My Little Planeswalker: Glimmering Oil

by Zennistrad

Gaea's Revenge

“Ugh! This sucks!”

Rainbow’s whine of protest grated harshly against Sunset’s ears. She sat on the ground, ponied-up, as Fluttershy carefully pulled out one of the dozens of twigs that had been forcefully lodged in her freshly-sprouted wings. Her body was covered in scrapes and bruises, her clothes tattered and mottled with leaves.

“Rainbow, you really should hold still,” Fluttershy chided. “None of this would have happened if you hadn’t tried to fly through the canopy like that.”

“We’ve been going in circles for almost half an hour!” Rainbow retorted. “I just wanted a better view so we could find our way out of here! Besides, I could have totally made it through if somebody had just moved the branches out the way with her magic.” She turned to face Applejack, eyes narrowing fiercely. “You know, like I asked.”

Applejack let out a snort. “Right. Try messing with the trees when the living spirit of the forest itself is trying to kill us. Ah’m sure that’s a good idea.”

Rainbow opened her mouth to retort, but no words came out. She then closed it again, and quietly grumbled to herself. “Fine. Point taken. OW!”

“There!” said Fluttershy, pulling out the final twig from Rainbow’s pinions. “All done. Now, doesn’t that feel better?”

“What? No! That really, really...” Rainbow’s words trailed off, as her wings, ears, and tail quietly retracted back into her human form. “...huh. You know, that does feel better.” As she stood up, however, she softly winced. “Do you think you could do something about these wounds, though?”

“It’s just a few scratches. You’ll be fine,” said Fluttershy. “Besides, I need to conserve as much of my magic as possible. I have to be sure I’ll have enough when we find the Dazzlings.”

A loud, exasperated groan escaped from Rainbow’s throat. “Great. You just had to remind me that we’re out here risking our lives for them, didn’t you.”

“Hey, don’t think of it like that!” Pinkie chimed in. “Everyone we’ve ever known and loved has been turned into evil cyborg zombies! Just look on the bright side: we’re already risking our lives every day just by being alive!”

Rainbow Dash threw her arms into the air. “How the hell is that a bright side!?”

Pinkie flinched away as the sound of the sound of the shout echoed across the trees. Though the smile on her face remained wide and unmoving, there was a slight glisten in the corners of eyes. “It’s... just how it is now, isn’t it? So nothing we’re going through here is any worse than normal! That means there’s no reason to be sad! R-right? Right?”

Rainbow took a step forward, her arms locked straight by her sides, her fists quivering as they clenched. Pinkie reflexively took a step back, and for a brief moment their eyes remained locked, Rainbow’s lighting-charged gaze piercing deep into Pinkie’s quivering, darting eyes.

A yellow hand placed itself on Rainbow’s shoulder, followed by a soft voice gently calling her name. Almost immediately, the tension in Rainbow’s body vanished. A weary sigh pushed past Rainbow’s lips, and she turned her head to greet Fluttershy with a smile.

“Thanks, Shy. I needed that.”

Fluttershy returned the smile. “It’s no problem at all. I’ll always be here if you’re ever feeling tense, alright?”

Rainbow’s lips softly curved downward. Her gaze turned away, and her eyes trailed downward. “Yeah. I sure hope so...”

A harsh breeze blew across the forest, sounding out a hollow whistle as the leaves in the canopy rustled in its wake. A chorus of startled yelps responded to wind, and Sunset found her arm being forcefully grabbed by a shaking Twilight.

“W-what was that?” said Rarity. Her own arms had forcefully wrapped themselves around her nearest companion, who just so happened to be Applejack.

“Ahm not so sure,” Applejack responded, “but Ah don’t want to stay here long enough to find out!”

Twilight briefly pulled herself away from Sunset’s embrace, long enough to look at the amulet hung around her neck. The absence of her touch left Sunset’s arm feeling oddly cold, even more so than the moment before Twilight had grabbed onto her.

As Twilight followed the amulet’s directions, she turned and pointed to her left. “That way! The sirens are—”

The words were cut off as the darkness magnified, silence booming across Sunset’s eardrums, to the point where it nearly deafened her with its noiselessness. Already Sunset’s mind was reeling with the paradoxical sensation, and her swirling headache only intensified as the shadows became illuminated with incandescent blackness. Before her eyes, in the very same direction that Twilight was pointing, the inky globs of darkness crawled together into a glittering mass of decaying, verdant plant life. Her lips twisted into a display of jagged, rocky teeth, dripping with a thick, congealing, pungent liquid that Sunset couldn’t identify.

