SunLight Sliders: Infinite

by Amber Spark

Chapter 24 - Cold Bolt

Twilight stared.

Sunset blinked, her smile fading. "...So that's a no?"

Without a word, Twilight trotted up to Sunset and began dragging her through a nearby door by the foreleg.

"Uhhh..." Sunset glanced nervously between Twilight and the rest. "I... guess we'll be right back?"

'Twily' glared at her. "Sunset, get back here! We don't have time for... for whatever stunt you're pulling!"

Serena laid a gentle hoof on Twily's shoulder. When the mare met her gaze, she shook her head. "Let them be. They both need this."

Twily responded with an indistinct grumble, but said no more on the matter.

Once they were out of earshot behind the door to a storage closet that somehow managed to be even dustier than the rest of the lab, Twilight let go of Sunset and stared at her some more. Sunset opened her mouth to speak -

"You deserve better."

There was no venom in Twilight's voice, Sunset realized. Just a desire to understand.

"Look... I needed to do some thinking," said Sunset, glancing over her shoulder at the closed door before continuing. "And... get some sense talked into me, I guess. This whole thing is my - mostly my fault, and it's not fair that I got you caught up in it."

Twilight continued staring at Sunset with a dispassion that made her shiver and look away.

"We're going to get you your Midnight back, and then we're going to take you home. I owe you at least that much. After that..." Sunset sighed. "After that is up to you, but if you never want to see me again... then you won't. Simple as that."

Several seconds passed in silence. Sunset's stomach churned.

She finally looked at Twilight again. "Right, so, I guess that's mmmmph" She jolted as the rest of her sentence was muffled by Twilight's lips.

Even now, she had to resist the temptation to enjoy it.

Sunset shoved Twilight away and wiped her mouth. "Sparky, you seriously need to quit doing that - "

"I wanted to feel it again."

Sunset blinked. "What? Wh... feel what?"

"I don't have words for it anymore," Twilight droned. Her monotone took her words past 'freaky' so far into 'freaky deaky' territory that they had already pitched a tent for the night. "But it was there before. Now it's not. I wanted to feel it again, but now there's nothing there."

Sunset cringed. "You're getting worse..."

"I should be scared, but I'm not. There's no fear left either. I'll probably forget what that is pretty soon too. Even the laughter is gone. Ha." Her expression remained flat as ever. "See?"

"Sparky, we're gonna fix this," said Sunset. "Skylark and I have a plan. Let's get back out there so we can brief you guys. We'll deal with... the rest of this later. Okay?"

"Okay."

Sunset sighed and hung her head for a moment before turning around and opening the door. She was greeted by the surly voice of Twily.

"About time you two finished up in there."

Sunset huffed but bit her tongue. If she let herself get dragged into another argument, they could be there all day.

"Peace, Twilight," said Serena. "Now we can all catch up together."

"As I was saying, this..." Skylark waved her hoof at a hefty device topped with a large glass cylinder sitting between them all. "...is an alchemic containment device. Once released from Shining's barrier, the conglomeration of Midnights is gonna want to lay waste to everything in sight, so we need to get it inside this thing. That won't give us more than a few minutes at best, but it should at least survive the trip to Lady Sparkle's world."

"Once we're there, we have to release it from containment slowly so it doesn't go supernova on us." Sunset glanced at Skylark, who nodded. "If we let them out carefully and close to the crowd, the freed Midnights should return to their respective Twilights like cutie marks separated from their ponies. That should make them an army powerful enough to defeat Discord - Midnightcord? - and give us back our Twilight's Midnight."

"Exposition, exposition..." Twilight sang with almost imperceptible intonation in her voice.

Amblejoy nodded. "But how do we get the Container in the first place? Shining Armor's barrier is all but impenetrable."

"Every defense has a weak point," Sunset retorted. "He can't maintain the spell himself while in stasis, so he had to tie it to another power source to keep it running - a power source he knew would be well protected."

Twily gasped. "The Crystal Heart..."

Skylark nodded at Twily. "Exactly. All we have to do is disconnect the barrier from the Heart, and it should drop. We'll have our Container, and you'll be able to revive your brother."

Spike tilted his head. "So how do we do that, then?"

"With this." Skylark plopped a scroll in front of him.

Sunset stared at it. "I still can't believe you took up writing spells as a hobby..."

Skylark rolled her eyes. "Even with work, I had a lot of time to kill. Besides, it came in handy, didn't it?"

Spike unfurled the scroll and blinked at it. "Why is this just called 'Cut'?"

"Because that's what it does. It cuts," said Skylark. "Specifically it's for severing magical bonds at the source, but you could use it on saplings blocking your way or something if you wanted."

"Skylark's Spiritual Severance," droned Twilight.

"There. Whatever. So here's the plan." Skylark waved a hoof at Amblejoy and Selena. "I take one team to the Crystal Empire to cut the power connection with this spell. Meanwhile, the rest of you need to get as close as you can to Shining and the Container. The instant the barrier is down, get it contained and jump to the battle. Don't waste any time."

Twily scowled. "There are too many ways for this to go wrong, but I don't have a better plan ready and we're running out of time. I'm in."

Amblejoy's horn glowed, enveloping Sunset's talisman in magic for a moment. "That will take you to the battle with the next jump. Be careful, all of you."

Serena looked at Twilight. "We will do everything in our power to put you back to normal."

Spike tapped the containment device with his metal hand. "I'll keep an eye on this thing, don't worry!"

"Sounds like everything's squared away to me," said Skylark. "Let's roll."

Author's Note:

Chapter written by Cold Bolt!

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Author's Note: As intimidated as I was by my position so close to the end, this came together pretty smoothly, all things considered. It was fun, too! I'm really glad I got to participate, and I can't wait to see where it goes from here.