August 16, 3:26 AM: I Can't Believe It's Over
In the center of the burnt-out crater that had once been Lord Tirek, Princess Twilight Sparkle looked at her brother, then her friends. It was bad enough that they had barely survived their own battle against the mad, murderous centaur, but now Shining had arrived to give her initial reports – including the one fatality she knew would crush her friends’ already flagging morale.
She looked around the wreckage of Ponyville; even though they’d managed to evacuate nearly the whole town, there still had been casualties and extreme damage. She wasn’t sure if Ascot and Cardigan had survived, but if they had, they deserved to know about their daughter’s sacrifice – Twilight just wasn’t sure how to tell everypony that the brave mare had been brutally and callously murdered by the madstallion.
She didn’t have the tears to cry right now, not while so many of her subjects were suffering and the losses had to be truly tallied. But her friends – her dearest extended family, as far as she was concerned – had the right to know about the loss of one of their own. They deserved to know.
She looked at them, all clad in the armor that had been provided for them by the Tree of Harmony. In the distance was the towering crystalline castle that would stand as her new home now. Between their new Rainbow Power Armor (as Pinkie had dubbed it) and the Castle of Friendship, there was more magic and friendship than ever before in her life, a strength and power that had judged Tirek guilty and tore him to shreds before disbursing all the stolen magic back to the four corners of Equestria, restoring those that had been afflicted.
But it couldn’t bring back the dead. Few things – alicorns being a notable exception, as she well knew – ever came back from the dead.
Fluttershy looked at Twilight. “Twilight? What is Shining talking about?”
“I hope it’s that we won,” Rainbow chimed in, thankfully oblivious to the situation.
The tears came to Twilight as she knew they would never see their friend again. “No. We lost. We lost more than I can ever say.”
“Captain! Princess!” The two royals turned to see a Guard sergeant approaching at a fast gallop. Coming to a skidding stop in front of the two, he quickly saluted and said, “Message from the palace! The other princesses have returned!”
Looks of relief came over both of their faces; their loved ones were safe. “How are they?”
“Apparently unharmed, sir,” the stallion told him. “We should expect further reports shortly once on-site personnel have swept the palace.”
Shining nodded. “Thank you, Bright Spark. That will be all.”
Twilight looked at him. “Shiny, go. Check and see if they’re safe and give them a hug for me.”
The grin on Shining’s face was wide. “You got it!”
As Shining teleported away, the others looked at Twilight. “Well, we survived, didn’t we, sugarcube?” Applejack asked, concern on her face.
Leave it to AJ to pick up on something wrong, Twilight mused. “No. Not all of us.” And then she explained.
Thirty seconds later, six mares tearfully embraced, crying for the loss of one of their own.
At the castle, Princess Celestia looked at the wreckage Tirek and his armies had caused. Tens of thousands of her subjects dead. Countless injured. And several of the land’s heroes gone, including…. She turned away; there would be time for tears later. For now, there would only be healing and repair. Harmony would win the day, she would insist on it.
Her thoughts turned to her daughter. For all the stories she’d heard about violence and insanity in the human realm, it was ironic that right now, that was the safest place Sunset could be. For all the tales of teenage boys acting like criminals and girls being victimized, they had likely never seen anything on the order of Tirek and his world-level spells of apocalypse. It had been a very good plan to invest their magic in Twilight temporarily; had Celestia and Luna taken the field she wondered if there would have been anything of her realm left.
Something gnawed at her. She didn’t know what it was, but it tugged at the back of her mind and would not let go. An irony that it was the same way Raspberry’s anti-brainwashing spell had worked, but she knew that it would not be that. Part of her wished it would be; at least then….
She turned away her thoughts on that, instead focusing on her hooffalls on the burnt and damaged marble. This part of the castle had been recently renovated in the wake of the Changeling invasion and now it would have to be once more.
At least I know one part of the palace that still stands, she mused as she turned towards one of her most private havens: the stained-glass gallery.
After a few more minutes, she entered a long hallway with kaleidoscopic colors blazing from both sides through glass of different colors and shapes. She paused to look at the murals since the earliest days of the palace, each one reminding her of a moment in time where heroics ruled the day and good triumphed over evil. Where heroes as varied and powerful as Starswirl the Bearded, Brickbreaker the Dauntless and Wisteria the Wise of old to modern counterparts such as Steadfast the Swift and the Element Bearers, all immortalized with their deeds in glass, forever to tell the stories ponies needed to know.
And now standing there, looking at each of these self-contained scenes with intent, was Discord. He’d sealed himself in his pocket dimension to protect himself, and while that had been enough to prevent things from truly spiraling out of control, knowing him, it probably chafed that he had to do that. The Avatar of Chaos had always been one to throw himself into the fray, metaphorically or literally.
But as he looked on, Celestia realized he was being serious now. And serious was not something she was accustomed to from him.
“I heard about the losses,” he said as he turned to look at her. “That…angers…me, Celly. That is not chaos. That is terror. He sowed terror, harming the innocent. Even at my worst I never did that.”
“I know,” she said softly. “We appreciate that.”
“I’m leaving. After I see to Fluttershy – and if I find she was harmed I will not be very happy – I am leaving.”
“You’re leaving?”
