Left Behind: Sunny Disposition

by The Psychopath

A Whole Fragment

Author's Note:

Did a retro update in the previous chapter because I realized I forgot to italicize Solar Flare and Sunny's speech.

"Who are you?" the head asked again. "My child could not have borne a grandchild in the few years that I was gone. She's not old enough."

A realization struck Sunny outside of the overwhelming stress he was feeling. The fragment was speaking in old Equestrian. The same Equestrian that Nightmare Moon spoke, and he had the reflex to speak it the moment he heard it. He thanked his luck in this instance that the alicorn came into his life, because he wouldn't have been able to speak to this monstrosity otherwise. At least, not clearly.

"I...I just tried casting a spell using magic that was scribbled around a room," the stallion said nervously.

The fragment stared at him, wide-eyed. "Yes, I noticed. I'm unsure how you broke the lock on it but..." She eyed Sunny up and down. "No. You didn't break the lock," the 'fragment' realized. "Somepony else did, or many someponies, but you don't have the capacity to exert that much magic." Solar Flare narrowed her gaze. "No matter how familiar your magic might feel to me."

The stallion smiled sheepishly. "Are you sure I didn't?" Sunny asked. "I'm a unicorn, after all. A bit of time and--"

"Don't mock me, colt!" the fragment shouted. Sunny hid behind his legs when the flames surrounding the two grew immense and wild. "I know my own magic and the power required to break them! No pony has ever been able to match me without grouping up."

The unicorn gulped and smiled nervously when he 'stood' straight up and put his hooves on his hips. "W-well, you're looooking at him!" the stallion trailed off.

The mare's response was a bemused look. "I can sense the magic coming from you. You hardly have any magic in you compared to me." The flames licked at the broken head's face. "It doesn't mean you don't have magic on par with most ponies." The fragment's face twisted into a toothless rictus from which lava leaked. "If it were still a few years ago, I might have enrolled you into my academy for gifted unicorns." She frowned. "Had you actually undone the magic, then you would have dissolved this spell of mine." She snorted. "Just because you are in my castle doesn't mean I won't go to retrieve it."

"No! Don't do that!" Sunny cried out. When he noticed the fragment's confusion at his words, he cleared his throat. "There's no point in returning to it."

"You mean the fog spell I placed around it?" She scoffed. "Foal's play." Her eyes flickered. "How did you get past it?" Sunny shrugged with a smile. He screamed in pain when the flames started whipping him, leaving burn marks. "No more games. This isn't a dream. This isn't imaginary. Incidentally, you speak my language. Why don't the others?"

Sunny reeled from the pain and struggled to speak. "I...I'm still speaking Equestrian. You're the one speaking old pony tongue."

The tops of the flames turned a softer shade of blue and their movement became slower. "You all learned a new language in the few years I was gone?"

"N-no..." Sunny stuttered. "It hasn't been just a 'few years' since you were...alive," he strained.

"Then the spell didn't work properly. How long was it? Ten years? Twenty?" Sunny remained silent. "Answer me, pony!" He mumbled the answer. "What?!"

"Ten thousand years, at least."

The flames turned white and froze. "Wha...T..."

Sunny nodded. "I'm sorry, but it's been a very long time." He found that the fragment was bizarrely 'aware' of itself and its surroundings, but that didn't really matter right now. "It's, uh, been a bit longer than you thought, I imagine."

The fragment of Solar Flare was distorted. "But...but I took everything into account. I worked and studied on that magic for so long...I placed failsafes and countermeasures in the body of my magic...I should have returned..." Her eyes widened. "They stole away my magic..." she whispered to herself. "They broke me!" she shouted. "They...They took her from me, then they destroy my home and accomplishments..." The world Sunny was trapped in started pulsating violently as even the flames didn't know how to react. They became an ever-shifting wall of colors and flickering flames. "They took my own child from me! She was barely a filly!" Her eyes darted to Sunny "And you came to mock me by painting yourself with my colors?!"

"N-no! I was born like this! Why would I-Ow!"

The flames started lashing out in random directions. It was only by chance, or perhaps a lack of it, that some would strike the young stallion.

"My own child would never have her own without my approving her mate!" Solar Flare snarled. Lava started gushing from her eyes. "She would have done everything to save her own mother!"

As Sunny's coat started to catch fire, multiple long, semi-transparent arms of a red color came out from behind the alicorn. The arms ended in hands ending in five sharp digits. They wrapped around Solar Flare against her protests while several more extended further, reaching for Sunny.

"No! No, leave me alone!" the stallion protested.

