Flame of Disparity

by Cinders of War

Chapter 32: Awakening Nightmare

Sunset Shimmer gazed up to the darkening sky as the ring of light around the eclipse began to grow in intensity. With the sky growing to match the blackness of the moon in front of the sun, the ring of fire almost looked independent from the eclipse.

A sharp laughter echoed around the mountainous expanse, making the girl look back and forth as she tried to find out where it was coming from.

It was when she looked up through the ruined spire and squinted that she saw where the voice had come from.

From the darkness of the eclipse, a form descended slowly, almost like it was floating down like a fallen leaf.

It was a man, or at least, it was in the shape of a man. He had on plated armor, over long grey cloth, and on his head was a crown, looping around his sides and back of his head, adorned with spikes that looked sharp enough to kill.

This was him. Sunset knew it must be. This was the one she had heard of along her journey here.

The Lord of the Waking Nightmare.

It had to be him. This was the one who put her here in the first place. And he was the one who was going to let her out.

“Who are you? What do you want from me?” Sunset pointed her moonlight greatsword at him as he halted his descent, his feet hovering just over the ashen ground. “Release me at once!”

“So commanding…” he chuckled and stretched his arms out. “But you have no power here. This world is mine to command.”

“Why am I even here?” Sunset narrowed her eyes at him.

The man rubbed his chin and grinned. “Think of this as… a prison. This was where I intended to trap you for all eternity, should you be unable to succeed in your quest. You were not supposed to get this far, however. You have had help from something I have yet to determine. Alas, you will still not be returning home, whether you have that Equestrian magic with you or not.”

“Equestrian magic...” Sunset looked to her greatsword. So the sword and the white estus was really from forces outside this dream world. Someone or something was helping her from beyond. “What am I to you? Why me?”

“That is for me to know, little girl,” the man said smugly. “I’ll commend you for pushing the dream far enough to get me to show myself, but this is where your path ends.”

“I didn’t come all this way just to stop now.” The glow of Sunset’s weapon intensified. “I’m going back to where I belong, and you’re going to let me.”

“Ha! I applaud your resolve, Sunset Shimmer, but I think that you don’t realize how outmatched you are here. In this realm, I control all. Observe, Young Flame.”

The man lifted his hand and suddenly, the world around Sunset warped, the ash growing dark and the mountains splitting into afterimages of themselves, spanning across the entire landscape, making it look like she was staring into mirrors. Everything was silent around her and the man had vanished.

“You think you can defeat me just because you’ve bested the creations I made to stop you? Observe.”

Hands erupted from under Sunset and grabbed on to her legs, slowly pulling themselves up to her waist. They seemed to float in midair, ending at the stump, but they were strong, trying to pull her down to her knees.

Sunset cut at them with her greatsword, but then switched to her star sword and teleported out of their grasps, only for the world to shift around her again, spinning horizontally and making the girl’s eyes spin.

A harsh laughter echoed around her as the mountains around her began smashing into each other, launching debris up into the air.

Sunset saw the man, levitating above the flying debris as if standing on an invisible platform. He sneered down at her from his lofty perch.

Sunset set her teeth, and ignoring the aches and scrapes she had gotten from her previous fight, threw her star sword up at the man. It didn’t quite reach, but Sunset warped to the sword and threw it again in mid air, narrowly missing some flying chunks of rock. If she could just get close to him, she might be able to do some damage.

Falling short again, Sunset flung her star sword one last time, putting all the strength that she had into her third and final throw.

The star sword flew up towards the man, who looked at Sunset dispassionately. Then he reached out his left hand and caught the star sword. Sunset gasped, but couldn’t stop herself from teleporting to the sword, right into her enemy’s grip.

“Nice knife.” The man smirked, before tightening his grip on the blade. There was a grinding noise as his gauntlet rubbed against the weapon, then a blast of light and heat as the star sword splintered in his grip, metal shards falling down to earth. “You’re next.” He took Sunset by the throat and hurled her toward the ground below.

Sunset smashed into the ground, bouncing twice as she did so. She groaned and pushed herself back up on one arm. She looked around. It was all black, with no sign of anything. She spat blood and staggered to her feet.

