Let's break a leg!
Return to Equestria: The Rise of Roam
Sunset Shimmer
The message in the journal had troubled Sunset excessively.
Dear Sunset Shimmer,
I know that we had planned on your excursion to Equestria in a few weeks time. However, I fear that your visit must be postponed for the time being. Whilst I look forward to your visit, and so do our friends, a most serious rumour has reached Canterlot, and the Princess’ are convening to discuss it.
I write this to you now in case the situation becomes dire enough that I am forced to take measures. I do not wish to cause you any alarm.
I hope to write back to you with good news on the subject. Until then,
- your friend, Twilight Sparkle
“And ya’ll don’t know anything about what might be going on?” Applejack asked. “Like from when ya went back last time?”
Sunset shook her head. “Everything was fine.”
“Are we really going to have to deal with that Discord guy?” Rainbow Dash asked. “That guy was a different shade of weird.”
“He was all different kinds of shades,” Pinkie observed. “None of his clothes matched.”
“That’s not what I—“
“Um, well, I think he might be nice,” Fluttershy said tentatively. “Deep down, you know?”
“He said that he was reformed,” Sunset said uneasily. “And if the historical record is anything to go by, he would usually have turned this world inside out by now if he wasn’t. Still,” she looked around gravely at them all. “I’d feel better if you guys just kept an eye on him.”
All of their friends were there who could come. Even Aria, her story notebook under her arm, stood in front of her, a frown on her face. All of her friends were frowning actually. Only Sonata, her hand clutched in Sunset’s own, looked eager and determined.
“You’ll text us all the time, right?” Pinkie asked plaintively.
“I don’t think mobile service crosses dimensions, Pinkie,” Sunset said kindly.
“If they did, the roaming charges would be horrendous,” Rarity agreed.
“I have an idea,” Sunset said. She pulled out the magical journal, and tore the page out with Twilight’s message on it. Folding this up and stuffing it into her bag, she handed the journal to Pinkie Pie. “You keep that. If you write in it, I’ll be able to read your messages in Twilight’s journal and reply to you.”
Pinkie’s eyes filled with tears. Before Sunset could read the signs properly, she leapt forward and threw her arms around her shoulders. Then Sonata, Rarity, Fluttershy, and all of her friends jumped in too. Even Aria, looking furtively around to make sure no one was looking, put an arm into the mix and patted Sunset’s shoulder.
“Hopefully we won’t be too long,” Sunset said reassuringly, as they all let go. “If it’s a big problem, we’ll send you a message to tell you about what’s happening.”
“If it’s something big, shouldn’t we come too?” Rainbow asked.
“Ya’ll just wanna see what pony land looks like,” Applejack said, smirking.
“Nuh uh!” Rainbow snapped, colouring up. “Sounds lame.”
Applejack said nothing, but smiled to herself in victorious silence.
“Well, we’ll see you later then,” Sunset said. She took Sonata’s hand as they all waved, Pinkie clutching the journal and crying loudly over it. For a moment, Sunset gazed at her friends, feeling an unaccountable sense of longing for all of them. And then she saw, just behind them, a fluttering white handkerchief.
“Bye, Discord,” she called over their heads.
“Be well, Sunset Shimmer,” Discord said dramatically, waving the handkerchief daintily. “Our prayers go with you, from your fondest of friends.” So saying he pulled said friends into a patently too large a hug and arranged his pinched face into something approximating elegant despair.
Sunset almost laughed. She looked at Sonata for a moment, and then they both turned, and walked into the portal together, the stone warping and rippling as they passed through. Then, the first strange thing happened. The portal, which felt like cold water passing over them, suddenly began to feel more... solid. Sunset opened her mouth instinctively, before she was sucked in, and suddenly she was floating, drifting as though high above the ground. But instead of falling down, she fell forward, pulled ahead by something like but not exactly the same as gravity, Sonata’s hand the only solid thing.