He did his best to try and get out of the space he found himself in, but teleportation wasn't working, and he didn't have a good enough grasp of the new magic to figure out how to undo what had been done. Sunny wanted to close his eyes and hide from this place and the arms, but he couldn't muster the courage to even blink. Luckily for him, something struck the arms away.

"Nightmare Moon?" Sunny questioned.

Looking closer, he realized that his savior was an alicorn, but a ghostly apparition of an immensely bulky one. Several legs grabbed onto him and pulled him out of the strange space and back into Solar Flare's old castle. A cold wind swept across his body, relieving him of the burning pain and causing Sunny to reflexively relax. When he was able to focus once more, he noticed both Hepetia and Nightmare Moon looking at him from above.

"You idiot," Moon growled. Sunny opened his mouth, but the mare turned towards the queen. "You let him try and utilize this magic?!"

Stunned, the queen took a step back. "What?! You're accusing me of causing the whole problem?!"

"You helped him cast the spell! Your messenger was very clear on that!" Moon accused.

The queen slapped the alicorn's leg away. "I'm not a newly hatched grubbed, pony," she spat. "This is completely unknown magic, and I wouldn't allow it to be cast within my hive." She stood up straight, exchanging threatening gazes with Moon. "I saw a pattern in the magic and tried to teach your little protégé to use and recognize it. There were no true spells cast."

"Then she lied to me?" Sunny thought.

"Then explain how Sunny was pulled into an interrogator's pocket?"

"How should I know that?!" Hepetia responded with an equal level of volume. "I know very well not to mess with new magic. I used a false pattern for him to follow. Perhaps he became too confident in the end and tried to force in one of the patterns. I didn't feel it because his magic isn't strong enough for me to notice."

Sunny didn't enjoy the aggressive exchange between the two and eventually forced himself back onto his hooves. His body still stung, but at least whatever magic Moon was using made the stallion's efforts significantly easier.

"I-It's not her fault! Y-your majesty," Sunny said. Both figures looked at him immediately, startling him. He thought they broke their necks. "Queen Hepetia is right. I...I grew too confident. I wanted to be a useful asset to you and try to figure out if this magic was dangerous or not."

Moon's body glowed with magic. She gave Hepetia a side glance and flexed her wings. "That doesn't explain how the spell was activated."

"It wasn't," Hepetia interjected. "Even if he tried to cast the spell, he doesn't know the pattern. Something else happened, but I'm unsure what." She leaned down. "Tell us what happened."

Sunny looked between the changeling and alicorn and eventually shook his head. "It's something I will only tell Nightmare Moon."

The queen sighed and shrugged. "Very well. It still doesn't explain how we weren't able to break whatever the spell was, but no epicuticles off my exoskeleton."

"This...this won't prevent me from coming back here, will it?" Sunny worried.

"I also want to know what the nature of this magic is," Hepetia said. "But we aren't casting anymore foreign magic in my home." She waved at Nightmare Moon. "You can destroy her home. It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make."

Moon huffed. "Thank you for your concern," she grumbled.

"Take your things, tiny pony," Hepetia ordered Sunny.

"Some of my brood scribbled everything around here on your papers haphazardly. You might be able to stay out of here for the time being."

Sunny levitated everything back into his saddlebags and slowly placed it all onto his back. "Th-thank you, your highness."

The nervous unicorn followed Nightmare Moon out of the hive under an unbearable silence. It felt like he was being silently scolded by his mother when he had done something bad as a foal. It was only when the two walked through the portal that Nightmare Moon finally spoke up.

She slapped Sunny on the back of the head. "Idiot! What were you thinking?!" she bellowed angrily. The darkness accentuated the glowing white of her eyes.

"I told you! I just really wanted to know what the magic was!" Sunny explained. "It's...it's like it was pulling me..."

Moon raised a brow. "Pulling you?" She frowned. "What did you see? What did you feel?"

"W-well, I saw a fragment of Solar Flare."

Moon's eyes widened. "A fragment?" She clicked her tongue in annoyance. "So it wasn't destroyed after all..." she grumbled.

"Your highness?"

"Continue your explanation."

Sunny nodded. "Well, we talked, she attacked me, then she was pulled away by strange arms that looked like they were made of red gelatin. They pulled her away and reached for me, then I saw a giant, really bulky alicorn swipe them away."

"And that's where you saw that Hepetia and I had pulled you out together," Moon completed.

Sunny looked at the mare, surprised. "You both did that?"