Suddenly, a flaming chain lashed out and wrapped around her left leg, dragging her down into the darkness below, almost as though there hadn’t been a floor in the first place. Sunset reached into her pack, badly needing an estus flask, but before she could grab one, more chains shot out of the darkness, wrapping her arms and right leg in their grasps, burning through her armor and skin as they wrapped tighter around her limbs.

“Ha ha ha!” Came a familiar laugh. Sunset looked around, and saw Nicolash standing before her, holding the chains in his bony hands. “The Head of the Charge rides again!”

“Oh, not you again,” Sunset said through gritted teeth. “I have had it with you!”

Nicolash’s flaming skull head leered closer to Sunset and he pulled on the chains. Sunset was pulled toward the skeletal Nicolash, her body being dragged along the floor so roughly that the remains of her armor threw up sparks.

Sunset flinched as Nicolash’s open jaws filled her vision. Then there was the sound of glass breaking and she opened her eyes. She was back in the Keep of Glass, but this time it was just one narrow hallway. The glass breaking sound came again, and Sunset looked behind her to see that from a high balcony, huge glass owls were falling down nearer and nearer to her. She had no illusions about what would happen if one of those glass statues landed on her.

Having no time for her estus flask yet, she picked herself up, and scrambled down the hallway as the cascade of glass owls smashed behind her. Glass shards flew and some of them nicked her exposed skin.

There, in front of her! An open door. If she could just reach it…

Putting the last of her strength to her legs, Sunset sprinted for the door, with glass owls almost smashing at her heels now.

Sunset dived through the doorway, feeling the wind from the glass statues touch her legs. Then she was falling, falling through the air, downward like a leaf in the breeze. She crashed into something hard and cold, knocking her left shoulder out of place. Sunset groaned in pain and weakly reached for the estus flask in her pack. This was her last one, but she had to use it or whatever the Lord of the Waking Nightmare tossed at her next would surely be her last. Pouring the flask’s contents down her throat, she was instantly rejuvenated, shooting to her feet as she took in her surroundings. She was back in the Cataclysm Hollows and there was no sign of any glass owls or Nicolash. All around her, hollows of all shapes and sizes with their crazy enlarged heads limped towards her, their fingers bared and ready to rip her to pieces.

Sunset hefted her moonlight sword. The odds were not in her favor, and there was a good chance she would get swarmed before she could take out all of them. However, she had to try; there was no other course of action.

The first of the hollows reached her, swinging a left claw at her. Sunset swung her sword and shaved its arm off at the elbow, then delivered a swift slice across its chest, sending it spiralling away, dead. The next few advanced, with Sunset swinging her sword in an arc and releasing waves of magical energy, destroying a few of the hollows instantly.

One grabbed her leg, but the girl cut off its fingers, then plunged her weapon through its huge head, before cutting out of it and shearing another hollow in two from the waist down. Sunset took a few steps back, cutting another two hollows at the neck as she dove away from their grasping arms. They were too numerous. She needed to find another way to get out of this. With her pyromancy depleted, there was no way to toss a fireball to incinerate them all and with her star sword gone, there was also no quick escape.

And then she was falling. Before she could even assess what was happening, Sunset found herself a few meters deep in a lake, still sinking towards the bottom as her mind tried to process what had happened. When she finally shook herself out of her shock, she began swimming, trying to get herself back to the surface as quickly as possible. Her armor was heavy and it weighed her down, so doing the only sensible thing, Sunset pried off her remaining chest pieces and gauntlet, leaving her in only her chainmail and greaves as she finally managed to breach the surface.

Sunset gasped for air and floundered in the water for a moment before getting her bearings. She felt herself being pulled in some kind of current, and she was horrified to see that she was caught in the outer reaches of a massive whirlpool, that was slowly but surely drawing her into its center.

Sunset’s eyes widened and she tried to swim away, but the current had her in its iron grip, not letting her go. To make matters worse, a trio of fishmen emerged from under the current and grabbed her body, pulling her head back under.

Sunset swung her weapon, cutting one in the shoulder, spewing black blood into the swirling water. She wriggled her whole arm free and stabbed her sword through the same fishman. Channeling her magic, Sunset shot out a straight burst through the pierced creature, vaporizing the other two on contact.

