The Elements of Absolution

by leeroy_gIBZ

You will find here in the fire

I didn’t need an hour to think about it. What did I even have to lose? If Sunny Flare was actually telling the truth and the thing on my head was really the Element of Magic then I almost felt obliged to finish what I started. If not, well, I’m sure I can accidentally cause a chunk of ceiling to fall on her. This place is ancient, I’m sure nopony of actual value would bat an eyelid. But that didn’t mean I wanted to talk to her again. I spent the hour practicing my new magic instead and I liked what I saw. Normally, pony magic only lets us manipulate stuff, Pegasi can condense water vapor into clouds and Earth Ponies can grow food like its going out of fashion, but they can’t actually create anything new. I could.

I started off small, with the glass. After the third try, two of the little crystal tumblers stared back at me. After the fifth try, I had twenty. Pulling at the fundamental strings of the universe a little differently rewarded me with bourbon, and I’d even got most of it in the glasses too. Four drinks later and I felt ready to save the world.

“Alright, Sunny. I’ve made up my mind. You’re still in deep shit, but I’ll kill you later. Let’s go get the Elements.” I said, after teleporting out my room. I don’t know if it was from the surprise or from my threat, but she nearly jumped out of her skin, dropping a bag of jewelry, the ornate stuff clattering to the corridor’s tiles.

“Excellent, well the latter half is anyway.” She said, once her voice had come back.

“I guess those are the other Elements then?” I said, levitating one of the necklaces. The green gem was engraved with a slice of lemon and a salt dune, resembling Lemon Zest’s cutie mark of the stuff you drink with tequila. I hadn’t guessed the physical embodiment of lying was so fancy.

“Yes, these are the other Elements. Now, let’s hurry off to the dungeons before anything catches us.” Sunny said, taking it and stuffing it back in her saddlebag.

“Wait, catching us? There are guards here?”

“Of a sort. Not ponies though. They’re more like golems or elemental constructs.”

I grinned. “Cool. I’ve been itching to blow something up, and since you’re off the menu…”

“I’d still advise being somewhat stealthy. Not that I doubt you could defeat a brass golem, but I’d rather not alert the entire castle to our presence.”

“What, don’t they know you’re here? I thought the traitor got specials privileges?”

“They know I live here now, yes. They don’t know that I went back to the Vault and stole the Elements after Daybreaker left for battle in Griffonstone.”

“Then lead the way.”

Sunny obliged, and we walked through the halls. Loads had changed during the week I’d been out dead. The decayed stone had been refurbished and hemmed with glinting gold and gemstones. The ragged tapestries and carpets were remade into elegant scenes depicting Celestia’s majesty and the invading vines and grass had all been clipped away, leaving shining tile and paneling in its wake. Portraits hung on the walls, mosaics decorated the floors and the glass windows shimmered with enchantment. Cooling magic, I’d guess, since nothing inside was on fire. It was a palace fit for Princess, really.

After about half an hour of walking, Sunny stopped me, pulling me over into an alcove. Roughly. Like, mare, I’ve established that I’m no longer into you. No amount of touchy-feeling crap is changing that fact.

“Sunset, be quiet. I see one.” Sunny said, shushing me.

A cloud of hissing and sizzling orange smoke drifted past, swirling and leaving a faint trail of embers behind it. Within the whirlwind of molten metal, there shone a pair of rubies. The golem’s gemstone eyes scanned the hallway, and it clinked a sigh of relief once it found nothing. I started charging up a spell.

“Don’t you dare. It’ll alert Daybreaker.” Sunny whispered. Again, I felt the magic fade against my will, leaving an empty pit in my stomach.

A few minutes more than were necessary later, Sunny spoke up again, after peering around the marble column separating us from the room proper.

“I think they’re all gone.” She said, “Let’s go.”

“Finally. You know, I could have just teleported us out of the way.”

“I know that, dearie. I went to one of Luna’s Gifted Schools too. I am fully aware of how your magic functions.” She muttered.

“One, you absolutely aren’t. Two, Luna uses ‘gifted’ as a euphemism for 'retarded' when talking about Mud Ponies. Three, what would they even teach you, how to grow flowers and speak with a pretentious accent?”

