Chapter 18: Princess
Ranger
Chapter 18: Princess
By Wanderer D
"...IIIT! Oof!" Sunset landed with thud on a cold, marble-like surface and slid on it until she smashed against a wall. "Oooh… crap." She coughed, taking a deep, ragged breath.
A door opened, and clattering sounds around her prompted her into action. She could barely see what was happening, as the place was shrouded in darkness, but two quadrupeds—as big as herself—were rushing her position, light shining from them.
As confused as she was, she wasn't going to become a chryssalid egg-sack. Her magic flared, and her sword sliced through the first one, dropping it gasping on the floor, and splattering with warm blood as she levitated her shotgun and tackled the second one, which only managed to squeak a weak "stop" before she had shoved the muzzle of her gun into its mouth.
Wait.
Magic? Talking Chryssalid?
"Shut the hell up! If I hear a whimper, I'm blowing your brains out!" she hissed, and felt the figure under her nod fearfully.
With a growing sense of dread, she used her magic to close the door and summoned an orb of light. Simple things to do… if one had a horn.
She was a pony again. She was in a room she didn't recognize, made of thick, purple-blue quartz. Behind her, and to her right side was a pony guard, laying on his side, wheezing as blood oozed out of a gaping wound on his chest. His armor had done nothing to protect it from her sword, which was designed to slice through thick alien armor.
He was gasping, eyes wide, looking at her, but unable to really see her.
"Shit!" Sunset hissed, panic starting to seep into her. The last few minutes of her mission rushed back to her head. Jane's shout. The explosion that sent her crashing through the statue's base… She looked down at the frozen guard under her, who was only glancing from her to his dying companion and back to her in an almost desperate haze.
"Crap. Crap!" Sunset swore under her breath. She had to get back. She couldn't abandon her team... She looked down briefly at herself, confirming she was a pony once again too. Her XCOM armor had adapted to her pony body-no doubt a side effect of the mirror's magic, and now that she was in her original body it felt a little awkward and alien.
But that wasn't her main concern. The magic flowed around her and through her. She felt her long starved reserves overflowing with it. If she could only access this type of power while on Earth! The aliens would stand no chance.
A gasp behind her made her remember where she was and that her time was limited. "I'm going to make sure you don't move, and I'm going to heal your friend," she said to the guard, whose eyes widened with hope.
"Oh, don't get your hopes up, handsome," Sunset smirked, levitating her sword to cut a thin line on the guard's cheek, making it bleed. "I haven't made up my mind yet about what's happening to you both. It depends on what you can tell me."
Blood magic flowed much more easily here in Equestria, and through that tiny wound, the guard was completely paralyzed. He couldn't even close his eyes. 'If I could have done this! How many lives would I have saved?'
Sliding her shotgun's muzzle out of the guard's muzzle, she attached it to its magnetic harness and turned around, grimacing at the state of the other guard. It was lucky that the blade was so sharp, in a way, there were no jagged incisions… he had basically been split clean in half.
She approached the guard, his eyes focusing on her. "I did a poor job of it too, with the damage not killing you instantly," she said calmly, as her mind raced through what she needed to do. "A cut like that would not have brought down a chryssalid. You're lucky that I was so confused… or maybe not, if I had known what was happening, I could have taken you both down without blood splatter."
Her magic weaved out. The blood stopped pooling, and slowly, very slowly started flowing back into the body of the guard.
"Even though I did cut you open, I didn't pierce anything important… or well, anything that would kill you immediately. You won't be able to do much for about a month or so… in fact, I highly recommend you get checked by a medical professional as soon as possible… but that will have to be later." She smiled. "But don't worry, I'll make sure you're not going to die. I might be wanted here for treason… maybe. But I don't want to seal my fate in Equestria by adding murder to that."
Her magic was making her confident. She could tell. Having to ration it back in the human world, and limiting her spells was tremendously frustrating. The spell that she was using on the guard right now was what had barely saved her own life when the Assassin had ran her through.
What had only put her in a stasis that allowed the Templars to help regenerate her body over the course of several days, was now filtering the blood for any contaminants, closing the wounds and healing the cuts as it basically regressed through time with cellular regeneration. The guard would be okay—if in serious pain—within a few more seconds.