And then she was suddenly back on solid ground, hitting her back hard enough to force a torrent of water from her mouth. Sunset coughed and gagged as she sat up, one eye opened to take in her new surroundings. She recognized the kitchenware and equipment from the kitchens in Folstad Prison.

“There is no light here…” the man’s voice boomed in the small space she was in. “Give in, Sunset Shimmer. Let the darkness take you. There is no escape for you.”

“What am I to you? Why do you need to keep me here?” Sunset asked. She still didn’t know the motive behind his plans. She needed to at least know.

“You have been playing a big part in your world, girl. I have watched on for years now, your plans and works. In the future, you might be an inconvenience for someone greater. Won’t it be great if I can remove you beforehand?”

“What?” But Sunset didn’t have time to dwell more on it. From the two entrances on either side of the kitchen, the same bulbous chefs from the prison emerged, this time holding butcher knives the size of their bodies in both arms, ready to turn her into a feast.

Sunset Shimmer stepped back, trying to keep both chefs within her field of view. She had not liked the idea of fighting them all by herself, but there was no Applejack here this time to help her.

With a gurgled roar, the first one knocked over a bowl of coal and advanced on its stubby legs, holding its cleaver high. Sunset ran it through with her moonlight greatsword, feeling her blade tear through its grotesque and flabby flesh as she passed it. The chef doubled over and groaned, but then turned and slashed its cleaver at her. Sunset stepped out of the way as it sliced a table in two, but then cut up, severing its right arm. The first one arrived and cut towards her, just missing her toes as she stepped away.

As she tried to get to a better position, the room around her suddenly stretched, getting longer and longer, while the chefs seemed to get closer and closer.

Sunset took one more step away, but all of a sudden, there was no ground beneath her foot and she flailed around for a second before falling backwards, down into a deep hole.

“Oof!”

Sunset landed hard, knocking the wind out of her lungs. Again. She was lying in some kind of dirt pit. There was no sign of the chefs, but she wasn’t foolish enough to think that her backstep had killed them.

A shower of earth hit Sunset in the face. She spat it out and shakily sat up. More dirt began to drizzle into the hole, covering her legs. Sunset got up and tried to climb out, but the more she tried, the more the edge of the pit stretched away from her, until it was way beyond her grasp. She tried climbing up the side, but the dirt was too loose for her to get a proper foothold and she didn’t have the privilege of teleportation now that her star sword was destroyed.

“Here you will remain until the end of time, buried away. It’s for your own good; this way you needn’t see the end of the world you cherish so much. I am doing you a mercy.”

“No! No, I won’t stay put!” Sunset jumped at the sides, but slid back down each time. There was no way out and the dirt was already beginning to pool around her knees.

There was a grinding sound as a slab of stone was pushed over the mouth of the hole, trapping Sunset in darkness. She listened to the frenzied sound of her own breathing as she pulled her legs out of the dirt. It was all dark now, and she couldn’t even see her hand in front of her face.

Sunset pawed around blindly, until she realized that it was not that dark after all. Her moonlight greatsword was glowing with a cool aquamarine light, gently illuminating the inside of the hole. Dirt somehow continued to fall from above, now up to her thighs. She needed to find a way out fast.

Keeping her sword behind her, Sunset closed her eyes and concentrated, pooling magic within her blade, its glow growing in intensity. She ignored the dirt that was now piling up around her waist, instead keeping her focus on the charge building up in her weapon. Sunset held it back longer than ever before. If it was anything that could get her out of this, it would be the weapon that was not of this world.

Holding it high, Sunset released a shockwave of turquoise energy around her, blasting the dirt back up and the walls all around her away, leaving her in a now empty and vast area.

“Interesting… I have no power over that weapon…” the man’s voice came from above. “No matter. The world is still mine to control and nothing is going to stop me from keeping you here till the end of time.”

Falling to her knees, Sunset found herself back at the Throne of the Fallen Hearth, or at least, what was left of it. Ash was pooled around her knees and the familiar mountain ranges and sea surrounded her. It was a welcome sight to her, much to her surprise. She didn’t think she’d be happy to see this place again.

