Chapter XXIV: What Wishes Wrought
Twilight was having an extremely confusing, generally horrifying, and all around distressing day. Waking up to celestial bodies fighting had been horrible enough as it was. Finding out that Meta Knight also had no idea what was going on had just been devastating. The Meta-Knights were just as confused as her, though they seemed to have handled the situation quite a bit more calmly.
Twilight had flown into a panic at that, the stress of the Sun and Moon actively fighting each other getting to her. Beyond the actuality of the situation, it brought up some unpleasant memories regarding her direct encounter with Nightmare Moon–and the lingering fear that Princess Luna might relapse. It was irrational, she knew. Whatever corrupting force had gotten its claws into Luna a millennium before had been purified by the Elements. And after the Princess of the Night had celebrated Nightmare Night in Ponyville with them, it had faded to near nothingness. But her nightmare from two nights earlier still weighed heavily on Twilight’s mind, her lack of confidence in herself sapping her mental stamina.
Meta Knight not being a fount of potential exposition for once was just the straw that broke the alicorn’s back.
It had taken upwards of six hours for her to calm down enough to even sit still. The first couple of hours had mostly been her letting out incoherent blubbering through half-choked sobs, her brain still trying to find some sort of hoofhold of a plan even as the absurdity of the situation caught up to her all at once. Meta Knight, for his part, didn’t say a word throughout the entire process.
It was rather refreshing, if Twilight was being honest. She loved her friends to bits, truly, but all of them except Fluttershy could be overbearing at times. Whenever she got like this, it paid for her to just have someone nearby to just…listen, even if her speech was nearly incomprehensible. She hadn’t had a panic attack this bad in years, but back home Shiny or Cadance would usually fill that role. And as much as she loved her little brother, Spike’s brand of sarcasm was not conducive to helping her through a severe panic, if the Want-it-Need-it incident was anything to go by.
As it was, Meta Knight’s quiet presence was simply appreciated. After her panic-fueled crying started to exhaust her and her blubbering got a bit more comprehensible, he got up to fetch them some tea. That wound up helping immensely, though over the next few hours she paced enough to wear a hole in the carpet of the Meta-Knight’s meeting room.
She might’ve been subconsciously summoning earth pony magic during that, but she digressed. They had at least used those hours to come up with a plan.
After the tea break and Twilight taking a few deep breaths, Sailor Dee had entered the room with some actual information. She didn’t know exactly why the Sun and Moon–Solaria and Luanris, as they were apparently called–were fighting. The two were generally cordial towards each other, even after their divorce (now wasn’t that a thought), if only for the sake of their sons. Whatever had them so worked up to attack each other must have been big.
As it stood, none of them had an easy way to get up there and ask them what was going on. Meta Knight had groused that it would have been easy with the Halberd, to which Twilight had paused just long enough in her pacing to shoot him an icy glare. The plan they eventually did come up with was simple: Twilight and Meta Knight would fly back to Castle Dedede, check in with them, and ask Kirby to solve the problem for them if he wasn’t planning to already.
Twilight really wasn’t a fan of the fact that this was all out of her hooves, but it wasn’t exactly like she could fly to space.
Unfortunately for them, the plan fell apart pretty much as soon as they got back to the castle…almost eight hours after Twilight had initially left. A chunk of it was still missing from the side, Twilight noticed as they approached, and cringed a bit at the fact that she had caused that. Vul’s crew was making good progress though, even with the time of day changing on a whim, and it looked like the man himself, who had overnighted at Castle Dedede to oversee the construction efforts, had seen their approach. He didn’t move to greet them–Twilight assumed it was because he had to keep watch on the construction–but he said something to King Dedede, and the penguin and Bandana Dee exited the main doors and waved up to the two of them.
Who exactly was there was what wrecked the plan, though. Or rather, who wasn’t.
“Sunset is missing?” Twilight exclaimed incredulously after a bit of conversation.
Dedede shrugged. “We couldn’t find her this morning.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow as night abruptly turned to day. “And where is Spike?”
“Oh, I sent your lil’ dragon friend off to see if Kirby could fix this!”
Twilight sighed and would have pinched the bridge of her nose had she the fingers to do it. “Well, at least that was pretty much what we planned to do, but now I have to go and pick Spike up, too. Where does Kirby live?”
Meta Knight pointed down the mountain with his sword, a different one than what he was holding on the Halberd, Twilight noted, but nothing particularly ornate. “Kirby’s house is a few kilometers down the path from the foot of the mountain, on the edge of a small village.”
“Thanks.”
Twilight spread her wings and was about to take off when Lunaris once again booted Solaria from the sky, and Bandee gasped and dropped his staff. His gaze was turned skyward, and everyone else soon turned to look at whatever he was looking at. Twilight’s own jaw dropped as she looked up, as well.