Hello again, filth.

“A-actually, on second thought, we could probably go the other way,” Twilight hurriedly spoke. As she turned to bolt off, however, she was stopped in her tracks as Sunset grabbed her by the arm, her glasses jostling as they nearly fell off her face.

“Wait!” Sunset cried out. “We have to stick together! We have to stay with each other and make sure she doesn’t trap us in another one of those nightmares!”

“W-what?” said Twilight. She reached up with a trembling finger, and pushed her glasses up by the bridge. “B-but... Will that even work?”

“I don’t know, but I’m not letting any of you out of my sights,” Sunset replied. She let go of Twilight’s hand, and a burning, bright orange orb of magic flared to life in each of her palms. Intense determination burned within her chest, as her eyes rose to meet the abomination’s gaze. “And I’m sure as hell not letting you threaten my friends again!”

Sunset thrust both of her hands forward, and the darkness scurried away, fleeing from the light and power that erupted from her palms. The magic twisted and swirled, forming into the already familiar double-helix. Sunset’s vision was blotted out by the light as the spell hit Gaea Everfree, the impact exploding into a burst of coronal plasma.

And when her vision finally returned, Sunset felt her heart drop into the deepest pit of her stomach. Before her Gaea Everfree stood tall, completely unharmed. Apart from the tiny, rapidly dying flames beneath her shadowy stalk, there was no evidence the abomination had been struck at all.

“Ah have an idea,” said Applejack. “How ‘bout we stick together and run?”

Sunset gulped. “I think I like the sound of that plan, now that you mention it.”

Not a second later, her hearing was overrun by the sound of many pairs of legs beating furiously against the ground. A quick glance around confirmed that none of her friends had strayed from their shared path, all of them clustering together as they ran.

From the beginning, Sunset had expected Rainbow to run ahead of everyone else. Even when holding her own speed back, her athletic build would have easily given her the lead. But much to her surprise, it was Pinkie who came out in front: still close enough to be with the group, yet always fast enough to be a good distance ahead. Her legs were moving so fast that they had turned into an rapidly-spinning pink blur. If Sunset looked closely enough, she could see that they had somehow taken the shape of whirling figure-eight hovering beneath her torso.

As she continued to run alongside her friends, Sunset noticed the trees beginning to thin. The dim light that was once barely filtering from above slowly tricked further and further towards the ground. She looked up, and saw that the branches that smothered the sky were growing farther and farther apart.

Then she looked forward, and her eyes went wide at the sight of the ground just ahead of Pinkie. Namely, the fact that there wasn’t any.

Sunset’s heels dug deeply into the earth, kicking up a cloud of dust that choked both her sight and her breath. Before she could even take the time to clear her lungs, she was immediately pushed to the ground as another body collided with her, followed by five others in rapid succession. Despite the crushing weight of five others pressing down on top of her, she was able to regain her breath just in time to call out a warning.

“Pinkie! Watch out for that cliff!”

“Huh? Cliff?”

Pinkie’s eyes had already turned downwards, but by then it was too late. The earth beneath her feet had already stopped, and she found herself running on top of nothing, her momentum somehow managing to carry her at least a dozen feet forward through the empty air.

What happened next was a truly bizarre sight. Instead of falling, Pinkie suddenly did a sharp one-hundred-and-eighty degree turn, somehow hovering in place as her feet frantically spun beneath her. Then, in another sharp blur of acceleration, she somehow managed to run back onto the edge of the cliff. She wiped her brow in an exaggerated motion, throwing several flecks of sweat onto the ground.

Sunset disentangled herself from the sprawling heap of her friends and crawled to her feet, unable to even be annoyed by the involuntary dogpile. All she bring herself to do was stare.

“Aw, why’d you have to tell me about that?” Pinkie huffed.

“Wha...” said Sunset. “There was a cliff, Pinkie! You literally just ran right off of it!”

Pinkie folded her arms across her chest and pouted. “Well yeah, but I wouldn’t have fallen if you didn’t tell me about it.”

“You... But... that... That doesn’t make any sense!”

Pinkie held her right hand up and raised a single index finger, closing her eyes as though they were held shut in profound contemplation. “The Universal Law of Cartoon Gravitation: What goes up, must come down, but only as long as it sees the ground.”