“Oh, you’re one to talk, Miss Received Pronunciation. Let’s just go, please. I didn’t ask you to teleport me because I was worried you’d throw me off the roof.”

“Finally. An emotion that isn’t lust or regret. You were beginning to remind me of a teenage stallion’s Playcolt collection.”

Sunny rolled her eyes and kept walking. Good. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner I never have to see her again. Though I think I’ll keep the palace, it sure is roomier than my apartment back home. Hopefully, Daybreaker’s disintegrated the forest for me already. I do not want to have to clear that myself.

Before I knew it, we had arrived at the dungeons. Or, at least, the entrance to them. A cloud of sparkling gold blocked the doorway, its three pairs of marble eyes rising slightly when we approached.

“State your name and purpose, pony.” The golem hissed at Sunny.

“By the supreme edict of her majesty, Daybreaker, Princess of the Sun, Empress of the East, Slayer of Griffons and Devourer of Cake, get out of my way. My name is Sunrise Flare, and I have express permission to taunt the prisoners.”

“Acceptable. You may pass.” The golem fizzled, a hole appearing in it around the doorway. Sunny entered, unlocking the barred gate before gesturing to me.

“Well, aren’t you coming?”

I took a step forward. Instantly the golem flashed back into place, singing the tips of my mane to black and sending a jolt of shock down my horn. I hopped back at the thing started screaming.

“Intruder alert! Intruder alert!”

I pictured it at the bottom of a lake. Nowhere, in particular, just someplace far away and shit to be in. My magic did the rest. The way now clear, I entered the dungeon behind Sunny.

“Oh look, it’s Sunny Flare. Come to taunt us again, have you, you bitch?” Sour yelled.

“Calm yourself, Sour, I’m sure that she’s serious this time. Maybe she’s come to apologize again.” Sugarcoat said, “Maybe she’ll even be sincere about it.”

“Yeah, why don’t you just cut your throat already. If anypony’d miss you, they’re probably already dead!” Indigo yelled.

“I’ve heard enough. She’s telling the truth.” I said, stepping into the light of the cell’s single candle.

Four jaws hit the ground.

“Aren’t you supposed to be dead?” Sugarcoat asked, after wiping clean her glasses.

“Daybreaker underestimated who she was dealing with. Now stand back, I’ve got a door to open.” I said, my horn starting to glow.

Something exploded. And I didn’t do it. Once the dust had settled and the ringing in my ears had settled, I stood face to face with Daybreaker.

“I thought I smelled megalomania.” Sugarcoat deadpanned.

She raised a single, flaming eyebrow. “I knew I smelled insolence. What a shame it has to end like this. You would have been an excellent assistant, Alicorn.”

Her horn glowed an angry red, and the building crumbled. Bricks and mortar flew back as another bomb had gone off. The ceiling crumbled to ash, chunks of it glancing off of her battle-scarred armor. I put my new reflexes to good use and dodged the larger ones. The smaller ones didn’t even hurt. Seconds later, we stood in the basement of the castle, the rest of it torn away and thrown aside, making an earthquake upon landing some hundred miles away. I was beginning to regret my decision to save the world.

“Cool. You done showing off?” I said, levitating chunks of plaster out my hair.

“The show has just begun, Alicorn. Do you have any last words? I’m sure your fellow dissidents will remember them for as long as they live.” Daybreaker sneered.

“Yeah. I do, actually. But you can tell me yours first. You won’t have the privilege of hearing mine for a long, long time.” I said, taking a step forward to her. I even felt taller. Let's do this.

“Then perish!”

“That’s a stupid choice of last words.” Shouted Sugarcoat, from the miraculously mostly intact jail cell.

“Says the mortal. Perhaps, in time, you could have understood my machinations.” Daybreaker said, preparing to charge.

I teleported straight up, channeling magic through my wings to keep me afloat. It felt good, strange and almost disorienting, but good. Then Daybreaker hit me with a bolt of lightning. That did not feel good.

Taking to the skies herself, Daybreaker readied another shot as I blinked the ash out of my eyes.

This time I was ready. I put my new powers to good use and summoned a wall of glass, parrying the bolt. Only to be punched in the back by another. Cheat.

“Alright.” I coughed, “Enough playing around.”