With the Sun no longer in the sky to scatter light, the area directly beyond the atmosphere was plainly visible. Occupying a massive proportion of the sky was a giant, yellow, circular object with a catlike face and a myriad of objects sticking out around it. Twilight couldn’t quite tell the scale of the object with nothing to compare it against, but she guessed that it had to be at least as large as Equus’s own moon.
Even Lunaris, who had seemed ready to launch over the horizon to show Solaria what for just moments before, paused to stare up at it.
A whispered “No” from Meta Knight redirected everyone’s attention to him. His eyes had shrunk to pinpricks behind his mask and Twilight suspected that he had paled behind it as well. Assuming he was capable of it; she didn’t exactly know his physiology.
Really, him being shaken was itself more terrifying than whatever it was that had appeared in the sky. He had always presented himself as unflappable, even in the dire circumstances of his battleship going down, so this was just insane to Twilight. “What,” she gulped, “is that?”
“A Clockwork Star,” Meta Knight replied, his voice barely louder than a whisper. Despite that, Twilight could hear the capitalization. “I didn’t realize they actually existed.”
Twilight narrowed her eyes at the sky. “Is it…getting closer?”
Indeed, the object had appeared to grow in size as it approached, and Twilight revised her earlier estimate. It was at least twice as large as Equus’s moon.
Dedede’s own jaw had dropped at this point. “We’re doomed.”
Thankfully, Solaria came back up over the horizon a few moments later. The sky turned blue again, but while the image of the great clockwork star faded, it was still visible in the daylit sky. She seemed somewhat disinterested in resuming her feud with Lunaris, at least, and the two came to some sort of agreement before both rushing at the giant object. They were clearly straining themselves, something that Twilight hadn't even thought was possible of celestial objects, but they managed to stop it in its tracks.
A few seconds later, they abruptly flew away in different directions, and it exploded.
A moon-sized object disintegrating like that was a spectacular thing to watch. Its eyes went wide and it seemed to open its mouth in some sort of silent scream just before it happened, but whatever had done it in had done it in hard. There was enough oxygen inside of it to sustain a giant fireball, pushing it apart at the seams. Parts of its face and interior slammed forward, but their pieces seemed small enough that they all burned up in Popstar’s atmosphere. The objects strewn at its sides went every which way, and two of the piano keys actually hit the ring system.
They bounced off.
Twilight didn’t want to think about the physics of that.
Slowly, Meta Knight lowered his sword and slightly relaxed. “That was…strange,” he noted. “I was unaware that the Clockwork Stars were anything more than myth. To see one destroyed like that…”
“What in the world is a Clockwork Star?” Dedede asked.
“Ancient, wish-granting machines from a bygone era,” Meta Knight explained. “My people have legends about them, but they’re all children’s stories. Fables about how you shouldn’t skip out on hard work, and stories warning against megalomania.” He took a deep breath. “I had thought them nothing more than that, but clearly I need to take a better look at the stories from my youth.”
“Did the stories depict them as…sapient?” Twilight asked, concerned.
Meta Knight shook his head. Given that he was mostly head, it was a fairly impressive feat. “No. They almost invariably depicted them as dumb machines, beholden entirely to their user’s wish. They didn’t even twist the wishes; the fables are all about how one can have everything and still be unsatisfied.”
Twilight sighed in relief.
Meta Knight chuckled at that. “I take it you are still uncomfortable with the idea of another sapient dying?”
Twilight frowned. “It’s…not quite that. I’ve attended three of my grandparents’ funerals and my brother was in the military. Even though Equestria hasn’t seen warfare in centuries, he did get called out sometimes to deal with monster attacks. And I had to take an ethics course at CSGU and spent ages debating about the Landslide Problem-”
“Landslide Problem?” Bandee asked.
“Five ponies are directly in the path of a landslide and will die if you do nothing. All you can do is put up a magical shield, but that will redirect the landslide and kill another pony who would not have died otherwise. Is it ethical to do so?”
“Oh, we have something similar,” Bandana Dee stated. “But it’s about Burning Leos, an overflowing pipe, and a valve.”
“Anyway,” Twilight redirected, “what I was leading up to was that I know, from a utilitarian standpoint, killing one sapient being to directly save others isn’t exactly unethical. And if that Clockwork Star had collided with Popstar, we all definitely would’ve died. But I think it’s the last option that should be considered viable, and was just uncomfortable with it being taken hastily if it could’ve been talked down.”
Everyone was silent for a few moments.
“Well, that got real heavy real quick,” Dedede spoke up. Turning to Meta Knight, he changed the subject. “So, do we gotta worry about anything falling to the ground?”
Meta Knight looked back at the sky. “That seems unlikely. There’ll be a meteor shower in the coming days, but I don’t think any of the debris is large enough to actually hit the ground.”
Bandee’s eyes narrowed. “So uh, what is that falling right towards us, then?”
