In hindsight, it was a rash decision. But then, Sonata hadn’t really made a lot of those. She followed directions. She did what she was told with little to no question, and did it happily most times. It was a lesson she’d grown over the eons to know: respect her elders. It was why she listened to Adagio with perfect posture and open ears, why she heeded her father down to his every whim.
But when she pried herself from her sisters’ grip, sprinted toward the remains of Canterlot High School, and threw herself protectively over Sunset Shimmer, Sonata Dusk hadn’t a clue who she was anymore.
“What is this defiance, Sonata?!”
A heart-swallowing pit opened in her chest―a feeling she came to know all too well, the feeling she got when she knew she’d done something wrong.
Sonata curled herself tighter around the bloodied and broken Sunset Shimmer. “You… you can’t do this, Father,” she said. “You have no right.”
At first, Sonata couldn’t imagine where those words came from, then realized if her eyes weren’t closed―weren’t helplessly locked on her father’s―she likely wouldn’t have said them. There was no rebuke, though. No shouts, no curses. Nothing.
She dared to peel one eye open. Her father just stayed where he was, kneeling beside both girls, his arms deflated to his sides.
“Sonata,” Sky Eater said, his tone low and firm. “Move.”
Listen to your elders, Sonata thought.
She shut her eyes again. “No.”
Sonata nearly puked when she said that. She heard her father’s low growl and curled even tighter to Sunset.
A dry, groggy voice came from below. “Sonata―”
“I said, no…” Sonata whispered back to Sunset.
“Father!”
Eyes still shut, Sonata frowned at the frantic footsteps patting toward them. She opened her eyes, looked aside, and saw her two sisters dashing toward them. They slid to a stop and fell to their knees.
“I’m sorry, Father,” Adagio said. “I tried to stop her, but―”
“Silence.”
Adagio flinched at Sky Eater’s deep command.
Sonata’s eyes went wide, feeling her limbs being pried apart. She looked up at her father, his fist held forward, fingers uncurling ever-so slowly.
“No!” she cried. Her muscles strained and cracked as she fought against it. “No!”
“For too long, have you been trapped in this world.” Sky Eater’s fingers opened more, and his daughter’s wails went ignored. “For too long, have we been apart. Your minds are poisoned, bursting with their lies and clearly their habits. For you to disobey me…”
Tears of sheer effort poured from Sonata’s eyes, her limbs still unfurling from a trembling Sunset.
“They helped us, Father! They accepted us after what we did, helped us keep a home! Why can’t you give them a chance?!”
Sky Eater scoffed. “Helped you? Yes, by keeping the portal a secret. Oh, they held you in such high esteem, such trust.” His fingers straightened completely, and Sonata’s arms and legs flew open. “They are not worthy of a chance, nor do they deserve it!”
Sonata cried out against her father’s power, sweat drenching her skin. “Father, please. Please forgive them!”
“It is over, little one. You will understand, one day, why they had to die. And why their entire species will soon fall in line.”
Sky Eater flicked his wrist, and Sonata was cast aside, exposing Sunset Shimmer, who still lay weak on her side. The armored giant took Sunset’s arm and rolled her to her back. Her still-lidded eyes slowly shifted to him.
He raised his fist again, prepared to strike the fallen teen down.
“MOTHER WOULDN’T WANT YOU TO DO THIS!”
Sky Eater completely stopped, his yellow eyes fraught with amazement, one of them twitching. He turned to Sonata, who offered only a weak glare, sitting on her knees. He extended his hand again, and the yelping siren slid forward.
Enormous, iron-clad fingers clamped around her face.
“Father, don’t!” Aria screamed.
“Your mother? Your mother?!” Sky Eater roared in the siren’s face. “She is the reason you and your sisters have squandered eons in darkness! She is the one who cursed me to rot in this universe for all eternity! You do NOT speak of her!”
He threw his daughter on her rump, but she rose to her knees yet again, her glare stronger.
“This isn’t about that, Father! It’s never had to be! You respected her way! You used to watch life evolve and grow old with her! You actually cared! Now? Now, all you do is hate!”
Sky Eater’s eyes glowed bright. “Hate is what kept you three safe! Hate is what kept you strong and fed, what kept you alive! That is why these six must pay for taking your voice!”
Sonata’s resolve began to shake. “B-but it’s not that simple!”
Sky Eater gave a combination of a sigh, a laugh, and a grunt. “Retribution is not simple? SONATA! WAKE UP!” The youngest siren’s glare was now gone, her head sunk between her shoulders. “These creatures have no respect for the pain they’ve caused, for the songs now lost to the cosmos, for the paradise they’ve taken from your reach! And still, you defend them!”
