A/N: I regret nothing!
“I will never be you!” Sunset glared into the deep black and teal eyes of her past self with all of the anger she could spare. “I’ll never be you...” she hissed.
There was a split second of silence before a sudden explosion rocked the castle and Sunset found herself flying through the air towards the throne.
“Sunset!” Rainbow cried, watching as Sunset’s demon self shoved her through the air with a wave of fire. Turning her head back, she glared at the demon at the end of Canterlot Castle’s throne room. As soon as Sunset denied their relationship it started freaking out. The demon clutched its head in pain, screaming. Billows of fire began erupting from the ground around it and the shear waves of heat forced Rainbow to try to shield herself with her arms. Suddenly, all of the flames changed direction and engulfed it completely. They swirled around it, merging with it to form a large phoenix. “Fine then? Is this the real you?” the phoenix roared.
“That’s it!” growled Rainbow. Her body started to emanate a bright blue glow. Holding her open palm out a small blue card floated down into it. Lifting both hands, Rainbow slammed her fists together in front of her. The card shattered between then and released a wave of blue energy. “Persona!”
The energies spiraled and converged behind her, forming a large avian woman with even larger rainbow colored wings and sky blue hair. Her chest and legs were covered in cyan blue fur while her eyes were covered with a white blindfold. The woman took a wide stance as her nails elongated into razor sharp claws.
Rainbow pointed her persona directly at the phoenix. “Spectrum! Bring that bird down!" Obeying her master, Spectrum immediately flew towards the mass of living flames.
Over by Sunset’s fallen form, Coco gently lifted her head. “Sunset, are you alright?!”
Sunset cracked open her eyes and flinched in pain. Finally the pain subsided enough for her to look up in Coco’s eyes. “I can’t… I can’t move. Go, leave me here. I’m not worth fighting for.”
“That’s not true!” argued Coco, her voice desperate and concerned. “You’re more than worth it! You’re our friend! Don't you understand?”
Sunset simply turned her head away. Coco frowned and sat her down while she herself stood up to face the direction of the fight. Her body began glowing with a soft blue light. “Fine then, watch!” she said, determined. Holding out her own palm, Coco allowed a small blue card to fall into it. She held it to her chest and the card shattered. “Persona!”
Sunset turned her head back around to look at Coco. Immediately, the glow evolved into a blinding radiance as her own persona appeared behind her; A large overly muscular woman with a red and pink luchador unitard and mask. Ichijoukaren stood behind her master with folded arms while Coco stood resolutely.
“I’ll show you how much you mean to us! Rainbow!”
Rainbow glanced back and smiled. “About time,” she muttered. Thrusting her arm forward she yelled to her persona, “Spectrum, use the Sonic Rain-nado!”
Spectrum blasted away a fireball with a gust of wind before glancing back to her master. Her wings lit up with a multicolored glow as she acknowledged the order. Spreading her wings to their full length, she flapped them with as much force as possible and sent herself speeding towards Sunset’s shadow.
Shadow Sunset saw this coming and screeched. “Leave me alone!” The phoenix opened its mouth and expelled a torrent of red hot flames towards the speeding bullet. The flames did nothing to impede the incoming force as Spectrum merely dodged the attack and began spinning around the phoenix at increasingly dramatic speeds.
The phoenix screeched once more. “Get away!” as it tried to send out another wave of flames. Unfortunately, the flames petered out as she found itself trapped in a rainbow colored tornado. The flames composing her body also began to die out as the tornado continued to suck the oxygen from the area around it.
Rainbow called back to Coco. “Coco! Do it now!”
Coco nodded and pointed towards the tornado. “Ichijou!”
Shadow Sunset fell to the ground, its flaming body now merely that of a lingering translucent glow. “I won’t succumb... to this trap you call friendship!” Screeching with all its might, the phoenix resolved itself and spread its wings, releasing a large explosion. Its body lit up with flames anew and the sheer force of the explosion blew away both Spectrum and Rainbow.