Atop a newly formed throne of black, sat the Lord of the Waking Nightmare, one leg crossed over the other and an apple in his hand, already half eaten.

“It seems I underestimated that weapon’s potential.” He eyed Sunset’s moonlight greatsword. “Something outside the dream has broken through. But you know even with it, you cannot win.”

“You mentioned someone greater.” Sunset stepped closer. “Who are you, really?”

The man rested his head on an arm, then threw the apple behind him. “I suppose you at least deserve to know my name, making it this far.”

There was a long and dramatic pause, which made Sunset tense up and her stance to shift. This man was no normal enemy. He was something far worse.

“I am Phantom Pain, Lord of the Waking Nightmare.” He stretched his arms high and to his sides. “I serve the one true ruler of Equestria, no, of all worlds. Only he knows the truth.”

“You’re from Equestria?”

“I escaped here eons ago, biding my time and paving the way for my lord’s return, watching for the signs and the changes. And so here we are, Sunset Shimmer. This is my domain. And you are never leaving here alive.”

Sunset was about to say something, but a stab of excruciating pain suddenly made itself known in her head, just above her eyebrows.

Phantom Pain leaned back on his throne, flicking his finger almost lazily. The action sent a wave of force slamming into Sunset, launching the girl across the arena and into a wall. Without her armor, Sunset felt as though she had been run over by a truck. She coughed blood; that one attack had done some serious damage.

“Now, I could kill you. Very easily, in fact,” Phantom Pain said with a sneer in his voice. “But what would be the fun in that?”

Sunset pushed herself up, forced herself to stand. The moonlight greatsword felt like a ton of bricks in her hands. Another blast of force threw Sunset off her feet. One hand lost its grip on her weapon, and blood dripped down from a cut on her forehead, partially blinding one eye.

“See? Even with help from outside, you cannot possibly hope to best me.” Phantom Pain laughed. “Just give in.”

Raising his hand, the sharp pain from earlier penetrated Sunset’s mind again, forcing her on her back, her hands already shooting up to her head.

“Aaaaah!”

“Yes, fall, fear, give up. It will all come naturally enough once I am done playing with you. At that end, you will beg for the end of your life.”

Sunset squinted her eyes shut and gritted her teeth as she tried to focus on something else to drown out the pain in her head, but it was just too great of an attack. It felt as though her brain was about to explode into a billion fragments, but something was keeping it from doing so, building up the pressure.

In only six more seconds, all her senses were lost to her and the only thing that remained was the pain, the pain that she wished would end, no matter what.

I can’t do it… I can't do it! I’m not strong enough. I can’t go home…

It was a lost cause. She’d fought on so much to get here, only to be unable to return home, stuck right before the exit. In the past, in all her hopelessness, she’d always find her way back because of her friends. But in this world, those friends weren’t here to help her. In her hopelessness, she really was… all alone.

Sunset wished for more time with them. Even if it was only for a few more seconds, she would trade anything to see her friends one last time. She had treated them so badly before a time where power was everything to her and she still wished she could go back in time to change all that. Even Flash, an ex-boyfriend she had used to gain popularity and power, had been there for her after everything she had done. She would love to start again with him if she had the chance, but these were all things she should’ve done before now. Now, it was too late.

She was going to be stuck here for all time, destined to be reborn again and again until she would become hollow like many of the poor souls in this world.

“You are strong indeed, Sunset Shimmer,” Phantom Pain snickered as he continued his torture. “I am glad I decided to assess your power instead of destroying you on the spot. But in the end, you are just a misplaced girl who thinks she can accomplish anything through friendship. Today you learn that friendship isn’t the most powerful thing. Power is. And you will be here for all eternity. Alone. No one is coming to save you now.”

Sunset screamed out in pain as the intensity in her head got worse, but then almost all at once, it ended. Her eyes shot open as she panted from exhaustion, wanting to know why the pain stopped.

“It seems you have visitors, girl.” Phantom Pain looked past her.

Following his gaze, Sunset spotted a familiar head of blue hair rushing to her, a spear in his hands.

“F-Flash?” she said in bewilderment.

The boy stopped beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “That’s me. We’re here to help, Sunset.”

“What? But, how?”

