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1- Awakening3,283 words
2- Beyond the Veil4,851 words
3- Restoration4,619 words
4- Day and Night7,584 words
5- Awaken4,589 words
6- Origins3,863 words
7- Brave New WAAAGH!!5,926 words
8- Lessons7,426 words
9- Encounter5,548 words
10- Dreamwalker9,490 words
11- The Next Morning8,423 words
12- Chaotic Counseling8,120 words
12.5- First Night (Bonus Chapter)5,474 words
13- Rogue and Queen6,218 words
14- Secret Agent Mare7,692 words
15- Sundown8,327 words
16- Facing Fears6,125 words
17- Flicker5,817 words

17- Flicker

The Terror of Death- Flicker

It had been days since she originally departed and after traveling through the Badlands, the unicorn named Sunset Shimmer found herself getting no closer to her destination than when she started her journey. One idea that came to mind was for her to find a set of train tracks and follow them towards a town such as Appleloosa or Dodge Junction. The unicorn thought that she could use the chance to get some additional supplies that she might need for the journey. But after remembering what happened in the Crystal Empire, she began to think that the Royal Guard was looking everywhere for her. So, the only way that she could remain hidden from them is to avoid any towns.

Luckily, she had received a couple of provisions from the drones in Morti’s hive before setting off on her journey. One such item of importance was a map. Yet, it took a couple of moments in order to try and figure out how to read it. It was in a language that relied a lot on symbols rather than words and it was only when she could see a location did the symbols change into words that she could understand. It was a strange system, but one that she could work with.

A few other items included food for the trip, but the unicorn was rather confused to what they gave her. Some things were understandable, such as flasks to hold curatives for different ailments, but she was also given what looked to be mangos and caramel sauce. In her mind, you would only have mangos on you if you want to drive any thestrals into a frenzy and caramel sauce would only be used by ponies who enjoyed dipping apple slices in them. But, if these were part of the provisions that were provided to her, then it must be somewhat important.

A few days after starting to traverse through the barren wasteland and carefully using the supplies that she carried with her, she had finally left the Badlands behind. The unicorn found herself in a forest, one that had the remains of castles, twisted trees and savage swamps. The unicorn used what minimal magic she could to blend in and keep herself out of sight from the manticores and timberwolves that stalked the woods while moving towards the end.

By the time she was at the edge of the woods, another few hours had passed and night had fallen over Equestria. Her destination was in sight now. The town below the capital, Ponyville. Many ponies looked to have been in their homes, while others wandered the dimly lit streets when they left the tavern. As she watched, several thoughts began to emerge in the mare’s mind. The main one being that this was a conflict between her and whoever had one of the fragments that she was seeking. There was no point in forcing anypony else into this. But how was she going to make sure that it was only the two of them

Taking a moment to fully recuperate, Sunset began to think over the options that she had right now. The unicorn could bring out the Hive now, but upon seeing a few ponies wandering around the street as part of a local Night Watch, she realized that it was a bad idea. If somepony were to see an army, especially a changeling army, they would immediately sound the alarm and wake everypony up. This was a matter between her and the one who was in possession of one of the fragments. But what was the best way to draw them out in the open?

Then, something from her conversation with Morti began to resurface in her brain.

‘Burn it down, if you have to.’

Setting the town ablaze was not what Sunset had in mind. Though, Morti did not specifically say that it only had to be the town. After all, the forest behind her was a giant tinderbox.

One small spark can set the whole place ablaze.

Over the last couple of days, Twilight had found it difficult to come to terms with a lot of things that had been going on for her. Mainly, it was because of her newfound position of being Equestria’s ‘Princess of Friendship’ as well as bearing all the responsibilities that came with such a title. The alicorn was no stranger to bearing titles and the duties that came with them, but there was a bit more weight in this one than that of ‘Celestia’s Personal Student’.

