Empathy for the Devil

by MarvelandPonder

14. The Devils You Know

Sunset Shimmer hoped she hadn’t doomed all humanity. So, it was a Thursday. In all her years of study, she’d seen (and stolen) all manner of powerful magic. But none like this. Rainbow waves crested across the sky, colouring the clouds, injecting iridescence into atmosphere, and raining down in twinkling, fluttering snowflakes. A tsunami flowing forth from the rift she’d opened wide.

With the world coming up to meet the new her, a sound she realized was her own screaming underscored her rebirth. Then, desperate for a distraction from the terror of falling from fifty thousand feet, her brain produced a thought: I called Princess Celestia mom. Eyes wide, full face flushed, and head grappled as she spun wildly in the air, Sunset shouted, “I called Princess Celestia mom!”

Both the force of the magic and the sheer dorkiness of calling the teacher her mom geysered her back into the human world. An ejection like that out of the portal would have meant a nasty spill down the sidewalk. Out of the tear in the sky? She bombed irrevocably through the stratosphere.

She’d felt the asynchronous sink of her insides falling faster than the rest of her before; when her landlord secretly hadn’t fixed the faulty elevator in her apartment building and the box holding her aloft unexpectedly lurched a full foot downward. That, it turned out, was nothing. Gravity yanked on her stomach now hard enough to break the ripcord off a parachute.

The sky performed a pirouette round and round until she broke into the clouds.

Moaning into her hands, she shouted increasingly incomprehensible strings of obscenities, lost into the censoring wind whisking away very unstandard but well-practiced syllables.

Somehow during all those years of daydreams about becoming an alicorn princess, she hadn’t ever considered the mechanics of how it would feel. She’d blush to admit she’d kind of expected the adapting to new body parts bit would be easy? Instantaneous?

Her shoulder blades had something to say about that. Particularly as she tumbled mid-air and twisted and tugged these new large limbs at unwieldy angles. Articulating movement in her wings felt like shrugging with her entire body.

She struggled to even work her wings in sync against a magical waterfall plunge. “I called her my mom right to her face and now I⁠—” Then, the dumbest, messiest smile came between her clutching hands. “I have a mom.”

Busting through the bottom of the cloudscape, Sunset careened parallel to the falling snow. “WOOHOO HOO HOO! YEAH!”

The city sprawled out ahead, from hills rolling with tall pines to the skyscrapers threatening to scrape her, and angling herself as best she could, she aimed her body toward the place where she hoped she had yet more family waiting for her: Canterlot High.

Sunset Shimmer decided at that moment that if she’d had to die⁠—stovetop grade heat built at her knuckles—release unknowable magic into the world⁠—a hundred necks craned up to see her⁠—and die of embarrassment at the earnestness of it all⁠—her phoenix fire gleamed in King Sombra’s widening demon eyes⁠—she’d make that choice again in a goddamn heartbeat if it meant she got the chance to show her friends how much she loved them.

Her smile slipped. I hope they still feel the same way.

Sunset Shimmer rained down upon them like a teenage meteor.

As the front lawn of her high school came up to meet her, rainbow magic atom-bombed out ahead of her. She flinched her eyes shut right before the plunge.

Once on a failed diplomatic mission up north to a Yakyakistani ice festival, Sunset had tried ice-swimming. She remembered her body’s indecision between shutting down and over-drive. Skin-burning cold. The involuntary gasp of each breath.

All of it came rushing back except instead of sinking down into icy depths, now she plunged through a flood of hot magic that stunk like ozone after a hard rain. The magic lit up damn near every emotion inside her and that just about settled it once and for all: yep. She was alive again.

Landing on her feet scorched the muscles in her legs. The vertigo afterwards stretched reality like taffy. In the aftermath of the magic flood, she worked to open her eyes. Her fist steamed on the spiderwebbed stone sidewalk.

Heavy blinking levelled out the tilting scene ahead. Every soul in the courtyard stared at her, including but not limited to the ten-foot tall, armoured demon lord on the school’s front steps. Heavy, expensive cape fluttering behind him. His bearded jaw was, decidedly, dropped. Her friends stood frozen mid-battle in weird positions in a panting war painting.

Breath puffed out in front of them in the refrigerated air.

Dark reflections of the students of CHS stopped crawling up the walls of the school; all watching—bending their necks at inquisitive angles—staring out at her with their laser-pointer eyes. The rest of the world had fallen far away. Bits of icy atmosphere and magic rained down, twinkling colours in the streetlights.

No one said a single word until Fluttershy had the courage to whisper. “... Sunset Shimmer?”

Unsteadily rising to her full height, phoenix wings aflame, Sunset offered her best friends her bestest lopsided smile. “The one and only.”

Twilight covered her mouth and nose with both hands, muffling a shriek. Applejack removed her hat. Timber smiled so light it was like he hadn’t really believed he’d ever smile again. As tears streamed wordlessly out of Pinkie’s big blue eyes, Rainbow Dash barked the absolute harshest laugh that Sunset had ever heard come out of her.

Staring from the staircase across the way, King Sombra whispered in the underworld of his register, almost too low to hear, “… I killed you.”

Then, a noise simpered out. Giggles sputtered past his hand. Grieving chuckles turned to volleys spiraling from his throat. King Sombra’s voice seesawed back and forth between sobs and side-splitting laughter, his form mutating from man to shadow and back again, but, in the end, the screaming laugh won out.

The Rainbooms took notice, glaring through their tears, and Sunset could feel them tensing up across the courtyard.

Projecting his voice all the way to the nosebleeds, King Sombra’s chortle glinted off the frozen-over windows of the school. “So, then!” He raised his chin to look down his nose at her. “Heaven won’t take in strays?”

Falling from 30,000 feet still had her head spinning like it was on sideways. Sunset held her forehead. It would be so embarrassing to have a concussion right now.

“Hm. Couldn't run from your problems, Shimmer? Who would have thought?” Scowling down his nose at her, he clawed the blizzarding air as the snow rained down magic into his waiting palm. He closed his fist. “Pain demands to be felt.”

The ground shivered below their boots. Shadows beneath the Rainbooms’ feet inclined up like vampiric mirrors as the real Rainbooms stumbled back from their detached doubles.

The poses, postures, and body proportions made them unmistakable, even devoid of all light, with Sunset’s own shadow at the group’s center. As the rest of Canterlot High’s doubles jeered, holding themselves hostage, the Shadowbooms approached.

Out of the real Rainbooms, only Rainbow Dash had it in her to break out of the shock. Screaming, she tore off towards their mirrors to deliver a sucker-punch when her double caught her fist like a fastball. Rainbow’s eyes boomed. “Wh-?”

Rainbow Dark giggled in a girlish rasp poisoned by static. “Little slow, Rain?”

She twisted Dash’s arm, bowling her back into the dirt by the scruff of her neck. “Rainbow!” a number of them called, Twilight’s voice chief among them. Wavering on her feet, Twilight leaned into Flash’s good side to stay stable. Between her, Timber, and Flash, Sunset wasn’t sure who would pass out first. Twilight impressively managed to pale more watching their dark reflections approach. “Oh,” she said distantly. “More…”

“Exponentially more!” Twilight’s counterpart said, as if over an old timey radio. She had her hands collected behind her back. “Good on you for figuring that one out!"

The Shadowbooms approached their counterparts as if ready to put them in the ground for a change.

Up on the front steps to the school, King Sombra roared as he lost his physical body. Morphing into the dark between stars, shadow gathered in his place like a gas and his monstrous form loomed large, taller than even the broken bell tower.

Sunset blew the hair out of her eyes and cracked a knuckle into her palm.

A trick of the lack of light made it seem like King Sombra flinched. But he soon found a better target. The smug fell off her face spotting Flash, Twilight, and Timber hobbling to get out of the fray. King Sombra chortled and used one massive shadow claw to swipe at them.

The word no ripped out of her throat.

Flying forward on flaming wings, she tackled them out of the way and took the hit herself. She’d frankly expected more bone-crushing. Where was the earth shattering ka-boom? Instead, thoughts and familiar feelings dug themselves out of the emotional graves she’d buried them in. Do I belong here? Why her? Whispers layered over one and other. Would everyone be better off without me?

Phoenix flame re-ignited at her back and she shook off the fear magic cooling the sides of her eyes. Her friends’ voices brought her back without losing herself to an intense amount of dark magic. She stared at her hands for a moment, stunned, then looked back longingly at the giant shadow monster behind her who would get why what she just did was a big deal.

But she didn’t have much time to get nostalgic. Maybe when he’s back.

While Twilight, Timber, and Flash were successfully distracting King Sombra, that could not last long. And maybe her other friends were more conscious, but she'd hesitate to say they were doing too hot. Dripping with sweat despite the cold. Running full tilt on shaking legs. Battered and bruised like nobody’s business, but still battling themselves.

The Applejacks threw blows at each other that could knock a large man out cold. Applejack got hit so hard she lost her hat in the snow, and Shadowjack whistled, taking it for her own. She whirled it around a finger. “Still lyin’ to yourself? C'mon now.” Sidestepping a lousy punch, Shadowjack wound back for a killer uppercut. “Aww what’s the matter? Truth hurts?”

Hurtling forward in crackling blaze, Sunset decked Shadowjack in the jaw. “You tell me!” She shook out the smarts in her fist as AJ’s shadow hit the ground. “Don’t listen to yourselves!”

“Oh, because that worked out sooo well for you?” Flash’s other half heckled from across the way. By the sound of his voice, at least he’d finally gotten some radio play.

She glowered over her shoulder. “Don’t make me set you on fire.”

“Like you did to yourself? Huh? Is it like that?” Gloomy Pie dangled baked goods over her own head, toying with herself. She pouted. “Did we annoy you?”

NetherShy turned her head. “Oh, did you hate us?”

“What?” Sunset grabbed Shadow Pie’s hand before she could pie-bomb herself. “Of course not. Why would you even say that?”

A scoff sounded out across the yard as the two Raritys put their fencing experience to good use. Rarity’s Shade couldn’t help but laugh.

Rarity fended off a jab. “As attractive as you are, I’m… wearing it… better!”

“How vain can a girl be?” Sparks simmered off the diamond sabre that had the real Rarity on the ropes. “Sunset Shimmer? Darling,” she laughed, adding syllables to the word. Her sword cut close to her opponent’s jugular vein. “Have you ever loved someone who loved you back?”