Meta Knight’s eyes went wide in surprise as he also saw the piece of debris coming right for them. “Oh shit! Scatter!”
The four of them did so immediately, diving out of the way as an aquamarine object fell from the sky at mach speed. It shattered into eight star-shaped objects upon hitting the ground, each of a different color. They all shot off, seven of them shooting up into the sky and the yellow one moving north faster than a bullet.
The main thing of interest, Twilight noted as she poked her head out of the bush she dove into, was the ball of shields that had been riding on top of the object, just as aquamarine as the falling object itself. It unceremoniously bounced across the ground as its ride disintegrated before slamming into Castle Dedede’s walls. The shields dissolved, revealing a disoriented, panting, and extremely tired Sunset Shimmer.
As Sunset stumbled a bit and she regained her hoofing, Twilight took a good look at her. She had definitely seen better days. There were massive bags under her eyes, what looked like a bit of blood matted into the fur of one of her legs, and from what Twilight could see it looked like she was missing a tooth. Her mane and tail were also outright smoldering, and her horn’s keratin and the fur on her forehead around it looked almost charred.
Slowly, Sunset looked back at the building she had slammed into. “Huh,” she said, “that’s neat.”
Then she collapsed like a sack of bricks.
Discord yawned, stood up from his couch, and stretched himself, popping far more joints than he actually had in the process. “Well then,” he said, conjuring a remote and turning off the screen, “that all seems well taken care of.”
Nopony said anything for a few seconds, all of them rather dumbfounded by the events within Nova. “Did…did Sunset just…” Sunburst started.
“Break a machine the size of a small planet?” Starlight finished for him. “Yes. Remind me to never piss her off when they get back.”
“When?” Discord pointed out. “I admire your optimism.”
Starlight didn’t say anything in response, but instead gestured vaguely at the screen before miming an explosion.
Discord stroked his beard. “Well, I suppose I wouldn’t put it past them to give Void a metaphorical kick in the pants.” He shrugged. “Eh, I suppose we’ll see how that goes. Now then, I do believe that it is…” he snapped his tail and summoned a miniature sundial, which cast a shadow entirely unrelated to the room’s lighting, “close to eight in the morning.”
Rainbow gave off an exaggerated yawn and flopped back in her seat. “Ugh,” she groaned, “I’ve been up for almost a whole day. And I have work today!”
Rarity chuckled lightly. “Darling, we saved the world last night–again. I daresay that we deserve to take a day off.”
“Are you kidding?” Rainbow retorted. “Who knows what Discord’s plants did to Ponyville’s clouds? Mayor Mare’ll have my tail if I slack on weather management now of all times.”
Applejack nodded. “And Ah’ll be helpin’ with the cleanup on the ground, Ah’m sure.”
Pinkie looked at her, a bit confused. “Don’t you get up before the Sun does, AJ?”
“Eeyup.”
The baker did some mental math. “So you’ve been up for…twenty-six hours? And are staying up longer?”
Applejack laughed. “Please, a day awake ain’t nothin’! Y’know, back durin’ applebuck season, it took at least three afore Ah started hallucinatin’ all that bad!”
“That is not strictly encouraging,” Rarity deadpanned.
“So, um,” Fluttershy broached to switch the topic, “Discord? How will we know if Twilight or Sunset or Spike gets into trouble again?”
Discord frowned in thought. “You know, I hadn’t quite thought of that.” Somewhat excitedly, he snapped his paw. The screen flickered back on, focusing on Twilight as she and Meta Knight carried Sunset to Castle Dedede’s infirmary. At the same time, one of his cupboards flew open and began emitting light. “And that cupboard now leads back to Fluttershy’s house! I’ll let you know if I see anything interesting happening in Dreamland.” He blinked and snapped again. “Oh, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders are back at their houses.
“Well ain’t that nice!” Applejack said, smiling a bit.
The Ponyville residents began to depart, Fluttershy giving Discord a quick hug as she passed. Once they had left, he turned to the four remaining ponies.
“If I may request, Discord,” Luna asked, some amount of distrust still coloring her voice, “could you bring the rest of us back to Canterlot directly? I feel that it is best if my sister and I get there as quickly as possible.”
Sunburst frowned. “But, why me and Starli…oh.”
Starlight cringed. “Yeah, I’m going to prison, aren’t I?”
“That remains to be seen,” Celestia softly reminded them, before Discord snapped his tail.
Sunburst and Starlight got it easy, appearing upright and on the floor in the middle of Canterlot Palace’s throne room. Much to the bafflement of the guards, Celestia flashed in upside-down a bit in the air and Luna appeared near the ceiling, mercifully high enough to catch herself in a glide. Her sister was hardly as lucky, landing in a rather undignified heap onto her throne.
And on top of her nephew, who had been sitting in it at the time.
It was a very confusing few minutes for everypony involved.