Then, there was the other reason. A few days ago, when she was up in the Crystal Empire for the Princess Summit, she had an encounter with a unicorn named Sunset Shimmer that went horribly wrong. Sunset originally wanted to take her crown, but it led to the unicorn having to flee the city and her watching in horror as Sapphire cried in pain. Almost going blind because of a flash bomb that the unicorn used to run away.

Ever since that incident, Twilight wondered if there was some other way that the conflict could have been resolved. One where nopony like Sapphire had to get hurt. For being the so-called ‘Princess of Friendship’, it felt as if she failed the first test that she had in her newfound position. That, combined with the fact that she had not received a letter from her brother regarding the investigation into finding Sunset made it harder for her to try and put this behind her.

It was while she was thinking over this that she heard a knock at the door to her room, which was enough for her to put down her quill and turn to the door. “Come in.”

The door opened, followed by her assistant Spike coming in with a tray that had a plate of chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk as he walked over to her desk. “Hey. I made some cookies,” he told her, setting the tray down before looking back at Twilight as she turned to face the dragon.

“Oh, thank you Spike,” she replied, using her levitation magic to lift up a cookie and begin to eat it before setting it down to drink some milk. It was as she was having her snack though that the dragon sat up on a stool and had a question for her.

“Hey, is everything going okay Twilight?”

The question was met by the Princess looking at the dragon with a puzzled look at her face, having trouble trying to come up with the right words to say as she just looked at him. “Y-yeah, why?”

“Well, given the fact that your trash bin is filled up with various crumpled up balls of parchment,” Spike told her, pointing to the overflowing waste bin that was in the corner by the door, “It’s telling me that you are stuck on something.”

Twilight just chuckled, before letting out a small sigh as she looked back at her assistant, “I’m just… After everything that’s happened in the last few days, I had a lot of thoughts go through my mind. I want to ask Princess Celestia about it, but… I’m finding difficulty trying to find the right words.”

“Really? You don’t seem to be the kind of pony who would would have difficulty with that,” Spike replied back, remembering all the times where Twilight was able to come up with the right words to say for every friendship letter that they wrote to Princess Celestia.

“I know, though,” Twilight paused, taking a second to compose herself as she looked back towards Spike, “Many times when we had to write letters, it was about having to resolve one problem that we have solved. However… this is about a problem that isn’t solved.”

“You mean what happened in the Crystal Empire?” For a moment, Twilight was speechless. She wasn’t quite sure how he knew, but before she could ask, the dragon quickly added a follow up response, “Cadance told me what happened before we left to go back to Ponyville.”

After hearing that, Twilight smiled a small bit before looking back at Spike. “Y-yeah… I just have been thinking a lot about what could’ve happened. If things really had to end the way that they did-”

“Twilight,” the dragon interjected, looking back at him, “You’re overthinking about this… Sometimes, there are things in life that are outside of our control, no matter what we try to do. You and I have had our fair share of instances like that over the years. This is no different-”

Before the dragon could go any further, both of them heard a set of hooves racing up the stairs as they turned towards the door and saw Trixie standing outside. “Uh… Is Trixie interrupting something?”

“Uh no, I was just helping Twilight,” Spike explained, before folding his arms as he looked at the unicorn. “Why? Is… something wrong?”

“Well, that depends,” Trixie asked, looking a bit uncertain as she looked back at the two of them while Twilight was trying to drink from her glass of milk, “Is it normal for the forest nearby to spontaneously combust into flames?”

Immediately, the question had the glass slip from Twilight’s magical grip as it spilled out onto the floor. The alicorn immediately looked back at Spike, before both of them began to hurry outside to see what was happening, with Twilight grabbing her Grimoire on the way out of the library. Only to be horrified by what they were seeing.

The Everfree Forest was on fire. Not just a hoof-full of trees, but the entire forest. Many of the animals and creatures were running because the flames were torching their homes as the smoke from the blaze rose up into the sky.

“O-oh dear Celestia,” Twilight swore, shocked by what she was seeing. What could have possibly caused such a disaster to take root? She could see several pegasi trying to stop the fire by using rain clouds, only for the flames that they were fighting to push back and injure them, “H-how…? H-how did-?”