This morning’s leftover spicy tempura that Sunset presumed was still in her reconstituted stomach went rancid. Hard not to seethe through her teeth like some kind of animal.

Whirling around, she dove in the middle of a knife fight and held the blade at Rarity’s neck between her palms. “Hey! You want to take someone on?” Letting go, she raised her hands to the open sky and let the point of the blade poke into the skin of her chest. “I’m the bitch you want.”

“Sunset…” Rarity swore behind her.

Catching the attention of Nethershy and a giggling Rainbow Dark, Sunset pushed her chin out. “None of you can take me out, just try! What are you, scared?” The gathering shadows encouraged her every bit as much as they stoked the primal urge in her to run. She probably looked pretty unhinged with that smile but she didn’t care. Sunset gestured towards herself with both hands as her wings burned at her back. “Look at me now. I’m what fear’s afraid of.”

Her real friends, meanwhile, had a more important job: Defending the portal from a demon king whose attacks were receiving fewer and fewer cocky monologs to accompany them.

Sliding back in the snow, Sombra huffed, a puff staggered out in the air. Strands of hair hung on his forehead, but he pushed them back into the billowing shadows at his crown. His gaze snagged back on the school. And he coughed a chuckle.

King Sombra moved on the air towards the students of CHS, emboldened by the glare Flash was giving him. “Hey! Leave them out of this!”

Not that it looked like Flash could take another hit, but the others had to agree with him.

All the courtyard was a stage, his audience looking out from their demon drill positions in the classrooms. Some distant part of Sunset hated that they had a drill for that by now, but quieted that fire by punching real good. She punched so good. King Sombra addressed his captive audience. “Perhaps a decision by committee, then: Who would you have me kill first? Your teachers? School bullies?” His ten-foot frame leered at windows, and if Sunset’s eye wasn’t so well trained to see magic, she would have missed the tendrils snaking into the crevices of his armour. “The popular kids?”

“Are we popular?” Twilight asked the others, exhausted to delirium. She got a shrug from Applejack and an unsure hand waffled out of Flash.

Blocking punches from Shadowjack, Sunset wasn’t feeling very well-loved.

From on high, another voice commanded the stage as a signature snicker sounded out. “Popularity is passe. How about you pick on the Greatest and Powerful-est?”

The demon lord paused, scrunched his nose. “That’s not a word.”

Reaching into her smoke bomb holster, the Great and Powerful Trixie set off a series of fireworks. Colours spiralled into the white-out above the cheering school, above Trixie's cackling, and even more helpfully, into King Sombra’s face. “BAH!” said the shadow-man.

Before the enraged demon could retaliate, the squeal that came out of Trixie was like the tires absolutely ripping pavement on a getaway car. “Smoke bomb, smoke bomb!” Then she whipped one against the ground, and the king of demons swiped at her.

But came up empty-handed.

“She's gone!” Pinkie said, and as the smoke cleared, and shook Fluttershy beside her. “She's really gone!”

Sunset would have whistled and applauded if she had the chance.

Nine on one. While she hadn't put in too many hours hitting the punching bag, maybe the magic in her veins had. She managed to duck under a knockout from Shadowjack as she swung a kick to knock back Nethershy.

Twilight’s Mirror snapped long icicles off the roof of the school.

A flash of colour and cool breeze was her only warning that she'd dodged a high speed attack. Whipping around, she snatched an icicle out of the air and hurled it back towards the Other Twilight’s head.

Watching any version of her friends get the shit kicked out of them; not her idea of a good time, really. But her chest tightened when the shadows reformed after every attack. Pretty sure I can only do that once.

Flash’s other half hummed, hands dug into his hoodie pockets. “After everything between us, how did you miss what was really going on with me? With anybody but yourself?”

Low blow using his real talk voice against her. This wasn’t the first time she’d hated him for it, but she’d come to learn one thing about real talk Flash. The boy had a damn good point.

Rarity’s Shade sliced the air so close a woosh of air cut through the seams on the side of her jeans. “Didn’t so much as notice us? Slipped your mind?”

“I know I can’t defend myself,” she uttered, then approached the shadows as if emerging from the dog house. “I haven’t been right to you. I messed up big. None of you deserved to feel what I made you feel. You all taught me the value of friendship and love!”

She moved past a crow attack from Nethershy, who retreated into the hair curtaining her face. “Do you really believe that’s how the world works? Look at you. If you’re so reformed, why was it such a shock to you that you have to be kind to people?”

Sunset dodged a volley of crystals from Rarity’s Shade. “Yup! You got me there.”

Rainbow Dark sped to her left to lean an elbow on her shoulder. “Pff-Bahaha! Why are you nerds even wasting your breath? What kind of dumbass would you have to be to think Sunset Shimmer gave a damn about anybody else?”

"What?" Sunset winced, and didn’t feel great judo-flipping the image of her friend.

Shadowjack snorted like a bull. “I let you meet my family. Do you even know what that word means? You made a damn fool out of me!” She broke the faux-gold horseshoe statue off its brick base and tossed it like a discus toward Sunset’s head.

Sunset tried not to scream, hopping up and wildly flapping her wings in the barest attempt at flight. Her sneakers scraped it by. Landing back in the snow, she blew out a breath. “I'm sorry I was going to leave without saying goodbye.” She gripped her fists. “You’re all right to be hurt but⁠—"

“Is that why you died? On purpose? Why you wouldn’t talk to anyone?” Twilight’s Mirror warbled through her static-y voice like it was her fault. “You never wanted to see us again?”

Sunset’s fists steamed at her sides as her jaw tremored. A growl tore at her throat. She swung back her arm to point at the rainbow rip in the heavens. “You see that hole in the sky?! I tore open the multiverse and came back from the dead for all of you! I turned down immortality and a crown in Equestria⁠ with the Princesses because I want to spend my life in the world with you in it! I only just learned I have the power to choose anything in life and you know what?” She turned back towards her real friends, tears washing down her cheeks. Her smile shook so she pressed it firm, and nodded. “I choose you.”

Scanning her friends’ faces, the exhaustion brought their emotions into pro photographer focus. Tender but true, expressions like open wounds.

Coming over to them and knocking Rainbow Dark out of the way without looking, Sunset held her chest. “Please. I need you to do this with me.”

“Sunset, we’ve been fighting them.” Applejack’s voice collapsed like a bridge. Her cowlick stuck to her forehead as she shook her head. “Don’t got much more in me to keep going. Look at us! We can’t take no more.”

“Maybe if we were at full power⁠, but now…?” Rarity shook her head, eyes made of glass and anxiety. She tried to make another sound, but it wouldn’t quite come out.

“You were doing amazing with them,” Fluttershy offered with a timidness Sunset couldn’t place at first until she recognized it: she was wary of her.

“I can hold them off, but they’re your shadows. That’s your magic!” She resisted a full lecture on the metaphysical relationship between psychology and magic. Celestia help me if I start sounding like my mom.

Rainbow clapped her on the shoulder. “Dude, I’m with you ‘til the end, but you know not all of us have super mega dead girl magic, right?”

To hell with the demon lord at her back, or the shadows prowling the yard. She focused her whole heart on her friends. “You already know what I’m gonna say. We’ve taken down every enemy who’s ever come up against us and won with a smile. Any magical problem, we fix, any lost demon in need of a friend, we’re there for! We’re the Rainbooms! We’re Canterlot Wondercolts!” Wind blowing her hair, a fire burned too hot for the cold to reach her. “We need each other’s help.”

For not the first time, Sunset Shimmer felt all of her friends’ eyes waiting on her. Heeding her command. Taking that in, her eyebrows raised. She caught Twilight’s eye, asking, and in return she only saw knowing pride.

Turning toward the enemy, Sunset sensed the rest of the Rainbooms behind her, following her lead.

Zooms of faded colour shot past. Sunset calculated the threat, and knew she couldn't chance it. Out of everyone in her arsenal, who would…?

She grinned. “Dash, Pinkie. You're up.”

Despite the exhaustion, Twilight’s eyes widened. Too smart for your own good, huh, Sparky? “Those two? Are you sure?”

“Positive,” Sunset said and clapped those two on the shoulders. “Focus on your connection to each other, what you have in common. Your magic will do the rest.”

Dash’s brown drew together before the plan clicked and she drew out an “Ohhhhhh, gootcha! On it, chief.” RD turned to Pinkie, who was already struggling to contain her smile. Dash aimed a game smirk her way. “Heh. I don't know what this'll do, but I'm so stoked to find out. Ready to clown on these jokers?”

Doing a shoulder dance, the suppressed giggle rocketing out of Pinkie hinted at maniacal. “Let’s get this party started!”

As the others watched in awe and horror, Rainbow and Pinkie bumped fists. As soon as their fists made contact, new magic, pink and blue turned violet glow, raced around their bodies and the two of them looked hopped up on something wild. Their pupils dilated, full moon, and the slight tremor to their overexcited stances had Sunset sure she'd made the right call.

That, or doomed them all, but been there, done that.

Listening to delirious giggles, Sunset realized she'd seen this before. Even as those two exploded forward at speeds even Dash hadn't hit, she couldn't shake that familiar feeling until she placed it: the sleepover of the end of Junior Year. The sugar rush incident.

Yeah, okay, King Sombra’s doomed.

The two of them pinballed all over the courtyard, cackling around confused shadow clones until they each tackled their counterparts, accepting them back into bodies.

Holding his own shadow back away from the group, Timber’s smile seemed to flicker and fade, if only for a second. Sunset wasn’t all sure why, but Sombra watched him, starting to smile again.

Timber managed to teleport himself and Shadow Timber away, ditch his shadow, and teleport back. “Put me in, coach!” He sidled up and beamed at Twilight, elbowing her side. “How about some mental math: Levitation + teleportation = …?”

Twilight’s curious eyes shone, but she hesitated, drawing back her hand. “Um. Can we try that another time?” She started fiddling with her hands as she rambled on, “We’re not Cinder and Midnight anymore so maybe it isn’t dangerous, but sharing magic⁠—it’s just, I want to be close again so please don’t take it to mean I don’t ever want to but⁠—”

“Boundaries,” Timber said, and smiled more genuinely.

Twilight took a second to realize she didn’t have to keep babbling, and then finally breathed in relief. Her whole body sighed with her. “Yeah,” she said, and squeezed his hand. “Boundaries. Thanks for understanding.”