“But you didn’t even ‘go down’ at all!” Sunset cried back. “You’re still standing here!”

As Sunset opened her mouth to speak, she felt a single hand resting against her shoulder. She looked to see Twilight staring at her gently, her glasses miraculously unharmed by her recent tumble as they reflected the concern in her eyes.

“Let it go, Sunset.”

“What?” said Sunset. “Twilight, surely you of all people would be—”

“Just let it go,” Twilight repeated, more firmly than before. “Trust me, I’ve tried to understand it. It’s not worth the frustration.”

Sunset inhaled deeply, and let out a breath to clear the tension in her lungs. “Yeah... you’re probably right.” She glanced around, and looked briefly at her surroundings. The trees were sparse, and though the smoggy skies made it impossible to tell whether it was midday or evening, it was clear enough to see where they were.

They were on the edge of a cliff, that much was certain from the moment Pinkie had ran off. It jutted out several dozen feet from the rest of the land, hanging over drop that was easily more than a hundred feet above the ground. Below was a deep, mountainous valley filled with pointed evergreen trees and sharp, rocky crags of granite, with only a single tiny stream in the middle to break the fall.

Sunset then looked to the right, and saw the same thing. Then to the left... it was then that she was hit with a horrifying realization. The ground ended in every direction except the way they came.

A sudden chill ran down Sunset’s spine. She turned around, and sure enough, Gaea Everfree stood behind them. Tendrils of vine and shadow hissed as they snaked across the edge of the forest, forming a thick and brambly fence that cut off the cliff from the rest of the solid ground. All the while, Gaea Everfree’s grin never faded, the dulled light of her gems twinkling off of her bloodied teeth.

No place to run. No place to hide. Nothing left for you but grim inevitability.

“E-er, Sunset, darling?” Rarity spoke through trembling teeth. “Do you have any ideas? Preferably ones that don’t involve crossing paths with the murderous nightmare forest spirit again?”

Before Sunset could even respond, Rainbow abruptly pushed herself past her, positioning herself between Gaea Everfree and the others. Her footsteps fell heavily on the ground, every fall of her shoes leaving an imprint on the dirt as she stomped over. Within moments, she was glaring upwards, fiercely staring Gaea Everfree directly in the face.

“No! You know what? I’m sick of running! I’m sick of letting some half-baked campfire tale intimidate us!” As she spoke, Gaea Everfree’s eyes went wide. For a brief moment the glittering seemed to recede, no less threatening in character than before, but different in a way Sunset couldn’t quite describe. As the abomination’s aura fell across her skin, Sunset felt... bewilderment. Not hers, she quickly realized, but the bewilderment of the entire forest.

Rainbow Dash entire body pulsed with magic, powerful enough that Sunset could feel it tingling against her skin. She pointed a finger upwards, jabbing it at Gaea Everfree’s face with such intensity that she could have sworn the abomination flinched. “And if you think you’re going to lay your hands on my friends,” Rainbow continued, “then you’ve got another thing coming!”

Another surge of magic pulsed through Rainbow’s body, and her form glowed with a bright white light. The human ears on the sides of her head receded, replaced almost instantly with a pointed pair of pony ears, accompanied by feathered wings and a rainbow-colored tail. Immediately she shot into the air like a rocket, leaving a rainbow-colored trail in her wake as she rose higher and higher into the sky.

Gaea Everfree gestured subtly with her hand. There was loud whoosh, and a sudden downward gust of wind that forced Applejack to hold onto her hat.

And then, within moments, Rainbow Dash was sent plummeting back to the ground. She collided with the earth in an ungraceful whump, kicking up a small cloud of dust as she planted face-first into the dirt. Rainbow forced herself on to her knees, and violently spat out the soil and grass that had been lodged between her teeth.

“O-okay, then, I-I guess an aerial attack won’t work. Or flying.” She looked up, and her pupils dilated as Gaea Everfree loomed above her. Her lips pursed tight, and the only sound to come past them was a soft, muted whimper.

Sunset’s body reacted without even a single conscious thought. She reached forward and grabbed Rainbow by the arm, pulling her backwards. A sharp, wooded claw reached down and smashed the dirt where Rainbow had been, sending chunks of dirt flying from the force of impact.

Rainbow’s body heaved with ragged breaths as she leaned against Sunset’s shoulder. “O-oh my God! I-I thought I was going to die!”

“Not today you aren’t,” said Sunset. She gently held Rainbow by the shoulders, steadying her shaking body as she stood up. “Come on, stand up. We can’t give up now!”