And she could do this again. And again. No two-week waiting period. She felt her energy revitalized immediately. It took a lot of willpower to not start cackling in glee. But thankfully she had things to concentrate on, and as soon as the guard was not bleeding internally, she used another spell she had learned, but had been unable to use, and he slumped down, unconscious.
Casting a simpler, regular spell she had used when younger to dim out sounds so she could study in peace, followed by another to prevent light from escaping the room—the use for that one had been to not get a talking-to from castle staff when she was up doing things instead of sleeping—she turned around to face the frozen guard, but stopped when she noticed her reflection on the mirror.
She slowly approached, taking in a face she hadn't seen in years… a face covered in orange and green blood from aliens, and now red blood from the guardspony she had almost accidentally killed. If not for that, she looked kinda cute in her XCOM predator armor. Her grappling hook hung a bit low now, so she slid it up a little, so when it shot it wouldn't cause any issues with angle.
She took a deep breath and extended her magical senses. She wouldn't be able to see who was where, but at least—power. Such strong magical power! And it was not a pony! Although… there was somepony near it. An item? More than one, actually… there was one, far below, but another was in the same level of the castle as she was.
Her team was on the other side of the mirror, either fighting, dead or worse, captured. She couldn't just save them as she was. She needed more power. More magical strength to take down the likes of the Chosen or the Alien Rulers… and whatever else the Aliens could send to Earth.
She hesitated, taking a step towards the mirror again. The urgency of her team's fate called her but… but… the power in this place, wherever she was… was beyond anything she had felt. Finally she shook her head, turning around and approaching the guard, who only now seemed to truly understand that she was drenched in something other than paint.
"Now, handsome, you're going to tell me everything I want to know."
He had been silenced again by her spell, and she had taken his baton, frowning at the blunt weapon.
When she had noticed the look the guard was giving her, she smirked. "Well… better broken bones than using my sword, right?"
The guard's eyes—the only part of him that could move, given that she didn't want him to suffer through complete paralysis of the eyes—had widened slightly.
"Now, don't tell anyone I'm here, okay?" she said with a sweet smile, before turning and leaving the room.
Sneaking around the castle at night proved to be of little challenge.
Just like Galahad had told her so many years ago, ponies were too confident in the lack of danger. To the point of stupidity, even, given what the guard had told her.
She wasn't in Canterlot, that much had been obvious, but the Crystal Empire? Just released from Sombra's control and hosting not one, but four princesses… and there were only two active patrols?
Sunset shook her head, watching in the shadows as the guard she had heard coming from down the hall passed under her, not even bothering to look up at the edges above, which she used to silently bypass every other random guard so far. Two patrols, four guards.
And none of them looked up. None.
It was almost offensive.
It was downright embarrassing. Where had they gotten these guys? Even the pegasus guards never looked up.
What if the Gryphon Empire sent assassins to take out one of the princesses? Or all? They flew! The ponies knew they flew! Sunset stopped and took a deep breath, angrily shaking her head and resisting the urge to jump down and shake the guard.
These idiots could get Celestia killed!
She managed, however, after several deep breaths and—reluctantly—using Cadance's leg-stretch stress-release technique, to calm down enough. Her bloodvision could only detect a few sleeping ponies below her, and in one room, her senses told her the magical item she needed was located. After making sure there was no one else around, and that all the heartbeats in the rooms were steady and calm, she made her way down.
At one point, Sunset had given up on the idea of an invading army coming to Equestria. She wasn't sure when that had happened. The appeal of leadership had always been about showing the princess she was more than capable of being one herself.... maybe it had been Bradford, who had taught her what a leader was… or maybe it had been her own struggle to raise through the ranks.
Regardless, her dreams of showing up Celestia had faded, even if her motivation and desire to lead hadn't lessened. But now… looking at this… she could take over the nation with a small strike team, and Equestria was not remotely prepared for what a single XCOM soldier could do, much less Sunset's team.
Granted, other unicorns could be a problem… but few of them would have what it took to really take her team down. You didn't really stop an XCOM operative unless you killed them. And even then, they might take you with them.