He nodded. “I have become…fond, you could say…of ponydom. Of using my powers of chaos for what I suppose you call ‘good’. But sometimes I need my power to go in other ways. Not evil, per se, but mischievous in a way you don’t prefer.” He paused for a moment. “Tirek may be dead, but his forces and followers are still out there. They may even have a way to resurrect him – centaur magic is oddly strange like that: ascension without ascending, if that makes sense.”
“It doesn’t.”
He grinned. “I know, right? So I thought I’d go take a little trip around the world, learn what his reserves are doing and see if I can’t help them to a big old slice of chaos!” He suddenly summoned a huge cheesecake with the words SLICE OF CHAOS – NO REALLY! on the side of it. “Here. You have a piece; don’t worry, this one won’t explode. Theirs? Now that I can’t promise.” He then reached to the top of his head and proceeded to fold himself, origami style, until he turned into a paper beetle and flew away
She chuckled, then took a bite of the cheesecake. She then gave the same kind of wicked grin he did. If Tirek’s forces were still out there, ready to strike…they were due for a slight change in plans.
For once, she could live with that.
“Auntie?” Celestia turned to see Cadance and Luna approaching, their own faces downfallen. It had likely been as hard on them as it had on her, and not for the last time the sun alicorn wished that her mother would return to the earthly plane to deal with this.
“Are you two alright?”
“No, no I’m not. We lost….” The younger alicorn took a breath, then continued. “So many of our ponies dead, countless injured, the hospitals are overloaded and we’re setting up triage stations. I’m getting ready to fly out to the Crystal Heart to have it supercharge our healers and those giving first aid.”
Luna looked vacantly at the window nearest to her – which happened to be the depiction of the Elements defeating Nightmare Moon. “I’ve flown around the realm. Cities are in ruins, whole portions of the nation destroyed, sister. Our ponies call for us for succor….” She turned her head away in shame. “And we were just as helpless. We failed our ponies, sister. We failed our loved ones.”
“Are you…speaking in singular or plural?” Cadance asked her other aunt.
“Does it matter? The fact is, whether I failed or we failed, our ponies paid the price – a price that should have never have been dealt out. We did not watch out for the weak and needy.” She looked at her fellow alicorns. “What will we do now?”
“We rejoice in the fact that it could have been much worse, but wasn’t,” Celestia told them. “I feared that my plan to bring my daughter back would be necessary, but thankfully it wasn’t. And now, I can rest easy knowing that she’s in the human world, safe as can be.”
Twilight Sparkle wanted to make whomever was screaming stop. It was a horrifying wail, the sound of a damned banshee, and the sound seemed to permeate all around, through her soul and beyond. She felt like the world was pain and that it would never end.
My fault, she said to herself, a damning mantra. My fault my sister is dead. My fault my fault myfault myfault myfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfault…. Twilight crawled into a fetal ball, wanting to die. She sinned and she would never be forgiven. Had she just…tried to understand! Had she just tried to comprehend and not be a cunt, like Octavia had told her, Sunset would still be alive!
…myfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfault…
When her parents fully realized she was responsible for the death of her sister, they would disown her. Shining would throw her in prison and rightfully so. Cadance would probably push to have a life sentence thrown at her. Spike would tell everyone that he never had a sister or that he was ashamed to have had an older sister. Maybe he would tell others Octavia was that.
And then there was Octavia herself. Her cousin was already mad at her for mistreating Sunset. But now Sunset was dead due to her own immaturity. How would Octavia react? Would Twilight’s first and dearest friend, the person that had been so long like a sister to her, spurn her as well? Octavia and Rarity were already close, so would that link be strengthened?
And what about the links that Sunset had with their friends – friends she had because of the girl she had killed? Rainbow and Applejack would likely beat the hell out of her. Rarity would never speak to her again, nor would Fluttershy. And then, there was Pinkie. Pinkie, who Twilight had recently learned, was in love with Sunset – and Pinkie had already blown her top once at Twilight over the issue.
Pinkie was an enigma wrapped in a cipher served with a side of puzzle sauce – no one ever knew what the cheerleader would do on a good day, never mind the bad. And that terrified Twilight most of all.
But if I die…I deserve it.
But maybe if she took herself out first, it would be better for everyone, she thought. She’d nearly done it once before, but thankfully Sunset had been there to protect her from herself.
It had been Sunny that had saved me. And then I backstabbed her like the ungrateful bitch that I am.
…myfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfault…
Twilight turned to briefly look at the unconscious girl next to her. The one that looked like her sister, so much like her sister, but wasn’t her. Because this one was from this world – this was the Sunset Shimmer that belonged on Earth. But she wasn’t the one that belonged to Twilight – and Twilight had murdered that Sunset through her own callousness.
Twilight tried to look away but couldn’t. The naked, insensate girl was a haunting image, the symbol of what Twilight had done to her sister. Twilight may as well have gutted her sister from top to toe, because in the end, Sunset Shimmer was dead and Sunset Shimmer was alive. But the living Sunset Shimmer meant nothing to Twilight – only the dead one did, and dead girls told no tales.
Please, let me die—
…myfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfault…
—because I deserve to. Because it should’ve been me so long ago instead of her. If I’d died, maybe Sunny would still be alive. If I’d just chosen another place, another time….
It was at that point that she noticed the item on the ground: a handgun. She scrambled over to it like a lifeline, her precious and shining way of removing herself from the world and sparing those that would hate her any grief. She picked it up like a priceless treasure, checking the weapon automatically like Shining had once taught her and Octavia. It was an irony: Shining had taught her how to use a gun, even though she didn’t care for them, because he wanted her to be safe in case she ever ended up in a situation where she needed to protect herself. And now, with the memories coming to mind, she checked the weapon, ready to use it one final time – on herself.
