Spitemare's Sun
A flash of light. A pulse of magic. The gap in my perceptions as I exited reality and entered through another point in space. Even after my extended stay in Anthropia, teleporting was an intimately familiar sensation to me. It was something I’d practiced so thoroughly and routinely that I didn’t even notice how it felt. Yet this time, it was different. This time there was a far, far greater purpose behind it. I had become so intimately familiar with my destination that I didn’t even need to make a mental map, even with a long-distance teleport.
I flashed back into existence, and appeared within Princess Celestia’s throne room. She was sitting atop her throne, surrounded by a pair of guards, sipping daintily from a cup of tea as she carefully read from a scroll longer than her entire body. Just what exactly was she doing, anyway? Doesn’t she have any governing to take care of?
The guards immediately assumed a fighting stance the moment I appeared inside. I’m guessing they didn’t know I’d discovered a way around the room’s teleport lock years ago.
“At ease, gentlemen,” said Celestia, and the guards instantly relaxed. Her scroll disappeared in a puff of smoke, and she set her teacup down on a tiny foldable table next to the throne. The scintillating aura of mane reflected off of her teeth as she smiled at men. “It’s good to see you again, Sunset. What can I do for you today?”
“A few things,” I replied. My eyes darted over to the guards, and back to her. Looking at them, I felt... something. Something strange in my chest which I couldn’t quite identify. “First things first, get them out of here. I’d like to speak to you alone.” Why did it matter? Did I actually care about them?
“Is that so?” Celestia dropped her smile, her voice adopting a slight intonation of concern. Her eyes flicked over to the guards, who immediately straightened to attention. “Gentlemen, would you please leave Sunset and I to speak in private?”
Both guards gave a salute, quickly scurrying out, leaving to the door to slam shut behind them.
“Now then,” said Celestia, “what is it you wanted to talk me about?” She paused, her head tilting slightly as she regarded me. “Is something the matter, Sunset?”
I closed my eyes, and took a deep breath. Memories flashed within my mind, memories of the absolute lowest I had ever been, of the winter days I had sleeping on the sidewalks, without even a single spell to stave off the cold. My muscles tensed, and I could feel smoldering flames within me begin to rise .
My eye snapped open, locking fiercely with Celestia’s. Her own eyes went wide, startled by the sudden ferocity behind my gaze.
“Yes,” I said. “I have a problem, and her name is Princess Celestia.”
Celestia’s mouth briefly hung loose before closing. “Sunset, what are you saying? Please, if there’s anything you want to talk to me about—”
“I don’t want to hear it!” I blurted out. Celestia very nearly jumped back at the sudden volume. I could plainly see from the subtle quivering in her eyes that she’d been hurt. Good.
“Do you have any idea, any idea what I’ve been forced to go through because of you? I spent almost six years in a world I didn’t understand because you left me with nowhere in Equestria to go! You were the closest thing I’ve ever had to a real family, and you turned me away like I was nothing!”
My vision had already become blurred with tears, yet through it I could see them forming in Celestia’s eyes as well. She visibly struggled to look me in the eye after what I’d said.
“Sunset, please—”
“No!” I interjected. The fire within me reached a fever pitch, and I could already feel it crawling its way through my chest, towards the tip of my horn. It took an active effort to stop myself from blasting her at that moment. “I don’t want your excuses! I can’t believe I ever looked up to you, you pathetic mare! Just look at you! You’re one of the most important ponies in all of history, and yet you... you degrade yourself by pretending to be no different from anyone else! You could have the entire world bowing to your hooves if you wanted! You could have every pony in Equestria worshiping you as a god, yet you don’t even have the spine to call yourself a queen!”
Celestia’s hurtful expression shifted, too slightly for most ponies to notice, but I could see the sudden flash of anger just beneath her eyes. I’d just struck a nerve. Now I just needed to keep digging.
“I could do so much more with your kind of power,” I snarled. “I could become something greater than you’ve ever imagined being, all because you’re too cowardly to try. That’s why you abandoned me. Not because you were angry at me, but because you were afraid. Because you knew that I would one day surpass you.”
“Sunset, that is enough.” Celestia’s eyes narrowed as she locked her stare against mine. “I can understand if you’re still having difficulty dealing with your feelings, but what you just said is uncalled for. I don’t know what’s gotten into you—”
“Luna’s soul.”
Celestia froze. Her jaw hung loose, and she stared at me like she’d just been slapped across the face. “W-what?”
“I’ll tell you what’s gotten into me,” I said. “Your sister’s soul. Because I took it.”