Sunset shook her head. Her thoughts were turning decidedly dark, and she needed to concentrate. She carefully opened the door and peeked in.
A purple baby dragon slept in a little bed on the side of the stand where her objective sat, to all appearances a regular crown with an amethyst like star design. But she could sense the power emanating from it… and from the pony sleeping blissfully next to it.
Sunset paused, looking over the sleeping princess. 'I should hate you for taking what was supposed to be mine,' she thought, contemplative, as she used a hoof to lightly brush the pony's mane from her face. She slept peacefully and unworried. And for the life of her, Sunset couldn't bring herself to be angry at her.
When was the last time she had slept so peacefully?
Shaking her head again, she levitated the crown and slid it into one of her pockets. It fit uncomfortably, due to the shape, but it would stay inside. She felt a pang of guilt as she turned around and started walking carefully out, her thoughts turning to the disappointment Celestia and… Princess Twilight would feel the next morning, for different reasons.
But she wasn't doing it to be mean. She wasn't bitter about… not being the one sleeping comfortably in the bed. She hesitated. Did she really want to do this?
It was then that she stumbled on the tail of the little dragon, which had slid out of his bed. Sunset didn't fall, managing to keep herself upright, but she did have to canter a little, her hooves striking the crystal floor harder than she intended.
"Huh? What was that?!"
Sunset cursed under her breath.
"Wait! Who are you? Is-is that my crown! She's got my crown!"
Sunset didn't stop to reason with her, taking off out of the room as fast as she could go… which was pretty fast.
"Stop!" the princess shouted. "Thief!"
She heard several doors open behind her and soon a bunch of ponies were on her tracks, but Sunset was confident they would never stop her.
It was then that the air in front of her shimmered with gathering magic and in a flash of light, princess Twilight teleported right in front of her. "Oh yeah… I forgot about that," Sunset muttered, her horn lighting up and teleporting just past the princess with a laugh. It felt good to have magic again.
"Stop!"
Just as Sunset turned around a corner, a guard at the end of the hall she had stepped into noticed the chase, then grimly charged her, trying to stop her.
Well. This one here wasn't a civilian.
Narrowing her eyes, Sunset accelerated, and just as they were about to crash, the baton she had borrowed from the other guard smacked viciously against the knees of the guard in front, eliciting a cry of pain. She jumped over the collapsing guard, kicking back viciously with her hooves and smashing his face onto the floor. "Sorry soldier, but at least you'll be up and about in a week!" she called back.
She heard the gasps of horror from the mares behind her, and for the moment they all had seemed to stop following her. Probably in shock at what happened to the guard.
Civilians. Peh.
Sunset ran around another corner and smirked when her objective was straight in sight. She burst into the room, closing the doors behind her before she realized she was not alone.
"Halt, blood witch!" a dark blue alicorn, who could only be Princess Luna called, standing angrily in the middle of the room among guards and other alicorns. To her left, Cadance stood, her eyes widening in recognition, and to her right…
"Sunset Shimmer?"
Sunset looked up at the princess, her heart a turmoil of emotions, ranging from shame to frustration to relief to defensiveness.
Sunset's spell secured the door behind her, locking her in with three alicorns and six guards, including the two she had taken out earlier, who were off to the side, in good health, but not participating.
Sunset shut her eyes and took a slow breath and cracked her neck from side to side, before slowly opening her eyes again. On Earth, she would have been taken down in that pause. Here… not so much.
"Princess," she said neutrally, bowing slightly. "I'm glad to see you in good health."
"Sunset…" Celestia hesitated in taking a step forth, deciding to remain in place... and that… that hurt more than Sunset would have expected. "I-I thought you had left forever. I was wondering how you were doing."
Behind the three alicorns, the mirror shimmered with magic… and the urgency behind her theft.
"Princess.. I-I read your last messages... just two days ago."
Celestia looked down. "Oh."
"I'm sorry." Sunset said. "I was stupid, and… and petty."
"Sister," Luna's voice was cautious, but still somewhat angry. "You know this blood witch?"
"She's Sunset Shimmer," Cadance said. "My former roommate, Celestia's old apprentice… but what happened to you, Sunset? You're covered in blood… and that armor..."