The world would be better off without me. I can’t bring Sunny back, but maybe removing myself will make things better.
Sure that the gun was loaded and a round was in the chamber, she raised the gun into position, ready to place it against her temple and pull. Her hands were shaking and for a moment, she imagined she heard Sunset’s voice in the distance, screaming for her to stop, but it was just imagination. Her sister was gone now due to Twilight’s own stupidity and selfishness and nothing that she would do could ever repair that.
As she started to raise the pistol to her head, she saw a stirring in the distance, in the opposite direction of where they’d been. It was him – that man that had kidnapped them, treated them like dirt, forced them to watch his horrifying grand guignol and had intended to kill them afterwards. The man who that woman that looked like Celestia had said had been at it for longer than she had known, more than any of them had ever been aware.
For some reason, an intense anger suddenly began to build in Twilight. She had killed her sister because of her selfishness…but he had tried to kill her whole family, and possibly the world. The world that Sunset had died to not only save, but to rescue the girl whose form she had taken. Her sister had saved everyone of a species she didn’t belong to, and that had been the fault of the man now brushing himself off.
She had killed Sunset.
But Sunset had saved her from this man.
A low, keening giggle came out of Twilight’s mouth. That was it, wasn’t it? Her fractured mind started to slam jigsaw pieces into place regardless of whether they belonged or not. Kill the man…and Sunset would be saved. She could redeem herself for what she had done. She could prove to everyone that she had loved her sister after all and did not want her dead.
Twilight started to laugh! Of course!
Ignoring the maze of bruises and aches that spiderwebbed all over his body, Divine Right brushed the dust and detritus off of himself, looking for where the exit was. He couldn’t feel his magic anymore, and his attempt to summon Grogar to do his bidding had failed twice, first by the accidental summoning of that demon bitch, followed by a second Sunset Shimmer, who seemed to be everything he ever wanted to be. It wasn’t fair!
Well, fair or not, they had destroyed everything – everything! – he’d worked so hard for. And he was going to have to get out of here. Thankfully, he had a chance to do so – he’d already set up a backup identity in the then-unthinkable case that something went amiss. And now that it had, all he would have to do was make his way down to LA, where he’d maintained a careful backup existence as a French émigré turned businessman years ago. He’d done it on the advice of his mentor when he’d been a student there in his university days and had kept it up since. Now, with the world thinking that Prince Divine Right was dead, he would have to make his way south and become that new identity.
It would also mean having to leave Cantata behind, but that was just how things went sometimes. Maybe if he ran into her along the way he could convince her to come with him, but if not, well, he was still rich and still had a chance to rebuild. Youthful looks and a long-lasting life were tenets of his family, after all, a blessing from the Father of Fathers and his magical bloodline.
Yes, that was what he would do. He would make his way south, move into his house in Newport Beach and tell his neighbors that he was done traveling and permanently settling down in the Good Ol’ US of A. He would bide his time, let his magic rebuild – surely it couldn’t be gone – and research and wait. Surely Grogar wasn’t the only trapped demon here. He’d heard rumors of other places and other things. Magical stones in the American Midwest, for one. And he knew that there were other magical bloodlines on Earth, some not tied to the Father of Fathers. Maybe that had been his mistake, hiring mere brainless muscle instead of recruiting an army of magic users to do his bidding.
Well, time to rectify that problem. And he was pretty sure that he could either get Cantata – or in a pinch, hopefully a pliable and willing SIREN girl – to come with him and work on his plan. It might take a decade or so more, but if his once-mentor could do it, so could he.
That, at least, was the plan until his shoulder exploded with pain and he was knocked off his feet once more. As he crashed to the ground, he could see the blossom of blood and the bullethole appear on his right shoulder blade, as well as the tinny sound of a gun firing again. The bullet ricocheted off the ground close to him and freaked him out.
A voice sang out in the distance, female, singsong and clearly not quite all there.
“Of course this land is dangerous,
All of the animals
Are capably murderous….”
He reached for his gun…only to find that it wasn’t there. Had it been knocked away from him when he’d been thrown? Or had it been taken from him? It didn’t matter, either way. A third shot rang out and clipped the ground near him, an indicator the singer was hellbent on his harm.
“When I was a girl,
My big brother held on to my hands
And he made me slap my own face”
He got up to run – the hidden doorway was around here somewhere; even in this ruined room he made sure to have an escape plan. All he had to do was find the part of the rocky wall with a slight vein of silver, touch that and then the door would open. He’d enchanted it to read his fingerprint, thankfully, so even without his magic the door would pop open once he touched the silver and—
The gun reported once more and Divine felt a sharp pain burst in his left calf. He felt something slam him hard in the leg and he went down, tumbling ungracefully until coming to an agonizing stop. He heard two more rounds, and knew the magazine was halfway emptied – but all it took was a single round in the right place to get the job done.
“I looked up to him then and still do
He was trying to teach me something…”
The girl approached him. It was one of the mousier girls from earlier, the one with the dark plum hair with the odd violet and fuchsia shocks. When he saw her earlier, she’d been terrified and absolutely unlikely to do any harm whatsoever – if anything, he figured the Japanese girl with the chiffon-pink hair and torn shirt was the dangerous one, despite the bravado of the other two. But now, looking into her purple eyes, he could see that she’d been pushed well beyond too far – and whatever sense of sanity that had once been there was now shattered and scattered.