“I just…feel underappreciated sometimes, you know?” Spike said.
He and Kirby were sitting at the shore of a large lake, which sprawled out from behind Kirby’s house. Kirby himself was fishing, even as the sky overhead was in chaos. He had managed to sleep through most of Solaria and Lunaris’s fight, deciding to nap the day away with how tiring his battles to reconstitute the Star Rod (and against Nightmare) had been. Spike had even been the one to wake him up, but instead of heading up there on a Warp Star to remedy the situation, Kirby had noticed how down Spike looked and opted to console him for a bit.
Besides, Kirby was pretty sure that this was just Lunaris being angry after he blew a chunk of him up. And Popstar seemed more than resilient enough to take it, so cheering up Spike took priority.
And also enough focus that neither of them noticed the giant yellow object in the sky until it exploded, at which point Kirby noticed Solaria and Lunaris start getting along again and promptly shrugged the entire situation off.
Responding to Spike’s earlier question, Kirby tilted his head a bit and gave a “How do you mean?” expression.
Spike sighed. “It’s just…I’m stuck as a messenger. I got Dedede when you guys took down the Halberd, I came here to get you to stop the Sun and Moon from fighting, hay, I was a glorified mailbox for Twilight and Princess Celestia back in Equestria.” He scuffed the ground around a bit from where he was seated. “I…I want to help Twilight, I want to get involved, but everytime I try to help I just screw things up.”
Kirby blinked confusedly and gestured to himself.
Spike scoffed. “Yeah, and fat load of good I did there. I just got myself eaten.”
Kirby emphatically shook his head. Making sure that he had Spike’s attention, he set up his fishing rod to stay upright without his help and began miming breathing fire and punching things.
The corners of Spike’s mouth turned up and he snorted, a bit of smoke leaking from his nostrils in amusement. “You don’t talk a lot, do you?”
Kirby grinned and spoke the first word he’d said all day: “Nope!”
Spike chuckled. “Thanks for listening, anyway.” He looked out over the water. “I just hope Twilight lets me help out more directly, soon. I’m a dragon!”
The pair lapsed into silence for a while as Kirby took his fishing rod back and waited for the line to go taut. Spike wasn’t sure for how long, exactly, but it was eventually broken by the sound of flapping wings from above.
“Ah there you are!”
Twilight descended fairly quickly, coming to a landing just to the left of the pair. She was still a bit unsteady at it, but Spike could see that she was improving at flight pretty quickly–at least she wasn’t plowing trenches in the ground anymore. Her landing did, however, scare away a few fish, including a large blue one with yellow fins that had gotten curious and nearly bitten the line.
Kirby pouted at her. “You scared the fishies!”
Twilight blinked in surprise. “Was that a full sentence?” She shook her head. “Never mind, I thought you were going to go up there and ask Solaria and Lunaris to stop?”
Spike looked up at the sky, where the Sun was sitting there, undisturbed. “I didn’t get here until the situation was nearly fixed, anyway. And uh…” he looked down, a bit embarrassed. “I had a lot on my mind that I just wanted to talk to someone about.”
“Oh, Spike,” Twilight said softly, offering a wing for an embrace. As she hugged her little brother, she continued. “You know you can talk to me about anything, right?”
Spike nodded. “Yeah, but I know you’re just gonna say no.”
Twilight frowned slightly and shifted so she could look at Spike directly as he broke the embrace. “What do you mean?”
Spike sighed. “I want to help. Directly, I mean. I don’t want to just be an errand colt. I can help! I’m a dragon!”
Twilight looked contemplative. “Listen, Spike, I’m going to be honest here. You’re a dragon, sure, but you’re ten.”
“I turn eleven in…” he began to protest before stalling. “How long have we been here?”
“Thirteen days,” Twilight answered immediately. “Which means that the Summer Sun Celebration is in three days, so your birthday isn’t for another month and a half.”
“Yeah, so I turn eleven soon,” Spike rebutted. “And you let me go off to see the Dragon Migration alone!”
“And I shouldn’t have done that,” Twilight said. “Even if Rarity, Dash, and I were all following you. I should’ve been there for you–explicitly–so you didn’t have to face Garble and the other bullies alone. I’m sorry.” She smiled softly at him and gave him a quick nuzzle. “But I will say, saving Peewee was an extraordinarily brave thing for you to do.”
Spike chuckled. “Heh, yeah. I’m still a bit sad we had to release him.”
Twilight giggled. “Spike, we live in a tree that’s also a public building. I think if we tried to raise a phoenix there the Mayor would have run us out of Ponyville personally. I’m sure that Princess Celestia and Philomena found a wonderful home for him.”
“That’s fair,” Spike agreed. “But…what does any of that have to do with me not being able to help out?”