“Twilight!!” Her attention immediately had the alicorn turn to her left as she saw a few of her friends nearby. Fluttershy was there comforting the animals that were nearby, while also applying first aid to their zebra friend, Zecora. Rainbow Dash was also nearby and trying to help fight the fires while Applejack was assisting Fluttershy. “Thank Celestia your here, Sugarcube.”

“Applejack, what happened?” Spike asked, before gasping at the sight of the burns on Zecora’s body.

“Ah don’t know. One minute, we were all about to head home. The next thing we knew, the whole darn forest erupted in a ball of fire!” the earth pony told her, “We got all the pegasi we could to try and fight it off, but the fire’s having none of it!”

“What about Zecora? Is she okay?” Twilight asked, worried about her because of the state of her injuries that were on her body. Several patches of fur were burned away as Fluttershy tried to treat her wounds.

“S-she’ll be fine…” Fluttershy assured her, taking a moment to look at her friend before her ears dropped, “B-but I’m worried… A-as I was getting Zecora out of her h-hut, I thought I saw somepony else in the fire. I-I tried calling out to them, but-”

Twilight now looked towards the blaze and at Fluttershy, before looking back to Spike and Trixie, “Spike, Trixie, try to help them anyway you can. I’m going to go find them.” Before either the unicorn or the dragon could say anything, Twilight took off. Racing towards the flames as the zebra that was on the ground opened her eyes.

It was as Twilight disappeared into the blaze that Zecora began to speak, “D-don’t go… to the Everfree. The d-danger… only used… to deceive.”

Immediately after seeing the danger that was a threat to her home and learning that somepony was still trapped inside the forest, Twilight instantly rushed into the flames. Avoiding the collapsing trees and the burning embers to try and find whoever was still inside of the Everfree forest and get them to safety. The flames had not reached Zecora’s hut, but everywhere else was still burning as she felt the ash and smoke against her face. Using her magic to try and prevent any particles from getting in her eyes.

Moments after entering the inferno that swallowed the Everfree, the alicorn thought that she found the pony Fluttershy had mentioned before. Though, something about all of this seemed… off. They did not appear scared or afraid of everything that was going on around them. In fact, they were acting like this was completely natural.

As she landed, Twilight began to trot over before trying to speak. “Hey! Are you okay?! You’re going to get hurt if-”

“So… you actually came,” the voice made Twilight freeze, watching as the mare turned around and began to face her. Walking out from under the shadows of a burning tree as they stared directly at her.

Immediately, she recognized the pony. It was the exact same one from the Crystal Empire just a few days ago. But something… was different about her. The mare that she had seen in that brief glimpse was afraid and had her back against the wall. Now, she was standing defiantly amidst the chaos surrounding them. “S-Sunset Shimmer?”

“So… you know who I am,” the mare remarked, closing her eyes as she let out a sigh. As she opened them, her horn began to flicker with magic as the unicorn glared at her, “This will make things a lot easier.”

Before Twilight had the chance to react, the flames from the forest began to move, creating a wall of flames that was too thick for her to see through. She tried to teleport, but felt her spell bounce back as the Princess fell to the ground. “W-What are you doing?! D-Did you… do this?”

“It was the only way to make sure I have you right where I want you,” the unicorn smirked.

“B-But why!? I-Is this because of what happened in the Crystal Empire? Because of your anger towards Celestia-?”

Much to Twilight’s surprise, Sunset shook her head as she looked at her, “No. There’s no point in petty revenge if it’s only temporary,” her horn began to light up as Twilight saw her holding onto something with her magic that she didn’t think was possible. A grimoire, like the one she carried, but it’s appearance was much different than hers, “I’m doing this for a much different reason.”

When the grimoire opened, the pages of the book blew with the wind as the unicorn’s magic flowed with the pages. “I’m doing this for a friend. There’s something here that doesn’t belong to that of anypony here, so I’m here to reclaim it, no matter what. If you dare attempt to stand in my way or stop me… then it’s your funeral.”