“But now I know what it was!” she sang softly, a twisted nursery rhyme he’d never heard before but clearly was of American origin.
“Now I know what he meant!
Now I know what it is!”
She took aim at him and fired once more. The bullet grazed past his ear. While he wasn’t visibly harmed, he felt a slight stinging and something liquid rolled down the side of his head. Whether it was sweat or blood, he wasn’t sure, but he didn’t dare try to investigate, not with an insane girl holding a gun at him.
“One must eat the other,
Who runs free before him
Put them right into his mouth
While fantasizing the beauty of his movements
A sensation not unlike slapping yourself in the face…
It’s like slapping yourself in the face…”
He put his hands up. In better condition, he probably would’ve considered trying to outmuscle her and get away. But he was wounded, in bad condition to begin with, and she was the one with the gun.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“I want you to die,” she said in a childish, singsong voice, as an unnatural smile came over her face and a girlish giggle uttered from her lips – her right eye twitching involuntarily. “I want you to bleed.”
“Look, what do you want?” he begged, his voice rising in pitch. “Money? Power? A country! I can give you that! Just…just let me go!”
“I want what you stole from me,” she murmured. “I want the life you took from the world.”
“What, one of those worthless girls?” he answered. “They were nothing! They were a means to an end and I—” Another round whizzed by his head and he realized that that was the wrong thing to say. Of course, she only had two rounds left, but from her stance and her grip, someone had taught her how to use a firearm. All she would need would be one bullet.
“Give me back my sister,” the angel of death spoke. “Give me back Sunny!”
Divine didn’t know who Sunny was, nor did he care. He only knew that he could not give her what she wanted…and that meant he was going to die.
“I can’t!” he shrieked and felt something wet cascade down his pants once more. “I can’t!”
“Then you die,” the hell princess before him said, cocking back the hammer.
The first round brought Shining back to consciousness.
The second one brought him to alertness. By training or instinct, he immediately crouched low, looking for the gunman, only to hear a third round in the distance. When that happened, he knew distance would buy him time.
He started to see the others stir, and breathed a sigh of relief, glad that everyone was okay.
No…everything’s not okay, his mind suddenly roared back at him with stark reality. They were in the same location as earlier, but it looked like a bomb had exploded. And Sunset had fought that demon – that other Sunset – and the last thing he remembered was the magical overload caused by…. He shook his head; he needed clarity right now and thinking about it was not going to help in the least.
He then looked around and noted both Sunset and Twilight were missing.
Another round went off and he then turned to look in the direction of the gunfire. In the near distance was one of the Sunsets, unconscious…and a pile of black ash.
In the far distance was Twilight, leaning over something he couldn’t see.
Another round went off again and he realized where the sound was coming from.
“TWILY! DON’T!” he shouted as he scrambled to his feet, pushing himself to move, to run as fast as he could before his kid sister murdered someone.
He knew he wasn’t going to make it before she did.
There were times in the history of warfare where things went south, where assured victories became losses and easy victories became pyrrhic ones. And then there were those defeats, those stands where one was absolutely so confident that everything would go one’s way that the signs to the contrary in hindsight were glaringly obvious.
Such was now the condition that Cantata Blast found herself in. Kneeling on the ground with her hands behind her head, next to two more SIRENs, two that had stuck with her and had proven to be pointless sycophants. Meanwhile, holding guns to their heads were a trio of teenagers, triplets. The petite sœurs of Madrigal Storm and her teammates. Girls she’d dismissed as pointless and had one of her assassins put down. Girls who had clearly outwitted their attacker, then solicited help and stormed the bastion even as it meant destroying everything they had ever known.
For a terrible moment, Cantata realized she chose the wrong girls to put under her direct command. Even her aces in the hole, the SIREN Black Team, now sat in cages, transforming into something else as a result of Divine’s magic and their own ruthless tendencies. She wondered what problems they would cause if they were to ever be freed – given that the serum had failed more than once, horribly in many cases, SIREN had turned against SIREN and whatever damage these three had done had already been on top of what the Sisterhood had done to itself.
“Cantata Blast,” the one Cantata recognized as Seaman Adagio Dazzle spoke, regal and dangerous. For a second, she looked like the apex predator she was, a creature of power and majesty. “By National Secret Order 221.4A Section 2 Subsection J, I am forcibly relieving you of command.”
“A child like you—”
“—Is the seniormost SIREN left who is not being charged with a crime, and I am taking over command.” She looked at her youngest sister. “Seaman Dusk, what is Captain Blast charged with?”
Sonata thought about it for a second, then reached in her pocket for her phone. “Let’s see: there’s QR&O Volume II Chapter 103, which covers offenses….” She thumbed her way through several websites before continuing. “Well, let’s see: we have Article 103.06, Failure to Command Properly in an Action Environment; Article 103.08, Violations of National Security; Article 103.09, Acting Illegally without Orders; Articles 103.11 and 12, which are about mutiny and offenses related to; 103.15, Advocating Governmental Change by Force; 103.16, Disobeying a Lawful Command; and my favorite one to apply in this situation, 103.17, Striking or Offering Violence to a Superior Officer.” She bent down and looked Cantata in the eye. “Like ordering the Admiral’s death.”