The world all around her, so familiar to her after her several trips through, was the same blur of lights and wind, like images speeding by her at impossible velocity. Then the second strange thing happened. All of the scenery stopped for a second, blurred and distorted like a photograph of speeding cars in the night. She stopped moving through the void, and her heart leapt into her throat as her lungs suddenly froze. All of this lasted for an instant, and then she fell again, but not in the same direction. She clutched at Sonata’s hand, but her entire body felt like it was being pulled in multiple directions, and when it came back together again she could no longer feel her fingers. She had no fingers!
CRASH!
Sunset’s meeting with the ground was intimate and painful. No sooner had she felt herself exit the mirror then her sense of gravity shifted too. Her hooves were at an acute angle to where they should have been, resulting in her landing hard on her backside.
Groaning and looking around, her first thought was that she was in the wrong place. What she saw was not at all what she had expected to see. And then something else struck her.
“Sonata?” she called. She shivered as her own voice reverberated through the halls of crystal surrounding her. She knew that it was night time and everything, but… everything was so dark… “Sonata? Are you here?”
Sunset moved stiffly away from the mirror just in time to hear the distant sound of Sonata’s voice. The mirror flashed, and with a sound like a cracked dinner gong, Sonata collapsed out of the mirror.
“Ouch!” Sonata moaned, rubbing her underbelly. “That hurt!”
Sunset inspected the mirror. She was heartily surprised to see that it was lying almost flat on the floor, propped up by some crystal debris; that explained the change in the direction of gravity. The mirror also had a large crack down the middle of it, snaking off in two directions near the top. Sunset sneezed as she examined pony-shaped displacements in the dust coating the mirror’s surface where she and Sonata had exited. That was very odd...
“I hit the crack I think,” Sonata grunted, getting to her feet. “It was running into a handrail.” Their surroundings seemed to catch her eye as she spoke, and she suddenly looked around with a gasp of surprise. “Whoa. What happened here?”
“No idea,” Sunset said, looking around too.
Following the example of the mirror, the entire room they were in was dust-covered and crumbling. Massive crystal pillars stood cracked and collapsing under a slightly bulging ceiling. Torn and burnt banners hung sadly from the ceiling and walls, and the decorative windows cast jagged shadows across the moonlit floor.
“Hey Sunset,” Sonata said suddenly.
“What?” Sunset asked, expecting Sonata to have found something.
“We’re naked,” Sonata observed.
Sunset blinked at her. Sonata was observing herself in the broken surface of some kind of crystal edifice. A ring of them stood in the centre of the chamber around what was either a raised crystal dais, or a heavily damaged table. Sunset’s keen eye caught the chipped remnants of some kind of symbol at the top of Sonata’s make-shift mirror.
“Yes,” Sunset said. “Yes we are, Sonata.” She smiled a little slyly. “But it’s not like we haven’t seen each other naked before,” she commented conversationally.
“Why do you tease me like that?” Sonata grumbled, pouting prettily.
“Because it’s easy, my love,” Sunset answered cheekily, circling the crystal edifices. “Well, this is Twilight’s castle. These are her friend’s thrones. What I don’t understand is—“
“How did they get like this?” Sonata offered. She attempted to sit in Applejack’s throne but instantly stood up again as a jutting shard of it prodded her in a delicate area.
“Exactly,” Sunset concurred. She moved back towards the mirror, and prodded its surface experimentally with her hoof. To her consternation, the surface was solid. “Something weird is going on.”
“Do you think it has anything to do with the bad thing Discord told us about?” Sonata asked, attempting to walk over the broken table towards Sunset.
“Probably,” Sunset muttered. “I just don’t see—“
KRK... ... KRAK!
Sonata froze. The table below her shuddered slightly, and an enormous crack appeared down its centre with a sound like a collapsing glacier. Both Sunset and Sonata held their breath, staring wide-eyed at the table.
“Sonata,” Sunset said, whispering for some reason. “Move slowly, and carefully, towards me.”
Sonata nodded slowly. She lifted a hoof, and moved it experimentally towards a flat-ish section of the table. The table groaned a little as she set it down. She didn’t move for a full six seconds. Sunset nodded encouragingly.
