Patrol
"Hey."
The pink-haired human turned to see a red-haired Awoken hunter in a Dead Orbit cloak.
"You're the animal girl, right?" the Awoken said, holding up her left arm and the rather round bird perched on it. "What can you tell me about this guy?"
"Oh, um," the human said, shyly brushing her hair out of her face. "That's a kookaburra," she said softly.
The Awoken blinked. "Why."
"I... um, I'm sorry?" It didn't seem possible for the human's voice to get any quieter.
The Awoken glared. "Why. Is there. A kookaburra on my arm."
The kookaburra cawed twice.
The human giggled. "He likes you."
The Awoken turned to look at the bird.
The bird continued to stare adoringly at the Awoken.
The human cleared her throat and spoke a little louder. "It's not unheard of for hunters like us to find bird companions out in the field. If a bird finds someone they like..." She shrugged and smiled. "Congratulations."
The kookaburra cawed again, and the human blushed.
"Fine," the awoken said. "There's some splicers in the Plaguelands I need to take care of anyway. See you at the bottom of the mountain." She sent the bird away and stalked off toward the vault kiosks.
The human stayed by the Felwinter Peak bonfire warming herself. A human warlock with red-and-gold striped hair walked up beside her.
"Ever the animal expert, Fluttershy?" she said.
Fluttershy blinked. "He's got a crush on her."
"Wait, you understoo--"
"He called her 'Brilliant Mistress of the Sniper.'" She turned to the other human. "Sunset, I haven't understood an animal since..."
Sunset nodded. "Since before." She clapped Fluttershy on the back. "Well, just so long as Rainbow doesn't start flying on her own, we should be okay."
Fluttershy hummed in agreement before resting her head where Sunset's shoulder met her neck. "I missed you," she muttered.
Sunset snuck her arm around her and pulled her closer. "I missed you too," she whispered into the top of her head.
"Liar. You didn't even remember me."
Sunset could hear Fluttershy's smile. It was a joke. And yet, "No, but I still missed you. I wasn't the same without you, without my friends."
Fluttershy pulled back and looked Sunset in the eye. "Sap."
"Killjoy."
"Ahem."
Sunset didn't move. "Applejack," she said, "I love you like a sister. So as your sister, I have no qualms saying that I didn't know you could clear your throat in a Southern accent until I met you."
Applejack planted herself next to Sunset, giving her a friendly shove in the process. "And I will take that compliment with all the 'sisterly intent' y'all intended."
The three stood in front of the fire in companionable silence.
"Well," Applejack said after a while, "guess we should get moving. See y'all on Venus?"
“This feels like the setup to a bad joke,” Applejack muttered.
Fluttershy giggled. “A titan, a hunter, and a warlock walked into an Ether cave.”
Sunset smiled. “What’s the word, Ray?” she said to her ghost as they entered the cave system.
Ray materialized. “You’ve got two encoded messages from the Tower. One from the Vanguard, and the other from Guardian Rainbow.”
Sunset groaned. “Go ahead and play it.”
Ray glanced at Applejack and Fluttershy. Sunset nodded.
“Guardian Sunset Shimmer,” Ikora’s voice said on the recording. “I’m pleased to see these new evaluations, but I do notice that you haven’t submitted the telemetry data from your performance of Fireborn as I have asked you to. If you could remember to gather that data and pass it along the next time you’re in the Tower, I’d appreciate it.”
Sunset did her level best to ignore the pit of dread that was forming in her stomach.
“She’s still riding you about that?” Applejack said.
“She’s a scholar,” Sunset said with a sigh. “We’re kind of the embodiment of ‘pics or it didn’t happen.’”
“Still,” Fluttershy said, “you’d think the reports from other Guardians would mean something to her.”
Sunset shook her head. “It’s not that simple. Warlocks... With how much we dive into the divide between the light and the dark, the deep knowledge we chase, she’s got to keep a tight eye on us.” She glanced at Applejack. “A titan getting cagey and distant probably means they’re depressed. Maybe some PTSD. Those aren’t good things, but they’re ultimately personal problems. Whereas a Warlock distancing themselves could mean they’re crafting a Weapon of Sorrow or something.”
Applejack and Fluttershy shared a glance, despite the helmets in the way. “Yeah, I don’t buy that,” Applejack said.