The alicorn nodded. "Yes. I couldn't decipher the magic surrounding you, so she aided me. You have been in there for hours." She let her magic relax, diminishing the white glow of her body. "And you saw them," she whispered to herself.

"Hours..." The unicorn bounced up. "Weren't you supposed to be preparing for war?"

The alicorn chuckled. "No need to worry. I have already taken care of that problem."

---

"Is that the so-called alicorn?" one of the invaders shouted.

Moon landed in front of the ponies loudly, making sure she made the land shake. The ponies in front of her were sporting a faded red color on their shoulder armor and, to her surprise, an apple with an open mouth and sharp teeth. She was taken aback.

"Yes. The 'so-called'," Moon mocked.

"Fill this actor with holes," one of the invaders ordered.

The first row of five stallions charged at Moon with their spears attached to harnesses over their left or right shoulders. They raised their hoof right before contact, placed them in a little receptacle beneath the weapon, and pushed forward. The weapons struck through the alicorn's chest easily, perturbing the soldiers.

"Ha ha!" the assumed commander cheered.

Said soldiers slowly raised their heads to see Moon glaring at them.

"Boo," she blurted out. Three of the stallions let go with a frightened scream while the other two hung on. "Oh ho. The bold and the brave," Moon said. She let loose just a smidge of magic, crushing the two guards briefly between two walls of solid magic. The sudden impact and pressure knocked them out cold. "Oops. I went too soft. They lived," Moon said. She brushed the spears off of her casually and started moving forward. "I assume one of you is the leader of that little county that declared war on me."

"Little?!" a voice yelled out.

Some of the soldiers stepped in, trying to stop him, but the stallion instead pushed on. He was a middle-aged pony with brown fur and a black mane and tail. The tail had been cut short, and his mane brushed back, making it puff up. His green eyes glowed with conviction and certainty as he stared down a creature that dwarfed him entirely. He wore the same armor as the others, save for a golden trim around the collar.

"My county is an important exporter of vital produce and calcium!"

Moon smiled and raised a brow. "Really now? A farming county. That could be useful. It also explains this paltry contingent of soldiers."

"P-p-paltry?!" the count repeated. He was turning red, and his soldiers couldn't calm him down. "I'll make you eat those words!"

He ripped a spear out of one of his soldier's hooves and pointed at Moon. "I thought this was just some stupid rebellion, but I'll take this pretender out. Even your disguise can't survive antimagic weaponry for long!"

"Oh no. The horror," Moon said apathetically.

She casually stepped aside every time the count charged at her and deflected every strike he attempted. The earth pony was growing annoyed and becoming sloppier and sloppier and cursing all the while.

"I'm bored," Moon said suddenly. She grabbed the count and his weapon in her magic, separated the two, then broke the weapon into pieces while holding the count in her grasp. "You committed a grave error against me, energetic little pony."

The count struggled to no avail. "Release me at once!" He didn't flinch when Moon let her magic out, unveiling her true form which terrified the soldiers. "Wow. You can make a magic show," the stallion mocked.

Moon laughed, causing the world to shake. The moon started to glow brighter in the sky, as though it wanted to bare direct witness to its ruler. "You still think that I'm a fraud?" she laughed.

"W-well, after seeing the moon do that, I'm not so sure anymore," the count hesitated.

"Count, you should apologize and just leave! There's no need to throw your life away for this!"

"Silence! It is for the honor of our great country of Equestria and the royal family!"

Moon slowly blinked. "Yes. It's not because you thought I was a fraud and you could garner favor from the king by suppressing his 'dissidents'."

"That doesn't matter. Whether I die now or later, my county remains under his protection, and my sons will not let you rule over it!" the count declared.

Moon scoffed. "You idiot."

"What?"

There was a loud crunch, and the count fell to the floor, lifeless. The soldiers could only gawk in horror.

"Take me to your county and the next in line," Moon ordered the soldiers. "I don't intend to take anymore lives." She prodded the count's body with a hoof. "Just this one's."

Comments

[Anon E Moose]

Moony showing restraint.

[The Psychopath]

11504857
It's easier to get rid of what is too stubborn to bend.

[Little_Draco]

This is getting better.

[The Psychopath]

11505606
Writing the next chapter. You'll get to know who Calostell's teacher is.

[Black--Soul]

Celestia is back partially, this one remember seemingly. More than the piece that Nightmare defeated.

Arrogance is the death of many, the corpse of this fool should be a decent warning to the next in line to be better...

[tsaukpaetra]

So the Broken Pony wasn't the only one torn asunder. Question is, will recombination allow the corruption to be cancelled and balanced out?