“B-but Sunset!” Fluttershy cried out. “What are we going to do? If those of us with wings can’t fly, a-and there’s no place left for us to run...”

“There’s only one thing we can do,” said Sunset. “We fight.”

A shrill laugh pierced the air, like a cloud of buzzing hornets.

You think you can resist us? Go ahead! Show us your last embers of hope. Let us savor their warmth as we snuff them out. O̪̖͡n͘e.͍͜.̪.B̲͖̪̙͡y̞͟.̯͔̖͖.͍̹̬̝͚̺.̙̝̹̪̯ O̷̹͚̕͝n̸̯̖͉̬͕̼̻͕̕e̛͍̤.̷̵̡͍̗͕̰͇͉

Sunset gritted her teeth, looking the abomination directly in the eyes. She was afraid, more afraid than anything, but every part of her was screaming at her to avoid showing any sign of it. She could only hope that she had succeeded. As Sunset stood to face Gaea Everfree, another blaze of plasma appeared within her own palms.

“You can’t extinguish our hope,” said Sunset. “You can terrorize us as much as you want, you can break our bodies, but you’ll never break our spirit.”

Fluttershy gasped. “Oh no! Not our bodies!”

It took an additional effort on Sunset’s part to stop herself from adding an unnecessary retort. Rainbow Dash, thankfully, managed to fill in gap in conversation.

“Just stay behind us,” she reassured. “We’ll take care of this before you know it!”

“She’s right,” Twilight added. As she watched Sunset, her own fears seemed to have vanished entirely. “Our friendships are more powerful than any creature in the woods could ever know! We won’t stand down!”

“That’s the spirit!” said Pinkie. “Come on girls, let’s pony up and mash this monster!”

Pinkie’s rallying cry was met with a chorus of affirmative noises. All at once, a great light surrounded the group. Sunset felt their magic connecting, felt it weaving between them as their hearts crossed together, joining into a single power.

Yet somehow, as each of them assumed their transformations, Sunset felt her body remain unchanging, just as it was before. Her eyes trailed up to the spot where her pony ears were, and she saw nothing. Behind her, she could feel her tailbone was just as short and stumpy as it had been before.

Twilight shot her a worried glance. Somehow, despite the fact that Sunset was certain she wouldn’t be an alicorn as a pony, she had sprouted a pair of wings.

Sunset had already anticipated the question that Twilight would have asked. She returned the glance, and her meaning was communicated without even saying a word. I’ll be fine. Just go.

It was Sunset who made the first move, opening with another blast of Plasma. Predictably, the attack left no visible injury on Gaea Everfree, but it staggered her back just enough to allow Rainbow to follow up with her own assault. Rainbow’s feet kicked up a cloud of dust as she zipped forwards, circling the abomination at incredible speeds, until Gaea Everfree’s entire form was encircled by the prismatic trail she left behind.

As Rainbow continued to circle around, her motion kicked up a rapid wind current, becoming stronger and stronger until turned into vertical column of swirling wind. It was a veritable tornado, one pierced the sky and cleared the smog, just enough to reveal the afternoon sun edging towards the western horizon. Within the vortex, Gaea Everfree let out a sharp, grating hiss, flecks of leaves and shadow peeling away from her form as the wind shredded at her body.

Finally, Rainbow broke free of her circular motion, running back to join the rest of the group. She skidded to a halt just before Sunset, cupping her right hand by her side. A spiraling orb of wind coalesced into her palm, and she leaped into the air. Her trajectory carried her body straight towards the vortex of wind, her right arm pulled back in a windup motion as she grasped the sphere in her palm.

“Take this! Spiralling Strike!”

With a powerful shout, Rainbow thrust her right arm forward, still gripping the sphere of wind tightly. The very moment the sphere struck the tornado, a massive burst of air exploded outwards from the point of impact. Sunset’s eyes screwed shut reflexively, the sheer force of the shockwave nearly throwing her backwards. Her feet dug deeper into the earth as she remained firmly planted in the ground, though it felt as though she had skidded backwards at least a few inches.

When she opened her eyes, she was shocked to find that Gaea Everfree had disappeared completely. Where she stood, there was nothing more than a loose pile of twigs. Even the shadows that had once pervaded the landscape had receded. Her wings flapping gently, Rainbow landed on the ground, a triumphant grin traveling all the way between her ears.

