And a Sky Full of Stars

by Amber Spark

Dawnbreak at the Abyss

The first gargoyle construct died with a single sweep of her blade, never having a chance to make a sound. She granted its companion the same fate.

Something inside of her yearned for a foe that didn’t perish in a single sweep of one of her Flareblades. Something she could pummel with her very hooves. Yet she couldn’t risk such a foolhardy attack. She didn’t dare try to fight these monstrosities unarmed now.

Darkness crept over her kingdom like a shroud. The sky was nearly half dead. Most disturbingly, it wasn’t occurring in some great wave. When Sunset looked up, it seemed like great swaths of the sky had simply been erased from creation.

Worse, the Moon had begun to fade during its journey. It had been almost full when Twilight had first raised it, yet now it crawled across the sky in its meager last quarter phase.

She tried not to look up too often even as she approached the massive spires of Fillydelphia. However, the darkness below was nearly as disturbing as the darkness above. It had been by sheer luck—or Harmony’s divine providence—she discovered the patrolling gargoyles in the suburbs of the sprawling city. The upcoming battles with them was not what concerned her.

Even with her diminished power, she still felt the life of her subjects in the homes below her as she flew ever onward, but they felt weak. However, despite feeling a twinge of guilt as she considered it, the suffering of her people was not why her pulse quickened.

No, what disturbed her was a fact both simple and horrifying: Fillydelphia was dark.

Fillydelphia—nestled against the coast of the Celestial Sea—was one of the great hubs of magical and technological innovation in Equestria. It had been for centuries. The city’s glow could usually be seen from fifty leagues away, and further on a clear night. Now, the once-gleaming towers jutted up from the city center like the bones of some great black behemoth of a dead dragon. They loomed over the city, casting strange shadows in the fading night. Sunset swallowed and pushed forward, her senses stretched to their limits. She fed off of the inherent magic of the Solstice Raiment, yet she knew the power was not unlimited.

Upon seeing yet another flight of the horrifically malformed gargoyles, Sunset dove to street level and wove between fallen chariots. She could escape their notice by banking her power and moving through the darkness, but it was unwise to leave enemies at her flank. While her connection to Twilight gave her a general direction, it was not precise. It was more akin to a compass than a map.

With each passing moment, she felt time slip away. She knew not how much time remained to rescue the pony she loved.

Then again, Sunset’s rage demanded that those responsible for this atrocity to her wife, her subjects and her world be punished.

She waited until they were directly above her and shot into the sky like a Phoenix Skyqueen. Her telekinesis was still strong enough, and flight was something intrinsic to the very fiber of her being. That magic couldn’t be drained from her, so she wielded it with every iota of her indomitable will.

She unleashed the Flareblades. The first one was thrown forward with such force it speared the gargoyle and tore straight through. The beast looked at the hole in its chest before dissolving into ash. Immediately, the other two turned her way, their claws glowing with balefire.

Sunset wasn’t done. She’d moved the Sun at dawn and dusk every day for countless centuries.

A sword, even one as mighty as a Flareblade, was nothing.

With a mighty pull, the sword reversed course, ripping through the head of the second gargoyle as its attention was on Sunset. It perished instantly. She released her magic and let the blade fall to her, snatching it up in time to ward off the balefire of the third and final gargoyle.

The hateful oblivion magic never came. Instead, the warped and twisted bat-like face tilted back and let out a howl that pierced the silent night. It was joined by others. Dozens. Hundreds. Maybe more.

Oh, by the Sun and Moon… Sunset thought as she glanced around to see foul shapes beginning to close on her. They didn’t need Transit Spheres now.

The stars descended upon her, glowing in the rage and hate of the gargoyles’ eyes.

Sunset unleashed a primal battlecry as she flung herself forward at the closest one. It threw balefire, but she ignored the magic of oblivion and forced herself through. It threatened to rip her apart.

It nearly did.

Only her rage allowed her to live long enough to shove the thing’s head between her crossed blades.

A savage jerk of her magic ended its miserable existence.

“And so the Sun sets its last,” came a screeching whisper from hundreds of throats around her. “Would that you had died with your city, consumed in balefire, purged as though you had never been. It would have been… cleaner. Yet I should have known you would not be content to die as your fate demands. Stubborn fool.”

Sunset’s eyes darted left and right. They surrounded her like a massive hive of living evil. Each one moved in the same way. Each flap. Each twitch. Each blink. The same monster repeated hundreds of times.

“You know not what you have brought upon yourself, fool!” Sunset shouted. “The Sun of the heavens may rest now, but even now, its radiance bears down upon you. And for what you have done to me and mine, know that the Sun will have no mercy upon something as wicked as you!”

“I care not how you die, only that you do. Kill as many as you like. You will still perish, knowing that your wife begs for mercy. That you were unable to save your people. You will know my torment. The stars are mine. This world is mine. It will die the quiet death of oblivion as I ascend beyond you all to do what is necessary. Your death will herald my vengeance.”

Some piece of her knew whatever thing had stolen Twilight from her was simply trying to enrage her.

She was already well past that point.

Princess Sunset Shimmer flared.

She called upon her own inherent magic. She called upon the magic of her distant Sun. She called upon the Sunmother’s ancient armor. She called upon the Suncrystals of the Flareblades.

The Flareblades ignited with holy solar radiance. Her armor erupted with runes of glittering golden light. Her horn’s light shifted from its gentle teal into a blinding white blaze of fire.

She became like unto the Sun itself.

For a moment, dawn broke on Fillydelphia.

And as she glimpsed the city through the hovering monsters, Sunset’s heart froze.

Below her, the citizens of Fillydelphia lay as inert as forgotten puppets. Dozens lined the street below her. All around her, she could see fallen arcane chariots and other flying devices. Pegasi and griffons had landed amongst the flat roofs. Even the city’s small dragon population had fallen to whatever sinister force had stolen the stars.

