Like a Moth to Flame

by sailing101

A dark place, somewhere...

Sunset Shimmer awoke on a cold stone floor. Everything ached like she had been twisted inside out, and what she could see in the near darkness seemed fractured, as if she were looking through a broken mirror.

Groaning, Sunset pushed herself into a sitting position. It was difficult, as her legs seemed unable to move in the way she expected, and a light weight seemed to hang from her back. In an effort to clear her vision, Sunset raised a claw to wipe at her eyes.

A claw....

Sunset stared at the limb, unsure if it was truly attached to her. She tried to wave her hoof, the claw waved instead. With growing dread she twisted herself to examine her back.

She had wings, not feathered like a pegasus, or even batlike thestral wings. These wings were thin and lacey, and covered in a fine layer of dust.

Instead of her horn, a pair of feathery antennae hung from her head. Her body was coated in a hairlike fuzz, and her eyes? Compound, if the fractured mess she was seeing was any indication. Taken together, it all pointed to one horrifying conclusion.

“I’m a MOTH!?”

Horror quickly turned to rage. That magic mirror, Sunset had seen everything she desired in its glass, but this? A bug was as far from an alicorn as one could be! The temperature around Sunset sharply spiked along with her fury. With a wordless scream, the air itself burst into golden flames.

Startled by the unexpected inferno, Sunset attempted to jump away, only succeeding in flailing about in a tangle of unfamiliar limbs. Just as quickly as they appeared, the flames vanished.

“Did... did I just do that?”

Sunset took a moment to calm herself. Slowly, deliberately, she pushed herself into a standing position that felt natural to her new body. Idly, she thought about how moths weren’t supposed to stand on their hind legs, but quickly quashed that thought when she nearly fell forward. Filing that distraction away alongside hoofgrip and rock farmers, Sunset refocused her thoughts.

Because it felt right, Sunset raised a claw. Focusing as she would do to cast a spell with her horn, she willed the air before her to ignite. Her effort was rewarded with a small spark of flame dancing to life in her claw. Sunset’s glee was tangible. “Take that you stupid mirror,” she taunted, “I, Sunset Shimmer, still have magic!”

The soft glow of Sunset’s flame also served to better illuminate her surroundings. Notably, the numerous, deathly still forms that also occupied the room.

Sunset nearly dropped her flame when she saw she wasn’t alone, but then she realized that nothing was moving but shadows.

Dozens of giant (or perhaps she was simply small) beetles lay scattered around her, lifeless and hollow. Sunset nudged one with her unlit claw, only to shriek in disgust when the head and body rolled away from each other.

... bells ring ... ... no more ...

The ghostly voice echoed in the back of Sunset’s mind, sending a shudder down her back. That wasn’t her own thoughts just now.

"What happened here?” Sunset pondered.

Her surroundings showed signs of having been constructed rather than formed naturally, stonework and broken glass indicating some presence of civilization, but the layer of dust over everything told that this place had been abandoned for a long time.

At the far end of the room, what looked to be some form of underground train station drew Sunset’s attention. Walking over to take a closer look, she noticed a lack of any rails. Instead, there was simply a dirt floor, pounded down by hundreds of beetle footprints. A broken post stood forlornly on the station’s platform, a dented bell on the floor suggesting it once hung there.

Curious, Sunset picked up the bell and gave it an experimental shake. Despite its worn state, it rang clearly. The bell’s pleasant tone echoed down the tunnels in sharp contrast with the gloom.

Sunset pondered this arrangement. Perhaps whatever once lived here could have rang the bell to call for a beetle to ride?

Sunset was drawn from her thoughts when she noticed a new sound coming from the tunnels. Something large was approaching the station, and from the deep growls it was making, it did not appear to be anything Sunset wanted to meet.

Dropping the bell, Sunset ran as fast as she could away from the station. Passing trough the husk filled room, she soon found herself at the bottom of a large shaft. The floor shifted beneath her, and she stumbled. She had apparently ran onto a metal platform connected to chains that stretched up into the shaft.