Sunset looked down, her nametag catching her eye, reminding her of what she needed to do. "I have to go." She looked up at the three princesses and four fight-ready guards. "Please don't make me hurt you and just let me through. People's lives depend on me."
Even though she seemed shocked by Sunset's words, there was a glint of something in Celestia's eyes. A warmth. "I'm afraid you can't leave with the Element of Magic in your possession," she said, shaking her head. "As much as I would like you to stay and… mend old relations, that does not belong to you."
"I'm sorry, Princess, but that's impossible," Sunset remarked, assuming a fighting stance just as she heard the banging outside the room. "I need an edge. The stakes are much higher than you or anyone here can possibly understand. Either let me through… or prepare to fight."
Celestia's eyes were pained. "I see you have my cutie mark on your shoulder guard. Before we… before we battle, could you tell me why?"
Sunset didn't take her eyes off of them this time. "To remind myself to never betray those who trust me again. And were there another way, I wouldn't do this."
"There's always another way, Sunset," Celestia whispered, eyes silently pleading.
"Enough chatter!" Luna growled. "Have at thee, blood witch!" Her blast scorched the place where Sunset had been a second ago, but she had jumped to the side, getting a guard between the princesses and herself.
The guard was of no consequence, clearly only having battle experience in training alone, but it was Luna she needed to deal with. She wouldn't be able to take down all three princesses, so all she could do was… she grinned. She'd never get away with it without technology, of course, but…
Sunset flashed, disappearing for a moment.
"Fool!" Luna roared, turning around to face the place that Sunset reappered in across from where everypony was, leaving her a straight line at her. "I know where you will appear!"
"I know!" Sunset said, her grappling hook shooting out of her hoof and catching Luna by surprise. "But you're not fighting one of your useless guards!"
Luna was dragged towards Sunset in an uncontrolled rush, straight into a baton swing. The baton broke with a crack upon impacting against the alicorn's face, but Luna had been stunned sufficiently enough for Sunset to telekinetically pick her up and throw her on top of Cadance and the guards.
The Princess sailed through the air just as the guards were starting to mobilize and Cadance was preparing a spell, resulting in a mass of bodies collapsing as they tried to catch Luna. Sunset smirked. 'How many times have I wished I could do that to ADVENT troops!'
Celestia was conflicted, looking from the mass of struggling bodies to Sunset, unwilling to commit to an attack, and so, Sunset used the surprise of her attack to rush the mirror. "I'm sorry! I'll bring it back!" she shouted, taking a running leap into the mirror, just as something appeared in front of her in a purple blast of magic.
Sunset crashed into it, hearing an 'oof' before she and the soft thing that had appeared on the way rolled into the mirror.
o.0.o End Chapter 18 o.0.o
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wow. really?
FUCK!!!
Welcome to War, Twilight Sparkle.
8759034
Really...
...Apparently
She her long starved reserves overflowing with it
1. Ugh... She her? What?
killing a hapless guard, stealing a artifact that won't correctly work without the rest of the artifacts and setting up a scenario where its possible that her homeland will be at risk of being discovered by the ethereals...
Say what you will but Sunset doesn't screw up in half measures.
8759083 Fixed! Thanks!
8759086 Thankfully she didn't kill anypony... but, they'll be out of commission for a while.
8759086
To be fair, she didn't exactly CHOOSE to go back, she doesn't know what the artifact is, just that it's incredibly powerful, and she didn't kill the guard, she almost killed him!
Oh dear.
I thought the return to Equestria wouldn't be like in the movie, but it quite went pretty along it, although in a more violent manner. The only good part is she done it to help others.
Anyway she better kick back Twilight back to Equestria. In no case she should stay on Earth. Bah who am I kidding she's going to tag along like it or not.
Mistakes found:
*space missing*
She has/had her long starved
what
8759153 Fixed, thank you!
So...EQG happening in Xcom 2. This is happening isn’t it? Oh shit. I wonder how long Twi will last against advent? Maybe she’ll get some snek hugs as well?
In before its spike instead of twilight.