Every single one lay as still as death, as though their very life had been drawn from them.

“Fitting that light of dawn shall herald your end. Now die!” the horde screeched and descended upon her.

Sunset met them with the fury of the Princess of the Dawn.

The first stroke felled five. The second stroke felled six. Crossed blades took the brunt of four gargoyles’ balefire as she bucked in the faces of two behind her. Claws skittered across her armored flanks as she twisted and dove into the mass. Screeching and screaming consumed her as fangs chomped at her hooves while she dropped like a stone. She slammed into a pair of them and backflipped taking off another six heads in twin sweeps. Her blades wove complex patterns of light as she called upon all the magic she could reach.

Gargoyles who came within reach of her hooves died from a single strike, turned into sun-bleached ash. Blades struck down scores of her foes with every sweep.

It wasn’t enough.

The gouts became bursts as their evil puppeteer changed tactics. Sunset screamed as balefire ripped alongside her neck. She could feel the smoldering armor. It had died to protect her, but it could only die once.

Just like her.

Moving in for the kill, the gargoyles swarmed her.

Sunset screeched in incandescent rage and spun like a Saddle Arabian dervish. Ancient lessons were forgotten. Long-held techniques were thrown aside. All cast off in the raging fury of the Princess of the Dawn’s unleashed temper.

A dozen died. Another dozen. Balefire nearly consumed her right foreleg, saved only by a flare of power from the ancient armor. Two dozen died as she flung her twin blades in a great scything arc and caught them again in her magic. She spun them like sawblades and whirled them around her body like the banner dance of the Colored Monks of Demo-Sha.

The blades were knocked away, though not a single beast could hold onto one for more than an instant before it perished. Then one was upon her. Demonic blue eyes bored into her as wicked metallic fangs glistened in her holy aura.

“If it’s any consolation,” the swarm hissed. “She will never know you failed.”

The fangs came down upon her neck, as did many others. Sunset yowled as the things pierced her armor and her flesh. She jerked in midair, her wings twitching as she lost control. Her vision swam as the poisonous bite infected her with darkness while bleeding the magic from her very soul.

Sunset looked up into the sky. A tear fell from her eye and spattered against the wing of a gargoyle. Another cluster of stars flared and died away as she watched.

She fell into the roiling mass of monsters, the sky fading behind demonic eyes, leathery scales and flapping wings.

Forgive me, she cried out to her dear eternal Twilight.

And fire erupted in the abyss.

Not the fire of the Sun.

But the fire of the Earth.

Twin shockwaves of the violet and gold elemental flame washed over her. She cried out once more, but this was a cry of triumph and exaltation. The flames tore the feeding gargoyles apart at the most fundamental level, not even leaving ash behind. The flames healed her wounds in a second. They empowered her armor. They empowered her magic.

But more importantly, they empowered her hope.

For the Earth and the Sun were linked. The Sun needed a purpose to exist. That purpose was Life, and Life must be grounded. Only Earth could provide the foundation for Life. The Sun’s purpose was to bring Life to the Earth, and the Earth’s purpose was to be a foundation upon which the Life could grow from the Sun.

The very elements of the Earth had answered her cry for help.

Philomena and her dark sister Faerana roared in fury at the monsters who dared to attack their beloved Princess. However, the gargoyles did not flee. Constructs could not feel fear.

The Phoenix of the Sun and the Phoenix of the Moon didn’t fear either.

They struck with wild abandon, beaks tearing, wings shredding and talons ripping. A hundred gargoyles died within five seconds of the twin sisters’ appearance. In mere moments, they had cleared the air three meters around Sunset… outside of which an angry horde hissed.

Reinvigorated by their cleansing flame, Sunset leveled out and soared up between her friends. She reached out with her magic and pulled the Flareblades to her from the street below. She flourished them, and took a breath.

Then, she smiled.

“The dawn breaks upon you!” Sunset shouted in the ancient tongue of the Sunmother. And though she was still exhausted, she flung herself into the battle once more. “Sol Invictus Ascendunt!”

Her blades flashed. Her companions attacked.

Slowly, the tides turned.

Author's Note:

Sol Invictus Ascendunt indeed.

Comments

[Neoarcad]

Ascendunt? My Latin is rusty, but I'm not entirely sure that's the right tense. -o, -s, -t, -mus, -tis, -nt, I think? So unless Sunset is talking about herself in the third person plural like Trixie...

[Amber Spark]

8036726 You caught me. I don't have the slightest clue about Latin and with the time crunch, I didn't have time to research the term exactly... but hopefully it gives the right idea anyway.

[Thomas_C]

Sol: Sun
Invictus: Invincible

So The Invincible/Unconquerable Sun

[Ladrian]

I still feel like there is a background story I should have read leading up to this one... but it's still entertaining to read the fights.

[Amber Spark]

8050861 Since I've had several folks clamoring for it, I've already got an idea for a direct sequel to this story.

[djthomp]

Too much single target, Sunset, not enough AE.

Philomena and Faerana might help with that, though.

[Amber Spark]

8103882 Welcome to the warlock in Legion... I miss hellfire.

[Lurks-no-More]

Chekhov's phoenixes!

Good thing, too; you need to learn to pick your fights a bit better, Sunset.

[Amber Spark]

8324780
Hey, she's on the clock! The world is dying! Ain't no time for half-measures!

[AppleTank]

Appletank likes big boom

[Amber Spark]

8740198
There's a lot of those in here.

[Rewan Demontay]

Nice use of the writing technique known as Chekov's Gun Royal Phoenix.
xanatos would be proud of Sunset for how many gargoyles she's killed and maimed.