Celestia’s wings shifted by her sides, her brow narrowing into a glared. “That is not funny, Sunset!”
“The only joke here is that ponies still put up with you running things after how much you’ve failed them!” I shot back. “You practically have the biggest losing streak in Equestria! Just how many times have you gotten your butt kicked by someone you were supposed to protect your precious little ponies from? You lost to a mare who didn’t even use any magic! So why don’t you just cough up your soul, because it’d be better off with a pony that’s actually willing to use your power!”
An uncomfortable tension hung in the air as I finished my rant. Celestia closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, pausing to straighten herself. When she looked my in the eyes again, her muzzle was pressed into a pencil-thin frown, though her eyes burned brightly with a fierceness and determination unlike anything I’d seen from her before.
“I hope you understand the gravity of what you’re saying, Sunset Shimmer. I may have once considered you a pupil and a friend, but if you’re telling me the truth, then I will have no choice but to regard you as the greatest threat Equestria now faces. Do you understand what precisely that entails? I will give you one last chance for you to reconsider your words. Make your choice carefully.”
“My decision was made the moment you decided to hurt me,” I growled back. “And now I’m going to pay you back a million times for what you did to me.”
I closed my eyes and reached in, to the souls contained within me, and drew upon their magic once more.
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The walls of Luna’s mindchamber were illuminated by the gentle glow of her horn. The spell was complex, requiring deep concentration, but her work remained uninterrupted as her thaumic touch she delved deeper into her environment, pushing further and further downwards. Pinkie’s idea, as unbelievable as it had sounded at first, was strangely genius the more she stopped to consider it. The pink mare’s strange way of thinking had seemed to grant her insights that most other ponies would miss, even when they seemed obvious.
It was then, in the middle of her spellweaving, that Luna felt something powerful tugging at her. It pulled deep into her, siphoning away at her magic, sucking it up through her soul and out of the mental realm. She let out a shrill cry at the sensation, one that immediately brought to mind the memories of Lord Tirek’s unstoppable rampage.
“W-what’s happening?” Rainbow Dash’s voice called from beyond the walls.
“I... I’m suddenly feeling awfully drained,” Rarity remarked. “Like I shouldn’t have enough strength left to stay attached to this world at all. Yet I feel like there’s something else keeping me from dying.”
“I cannot say for certain why that is,” said Luna. “But if I had to guess, I’d say your bond with the Element of Generosity is the most likely cause. Unfortunately, if that were the case, that would mean that Sunset can draw upon that magic as well...” She paused, suppressing a deep shudder that had begun to form within her. “I suddenly dread what would happen if the magic of Harmony was used for evil purposes.”
“Well, what about you, Princess?” said Applejack. “If she’s taking magic from all of us, Ah reckon that means she’s taking it from you, too. Do you think you can still finish the spell?”
“I... I think so, yes,” Luna replied. “It is a difficult spell, but it uses very little mana to cast. Even now, I should still be able to complete it.”
Luna gave a sigh, and then continued. The plan would work, but there was one thing that it absolutely depended on.
“I just hope I have enough time before she reaches Twilight...”
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The unanimous squirming of the souls within me as I drew upon their strength let me know that I was doing something right. I’d drawn from them much more deeply than I had previously, not enough to fully drain them, but more than enough to get what I needed. Even Princess Luna finally showed some reaction to my siphoning act, to my surprise. Her magic was more resistant to being drawn from than before, like it was trying to move in a different direction from where I was pulling it. Was she actually fighting back? I didn’t have much time to think about it, however, as I almost immediately began to feel the magic transform me.
The power was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. I had known that Luna’s magic was immensely strong by any ordinary pony’s standards, and having the magic of five other ponies to back it up would add to that somewhat, but that alone couldn’t explain what I was feeling. It was an incredible power, power far beyond that which even an alicorn would achieve through their own efforts.
As the raw power flooded into me, my stomach lurched at the sickening feeling it brought to my skin, like there was an entire carpet of maggots writhing and crawling just beneath it. I looked through rapidly narrowing pupils and saw the hair on my body take a darker shade of red, while felt my muzzle elongate as my jaw morphed into a predatory maw. My horn grew further outwards, and I could feel its base drilling deeper and deeper into my skull. Finally, an incredibly sharp pain shot across my back, as I felt a pair of entirely new limbs forcefully bursting out of it. I was almost certain I had screamed, but the pain had blurred my senses so much that I couldn’t even tell.