8759119
True and its certainly a different turn of events though after what just happened if twilight is sent after the element I'd be deeply surprised if she's alone without any sort of protection given whats happened.
Something says Twilight won't be back in 3 days. When she does she will be a whole new pony.
Welp... Here's hoping Twilight doesn't reveal the whole "from another dimension" thing.
8759248
That might be out of the bag anyway or at least something abnormal happened if Sunset was observed disappearing and if she repears with twilight's crown and plus who ever just got knocked into the portal with her during her escape the princesses gambit...
Which now that I think about it I wonder if that was twilight teleporting into the room only to get knocked into the portal by sunset during her escape.
8759226
Huh. That actually is a pretty big thing to consider.
Now I'm not sure which situation I'd like more.
Love every chapter I read from this story.
*disappointed sigh*
I was hoping all of Menace ended up sailing and Going Through the Looking-Glass.
Well now you have to bring in Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, & Sci-Twi to have the full set.
Looks like Princess Twilight and Sunset Shimmer are going to meet in a whole new way
8759226
8759349
It might have been Twilight and Spike, but it couldn't have been only Spike because Sunset locked the door behind her when she was confronted by the three princesses. The only way someone would've been able to get between her and the portal would be if they teleported in front of her and Spike can't do that.
8759153
i'd imagine that would be very difficult if she goes back and there is still a fight going on
8759492
It probably turned into a vip evac mision.
Chapter not named 'Found'
i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/mobile/000/000/199/1exploitableiamdisappoi.jpg
well that esculated fast
Wow, I'm excited.
Twilight's going for a ride.
8759822
On a magic..... Suit of armor.....
Sounded better in my head.
At least it wasn't a carpet.
Otherwise we might get this song stuck in our heads
Bad Sunset! Bad pony! No stealing magical artifacts!
And now Twi is in the middle of alien occupies earth. This will get interesting. Wonder how she will handle it as compared to Stardust’s version?
Princess Twilight I not ready for true war. Blood, suffering and death. Alien Invaders bound oh domination through any means. It will nearly break her, and certainly will make her think trice before committing any pony to such hell.
Sunset's demon form would probably be insanely op, though.
More excited what will be next.
How does Sunset know Twilight's name?
Oh hohoho. Without magic, poor Twilight wouldn't last a week in the XCOM universe.
Hehe, Twilight's going to be so happy to return to Equestria...
But first, dealing with the fact that her special talent and element will be super diminished!
The Commander will definitely want to know of this...
Keep going! ;)
If Sunset goes through the portal covered in magic pony blood, will it turn into human blood? Then again, it was stated she had alien blood on her in Equestria, so it probably would stay as pony blood. XCOM might find that very useful.
This is going to be a very different experience for (probably) Twilight.
8759822
Bowchikawowwow (finally caved, I just couldn't resist.)
8760265
There is no resisting one's true nature. Look deep within yourself, you know it to be true.
Well... that was a thing.
The chapter was well written to be sure, but I have a bit of a hard time connecting Sunset's attitude in this chapter with what came before. She seemed to delight in injuring the guards she can across and enjoy the shock and horror her actions elicited in noncombatants. It really feels like she is a totally different character than the Sunset we had seen in the last few chapters. I suppose that could very easily be me applying what I know of Sunset from the movies here, or it could be the stress of the situation getting to her, or I could have been getting the wrong vibe from her up until now, but really she actually feels more evil than she ever did in the earlier chapters, given her willingness to 'question' the guard. I really hope that wasn't supposed to be read the way I took it honestly.
... I also want to comment on her just rolling through a room full of alicorns, but given what they have been diminished to in the show and movies that actually seems about right on second thought.
Edit:
8760219
That bugged me too, but I guess she learned it from the guard she questioned.
Aha! Rarity finally learnt to teleport!
Or it might have been Princess Twilight she crashed into.
ohhh this is getting sooo good. i mean it was already good, but now its getting that much more intense
Major step back there for Sinner... Err... Shimmer. Casual disdain and even contempt, indifference to committing violent acts... yeah, we're back to what she was in EQG. This thug thinks she's leadership material? Only reason I'm sticking with this after a complete disconnect with the protagonist is two-fold: trust in the author and Dash's line awhile back about 'the ones we're supposed to protect'. But yeah... these last couple chapters...