“Aw yeah! Be—”

“Don’t,” said Applejack.

Above, the smog began to roll in, covering the space where the vortex had once cleared it. As the skies became overcast, the light dimmed.

“Oh come on! That was awesome and you know it!” said Rainbow. “Don’t I at least get to say it once after that?”

The tendrils of vines and shadows at the inner edge of the cliff slithered and twisted. As they moved, they began to converge on a single location.

“And Ah’ve told you a million times, that this ain’t one of your fancy foreign language cartoons!” Applejack shot back. “We’re dealing with matters of life and death! Can’t you just take this seriously for once?”

The twigs where Gaea Everfree stood shuddered and clicked. There was a whistle of wind, and they began to rise into the air. Sunset tried to say Rainbow’s name, but the attempt at calling her friend’s attention went unnoticed.

“I’m allowed to have fun!” said Rainbow. “Besides, I beat the bad guy! There’s no need for you to... to...”

Rainbow’s words died out before she could finish. A deep shadow loomed over her body, the darkness flickering and dancing as Gaea Everfree’s form stood to its full height.

Sunset reacted as quickly as she could, channeling her magic into her palms, but by then it was too late. In a motion that was nearly too fast for her to see, a piercing tree branch erupted from Gaea Everfree’s body, lunging towards Rainbow with the speed of a bullet. Rainbow attempted to dodge the strike, twisting her body to the side, but she could only just avoid being struck in her vital organs.

Instead, the branch pierced straight through her left wing. Her cry of agony shook the earth with its volume, with pain so intense that Sunset could feel its string by proxy, running down a phantom limb that seemingly sprouted from her back. She could only gape in horror as the branch retracted, leaving Rainbow a sobbing, quivering wreck as she slumped to the ground.

Pity. We were hoping to see her killed for her arrogance. But perhaps we will leave her alive, for now. She was so eager to be to the first to die for you. So instead, she will be the last. The last to die, utterly powerless as she sees you die before her.

Gaea Everfree slithered forward, her stalk passing through Rainbow’s body as she moved beyond her, as though her form were entirely incorporeal. Yet even still, her body carried a sharp, cruel tangibility, the sharpness of her rocks and branches visible even in the grimy, suffocated light.

The abomination’s gemstones glittered softly. Acting on instinct, Sunset threw up a quick shield spell, a simple linear wall of force that blocked the space between herself and her friends. Not one second afterward, a massive tangle of razor-tipped branches and brambled vines slammed into it, and Sunset strained her magic to its limits to maintain its integrity. Behind her, she could hear the panicked cries of her friends, mixed with Fluttershy’s muted sobbing.

“I... I can’t hold it!” Sunset called out. “You’ll have to distract her!”

“Distract her!?” said Rarity. “How in the world are we supposed to do that!? Just admit it! We’re done for!”

“No, we’re not,” said Twilight. “If Sunset isn’t giving up, then I won’t either. Come on!”

Twilight raised her hands into the air, and both of them glowed with an intense purple light. On the other end of the wall, a translucent and purple set of gardening shears manifested in the air, large enough that its blades covered the entire width of the assaulting foliage. Its hinges opened with a rusted whine, and with a single, echoing snip, the brambles and branches were cleanly severed, halting their assault just before Sunset’s shield was exhausted. As the wall flickered out of existence, Gaea Everfree let out a shrieking hiss, recoiling backwards.

Purple feathers scattered as Twilight charged forward again, hovering just above the ground. Her hands glowed again, and Rainbow Dash’s body was encased in a telekinetic grasp, lifting her away and carrying her back to the others. She landed in Fluttershy’s awaiting arms, and almost immediately Fluttershy’s sobs halted. Her hands swirled with green-tinted winds, and she placed them over the gaping wound in Rainbow’s wing, the puncture slowly closing at the air’s healing touch.

Without a moment’s pause, Twilight followed her act of telekinesis with another gesture from her hands. Purple strands of light erupted from her palms, attaching themselves to the handles of the shear construct. It shifted and morphed, the two blades and twin handles coming together into a single elongated tool. The strands pulled the newly-formed construct backwards, into Twilight’s awaiting palms.

Twilight stood tall, rising into the air as she grasped her new weapon. Held straight upwards above her head was a gargantuan woodcutter’s axe, one that towered nearly five times as tall as her entire body.

“THIS IS FOR TIMBER, YOU JERK!”