Sonata began to shake. “I… I…”
Sky Eater’s eyes lost their glow, suddenly wide with disbelief.
“What is your mission?” he demanded.
Sonata jerked back like he’d swung at her.
“I… What?”
“Your mission, whelp. What is it?”
Sonata’s mouth opened and closed several times, words escaping her in tiny squeaks. Sky Eater’s fists tightened, his shoulders rattling beneath his white robe. His growl rumbled the fissured ground, and the sky growled in tandem with quiet thunder.
Sonata wilted back, biting her nails.
“Leave my sight at once!” Sky Eater bellowed.
His hand shot forward yet again, and Sonata was flung away screaming into Adagio’s waiting arms. This time, the eldest siren refused let go. Sky Eater hunched over, shoulders still tremoring.
He lifted his head toward the sky and roared. A terrible, echoing thing that carried through Canterlot City and ignited the lightning above. His eyes went piercing bright yellow again, this time thrown at the now-horrified Sunset Shimmer.
“You! You did this!” Sky Eater was now kneeling completely over her, teal eyes couldn’t look away. “You self righteous naives! Offering my children nothing but falsehood! You made them forget their roots, their role in the cosmos! You stole their voices, and even a piece of their very souls?!”
He raised his fist. Sonata screamed and buried her face in Adagio’s chest, as if it would make it all stop.
Sky Eater’s fist hammered down, the blunt connection of flesh and iron. Sonata’s fingers curled onto Adagio’s quickly-wrinkling shirt. She felt those slender arms wrap tighter around, and a chin pressed down on her head.
Flesh and iron met again. And again. And again, even as Sunset started crying out. The assault continued, and Sky Eater’s words flew from his mouth with every strike.
“Weak! Trifling! Waste! OF FLESH!”
Sonata rocked back and forth, wailing and cursing. And yet, for reasons that she’d never understand, she looked back to see. Sunset’s head was turned away from them, her arms spread out to her sides.
She gave a twitch, then a cough.
Sky Eater snatched the collar her torn leather jacket, and yanked her up. Sonata squealed at her friend’s now-bruised and beaten face.
“I’m going to take great pleasure in making you all pay for this!” Sky Eater roared.
He hoisted Sunset off the ground, ignoring her crackling bones and raspy shout. With a frown dark enough to eclipse the sun, he raised his other hand and five more bodies ascended to the air, each coated with red, crackling light.
Sky Eater threw his empty hand forward, and the rest of the Rainbooms converged and floated before him.
“Now, truly suffer…” he growled.
He tossed Sunset forward, and she remained floating with her friends, caught by an unseen web. Sky Eater’s armored fingers slowly curled, and in seconds, the girls were all screaming, the red light crackling even louder.
Sonata still couldn’t look away. The moment she started shaking in Adagio’s arms, the eldest siren’s gloved hand loomed over her eyes. Sonata gladly accepted and finally turned back to her sister’s chest―away from the brutality.
“I’m so sorry,” Adagio whispered. “I’m sorry I told him about them…”
Sonata peeked aside and saw Aria staring straight at it all, trying to be strong. The cascade of tears completely gave her away. The purple siren started shaking. Eventually, she turned away too.
The screams grew louder, and Sonata turned to Adagio’s chest again.
“Open your eyes, my children,” Sky Eater said. “Open your eyes and look.”
Sonata refused and the pain in her chest doubled. Respect your elders, her mind echoed. She turned away from Adagio’s chest and looked, tears blurring her vision. She knew her sisters were looking too.
“With their blood, I give you freedom,” the bearded man said. “Look now, not that you may remember these humans, but that you may forget them. And may you never waste another heartbeat trying to be them.”
Respect your elders, Sonata’s mind echoed again. Then she saw Pinkie Pie. Her clothes torn and bloodied. Her skin cut and bruised, pores crying with blood. Her eyes open… staring right at her. The blue siren absently shook her head, her mouth trembling open.
Pinkie’s bleeding hand reached out. It curled back as she screamed in another fit of agony.
Sonata didn’t turn away. “Forgive us…” she whispered.
Then there was light.
Blinding light.
Piercing light.
Scorching light.
The sirens yelped and shielded their eyes. Sonata’s pupils roamed behind her eyelids, yellow and purple spots blending in the darkness. Her closed eyes tightened, then opened. Meek little dots swam in her vision like tadpoles in a pond. She gasped and turned back to her suffering friends.
They were all gone.
She turned to her father, who had barely recovered from the flash himself, shaking his head and blinking firmly.
Sonata frantically searched her surrounding. “W-where did they―”
“No way... “ Aria muttered through clenched teeth. “There’s just no way.”
