen went down a bit more. Knowing he didn’t have much left, and needed enough to be able to leave once all was said and done, he unpaused everything.
“You’re not lying.” He said.
“No, I’m not, and I know you’re not a bad guy, at least, not as bad as we thought you were.”
“We? Who’s we?”
“I know this one might be hard to believe as well, but, I know what happened, between you and those in the other world, and, not just because I touched you.”
He thought about it for a second, it would explain why the titles were similar on the menu screen. “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” and “My Little Pony: Equestria Girls.”
He sighed, “Yeah, I believe that too.” His previously defensive and hostile demeanor had faded away, he was now the same as he had started, a wayward traveler with no home thanks to his own actions and failures.
“I didn’t mean to hurt them.” He said, “I just panicked.”
“Well, you really did hurt them,” Sunset replied. She was keeping up an act, trying to buy enough time for Twilight to hopefully get their friends in time. She was the only one besides her who hadn’t been exposed to the remote’s effects and remained their best hope of finally ending this. She had seen much more than just memories the second time and knew he was lying. If he didn’t mean to hurt them, why would he have gone out of his way to try and break them up out of spite? She’d seen him use it on her friends not too long ago, that was why Rainbow had snapped, and the others not remembering what they’d read seconds prior. Not to mention, she’d seen what he’d done to “Gumball,” an act so dark and heartless it made her ill just thinking about it. While she knew what was happening, her main question was, how? How could a seemingly normal TV remote be capable of such things? Interdimensional travel, freezing time, mind manipulation, the list goes on.
“I- I know, and, I’m sorry.” He replied. “I just- I don’t know. If you saw into my memories, then you know what happened.” He paused, exhaling. “I’ve lost everything, yeah I was a bad guy, I’ll admit it, but in the end, all I wanted was to save them. I was the only one who knew what was coming. If it had worked, I wouldn’t be here. But, well, you saw it didn’t you?” He said, his voice becoming significantly more panicked towards the end. “Please tell me you saw it too.”
Sunset was snapped back to attention, her mouth hanging open slightly as she tried to remember what he’d said. Her gaze had gone to the area behind him, where she spied Twilight, hiding in some of the bushes and small trees that separated the houses in the small suburb they were in. Trying not to give herself away, Sunset looked around slightly as he monologued, finding all of the others close by. Twilight held a finger up to her mouth in a shushing motion. Sunset quickly put two and two together, surprised and impressed at how quickly and how well Twilight had coordinated them all. All she needed to do now was make the first move.
Without a word, Sunset yet again went straight for the remote, this time catching Rob completely off guard. Sunset quickly delivered a hard punch across the face to him, causing him to stumble.
“Does that feel real enough to you?!” She yelled, before going for the remote, which had tumbled a few feet away in the short struggle.
Rob landed hard on the ground, dazed, before hearing Sunset yell that. A lightbulb went off in his head, and he quickly realized what had just happened.
“You’re just like the rest of them!” He cried out in rage as he retaliated. He lunged at Sunset, the remote once again falling to the ground as they fought. To Sunset's horror, she realized that it had been activated again. Their surroundings had been paused once more, meaning that her friends couldn’t help her. To confirm, she looked over to where they had been hiding. As she feared, they were trapped in limbo just like everything around them. If she was to have a fighting chance, she had to free them.
She and Rob remained struggling on the ground for a time. Her geode activated again, but this time instead of memories, she saw what his next move would be. She quickly moved her torso to the right as he attempted to go for her throat. Her terror and desperation increased ever more at the sudden coldness that had overtaken him but confirmed that what she’d seen was true. This was a threat unlike anything she or her friends had faced before, but she refused to give up. She quickly rolled back around, delivering a left hook as Rob’s hands hit the grass below where her throat would’ve been, sending him down again in a daze. She looked around, before spotting and getting to the remote. She picked it up, desperately scanning over it for whatever function it was that would free her friends. She spotted it soon enough, the pause button. The remote wasn’t too unlike the remotes that existed in this world, so finding it had been easier than she’d thought.
Sunset heard a cry of rage behind her, turning around to see Rob charging her again, this time with a brick held in his right hand. Her eyes opened wide in horror before she dodged out of the way as the brick went by her head. She took off in a sprint, Rob following right behind her. She aimed the remote at him, once again taking a gamble as she pressed the first thing her finger landed on.
Eject.
Rob went flying backward, landing hard against a nearby fence. Sunset quickly looked back to the remote, not wasting any more time, and pressed the pause button.
Sunset's momentary joy ceased as she felt something hard hit her in the right shoulder, a flash of intense pain washing over her as she fell to the ground. This was quickly followed up as Rob quite literally kicked her while she was down, before grabbing the remote and pressing another previously unseen function-
AV.
Sunset sat up from where she’d been knocked down, just in time to hear something behind her. She turned her head, just in time to see a large, rectangular-shaped portal appear behind her. She looked into it, seeing nothing but static as far as she could see. Her gaze went downward, where she was greeted with a very different sight. Islands, floating in the abyss, each containing sections of what she assumed had been a small town, each covered partially with a mysterious black substance, similar to the static that surrounded it. She could almost swear she saw figures among them, wandering aimlessly.