After what seemed like eternity, the pain dulled, and my perceptions became clear again. I briefly looked over my body, and observed the changes. I was far taller, for one, easily as tall as Princess Celestia herself. My coat had taken on a deep shade of crimson red, and a pair of menacing, leathery wings adorned my back. What I could see of my mane and tail was a mass of red-and-gold that flickered and flowed like a dancing flame. This wasn’t a power unlike anything I’d felt before, I realized. It was the exact same power I had felt at the Fall Formal.
Only now, it was more than five times greater than what it was before.
I looked back at Princess Celestia, and saw her staring at me, eyes and mouth wide with both revulsion and fear. Dust swirled around me as I locked my gaze with her. She took a slow step backward. I took a step forward in response, my mouth splitting open to reveal a grin of murderous, razor-sharp teeth.
The moment my hoof touched the ground, a small spiderweb of cracks grew out from the point of contact. Another step forward, and tiny pieces of the floor that had been created by the cracks began rising upward, as though gravity itself was fleeing from me. I saw a flash of lightning in the corner of my eye as a bolt of electricity arced across my body. Then another. And another.
Then, I made my first move. I shot a single spell, barely strong enough to stun a mouse in my base state, out of my horn. Celestia instantly moved out of the way, jumping up and taking to the air. The bolt soared past her previous location, striking her throne dead in the center.
Almost instantly, it collapsed into a pile of ash.
My grin grew wider. A complete disintegration, with only the slightest touch of my magic. I turned upwards, and fired another bolt, slightly stronger than the last. Celestia’s horn flared the instant mine ignited, and she teleported out of the way.
The bolt that shot out of my horn was nearly as wide as my entire body. Its power roared as it traveled upwards in the direction Celestia had been in just a moment before, blasting a smoldering, alicorn-sized hole in the roof of the castle.
A flash of light, and Celestia appeared on the ground. As she looked at me, she gave me another fierce glare, though the way her legs slightly quivered betrayed her true fear.
“You’re lucky that there isn’t anything above the throne room,” I said, glancing at the hole in the ceiling. “It would be an awful shame if your precious subjects got caught in the crossfire while you fought me.”
“You...” Celestia looked me in the eyes, tears now freely streamed down the sides of her face. “Sunset, I... I don’t know what has happened to you, but please, stop this!”
“No, I don’t think I will” I taunted. “Because I know you won’t stop me. Because I know how much you fear your own strength. You live in a city of thousands of ponies that you could crush without a second thought. All it takes is one destructive spell out of place, and someone could die. Either you can risk all of their lives, or you can defend yourself from me. It’s your choice.”
Celestia closed her eyes. I wasn’t entirely sure, but I could almost hear her stifle a sob.
But then she did something I didn’t expect. She took a deep breath, and her entire figure steadied. When she opened them again, her impenetrable confidence had returned. I... I don’t understand. She cares about her little ponies more than anything. Is she really willing to sacrifice them just to stop me?
“You are correct,” she said. Her voice was quiet, yet was so firm and powerful that it seemed almost thunderous. “But your mistake is thinking that I won’t learn from mine. I’ve been defeated many times because I felt I had to choose between unleashing my strength and preventing collateral damage. But now you’ve done the worst thing you could do. You’ve told me about the flaw in my thinking. And now I realize I don’t have to make that choice.”
Wait, what? I leaned backward, blinking rapidly. What is she—
Celestia’s horn pulsed with magic, and everything disappeared in a flash of light.
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It hadn’t taken long for Sunset to reach Twilight’s castle. The gleaming, tree-like crystal architecture was striking enough that it could be seen for miles in all directions. There was no way she could have possibly failed to find the right path towards the most iconic landmark of Ponyville.
The hard part, of course, was actually getting in.
Even if she had enough energy left to cast jump a second time, there were no windows anywhere close to her spell’s maximum reach. Several trips circling the castle proved that were no back entrances she could readily take advantage of. That left her with only one option: the front door.
The crack between the bottom edge of the door and the ground was too small for her to fit through, at least at first glance. It was hard for her to gauge with any certainty without getting closer, more than close enough that the swinging door would crush her if anyone else were to exit through it.
After the fifth trip around to survey the castle, Sunset could only conclude that the front door was the only way in. She let out a groan, coming to the painful realization that she just as many ideas as her body had organs.
————————
When my vision finally came to, I realized that I wasn’t standing in the same place I was before. Blistering heat pounded down from the sun above, and all around me was a harsh landscape consisting of nothing but tan-colored rock. An assortment of stony buttes and plateaus jutted out from the ground in all directions, as far as the eye could see. There were no other living things within sight, save for the occasional shrub, tumbleweed, or anthill. That, and Princess Celestia herself, who stood on the ground a short distance in front of me.