Sonata looked to her sister, and shrank back at the dark scowl directed at the portal. Which didn’t make any sense, because Sonata was more than used to those. This was different, though. The youngest sister looked up at Adagio, who harbored the same look.
Sonata finally turned to look. A lone figured stood before the portal. Six bodies scattered around this figure. Armor gleaming. Magenta eyes narrowed and focused on them. Hair dancing and flowing with windless air. Sonata’s eyes went wide.
“You?” she shrieked.
Sky Eater stroked his great beard, his yellow eyes narrowing. “Unexpected…”
**********
Different. Everything was different.
Princess Celestia knew it’d be a long shot―adjusting to two legs, that is―and truthfully, standing with such a straight posture again was slightly nauseating. True, this wasn’t the first time Celestia had stepped through Starswirl’s portal. In fact, seeing how ‘modern’ everything looked, she actually thought she was transported somewhere completely different.
But when she saw exactly what she feared she’d see, when Sunset Shimmer and her friends were being torn apart by a man much too tall to be human, every ache, imperfection, and dizzying sensation was forgotten.
Now she stood firm before the statue of Canterlot High School, her gold battle armor weighing heavy on her new body. She stared ahead at the monstrous man, her eyes narrowing at the sizzling atmosphere around him.
He is as strong as I feared…
A weak grip found Celestia’s ankle. She looked down at Sunset Shimmer’s pained eyes and nearly broke down into tears right there.
“Is… is it really you?” Sunset whispered, trembling.
Celestia knelt down. “Hush…”
She raised a glowing fingertip, and streams of white like swam from it. Like glowing eels, the streams circled Sunset Shimmer and her friends. Slowly, bones reattached, wounds closed, skin cleared. Within seconds, the damage was reversed.
Sunset carefully rose to sit, and massaged the back of her neck. Her eyes went wide, then riveted to her former teacher with a gasp.
“E-Equestria! Twilight! My parents! What’s going on over there?! Has he hurt anypony?! Has he―”
Celestia smiled and silenced the former unicorn with a raised palm. “Sky Eater hasn’t harmed a soul in Equestria.” Her smile dropped. “I only just recently discovered why he came in the first place.”
Sunset released a breath, wiping sweat from her forehead and face “How did he know about the portal?”
Celestia frowned. “He possessed Twilight Sparkle’s assistant, Spike, and reaped all of his knowledge. I suspect that’s how he knew where to find you.” She cast her eyes downward. “He tricked Twilight into opening the portal.”
Sunset sighed and squinted in Sky Eater’s direction. “Of course he did…”
The armored princess rose to her feet and turned toward the distant opposition. “Stay here,” she said.”
Sunset shot to her own feet, her hands laced together. “Wait! Where are you going?”
Celestia now faced the opposition completely, her vision sharp, muscles tense. “To have a little discussion with our friend over there.”
Sunset stumbled forward, timidly reaching out. “But princess! He’ll… he’ll―”
“No. He will not harm me.”
Celestia stepped forward, and Sunset stepped after her.
“How can you say that?! You saw what happened, what he almost did! If the Sky Eater’s still enchanted, he wouldn’t risk killing us, or you, or anyone! But he did!”
Celestia slightly turned her head. “Watch, and you will understand.”
She fully expected another fit of rebukes. To her surprise, there were none. Celestia turned her head more to glimpse at her old student. She saw a frown with which she was shamefully well-acquainted.
“Why don’t you ever listen to me?” Sunset muttered.
The second she saw the gleam of tears in Sunset’s eyes, Celestia turned away completely, and walked toward her mission without another word. As the distance grew, the sun princess could hear the chatter behind.
“Sunset. Was that…?”
Celestia didn’t hear a response to that. With a bitten inner cheek, she hardened her eyes ahead and marched on. She saw Sky Eater stand in the exact same spot, three young girls kneeling beside him.
Her eyes met his.
A robed arm swished aside, and the young girls scurried away. He marched forward as well. The atmosphere around him only sizzled more the closer Celestia got. Every step forward became something of a chore, as her shoulders suddenly felt heavy.
For only a split second, Celestia peaked at the destroyed building behind Sky Eater, and the young humans slowly emerging from the gaping entrance.
Celestia stopped walking.
Sky Eater stopped as well.
There―amid the destruction, the black clouds and lightning, the gateway between two worlds―the Ruler of Equestria and the Destroyer of Creation stood before one another.
She leered up. He leered down.
“So…” Sky Eater began. “To what do I owe this intrusion, Daybringer?”
“A mere proposition, if you will hear it.”
He raised a white eyebrow. “I’m listening.”
Celestia’s leer hardened. “Leave this world and its people alone, and you will be spared.”