“I didn’t say I liked it,” Sunset said, a little heated. “But I can’t blame Ikora for being a little suspicious.”
“Bullshit.”
Both Sunset and Applejack stopped short and turned toward Fluttershy.
“If Ikora only had her own perceptions to go on, that’d be one thing,” Fluttershy said. “But when multiple respected Guardians all vouch for you? She owes you the benefit of the doubt.” She shook her head. “This isn’t Canterlot High, Sunset. You weren’t a she-demon, you were just stubborn. And if Ikora keeps looking for trouble like this, she’s more likely to make it than find it.”
The three Guardians stared at each other for a moment before Fluttershy gasped and covered her mouth.
“Thanks, Flutters,” Sunset said, preempting any apology. “Needed that.”
Fluttershy nodded, still not taking her hands away from her mouth.
“Ray,” Sunset said after they had walked a little further, “still got the message from RD?”
“Right, here,” Ray said.
“Hey, girls!” Rainbow’s voice said. “So after Rarity and I paid way too big of a bribe to Master Ives, it turns out there was a lot of info in the data dump we got from the Splicers. But for it to make sense, we’ve got to cross-reference it with some other known Fallen data. Specifics encrypted for your ghosts.”
The three ghosts twitched as they processed the data.
“So that’s why we’re in these caves,” Applejack muttered. “Guess we’re supposed to get the old House Winter data?”
“Looks like it,” Fluttershy said. “I’ll take overwatch.”
The caves were just as empty as they normally were. A few Fallen patrols were easily taken out, especially with Fluttershy providing sniper cover.
The three guardians made their way to the open area that housed the old House Winter skiff. There were three squads of Fallen, each with a captain, openly fighting with a group of Taken that had materialized in.
“Wonderful,” Sunset spat.
Applejack stared at the melee for a moment. “Winona,” she said to her Ghost, “get the boots.”
Winona spun in place for a moment before materializing a very distinctive pair of boots onto Applejack.
Sunset gaped. “Are those the Peregrine Greaves?”
“Sure are,” Applejack said. “I’ll stun the captains; Shy, you follow up?”
Fluttershy nodded and reloaded her sniper rifle.
“I’ll handle the Taken?” Sunset asked.
Applejack nodded. “See if you can thin out the Psions a bit.”
With a nod, the three of them got into position.
"Hey, ugly!" Sunset yelled, showing herself.
The closest group of Fallen turned to look at Sunset.
Sunset took aim and shot a nearby Taken thrall. "Up for a deal? I help you take care of the Taken, you let me get something from your skiff?"
The closest Fallen roared and shot Sunset in the shoulder.
"Shields at 30%," Ray whispered to her.
Sunset shrugged dramatically. "Have it your way. After all, I'm just the distraction."
With a yell Applejack crashed into the captain. It staggered stood back up, and promptly fell to a sniper bullet from Fluttershy.
The battle was quick, a little dirty, but ultimately successful for the guardians. Mostly.
Sunset looked up at Applejack and Fluttershy. "Ta-da, I'm a pony," she halfheartedly cheered.
Applejack took off her helmet and tried very hard not to openly grin. "Stars above," she muttered, "were we really that cute?"
"Undeniably," Fluttershy said. "I'll start on the computer." She started running up the gangplank to the skiff.
"Sunset," Applejack said, stopping the two of them short. "I need you to be honest with me.
Sunset turned to Applejack and frowned. "What's wrong?"
Applejack crouched down to look Sunset in the eyes. "Can we go home?"
Sunset opened her mouth to deny it, but stopped. "Do you want the short answer or the long answer?"
"Long answer. Be honest."
Sunset closed her eyes and sat.
"Twilight destroyed the link from this universe back to our Equestria. I'm not sure how many Equestrias there are, but when we were looking through parallel universes back at the beginning, there were at least one-and-a-quarter million, and that's only counting the minor variations where one pony might have a different mane color but everything else is largely the same. So we would have to find ourEquestria—the Equestria that had a link to the Golden Age of Humanity—out of those. 1 in 1,250,000.
"To find that, we have to find the pony Equestrias inside of that cluster of universes. We're talking about the other Equestrias that aren't made of ponies; Canterlot High, for example. We were deliberately aiming "out" of that when we were exploring since we wanted to go someplace new. But that's another twenty-two million universes. We're up to 1 in 23,250,000.