“Just keep going like that,” Sunset said calmly, trying to direct comforting vibes towards her girlfriend, willing nothing bad to happen. At that exact moment however, she thought she heard voices, and a clattering as of metal on metal. She turned her head suddenly in the direction of the noise, and instinctively, so did Sonata. The table broke, the middle crumbling away like a thin-ice lake. Both halves fell downwards, carrying Sonata with them.
“Sonata!” Sunset cried, throwing out a front hoof, forgetting she didn’t have hands anymore. Sonata made a noble effort to jump forward, but the momentum was against her. With a shriek of terror, she fell into blackness.
Sunset teetered on the rim, half afraid of more of the floor caving beneath her, but even more terrified for Sonata. The crash of the crystal to whatever surface was below it did not take long to reach, so Sunset reasoned that it couldn’t be too far down, On the other hand, Sonata wasn’t making any noise, which chilled Sunset’s blood.
“Sonata?” she called down. No answer. Sunset tried to ignite her horn... but nothing happened. “Come on...” she grunted. Her horn sparked, and then went out. “What the...” she muttered. A groan from below sent Sunset’s heart leaping into her throat. “Sonata!?”
“Here...” Sonata’s voice echoed from below, dazed and sounding like she thought she was in class.
“Are you alright?”
“I don’t... I can’t move for some reason... and my head feels... feels... you know...?”
Sunset had a sickening feeling she did know. Blocking this unpleasant idea from her head, she made the biggest effort yet to ignite her horn. The immediate effect of this was painful; her brain felt as though it had just stuck a fork into an electrical socket. A wave of nausea and wooziness swept over Sunset, setting her off balance. As her vision reconfigured however, she found that she had been successful. Sort of. Her horn was sparking with greenish light, but it was like a light bulb on its last legs, flickering and giving off only the dimmest light it was able to. By its light however, Sunset could see into the hole in front of her.
“Hey Sunset?” Sonata’s voice echoed up to her. “I see a light... should I go towards it?”
“That’s just me,” Sunset groaned. Her head gave an enormous throb, as though the magic she was expending to keep the spell going was being rebounded. She allowed the light to fade, and being careful of the jagged sides of the crystal floor, leapt down. As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she found that the dim moonlight filtering from above was enough to make out a greyish image of the surrounding chamber. And what she found did not make for happy viewing.
“Is it that bad?” Sonata asked. “I kind of hoped it wasn’t too bad, since I can’t really feel any pain.”
“No,” Sunset said slowly. “It doesn’t look that bad.”
“Honestly?”
“No! Don’t ask me that!”
“Heh,” Sonata chuckled weakly. “You never could lie well to me.”
“I know,” Sunset sighed, setting her front hooves carefully. “Even worse, you know too. Well, to be fair it’s just one leg. I’m pretty sure I can move—“ she shifted the slab of crystal to one side, where it fell glittering to shake the floor. Sunset’s mouth hung slightly open as she stared wordlessly at the leg that had been beneath it, trying to control the sudden cold feeling running up her spine.
“That bad, huh?” Sonata surmised. “I’m not back in Equestria for two seconds...”
“Oh, stop whining,” Sunset said with forced optimism. “I can’t really even see it.”
“It’s pitch dark,” Sonata pointed out.
“And there’s a hospital here in Ponyville. I’ll get you there, they’ll patch you up, and you’ll be out again in no time. Now come on, up you get.”
With a heave, Sunset helped Sonata up by the shoulder, but she must have been more injured than she realised. Sonata took two steps and instantly fell over.
“I might be in there a little longer,” Sonata said in a muffled voice from the floor.
“As long as you can keep joking,” Sunset said robustly. “I know that you’re fine.”
“Do you hear voices?” Sonata asked groggily. “Please tell me you hear those too.”
“I think so. I thought I heard them earlier, but—“ Sunset paused. She frowned.
“I can’t make out what they’re saying,” Sonata whispered.
“—in id conclave committere” said a far off voice.
“I don’t recognise that language,” Sunset mouthed slowly.
“I... don’t think I have either,” Sonata said.
“What are you thinking?” Sunset asked, catching the thoughtful inflection of her words.