The Badlands. Celestia had teleported us both to the Badlands. Instantly, she’d robbed me of any leverage I had from threatening civilians. It didn’t even matter that I was bluffing, there wasn’t even any pretense of a threat any more.
Sure, I could teleport us both back to Canterlot, but she’d already demonstrated in the throne room that her reaction speed with magic was much faster than my casting speed. She could just as easily teleport us to the Badlands again the very moment we arrived, and I’d have gone absolutely nowhere.
I ground my teeth together, the sound of their scraping resonating on the inside of my skull. “Y-you...”
“You wished to fight me,” Celestia said. “Now we’re free to fight on even ground.”
The corners of my mouth began to twitch, followed by the rest of my face. A strange, light feeling began to build up within my chest, clashing against the burning rage that continued to smolder. Before long, I’d found myself laughing uncontrollably. How could I not, in the face of such absurdity?
“You... you actually think this will make a difference?” I said, wiping a tear from my eye. “Newsflash, Sunbutt! I’m still stronger than you!”
“There is more than one kind of strength,” said Celestia. “That is what my former pupil failed to understand.”
My body instantly seized up. Did... did she just snipe back at me?
“O-oh yeah!? Well, let’s see how good your ‘other kinds of strength’ are when I blast you to itty bitty alicorn pieces!”
My horn lit up, and small pieces of stone began to lift upwards off the ground as I spread my wings, rocketing upwards into the air. Celestia mimicked my own movements, her horn ablaze as she shot into the air as well. It was then, when she rose up to meet me, that her entire body ignited. What was once an aurora localized entirely within her mane became a blistering fire that burned and crackled with every flap of her wings.
Wow. Celestia wasn’t kidding. She really is going all out. And judging by the strength of the tingle of magic running down my horn, she might actually be able to hurt me.
...Well. That makes things a bit less certain.
It was Celestia who made the first move, launching an intense beam of solar energy in my direction. I tried to move out of the way, but my sudden swerve in the air failed to clear me entirely. I let out a sharp cry as the beam grazed my left wing, singing me with a heat that had to have been a dozen times hotter than the sun’s surface. And that would have been a low estimate.
In that instant, I could feel my heart skip a beat from sheer force of realization. She was willing to kill me to free the souls I’d taken. Princess Celestia was trying to kill me. I only ever intended to incapacitate her long enough to take her soul, but she decided she’d rather have me dead than lose her sister.
The mare who raised me from the day I obtained my cutie mark. The mare who cared for me when no one else would. The mare who made me feel like I actually mattered, like I was more than just a street urchin. And she wanted me dead.
I let out a scream so intense that the air itself seemed to quake. Every coherent thought I had was drowned out in a sea of flame and fury I charged forward, moving to tackle Celestia out of the air. She simply blipped out of existence with another teleport spell, leaving me to hover as I rapidly swiveled my head back and forth to look for her.
Another, smaller blast struck me, this time right in the square of my back, on the space between my wings. I turned around and craned my neck upward to see Celestia hovering above me, glaring daggers straight at me as if to challenge me.
By then, the sudden pain had snapped me out of my blind rage enough to realize it was a trap. Instead of charging up at her again, I countered with a teleportation spell of my own, reappearing right next to her. Before the flash of light even fully registered, I had already spun around and bucked her square in the jaw. Her trajectory sent her flying backwards, and I followed up with another teleportation to repeat the maneuver.
This time, however, Celestia managed to anticipate my movement. Just as I appeared beside her and swung around to buck her again, she dived beneath me in the air, and then swiftly kicked upwards with her hind legs. Her attack caught me square in the gut, forcing the air out of my lungs from the impact. My wings halted their movements from the shock, and I felt myself plummeting to the ground.
Before I landed, I regained my composure enough to right myself again. I charged upwards straight towards Celestia, mentally preparing myself for another assault from her. To gauge her reaction, I fired off a quick burst of destructive plasma from my horn, forcing her to roll to the side in the air. When I caught up to her, I followed up with another swift kick, hitting her on the side of her body. She quickly recovered and redoubled her efforts to take me down.
Our movements after that became difficult to track, even for ourselves. We zipped through the air at blinding speeds, our rapid movements paired with our teleportation spells making it nearly impossible to observe. We danced across the skies, our parrying strikes cracking like thunder with every impact, and our blasts of magic kicking up clouds of dust as their explosions rocked the wasteland. And throughout it all, my frustration only grew stronger and stronger. I never expected Celestia to fight like this. As immensely powerful as she was by most standards, I didn’t ever think she had the skill to fight like this. Hell, she lost to a unicorn without a horn! How is this even the same pony!?