I threw a ray of cold at the Alicorn. She ducked, no flickering, out the way as the ice blew apart a nearby tree. She responded with more lightning. I teleported out the way. Right into another bolt.

They were starting to sting., and she hadn’t even broken a sweat. I changed tactics, sending a fireball her way. She took it head on, the white-hot flames doing as much damage to her as butter would have. I ducked the next bolt, summoning another wall of glass and blocking the next few as well.

She shattered the shield with a tree trunk. Her next swipe knocked the air out my lungs and swatted me out of the sky. I cratered a mile away, spitting out spots of blood and bone. Now things really hurt, like I was being stabbed in the barrel by a knife rack’s worth of daggers. Gasping for air, I rerouted the magic from my horns and wings into my body, ordering my flesh to knit itself back together. I was too slow.

Daybreaker thundered down, throwing up a mountain of dirt and dust and rock when her armored hooves hit the ground. Her horn flashed again, and an ax of pure magic crashed into my skull.

I felt something pop as the left side of my vision went dark. A new burst of pain thumped with my heartbeat as Daybreaker raised her weapon again. I put up another shield, catching the blade, giving me just enough time to teleport out the way.

I cast Invisibility as a reappeared, hunkered down in the ruined castle. My breath returned after a few hoof-biting seconds of magic healing. I felt revitalized after I’d finished it, ready to take on a goddess again. I think I’ll need it.

“You most certainly will, alicorn. Now come out, and kneel down. I promise I’ll make your destruction swifter than last time.” Daybreaker said, bursting into view inches away.

I shut my lips and held my breath. Even from here, she burned with heat now that I was paying attention to it. The turned-over walls shook with each step as she stalked them, incinerating torn curtains and ruined furniture as she moved, muttering threats all the while.

“SUGARCOAT. OPEN THE DOOR TO THE JAIL. GIVE THEM THE ELEMENTS. I’LL DISTRACT DAYBREAKER.” I sent the telepathic message just in time, Daybreaker stomping by seconds later.

“Ah, there you are. Hiding under the floorboards, I have found you at last.” Daybreaker said, her axe slashing through my defenses. And my leg. I couldn’t stifle the scream. Or the spurting flow of arterial blood.

She didn’t bother wiping it off her face as she raised her axe again. I didn’t bother with a one-liner, instead starting up a pair of teleports.

She countered my own with a stamp of her hoof. I didn’t even that was possible. How strong is this cunt? Nevermind, I can still win this. I just need to buy some time.
“Now that you’re in one place again, how about that offer for those last words. I can assure you, you might not die, but you won’t have a tongue either.”

“Yeah, behind you. There’s a Siren and she is really angry.” I said, not looking up from the smoking wallpaper.

“You fool. I am omniscient! There is no Siren behind me. Now prepare to die.”

“A mare can dream, can’t she? And no, Pizzicato isn’t there. She wouldn’t fit. But Sugarcoat sure is, and she is not pleased to see you.

With my remaining front leg, I brought the Element of Magic back into existence on top of my head. The other mares had already donned their necklaces. All six of them began to glow and flicker erratically with a chaotic rainbow frenzy.

“I repeat, you malodorous toffee-nosed pervert, you waste of stretch-marked skin, you shit-eating excuse for a monarch, do you have any last words before my friends and I stick your fat ass back where it belongs?”

Daybreaker spun her head around the destroyed room. She gulped. “Sunrise of Clan Flare. You have betrayed me.” She eventually said.

Sunny nodded, “It’s what I do best. I am the Element of Treason, after all.”

“Then I shall rule alone and, if need be, I shall rule over naught but a graveyard.” She resigned, her armor melting away as she radiated heat.

Reflexively, Sugarcoat put up a shield.

Daybreaker melted it but she didn’t melt mine. I willed my leg back onto my body. I wouldn’t be running any marathons anytime soon, but that’s what the wings are for, I guess.

The Princess of the Sun continued to rise, cackling maniacally and smoldering with solar heat as our Elements flashed and charged up. Soon her horn brushed the now-floor of the room, and it disintegrated in a flash of light.

“Sunset, look.” Lemon pointed with a shaking hoof. Everything outside was beginning to burn, and the Sun took up the whole sky. It was flying toward us, like a meteor bigger than the planet.

