Left Behind: Sunny Disposition

by The Psychopath

Sped-Up Plans

Moon was staring at some vaguely pony-shaped creature. It was glowing red and seemed semi-transparent. Its half-lidded eye seemed to melt and drip with infinite matter while its one open eye glowed intensely, veins flowing from its shrunken pupil thrumming stressfully. Its red body flowed like mist in a windy tunnel, swirling around and crashing back into itself, recoalescing. Its legs seemed to jitter in and out of existence in time with screams coming from its body.

"You aren't supposed to be here," it spoke in multiple voices. Every word was accompanied by silenced screams of those trapped within this form.

Three guards charged at it with sword and spear and found themselves passing through and crashing into each other. They had the reflexes to move their weaponry out of the way, luckily, but the thing didn't care. Red darts crunched through the armor of the guards and raised them into the air while their bodies spasmed and the red light started flowing from the wounds. It was only with the intervention of the unicorns that the tethers were severed and the creature was vaguely harmed.

"What are you supposed to be, wraith?" Moon asked.

"Us all serves," it blathered. "Serve...S...Solar...Flare," it strained.

The last word was almost drowned out by the wails of the dead that comprised it. The essence of this being broke through Moon's memories. She recognized the sensation this thing gave off. It was the strange presence she felt in Canterlot. She had dismissed it as paranoia, but this thing was here now. The mare snorted.

"How are you even here?"

The alicorn was caught off guard by the sudden lunge of the amalgam and only just managed to put up a barrier that stopped its incorporeal body. It didn't stop the momentum, however, pushing Moon further away and digging a divet into the ground.

She growled in response and eventually managed to dig herself in. Using a classic spell, she gathered magic into the specter then expanded it suddenly, causing it to explode and terrifying everyone around by the light show produced. Dozens, if not hundreds, of spirits were screaming in agony from the shell they were trapped in and were desperately escaping their former prison, only for several chains to emerge from the remains and latch onto all of the prisoners. Acting like a fish net, the chains dragged the prisoners back into their reforming cell.

Moon stared in horrified awe. "What kind of magic is this?" she gawked.

She pushed against the spirit creature again and dodged as the energy cackling from its damaged form drained the life away from the plant life the lightning bolt scorched. Moon formed a cube around the ghost and locked it into place. She piled on spell after spell after spell to seal it in place. Much to her horror, however, she could not contain this amalgamation of horror.

"Is this the magic you were working on, sister?" Moon thought to herself.

Before it could free itself, the mare purposefully broke the seals, focusing all the raw and unfettered magic into the cube. The guards had raised their weapons and a few had come with antimagic equipment pointed at the cube. Everyone waited with baited breath, hoping that the abomination would have been destroyed. Instead, it was now a stretched, wobbly thing that looked like it had been put into a taffy machine and pulled far in many directions. It wobbled towards Moon and jittered.

"Help...us..." it forced out. "Need to...warn...herrrrrr," the collective wailed.

It sunk into the ground before Moon could attempt to seal it again, causing her to curse angrily and smash her hoof down. This fragment was abnormal to her, but they were still a strange phenomena to even the aged alicorn. She couldn't just wait idly by anymore. She had to act, and she knew just who to get.

Sunny faceplanted on the ground in front of Nightmare Moon, followed by several books and loose parchments.

"What-?!"

"I brought you here, Sunny," Nightmare Moon explained. "We have a problem."

"I was studying!" Sunny protested as he got onto his hooves and started grabbing his belongings with magic. "Why would you--"

"A fragment of my sister has made itself known and seems to have a lot more power than the one I met in the archives of Canterlot." She watched the guards around gradually stop their activities to look at her. "And if she's anything like I was, then she'll be trying to conquer or destroy Equestria by force."

"Was?" one of the guards mumbled.

Moon glared at them with one, glowing eye, shutting them up and making them tremble in fear.

"So...why did you bring me here?" Sunny asked. "This seems like something you could take care of yourself like last time, no?" He smiled nervously. "And no chaos bird-thing around either."

Moon smiled. "For my own amusement.'

Sunny frowned and stared, wide-eyed, at his great-something aunt. "You're going back to that?"

"And I need you to help me confront her." She noticed the young stallion pale further than he already was. "Not in a combative capacity, foal. Your appearance might trick this shard, allowing me to shatter it." Her brows furrowed and she looked up at the sun. She didn't like the sensation it gave off. "I've a far better grasp of my new power than I did during the confrontation. If the shard is at that level, then the difficulty should be almost non-existent."

"...I'm bait?" Sunny bawked.

He was pat on the head by the alicorn. "Very well-protected bait," she said with a tiny smirk. "All that's left is trying to figure out where this shard is."

"About that," a guard said as she stepped forward. She dug into her armor and pulled out a letter. "One of your new vassals to the south has reported that they're under attack by fire elementals." She looked at the letter further. "There's two more being attacked as well."

Moon clicked her tongue in annoyance. She didn't have the equine power to handle such things yet. "Any signs of a giant pony-shaped elemental?"

The guard looked at the letter she was holding and tilted her head slightly. "Yes. The city bordering the griffin sanctuary in the south-west. It's my understanding that they are a former fortified city meant to hold back the griffins, so they still have the walls, but the anti-air defenses haven't been maintained."