Cantata spat at Sonata, but she dodged in time. As a result, Aria struck her upside the head. “Which one was that?”
Sonata looked at her phone again. “Could be 103.20, which is resisting arrest; 103.25, which is Scandalous Behavior by Officers; or maybe even 103.28, which is Abuse of Subordinates. Take your pick.”
Aria looked at her older sister. “I think we could probably go through the whole book and cherry pick.”
From where he stood, Sable laughed grimly. “You’re on American soil. I’m sure we have a copy of the UCMJ online if you want to start adding to it.”
Sonata studiously looked at him. “Thanks, but no – I think we’re covered.”
Adagio moved in front of Cantata. “You know what I can do under 221.4A2J. But I want to give you a chance – one we both know you don’t deserve. Surrender and we’ll turn you over to the authorities. It doesn’t have to be like this.”
“Fuck you, child. I lived like a soldier – I’ll die like one.”
“So be it. Under National Secret Order 221.4A Section 2 Subsection K, I hereby assume command as the seniormost SIREN available. Do I have concurrence?”
Aria spoke. “As the second ranking one, I concur. You are now in command…Sublieutenant Dazzle.”
The newly-promoted Adagio looked at her sister. “Thank you. Cantata Blast, I hereby strip command authority from you and your subordinates and pronounce emergency trial under 221.4A3B. Do you have anything to say?”
One of the SIRENs at her side snarled, “Let me out of this and I’ll tear your fucking throat out, kid! You don’t have the stones to do this!”
Adagio looked at Aria. “Seaman Blaze, Seaman Dusk, if they speak again, you have my authority to summarily execute them.” She turned back to Cantata. “Captain Blast, you are hereby ordered to give a response. Any response other than what I find acceptable will be taken as a sign of hostility and will allow me to deal with it under 221.4A3D. Am I clear?”
Cantata Blast was quiet for the longest time. Then she opened her mouth.
“O Canada!
Our home and native land!”
“Enough of an answer for me,” Adagio said, pulling out her sidearm. “Seaman Blaze, with me. Seaman Dusk, if they move, kill them.”
Cantata ignored them, and continued to sing, her fellow prisoners joining in.
“True patriot love in all of us command
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The Truth North strong and free!”
“Seaman Blaze,” Adagio said as she walked behind them. “Ready your gun. On my order, fire.”
“Shouldn’t you let them…?” Sable asked, his unfinished sentence speaking for itself.
“Would you let criminals get away with singing The Star-Spangled Banner as an excuse to get out of being executed for countless crimes?” Adagio asked him honestly.
“Fair enough. I don’t like this,” he admitted, “but I’m not in command here.”
She walked over to him. “I don’t like it either,” she admitted softly, “but if I don’t do this now, I don’t know if I’ll have the strength to later.”
“From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee”
“I can do it if you want,” he told her.
She looked at him sadly. “This is the last thing we do as SIRENs. After this, it – and we – are over. It is my final duty.” He could not argue further but instead gave a terse nod. Taking that as a sign, Adagio walked back to where Aria already had her gun drawn.
“God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada we stand on guard for thee
O Canada, we stand our guard for—”
BLAM!
“Thee,” Adagio finished, lowering the smoking gun, tears stinging her eyes.
“Then you die,” Twilight said, cocking back the hammer and pulling down on the trigger to deliver divine punishment against the monster. It would mean that she would be a murderess again, but she had already cost her sister’s life – her world was already over.
She listened for the sound of the gunfire, closing her eyes and unable to look at the man she was just about to kill.
The sound never happened.
She looked at the gun…as it was now being encased in black, sharp crystals. The onyx spars started growing at a ridiculous rate along the barrel, marching towards her hand and she was only able to just let go of it before the whole thing became a forced geode of black crystals glowing with yellow energy.
Twilight had only a second to stare, incomprehensibly, at the encased weapon before the blow came.
“YOU STUPID HARRIDELLE!” a voice screamed at her as Twilight crumpled to the ground from the punch she took to her face. She felt the world spin for a moment, but when she recovered she looked up at her attacker…
…a girl who had the same features and look as her sister, but somehow wrong. Burgundy eyes. Same hairstyle, but hairtones of lilac and non-photo blue. Tanned skin of a tone similar to Rainbow. It was as if someone had requested a copy of Sunset, then insisted that the copy had to be “palette swapped”, as if a character in a videogame or an animation.
But it was the eyes filled with anger and disappointment that hit her the worst, and the hardest. This stranger, a third Sunset – if that – held a tone that was filled with pure bile and anger.
“How dare you,” she seethed. “How dare you try and throw away your life after everything your sister did for you – not once, not twice, but countless times! Your sister just sacrificed everything to save you and everypony she loved – and probably this whole Celestiadamned world – and you want to throw your life away by trying to kill that stallion over there?” The look in the girl’s eyes was one of disappointment stronger than anything Twilight had ever experienced. “You don’t deserve to be named Twilight Sparkle, brat.”
“Who—” Twilight began.
“It doesn’t matter who I am,” Raspberry seethed, realizing what had happened the moment she came in. She needed to compose herself, because somehuman had to be right now. For Sunset’s sake. “It doesn’t matter one Lunadamned moment who I am. It matters that your sister loved you more than anything and she died to protect you – and now you want to throw away everything? It won’t bring her back, Twilight. The dead rarely ever come back – and you don’t ever want to see what happens when they do.”
