Sunset Eclipsed

by EldritchNexus

The Big Night, Part 1

11:02 P.M.

A few nights passed, and Sunset Shimmer was back to learning advanced magical lessons at the palace with Princess Luna. The mentor and student sat next to each other in front of the empty thrones, with their eyes closed and their horns illuminated.

"Remember, Sunset." said Luna. "Concentrate as hard as you can."

"Got it." said Sunset, uneasily.

Her aura engulfed a bag of marbles that was laying in front of them both. Each ball was levitated out of the bag, spun around in a circle around the alicorn and unicorn, and then transformed into figurines of different animals.

"Well done, my dear." said Luna, with a smile.

Sunset let the figurines drop steadily to the floor all around her and Luna.

"Thanks." she smiled.

"And now, we shall move on to the next lesson." said Luna, whose horn was glowing even brighter.

The figurines began to move their appendages independently, and turned their heads. They all started to dance with each other.

"Wow, that's amazing." said Sunset Shimmer.

"Are you ready to learn the spell?" asked the princess.

"Um...actually, Luna." said Sunset, with a yawn. "I'm feeling kinda tired right now. Do you mind if I just go back to bed?"

"Of course not, my dear."

Sunset left the throne room, and passed by Radiant Dawn and Lightning Dust in the hall.

"Hey, how's it going?" Sunset said to them.

"All clear, little sister." said Radiant.

"Skies are clear for tonight, Sunset." said Lightning Dust. "Nothing's getting in while we're on duty."

---

11:23 P.M.

That night, in the apartment building on Dodge Boulevard, Nose Nip came rushing in through the front door.

"Frosty, you should come see this!" he said.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." said Frosty, who was manning the front desk as usual. "Let me guess, Nips: another buncha dumb teenagers put graffiti on the walls outside, right?"

"No!" said Nose Nip. "It's down by the school. It looks like the Syndicate's going to war! I've never seen so much military stuff in my life!"

"Clearly, you haven't lived in the States long enough, then." snarked Frosty.

"Oh shut up, man." grumbled Nose Nip in an uncharacteristically frustrated manner. "I'm calling the police right now. And if you cared for anyone but yourself, you'd consider doing the same!"

he ran up the stairs to his room to grab his cell phone, while Frosty just sat at the desk, dumbfounded by his employee's comment.

"Yeah, but...uh...well...uh...ah, sonuva gun." he grumbled idly.

---

11:47 P.M.

Shining Armor of the Canterbury Police Department was on one of his patrols. He stopped his motorbike just down the street from Canterlot High.

"Keep your eyes open, Silver." said Officer Armor, through his walkie-talkie. "We've got reports of something very big about to go down soon. Over!"

"Copy that, captain." said Officer Silver Shadow.

"I'm gonna check on those Syndicate guys." said Shining Armor. "They've been here almost a month now, and haven't shown any intentions of leaving."--he paused and to look ahead towards the school building--"In fact, I see that they just brought another tank in front of the school."

"Good lord, that's the third one in a row!" said Silver Shadow. "Sir, I'm coming around from Dodge Boulevard. Wow, there's gotta be at least forty--no, fifty of them!"

"What are they all doing?"

"They all seem to be pointing all their weapons at the statue at the front of the school, sir. Cripes, even the tanks are pointing at it! What the heck are they trying to do?"

Officer Armor took out his binoculars, climbed off his motorcycle, and stalked down the road. He looked through the binoculars, and saw just as Silver Shadow described: What appeared to be a small army of soldiers in black armor and helmets were all forming a perimeter around the statue, as instructed by two larger soldiers: The muscular Captain Umbriel and the tall, sleek Supreme Commander Chrysalis.

"Well, sonuva gun." grumbled the police captain under his breath.

Suddenly he heard a series of clicking noises around him, and he suddenly found himself being surround by a trio of power-armored soldiers that suddenly materialized out of the night. They were all pointing assault rifles at his head.

"Lovely night for a walk, isn't it?" said one of the soldiers.

"What the heck's going on?" asked Officer Armor.

"Can't tell ya." said one of the soldiers. "What we can tell ya, is that this'll be the last night we'll ever spend in your pathetic little hick town."

"As an officer of the law, I demand to know what that is all about!" Armor pointed at the artillery aiming at the statue.

"You're pushing us to answer you, pig." said one of the soldiers. "We're not gonna warn you again: Get out of here, or else--"

"Or else what?" demanded Officer Armor. "I'm a police captain, you morons! You shoot me, and the FBI will be all over you guys!"

"You wanna know so bad?" said another voice from behind.

Shining Armor turned around to find a fourth soldier materialize and point his gas-powered sidearm at the police captain's nose.

"Then I'll take you to the boss right now." said Sgt. Craw, with a sinister, cold edge to his distorted voice.

"Then lead the way." said Officer Armor in a calm, level tone.

---

11:56 P.M.
Sunset Shimmer tucked herself into her bed, thinking again about what she's been doing for the past month. She already done more great things and made more friends in this small amount of time than she ever did in the two-and-a-half years or so she spent in the--

Suddenly, she heard a noise in the next room. It sounded like a magic spell. Sunset grinned.

"Maybe Trixie's training for her next show." she chuckled to herself.

Then she heard the sound again, and an identical sound from the room the other room next to hers.

"Hmm...it seems like somepony's doing a little late night teleporting." Sunset mused, before pausing suspiciously. "But who?"

It couldn't be any of her friends, since none of them know how to teleport. Princess Luna could teleport, but if she was looking for Sunset Shimmer, she would've just teleported straight into her room. Twilight Sparkle was currently in Ponyville, so it was unlikely to be her. Sunset got out of bed and teleported out of her room, and into the hall. She barely caught a glimpse of a greyish figure in the dark, just before it vanished before her in a flash of red light.