Finally, a beam of magic from my horn blasted an enormous, gaping hole straight through the body of a nearby butte. The natural structure quickly imploded on itself, kicking up an enormous cloud of stone dust that had to have been several hundred feet tall. And of course, the attack completely missed Princess Celestia, who had just managed to dive to the side of the beam as it passed by her and rocketed off to destroy the butte I wasn’t aiming at.
“STOP! DODGING!” I screamed. “Just who the hell even taught you how to move like that!?”
A slight smirk crept its way onto Celestia’s face. “A recent journey taught me the value of thinking on one’s hooves. As well as a few other tricks.”
Oh. Oh, no. I know that face. That’s her mischief face. That isn’t good.
“Wha—”
Any question I might have asked was abruptly cut off by a painful shriek, as another flash of light erupted from Celestia’s horn... and only a flash of light. Sure, that might not sound so bad on paper, but there’s a good reason parents teach their children not to look directly at the sun. In that moment, Celestia’s horn had become something that was exactly as bright as the sun, only much, much closer.
My vision didn’t even have time to recover from the blinding assault, as I immediately felt the most powerful strike against me Celestia had made yet. I wasn’t sure if it was a spell, or if she’d just kicked me really hard, but it hurt. Badly. So much so that I barely even felt myself hitting the ground by comparison, and when my sight finally recovered I found that I’d left a crater.
My knees wobbled as I slowly crawled back onto my legs, coughing up the dust that had lodged itself in my lungs. I was, for the first time ever, starting to think this was a bad idea. Stealing souls, trying to get revenge on Celestia and Twilight, all of it. My raw magical strength my have been much greater than Princess Celestia’s, but she still had more than a thousand years of experience on me. And like the absolute idiot I was, I prodded at her greatest weakness — her fear of collateral damage — until she found a way to overcome it completely. When I finally uprighted myself, I could see Celestia staring at me sadly.
“It’s... It’s not fair.” I said, voice quivering. “I’m not supposed lose to you! I’m supposed to be better!”
“This has gone on long enough,” said Celestia. “I don’t know what’s gotten into, Sunset, but I don’t want to fight any further if you don’t want to. If you release all of the souls you’ve stolen, then I promise I’ll give you another chance.”
“I DON’T WANT YOUR PITY!” I bellowed. The earth shook with the force of my cry, and right away I shot upwards into the air. Celestia followed, and we both resumed our skyward dance.
As my rage and frustration grew to new heights, I’d found myself channeling them more and more into my attacks. My physical strikes were vicious, wild, uncontrolled — and my blasts of magic were so numerous and frequent that the battlefield was covered in a curtain of projectiles. Magic bolts, destructive spheres, and massive beams of devastation blasted large swaths of the into oblivion, punctuated with the occasional teleport to strike with my bare hooves. As my unrelenting assault continued, Princess Celestia was forced to make ever more precise dodging maneuvers. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t match my sheer aggression or destructive power, and the vertical, rocky features of the Badlands were quickly being leveled into a flat plain. As I continued, her movements began to grow sloppier, more narrowly missing my continued assault.
It was just as the old saying went. Eventually, there’s always a level of brute force that no amount of precision or strategy can overcome. It’s possible I just made that one up, but it definitely should have been a saying.
My continued assault proved fruitful as one of my blasts just barely grazed the side of Celestia’s right wing. She let out a cry of pain as she was sent spiraling towards the ground. Before she had the chance to right herself, I teleported right below her and delivered in powerful kick to the bottom of her jaw. The attack launched her back in an upwards direction, flying skyward, and that’s when I made my move.
I teleported again, this time several hundred feet above her. My horn went ablaze with immense power, a flame forming at its tip. It rapidly grew, expanding outwards into a sphere of incandescent plasma. Larger and larger it expanded, until its size and mass eclipsed my own by several dozen orders of magnitude, a miniature sun at the tip of my horn. As she rose up to meet my position, Celestia’s eyes opened wide. The moment of dawning comprehension hit her, followed by my attack.
My destructive sphere slammed mightily against her body as I launched it diagonally towards the ground. The entire battlefield turned to a ghastly silence as it descended, as though sound itself was holding its breath in anticipation.