Mere moments after saying that, what could only be described as a blocky ‘cluster’ began to form behind Sunset, one that looked like static as it began to collide with an invisible force. It was small at first, but with each collision, it began to grow in size before shattering as several hooves ripped open a giant tear. One that lead into a dark abyss with ones and zeroes fading in and out as what tore open this hole began to step through.

Immediately, Twilight’s eyes widened in shock when she saw the creatures that emerged from the rift behind her and stood behind the unicorn, “C-Changelings?!!” she gasped, her mind racing as she looked at them before immediately thinking of the first thing that she could think of, “You’re in league with Chrysalis!? Are you out of your mind-?!”

“Who the buck is Chrysalis?” Sunset asked, noticing the alicorn’s shock before closing her eyes and letting out a small sigh. At the Princess stared at the changelings, she watched as each one was looking directly at her. These changelings… there was something off about them. If they aren’t with Chrysalis’ hive, then what exactly were they a part of?

It was as she looked at the creatures in front that she realized something. These changelings weren’t the same as the ones that were in Canterlot during the royal wedding. In fact, these ones looked and acted much differently than the ones that Twilight and her friends had encountered before. These changelings had flesh missing from parts of their body and instead of blood, all she saw was red ones and zeroes. They also didn’t express any emotions at all. Almost as if they were brain dead and on autopilot.

In her position, Twilight saw herself as the only thing standing between her home and an armada of changelings as the rift behind Sunset closed. The unicorn looked back at Twilight as a grin appeared on her face. “So Princess… what do you plan to do now?”

The Princess of Friendship only had one answer as she looked back at Sunset. Her grimoire at the ready as red and blue markings began to glow around her body and magic glowed around her horn. “The only thing I can do… protect my home.”

Sunset could only smile as she looked back at the Princess. The flames that were scorching the Everfree grew higher as the changelings began to move. Closing in on Twilight as they moved closer and closer to her. The markings on her body glowing brighter as she readied herself before closing her eyes. “I know you’re there and I need your help. My friends, my family… everypony is counting on me. So, come forth!” Mana began to rise all around her as two giant spectral beings, one red and one blue, began to form behind her. “Gorre!!”

In that moment, all the unicorn could do was smile as she began to channel magic around her horn. “Morti… I believe I found what you’ve been looking for.”

“Come on, why isn’t this stupid thing dying down already!?” Rainbow grit her teeth as she idly flew in place by a rain cloud looking over the Everfree Forest. The pegasus, along with several other members of the Cloudsdale weather team, have been trying to tackle the blaze that was burning the Everfree for the last twenty minutes. Yet, anytime that they thought that they were getting somewhere with putting it out, the blaze would reignite. Like candles on a birthday cake that just would not go out.

If that wasn’t bad enough, several pegasi that were trying to help her put out the blaze were hurt by the backlash of the flames. Almost as if the fire was retaliating at them for what they were trying to do. Not just light injuries either, but burns that required immediate medical attention. In addition to this, the moisture of the clouds was quickly being used up, which led to several ponies having to fly over to Ponyville Lake in order to get more water and try to put out the fires. This disaster was taking a toll on her team members as well as her patience.

Though, it was as she was bringing her injured team members to the ground that she noticed something… off. The flames were moving. Not spreading outward, but instead joining up. Moving to the point where the sheer size of the fire was smaller, but the flames that were still burning were brighter and emerging above the tree line.

“Rainbow!” she heard her name called out, turning to see Applejack and Trixie nearby while Fluttershy was tending to Zecora. “What’s happening up there-!?”

“I don’t know, but whatever it is, several of the weather team are hurt,” Rainbow told her friend as she looked at them, “They need medical attention and fast!”

“Spike’s trying to find Nurse Redheart and Doctor Stable right now-” the earth pony told her, just as they felt another wave of heat rush over them and saw small embers in the sky die out before touching the ground, “This is bad… if we don’t do something, all of the Everfree is gonna go up in smoke.”