However, just as the explosion died down, a strong pair of arms wrapped themselves around Shadow Sunset. Angered, the phoenix immediately attempted to burn its way out of the persona’s grip. Sunset watched as Coco hunched over in pain, nursing her burning arms. “Coco, stop this!” she cried, tears forming in her eyes. “You don’t have to hurt yourself for me!”
Coco gave her a strained smile. Their eyes met once again, but this time, Sunset felt as though she could finally see them clearly. The bright eyes of her best friend who was fighting so hard for her. “I’d do anything for my friends.” Sunset’s eyes widened and Coco turned back to the battle. “Ichijou! Seismic Toss!”
The eyes of Ichijoukaren’s mask lit up in a green glow as it acknowledged the command. With a staggeringly powerful jump, Ichijou flew higher and higher into the air as the very ceiling of the throne room continued to rise along with her. Finally, she looped backwards, allowing her feet to touch the ceiling into the air and face the ground. Lingering in the air for a second she jumped once again, completely destroying that section of the wall and propelling herself downward at incredible speeds.
All the while the phoenix continued to caw and screech and burn, desperately trying to escape the wrestler’s grip. But it was no use, the persona’s arms were locked, chaining her like a set of unbreakable bonds as they fell. With one final screech the falling stars crashed into into the ground, completely shattering the floor and shoving everyone back in a massive shockwave.
The flames surrounding the room slowly died out. And as the smoke from the crash followed suit, Sunset limped over to the crater. It was as wide as the throne room itself and twice as deep. There was no sign of the persona, but Sunset’s shadow sat, back in its human form, in the middle. It glitched, phasing in and out, likely due to its injuries.
It slowly lifted its head and glared at Sunset’s. “Look at you… hiding behind those girls, coming out at the last minute to claim victory like some chessmaster,” she growled, struggling to climb out of the crater. “Of course you wouldn’t remember what it’s like to be alone and helpless.”
Sunset looked down into the crater, her face was full of sadness. “You’re right,” she admitted, much to her shadow’s surprise.
Sunset watched as her other self lifted herself up on the lip of the hole. Their gaze locked once more. “What did you say?”
“I said, “you’re right... About everything. I admit it. I used to hate friendship. I used to think it was weak, unnecessary. I thought that Celestia was just wasting my time and trying to stunt my growth.” Sunset let out a light sigh. “But after being taken over by those feelings, I realized how much my quest for power hurt everyone else.
Then the elements hit me, and took all of it away. I felt empty after that. I saw the error of my ways but I couldn’t figure out what to do next. I was alone, confused, and afraid.” She looked over to Rainbow and Coco who were picking each other up. “But then I found the others, and they taught me what it means to be a friend.”
“That still doesn't--”
“I know,” Sunset turned back to her. “I know. You’re the same as I was; alone and afraid, hesitant to let anyone close to you for fear that they might leave. You’re the me who wanted the power to force people to stay. You wanted to protect me from getting hurt. You tried to convince me to go back to the safety of solitude. But you don’t have to, we don’t have to. I see that now. I rejected you because I felt like if I didn’t, I really would go back to being just like you... and that scared me."
Sunset held out her hand. The shadow looked at it for a second, then back to Sunset’s now bright smiling face. “But I was wrong!” she continued. “You are a part of me. A part that led me to where I am now, and I’ll never forget when I was you.”
Shadow Sunset looked up her her original with tear stained eyes. Its eyes faded from black to white matching Sunset’s completely. Hesitantly, it reached out and gripped her outstretched palm. The second they touched a bright white light formed between them, slowly encompassing the entire room and blinding everyone. The last thing that Sunset heard were two sincere words, echoing in her own voice.
“Thank you…”
~~~
Sunset’s eyes flickered open, revealing her bright blue ceiling. She continued to stare at it, unblinking for several long seconds and completely ignoring the pool of drool on her pillow. Her thoughts were firmly rooted on the dream she just had. Though with her sleep addled mind, she quickly began to forget it.
Finally, Sunset turned over in her bed and grumbled, “I play too many video games…”