"Hmm. That's a convenient situation. I thought it would take weeks to find her," Moon noted. "Looks like we'll be reaching her quicker than I first thought, and if it's near the griffin city that weird bird is in, then I should be able to find the city easily." She felt her magic spark within her. Something wasn't right. "Come on, Sunny," she said as she encased the protesting stallion in her magic. "Guards. Stay on high alert. Keep the Snowfege twins appraised of the situation and make sure no more of those flaming monstrosities try sneaking in. You have the antimagic weaponry you attempted to use on me." She waved a hoof. "Use them."

"Wait, it'll t--" Sunny wasn't able to finish his sentence before getting jerked aggressively and suddenly into the air.

"We don't have time to mill about," Moon said. "I'll attempt to use the sensation of magic from the intruder when we get near the sanctuary city to figure out where to go."

Moon started glowing white and a wreathe of ethereal space emerged from her mane to wrap around her and Sunny. In seconds they were already looking at the griffin city in the distance. The alicorn spun around several times, trying to feel where the fiery magic could be coming from and gave a look of apathy when she saw the columns of smoke engulfing the sky. She approached cautiously until she could see the fortified city fighting off the hordes of ponies leaking lava and burning the landscape.

Sunny leaned forward, gulping audibly. He felt his blood freeze and his muscles tense up. "What...they're corrupting the lands," he said. He couldn't help but feel severe despair when looking at the situation.

"Stop that," Moon said. "Despair is unbecoming of a member of my family lineage." She extended a foreleg out. "You lived in stagnation for millennia. This is what progress and evolution look like. Fear is just the byproduct sloughing off of it." The young unicorn tensed up as he stared at the hordes of monsters going after the defenders. "Where did she even find these creatures?" Moon wondered.

"You ever wonder what would have happened if you didn't come by now?" Sunny asked. "What would have happened if you weren't freed?" Moon looked down at the stallion without shifting her head. "Ever since you came back, the world has been getting more violent and dangerous." His voice started cracking from fear.

"Say what you want to say, Sunny," Moon commanded. "I'm not going to kill you for making sounds with your vocal cords."

He looked up at her, down at the battle, then to the side. "I...often wish you never came back..."

"I see." Moon remained silent as she analyzed the hordes of living fire crashing against the walls of the city, burning the stone black. "And do you think life would have been the same forever?"

"Well--"

"We learned through history that some foals have messed with history and waged war against all alicorns." She grit her fangs. "It's possible that they went after those that came 'too close' to learning the truth, bringing pain and misery to their families, if they were even allowed to live."

"That's not possible! They wouldn't go that far! Ponies wouldn't do that..." Sunny's words were full of conviction as he started speaking, but with every syllable came further and further doubt.

He looked back up and saw a hideous smile that seemed to rip Moon's face apart. "Look at me."

"B-but...you're a goddess..."

"Look at my sister."

"But--"

"Look at the ponies that harassed her and the subsequent alicorns and the damages they caused." Moon's smile never faded, and Sunny felt himself crumble. "Don't consider the behavior of the one to encapsulate the whole. Wondering what life would be like in an imaginary 'better' scenario will forever be unknown outside of the world in your head, now let's get to the wall." She looked the perturbed unicorn in the eyes. "Peace can only ever last for a fixed amount of time. At some point somepony would have come in my place. Maybe not during your lifetime, but in the lifetime of your children, or their children. Eventually, some grand catastrophe would have occurred."

Sunny wanted to cry out against her claims with every fiber of his being. He loathed every word that came out of her mouth and wished he could shove them back in so he would never have to hear them. He hated Nightmare Moon so much...because he knew, despite his idealism and hopes for the best, that she was right.

The alicorn crashed onto the wall, crushing four fire creatures in an instant and startling the soldiers.

"Wh-what?!"

"Have you spotted the leader yet?" Moon asked them.

She only had to turn and face the horde burning the land for the soldiers to realize who she was.

"You're real?!" one of them shouted in disbelief.

"The leader is there in the back!" Another shouted. His wood-leather armor was charred, and his face was covered in burn marks, but he stayed at his post regardless."

"And my vassal in this city?"

"Hey, we can't just tell this pony anything! What if they're a con artist?"

Sunny rubbed his head and heard the terrified screaming of ponies in the city contrasting with the bestial wails of the attackers. He was so engulfed in his own thoughts that he didn't hear one of the guards shouting to 'watch out' as several house-sized orbs of molten rock were flung from some unknown source and were headed straight for him and Moon on the wall. The unicorn shut his eyes reflexively, freezing in place, but when the explosion resonated in his ears, he felt nothing. Moon had made a semi-transparent barrier of magic that absorbed the impact. She didn't, however, stop the rest.

"Let's go," she told Sunny.

"But the city!"

She ignored his pleas and engulfed him in her magic once more, but before jumping into the horde, she cast a spell. a powerful spell. A simulacrum of a black moon took shape above the battlefield, stunning many of the monsters. It lowered slowly before splitting into five pieces that elongated along the length of the sea of flames. Sound left everypony's ears when the moon pieces expanded suddenly, throwing every single creature in their vicinity high and far into the air, crashing against those that weren't in the range before the spells collapsed inward, pulling in more victims and 'clapping' before finally dissolving. There was nothing left, and when the duo landed amidst the survivors, the creatures made to attack but found themselves frozen when gazing upon the tiny unicorn. Many motioned to bow while others hesitated to move forward. They all parted when a familiar red sheen passed through them, floating oddly above the ground while also seeming to touch it.

"This way," the amalgamation commanded.

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