"But that's even assuming we know which way to aim. And I use the term "aim" loosely; there's a lot of extra-dimensional math going on that, honestly, we just used computers for. And we don't know how many clusters of universes there are; for all we know, the multiverse is infinite and expanding. We could be talking billions of clusters, each with hundreds of millions of universes. Or we could be talking, like, twelve."
Sunset took a shaky breath, not willing herself to open her eyes. "But all of that searching, all that effort to find a way home, none of it matters as long as the Darkness is here."
Applejack swore and stormed away.
Sunset's eyes shot open. "Applej—"
"You're right!" Applejack rounded on Sunset. "Damn it, Sunset Shimmer, I know you're right."
"I don't want to be."
Applejack fumed for a few seconds, then turned, ran away and, with a gutteral yell, Smashed the ground. Arc energy threw loose stones and dirt away from her, leaving her on her hands and knees in the middle of a small crater, sobbing.
Sunset ran up to her and laid down next to her, touching her hoof to Applejack's hand.
"You don't need to remind me," Applejack choked out eventually. "I know we can't lead the Darkness back to Equestria. I know that's why y'all did it."
"That doesn't make it any easier to accept."
They sat in companionable silence for a moment.
"I don't know what you're going through," Sunset said after a while. "I had friends, but, honestly, a lot of them are here." She bumped Applejack as she said it. "But I know how much you care about your family."
"Family is everything," Applejack recited. With a deep breath, she pulled herself up. "Which is why we need to take care of things here."
Sunset watched her go. Ray materialized and looked at her. "She still thinks she can get back?"
Sunset shrugged. "Crazier things have happened," she said. "And maybe it's better for her that she hangs on to that."
"But not you?"
Sunset shook her head. "Not me. One job at a time."
“Sunset, can I have a word?” Rarity said. “Warlock-to-warlock?”
Sunset nodded, and they found a corner of the warehouse the group had found. It wasn’t free, but given the amount of glimmer the six former Equestrians had between them, a out-of-the way building in the city wasn’t hard to come by.
Rarity motioned to her ghost, Opal, who projected a set of runes onto the ground.
“I’ve been studying Hive magic,” she began. “Well, talking with Eris that is.” Sunset nodded, and Rarity continued. “Mostly I’ve been looking for patterns and structures that can map back to Equestrian magic.”
Sunset nodded. “I’ve been doing the same; it’s amazing how much overlap there is.”
“One thing I’ve noticed, though, with the Hive: triptychs. The most powerful spells work with components of three.”
“Same in Equestria.” Sunset blanched. “Except for the Elements.”
Rarity nodded. “Right. Six elements. Which corresponds to this spell I got from Eris.” She motioned to the circle.
Sunset looked at the Hive-like spell on the ground. “What’s it supposed to do?”
Rarity smiled. “Restore a soul.”
Sunset looked back at the spell. “That sounds dangerous.” She caught herself. “Though, no more dangerous than a Guardian?”
Rarity nodded. “We know that Light—and I assume Darkness—are capable of keeping some souls in stasis. That’s how we get Guardians. And also, we suspect, how some of our more potent enemies continue to... reassert themselves?”
Sunset nodded. “And we’ll probably need this for Twilight?”
“Something like it. And while I have devoted much of my second life to studying, I’m afraid my knowledge from Equestria is... lacking.”
Sunset cracked her knuckles. “No worries there.” She studied the circle some more. “I know the Fallen have a process of their own. It’s largely technological; relies on Servitors and such. We might need a few of those.”
Rarity frowned. “Why?”
Sunset looked back, equally confused. “To anchor the components? There’s six points here.”
“And six of us.”
“But only five of you were Elements.”
Rarity smiled gently. “And you weren’t?”
Sunset frowned. “N—no. No, I wasn’t. I mean, in that other world I had a gemstone same as the others, but those...” She shook her head. “Those weren’t anything like the actual Elements.”
“But Darling,” Rarity insisted, “you’re here.”
“Yeah, but—“
“Sunset,” Rarity said. “You’re here. With us. Remembering. Whatever magic we have from Equestria that lets us remember... you have it too.”
Sunset stared into space. Her mouth moved slightly as she went over what Rarity had said.
Rarity stepped closer to Sunset. “Are you alright, Darling?”