He nodded. “Thank you for saying something.”

They both relaxed considerably. Sunset got an idea. She shot a look at Rarity and flicked her head over.

And no sooner had she sent her over, did Rarity tap Timber on the shoulder. “In that case, would you mind terribly if I cut in?” Timber attempted to step aside, but Rarity laughed and grabbed his hand. “Oh darling, no, I was asking Twilight if I could steal you. I have it on good authority that together we would make quite the collaboration!” She winked back to Sunset who gave her a thumbs up after punching a shadow in the face.

Twilight crossed her arms, grinning amusedly next to Flash who had a quiet, knowing pride in his boyfriend. She raised an eyebrow at Timber. “What are you looking at me for? It’s not like I’m the princess of anything.”

Timber smirked with her briefly then performed something of an over-pronounced half-bow as he extended a cordial, gentlemanly hand. “If the lady pleases.”

Rarity accepted his hand with one of her own over her heart. “The pleasure is mine.”

Rarity and Timber together emanated a blinding light for a moment to the point that Sunset had to look away, but when she could look back with sunspots swimming through her vision, she looked back to find they seemed to glow but couldn’t tell what for. She supposed she hadn’t expected an explosion from those two.

Timber examined his glowing hands. “Well, something’s working, so that’s a plus.” He cupped his hands around his mouth to shout up to the demon lord. “Hey, Frosty! Bite my beautiful shiny ass!” And Timber proceeded to wiggle his butt in some obscene dance.

“Indeed! Whatever it is, I say it’s fabulous,” Rarity added, and if Sunset paid close attention she could see the glow grew stronger the more compliments they gave themselves.

Shadow Timber found the brick and rubble heap that used to be the school’s clock tower and teleported it all right above Timber and Rarity’s heads.

Both of them shrieked and Sunset had trouble deciphering whose was higher pitched, and yet all of the bricks… missed. Each and every one. And kept missing, despite all logic to the contrary.

Timber laughed, dodging gracefully. “I’m almost too good at this!”

“Oh!” Rarity perked up as she saw their shared glow increase. She cupped her hands around her mouth to add. “Yes! At least make it a challenge for us, darling!” She managed to blind-side her Shade by spinning her, as if taking the masculine role in a slow-dance. Once she’d reincorporated her shadow into her body, Rarity flipped her purple curls, not a hair out of place. “Nothing like a little confidence.”

Twilight giggle-snorted next to Sunset. “Oh lord. Of course that’s their power.”

Sunset nodded. “Yup. Only thing that makes sense.”

“Oh please! You’re all sick!” The demon king lost interest in the school and rematerialized back down to his ten-foot-tall body. “Don't try to play the heroes now. If you could only see the potential for greatness I see in you! You’ll all be as despicable as you really are inside!”

“Uh, what? Have you even met these girls?” Flash scoffed, throwing up his hands. “They’re amazing! They fight evil magic and save people who wouldn’t save themselves and never give up even when things look grim! Actual heroes!”

Flash could see Applejack struggling against the heavy hitting blows of her double. “You’ve got this, AJ! Remember who you’re fighting for.” And he put a hand on her shoulder. “They’re proud of you!”

The green magic around AJ grew brighter and in an instant, she delivered a punch so powerful it knocked her shadow into the brick siding of the school⁠⁠—making it easy to accept her back into her body.

Applejack whistled and smirked back at Flash, wiping her brow. “Thanks, pardner. You’re pretty dang heroic yourself there.”

“Hey yeah!” Zooming to be part of the conversation, Rainbow Dash appraised Flash up and down. “You know,” she started. “I saw your sweet licks on guitar up there, on the roof? And if you’re this good at amping us up…”

Flash’s eyes widened, and if Sunset didn’t know better she’d swear his pupils dilated like a cat eager to play.

Dash exchanged a knowing smirk with the other girls, including Sunset who almost rolled her eyes at Rainbow’s sense of suspense. “How’d you like to join the Rainbooms?”

The noise that came out of Flash defied his vocal range. “YES! Oh my gosh! I have so many ideas and I’ve really really really wanted to collab with Fluttershy on song-writing and all of you together for forever!” He blushed, but couldn’t hide his beam or the sway in his stance. “Uh, that’s a yes! Yes please.”

“Welcome aboard, dude.” Sunset couldn’t resist giving him a bear hug. The others rallied around him, their magic brighter for having him around. King Sombra hissed at the brightness, flaring his cape dramatically.

With the demon distracted, Sunset had time to notice Nethershy terrorizing herself. She’d all but cornered Fluttershy against the old oak tree and didn’t have to use a single power to have her trembling. Who does she need right now? She ran down the list in her head and then tapped RD on the shoulder, pointing her over to Fluttershy. “Got another one for you.”

In her lucky letterman’s jacket, Dash cracked her knuckles. “Oh-ho, yeah, leave it to me. I hate bullies.”

That’s exactly what I’m counting on.

Dash stomped over. “Oi! Wannabe! You got a problem with Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “Dashie?”

She forced herself in between them, chin raised, but reached out behind herself to hold Fluttershy’s hand like two first graders against the world. “You’ll have to go through me.”

Thunder growled in a snowstorm.

Lightning, natural as anything, shone from both of their eyes. And soon, Fluttershy stepped out from behind Dash, still holding her hand, fury electrifying her features. “Actually, you’ll have to go through both of us.”

Lightning shot from her hand and the shadow readily retreated into Fluttershy, who, once de-powered, blinked as if waking up from a dream. And she clapped, smiling at Rainbow. “Goodness. I like that.”

Over by the portal, Sunset smiled at Flash. “Do I even have to ask?”

“Nope. I know you too well by now.” Flash laughed, then got what she wanted him to do: He offered a little wave to Twilight. “Hey, you wanna give this boost thing a try? I mean, uh, if you want to, you know we could⁠—” He smiled. “Touch those downs?”

Twilight gave him a soft high five and entwined her fingers into his. “Let’s.”

Now, if asked Sunset probably would have guessed advanced levitation would just, like, be a more powerful levitation. She’d seen the difference between Magic Kindergarner’s and Master Mage’s grad students in terms of the sheer weight and density they could propel into the air⁠—there was a sliding scale in terms of strength. And in a manner of speaking, yes, that was what happened. Technically. In a way.

But as Twilight, Flash, and Sunset herself⁠—and everyone and all small objects within about a ten foot radius rose off the ground, floating midair and rotating slowly like astronauts in zero-G, it was as if they had control over gravity itself. Twilight’s eyes glittered dorkishly. “Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo! We have liftoff!”

Needless to say, King Sombra did not much appreciate floating out of his control. “RAWRGHGH!” he articulated astutely, or that’s what Sunset could hear through the cape flopping over his face.

Maybe she enjoyed taking the piss out of the big bad demon lord just a smidge.

The shadows couldn’t be disconnected from the earth⁠—but Sunset figured that made sense. Even if beings of pure magical energy had very little mass to manipulate, the magic still had laws to obey. Being fear housed in bodies formed from the literal shadows under their feet (clever, she’d admit if she didn’t hate King Sombra right now), they probably couldn’t possibly exist midair.

Oh damn. Thaumaturgical Theory and Applications 304 actually did have applications, Sunset through, smirking as she hopped from floating debris to debris. Who’d a thunk it?

(Not that she’d admit that to her mom who forced her to take that class)

That meant two things: For one, Twilight could levitate herself above her own shadow, usurping the throne. She adjusted her glasses and went on manipulating the gravity around them.

Thing the second: King Sombra had nowhere to escape.

Sunset skipped over toward King Sombra and unveiled him, as if revealing the true villain at the end of a children’s mystery TV show. Sunset smiled, keeping distances from King Sombra’s swipes but forcing him to face facts. She called out, “Rarity! AJ! You’re up!”

Applejack scooped Rarity up bridal-style. Almost too ready to do so. For her part Rarity’s flushed preoccupation with the muscles holding her up stalled them for a moment until Applejack had to prompt, “Uh, Rarity?”

“Mmm?” She snapped herself out of it. “Ooo, yes! Style, meet substance!”

A glittering beam shot out and encapsulated King Sombra completely. Never being completely sure what anybody’s powers would do always made it a gamble, but Sunset had had a hunch those two would have something flashy.

Diamond armour wasn’t only strong and fashionable, but fabulously reflective. All of the shadows Sombra could hope to escape into were dotted with bouncing light, including his own, and judging by his infuriated roar as he wriggled suspended in the air like a disco ball, he wasn’t a fan.

When Sunset touched back down to earth, her fires went out as she looked around. A calm had come over the courtyard, the last Shadowboom dusted. We… won. A relieved laugh came out of her then, all breath. King Sombra collapsed in shiny defeat as Sunset’s friends rushed toward her. Full-tilt.

All Sunset could think to do was hold out her arms, wings dousing out to fluffy, downy feathers, and brace herself for the dogpile.

Rainbow Dash walloped into her next, which easily must’ve clocked above the school-zone speed limit. Pinkie’s pounce kept her from toppling over, Twilight shambled over with tears streaking from her thick nerd glasses, and then almost all at once all of them barreled into her and overwhelmed Sunset with so much tearful, grateful, babbling love that she had no choice but to let it in.

Not that it mattered anymore, but she let out a “Goddammit!” as she accepted the fact that they’d made her cry her eyes out twice that day and held as many of them as her arms would allow⁠—hard.

Twilight gripped the shirt beneath Sunset’s leather jacket in the space between her wings, pulling her as close as possible. “Sunny,” she gasped. “Oh, sweetie…”

Pinkie sniffled.

“Darling, you⁠ scared us so terribly,” Rarity scolded her, on behalf of an overcome Timber who nodded through his tears and grimace. Flash’s shoulders shook with effort.

“I-I know, Celestia, I know,” Sunset leaned her head to the side, into his cowlick. Her eyes burned at the comfort of her best friend’s smell and the crashing, crushing thought that she may have never smelled that again. “I was so dumb, I⁠-I’m so sorry I'm such a big, dumb idiot."

That earned a round of protests from the group. She may have teared up more and had to bury her face in the crook of Flash’s neck.

“Oh, please don't beat yourself up! You've done enough of that. And don’t you ever feel like you can’t come to us.” Fluttershy stroked her hair, melting something vital. "We’re here."