Twilight’s cry was choked with a half-stifled sob. Her arms swung downwards with as much force as she could muster, and the immense axe head was sent careening towards Gaea Everfree. The abomination reached upwards with both of her arms. The blade of the axe head crashed into Gaea Everfree’s awaiting palms, sending splinters flying through the air in all directions. Yet despite the force of the impact, Gaea Everfree’s maneuver had blocked the assault just before it had struck her body. Her great, arboreal hands held the axe by its head, not showing a single sign of pain even as the blade dug into her palms.

Gaea Everfree’s grip on the axe tightened, and immediately it shattered into a million purple fragments, glittering in the air as they vanished. Twilight let out a shriek, crashing down to the ground from the sudden shock. Her body went limp as she hit the ground, her glasses flying off and soaring over the cliff’s edge.

The abomination moved to slither forward even further, but was stopped in her tracks when Applejack and Rarity both stepped forward, their hands both pulsing with magic. A set of vines erupted immediately from the ground, entangling Gaea Everfree in place. Above her, an elongated diamond coalesced into a blade-like shape, joined by three others, two forming a cross-guard and one forming a hilt. The blade swung downward with intense force, but Gaea Everfree simply raised a forearm to block the strike, and the diamonds shattered into countless tiny shards.

The gemstones on Gaea Everfree’s body glowed, and the shards of the shattered diamond reacted. Beckoned by her light, they regathered and clumped together, compressing and changing shape, until they had become a mass of jet-black obsidian daggers. The daggers swirled around her, cutting the vines into nothing. Then, with a single point of her fingers, the daggers launched forward, towards Applejack and Rarity both.

Rarity’s magic flared again, and she conjured a diamond barrier to block the assault. Her shield only lasted for a moment, as when the daggers struck, both they and the barrier immediately shattered as well. Shards of gemstones lodged themselves into both her and Applejack, and the farm girl was immediately knocked to the ground, lying bleeding and unconscious.

Despite her injuries, Rarity managed to stand up. Though her clothes were tattered and her body was covered in scars, she met the abomination’s eyes with her own intense gaze. She ran her hand over a gaping wound on her shoulder, pulling a slick glob of blood out of it. A primal, bellowing roar sounded out from deep within her lungs, and she threw the blood with as much force as her battered body could muster.

As it flew towards the abomination, a tiny cloud of glitter collided with it in the air, the two projectiles combining into a single, sparkling bullet. As it collided with Gaea Everfree, it exploded into a shower of blood and confetti, sending her reeling and staggering backwards. Sunset’s eyes drifted towards the direction that the glitter had come from, and she saw that Pinkie had somehow moved from her initial location, and was now standing off to the side, aiding her friend with her own projectiles.

As the two continued to bombard Gaea Everfree, Sunset began to notice that Rarity’s motions were growing more sluggish. With every glob of blood she hurled, her projectiles became less precise, and thrown with less force. Gradually, the unrestrained behind her eyes began to waver, and her eyelids began to droop.

“Rarity, wait!” Sunset called out. But by then, Rarity had already collapsed onto her knees, her last projectile barely making it more than a foot beyond her, plopping weakly against the ground.

“Oh dear... I think I used too much.” Her words were slurred and faint, and by the end of her sentence she was already falling backwards. She limply raised her wrist against her forehead, and keeled over, unconscious.

With Rarity incapacitated, Gaea Everfree turned to face Pinkie. The exploding bursts of glitter struck the abomination harmlessly, not even rendering a flinch against her. No longer even bothering to bare her teeth, Gaea Everfree simply frowned, an expression that would have looked like boredom on anything resembling a human. Her arm reached forward, stretching out by a seemingly impossible length, before closing her hand into a fist. It struck Pinkie atop her head with a light, hollow conk noise, and a impossibly large bump sprouted from the point of impact. Her body went rigid, shaking in a manner that resembled a flicked spring doorstop. As she finally went still, her eyes rolled back, revealing the word TILT written in large, flashing letters on their undersides. Pinkie promptly keeled over and hit the ground with impossibly loud crash, and for a moment Sunset could almost swear she heard the sound of a yowling cat.

The ridiculousness of the sight wore off quickly, however, when Sunset realized that there was no-one else left. None but Fluttershy, and judging from the terrified whimpers coming from her, she was in no position to fight. None of them were. Sunset had tried, and it had yielded nothing.