It was real.
Her gaze went back in the opposite direction as she heard Rob walking up to her, remote in hand. His face was deadpan, almost completely devoid of emotion as he stood in front of her.
“I thought you were different.” He said, a tinge of sadness audible in his voice. He slowly raised the remote, preparing to banish Sunset into the Void. “Too bad.”
“GET AWAY FROM HER!” A voice called. Sunset looked to the side, just in time to see a Rainbow trail come towards Rob at lightning speed-
Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow body-slammed herself into him, sending him and the remote flying half a dozen meters away. The portal behind Sunset closed, the eldritch horrors it contained sealed away.
Sunset winced, looking down towards her shoulder. Nothing seemed broken, a quick but painful flex of that area confirming it, still, she was in a lot of pain, barely able to move it beyond that.
“You okay, sugarcube?” She heard. Looking back, she saw AJ looming over her with a hand outstretched. Sunset gratefully took it, allowing herself to be hoisted to her feet just in time to see Rainbow go back after Rob.
Rob got back to his feet once again, remote in hand, just in time to see Rainbow coming at him.
“You don’t learn your lesson do you?” He said, before moving to what he thought to be the perfect function-
Slow-mo.
Everything moved in slow-motion again, Rainbows sprint included. He smirked, it was poetic really, the group's speedster reduced to a mere crawl at the remote’s command.
Then it happened.
He noticed it first, what seemed like a small rock dangling from her neck. Now that he thought about it, they all had one, having enough time in slo-mo to look over them all more carefully. He watched as the rock started emitting a glow, before to his shock and horror, Rainbow started moving at normal speed.
”Impossible!” He thought, he would have said it too, but his mouth had only barely opened by that point. He rushed to press the button again as she closed the distance, just barely making it. Things moving normally again, Rainbow overshot it, sent careening past him.
He looked back, just in time to see the rest of the group coming right for him. He aimed the remote at them again, pressing Pause.
Nothing happened, well, at least, nothing happened to them.
Their surroundings froze again, but they didn’t. He watched as they all started to glow in response to the command, and could do nothing as he was temporarily blinded by a flash of rainbow-colored light. He stared in utter befuddlement at what he was seeing. All of them now sported new clothes in addition to what looked like pony ears, accompanied by wings on some.
Growling, he aimed the remote again, pressing pause, again.
Nothing happened, again.
Now able to see better what had happened, he noticed a transparent shield surrounding them, reacting with a shimmer each time he attempted to freeze them. His thumb moved over to the Delete key, but he hesitated, he was still on a relatively low battery and needed every charge he could get to finally escape. The group had stopped moving towards him, and realizing they now had the advantage, simply stared him down.
“There’s nowhere else to run!” Sunset exclaimed.
“It’s over!” Rainbow followed.
They were right, it was over. But not in the way they were expecting.
He started to laugh, only slightly at first, before it eventually became a maniacal cackle. It didn’t make sense, how could all of this be happening? It wasn’t real! Nothing was, their entire existence was a lie! Part of him missed that ignorant bliss, when he was unaware of it all, and the weight it had all placed on his back. He missed those days. Sure, he was a background character, but at least he still had a place, however insignificant it may have been. He wondered who it was that pulled all the strings, who had made him into this monster. If all of this wasn’t real, he doubted fate was either. He’d seen it with his own eye, the past, present, even the future of his world with the help of the paintings. How could that be possible if someone else wasn’t pulling the strings? He wondered why he’d been singled out, out of everyone they could have done this to, it was him. No no, that wasn’t right, this was all his fault. He’d broken the mold the moment he’d first picked up the remote. All of this was his fault. He wondered what the implications of what he’d been doing meant as well. He’d probably completely messed up reality as he knew it just by being there. More importantly, he knew that it was coming for them. You think he hadn’t tried to stop it? Rewind, Delete, all of them. No matter what he did, it always returned, more and more oppressing each time. And you know what? He didn’t care! None of this was real, nothing he’d known was. Elmore, Gumball, these horse girls, all of them! So why should he care!?
Sunset and the rest of the group's faces flattened as Rob broke into that maniacal laughter. It lasted a lot longer than any of them would’ve expected, but eventually, he did calm down, staring directly at Sunset.
“I know what you saw. How could you deny it? None of this is real, it never was! You can’t deny the truth!”
Sunset grimaced, he was right, in the sense that he knew what she’d seen. She looked around, greeted by the kind and warm smiles of her friends. She quickly shook it off, before staring straight back and responding.
“I don’t care if you’re right or not. Yeah, let’s assume that none of this is real, even if it isn’t, the bonds and memories I’ve made with my friends are.”
He let out a cry of frustration, “You haven’t seen the last of me!” He roared.
“Yes, we have,” Sunset responded. She and her friends began glowing again, before the familiar Rainbow laser shot down from above them, heading straight for Rob.
A great cry of pain and rage was heard, and when Sunset and her friends touched ground again, it was over, he was gone.