Sunset could still hear the creature somewhere behind her, but growing closer.

“Come on Sunset, this isn’t a dead end,” she reassured herself. She began to quickly scan the room. “This platform has to be some sort of lift, pressure activated and I’m too light, which must mean there’s - There!”

Sunset leapt at what she had seen, a smaller lift, one just her size. Her new wings gave an involuntary flutter, nearly causing her to overshoot her jump. She crashed onto the smaller lift, which briefly shifted down with a satisfying clank, before rising up the shaft pulled by it’s chains, taking Sunset away from... whatever was chasing her.

The lift came to a stop at a hall that extended from the top of the shaft. Sunset quickly jumped for solid ground and made her way down the hall. Following the sound of wind, she soon found herself standing on a cliffside balcony.

The mountains that surrounded her seemed to be formed from an uncountable number of stone shells, fossilized or carved, Sunset couldn’t tell. She peered over the edge. The drop to the valley below looked deep, but not so far that she couldn’t see the bottom. A crumbling road twisted its way up the far end of the valley and out of sight, another sign that some civilization once called this land hone.

Sunset’s wings twitched in anticipation, but the more logical part of her mind cut in. “I shouldn’t try to fly until I have a better place to practice,” she reasoned, “I can probably just climb down.”

Sunset’s deliberations were cut off by a noise that echoed behind her. A loud clatter of metal on stone, followed by the rattling of large chains.

Something was coming up the large lift.

“On the other hoof, no time like the present! Bugs can handle big falls, right?”

Her decision made, Sunset leapt into the abyss. The wind caught on her wings, and Sunset was swept away.

...---...---...---...---...---...---...---...---...---...

An old, but very much alive beetle crept out of the remains of Stagnest and surveyed the howling cliffs, looking for any sign of whomever had run the station bell. The sight of his fallen kin had been saddening, but he had come to accept their fates years ago. There would be time for mourning later though, the present situation was of more importance.

The Last Stag couldn’t think of any reason for a bug to call for a stag only to flee when one answered the bell. It was perplexing, and perhaps he was just a bit offended. The stagways has been silent for so long that he had nearly forgotten the routes entirely. For the second bug to call him in all this time to not wait for his arrival... He may have been old, but he was not THAT slow yet!

The Last Stag was pulled from his fuming by the sound of footsteps behind him. He turned to see his recently met companion approach.

A rather mysterious bug, its identity was obscured by an old grey cloak and pale horned mask. The rusted nail on its back suggested its profession as a wandering knight, though its stature would leave some questioning that notion. In the short time the Last Stag had known it, he had not even heard it say a single word, nor so much as even a single involuntary peep. Despite this, the knight was capable of directing the Last Stag where it needed to travel on the stagways. The knight had even heard the bell from stagnest before he did, and insisted on the detour.

“It would seem our runaway traveler escaped into the cliffs,” the Last Stag growled. “If you should meet them in your travels, perhaps you could drag them to a station so they can learn to wait properly.”

The knight didn’t respond, naturally. It stared blankly over the cliffs, still as the night. Apparently coming to a decision, it simply walked off the balcony, and dropped from sight.

Comments

[Spellflame]

This is cool!

[gerandakis]

Hmm ... you have my attention ...
Interesting that Sunset would be a moth. Of all the beings in Hallownest she could have been she ends up as the one of those known to traditionally wield dreams. Interesting ... then again, they are also one of only two types of beings known to have natural 'magical' abilities at all, so who knows?

This certainly has some potential, now let's see ...
One little mistake I've found in every chapter of this story was 'sunset' not being capitalized as it should be. Beyond that:

as if she was looking through a broken mirror

as if she were looking

feathery antenne

antennae

moths weren't suppose to stand

supposed

[Starcat5]

Not the update I have been waiting for, but definitely looking good so far. Off to chapter 2.