“It seems... familiar. Like, maybe I heard it at school or something. Should we call them and ask for help?”
Sunset hesitated here. She had no particular reason to distrust the voices above, and it was true that they needed help. She couldn’t see the full extent of Sonata’s injured leg in the darkness, but it was bad enough that she couldn’t walk; it’d be slow progress moving without help. On the other hand, something wasn’t quite right. Neither Twilight nor her friends were here. The castle was in ruins, and ponies speaking in a foreign language were moving around above them. Something was wrong here, and Sunset didn’t like it. Even worse, she didn’t like that the mirror seemed to have stopped working; she’d need to get together with Twilight to fix it if they were going to go home.
“No, we’ll get out ourselves.”
“And how do we do that?”
“By trusting our very smart and resourceful girlfriend.”
Sonata stared at her a moment. “Okay, seriously, how do we get out?”
“Oh, ha-ha.” Sunset nodded into the gloom. “There’s a patch of grey over there. Given its general proportions,” Sunset explained quietly, helping Sonata limp towards it, “Underneath the throne room is meant to be the passage to Twilight’s underground laboratory.”
“Why does Twilight have—“ Sonata began.
“Don’t ask,” Sunset said over her. “I couldn’t say. She had one in the library she used to live in too. She mentioned that she used it for experiments involving dangerous magic and research. And Pinkie once or twice.”
Sonata seemed to take a moment to digest that. “Twilight lived in a library?”
“Ah, here we are,” Sunset said, her hopes rising. “Side exit. Glad we didn’t go the wrong way.”
“Me too,” Sonata said with a slight groan. “I think the pain is starting to kick in, and my head feels a little funny too.”
“Well I think it’s bound to,” Sunset said in as comforting a voice as she could, pushing open a large crystal door with her hoof. For such a big thing, it swung open easily and silently. “Pain can do that to y—“ Sunset stopped, her face paling.
“What?” Sonata asked, involuntarily following Sunset’s eyes. “Oh...” she said weakly.
Sunsets insides plummeted as far as many of the roofs she could see seemed to have done. Rain cast itself down in a steady downpour, flashes of lightning illuminating the inky black and grey clouds above as thunder rumbled in the distance. Ponyville, once a sprawling tangle of quaint country houses and cottages, surrounded on all sides by the gentle caress of nature, was much changed. The cheerful chatter of happy ponies going about their business was entirely absent, as were the dancing lights of the night time houses. All was dark, silent, and despondent, the little cottages and houses broken and crumbling to dust. In a flash of light from the distant storm Sunset saw several nearby dwellings had had their roofs broken inwards, leaving nothing but long, crooked wooden beams like exposed ribs. Like the interior of the castle, the village streets were strewn with broken debris, nothing but broken stones and rotting wood where once colourful stalls and neat little flower arrangements stood.
It made no sense. Sunset simply couldn’t understand what was happening. How could Ponyville have suddenly become a ghost town?
Then Sonata gasped, and Sunset’s insides sank if possible even lower, as the full implications of their predicament was realised. In the full light of the half moon poking through a gap in the dark clouds, Sunset could see Sonata’s injury far clearer than in the basement tunnel. The leg wasn’t simply broken. It was bleeding.
“I... I don’t... think...” Sonata muttered, swaying ominously.
“Hey, come on,” Sunset said, trying to keep the tremble out of her voice as she held her girlfriend up. “You’ll be fine, you—“ She swallowed. There was no hospital... and no one around but the ponies in the castle. There was no way to get home, and for some reason Sunset’s magic refused to work. As things were, Sonata might actually...
A feeling of dread washed over her. She looked around at the bleak and deserted landscape, searching desperately for hope in this horrible circumstance. How could things have gone so wrong in such a short time? The rain pattered on, uninterested in their plight, until it suddenly stopped in a localised area around the castle. This was so unusual that Sunset glanced instinctively upwards, and whatever remained of her insides seemed to vanish into a pit of horror.
- To be Continued
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Way to create dramatic tension
So it begins, and in a way that already has me drooling with anticipation.