Applejack chuckled, almost giddily, hugging onto her. “You came back⁠—for us. Stars above, you truly wouldn’t stay dead…”

Their tears collapsed into giggles, then ugly-sobbing. Sunset couldn’t tell if she was laughing or sobbing as her friends gave her shit because they loved her too much not to. She held on in their toasty embrace in the midst of a terrible winter storm. “Aww, don’t act so surprised. Of course I came back for you⁠—I’d come back a thousand times.” She nestled into them to hide her blush. “You don’t run out on family.”

Starting slow, the familiar thrum of powerful magic reverberated through her bones. She could see it through her tears on the others, too. Different coloured auras glowed around each of her friends, refracting off the snow at their feet.

The head-to-toe flow of a magical transformation tingled like stars lighting up across the galaxy of her body. A sparkly, fashionable outfit replaced her street clothes, skirt flowing and pony ears poking through hair. Fully equipped to whoop some ass, Sunset automatically struck a pose as her boots touched back down on the snow.

Her family transformed alongside her⁠—and not just the girls.

Flash and Timber’s eyes went wide as it washed over their bodies. Flash’s hoodie morphed into golden battle armour worthy of an ancient pegasine guardsman. Timber traded out his beanie and puffy vest for garb fit for a spirit of the woods. Timber twisted and examined his new duds as if in someone else’s body. Not that he would know the experience.

“We ponied up.” Flash beamed, giggling manically to his befuddled boyfriend. “We ponied up!”

Grinning, Sunset wiped her eyes, then turned back towards the demon man grieving on the ground. Her footfalls crunched the snow beneath her boots. “Hey. How you holding up?”

With his head down, she couldn’t quite see his face. A dead man’s tone came out. Quiet and atonal. “I know your demons better than you know yourselves. I’ve seen it inside of you. All of you.” She’d never heard a demon talk at a normal volume before, resting on uncanny. “If even you won’t accept the truth of who you are⁠— …”

An odd wind trickled down her spine.

His snarled grimace loosened, even as his pointed teeth could be seen through the small opening of his mouth. “... Then I truly must be the worst demon on earth.”

Sunset’s brows came together.

King Sombra pushed past her towards the portal, and Sunset’s friends rushed to stage a defense against him, Timber at the front of the pack.

Sunset called after him. “We’ve already won! You didn’t kill me, Sombra, you can’t take credit for that,” she said, voice rising, her friends preparing. “If anyone’s to blame, Princess Twilight killed me!”

King Sombra froze.

“She what?!” Flash and Twilight exploded together.

Next to all the other shocked faces of her friends, Applejack whistled, eyebrows raised. “Seriously?”

“Yeah,” Sunset laughed, air escaping out her smile seeing King Sombra falter. “Princess Twilight killed me! A-and Princess Luna, and even Princess Celestia! Who’s kind of my mom now⁠—we had this whole talk in the stars, I cried, we hugged—”

“Aww, Sunset, really?” Twilight said, still clearly trying to reconcile with the heinous crime her counterpart committed but also recognizing an important moment for her girlfriend. “You finally told her?”

Sunset rubbed her neck, blushing hard. “Yeah, I did⁠, but that’s not important.” She approached the demon from behind and let her voice carry on the winter winds. “You haven’t killed anyone. It isn’t too late to define yourself by the choice you make right now.”

Winter winds ravaged the courtyard. The shadows paused, waiting for command.

Offering out her hand, Sunset grimaced. “I promise we’re going to believe you when you tell us who you really are. So… who are you really?”

For a moment, nothing moved.

The shadows had disappeared, but Sunset could hardly see darkness taking a new shape in his hand. The shadows lengthened, as though in twilit hour, and fashioned into a spear solid as any stone that he drove into the middle of Timber Spruce’s chest.

A violent scream lurched out of Sunset’s mouth the same way it did from every Rainboom there. “Timber!”

Timber hung impaled as the spear dug into the earth behind him. Wide-eyed and silent, he fumbled clumsily at his chest to pick it out. The demon looked on.

“I am Sombra, King of Demons,” he said. “Look on my wretched works, ye mighty, and despair.”

The spear itself seemed to dissolve, letting him fall, but the wound stayed. Dark and festering, flesh rot with poison. His fabulous pony-up armour faded back into street clothes.

Flash rushed to cradle Timber before he could collapse, and Twilight grabbed the other side of him, glaring up at King Sombra through burning tears. Flash seethed. “What the hell did you do to him?!”

The demon trembled. He turned over his hands and noticed the trembling himself. He closed those hands. “Get out of my way. I’ll terrorize your homeland. I’ll show everyone how horrendous their king has become! You’ll say, oh! Oh, what has he done?! What have I done?!”

The storm around them flurried so hard and violently⁠—winds sawing trees, tearing down branches and snapping power lines in showering sparks, that the snow erased out the last remaining sightlines. The cold shook Sunset down to the bone and the brightest thing she could see were her friends’ geodes blinking out in the blizzard.

The demon lord rose into the air, swallowed by the squall.

Head down and arm over her eyes, Sunset rushed to her friends huddled there by the portal, all of them surrounding Timber but making way for her when she arrived. “Oh fuck, oh Celestia. Timber, I’m so sorry!”

Timber mumbled too low to be heard. Fading fast.

“Stay with us!” Fluttershy demanded.

“Timbo, please!” Pinkie’s big blue eyes bubbled over with tears. Rainbow Dash’s pink eyes were already red, her rasp breaking up as she smeared her face into her letterman’s jacket sleeve.

Holding her hat to her head, Applejack kept her eyes pointed skyward, maybe to keep the tears internal.

Sunset followed her direction to the epicenter of a tri-city wide storm all converging upon the shadow of a man they could hardly see any detail of. The shadow of a demon lord shouting out in the front yard of Canterlot High.

More than that, the shadows of the rest of the school descended from their posts to fill the yard ahead and get closer to their master. A sea of red eyes and violent tongues. They clamoured under him, rioting, clamouring, moshing to get a taste of him. If the Shadowbooms had chased after Sunset, the Shadow Army was now magnetized to their King.

But Sunset didn’t know how long they’d be distracted from the portal.

“We have to get Timber somewhere safe out of the storm! Now!” Her eyes connected with Twilight and Flash’s. “Twilight and I need to heal him and we might need a boost to do it.”

Flash nodded, but she could see both of them were just as scared shitless as she was, holding Timber up in consciousness.

“But if we’re gone, that means⁠—” Sunset looked to the rest of her friends, her mouth going dry. The cyclone winds blistered.

“Go,” Fluttershy told her, a hand on her shoulder.

Eyes flickering towards the army of shadows, Sunset shook her head. “But⁠—”

“We’re going to be okay now, but you’ve gotta get him outta here,” Pinkie told her, and smiled. “This is one of those maybe things.”

The five of them stood around the portal, winds blustering around them but their hearts shining brightly through their geodes like a lighthouse out in the darkest sea. Rainbow Dash smirked. “Well? What the hell are you waiting for?”

“We’ve got your back,” Applejack promised, nodding to Twilight and Flash too over Sunset’s shoulder. “Now, go on, y’all! Get gone!”

The storm blinded their haggard, shambling run, and Sunset hated that as leader in charge of knowing where they were going. In the bustling wind, she turned back toward Timber, “Stay with us, dude, you’re gonna be okay.”

Twilight puffed, not doing so hot in the cold air. “Please keep your eyes open.”

The paleness in his skin and the deadness in his eyes sent her for a dip in an ice bath. “Too much…" he muttered, along with a string of words Sunset couldn’t catch.

Sunset grimaced facing forward so he couldn’t see. “I know, bud, we’re almost there.”

Where there was, she had no idea. She “led” them forward barreling into the empty open white until she spotted the closest opening in the school: the hole King Sombra had blown open at some point before Sunset died. “There!”

Together, the four of them stumbled forward. The gasping cold ushered her into the safety of the indoors almost by force. Even once inside, Sunset’s inner ear stung from the wind.

Sunset waved them over. “Bring him in through⁠—”

She lost her breath.

What she hadn’t seen while barreling in through the storm was what room of the school this blown-open alcove had once been. Ash and broken ceiling tiles came together in a hollow impression of the school’s band room. A ceiling beam thicker than her stabbed through the steps she’d spent countless lunch hours lounging around.

Strands of light filtered from above fell over the charred, torn Rainbooms drum set.

Stalled for words, Flash and Twilight faltered, but Sunset tugged at them to bring Timber in from the cold. No time.

Flash refused to let Timber’s head touch the ground, propping him up in his lap and holding his clammy, pale hand. “You’re going to be okay now, hon,” he was saying as Sunset scrambled to take off her leather jacket and put it over Timber. “We’re right here with you. Everything’s going to be okay.”

Twilight checked his pulse at his jugular with two fingers, but in doing so, Sunset got a real glimpse at just how ashy Timber’s skin had become. Supernaturally so. The wound in his chest flared with each rising inhale, like coals stoked in a fire. Soon to sputter out.

“No no no, please,” Twilight whined and took the hand he pressed to her cheek. Her vocal chords tore themselves apart in between asthmatic gasps. “Please stay with us, Timber. Can you hear me?”

Taking his other hand, Sunset tried not to grimace seeing the cold sweat shining on his brow or the slimming of his pupils. “... yeah,” and continued rambling to call that into doubt. “Too much… it’s too much…”

Flash squeezed his hand. “It’s okay. The girls are going to heal you up, good as new.”

Twilight held out her hand for Sunset over Timber’s wound but Sunset hesitated, fingers curling back. “It’s dark magic.”

“And?” Twilight asked, frazzled and clearly anxious out of her mind. “We knew that, didn’t we?”

Sunset grabbed her hand and pushed through her doubt, but even throwing all that they had behind a healing spell⁠—even if it meant a whole new level of heartburn⁠—nothing changed. Even when Flash joined the fray and willed all his boosting strength into them, nothing. The wound still festered.

“No, no, no… that can't be it,” Twilight said. “That can't be all we can do!”

Sunset cursed. “Dark magic isn't something we can heal away,” she said, apologetic and soft to her new best friend.

Timber’s breathing oxygenated a fire visible through the cracks in his chest. His dark eyes connected with hers, and he nodded. There was a whistle to the wheeze. “I'm sorry.”