The words broke the spell of insanity in Twilight and she started bawling once more, screaming in rage and pain and sorrow, unable to hold it anymore. Her sister was dead.
Shining finally reached her and took her in his arms. “It’s okay, Twily, it’s okay. It’s….”
“No. She died, Shiny and it’s my fault!” Twilight moaned. “It’s my fault!”
“It’s no one’s fault, Twily,” he said, tears stinging his own eyes as he realized his soon-to-be-adopted sister would never reach that stage. “She did what she had to in order to save us.”
“She did,” Raspberry agreed, trying to fight back her own tears. “She was one of the best of us.”
Shining suddenly looked at the new girl and who she looked like – and now he was at a loss for words. “Who?” was all he could say.
“A friend, Shining Armor,” Raspberry replied, knowing in an instant who he was. “Take care of her and I’ll deal with this stallion.”
“Stallion?” Shining asked, then realized the context of her word. “So you’re….”
“He will pay for his crimes. Here or in the world that I – that Sunset and I – are from, but he will pay, I promise you that. But for right now, your sister needs you.” He nodded and walked away, taking Twilight with him.
Raspberry then turned to the man sitting in his own puddle of urine. “Clearly so brave when faced against a broken girl I see. Glad to see that human idiots are just as stupid as the ones we have at home. I suppose you’re the one to blame for all this. Well, no matter. As Archmagus of Equestria, you are under arrest for the murder….” Raspberry’s tears finally started to come. “For the murder of Sunset Shimmer, Baroness Westphalia. You have the right to legal assistance, but anything you say may be used against you during trial. I suggest you come along quietly,” she said, summoning a ball of magic, “but I’m more than willing to deal with you if you don’t.”
“Who are you?” Divine begged.
“Apparently very popular.” She wiped her eyes, then summoned magical hobbles around his arms and legs before levitating him in a sphere of golden magic. “Don’t worry, no harm will come to you. At least not until the Princess finds out what you’ve done. I definitely don’t envy you when she does.”
As the magic began to encase him, his eyes widened. “You bitch!” he spat. “You stole my magic!”
She paused and looked at him closely, as if putting him under examination. “You’re right – this is your magic. I can see the signature clearly. Which means that sooner or later it will flow back to you. Thanks for letting me know.” Sure enough, a small tendril started to slip away from her, headed for him. Quickly, she summoned a horn restraint, then realized it was too small – and humans didn’t have horns. She looked at him again, resized it for his neck, then slipped it around it. The magic then cut off, heading back to her for the moment. “I swear, I am never going to get used to this universe,” she muttered.
Raspberry walked on until she approached another sight she hadn’t expected: the human Sunset Shimmer being held by a human Celestia. “So I guess they were always meant to be together,” Raspberry said to no one in particular, before coming to a stop before them. “Don’t ask who I am, that’s kinda getting old,” she told the pair. “Just think of me as a friend and let’s call it that. First….” She tapped the human Sunset, and clothing blossomed on her; it bothered Raspberry as she realized it was the same clothing she’d seen on Sunset when Raspberry had arrived on this world.
“Sunset” nodded, while “Celestia” had a sudden, venomous look on her face. “What are you going to do with that fils de pute?” she asked the archmagus.
“If he’s lucky? A prison where he’ll never escape. If he’s not? I can’t even begin to describe what will happen,” she replied honestly.
“I want him where he can never harm anyone again,” Solaire demanded, then turned to Divine. «Encule toi, salaud!»
Raspberry looked back at him. “You don’t have many friends, do you? I should introduce you to Tw….” A pause. “Naah, she doesn’t need the headache. I’ll deal with it myself.”
By the time Raspberry had escorted the others to where the main group was, she could see why Sunset had reacted to her friends – Sunset’s own friends looked very similar, humanness notwithstanding. But they all looked at her in shock, including a second Celestia who stood next to, presumably, Luna’s counterpart.
“Please, I know you have a lot of questions,” Raspberry began before any of them could say a word, “but we’re all overwhelmed right now. We just lost someone who was dear to us all.”
“Lost?” Pinkie said in a choked voice, her hair seeming to straighten slightly.
“Pinkie, she’s gone!” Twilight sobbed. “It’s my fault!”
“She’s….” Pinkie fell back into a stupor, unblinking and staring into the distance, her hair instantly losing its signature curls and becoming straight, hanging over her face like a mourning veil. But she wasn’t the only one. Everyone began crying as the realization that Sunset Shimmer wasn’t coming back hit them like a ton of bricks. The only ones who did not were Solaire and Shimmer, too confused as to why things were happening and how they were impacted by it.
Raspberry, regardless of situation, turned away and cried as well. She didn’t know Sunset as well as she should, but she knew bravery when she saw it. And two mares she’d befriended were now gone. If Equestria still stood, she had every intention of keeping her promise to Pavane, even if it was going to be like pulling eye teeth.
But how was she going to explain this? To Twi and the others? To Celestia? She went over to a rock and sat down, looking at the magic in her hand. Would this stay? Would she? If Equestria was gone, where could she go? And where would she put her current “cargo”? She had every intention of bringing him to justice…but what would that be if Equestria no longer existed? She might technically be a princess, but she didn’t have the advantage of Celestia or Luna’s wisdom. All she could do was to wing it.