Sunset blinked, her eyes tearing up. “Yeah,” she said with a smile. “Yeah, I just hadn’t connected the dots.” She shook her head. “No, I was too afraid to connect the dots.” She took a shaky breath and let it out slowly.
“So,” she continued, “let’s have a look.” She crouched down and studied the spell. “We should be able to work this for the most part. In fact...”
She summoned her ghost. “Ray,” she said, “do you think you and the other ghosts could act as conduits in this pattern?”
Ray scanned the circle. “It’s definitely possible,” he said. “It’s like an initial revive, but spread across six ghosts it should be possible.” He twirled in place. “But this is for another pony, right? How can we make sure that...”
“That she comes back as a pony,” Sunset finished, biting her lip in thought. “Could you guide her into a self-rez?”
Ray froze. “I don’t even know if that’s possible,” he said quietly. “But maybe...”
Sunset stood up. “Am I super charged?” Without waiting for an answer she yelled across the warehouse, “Hey, Rainbow, stab me!”
A chorus of “what”s echoed from guardian and ghost alike.
“Hold on, hold on,” Rarity said. “Let’s take one moment to think abo—“
“Vibe check!” Pinkie yelled. And punched Sunset with a full-force attack. The room sat in silence as Sunset dissolved in a cascade of solar energy.
A beat.
“What the hell, Pinkie?” Rarity shrieked.
“What?” Pinkie yelled back. “She wanted to test her self-rez, so she needed to die, and this was going to leave the least blood on the floor.”
Sunset resurrected in a burst of fire into her pony body. “Thanks, Pinkie,” she said. She looked around her immediate area. “And good call on the Sunstrike; didn’t leave any blood.”
Pinkie smiled smugly.
Rarity took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Sunset, darling,” she said, “while we’ve all gotten used to our own immortality, do consider that maybe some of us aren’t quite as... casual with it?”
Sunset scratched the back of her head. “Sorry, Rarity. Got caught up in the moment.”
“Well, good news,” Ray cut in. “I watched the Light patterns as you came back, and I think I’m starting to see the difference.”
“That’s great, Ray!” Sunset said, poking him with a hoof. “But we’ll need to do it a few times to be sure, right?”
Rarity rolled her eyes with a scoff and walked off.
Fluttershy raised her hand timidly. “I, um... I have Golden Gun charged if that helps.”
“Hold that thought, nerds,” Rainbow yelled as she and Applejack ran into the center of the warehouse, Rainbow’s ghost Tank already displaying a set of Fallen info.
“Our timeline just got moved up,” Applejack added. She motioned toward the display. “We just got the latest batch of info back from the cryptarchs. It talks about the ‘Purple Light’ and how they plan on reviving her.”
“So we know where Twilight is?” Sunset said. “That’s great!”
Applejack and Rainbow both grimaced.
“Why is that not great?” Sunset groaned.
“The Splicers have her,” Rainbow said. “They’re going to try using SIVA.”
“Best case scenario,” Applejack said, “it doesn’t work. But it’s more likely it works long enough to rip her apart.”
The six guardians stood in silence, processing the news.
“So how are we going to do this?” Pinkie said after a moment.
Rainbow and Sunset made eye contact and nodded.
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10517220
Really? Usually these crossovers are longer. Why are you making this story so short?
10532251
Honestly, my plan is to make a sequel anthology story for telling more stories in this universe. But I don’t do well with long, drawn-out epics. I need story arcs or else I just get overwhelmed and stop. And I hate incomplete stories more than poorly written ones.
Shiva Twilight? That'd be all kinds of troublesome.
Hold on though, how did the Fallen of all beings pick up on her?
Edit: sadly, this seems to put paid to my "Ikora is Twilight" idea, ah well.
10532460
I’ll be honest, it’s a good idea. This was just one of the first details of the story I had laid out.
As much as I usually don’t like Rushing people more please soon
Hey, how did you get the picture of Sunsets cutie mark on warlock arms? I'm thinking of writing an MLP X D story but from Twilights perspective and I'd like to put Twilights' symbol on a pair instead
10579607
I used the picture in the source as a base and photoshopped it on
Edit: just saw that the source is no longer up. So I’d look around for some screenshots (try to give credit) and use those. If you don’t have a photoshop-like program, The GIMP is a good free one.
Whens the next update?