“Hey.” Thumbing the curls off a cut on his forehead, Sunset caught a fever blasting off his skin. She hoped it wasn’t baking his brain. The wreckage had them surrounded on all sides, and she didn’t like him breathing all this in when each breath knocked him down for the count. “That’s my line.”

His chest crackled between them. Truth be told, it was the only thing keeping them warm.

The heat must have been burning Flash’s thighs, but he pulled Timber closer.

“I can’t blame them,” Timber muttered low, winds whistling high. He didn’t seem like he was aware of the rest of them. His head lolled to the side to stare at the torn drum set with the band logo. “I wish I could blame them.”

Left out of the conversation, the remaining three of them traded looks that only made Sunset more scared, seeing it reflected back at her. “What do you mean?”

Where green should have been in his eyes had gone ablaze. Timber looking at Sunset with those eyes felt like twin cattle-brands. “When they thought you were never coming back, you did a real number on our friends. I’ve never seen anything like it. You ripped their hearts clean out, you know? Meanwhile, I’ve always been in exile⁠. And our friends don’t know me enough to know I’ve been terrified of going back. So, you’ve gotta tell me your secret.” He couldn’t stop himself smiling at that. “How’d you do it? How do you matter to people?”

Sunset squeezed his hand so hard she hoped it hurt. “You tell me.”

Holding back sit-com laugh-tracks, they held each other’s eyes while they watered.

Pissed to shit, Flash had to wipe his eyes so he wasn’t crying over him. “You matter so much…”

At the same time, Twilight held a hand over her mouth, eyes calculating, until her gaze snapped into place. “This is me,” she said. “This is my fault.”

The other three had a look at her. Flash looked so tired. “Don’t you start.”

“No, it is! I never wanted you to get hurt so I kept you from magic, but that also kept you from spending time with the rest of our friends. That’s why you feel so distant! I was trying to keep you safe.” Her face fell in the firelight of his chest. “God. Princess of Friendship, eat your heart out.”

All the times Sunset tried to push her into being something she wasn’t came back. She hoped an apology came through in her eyes, but getting Twilight’s gaze in return, Twilight somehow got the message.

“Would’ve been like this one way or another,” Timber told her, burning on the floor with his demon eyes. “I’m kind of a lot.”

“Join the club,” Sunset told him. “Think we all need therapy at this point…”

Over the fire, Flash smiled at the rest of them. “We’re the Therapy Squad, huh?”

Despite hanging around her messy ass for weeks, despite everything, Timber still seemed unconvinced that any of them were on his level. “You’re the good kind of a lot. Meanwhile…” he coughed and the fire in his chest oxygenated. “Can’t blame the girls for not getting close to that. Who was I kidding trying to pal around with them these past few weeks? Who wants to deal with all this?”

Protest after protest burned against the back of Sunset’s throat. None of it would be enough, even if she friendship speech’ed him to Celestia’s kingdom come. She hated sitting there saying nothing, but anything she could think of would just be knocked down, and she knew it.

Then, her girlfriend remembered a memory of a laugh. “You know? I see why you and Sunset are best friends now. You two are way too hard on yourselves.” Twilight twirled a finger with a tiny bit of magic, pointing upwards, and as she did something on the ceiling above what used to be the band room steps unfurled.

A banner rolled out with splashes of cupcake-shaped confetti raining down over the steps and the rubble at her feet with seven signatures and the message scrawled in glitter and paint:

HAPPY INTERVENTION, TIMBER AND SUNSET

Smiling up, Sunset breathed it in. You beautiful dorks. She turned back to see the gaping boy on the ground and Timber’s chest wound closing tight. Crying at his name on the banner. He glowed faintly like a firefly. “... they noticed.”

Watching Flash rub his boyfriend’s back, Sunset held back the I told you so that would’ve made her the biggest hypocrite on the planet Earth. But when she could see through the tears, she saw a glow forming around her and unlike the magic she’d been dealing in recently, this she hadn’t felt in a long, long while. She knew what was coming. The mountaintop feeling of looking down on her past and laughing.

Sunset grinned. “Bitchin’,” she said, sounding stuffed up. She rubbed her eyes dry. “Alright. Now I’ve got a bit of a game plan on the go, but I’m going to need you to help me out. Flash, stay with Timber—make damn sure he’s all healed up before you two rush back out there to help anyone else.”

Timber flashed a thumbs up from the floor while Flash nodded dutifully. “Keep my boyfriend out of trouble? It’s the job I was born for.”

She caught Timber’s eye in particular who seemed more than a little glassy-eyed and readied a fist-bump. “Therapy Squad?”

Timber recognized the fist under his nose, and nodded. All four of them bumped fists. “Therapy Squad.”

Leaving the boys to take care of each other, Sunset and Twilight rushed out into the frozen halls of Canterlot High. Lockers iced shut, floors caked with snow, classrooms in lockdown mode, and when they got to the front entranceway in front of the school trophy case, Sunset took her girlfriend’s hand to squeeze. “This is the ‘See you later.’”

Her girlfriend’s inquisitive eyes twinkled, eager to logic out Sunset’s plan. “What do you need me to do?”

Sunset could see her breath ahead of her but that didn’t stop the fire burning bright behind her smile. “C’mon, babe, you know this one. Thursdays at noon.”

Recognition lit up her eyes, but when Sunset tried to leave, Twilight caught her arm. “Wait!”

She looked back, even just for a moment to breathe the same air as her girlfriend, to realize they hadn’t had a moment alone as themselves in weeks. That she’d died already once today, and anything could happen as soon as this moment between them was over.

Sunset Shimmer kissed her girlfriend like all the underworld was calling her name.

The warmth of Twilight’s body pressing against hers set Sunset’s wings on fire at her back. She opened her eyes to see her girlfriend smiling back at her. Sunset felt her still-tingling lips smirk. “Damn,” she muttered, noticing the flames sprouting out of her leather jacket. “Totally worth coming back from the dead for.”

“Oh, good. There’s, um, more where that came from if you keep it that way.” Twilight cupped Sunset’s cheek. “Stay safe.”

“You, too,” Sunset begged softly, stealing just one more quick kiss before parting and booking it toward the staircase.

The leaps she made up the stairs were so long her wings kicked in and sprang her up farther and faster, blazing behind her and taking her boots kicking off the ground as she ascended all the way up to the school’s third floor.

Sunset Shimmer exploded down the hall with her friends’ bank of lockers and as she did the classroom doors opened up around her, cheers and applause exploding left and right from teachers and classmates treading lightly into the melting hall.

Magic more universal than her own moved in her. As if feeling a tug on the tether tying her to every other being in the multiverse, willing her on. Willing her to be herself.

Racing down to the hallway’s end, she could see the large three-paned window giving her a view of the terrible supernatural disaster blizzarding down on the city. But even through it all, she could just make out the outline of the crack in the sky, opened wide and waiting for anyone and everyone to reach a galaxy of potential.

She pushed the bar to the emergency exit, and soared up the final set of steps and door to the school’s roof. As she did, she let her body take its final form without resistance.

Once out in the cold, she could see the back of the demon lord relishing in the storm. In fact, dude was belting his operatic heart out. Like, actually singing.

He was by all bars and measures mid-song in what Sunset could only assume was some dumb, angsty reference to Shadow of the Symphony. She didn’t understand what the hell she was seeing until she saw the shadow army lapping all his edgy, angsty melodrama up like he was the star of the greatest show on earth.

She rolled her eyes, then cupped her hands around her mouth. “Hey!”

Rearing back, King Sombra twisted around only for his eyes to widen in utter shock at the vision before him.

Ready to rain down hell and heaven alike, Daydream Shimmer floated above Canterlot High. “Don’t be such a drama queen.”

King Sombra seethed. “You⁠!” He laughed a trembling laugh from the base of his bassy chest, planting his hands on his hips. “Of course! A hero must rise to fell the worst Evil she knows. Brava!” His claps dripped with sarcasm, echoing across to her. “I'll gladly play my part. What better way to terrorize a nation like Equestria than to kill their beloved princess?”

Daydream’s smirk snagged.

His laugh gargled out of him. “HaHA! Do you understand the depths of my depravity now? I am⁠ your greatest, most fearsome riva—”

A missile punch connected with his jaw. Her classmates roared a cheer from the school’s windows.

“I’m starting to think you pose an immediate danger to yourself or others.” Daydream put up her dukes. “You know the rules.”

Fire igniting, Daydream launched into Sombra with one full-body kick, rolling back to her feet in time to miss a swipe where she’d been and swing a flaming punch to his chest. King Sombra dodged or blocked most of her torch-like punches and walloped her backward with a knockout of his own.

Morphing back into shadow, formless and untouchable, Mr. Lord of Demons made sure she wouldn’t get another easy shot. Fine by me. The King leered at her. “Oh? And you think yourself the proper authority?”

“Nah. Authority and I don’t tend to mix too well,” Daydream said, getting in her feelings about it. Emotions from the last few weeks bubbled and swarmed to the surface, barely below the skin, and a glow formed around her. One way only. She could do one way, that was only fair while Solstice was Backstage. After everything that happened during the fire drill, the idea of invading someone else’s mind without asking… making that kind of choice for them…

One way only.

That’ll have to be enough. Daydream brought her fists, crossed over her chest as the pressure built at her ribs. Her eyes welled up, feeling it all. “I’m not the one you should talk to. But I know a good counsellor.”

She released the hold on her chest and at that moment? Sunset Shimmer felt sorry for anyone who had to deal with her feelings.

So many emotions all at once flooded the area in a hormonal bomb. Moments of victory and joy and hope so good it hurt waged war against the terror of being known. Like a thousand voices talking in her head at once, all Sunset could do to withstand it was ground herself with a breathing exercise. Four in. Hold. Four out. Hold.

“Not… alone… you’re⁠—” Meanwhile King Sombra was crying openly like a teenage girl. His voice twinned, drawing Solstice out like she’d waved coffee under his nose, then came back together in the lower growl of his register. He clutched his head to keep it from splitting in two. “Foul trickery!”

He swiped at her with materializing claws and she dodged out of the way, back and forth, twisting on the wind. “Right! As real as this feels,” she said, her voice crackling between defensive moves, “that’s only the symptom. You have to look under the feelings⁠—right to the heart: Who you think you really are!”

Dark magic raked into her back. King Sombra grinned at her scream from down the length of his lance digging into her. “You already know my name.” His eyes slit and he shoved her and the lance impaling her away. “Soon so will all Equestria. My destiny awaits!”