Sky Eater’s eyes went wide for only a second. Then he chuckled as though he’d been told a very dry joke.
“You ponies have the most refreshing sense of humor,” he said. “Surely you didn’t come all this way with only a few vapid threats.”
“What I tell you is no threat, but a guarantee, should you carry out your plans.”
Sky Eater chuckled again, a grin baring his teeth. “You cannot stop me, Daybringer.” He spread his arms out triumphantly. “And I don’t see an army rallied behind you.”
Celestia’s eyes remained solid. “No, Sky Eater. I come alone.”
A thick silence cluttered the air.
“Fool…” Sky Eater growled. “On what grounds could you possibly justify your stupidity?”
The armored princess clenched a fist. “The senseless deaths of innocent human beings and a pony very precious to me.”
Sky Eater frowned. “Innocent? Those hooligans? Clearly you are misinformed, alicorn.”
“Be that as it may, while I stand in your path, you will stay your blade.”
That time, Sky Eater threw his head back and laughed. “You are something else. I’d expect nothing less from her creation. But riddle me this, Daybringer.”
Celestia said nothing as an armored palm lifted to her.
“What if I permanently remove you from my path, and I take the retribution my children so richly deserve.”
Celestia tried her damndest to ignore Sunset Shimmer’s distant cry.
“You won’t,” she said.
Sky Eater’s palm crackled with power and blood-red light. “Give me an excuse…” he growled.
Celestia remained stony and impassive. “How about the enchantment that plagues you to this very day?”
Sky Eater’s eye twitched.
“True, many ponies know not of the circumvention. Not many know that the inhabitants of young worlds are beyond your reach―that they need only affect you directly to be in any real danger. But I know, old one.”
The red light faded.
“I know that the Creator’s enchantment binds you evermore, and that until I provide a reason to do otherwise,” Celestia’s eyes glowed white, “you are beneath me.”
Sky Eater’s hand lowered, but his scowl could melt glaciers and evaporate entire oceans.
“Twilight Sparkle takes quite a lot after you, Daybringer.”
Celestia smirked. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You shouldn’t. Because she’ll be dead before I leave Equestria with my children.”
That smirk fell like an asteroid. Sky Eater’s own smile surfaced.
“Nothing to that, hm?” he prodded.
“Actually, that brings up the other half of my proposition,” Celestia said.
“Oh? Enlighten me.”
Celestia pointed a thumb over her shoulder. “The portal back to Equestria, back to the body that still covers Equestrian skies, back to the sirens true forms…”
Sky Eater grinded his teeth, his glare wide-eyed and scorching.
“It’d be a shame if something happened to it.”
“You. Wouldn’t. Dare.”
Celestia’s smirk returned. “I wouldn’t, no. But the ponies you so foolishly antagonized would do it in my stead. I gave them an hour. If I’ve not returned to Equestria in one hour, all bets are off. The portal will be destroyed. Your children will forever remain here, as will you and I.”
Sky Eater’s teeth ground harder, a bead of sweat falling down his forehead.
“I… I see,” he muttered. He relaxed and adopted a calm face. “That’s quite the proposition, Daybringer. Might I ask what you demand in return?”
Celestia’s arms crossed over her armored chest. “I ask that you leave this world, leave Equestria, and continue your role in the cosmos.”
The bearded man raised a brow.
“You call me ‘Daybringer’, old one. That name defines my very purpose, as the destruction of dying worlds defines yours. I would not have the great balance broken, nor would I have you force that upon me.”
Sky Eater remained silent, and Celestia closed her eyes.
“I ask that you take your children and leave. Do not come back until the time is right. That goes for both worlds.”
Still, Sky Eater remained silent. For minutes, magenta and yellow eyes were locked, gauging, calculating. His brows furrowed in thought, eyes now searching the ground. Celestia’s heart drummed in her chest; she thought she could actually feel it beneath her chestplate.
Blaring sirens shattered the silence.
With a start, Celestia spun completely around. Red and blue lights flashed, reflecting off the surface. Well over a dozen strange creatures, each adorned in gleaming black and white hide, came to a screeching halt around Canterlot High School.
Humans garbed in blue attire poured out from these metallic creatures, each of them diving behind the statue, or the creatures’ flat, metal arms. Celestia heard several clicks and clacks ring in the air.
“ALRIGHT, BIG GUY! STEP AWAY FROM THE LADY! HANDS ON YOUR HEAD, AND ON THE F**KING GROUND, NOW!”
Celestia’s breath hitched as her eyes grew and grew.
“Well then,” Sky Eater said with a grin. “It seems your little human friends have other plans for me.”
Celestia whipped back to her adversary. “No! There’s still time! Just take the sirens and leave!”
The bearded giant grinned wider.