He smiled and retrieved her moonlight greatsword for her. “With the disappearance of the Abyss, we were able to travel here.”

Sunset accepted her weapon back, feeling better with it in her hands. “Who else is here?”

From behind, an arrow imbued with lightning whistled through the air and towards Phantom Pain. The man lifted a hand and the arrow was halted in the air by a barrier of light.

Sunset was amazed to see a whole troop of her friends emerged from the edge of the plateau, joining her and Flash before the Lord of the Waking Nightmare, with Fluttershy leading the group, another arrow already in her bow.

Pinkie Pie and Sandalwood ran in alongside her, followed by others like Vinyl Scratch and Lightning Rain, while two more familiar girls appeared behind them.

“Rarity! Applejack!” Sunset pushed to her feet using her greatsword. “You got out!”

“Mighty easy job once that Abyss went away.” Applejack adjusted her hat and readied Dragonslayer. “It’s all thanks to ya, Sunset.”

“Very much so.” Rarity nodded. “And now it’s our turn to help you get home.”

Applejack nodded and set off at a run, with Lightning Rain hot on her heels brandishing his sword.

Phantom Pain’s brow furrowed. “You cannot lift a finger to me; I created you in this dream. And you will be loyal to me.”

The Lord of the Waking Nightmare raised his palm and stone spikes blasted up from the ground, making a thorny wall in front of him. The spikes continued to grow, spearing towards Sunset.

But then there was a flash of orange and a large section of the spikes were blasted away, thanks to Vinyl Scratch and Sandalwood’s combined chaos storm spells.

“Just like back in the swamps!” Sandalwood cheered as the stone spires crumbled.

With the spikes out of the way, Applejack and Lightning Rain had a clear attack on Phantom Pain, but before their weapons could connect, he was no longer there, their weapons breaking apart chunks of the man’s throne.

With a blast of dark energy, the two of them were thrown back towards Sunset and the rest of her friends, with Lightning wiping a faceful of ash away.

Vinyl waved a little pouch of sorts in her hand and a ring of yellow suddenly appeared around her.

“Here, stand in it, Sunset.” Flash helped her to the circle, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. “It’ll help.”

With a blast of golden magic, Sunset felt strength return to her and she stood up straighter, clutching her greatsword in both hands.

Phantom Pain was wrong. She herself had been wrong. She wasn’t alone in this world. Even if these copies of her friends were all just a part of the dream, they were still here and friendships had been forged on the way.

The world around them suddenly went all dark again, with mirror images of the mountains flashing across the expanse. This time, however, all of Sunset’s friends were with her, and she didn’t feel the despair from earlier.

“I control this world. You are all my creations. How do you still exist here?” Phantom Pain’s voice boomed around them. “No matter. You will all still fall at my will.”

Sunset and her friends huddled closer as the world began to shift. Vegetation and trees grew all around them and soon, hollows emerged from the ground underneath them, swords, spears or clubs in their decaying hands.

“There must be a way to stop him!” Sunset cut down one of the hollows and released a burst of magic behind it, vaporizing three more in a flash.

“Is that what it’s like to fight a god?” Lightning Rain asked as his blade claimed another hollow. The area around them swirled and churned like mixing paints, and suddenly there was water surging around them, extinguishing the pyromancers’ flames.

“This whole world is the product of some villain, then?” Rarity asked as she cast a spell to blast away a swimming hollow holding a cleaver.

“All of this is a nightmare…” Sunset said, closing her eyes and thought, a task not made any easier by all the commotion around her person. She thought back to her lessons on magic with Princess Celestia, which now seemed an eternity ago. “I have an idea!”

“What have you got?” Pinkie Pie asked as she fending off an attack.

“This guy is from Equestria,” Sunset explained quickly. “When I studied magic, I learned that it’s harder to keep a spell working if you have multiple targets that you have to concentrate on.”

“So we should split up?” Applejack chopped a hollow into two with Dragonslayer. “You sure about that?”

“Isn’t splitting up the worst idea in, you know, anything?” Flash asked, keeping his spear at the ready.

“If we stay grouped together, it’ll only make it easier to concentrate whatever magic he has on us,” Sunset explained. She held up her moonlight greatsword, its blade kindling like the hope in her heart. “We have to try!”