“Where’s the rest of the girls? Are they okay?” Rainbow asked, worried when she noticed that not all of her friends were here right now.

“Rarity and Pinkie Pie are trying to keep everypony calm. They’re using Sugarcube Corner as temporary shelter-” Applejack was interrupted by the sound of a collapsing tree as it kicked up more ash and embers into the sky. Yet, that response only had Rainbow partially relieved. There was still one more friend that was unaccounted for as the pegasus looked back at the farmer.

“AJ, where’s Twilight?”

The question was met by silence, before Applejack looked back towards the rising flames in the distance. “She heard that somepony was still out in the forest and took off to find them before we could stop her.”

“Well, that’s just great!” the pegasus immediately snapped in frustration, slamming her hoof on the ground as Applejack turned back around to face her. But before the earth pony could say anything, Rainbow beat her to it, “First, this fire’s fighting back to the point that the weather team’s getting severely hurt. Then, it starts moving on its own and now I find out that one of my friends is risking her life and stuck in the middle of all this!? How in the name of Celestia can this get any worse?!”

Yet, one particular detail in Rainbow’s outburst caught the attention of one particular pony as Trixie now trotted over to them. “Did Trixie hear you say that this fire… was moving on its own?”

“Yeah, it used to be all over the Everfree, but now it’s just in this area over here,” the pegasus explained, pointing at the ongoing blaze that’s happening, “The weather team was not even getting anywhere with the flames and then it just backed off like it didn’t want to deal with us anymore.”

“Why are ya asking about this, Trixie?” Applejack now asked as she looked at the unicorn. In the time that she had been staying with Twilight, there was never a point where she saw the former stagepony act like she was right now, “Do… ya know what might have caused all this to happen?”

“Yes, but Trixie doesn’t think that either of you are going to like it,” the unicorn responded, before turning to Rainbow, “What you just described sounds exactly like pyromancy. When Trixie was a filly, she once saw a stagepony use magic to bend and control fire. If this is similar-”

“Woah, hold on their partner… are ya suggesting that somepony intentionally set the Everfree on fire?!” Applejack interjected as she looked at Trixie, “That’s crazy!? Who in their right mind would go out of their way to commit arson on such a large scale-!?!”

“Hang on, Applejack,” Rainbow stopped her friend, “I think what Trixie is saying, as weird as it sounds, is true. We couldn’t get any of the flames to die down at all, so if somepony was controlling them, then it would make sense.”

“But who in their right mind would-” the earth pony stopped, eyes widening as she looked at both Rainbow and Trixie. When she was trying to speak, something came back to her. Recalling where Twilight was at the present moment before realizing the danger, “Oh no…”

“What? AJ, what’s the matter?”

“Sugarcube, we got to find Twilight, now!” Applejack told her, trotting past her friends as she approached the edge of the Everfree and the flames that were burning, “That pony in the forest must’ve been the one who caused all of this to happen! She’s trotting into a trap-!”

Before the earth pony could go any further, a loud explosion went off as Applejack was knocked back by a blast wave that threw both her and her hat up into the air. Trixie quickly reacted, catching the earth pony with her magic and setting her down while Rainbow caught her hat, giving it back to the farmer as she looked back towards the flames.

“W-What the hay is going on in there!?”

“I-I don’t know,” Rainbow said, before looking at both the earth pony and the unicorn, “But we gotta get Twilight out of there, now!!”

As she felt the heat of the flames burning behind her and faced the numerous horde of changelings that came towards her, Twilight was doing her best to try and fend off her attackers. Having Gorre fire off energy shots that took the forms of needles as she used a combination of her Avatar’s attacks and her magic to fight off the swarm.

However, one problem that she was beginning to encounter was that no matter how many she defeated, there was still more that came after them. Forcing her to relocate and move out of the way so she couldn’t be hit by their attacks. There was also the fact that the last time she had to fight against multiple foes was during the Canterlot wedding, and she had her friends with her when that was going on. This time, it was just her and Gorre against an army and the unicorn that was leading it.