Way to start off strong with the sequel. Sonata don't leave already.
what did she see? good to have you back
*Yawns waking up at 1 PM* Good morning everybody, or is it afternoon? Let's see whats new
*looks at notifications*
.................................................................
Well, this is one way to start a story! Roamans are about, but I wonder what's in the sky that has Sunset silent with horror . . .
HOOOOLY! It's here! Great start to a brand new adventure. I look forward to the rest
So great to see you back to writing for Sunset and Sonata. You sure didn't waste any time having thing go extremely far south.
Well, they are looking up and not to the horizon so its not eternal dusk or dawn...
My money is either on an eternal eclipse, or something eldritch related like this...
blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2012/03/aa-jade-580.jpg
Yay
. We got another SunNata fic.
The thing staving off the rain, that Sunset is so afraid of...It's a Giant Tree. *Calling it.* ^^
Could be wrong. Just conjecture.
6195642
6193941
6193492
6193238 Conjecture as to what is causing Sunset's horror in the first chapter. I like the giant magic hole in the sky idea, but I'm afraid it's a little more mundane, if not rather more threatening.
6194376 There are far too few of them
6193853 Of course! You know how much I love drama and tension.
6193535 This is actually better reception than I was expecting, given the fore-warned shift from a slice-of-life like story to an adventure one. I hope you continue to enjoy it
6193412 You win everything. Every prize that ever was or will be, you win. For evoking the Carlton Dance.
6193112 Drool is good. Lots of uses for anticipatory drool
I missed you so much.
6196113
...The fuck happened?!
6196582 In what regard?
6196113 Nahhh, I was excited for this from the moment it was foretold in the final chapter of the previous fic. I don't mind a change in styles like this, so long as it retains some of what made the original so good (like the romace between Sunny and Sonny)
6197009 Their relationship is still the main focus, and I certainly hope my style of writing has only improved.
6196660 To Equestria. The fuck happened to it?
Mmmm.... And this the sequel begins in a fantastic manner!
6197870 Oh you'll see. Exposition is on the horizon.
6198562 Glad that you're enjoying it so far
Wow. Whatever this is, it is not the prequel. The voices were in latin... Equestria is being invaded by roamans. From saving Sonata's career to staving off an invasion of apocalyptic proportions in a matter of days? That just brings the shock factor up to 11. I would say more, but that next chapter is calling to me.
I can think of one possible explination. They're in a different dimension?
Okay, you already did the 'she had no fingers' joke, and Sunset was just there a few months back. *disapproving look*
but it was still kind of funnyhave... have those two done it yet? I know there was that noncanon smut fest, but that doesn't hold up here.
“No! Don’t ask me that!” lol but seriously poor Sonata now I just think about horses with broken legs in our world...
the tension is palpable, but I admit in my excitement to read this I skimmed some details I had to go back for
Thank you Sonata for that observation.
Just how delicate we talking here? Cause I have some worse ideas floating through my head.
We really need more emotes.
Who puts a table over a well... HONESTLY!
And we have learned that Sunset liked to experiment too based on previews of Friendship Games.
Hmmmm, I have finally gotten around to this. What say you Daniel-GleefulBits? WHAT SAY YOU?!
I had a little excursion to other fics in my Read Later list, but now it is your turn. I plan to bring more SHIPPING!
c2.staticflickr.com/6/5029/5665083103_2e516d9eb7_b.jpg
More GRAMMAR! (If I am not too tired.)
And more SQUEEING at Bacon and Taco antics.
orig06.deviantart.net/6d3d/f/2014/278/5/f/you_re_my_taco_queen___by_jankrys00-d81qpun.png
I half expect there to be a Mare in the Moon again, suggesting Luna was once more banished. Or something. Well, the next chapter and many more are already posted so it's not like I have to wait to find out
Twilight would have a Lesson Zero-esque breakdown again if she saw how messy her castle was. Clean clean clean
Mein Gott........what in heaven's name happened?!
Well then, what a start
Sadly it's time for some Z's. Let's see how far I get on this story tomorrow