“Excuse me. May I speak to you for a second?” She looked up and into a face that had familiar eyes and long chiffon hair. The voice was the same, but the tone was more confident, even if heartbroken.
Wow, Fluttershy here really is different. I wonder if Sunny had that much influence on her. “Can I help you, Fluttershy?”
“You know who I am?” the girl asked. A second later, she realized. “Oh. You know about my counterpart.”
“You know about your counterpart?” Raspberry asked, surprised.
Fluttershy nodded. “Sunny didn’t want to tell us about them, but we kinda figured it out.” Fluttershy wiped her eyes and started crying again and Raspberry went over and hugged the teen.
“Shy’s a friend of mine, so I’m sure she’d want me to help,” Raspberry explained.
“Thank you,” Fluttershy murmured as she let go of the strange girl. “So, who are you? You’re from Equestria, right?”
Raspberry nodded. “Raspberry Beryl, Archmagus of Equestria and Court Magus to the Court of Friendship,” Raspberry said with a slight curtsey. “Do you all know?”
“No, just me and my friends, as well as Ms. Celestia and Ms. Luna. Everyone else doesn’t, including Twily and Tavi – we’ve had to be especially careful around them.”
“I see.” She looked at Pinkie, who Rarity was worriedly looking over. “Is Pinkie going to be okay?”
“Not at all. She was in love with Sunny.”
“Yeah, this is definitely not the world I know. The Pinkie I know barely even knows what romance is.”
“So what happens now?”
Raspberry was about to speak when she heard an unnatural sound behind her. She then turned to see three massive creatures rushing towards them. They looked like horrific crosses between squids, canines and lizards and they rushed at the group with murderous looks in their eyes.
“Great, more shit. This human world sucks.” As the creatures attacked, they found themselves slamming against golden barriers that protected everyone. “You know, if I wanted to see horror plays, I would’ve just went and attended Rainbow Factory. That one even had Rainb…er, a friend of mine freaking out for days afterwards!”
As the creatures slammed repeatedly against the barriers in the attempt to take them down, Raspberry walked up to them and examined the creatures. “So these things were human once. And they have the same signature of magic as….” She glared at Divine. “What in Tartarus did you do to them?” When Divine refused to answer, Raspberry looked at the former humans again, secretly grateful that the limit of her own dark corruption was merely a physical one whereas these three were consumed in both mind and body. “I can restore them – maybe. But they might be too far gone. This is one brutal amniomorphic spell, the kind that changes everything about the being, including their equinicule…er, humanicule?”
Raspberry reached out with her new magic and picked the three up. She looked in their eyes and could see horror. “They’re still changing. This spell is unstable.”
“Unstable?” someone in the back voiced, but Raspberry didn’t turn to look at who it was.
“Yes, unstable – there’s no closure to the spell matrix. They’ll be forever transforming, never keeping the same shape. I can bring them back, but like I said, their minds may be already gone. The damage to their psyches may be irreversible.” Without waiting for an answer, Raspberry used her magic to pull deep within, reaching for the core of the spell, and then yanked.
The change was immediate: there was an explosion of light and when it was over, three naked girls hit the ground. Still in the animalistic mindset, they dived right at the barriers, their minds insanely gnashing away, intending to feed and do whatever it took to get to their prey.
“That’s enough.” Another spell, and they were done. She turned to look at Divine. “There’s really nothing left of their minds. I hope you’re proud of yourself, you monster.”
“So, what happens now?” They turned to look at Celestia. “We can’t stay down here. I don’t want to stay down here. Not with….” She turned and started crying again.
An explosion ripped through part of the wall, and a quartet came in, armed to the teeth. “Think this is the place?” one asked.
Sable looked around and saw the group, a massive smile coming to his face. “Yeah, this is it,” he said, slinging his rifle.
“They’re alive,” Sonata said, a wide smile coming to her face as she saw their friends in the distance.
“Yeah. We’re alive, too,” Aria said, hugging both her sisters.
“Yeah, it’s great to be alive, isn’t it?” Adagio laughed as she saw the woman that must have been Sable’s girlfriend rush up to him and hold him tight before kissing like they were in a Hollywood movie.
The others came up to them, and as Raspberry approached, Adagio’s smile fell. “Well, you survived,” the now-former SIREN commented. “Guess you aren’t all bad.”
“We didn’t all survive,” Raspberry said softly. “Some of us gave too much.”
Adagio instantly realized what the former unicorn meant. “She was my friend. I’m never going to forget her.”
Despite the enmity between the two, Raspberry patted Adagio on the shoulder. “She deserves to be remembered. Let it out when you get the chance. Did you—”
“Yeah, we did. It’s over. But we didn’t win.” Adagio sank to her knees, crying for everything she had lost. “We didn’t lose, but we sure as hell didn’t win.”
“No, we didn’t,” Raspberry said, reaching down and hugging the other girl. For once, Adagio didn’t argue, but embraced her rival.
“And that’s the numbers so far.” Raven Quill looked wiped out, and given that she was partially in bandages, it was amazing that she was here, still giving Celestia reports.
“Thank you, Raven. Now please go seek further medical attention.”
“But Princess! How will—”
Celestia placed a gentle hoof on her secretary’s mouth. “Far less if my vaunted assistant is hospitalized,” she insisted. “Please, Raven, the paperwork can wait – your health and safety cannot.”