Suddenly, there was the sound of hooffalls of someone ascending the stairs. It was Captain Star Shield.

"Miss Shimmer, is there something wrong?" he asked as soon as he saw Sunset.

"Captain, I think here's an intruder in the palace." said Sunset. "Someone's teleporting around here, and it's nopony I recognize."

"Are you sure?" asked Captain Shield.

Suddenly, there was another noise. This time, it came from Sunset's room. Sunset quickly opened her door to find a dark figure with red eyes standing there: Ghost.

"You picked the wrong time to try and sneak up on me!" Sunset growled, her horn glowing.

"Well, I didn't think this would be your room." said Ghost, whose own horn was glowing. "But I think now would be a good time for a rematch! You just have--" he teleported behind Sunset Shimmer. "--to--" he teleported into the air over Star Shield. "--find me!"

He teleported again, but Sunset was ready.

"Oh no, you don't!" she yelled, teleporting after him.

They teleported through room after room, corridor after corridor, waking up several sleeping ponies as they went. Eventually, they both came into the palace basement.

"That's it!" snapped Sunset. "No more teleporting! Let's fight fair and square!"

"Well, I would...but I'm not here to fight you!" said Ghost.

Sunset teleported on top of and pinned Ghost to the ground.

"Quit lying!" growled the unicorn.

"I ain't lying!" snapped Ghost, rolling over to knock Sunset off of him.

Sunset rolled over on the ground and took a moment to notice what was on Ghost's neck: the Alicorn Amulet!

"But if you want a problem, then come get some!" said Ghost, whose horn was glowing.

Several flashes of light appeared, and various beasts appeared around them: two manticores and several giant spiders.

"But..." stammered Sunset.

"Amazing what this amulet can do, ain't it?" Ghost fumbled with it, before turning to the other creatures. "Go nuts!"

The creatures all charged at Sunset, who quickly teleported away, and unleashed a flurry of magical blasts from her horn that knocked them all back. The spiders were easily knocked aside, but the manticores quickly charged at her. She used her telekinesis to knock them both into each other, causing to sting each other with their tails.

"Ah, phooey." grumbled Ghost, just as Sunset unleashed another beam of energy right at him.

He collapsed quickly to the ground. Before he could draw out further magic from the Amulet, Sunset yanked at it, as hard as she could. But she found much difficulty in pulling it off. She wasn't the only one straining herself; Ghost was choking and gagging like mad as the cord squeezed against his jugular.

"Not worth it, not worth it, not worth it, not worth it!" Ghost quailed and choked. "You want the amulet so bad, take it!"

Ghost unclipped the amulet, and allowed Sunset to seize it. She laid it down beside them, and she lowered her head to snarl at him.

"Okay, you got me!" scoffed Ghost. "What do you want now, unicorn?!"

"I want to know what happened to my father." said Sunset. "My mother told me you might have done something with him."

"I don't know." said Ghost, flatly.

"I don't believe you." said Sunset, angrily. "If you don't tell me where he is, so help me, I'll--"

Suddenly, there was a strange noise in the room that caught both their attention, and Sunset saw its source: The Crystal Mirror was there, standing right before her. Its glass was shimmering; another thirty days had passed since she last used it. Sunset grinned maliciously.

"Or I'll throw you right through that portal." said Sunset. "Never to return."

"Go ahead, Sunset Shimmer." Ghost grinned back. "Do your absolute worst."

He blasted Sunset off of him without warning. She was knocked against the wall opposite the mirror. She charged at him, and levitated him into the air, absolutely livid by this point.

"Okay, you want my worst?" said Sunset. "Let's see you try to teleport out of there!"

She thrust Ghost through the air as hard as her telekinesis could allow, and smirked as she did so. Then her satisfactory expression turned to a terrified stare: Just before Ghost even touched the glass, something long and thin shot out from the mirror's shimmering glass. It stuck to the wall just inches above Sunset's head. It was a cable of some kind, with a grappling hook on the end, buried halfway in the wall. Ghost was able to catch it by pure luck. He was dangling in a rather silly manner from the line with a relieved sigh.

"Uh...welp." said Ghost. "Here comes the neigh-borhood."

Then he teleported away, leaving Sunset Shimmer standing motionless and horrified by the thing above and in front of her. She had only one guess what this meant, and unfortunately, she was correct.

Comments

[Metroid Prime]

2 months later

[00RaiserGundam]

Oh, crap.

This can't be good.

By the way, I am loving your story, man. Infinites!!!!!!

[3phra1m]

How did she pull the amulet off him. It has to be removed by the one wearing it.

[00RaiserGundam]

3phra1m actually has a very good point about the amulet. That detail was even canon in the actual show.

[EldritchNexus]

4714611
4697261

Okay, guys. Fixed it. Hope it makes more sense.

[Lord Predacord]

Hello good sir. I am new to the fimfiction community and I stumbled upon you story. I happen to love Sunset Shimmer. So as seeing a story this large I can't wait to read it. It is sure to take me awhile. But I would like to know. How many more chapters will be added? And how long till the story is complete? If you think I am rushing you I am sorry. I just can't wait to read it in one sitting.

PS.
This is my first comment.

[EldritchNexus]

4748484

I'd say that I've just begun the finale of this story. Though you should expect a couple sequels, plus a prequel/midquel, to come along eventually.

Hope you enjoy reading my story, though. Please leave comments telling me what you think of it.

[Lord Nopony]

Uh oh! THAT does NOT sound good!