The weight of the realization was crushing. They were done for. It was just like the nightmare she had been trapped in, aware that her friends were in mortal peril, yet powerless to save them. Only this time, it was real. Ice-cold sweat dripped down her forehead, and her heart pounded so intensely that she felt it could burst out of her chest at any moment.

Gaea Everfree bared her teeth once more. There was no denying that it was a smile, filled with malice and predatory hunger. Her arm retracted to its usual length, and as she turned to face Sunset, she reached for the nearest of her unconscious friends. Sunset’s muscles seized in terror as the abomination reached down, and picked up Twilight in her massive, oaken claw.

This one... This one is special to you. But are you prepared to see her die?

“NO!”

It was a single word, and the simplest answer that she could have given, yet the power that it held was beyond anything else that she had felt since they arrived. Right away, she felt a powerful magic wash over her, and her body transformed beneath its touch. Her ears extended upwards and outwards, her tailbone shifted and extended from the base of her spine, and from the ends of her shoulder blades she could feel a pair of new appendages forming. The light consumed her entire body, and when it subsided, she could feel the heat and light coursing through her like the core of a brilliant star.

With her wings flaring outward, Sunset raised her hand. The light of her magic engulfed everything that she could see, consuming and annihilating the shadows that loomed over Gaea Everfree’s domain. The light then rushed inwards, gathering together rushing inwards towards a single point. It poured into Twilight’s body, and she began to shine with a light that rivaled the sun itself.

Gaea Everfree hissed, the heat of Twilight’s form burning against her wooden grasp, and yet it seemed she couldn’t let go of her. Twilight’s eyes snapped open, and her own wings unfurled, opening with such blazing force that Gaea Everfree’s arm was instantly burned away, disintegrating into a fine black powder.

As Twilight hovered in place, the intense aura surrounding her grew brighter, and Sunset’s own aura grew brighter in turn. Sunset could feel her own heart beating in a different rhythm than before, and within moments, she could feel another heart beating alongside her. She thrust her hands forward, channeling her magic through her palms in the same manner as any other burst of plasma, but the blast never came from her own body.

As Sunset pushed her palms forward, Twilight mimicked the motion exactly, the two moving in such perfect sync that they looked to be mirror images of one another. As Sunset pushed her magic through her palms, it instead moved beyond her and into Twilight’s body. There, Sunset could feel the symbiosis between the two, as Twilight magnified her magic into many times what it was before, like a lens that focused and amplified a beam of light. The magic erupted from Twilight’s palms, rocketing out in a massive beam of destructive force that alternated between red, gold, purple, and lavender.

Gaea Everfree let out a warped, cacophonous screech of agony. Her form pulsed and throbbed as the blast engulfed her, pushing beyond her and into the forest itself, burning a scorched, cylindrical path straight through the tangled mass of trees.

As the blazing magic consumed more and more of her body, Gaea Everfree began to shrink down, becoming smaller and more diminutive. Her shrieks of pain dulled with every passing seconds, becoming softer, less harsh, less angry and full of malice. By the end, it had become nothing more than a pitiful, sorrowful wail.

The blast of plasma faded away, and Gaea Everfree was gone. The oppressive shadows that hung over the forest had all but vanished, and even the skies had cleared, leaving the gentle afternoon sun to shine down through the clouds. As Sunset’s wings retracted into her body, she looked to see Twilight descending onto the ground. She grabbed her head, holding herself steady as she reverted to her human form.

“Uhgh... Sunset?” she said. “What just happened? Where are my glasses?”

“I’m... uh, not sure,” said Sunset. “And I think your glasses are probably destroyed now.”

“Oh,” Twilight said glumly. “Well, shoot. I’m really badly nearsighted, I’ll never be able to see where we’re going now.”

Sunset walked over and approached Twilight, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Well, what if you had an extra pair of eyes to help you out?” She motioned to the amulet around Twilight’s neck, and felt her lips curving into a smile. “You watch the amulet, I’ll watch where it’s pointing us. Sound good?”

Twilight giggled softly. “I think I’d like that, yeah.” Her lips pressed into a frown. “What about our friends, though? Are they okay?”

“Oh!” said Fluttershy. “Um... right. Hold on, I can take care of this. Just give me a second.” Laying Rainbow’s body gently on the ground, she screwed her eyes shut in concentration. Green swirls of wind formed around her hands, and with a single gesture, the wind began to engulf the bodies of all of Sunset’s prone friends. What remained of their wounds closed rapidly, and before long there was no sign left of injury on any of them at all, save for the tattered and battle-damaged clothing. When the wind died down, Fluttershy’s equine features retracted back into her body, as did those of the others.