Twilight sighed and pulled him into another hug. “You are a brave, brave young dragon, Spike, and I’m being a bit selfish here, but…” she sighed again, “I’m afraid. Afraid that you’ll get yourself into a situation where you’ll be hurt. Afraid that you might go off to help and not come back. It’s the same sort of fear that we felt whenever Shiny got called to deal with a monster attack somewhere.”
Spike frowned. “But, you know that dragons are tough. Really tough!”
Twilight was silent for a moment as she stared out across the lake. “Spike, how many ponies are there that you think could hold up a building?”
Spike frowned harder. “Well, you and any of the other princesses, and Sunset, obviously. Shining probably could with his shields, and Big Mac and Applejack are both strong enough to do that, maybe? Oh, and Pinkie definitely could.” He looked back up at his sister. “But I know I’m not powerful enough to do that. But I can take it! Remember that time you threw me through the wall?”
Twilight winced. “I am not a morning pony.” She shook her head. “But that’s not the point I’m getting at. I’m trying to say that even with that much power, ponies, dragons, whoever they are can get injured. Badly.”
Spike narrowed his eyes. “Did Sunset…”
“She’s stable,” Twilight said, interrupting any potentially morbid thoughts. “But I think she went up there to try and deal with the problem, and she was in bad shape when she crashed into Castle Dedede.”
Kirby, who had tuned out much of the sibling’s conversation, suddenly looked up at them and began reeling in his fishing line. “Sunset’s hurt?”
Twilight nodded, watching as he packed up his fishing gear. “I haven’t run a full diagnostic, since I came down here to get Spike as soon as I knew her condition was stable, but I’m heading back up there to finish a magical scan and talk with the doctors.”
“What are we waiting for, then?” Spike asked, breaking from the hug and quickly starting up the path. "We've got a unicorn to go see!"
“So, house arrest, huh?”
Starlight nodded. She and Sunburst in the room she had been given–though in her opinion that verb phrase should have been “jailed in”–in Canterlot Palace. It wasn’t a terrible room, by any means. It had a queen-sized bed, a nice bedside drawer stack, a fully stocked bookshelf, and a neat little tea table where she and Sunburst were sitting. But compared to Sire’s Hollow, or even her little village, it felt suffocating.
Starlight gestured at her horn, where an inhibitor ring was situated and magically stuck. “Three months in here with no magic and then a thousand hours of community service once that’s up, but it’s better than a prison cell.”
“True,” Sunburst agreed. “But-” he smiled, “at least it seems like you got off lightly.”
Starlight scuffed at the floor with a hoof. “I shouldn’t have. After what I did…I ruined my own life, Dad’s life, probably indirectly you and your mom’s, the lives of everypony who came to my village, and I nearly took Princess Luna’s cutie mark. I don’t know why I’m not rotting in a cell right now.”
Sunburst winced. Starlight’s trial had been, if not exactly large, long. It wasn’t extraordinarily public–the Canterlot Daily had run a small article on it on page twelve, and that was the extent of press that it got, rather odd for such a high-profile case–but it took four days of deliberation before a verdict was eventually reached. Sunburst was still a bit surprised that it even happened as fast as it had, given that the Summer Sun Celebration had forced a recess and how far a few of the witnesses had needed to travel, particularly some ponies from Starlight’s village and her own father.
The lawyers had been thorough.
Usually, for important cases like this, both reigning princesses would have presided as dual judges to deliberate among themselves for the final sentencing, but since Princess Luna had been one of Starlight’s victims, she was barred from overseeing the trial. Technically speaking, the only thing that stopped Starlight from being charged with high treason and thrown in Tartarus–Sunburst shuddered at the very thought–was both diarchs explicitly pardoning her of that before the trial even began. But even accounting for that, the witness testimonies were what allowed for such a light sentence for the rest of her crimes. Despite Starlight’s many wrongdoings, very few of her former villagers actually wanted her to wind up behind bars, and even the ones that seemed like they did weren’t aggressive about it. And Princess Celestia had agreed.
With a start, Sunburst realized that he had gotten himself lost in his thoughts and hadn’t responded to Starlight in nearly thirty seconds. “W-well,” he said, “I think that attitude was what convinced the Princess to not throw you in prison! You showed a willingness to change, which really I think is even more than they needed. Princess Celestia managed to get Discord of all creatures reformed, for goodness’ sake!”
A soft chuckle from the doorway prompted both ponies to look in that direction.
“Indeed,” Princess Celestia said, two guards warily looking in as she entered the room, though they did not follow. “You are correct, Sunburst.”
Sunburst fell straight out of his seat scrambling to turn around. “Y-your Highness!” he stuttered, sinking into a bow once he had righted himself.
Starlight just raised an eyebrow at him, got up without falling over herself, and gave a polite bow.
“Rise, my little ponies,” the Princess stated, no small amount of exasperation coloring her voice. Her horn lit up in golden light, and a third chair flashed into existence. “I simply want to speak with Miss Glimmer, here.”