Flash looked conflicted for a second, then his face settled into steely resolve. “Alright. I trust you. Everyone! Split up and get as far away from each other as possible!”

“Split up?” Rarity asked, her hair soaked from the torrents. “Are you sure, darling?”

“Sunset says it’s our best shot at winning!” Flash shouted. “Everybody scatter!”

All of Sunset’s allies exchanged glances, then sprinted off in all directions, like a firework.

“Just one question,” Applejack said as she chose a direction to run off to. “What’s stopping this Nightmare guy from only concentrating on you?”

“I’ll run from person to person,” Sunset said, her mouth a thin line. “It’s going to work, AJ.”

“Ya sure?” Applejack asked. Sunset nodded and the axe-wielding girl sprinted away, leaving Sunset on her own.

Sunset hefted her weapon and chose the closest person, Vinyl Scratch. “Because I don’t know what I’ll do if it doesn’t.”

---

As Sunset ran to Vinyl, she was assaulted by a feeling of vertigo. She shook the dizziness away and surveyed her surroundings. As planned, all her friends were running in different directions, all of them attacking the hollows, the water, and even the floor. She understood what they were doing: if this was some kind of illusion spell, damaging it would force Phantom Pain to adjust the nightmare to reflect the damage, which would tax his resources even more if he cared about keeping things realistic.

Reaching Vinyl, she and Sunset were beset on all sides by a horde of skeletons. They were armed with curved swords and rusty shields, which offered little defense against the pyromancer’s flame orbs. Sunset launched another crescent shaped beam of moonlight at the skeletons, shattering their bones and sending them flying.

“Keep fighting, Vinyl!” Sunset encouraged as she ran off to join Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie sounded as though she was having the time of her life, letting out a bubbly laugh as she leapt over a skeleton and cleaved its head in two. As Sunset got nearer, she waved and nonchalantly backhanded a goblin-like creature that had been winding up for a sneak attack.

“Hey, Sunny!” Pinkie chirped. She didn’t seem fazed by the nightmare at all. Grabbing one goblin around the wrists, she spun him around in circles, knocking out a bunch more enemies before tossing him like a bowling ball, sending a crew of them flying in all directions. “Stee-rike!”

“You think you can win?” Phantom Pain suddenly emerged from the ground under Sunset, dragging her along it until grass suddenly appeared beneath her. “This world is mine to command. Your friends here might have gained immunity against it, but you can all still die, all the same.”

He threw her into a nearby tree, then rose into the air as fire erupted from the ground under them.

Sunset quickly got up and leapt out of the way as a pillar of fire destroyed the tree she was just at.

The Lord of the Waking Nightmare laughed as he floated around her, but from behind, Flash and Lightning Rain suddenly appeared, thrusting their weapons into his back. Phantom Pain gasped in surprise, but whipped around and threw them both off, his face warping into a snarl.

“This is one tough son.” Flash got up and wiped blades of grass from his face, one of which flickered out of existence. “Tougher than any enemy I’ve fought on my journeys. But I think we can take him.”

“Fools! You will all regret challenging your maker!” Phantom Pain stretched his hands out and a thunderstorm began swirling around him.

Applejack arrived to the scene and sheared off a section of grass with her weapon, which disappeared into thin air.

Sunset looked back at her enemy. It seemed their plan was indeed working. It was getting harder for him to keep the reality going. They just needed to push him further.

Some way away, Rarity focused her magic into a beam of blue light and began blasting away at the scenery. Walls trembled and crumbled before her magical onslaught, some of the pieces vanishing into nothingness as the illusion continued to lose its integrity.

Phantom Pain’s face grew more strained as he turned to Rarity and began to reconstruct the walls around her and throwing up more pillars of fire. At the same time, on the far end of the battlefield, Sandalwood ran amok with his axe and flames, chopping and burning anything he could see.

Giant skeletons crawled out of the trees around him, but Pinkie and Fluttershy intercepted their attacks, keeping them off Sandalwood.

Sunset looked around herself, noticing that the whole terrain around her was flickering, like a television with a bad connection. A hollow soldier nearby shuddered and disintegrated into colored dust.