A symphony of pained groans came from Applejack, Rainbow, Rarity, and Pinkie. Slowly, they each stood to their feet, before sharing a series of bewildered looks.

“What the heck just happened?” said Applejack.

“Ooh, I know!” said Pinkie. “Did we win? Did we beat the big bad scary nightmare elemental?”

“Um... I think so,” said Sunset. “But I couldn’t tell you how I did it. It just... happened?”

Right away, a slight twinkle appeared in Twilight’s eyes. “Oh!” she said. “Do you think maybe that was your awakening?”

Sunset placed an arm behind her head. “I... I don’t think so, no. That magic, it just... It didn’t feel new, it just felt like kind of an extension of magic that I already had. It felt... empathetic, like my geode, but also like the blasts of magic I normally use as a planeswalker. So I don’t think that was my awakening, really.”

“Well, not to worry about it, dear. I’m sure you’ll find your awaking soon,” said Rarity. “Ooh, I wonder what your new power will be? Perhaps a new transformation? I wonder if you’ll have a new outfit to go along with it?”

“Yeah!” said Rainbow. “Maybe you’ll become a Super Sunset! Or, like... a Super Sunset God!”

“Or a Super Sunset God Super Sunset!” said Pinkie.

Sunset rolled her eyes. “I’m not becoming a god, that’s ridiculous.”

“Not to mention you have to be almost killed by a Phyrexian for an awakening to happen, iffin’ Ah recall correctly,” Applejack chimed in. “Not to speak for anyone else, but Ah’m pretty sure none of us was really asking for a near-death experience.”

“Yeah, I don’t plan on getting close to dying anytime soon,” said Sunset. “Still, I’m glad we made it out of that. For a minute there I really thought—”

Almost immediately, Sunset was cut off. The cliff beneath her rumbled violently, the intense tremors shaking Sunset to the very core of her bone marrow.

Sunset groaned. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me.”

The cliff beneath her gave way, sending Sunset and her friends screaming as they tumbled deep into the abyss.

————————

Collapse the Cliffs 2RRR

Sorcery

Destroy target land. Collapse the Cliffs deals 2 damage to each creature without flying and each planeswalker.

Some stories end in cliffhangers. Others end without any cliffs left to hang from.

Comments

[tererdrone]

hahahaha nice

[FanOfMostEverything]

“Yeah!” said Rainbow. “Maybe you’ll become a Super Sunset! Or, like... a Super Sunset God!”

“Or a Super Sunset God Super Sunset!” said Pinkie.

"Or, like, Ultra Horse Instinct!"
"What did I say about them foreign-language cartoons?"

Nicely tense fight scene, with a climax right out of Super Lesbian Horse RPG. (Yes, that's a thing.) As for the cliffhanger (cliff-faller?) it's a shame pony Twilight isn't available. She could see if she could counter gravity.

[Thought Prism]

Honestly, I was very disappointed by this fight scene. Based on how basically none of their spells were affecting Gaea, I had begun to theorize that, as an elemental, she was continuously drawing strength from the forest itself. Then Sunset would realize this and, using her newfound knowledge of how magic worked, dip into the enchantment destruction portion of white and sever the connection, causing Gaea to drop like a sack of potatoes. This would have done a nice job of showcasing her intelligence. You know, because she's supposed to be Celestia's former student, and a fairly smart person. Instead, we just got more friendship lasers. Sigh.

[Zennistrad]

8825722

I'd actually intended Sunset channeling her magic through Twilight to mechanically represent her giving Twilight deathtouch, which would bypass Gaea Everfree's usual inability to be hurt by spells.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a way to write "Twilight punches the invulnerable nature elemental and it dies" without it being anticlimactic in some sense, so I had to take a few liberties here.

[Amusementist]

8825753
Well done Zen! This story, this whole combo of stories is awesome! Also, what MtG deck to you run. I haven’t played in a while, but I still remember my modded white and blue deck.

[Mare Luna]

Man, Sunset sure likes her Lightning Helix. At least, that's what I think her plasma bursts are.

[Zennistrad]

8827793

Yup! That's more or less intended to be her signature spell.

[hawthornbunny]

I just saw this art that immediately made me think of the latest chapter: https://derpibooru.org/1694016

[Teraunce]

That was a terrible cliffhanger to leave on, especially since there's no cliff to hang on to.