Landing on the roof, Sunset gouged the lance out of herself, screaming, the dark magic wound healing in the shimmering light of her magic. Throwing down the lance, she launched herself forward and fired a ray of pure, unfiltered sunlight at him, scorching hot out of both hands.

Brightness burned even her eyes, staining the insides of her eyelids with sunspots and refracting off the snow blizzarding around her. She saw the demon edgelord barreling backwards through the clouds, screaming all the while.

Ascending through darker and darker clouds, Daydream Shimmer flew into the storm. Controlling the only light source, all the shadows moved as well—including King Sombra. They stared at each other, and she did it again to make sure. Forcing the light to the left dragged Sombra to the right.

Daydream beamed like a child with a new toy. Oh hell yeah.

Every move he made to flee into the dark, she angled the light and made the lord of shadows into her very own puppet. He had to move with her. King Sombra roared a growl, as the light beam sizzled and seared his shadow.

“You have potential to be everything you’ve ever been afraid of, or worse than you could even imagine,” Daydream promised. The air pressure built around her, fire coning. “So you think this is your destiny. What if you lived a life you were never destined for?”

Before the light could extinguish him, King Sombra roared as he descended on her with his eyes steaming full of dark magic. The two of them wrestled through the air like a set of dueling comets. “You’re King Sombra!” she shouted over the wind, “and you’re Solstice Shiver! You’re afraid of heights! You have a crush on our principal! You have a lot of feelings about beverages!”

She managed to escape his clutches, too high to come down now.

With all of Canterlot High seeing who they really were, a new weapon formed in Daydream’s hands. A gleaming, golden sledgehammer fit for the gods. “You believe in people and for once I need you to believe in all of who you are! That’s what makes us human!” She wound back as if ready to bust up a mirror to another world, then took one large swing. “The power to choose!”

Daydream’s sledgehammer cracked into the demon’s crown.

One swing might have been enough to send him reeling, but the magic inside her turned it into a combo attack, chaining hit after hit in quick succession faster than her muscles could have managed on their own. All of Canterlot High, all of Equestria, all of the love of her Celestia-loving family was behind her. With one final blow, she sent him crashing through the roof. Back into the school he chose to belong in.

Listening to the sounds of her classmates cheering from the windows, she breathed. I hope Principal Celestia doesn’t make me fix that myself.

Shining down a light at him lying there in the counselling office, he hissed up from the purple couch, raising a hand to shield his eyes. Daydream relaxed into a smile, and sledgehammer resting on one shoulder, she held out her free hand. “Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself. Everybody wants to rule the world.”

The spotlight she’d put on him gave him a stage. Daydream recognized her mistake.

While almost completely engulfed in light, there was one place left he could escape. Flaring his cape, King Sombra disappeared into it like a two-bit stage magician and Daydream’s heart froze over cold. The cape settled empty on the floor.

A voice behind her cackled. “Quite right. But only some are destined to be King.”

Brutal winds blasted around him. The oldest symphony in concert. Snow and ice reigned the sky, a city dominated by darkness and depression untold, an army of teenage souls battling below, and through it all, Daydream couldn’t unsee how King Sombra’s red, flowing cape matched the violent red of his eyes as he brought the magic from the sky down on her all at once.

King Sombra materialized a prop plastic sword⁠—one so cheap she would’ve easily believed he stole from the Drama department. Imbued with shadows, he may as well have turned it into a stygian blade. His sword clashed with her sledgehammer, more deft a weapon, easier to maneuver. Easier to find chinks in her armour. “Magic is powered by emotion,” he projected to the nosebleeds, grinning as he beat her backward, “but how it manifests, well, that depends on who you really are, doesn’t it?”

Rivalling the speed of light, King Sombra shifted parts of his body into shadow to give himself enough speed to fence her back toward the round skylight above the library. Their reflections at her back, Daydream grit her teeth. King Sombra’s blade ate through her stomach.

Despair and gutting pain rocked through her whole world like she’d lost her pet cat.

Gritting her teeth as she screamed, Daydream hooked her sledgehammer at the hilt of his blade and managed to send both of their weapons clattering to the side. She clutched at her stomach, starting to feel that wrong side of dizzy.

King Sombra must have decided she looked like she could use a hug. He wrestled her down from behind, and took Daydream Shimmer into the shadows with him. All the world went pitch black.

A flood of self-disgust and grief coursed through her as they travelled from shadow to shadow. Love, acceptance, comfort⁠—one by one her positive emotions stripped away. Back to the life she used to live. Just like the one Solstice lived all the time.

When they re-emerged, Daydream’s power was fading fast. In her lifetime, she’d been through some pretty rough scrapes. Not like this. The clawing punches ripped open new dimensions of pain she’d never run to before. Down below, the shadows swarmed the Rainbooms and the power she had to stop it fell away. “No!!! Stay away from them! Leave them alone! Girls!!!"

Sunset Shimmer fell to her knees and collapsed.

Heat washed down from her forehead, trickling down her face. Her breathing scraped in and out. Sunset grunted. A sound like a scream sputtering out. Movement, any movement, brought on pain that drained any last reserves of strength her muscles had to draw on. She gripped shaking fists, hyperventilating to overcome the vertigo enough to raise her head and watch the demon lord stalking away. Towards her friends. Towards Equestria.

And she couldn’t move.

The King of Demons stopped at the edge of the roof. Then he reached down and picked up her golden sledgehammer, tossed it lightly to readjust his grip.

Far away, maybe as much as several universes, the voices of her classmates called to her to get up. Her friends wanted her up. Her body, her bones, her soul wanted her up. The muscles steamed and simmered as the demon cackled a few steps from crushing her skull.

Magic was never meant for the human world. Dangerous forces that left unchecked would turn to disaster. Humanity never stood a chance. Or so she'd thought.

See, this whole time, Sunset realized she’d had it backwards.

No destiny held any of them back. The choices her friends made to be with each other, to fight for and with and to lift up each other⁠—all those choices collided into a tapestry of their own unpredictable design⁠—and it was like that for the whole world. Small, kindnesses collecting over time and insignificant everyday advances built on insignificant everyday advances and people realizing all together, all at once, that they were only human beings by a definition they’d decided on together that no one person could make alone. And continued to decide and always would.

Visions like memories among the stars came back of little vulnerabilities, late night laughs, time spent and stolen with Timber or Flash or Fluttershy. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, Rarity, and Twilight.

Sunset loved her best friends and this dimension more than she’d ever been destined to love anything. I love… my goddamn friends!!! And as she tore herself apart to prop up on one elbow then the other, and began to rise on swaying feet, the strange Equestrian runaway to this world spat out magic and human blood. Maybe the Fates were right about one thing. Sunset Shimmer would die to protect Equestria.

King Sombra grinned like he would enjoy finishing the job.

A sharp whistle pierced the air.

Both King Sombra and Daydream Shimmer turned their heads in time to see a hose of fire blast forward. Calling it full firefighter gear would’ve been a little generous. Suspenders hanging undone, his six-pack abs and wings were out on shameless display like Oooops! Did I forget to put on a shirt~? How clumsy of me!

In all his steaming glory⁠—literally steaming⁠—Firebreak Spruce posed on the roof as if to warm up all December in a calendar. “One question for you, Frosty,” he said, pushing back his curls. “Is it getting hot out here or is it just me?”

The onlookers watching from the school whooped and cheered, like the audience in one of the sit-coms Sunset watched with him. She could practically see the Applause sign lighting up in-studio. A swell of relief so powerful flooded through her that it brought back her power and then some.

Daydream had the biggest, dumbest grin on her face. Hugs would most definitely be in order, and she could see it in the wild spark behind Firebreak’s eyes that he agreed, but he winked for now and the two of them came to stand together against the stunned, stammering overlord.

With Daydream back and better than ever, the sledgehammer disintegrated into light out of his hands. King Sombra shook his head. “No… no, you couldn’t possibly⁠—I struck you through the heart!”

Firebreak held an axe over both of his shoulders. “... Mm?” His eyes flared. “Oh, that! Yup, you definitely did, hundred percent. Congrats on the cheap shot, I guess, if that’s like your thing. Can confirm: that sucked.” He grinned. “I was devastated!”

King Sombra scowled, rushing forward to claw his smirk off his face. “I demolished your faith in all your little friends! I saw it work! You should be my hellish right hand!”

Firebreak teleported behind him and waggled a finger. “Ah-ah-ah! Sorry to break it to you: You can look, but you can’t touch.” He dodged several swipes by striking several different ridiculously provocative poses.

Daydream followed suit with a flaming punch to Sombra’s weaker defenses while breaking into a snorting laugh, “You’re such a dingus.”

“Why yes, but I’m a beautiful dingus.” He nodded, smiling. She lightly shoved her best friend and he smiled at a growling Sombra, shrugging. “I never said she can’t touch.”

King Sombra charged, a spear forming in his hand from the shadows, but on instinct, Daydream shot out a beam of sunlight that solidified into her solid gold sledgehammer. “Don’t you dare!”

Somewhere behind her, Firebreak clutched his heart as she, admittedly, went a little Mama Bear. “Holy sledgehammer, Daydream!”

As Sombra rebounded back and his spear disintegrated, Daydream pointed the Holy Sledgehammer at him like it was an extension of her arm. “That’s my new best friend, you goddamn edgelord. You can mess with me all you want but you’re never making him feel that way again.”

King Sombra stumbled back so much he fell on his ass on the icy rooftop. “No… no! That’s impossible! He couldn’t possibly be standing!”

“Oh, it worked, alright,” Firebreak muttered, his tone a shade darker than before, considering the glint of his axe. “You really did a number on me. Everything we talked about in that counselling office? All of it came back at once.

“But you know what?” He posed once again. “Now I know I’m a catch. And I’ve got friends who treat me like one.” His eyes met Daydream’s and he smiled. “And… even if, somehow, for some reason, it all ends the same way, and I lose them… at least I know all of them would fight as hard as me to keep that from happening.”

“Damn straight,” Daydream promised, both their flames burning bright together. She punched his shoulder. “We’re on the same team.”

Rising, Sombra charged at them and levelled a series of attacks on the two teenage demigods. “You’re not one of them, you fool! You never will be!”

Firebreak grinned, shrugging. “See, that’s the thing: Anybody can be a Rainboom.”