“You think you are to win here?” Phantom Pain balled his fists. “I will show you true power.” Dark energy began to build around his hands.

“Everyone, to me!” Sunset raised her moonlight greatsword to the air, its blade’s glow rising in intensity.

As her friends joined her at her sides, a faint glow of different colours began emanating from each of them, rising into the air to join with Sunset’s sword.

“Woah, cool!” Pinkie looked at her arms and grinned.

As the world began to crumble, Phantom Pain conjured a gigantic orb of darkness and fired it at Sunset and her friends, tearing up more of the ground along the way.

Spinning her sword around, Sunset thrust it as hard as she could into the ground, forming up a bubble of turquoise magic around her and her friends.

“Stand together!” she told the others as the dark blast hit her magical dome.

The opposing energy was instantly deflected, ripping up more of the scenery and rebounding back at the Lord of the Waking Nightmare, much to his surprise.

The explosion that followed swallowed the man whole and seemed to rupture time and space itself, bending everything around them into a swirl of blackness.

And then suddenly, Sunset and her friends were back at the Throne of the Fallen Hearth, ash whipping around her legs as she ripped her sword from the ground.

“What was that just now?” Flash looked at his hand as the glow coming from him faded.

Sunset smiled. “The power of friendship, of course. The most powerful magic there is.”

A defeated looking Phantom Pain was down on one knee where the throne used to be. Judging from his face, he couldn’t believe they had managed to deal a serious blow to him. Part of his body had been blown away, leaving smoky trails snaking away into the air.

“This isn’t over, Sunset Shimmer,” Phantom Pain growled. “Next time we meet, I’ll be sure to finish you for good. And know that we will meet again. At the end of time, where all you love shall be lost before you and where the undead shall roam, there we shall do battle again, and I will tear your mind from your body myself. Mark my words, Sunset Shimmer. My lord, the Lord of the Undying Legions will rise again and then, I will come for you.”

Phantom Pain bowed his head and the rest of his body faded away into the brightening sky, where rays of light from the sun began to shine down upon the plateau.

Lord of the Undying Legions… Just who was Phantom Pain and the master he served, Sunset did not know. There were still too many questions left in her mind.

Sunset realized that she felt very light all of a sudden. She looked down at herself and saw to her dismay that she was slowly turning transparent, as if fading away into nothing. But then she realized that she didn’t feel pain at all; in fact, she felt at peace.

“Sunset?” Rarity asked nervously. “What’s happening to you?”

“I think… I think I’m waking up. At last, I’m going to get my life back.”

“You’re leaving us?” Pinkie Pie tried to take hold of Sunset’s arm but her hand simply passed through her friend like vapor. “Do you really have to go?” Pinkie asked, her eyes growing moist.

Sunset looked around at all her friends, some of them teary-eyed but all of them smiling at her. She felt supremely lucky to have met them; without their help, she would never have been able to make it this far.

“Goodbye, everyone,” Sunset smiled as she finally faded away and her vision turned to white. “Maybe I’ll see you again. In my dreams.”

“Take care, Sunset.” Applejack took off her hat and smiled. “Ya deserve this. Go on and get back to ya real life!”

Flash stepped up to her. “Sunset, if I never see you again, I want you to know that-”

She didn’t hear her friends’ reply, but a warm, comforting voice spoke in her head, like the soothing glow and gentle crackle of a bonfire.

“Well done, Sunset Shimmer. Well done.”

Author's Note:

Achievement Unlocked:
Sunrise - You have slain the nightmare and found your freedom with the sunrise.

I owe you lot a whole bunch of pictures, don't I. Here's hoping I can find the time to work on those...

And we're close to the end of our Flame journey already! Thank you all for reading this far if you've done so. It's really been some time since we started this story and it's always nice to see it come to an end! All that's left now is the epilogue, so stay tuned!

Cheers, y'all!

Comments

[Jaxxon Markus Citadel]

What a spectacular ending that was! This story has been a real treat from start to finish.

[Venerable Ro]

As a basic rule of thumb, if someone claims to be a reality-warper and proves incapable of defeating his enemy in the first few seconds, then he's either lying through his teeth, or terminally overconfident.

[A bag of plums]

An unambiguously good ending to a Soulsborne story?
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