Still, it did not mean that she planned on giving up. If anything, the alicorn needed to approach this from a different angle. If hurting the rank and file drones was not so effective, what would happen if she attacked the one that was leading them instead? It was something that she was unsure of, but still had to try.

“Gorre, Bloom of Destiny!!” In response to Gorre’s command, the red half of the Avatar grabbed the bottom half of her body and spun it around her head before throwing it. Going past her foes and heading directly towards Sunset Shimmer. Something that even threw her off guard as she tried to maneuver out of the way, but ended up having one of the petals from Gorre’s attack strike the left side of her face.

It was something that her opponent did not take rather well. “Oh, you will pay for that!!” She snarled, the pages in her grimoire glowing red as Sunset glared at the Princess. Several orbs of fire emerging above her head before launching them towards her foe, forcing Twilight to teleport out of the way to try and avoid what was coming at her.

However, it was when she thought that she was safe that she felt something strike her left side, throwing her back into the line of fire of the unicorn’s attack. Twilight was not sure what had just happened, but as she got back up, her eyes widened in shock. Standing nearby was another one of the changelings that Sunset had brought over, but this was much taller. By appearance, it looked to be even taller than that of Haseo. “W-What in-!?”

“Oh? What’s the matter? A little distracted?” the unicorn taunted, before channeling another spell as she picked up a fallen tree trunk and aimed it at her, before releasing the attack as it flew towards Twilight, “Too bad!!”

“No no no-!!” she panicked, having Gorre attack the log immediately as it split up into multiple pieces and scattered everywhere. Several chunks burning up once touching the flames that burned around them. However, everything else stopped in place. Caught by Sunset’s magic before she had them rain down on the Princess. Striking her several times and burning her mane as she struggled to try and protect herself.

To counter this, Twilight began to fire another blast of magic. This time though, she was aiming for Sunset’s horn. In her mind, if she could use the crystallization spell she knew on her horn, it would prevent her from using any more spells. However, the only problem was that it would require her to use a good bit of her mana. Something that she had been trying to conserve since the start of this fight, but found herself using more times than she would like to admit.

Focusing her magic, the Princess fired off three different blasts using the same spell. Yet, none of them hit their intended target. The first blast hit the side of a rock as a small amount of crystals hit the side of the boulder. The second spell hit the crystals formed by the first one and bounced, hitting two changelings and trapping their bodies in a crystalline cage. The third spell was coming towards Sunset, but in the blink of an eye, the unicorn created a protective barrier that had the spell rebound. Heading back towards Twilight as she tried to react, but the magic hit her back right hoof. Forcing her to fall over flat on the ground as she struggled to move.

“You had a few good spells, I have to admit,” Sunset herself told her as the alicorn looked up to see the unicorn coming over to her, “But you don’t seem to be taking this seriously at all. You’re not fighting with intent.”

Twilight tried to call on Gorre, but soon felt another spell hit her as the same spell she used mere seconds ago was applied to her mouth, hooves, horn and wings. Preventing her from speaking, using her magic or trying to move as Sunset looked down on her. “You might be a student of Celestia… but you’re nothing compared to me,” she said, backing up as she looked towards the rift that she created once more. Leaving Twilight to only watch as she said three words.

“Morti, its time.”

The rift began to spasm and fluctuate as a new entity emerged, cloaked in pure white that matched their skin and hair. Twilight thought that it looked like a young, pale BlackRose, rounding up to around half the height of the humans. She hovered a solid foot off of the ground, a blank look adorning her features.

“I feel it… The Machinator,” she spoke in a ghost of a whisper, but the mares were able to just barely hear her, “My strategists…”

“S-She knows about Gorre? H-How?” Twilight thought to herself as she looked at the entity, before looking to Sunset as the unicorn looked back at them.

“Now that she’s restrained, how do we retrieve the fragment?” Sunset asked. She recalled what Morti said before, but she did not say anything in regards to how the retrieval process was going to work.