The next moment, Daydream watched Firebreak live up to his name. Despite his fire-gear, his whole body erupted into wild-fire and the two of them soared around King Sombra like twin suns kicking his ass from all angles. Together, they delivered a hell of a blow that sent all three of them crashing over the roof down a three story drop to the front steps of school.

Daydream braced herself on Firebreak, landing on the school’s front steps. Their magic faded together, cresting down the length of them, leaving two teenagers lost in the wind. Exhaustion set in like they’d pulled another all-nighter sit-com marathon, but they had to smile at the sight in front of them.

In the fall, King Sombra’s cape had twisted and wrapped around him. With Sombra wriggling to be free of his own cape, he looked like a stage magician in a straight jacket. Watch what wonders may unfold as I set myself free! In this case the wonders were murder and untold mayhem.

Up ahead, his shadow army gave their friends a taste of what he'd do to them should he be released from this prison. The crowds surged in tandem with the jerks and growls he made trying to set himself loose, so time was looking very essential right about now. Timber sighed out a lengthy amount of pent-up adrenaline and fear. “We did it. We've got him on lock.” He made a grand gesture towards the crown of King Sombra’s head. And the literal crown above it. “Meistro?”

Sunset walked over, but as she did, the demon looked back at her from his place on the ground. Goat eyes bleating up at her, a man nowhere near his right mind. Familiar feelings of shame, mortification, and violation ran through her as she reached out her hand, and she barely had enough time to register why before she stopped moments before her geode could finish powering up. Sunset's arm stiffened. “He's… not himself.”

Timber blinked at her as if waiting for the rest of the Friendship speech to come along with it. “Uh-huh, yup, this has been well-established.”

“I'm more myself than I've ever been!” the demon piped up, but that only confirmed what Sunset was afraid of.

She shook her head, geode growing hot on her chest. The magic thrummed through her veins. All it would take was a touch. “Tartarus, he can’t make the choice himself and I'm just going to force it on him?”

Timber shook his head. “Sunset, you've done that so many times!”

King Sombra, like Sunset, was no slouch. The slime of his smile set her on edge because no one looked like that who didn’t think they had the upper hand. “So, I can’t choose? Am I not human after all?” The creeping sense of what he was saying crawled over her back, a cold wind. “Read my mind, Shimmer. Go ahead, you have open invitation. Prove to me you know I’m a monster.”

“Don’t let him get in your head,” Timber said, strained. “He can’t make this call for himself⁠—you need to choose for him!”

Sunset Shimmer stood on the steps of the school, feeling like she’d become the Fates. Fate was a feeling, she'd decided, and Sunset was an empath. It filled her up and became her. The shaky, less subzero grasp she had on the lack of destiny in the human world came back to her now. All the taunts she’d launched at the demon king, the promises that he could be better. The power to choose a new path.

If she treated him like less than human now, didn’t that prove everything Solstice believed about himself? Would it really change anything? He’s not here to give me his permission. How am I supposed to know what he’d really want? Why do I get to make the choice for him?

Timber grunted. “Sunset, now!”

King Sombra gargled a laugh. Those damn red eyes, like he was out for her blood. “It’s your choice, Shimmer!”

Sunset eyes rounded out and she knew what she had to do.

Reaching out to King Sombra, Sunset grabbed the crown off his head. The cold of the metal burned in her hands like she’d get frostbite if she held on long enough. As both Timber and Sombra gawked at her, Sunset held out the crown in both hands. “No,” she said. “You choose.”

All of the feeling appeared to have left Timber Spruce’s face. Sombra rose out of his slackened grip to stand a few steps from his crown.

Their friends’ panicked shouts made her stomach clench. The shadow army rioted and overtook their friends by the portal. Sunset fought the urge to shout out and distract from the job at hand. She couldn’t look away. Even as Timber teleported away to rush to save his new best friends and Sunset wanted to scream to keep him out of harm, she had to stay. She needed Sombra to see every bit of faith she had in her soul.

Come on, Solstice. She stared into him, and if only for a moment, she wondered if he was staring back. I know you can do this.

There was a gratitude in his expression for breaking his heart. And something like an apology.

Then Sunset got really scared.

The panicked shouts of the teenagers at the portal hit him as if for the first time. Sombra stared oddly alarmed at the shadows about to take Sunset's friends away. Half-sunken into the earth, pulling Timber down with them, the Rainbooms were running out of time.

He took the crown and sent Sunset’s heart into the underworld.

And the shadow army took notice. Shades of students twisting around, bending their necks inquisitively, and changing course. Charging towards him. Pain demanded, en masse, to be felt.

“I am fear incarnate,” he said, watching his reflection in the gold of the crown as an army ran towards him. He bellowed a generic evil laugh that echoed over the snow. “Fools! You think you can change? You think you can choose? We’re doomed to battle over and over again⁠—that’s my life! Week after week, fight after fight, nothing ever changes, locked in warfare eternal! Welcome to our status quo!”

Hot tears bubbled from the sides of her eyes. Sunset tugged at his cape like a little kid. “Solstice, please don’t do this, stop. We need you to stay,” she said, crackling. She felt too small to do anything else. “...Why do you have to go?”

Dark magic curling up around him, King Sombra smiled. “I’ll get you next time, Shimmer,” he told her kindly, a storm behind his tone. He turned from her and took a few strides into the inevitable. He waited. Facing off against the ambush ahead, ground shaking, a breath shivered out of him. “... calm, peaceful surrender.”

As he crowned himself king, shadows mauled him alive. His evil laugh screamed out of him. Sunset had to see his eyes staring up at her, wide, panicked. Green.

The King of Demons became a sinkhole for dark magic, dragged back into the earth. Back where shadows belonged. From behind her, Sunset almost didn’t register the sound of the school’s front doors opening and two sets of feet rushing out. She turned back to find that Twilight had done her job.

Stricken, Principal Celestia dropped a mug of coffee, splattering into the snow.

Even as Sunset broke down, her friends had survived. The blizzard passed. Sunlight broke through the clouds anew over Canterlot High.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Fascinating to see more magic combinations... though I'm concerned about the aftereffects of Pinkiedash. Consult your physician.

Man, this chapter was an entire narrative arc in its own right. Sombra makes for such a terrifying villain because of his conviction that he must be a villain. No matter how many times the Rainbooms (all nine of them) refute his beliefs, no matter how many times they bounce back from his attempts to knock him down, he's utterly committed to the idea of intrinsic darkness and evil. He's terrified of the alternative; he has no idea what it would entail for him, what it would mean. If only Sunset had known him twenty years earlier...

(Also, I have to love how, of all things, Sunset's signature weapon is a sledgehammer. One more bit of the Fall Formal redeemed and reclaimed.)

A grim finale. It appears that it's all over but the crying... though the wound in reality is still there, and Sombra has sworn to return next episode. There's still more to explore here. Looking forward to the last chapter.

[Astorius]

Sunset you had to be saved by Princess Twilight too........
She should have invested more points into Charisma

[The Voice in the Water]

Even as those two exploded forward at speeds even Dash hadn't hit

Clock up.

There was a lot going on in this one, but shards, that was a fun ride. Sunset giving Solstice the choice at the end fits her so well, even if it didn't work out the way she wanted.

[soulmates]

good evening, I have eyeliner on, if it starts running down my face it's Marvel's fault

Dash’s brown drew together before the plan clicked and she drew out an “Ohhhhhh, gootcha! On it, chief.” RD turned to Pinkie, who was already struggling to contain her smile. Dash aimed a game smirk her way. “Heh. I don't know what this'll do, but I'm so stoked to find out. Ready to clown on these jokers?”

Doing a shoulder dance, the suppressed giggle rocketing out of Pinkie hinted at maniacal. “Let’s get this party started!”

most of me reading EFTD is just saying "I LOVE THEM" over and over again

“Hey, Frosty! Bite my beautiful shiny ass!” And Timber proceeded to wiggle his butt in some obscene dance.

I NEARLY CHOKED ON MY CAKE

The noise that came out of Flash defied his vocal range.

I literally made the exact same noise (another curious question; what do you picture Flash's vocal range to be?)

Needless to say, King Sombra did not much appreciate floating out of his control. “RAWRGHGH!” he articulated astutely, or that’s what Sunset could hear through the cape flopping over his face.

Maybe she enjoyed taking the piss out of the big bad demon lord just a smidge.

you and me both SunShim

I know I've seen the art for Flash and Timber's ponied-up designs beforehand but I still screamed when I saw the art of them, can never praise Bevin enough !!!! they're such fucking wonderful designs !!!!!

The shadows had disappeared, but Sunset could hardly see darkness taking a new shape in his hand. The shadows lengthened, as though in twilit hour, and fashioned into a spear solid as any stone that he drove into the middle of Timber Spruce’s chest.

currently hands over mouth and staring into the abyss. MARVELWHATTHEFUCK.

“How’d you do it? How do you matter to people?”

oh fuck me and my tear ducts

HAPPY INTERVENTION, TIMBER AND SUNSET

OH SHUT THE FUCK UP

that entire fight scene made me feel like the title of chapter six

all those choices collided into a tapestry of their own unpredictable design

absolutely gorgeous line omg

FIREBREAK SPRUCE???? FIRE.....
I need to sit down ::collapses to the floor::

Firebreak grinned, shrugging. “See, that’s the thing: Anybody can be a Rainboom.”

YEAHHHHH

Even as Sunset broke down, her friends had survived. The blizzard passed. Sunlight broke through the clouds anew over Canterlot High.

YOU END IT LIKE THAT?!<£?!<> MARVEL. MARVEL!!!!!

literally I have no words, how did you manage to blow this out of the park when you did that for chapter 12. outstanding shit. Sunset letting Solstice choose was so heartbreaking but definitely the right decision and the tenderness in his voice at the end..... I know I'm definitely gonna love any of the original characters you write because you make them so UGHHH (positive).

[heartlessons]

As the rest of Canterlot High’s doubles jeered, holding themselves hostage, the Shadowbooms approached.

THIS IS SO FUN not for sunset obviously but i am having a great time. I love the alternate names for the Shadowbooms, and the detail that Twilight’s counterpart in particular sounds like “an old timey radio” is so neat! Magic is so cool. AND THE TITLE CARD IS ALSO SO COOL I LOVE HOW SUNSET IS ALL LIT UP AND THE OTHERS AREN’T BUT THEY’RE OUTLINED WITH THEIR RESPECTIVE COLORS :D It makes for a very nice picture!!