And btw... I've seen Griffonstone. If I lived in that particular glass house I don't think I'd throw any stones, no matter how unprepared Equestria might be for them.
As to ponies not making it on xcom Earth... neither did most humans, so what's your point?
Great job, not really feeling any of the supposed disconnect in this chapter. It's pretty understandable that people who could die at any moment aren't particularly bothered by the survivable type of harm. Soldiers do disdain civilians for a multitude of reasons
8760352 8760593 Well, there's a few things: one, Sunset just returned to a world of magic, when she's been completely starved of it, she knows it's getting to her head. Second, she's facing life-or-death situations constantly, the guards are military and enemies, so she feels less sympathy for them than she would for say, Rarity or Pinkie Pike, who she considers civilians. And finally, she's stressed the hay out because of what's happening to her team and how to help them.
So she's riding a rush and acting impulsively, but, she's not a thug or evil... she's just not really thinking things through as a normal person (pony) would.
Also, remember that this Sunset hasn't been blasted by friendship juice either, so her humility is slowly learned as she goes. However she has changed and her priorities showed that, which is why Celly didn't take part in the fight.
(Also, re: Griffinstone, to me that's one of the things they did that I honestly choose not to accept. It was poor World Building at best, and an excuse for a map-quest to happen there.)
8760720
...I swear there was less of this comment when I read it at work. I wasn't going to respond to this again here, out of respect for your opinion on the matter, but the Griffonstone thing...
...I dunno. Warrior cultures tend to fall apart because they don't really have the balance to sustain themselves over time. They have to keep conquering, and if they can't they turn on themselves. We see in Griffonstone the aftermath of that having happened. Is it permanent? Nah, no more so than the Great Depression was, but it can and does happen. I read a really good comment about it once, but I don't recall and I'm no anthropologist. But if you really need Griffons to be Equestria's Klingons (who also make no freaking sense) or something... I guess... go for it?
Well, I certainly can't deny I enjoy the way WandererD manages the charactetization of his main ("mane"? :-)) [anti]heroes. They are slightly insane and borderline sociopathic, and tend to follow gray-at-best wartime morale code. Yet, let's say, Sweetie in her chronicles or Sunset here are never inhuman, alien and monstrous enough to be repulsive. They are sympathetic and (I'll use the next term very carefully "because magic ponies") realistic characters. It is not easy to create and develop a character who hacks innocents with an overgrown machete and still is good enough person for readers to believe, empathise and identify themselves with.
That's mighty impressive, yahear!
8760720
It's not so much that she injured the guards, that much I can understand. It's that she seems to enjoy it. That doesn't really connect with the Sunset we've seen in the past few chapters, who has actually learned empathy. Her motivation for stealing the element fits with who this Sunset has grown into. She's a desperate girl on a desperate world and she needs all the edges she can get. But the whole smirking and joking as she injures guards? Less enjoyment and more reluctance would seem more appropriate here.
8760852
In before she's joking to distract herself from where she is.
Well now. This is going to take things in a very different direction than what I expected. Not least because Sunset probably missed her evac. Eagerly looking forward to the next installment; a lot rides on what will happen in the next few days.
8759233
And the Tree of Harmony will be dead. Hopefully they'll deal with this in a more compact timeframe.
8759233
8761089
That'd be the least of their concerns. The mirror won't open until the next 30 moons, and with a moon cycle lasting just over 27 days, that means Twilight will be out of Equestrian action for at least 2 years. In that span of time Equestria has, even at the lowest estimations counting Hearth's Warming episodes, seen:
Even if Equestria somehow weathers those barrages of threats without Twilight, at earliest she'll be back just in time for Chrysaliss's second grand scheme of conquering Equestria. Without Thorax or Starlight.
If Twilight doesn't get her crown and purple flank shoved back through that portal pronto, Equestria's going to be in deep trouble.
8761227
The problem (and common mistake) with what you posted is that you're assuming Equestria has the same cycles for the moon to base the timeframe for it. From what we've seen of the show in tandem with the movies it's actually a lot shorter than that.