The explosion that followed was so intense and powerful that it nearly blinded and deafened me immediately. It burst into an truly gargantuan pillar of flame, more than a hundred feet wide and thousands of feet tall, no doubt visible across all of Equestria. Then, just as quickly as the roaring column had erupted from the impact, it vanished.
What was left was a gigantic crater of obsidian glass and superheated rock, vents of steam rising from the points where the molten stone had yet to fully cool. My wings flapped as I descended into the crater. There, in its center, was of Princess Celestia. Her mane was ragged and and reduced to its usual pastel colors. Though her wings and coat were somehow only slightly singed by ash, her body was clearly unfit for any more fighting. Her eyelids opened wearily as she craned her neck up to meet me. I could feel my body shrink and my wings retract as I reverted to my base form.
“S-sunset...” she groaned.
“Don’t worry,” I reassured. “You’ll live.”
Dark magic sparked across my horn, and Celestia let out one last pained yelp as her soul was forcibly yanked out of her body. I exhaled deeply and brushed a hoof across my forehead, wiping off some of the thick sweat that had become matted in my coat. After all this, I’d decided my first order of business was to take a bath.
I let out a shriek as a sharp pain pierced through to the very center of my skull. White tendrils flickered across the edge of my vision, and within moments my awareness was yanked into the depths of my own memory.
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Canterlot Castle was an imposing structure, its gleaming spires standing tall above every other building in the already-massive city. The front gates to the palace were an immense, ornate pair of gilded doors that were monitored at all times by fierce-looking Royal Guards. Any other possible entrances were hidden behind a large white wall that surrounded the castle grounds, regularly patrolled by further regiments of guards.
Yet despite the guards’ presence, Sunset found that the castle’s overall security was surprisingly lacking. All it took for her to enter the grounds unauthorized was to climb up an untrimmed set of vines on the side of the outer wall. Upon descending to the other side, she promptly found herself inside of the castle garden, where a fanciful assortment of flowers, hedges, statues, and vine-covered trellises formed a winding grid of different paths.
Sunset inhaled deeply. Now she just needed to get to the castle proper, and find the Princess.
Navigating the garden proved to be difficult, thanks to the maze-like layout of the hedges. She’d passed the same statue at least twice while attempting to find her way, a strange singing creature that appeared to be a mish-mash of different animals. Looking at it too closely sent a shudder down her spine, for reasons she wasn’t sure she wanted to understand.
There were guards patrolling the garden, of course, but Sunset was astonished by their sheer level of incompetence at being an actual patrol. They circled around the garden pathways in disinterested, predictable patterns, always leaving enough gaps in their positions to allow her to sneak through. Canterlot may have known peace for centuries, but that hardly excused the number of glaring holes in their security.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Sunset stumbled upon another white wall. Judging from the castle rising up closely behind it, it appeared to be an auxiliary courtyard of sorts, separate from the garden proper. There were no visible vines she could climb, no cracks in the stonework she could fit her hooves into, but beyond it was the closest to the castle itself she had ever gotten. If she wanted to reach the Princess, she realized, this was her best chance.
Lighting her horn, Sunset cast a simple levitation spell, and lifted herself up over the edge of the wall. Self-levitation, as she learned the hard way from her effort, was substantially more difficult than simple telekinesis, and by the time she’d landed on the other side she was practically on the verge of collapsing from exertion.
“Hm?” Said a voice crossing Sunset’s ears. It was a gentle voice, one that she would never forget after hearing it last year, during the annual Summer Sun celebration.
Sunset looked up, and found herself staring googly-eyed at a large picnic blanket, packed to the brim with small cakes and pastries. There, sitting on top of it, was Princess Celestia herself.
“Now, what’s a little filly like you doing here?” she said. “Are you lost?”
Sunset’s heart raced. This was it. She was here, exactly where she wanted to be, yet she found herself struggling to speak. The Princess was absolutely majestic up close, the warm aura of her magic bringing a slight, soothing tingle to Sunset’s thaumatic senses. It was nearly enough to take her breath away.
“U-um...” Sunset swallowed a lump that had appeared in her throat. “M-my name is Sunset Shimmer, and I... I-I came here to see you.”
The Princess cocked her eyebrow slightly. “Oh?”
“I-I wanted to apply to your School for Gifted Unicorns,” said Sunset. “B-but I they wouldn’t let me apply without my parents.”
Princess Celestia’s expression remained unreadable. “I see. And where are your parents right now?”
Sunset felt her ears press against the back of her head. Her lip trembled as she pawed at the ground with her front hoof.
“...I don’t have any.”