I focused on my magic. It had got me through everything so far, live and love and now, death. I wasn’t going to let the world be destroyed. I am Sunset Shimmer, and I do not lose.

My tiara shone with brilliant cyan light, soon being joined by shades of pink and green and red and yellow and silver. Daybreaker stopped levitating, her eyes snapping open, her mouth dropping into a silent scream as the ray of rainbow energy encircled her.

“Now you’re scared, Daybreaker, or is it, Celestia? You didn’t expect us to unlock Elements of Discord, did you?”

She turned her flaming orange eyes down to me, her face fixed into a pained sneer. She radiated brighter, the rainbow light seeming almost unsure about completing its task.

“Indigo Zap, who mauled a Jabberwocky, represents Cruelty,” I said, and the Pegasus’ necklace, a crimson thunderbolt, glowed proudly in response. It’s owner cheered.

“Sugarcoat, who refused to give into the clown’s torment, represents Misanthropy.” Again, her amulet, a single stylized slice of cake, flickered and throbbed with a pink light.

“Sour Sweet, who refused to surrender her loot even in the face of death, represents Greed.” Sour nodded, the twin smiling and frowning masks of crystal that made up her necklaces sparkled with new intensity.

“Lemon Zest, who tricked a Siren into giving us passage, represents Deceit!”

“And Sunny Flare, who betrayed both you and me in order to save the world, represents the Element of Treason.” Sunny’s necklace, a half-sun rising over the horizon, twinkled and flashed. She smiled nervously, with what almost looked like relief.

Daybreaker laughed weakly as the rainbows began to pick up speed again, “And what of yourself, little pony? Though you possess it, I doubt you can fathom its true purpose. That Element has remained a mystery even to my very sister.”

“Bullshit. I know exactly what it's for. Sure, you might be Princess of the Sun, Celestia, but I, Sunset Shimmer, am the Alicorn of the Day. I am Magic!”

The Elements of Discord consumed the mad tyrant in a vortex of swirling color, blaring sound and debilitating chaos. She let through a single, furious scream as it dragged her back into her prison and forcing both her and the star away from Equestria at last, slowly at first but then suddenly snapping both across thousands of miles in a single second, leaving an empty quiet, calm and cool, in its wake. Flashes of green and blue began to return to the landscape and the Sun began to set. For a moment, I spotted the Sun morph into the howling face of Daybreaker as it drifted below the horizon. Then everything went black.

Finally.

Comments

[Book_Wyrm]

This was wonderful. Everyone knows that truly, most often kindness and generosity and honesty just make you lose. Luna’s choice if Discord’s elements is more practical. And fun.

[leeroy_gIBZ]

9434477
Thank you very much.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Huh. Well, it's not like Elements of Discord are going to have a "restore sanity" setting. Now the question becomes how bad the damage was while Sunset reconsituted herself.

[Ri2]

So…Right back to the sun? Where is the absolution in that?

And are they going to arrest or execute Sunny for her treachery? I mean, she’s a traitor once, twice even, she might do it again

[leeroy_gIBZ]

9521960
The getting absolution bit comes in the next part man. Whether or not Sunny is punished depends on how much of Equestria is still alive.

[Ri2]

9522114
Well done on that, by the way, 'heroes.' Great job saving the world!

[Schattendrache]

A review.

[SisterHorseteeth]

As stories of Bearer Sunset and ponified Shadowbolts go, this one had a real vision. A deeply misequinopic vision, but a vision nonetheless. You didn't just skin the dickeads and parade the classic Mane 6 through the first two eps wearing their hides. I found it entertaining, even if the mean-spiritedness got tedious about halfway through. I like my asshole characters to convince me to like them before they show their worst colors, but Sunset was just a bastard all the way through.

You threaded the Crystal Prep kids into Ponyville lives pretty seamlessly. I never felt like they slipped further out of character than was warranted by a grimdark comedy take on the setting, but then, it's not like five out of six Bearers had more of a character in EqG beyond a single dialogue affect.

Grammar and pacing issues have been pointed out by others; I feel no need to retread that ground.

All in all, it's interesting, especially when I see similar character extrapolations here that I came to for my Sunset/Shadowbolts AU and the deja vu decks me in the face.