“O-oh!” Sunburst said. “I can j-just be going, then.”
Princess Celestia smiled and sat down in the chair she had summoned. “Don’t be too hasty, Sunburst. This conversation involves you, as well.”
Sunburst blinked. “Oh.”
He and Starlight both took their own seats back at the table. Once everypony was situated, the Princess began. “So, Starlight, how are you feeling?”
Starlight looked confused for a moment before she answered. “Relieved, I guess?” she replied unsurely. “I mean, it kinda sucks that I’m stuck here for three months, but at least I have something to read!” She gestured to the bookshelf.
Celestia’s soft smile remained unchanged. “I’m glad to hear that you’re adjusting nicely, then. I did want to discuss the exact terms of your house arrest-”
“Stay in the room except for meals and using the restroom, and I have to be accompanied by at least three guards at all times outside of this room,” Starlight interrupted. “I’ve read the terms at least thrice by now.”
Celestia chuckled. “Well then, surely you also know that this arrangement is temporary until we could secure proper housing for you?”
“Yeah,” Starlight agreed, then blinked in surprise. “Wait, already?”
“Conditionally,” Celestia answered, holding up a hoof, “on Sunburst’s agreement.”
Sunburst looked up. “Huh?”
“I’ve considered Miss Glimmer’s case, and I believe that, for her recovery, she is most in need of a friend,” Celestia said, a knowing glint in her eye as she looked between them. “How amenable would you be to moving, Sunburst?”
“Uh…” Sunburst started, considering. “I don’t have that many things, I suppose. I’d have a lot of books to move, but I was only really in the Crystal Empire in the first place to talk to Sunset.” He cringed. “And well, you know how that turned out.” He tapped his chin in thought. “Though, I’m not sure how I’d feel moving back to Canterlot. This place…doesn’t have many good memories for me.”
“That is fine,” Celestia said. “We don’t have to have Starlight here, specifically, to keep her under house arrest. Luna and I were thinking that Ponyville might be a better option, assuming that the Bearers would be willing to help a few guards with making sure you serve your time.” Her smile turned ever so slightly mischievous. “Besides, Ponyville is in desperate need of a new librarian during Twilight’s…unplanned sabbatical.”
“Is that what we’re calling it?” Starlight asked.
“Wait wait wait,” Sunburst called, “isn’t the Ponyville library Princess Twilight’s house?”
Celestia nodded.
“And you want me and Starlight to live there?” Sunburst said, incredulous. “I’m sorry but that just feels…disrespectful, to me. Living in another pony's house like that.”
Celestia giggled, a sound that Sunburst had never expected to hear from royalty. “Oh, I am certain that Twilight would be quite cross with me if I didn’t assign somepony to watch over her books in her absence.”
Starlight frowned. “What about when she gets back?”
“According to Discord, that won’t be for a while yet, if we can get her back at all,” Celestia reported. “But we will be actively working on that. Once we do get Twilight back we can work something out with the Mayor, and I am going to have some choice words for this Void character when we do.” She stretched. "But that is for later. For now, there is somepony that wants to see you."
The guards moved, a flash of purple shot through the room, and suddenly there was an older unicorn stallion hugging Starlight. "Oh, my little pumpkin, I've missed you so much!"
"Dad?!"
Celestia leaned over and whispered into Sunburst's ear. "I think it's time we take our leave."
“Hey, I think she’s waking up!”
“About time! I wanna know what happened up there!”
“She’s not going to be in any position to discuss that for a while, Dedede.”
Sunset groaned as she came to, general soreness permeating her body. She could feel a few things wrapped around or poked into her, and based on the constant computerized pulse on her left she guessed one was an EKG and another was an IV drip.
Dedede’s infirmary was surprisingly well stocked, given the apparent technological state of Dreamland.
After a few seconds, she chanced opening her eyes. The bright lights of the room assaulted her retinas for a few moments, but the image quickly resolved itself. She had guessed right about landing near Castle Dedede, it seemed; Twilight, Spike, Dedede, and Bandana Dee were all standing near the room’s entrance, and two Waddle Dees in nurse’s garb were nearby.
“Did…” Sunset began, her voice feeling raspy from disuse. She licked her lips to wet them, noticing that her missing tooth had been replaced by some sort of implant in the process. Before she continued, Bandana Dee quickly excused himself from the room. “Did anyone get the number of the truck that hit me?”
One of the nurses frowned. At least, Sunset assumed that it was a frown based on how the Dee’s eyes turned. “Well, I’m not quite sure what you mean by that, but I can tell you that you did quite a number on yourself.” He produced a clipboard. “Even inside that shield of yours, you had multiple lacerations, a broken rib, and first-degree burns on your horn and forehead.”