Phoenix flame re-ignited at her back and she shook off the fear magic cooling the sides of her eyes.

God I am obsessed with your writing style. Every time I think I’ve found a new favorite sentence or quote another one comes and steals the spotlight (not that I am complaining this fic is an absolute FEAST of pretty sentences).

Some distant part of Sunset hated that they had a drill for that by now, but quieted that fire by punching real good. She punched so good.

SHE HITS THINGS!!! SHE’S👏A👏FIGHTER👏!!!!!!!

From on high, another voice commanded the stage as a signature snicker sounded out. “Popularity is passe. How about you pick on the Greatest and Powerful-est?”

The demon lord paused, scrunched his nose. “That’s not a word.”

AHAHAHAHA YES TRIXIE!!! What a fun cameo! And finally somebody who can one-up Sombra's showmanship. I lovedddd all the theatrical allusions in this chapter. They gave a whole new dimension to the fight.

"I turned down immortality and a crown in Equestria⁠ with the Princesses because I want to spend my life in the world with you in it! I only just learned I have the power to choose anything in life and you know what?” She turned back towards her real friends, tears washing down her cheeks. Her smile shook so she pressed it firm, and nodded. “I choose you.”

SUNSET DIDN'T WANT TO BE IMMORTAL BECAUSE SHE WANTED TO BE WITH HER FRIENDS DO NOT TOUCH ME I AM WAILING (But also does that mean if she had accepted the crown, she would've been immortal like the rest of the princesses, or is immortality separate from the crown? Super interesting either way.)

Even as those two exploded forward at speeds even Dash hadn't hit, she couldn't shake that familiar feeling until she placed it: the sleepover of the end of Junior Year. The sugar rush incident.

Yeah, okay, King Sombra’s doomed.

I LOVE THE POWER-UPS SO MUCH THEY ARE SO COOL!! I hadn’t thought at all that we’d see anymore beyond what was already established but I’m so glad we did! Pinkie and Dash are an unstoppable duo. >:)

Dash exchanged a knowing smirk with the other girls, including Sunset who almost rolled her eyes at Rainbow’s sense of suspense. “How’d you like to join the Rainbooms?”

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

The others rallied around him, their magic brighter for having him around. King Sombra hissed at the brightness, flaring his cape dramatically.

“RAWRGHGH!” he articulated astutely, or that’s what Sunset could hear through the cape flopping over his face.

In fact, dude was belting his operatic heart out. Like, actually singing.

hsdfjklslsdf one of my favorite tropes is when the villain is doing villainous things and then something happens that is very distinctly un-villainous and then their whole big villain ego is shattered. Sombra makes me giggle. Why is this man singing during a battle?? (These moments also totally lulled me into a false sense of security. I really went "OMG THE GANG WON LOOK THEY'RE HUGGING NOW AND EVERYTHING'S FINE BC SOMBRA'S BEING SILLY AND NOT DOING ANYTHING!" Everything was not, in fact, fine.)

The shadows lengthened, as though in twilit hour, and fashioned into a spear solid as any stone that he drove into the middle of Timber Spruce’s chest.

See when I said the above stuff lulled me into a false sense of security THIS IS WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT WHAT DO YOU /MEAN/ THE SPEAR WENT THROUGH HIS CHEST THEY WERE JUST HUGGING D:

”Meanwhile, I’ve always been in exile⁠. And our friends don’t know me enough to know I’ve been terrified of going back. So, you’ve gotta tell me your secret.” He couldn’t stop himself smiling at that. “How’d you do it? How do you matter to people?”

HAPPY INTERVENTION, TIMBER AND SUNSET

This scene broke my heart into a thousand pieces. Such great moments for the four of them. Therapy Squad </3

And as she tore herself apart to prop up on one elbow then the other, and began to rise on swaying feet, the strange Equestrian runaway to this world spat out magic and human blood. Maybe the Fates were right about one thing. Sunset Shimmer would die to protect Equestria.

You’ve done such a good job of weaving Sunset’s inner conflict on this world vs. where she came from so deeply throughout this fic and I LOVE IT. “Equestrian runaway to this world spat out magic and human blood” is such a metal sentence I am fucking obsessed with it.

In all his steaming glory⁠—literally steaming⁠—Firebreak Spruce posed on the roof as if to warm up all December in a calendar.

I LOVE TIMBER I LOVE TIMBER I LOVE TIMBER!!! He’s so cocky and confident here and then when he teams up with Sunset?!?? Firebreak is also a cool as hell name and I like how it contrasts with the name of his “demon” form.

As he crowned himself king, shadows mauled him alive. His evil laugh screamed out of him. Sunset had to see his eyes staring up at her, wide, panicked. Green.

I AM SO SCARED WHAT “shadows maul[ing] him alive”!?!??!? PLS SOLSTICE MUST BE OKAY I LIKE HIM TOO MUCH

This fic is one emotional gut punch after the other good god. I really thought that they’d won and then I checked how far into the chapter I was and saw that I was only halfway and I went “oh dear! :’)” Another absolutely fantastic update! I live in fear and anticipation of the last chapter! It will be fine I am sure! c: Thank you thank you for writing!!!!! <3

[Revel Montaro]

"Pleased to meet you, hope you guessed my name."
One hell of a throw down. And then we get the fiery winged princess of the golden sledgehammer of friendship. Have to admit, you almost had me thinking of Wash from Firefly after you stabbed Timber. Still, what a ride.

[redandready45]

This a fantastic battle with an unusually somber ending.

[justme_exe13]

HI I'M BACK AGAIN, I was going to make full length comments in all of the chapters but my lack of time as a high schooler is holding me back, so I saved them for the climax.

For starters: this is one of the most gut wrenching, emotional rollercoaster, perfectly executed chapter (and the story as a whole omg) I've ever read in life. Everything, from the build up to Daydream Shimmer's insane monologue to King Sombra's "coronation" made me DEHYDRATE. No joke. Sunset progressed like crazy in this story and it was so good I felt like I progressed alongside her. The "that's what makes us human, the power to choose" was ABSOLUTELY INSANE and I can't express enough how much emotive I got reading that. Her going from suffering with the burden of destiny to understanding what it means to be human was indescribable. When she actively chose to turn down the offer to become a princess – the very thing she's thought her entire life to be destined for – all I could do was go WILD. It felt like she turned down destiny. I've never rooted this much for a character before, that's for sure. OH and when Sunset changed the way she reffered to her friends and Celestia so casually in certain scenes made me so happy man, CELESTIA IS OFFICIALLY A MOM NOW‼‼ Absolutely wholesome.

There's a whole lot more to comment on this – cool little characteristic interactions, epic pony-ups, epic reencounters, epic "it all comes full circle" moments and so on – but it's way too much lol. Just know that I've appreciated (and freaked out to all my friends about) each of them!

I honestly don't have enough words to properly describe Empathy for the Devil. The one that suits it the most is EPIC. This story is epic, your work is epic, and I'm just so happy to have been lucky enough for this to be the first mlp fanfic that I've ever read. This is definitely underrated and deserves A LOT MORE recognition than it already has, since it's not everyday that us readers can come across life changing fanfiction.

Yeah, life changing is also a good description. I've genuinely felt a spark of determination to make choices and not regret trying while reading this (I was in class and I have a problem with speaking to some people sometimes, so I used that feeling to go and talk to them, everything went well!).

I would very much like to know what inspired you to write Empathy for the Devil if you ever feel like explaining (if you haven't already lol I haven't seen) because I'm interested. If I'm feeling the emotional rollercoaster of reading, you must have felt a ton of stuff to write all this!

[MarvelandPonder]

11597932
Hi!! Welcome back!!
And yeah, no worries, there's also a TON that happens, so it would take a lot of time to comment on it all

It means a lot to hear that this chapter worked so well for you since it was definitely the hardest to write. Couldn't tell you how many rewrites or re-outlines I did to get it to this point, chapter 14 was a BEAST. But even when I had drafts that weren't working, I knew what it could be, and I had to keep fighting to get it there! Bevin's idea in chapter 13 - that scene where she turns down being a princess - that was what this whole story was building towards, and so the results of that deserved to be just as impactful as the choice itself.

HELL YEAH, CELESTIA'S A MOM! Sunset and her mom will have a lot to talk about after all this...

Regardless, fuck yeah!!! You DID that, omg! The fact that this story inspired you in that way is so deeply fulfilling and meaningful for me to hear; I used to have real bad social anxiety, started in high school, carried on into university. It was really hard for me to believe I could talk to people, too. Took a lot of counselling and learning self-compassion to start to feel that actually, I WAS capable, and things CAN get better, and that people were so much less judgmental than I thought they were! You deserve some love for how hard it is to deal with anxiety, and major props for how brave and awesome it is to push through that!!! You've made Sunset so proud. It's canon in Empathy-verse now haha

As for what made me write this story, yeah, there's definitely a lot of emotions that went into this. I'm gonna put it in spoiler tags in case folks just wanna enjoy the story for what it is, devoid of the personal context:

Originally, this story was just inspired by the fun parts. Bevin having that AMAZING idea for Sunset to turn down the crown, the body swap fun, getting to be a geek for counselling which I am in real life anyway, etc.

But at the time I was writing it, I was going through some pretty intense grief having lost my best friend and first love. Not to death, but because of some personal reasons, we couldn't be in each other's lives anymore. I was devastated. I didn't plan on working through those feelings through this story, I had counselling for that, but when you're writing a novel-length thing over the course of several months (if not years), you end up pouring yourself into it. It's not literal, there isn't literally a character grieving their best friend (well, except for when Sunset dies, I guess, but that's off-screen), but the emotions of what I was going through, they're all in here. You can see it if you look.

There are actually things I wrote that were so personal to how I was feeling at the time that Bevin resonated with too to a shocking degree--and we bonded as a result of this story and working on it together!

And then, I will say, I also did think about what I wanted this story to say, what I wanted readers to feel and think about, especially as I was coming towards the end. Even if the counsellor turns into a literal demon, I wanted people to still see the value of support, and still think about all of what Sunset learns and what she's wrestling with by the end.

Writing is one of the best ways I've found to understand what I'm thinking and feeling on a deeper level, and I'm so glad I had it when I needed it most. And, that it saw me through to the other side.