"What did you do?!" The purple unicorn demanded.
"Nothing much, just giving everypony else a chance to surivie this" Discord replied idly.
"Don't wory about it Twilight, just get everypony out of here and to somewhere safe alright? Leave Auraka to us" Sunset said gently.
"But-" Twilight began to protest.
"Go before she tries anything!" Sunset ordered.
"Sunset-"
"GO!" Sunset bellowed and used her magic to push the protesting mare away. the element bearers and the princess looked at the trio once before moving off to evacuate the city. With the others out of sight Sunset turned her attention to their opponent as she descened from her perch and landed before them filled with fury.
"You insolent peasants! You have ruined everything! You will pay for this!" Auraka ranted.
"Uh-huh" Manaquire, Discord and Sunset replied flatly. the response left the dragon goddess flabbergasted as her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water in an attempt to reply.
"Now then she's distracted, Manaquire you and I will seal her, Discord I need you to go make sure everypony is ok" Sunset stated and stepped forward.
"You can't be serious" Manaquire. "I can barely lift myself let alone perform a space-time sealing spell"
"Ok then I'll do it myself just get back" the sapphire alicorn said.
"You take on her? Hah you've got to be joking!" Discord remarked.
"Rainbow Dash noticed that I was ice cold, and while I said that it was a result of spell, you two are smart engough to know better".
They fell silent for moment unsure of what to say. Sunset turned to them with a small smile on her face.
"It was nice having you two as friends.." she said softly as her horn glowed gold.
"Sunset you can't honestly be thinking of-" Manaquire began but Sunset cut him off.
"I have to, you've seen what would happen otherwise"
The spell charging in her horn was stopped as Discord grabed her and lifted her to eye level.She was surprisedby the mix of seriousness and sorrow depicted on his face.
"You don't have to do this" the spirit of chaos said calmly.
"Would rather see the alternative?" she replied.
"Ah but you seem to forget, I am chaos incarnate, I know the alternative"
"And that doesn't bother you?" she asked him.
"I'd prefer it be me rather than somepony I care about" Discord said sincerely.
"Of course you would..." Sunset replied
"You all don't care do you?" Auraka blurted as she gaped at the trio. "You don't care about me or your own lives een!"
"For starters I made a deal with a fox goddess so that I can help save everything, Manaquire can't permanently die and Discord is immortal" Sunset clarrified
"So you're just going to seal me? That's it?"
Discord raised an eyebrow as he set Sunset down onto the ground, the shock and uncertianty that raidiated of Auraka was amusing.
Sunset's horn began glowing again.
"This is the safest option for everypony..." she began. "With you sealed and unable to free your comrades things won't be so bad".
Flashback
Sunset sat atop the stone pillar her horn glowing with temporal energy. She could feel the ebb and flow of time, the many branches of fate and something else.
Something was wrong, a vile twisted power was forcing its way across time and space, robbing those who guided history of their powers and sealing the fate of the universe. Sunset saw, heard and felt the devastation of gods of vardos and the fate both they and all of equestria was condemmed to.
There was nothing but static and death, a sacrifice for a lost cause and the universe plunged into a kind of chaos that was nothing but a nightmare.
"When chaos rise and humans arrive the master of the mind shall come" SUnset chanted taking the will of the just and good and fusing it with her magic.
"When chaos dies and true love hides the master of the mind shall come"
She made Discord's demise never came to pass.
"He shall destroy the world.."
She stopped that, but only just.
"And he shall save it.."
She knew he couldn't, not yet.
"And when all is lost and gods have fallen..."
Time was runing out.
"And the heroes have quit"
She could feel hope was fading fast.
"His goddess shall stand tall.."
The final pieces were in place, all she had to do was wait, and then she would sing...
Flashback end
---------------
Sunset stared at Auraka, then looked at her own wings and the tip of her horn poking in her feild of vision.
"This isn't me...." she said and time stopped.
Everything, everywhere, froze with that one sentenece and Sunset caught her reflection in a piece of fallen glass. A sapphire blue alicorn with a slightly scruffy sunset orange mane and tail. She looked at her cutie, not even knowing when it had appeared on her flank. A circle with the top half resembling Celestia's cutie mark while bottom appeared to be the lower half of a full moon. In the centre were three dark blue swirls that came together to form a downward facing triangle.
"This isn't my talent..." she took a step back and took a longer look at the world around her. the flaws and inconsistencies became clear, the princesses should've been able to defeat Manaquire or at the very least imrpison him. By all rights she should be dead by now from Lord cyclone's attack or even the blast from the elements.
She blinked as she realised there was more wrong with her time here than she first realised, if she could walk on four legs perfectly fine then why couldn't she fly just as wel? Infact she should've been as steady on her hooves as a newborn foal!
Discord didn't once even try to mess with her or the element bearers, Manaquire shouldn't have been able to even touch the spirit of chaos let alone transform him.
Something was defintely wrong.
"This isn't real" Sunset stated. "This...This is.."
"This is all a nightmare!".
Sunset used a wing to sheild her eyes as everything was swallowed by a white light.