“Not to mention that you burned so many calories that your body had begun digesting its own muscle,” the other nurse piped up. “We had to keep you on a diet of essentially pure maxim tomato paste just to keep you stable.”
“Also,” Twilight pitched in, “you had the absolute worst case of mana burn I’ve ever seen. What happened up there, Sunset?”
Sunset licked her dry mouth again. “How long was I out?”
“Over a week,” Spike answered. He winced. “We were worried for a bit that…that you wouldn’t recover.”
Internally, Sunset sighed in relief. If she had been out that long it meant that Marx hadn’t escaped Nova before it exploded, so Popstar was safe from him, at least. Before she could express that, Bandee ran back in with a glass of water. “Here, hopefully that helps your throat.”
On instinct, Sunset tried to reach out with her levitation. She reflexively winced as soon as she did, the usual mana burn headache making itself known. The spell was aborted almost immediately, but by that point she had begun to move the cup upwards. It wasn’t supposed to be much, just enough that she could lift it over to her.
It rocketed upwards and shattered on the ceiling.
“W-what?” Sunset stammered.
Most of the rest of the room was staring in shock, but Twilight only seemed mildly surprised. “That…was a bit more powerful than I thought it was going to be,” she muttered. “And also part of why I wanted you to explain what happened.”
Sunset looked the alicorn directly in the eyes. “Twilight, what happened to me?”
“Your mana pathways have expanded. Significantly,” Twilight explained. “As has your internal mana pool. It’s almost like you ascended without actually ascending.”
Sunset glanced down at her side, seeing nothing but her regular orange coat and, disappointingly, an obvious lack of wings.
“Alright everyone, shoo,” one of the nurses said. “You all can figure out exactly what happened later, we need to properly check everything with the patient now that she’s awake.”
Twilight outright pouted at being denied information, and Sunset chuckled–though that action caused her to wince in pain not long after. “It’s probably better to do that later, anyway,” she said. “Meta Knight will definitely want to know what happened.”
“And we can tell Kirby about the league thing!” Spike piped up.
A few hours later, Sunset was given a (mostly) clean bill of health and discharged from the infirmary. Castle Dedede didn’t exactly have a meeting room, per se, so she wound up wandering around a bit until she ran into Meta Knight, who directed her towards the banquet hall.
Meta Knight, as it turned out, had been hanging around Castle Dedede, waiting for her to wake up. Vul was around too, still overseeing the final bits of construction on the boxing room, and apparently Sailor Dee was currently in charge of the complex on Orange Ocean. The knight apparently knew the layout of Dedede’s castle better than the King himself, taking point on leading Sunset to where they were meeting.
The meeting was clearly makeshift, everyone sitting around a buffet table. Most of the beings there were making small talk with each other, besides Kirby, who was making his way through a sixteen-layer cake. He did take a bit of time out of his meal to wave at her as she entered, though.
Sunset didn’t really want to think about how the confection stayed up.
Her entrance to the hall very quickly shifted the atmosphere of the room. The moment she stepped hoof in there, she could feel the tension in the air as Meta Knight flapped to his seat and Sunset took one. No one really knew how to breach what everyone wanted to talk about, so they just sort of sat there in silence until Kirby finished his cake a few seconds later.
Swallowing happily, he grinned at Sunset. “You’re okay!”
Just like that, the tension shattered. Kirby’s childlike proclamation worked wonderfully to clear the air, and Sunset grinned right back. “Yep! You can’t keep this mare down for long!”
Meta Knight cleared his throat. “Yes, Miss Shimmer’s recovery is quite pleasant to see.” He looked at Sunset. “Though, we do still require an explanation. Perhaps, you should begin from the morning that Solaria and Lunaris began fighting.”
Sunset frowned as she considered just how much to tell them. She’d mention the Summoning Stars, of course, and how they summoned the Galactic Nova. And it was probably a good idea to go through what she had found on those planets. Her main concern was discussing her own ill-fated wish, but after a few seconds, she came to a decision.
She had to let Twilight know, at least, that Nova couldn’t get them back to Equestria.
“Well, I suppose I should start with when I woke up that morning to a headache, the sky fighting itself, and teleporting myself and Marx to the Fountain of Dreams.”
“That’s one heck of a teleport,” Spike commented.
Sunset nodded. “Yeah, but we needed a quick way there and I knew that the Fountain would prevent mana burn.”
Kirby looked curious. “Marx?” he asked.
“Where is the fella, anyway?” Dedede asked. “I haven’t seen him around for a while.”
Sunset cringed. “Marx is…” she frowned intensely, “we’ll get to that.”
That, at least, confused most of the rest of the table, though Meta Knight had a knowing look in his eyes.