Both of Celestia’s eyebrows darted upwards. As her eyes opened wide, there was a softness to the gentle gleam of her irises that Sunset hadn’t noticed before.
“B-but I’m still really good at magic!” Sunset blurted out. “I’m still good enough for your school! L-look!, I’ll show you!”
The fatigue from her previous attempt at levitation seemed to melt away. Though she never had a chance to fully practice the routine, she had memorized it down to the most minute detail. This was it. This was everything she was here for. This was her one chance to win the Princess’s favor, her one chance at a life beyond begging on the streets.
Her horn ignited with a brilliant glow, and all around her, the fireworks began to rise. Magical firecrackers, conjured by nothing but her own power, crackling, fizzing, and popping as they shot upwards into the sky, their elaborate patterns exploding into a vibrant mural of shapes and colors. As she continued conjuring fireworks, she gracefully danced between the magical swirls as they rose up from the ground beside her, twirling and kicking like a ballerina. Then, with one final push of her magical strength, she conjured dozens of rockets simultaneously, which streaked upwards and covered the sky in a symphony of light, color, and sound.
When her horn’s light finally died down, Sunset could barely stand. Her lungs burned and her inner magic felt raw with overexertion, yet there was an even more powerful feeling within her, an inner warmth that pleasantly tingled within her. That warmth moved through her entire body, coating her in its magic, until it came to rest on the surface of her flanks.
Sunset let out a gasp of sudden epiphany. Her head turned backwards, glancing at the side of her body. There, she could see the newly-formed image of her own cutie mark. She then turned to face Celestia, towards the Princess’s radiant smile.
“Very impressive,” she said. “You are a truly extraordinary unicorn, Sunset.”
Sunset’s entire body began to shiver with excitement. Tears began to form on the very edges of her vision. She had never been happier in her life. “Y-you’re going to let me into your school? For real?”
“Better than that,” Celestia replied. “Sunset Shimmer, how would you like to be my very own personal student?”
————————
The pain subsided, and I found myself standing back in the crater I had created. My eyes darted around, gazing at the destruction I had caused. So much of the natural beauty of the Badlands had been utterly ravaged, the layered sandstone pillars being reduced to little more than dust. And before me, lying soulless on the ground, was the broken body of Princess Celestia, every bit of her awe-inspiring warmth and light burned down to nothing. The mare who I owed my entire life, the mare who single-handedly saved me from a life of squalor. And she was gone, kept alive only by a touch of dark magic.
My legs trembled beneath me. I felt a dampness beneath my eyes. Crying? N-no, I’m not... I’m not crying. S-she hurt me first, I’m not crying, dammit!
Argh, t-this isn’t how I’m supposed to feel! There’s got to be some reason for this... all this sentiment! It can’t be me, there has to be something el—
Twilight. This is her fault. I don’t even know how it’s possible, but it has to be her. I wouldn’t have even had to come here if she and her little human friends didn’t humiliate me at the Fall Formal. If she hadn’t stolen my wings and title, I might have been able to come back to Equestria in her place. If she hadn’t replaced me, Celestia could have let me back in. She’s the one responsible for everything.
My teeth clenched with rage and determination. I’d be visiting that so-called princess shortly. But first, it’s about time I let Equestria know who really holds all the power here.
My horn lit up once more, and I drew upon Celestia’s own magic. At its touch, I watched as the sun itself was transformed into my image. Satisfied that I’d made my point, I teleported away.
————————
Celestia’s Defeat 2W
Instant
Exile target creature with power 4 or greater. If that creature was named Celestia of the Dawn, you may search your library for a basic Plains card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. If you do, shuffle your library afterwards.
“I’m sorry, Princess, but you’re the one who made this happen.”
— Sunset the Exiled
————————
“Spike, hand me that notepad over there, will you?”
“Sure thing!”
As her young assistant passed down the notepad, Twilight quickly jotted down a series of calculations with her pencil. She and Spike had remained in the castle’s library for some time, books upon books stacked against the table as Twilight poured through their contents. Carefully, Twilight flipped through the pages of the notepad that had already been written, quickly reviewing her own writings.
“Okay, I think I’ve got it,” said Twilight.
“Got what?” said Spike. “I’m still not entirely sure what you’ve been studying. You’ve been so wrapped up in it that you haven’t even gotten the chance to tell me.”
Twilight blinked. A slight flush crossed her face at the sudden realization that Spike was right. “Oh. Oops. Guess I should have told you. I’ve been working on developing a spell that will track the location of the souls currently connected to the Elements of Harmony. Time Turner used a similar technique to track me across the multiverse, but somepony has been remarkably unwilling to tell me about what he knows.” Twilight coughed loudly, drawing a raised eyebrow from Spike. “Sorry, I just get frustrated with how cryptic he is sometimes.”