“It appears The Machinator is tethered to this mare’s magic core. My strategist is in a symbiotic state with her.” The girl said, her golden eye seemingly looking through Twilight. “I can sever the link by corrupting her core, forcing Gorre out of her. At my current state, it would be the quickest way.”

The unicorn nodded, before picking up Twilight’s encased form and bringing her closer to Morti. Setting the Princess down in front of the girl and stepping back to give her some space.

Morti reached out for Twilight’s horn, her blank features being the only thing in the alicorn’s sight. The instant Morti’s hand grabbed ahold of the Princess’s horn, she felt a wave of unfamiliar power course through her entire being. Her nerves went aflame as her horn began leaking a purple mist that began encircling around Morti’s arm.

Sunset stood by as she watched her new friend drain her replacement’s magic while simultaneously replacing it. Despite not knowing what the pale girl was doing, she could sense that the alicorn’s magic was indeed being corrupted by some kind of power beyond anything the former apprentice had witnessed.

To Twilight, the pain she felt was beyond agonizing. She wanted to scream, but the crystals over her mouth prevented her from doing anything. Her whole body felt as if it were being invaded… no… infected. Infected by something horrible. Her vision became blurry as she felt the last of her magic slip away as well as the last of her strength. She was beginning to black out, weak in her knees as her eyes closed.

Morti let go of the mare’s horn, letting the mist gather together to form an orb. One that was red and blue with two symbols. One symbol was half of a shining sun, with the other being half of a crescent moon. It floated gently above Morti’s hand, before slowly descending into her outstretched palm.

“Extraction successful. Gorre the Machinator has been returned.” Morti said, staring at the item in her hand. Sunset herself no longer saw the need to keep up her spell, so she dismissed the crystalline spell. Having the body of the Princess drop down to the ground as she looked back to Morti.

“One down, seven to go,” the unicorn told her, “Now that you have a fragment, are… any of your memories coming back to you?”

“Gorre is not integrated with my code yet, and I have insufficient power to make the repairs to myself. But I am sure that once I do, I’ll be able to remember.”

Sunset saw that as a bit of a good sign, looking back towards the princess on the ground before casting another spell. Having the flames that were burning around flicker away and die off, “Alright, we got what we came for. We should go back before anypony else finds us.”

Morti looked in the direction that Twilight had come from, “I sense my Terror of Death not too far…”

“Terror of Death?” Sunset asked, sounding a bit puzzled as well as a bit concerned because of Morti’s lack of tone, “Is it another fragment?”

“Yes…” Sunset thought she heard a hint of longing in Morti’s voice as she said that.

“Maybe we should wait before going for it. Give you time to integrate Gorre with your code first,” the unicorn suggested to the girl, “It could make hunting that fragment easier.”

“You’re right.” Morti replied, turning back to Sunset and hovered towards her. Sunset herself nodded, before turning to the rift. Having any changelings that were still with them go in first and allow Morti to go in after. Letting herself step through last so she could close the rift. Leaving the body of the alicorn in the middle of the scorched remains of what was the Everfree.

Mere moments after though, the sounds of hooves galloping on the ground had somepony find Twilight in her state as they stared at her. “S-Sparkle? W-What in E-Equestria happened to you-!?”

“Trixie, did you find her?” She heard another voice call out, just as the azure unicorn used her magic to pick the princess up and have Twilight rest on her back.

“Somepony get Trixie a doctor, NOW!!!”

Author's Note:

"The power it holds can bring either salvation or destruction at the whim of the user." -Aura

This chapter... Oh where do I begin? We're now beginning to pick up more on the story. Making it to where Haseo and company are up against something that's an actual threat. But you need to be careful. Because at any particular point, the hunter can immediately become the hunted.

Also, as a general reminder, when it comes to Twilight... please consider the following...

With that in mind, I hope you enjoy what's in store here. Thanks a ton to BronyParasite for his help with Morti.

Stay safe out there
-Frost

10/4/2021: For those who have been reading the story for a while and are wondering where chapter 18 is, the chapter is planned to be redone, but with the story on Hiatus, it'll take some time before things are back up and running again.
-Frost

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