Raven smiled. “Thank you, your highness.” The mare gingerly hobbled out of the room, headed towards the infirmary.
Celestia took that as a sign to go make another flight around the nation for the sake of her ponies. Cadance had returned to the Empire to see to her ponies there, and Luna had already departed Equestria, seeking assistance from their allies. Twilight was doing what she could, but she was not ready yet.
Then, Celestia felt it.
A snapping in her soul.
Something vital had died.
Somepony had died.
A spell she had cast on Sunset, just before she returned to the human world. In a flash, the Princess of the Sun saw everything: her daughter’s fight with the demon. Sunset doing the impossible in order to save the human realm…and then paying the ultimate price.
Sunset was dead. After everything Celestia had done to keep her foal safe…her precious filly was dead.
The princess stopped atop the Lonely Spire and wailed.
A second later, the mountain exploded.
It took two days for ponies to cool down the lava that had once been the Lonely Spire long enough to get to their hysterically crying princess, sobbing about her dead baby.
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Well fuck.
I vote that we have Ddivine Right live each and every single one of his victim's life from the beginning to the end.
Just so he understands intimately what the fuck he did.
I don't think Divine Right is going to like what is going to happen when he meets Princess Celestia. Now how will our heros explain this to the government? I think the ending to Raiders of the Lost Ark for all the paperwork.
Well, this sure is taking a tumble down Mount Depression for everyone involved...
8832727
Given that’s a massive body count (especially if you count SIREN’s victims as well, which can be indirectly attributed to him), that could be very apt.
Just got done with this one, and I am breathless, to say nothing of speechless, Shin.
But I do have at least one word for this penultimate chapter: Magnificent.
Well done.
And I totally agree with 8832728: Divine is gonna burn for this.
Can someone shoot him in the dick? I mean Tripwire got kneecapped, so that’s the only logical escalation.
8832829
8832994
He also technically waged war on the United States and just about every country on Earth. I wonder how he will try and defend himself from the charges as he will be facing the death penalty in many countries. Heck he will be facing that for all the people he killed just in California a state that has the death penalty on the books. Divine Right is so screwed he may try and get Princess Celestia's mercy, if she is going to be feeling merciful.
8832829
Then just for a cherry on top, have him be reborn three more times, once in the worst position(Like a third world country), the third in a position of wealth and power, and the third in the position of a middle class person.
Just as a test of redemption.
Even the worst of the worst deserve a chance to redeem after a punishment. The difference between punishment and torture is that one gives you the option of trying again.
Loved the chapter! It was intense. Twilight & Celestia's reactions were greatly written.
That being said, just two things:
Gah! Can't believe Divine is still alive...
how was Velvet was not mentioned once... I'm assuming the story will go more in depth with her in the next chapter, but it was a bit odd and jumped to my attention, particularly since you wrote that everyone were woken up
You know what? I think Raz killing Divine would be more merciful then giving him to Celestia, but too bad in this case Raz is most likely all outta mercy.
Why! I love this chapter, but let's be real the depression in this chapter is real...
Noooooo sunset is actualylegitimatwly dead. I am genuinely gonna cry. Sadness. Celestia poor baby. WAAAAHHHHH.
Also where was that ryhme twilight sang from. Did you come up with it?
8833893
I just happened to be listening to it while writing and thought it was twisted enough to include.
And truly, you sound completely broken up about the chapter. Want a cookie?
8833136 Hmmm, good points, all.
And Celestia?
Merciful?
When she finds out he's responsible (either directly or indirectly) for Sunny's death?
Yeeeeeah, no.
Don't think so.
8832998
No first everyone gets a turn stomping on his dick, then they shoot him in the dick. Then in the ass.
Than they parade him around the city while he's tar-and-feathered.
Which is of course filmed and uploaded on to Youtube to be seen around the world.
When its all over. Then they bring him before Princess Celestia (and Princess Luna) who demonstrate their control over the Sun and Moon to hammer home what it means to be a god(dess). Then they give him to Discord (who demonstrates it further with his reality warping powers) to be his new playmate (Discord: For me? You shouldn't have).
Just killing Divine Retard would be letting him get off easy.
He has a self-righteous god complex. You need to break him. Humiliate him. Make him understand how insignificant he is in the grand scheme of things. Only then when he is begging and sobbing for death do you grant him his wish.
Shin: Good job making a truly hatable villain. This is Dolores Umbridge level of Hate Sink here.
8834529 Oh, my gosh, you are SO dead on with this one!
Love it!
How about traping him in the sun and feeling it but never able to die? Like Tantalus but with the sun instead of water and food
8834529
Or a nice stab in the trigeminal nerve? like the poor russian mob in Daredevil? I'd love to do that to someone like him
8834529
No don't kill him, let him live as a broken man knowing that he is nothing more then a mere man. That would be far more fitting as he gets to realize that he has nothing and is basically nothing.
Good chapter. Can't wait for next week.
Yes cookie would be nice. Also I like the song wasnt the artist mentioned in previous fic note?
Merciful emperor....
8835350
It's Jane's Addiction.
8834939
This. There are worse fates than death, and for men like Devine Right, near the top is the realization that the world doesn't owe him an Epona damned thing.
This is one hell of a conclusion, isn't it?
Wow, this is a whole ton of twisted stuff..... Shit, I hope something goes right. Still holding out hope though.
Go Discord end them all.
I want my father sister back you son of a bitch!