“But this does mean we’ll be able to find the one taking our friends’ souls, right?”
Twilight nodded. “That’s correct! And with any luck, we’ll be able to stop them before they can hurt anypony else, and free the souls they’ve captured.”
A loud, thumping knock came at the door of the castle library. Before Twilight could answer, Starlight Glimmer pushed her way through. Her eyes darted rapidly across the room, her entire body shaking.
“Starlight?” said Twilight. “What’s wrong?”
“T-twilight! Outside! T-the sun! It’s...”
Twilight blinked. “What? The sun?”
“J-just look!” Starlight insisted.
Apprehension crawled its way into Twilight’s chest. Slowly, she lifted herself off of the ground, hovering over to a nearby window. When she saw what was outside, she let out a horrified gasp.
Even barely glancing at it to avoid being blinded, she could tell it no longer had the same shape and color as the sun she knew. Instead of a bright, blazing yellow, it was now a duality of colors, a swirl of crimson meshed with a swirl of yellow, forming a solar taijitsu that blazed with red and gold. The sky itself was painted by its new light, its gentle blue shifting to a bright, blazing orange. Below, the ponies of Ponyville looked to the skies and trembled, scurrying to take shelter in their homes.
Twilight’s heart dropped into the pit of her stomach. She had seen a sun with those colors before. Not in the sky, but on one of her closest friends. Her wings went limp in disbelief, as she slowly lowered herself to the ground.
“No...”
“Twilight?” said Spike, his voice shaking slight. “W-what’s going on?”
Twilight’s head whipped around to face the two others in the library. “Starlight! Take Spike and get out of here! Run as far as you can!”
“W-what!?”
“What!?”
“Just go!” Twilight shouted back. “Run away, and don’t come back until I tell you! I... I-I can’t lose you, too!”
Starlight didn’t hesitate before hoisting the startled Spike onto her back and bolting out of the door. As Twilight turned away, she looked up at the window, barely managing to hold back a sob.
“Sunset... why?”
————————
The sight of the sun itself taking the appearance of her cutie mark let Sunset know immediately that things had gone south.
Time was running out. She had still yet to find a way in the castle, and if she knew herself, Twilight would soon be next. All she could do was stand a good distance away from the castle’s front door and watch as everything came crashing down around her. It had all seemed hopeless.
But then, just as she was about to give up, the front doors to the castle slammed open. A panicked Starlight Glimmer quickly sprinted out, carrying an equally-distressed Spike on her back. Sunset had to dive out of the way just to avoid being trampled underhoof.
But then, as she picked herself up, she realized the door was still hanging open. It began to swing closed again, but the hinges of the door provided just enough resistance to slow its inward movement.
Without any hesitation, Sunset galloped towards the front entrance fast as her tiny legs could possible carry her. She made her way past the threshold not a moment too soon, as the door very nearly smashed against her as she ran inside. As she stood now just inside the building, a new resolve built up within her. She could find Twilight. She could rescue her friends.
And maybe, just maybe, she would succeed at it, too.
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I REALLY want Evil!Sunset to be erased from existence, with Good!Sunset restored to her body. Seriously, this has gotten far out of hand, & that's about what it'd take to set things right after this soul-stealing spree.
I know little about the various worlds of Magic: The Gathering, as I do not play, but that sounds a lot like the Shadows Over Innistrad set, which my brother showed me and which instantly captured my interest. We'll see if I am correct...
I'm imagining that spell Sunset cast at the end there was Star of Extinction.
8725499
Nope, Innistrad is different. The plane that is talking about is Lorwyn/Shadowmoor.
Is an old plane, and day and night are literally separated things. Before the arrival of planeswalkers there, the planes fluctuated every [a lot] of years. Now they interchange every day.
Blame the Faeries.
I actually spent a while looking for a good music theme for Sunset vs Celestia, before settling on Goku vs Cell. Seriously, that was the most DBZ fight I have ever seen in a pony fic....
And yet it was ENTIRELY appropriate.
I love the fact that each fight has been different and none of them have been a walk in the park for Sunset, despite the fact that due to sheer power they all should have been after she absorbed Luna. The way you gave each of the Mane6 a way to trip her up was well done.
Huh. You weren't kidding about the DBZ.
Wowee, what a fight.
Celestia's Defeat reminds me of Path to Exile a bit