“Anyway, once we reached the Fountain, the Star Rod resonated with me…”
She went on to briefly recount her experiences on each of Popstar’s neighboring planets, the expressions around the table ebbing and flowing as she did. From confusion about Floria’s weather, to horror (or in Meta Knight’s case, excitement) at Cavius’s challenges, to Vul seeming almost proud when he heard what happened on Mekkai. But eventually, Sunset had to face the music.
“So Nova asked me for a wish, and I…” she sighed. “I’m sorry. I wished for a way back to Equestria.”
There wasn’t any shouting, but in a way the silent disappointment she felt emanating from Bandana Dee, Twilight, and Spike was almost worse. Dedede neglected to say anything, presumably for fear of being called out for the fact that he absolutely would have done the same thing in her position. Meta Knight and Vul, though, seemed extremely understanding.
“That does make sense,” Meta Knight pointed out. “You had no particular stake in stopping Solaria and Lunaris’s conflict, especially if you made it back home. I think your decision was still selfish, but understandable.” He gave her a particularly pointed look. “However, you are clearly still here.”
Sunset nodded. “The wish didn’t work, because Nova couldn’t find Equestria, apparently.”
Spike had chosen the worst time to be taking a sip of water, because he performed a spit take right then and there. “What do you mean something like that couldn’t find Equestria?”
“Meta Knight, do your legends about Clockwork Stars say anything about their limits?” Twilight asked.
Meta Knight shook his head. “They do not. They often claimed their power to be truly limitless, but perhaps they are confined to a single universe, or even just this one.” He paused. “Regardless, more had to have happened.”
“Marx hijacked the wish,” Sunset replied. “I was too stunned to think of another before he jumped in and wished to rule Popstar.”
A series of gasps rang out around the table.
“He what?”
“That is…unexpected.”
“I always knew he was bad news.”
“Your Majesty, are you sure that doesn’t just stem from that time he tripped you with a banana peel?”
“Hey, that hurt, alright?”
Sunset cleared her throat, redirected everyone’s attention back to her. “After he made that wish, Nova started dumping power into him, and we fought.” She frowned. “Well, it’s more like I barely avoided certain death half a dozen times as he got used to his powers. I think, if he knew what was going to happen, he would’ve killed me immediately.”
“So how did you stop him?” Spike asked, enraptured in the story.
“Well, I thought that, since he was drawing power from Nova, if I could shut that down it would stop him from getting any stronger,” Sunset said.
“But Nova was massive!” Twilight exclaimed. “How in the world did you destroy that?”
“You all could see it from the surface, right?”
Most of the rest of the table nodded.
“So you saw the giant hole in its forehead?”
Another set of nods.
Sunset grinned. “I flew inside of it, got to its core, and started pulling magic out of the Warp Star I was on to blow shit up.” She shivered. “It was fucking painful, but it worked.”
“Language!” Kirby reprimanded.
Sunset gave him a deadpan look as Twilight tapped her chin. “I think I know what happened with your magic, then.” With a purple flash of light, Twilight summoned a rubber ball. “Here, try to levitate this.”
Sunset mentally shrugged, flared her horn as much as she was willing with the mana burn, and attempted to lift the ball a few centimeters off the table. It rose a full two meters before she got a handle on how much magic she was putting into it and–slowly–pulled it back down. “I uh…didn’t mean to do that.”
Twilight nodded, her hypothesis apparently supported. “When you started pulling magic out of the Warp Star, I think it overloaded your mana system,” she explained. “Now, usually, if you dump that much magic into a unicorn they’d turn into a fine red mist-”
Spike blanched. “Gee, Twi, thanks for that image.”
Twilight continued as if the interruption hadn’t even happened. “But whatever was going on with the Warp Star was stopping you from being ripped apart atom by atom! So when all that magic flooded your body with nowhere to go, it forced your mana pathways open and essentially burned them in place. You pretty much have the same mana pool and casting capabilities that I do, now.”
“Still no wings to go with it, though,” Spike pointed out.
“Wait, so I can cast more?” Sunset asked excitedly. “And easier?”
Twilight shook her head. “You can cast more, yeah, but you’ll need a lot finer control than what you had earlier, since you’re naturally attuned to how much mana you need to expend to cast something in proportion to how much you have total. Plus, Spike’s point about the lack of wings is actually pretty important.”
“Huh?” Sunset asked.
“You still absorb mana at the same rate as a unicorn–three times slower than alicorns do,” Twilight explained. “So despite having alicorn-level casting ability, you’re going to tire out a lot faster than an alicorn would and take a lot longer to recover if you exhaust yourself.”
Sunset nodded. “I guess that makes sense. So I’ll have to pace myself with magic now, got it.” She considered that for a moment. “You know, maybe that’s why teleporting out of Nova was so easy. That had to have been a teleport of upwards of a couple thousand kilometers.”
Twilight blinked. “You teleported out of that? From its core?”
“Well, I’m pretty sure I was running mostly on magic and adrenaline at that point,” Sunset countered, “and I had about a quarter of a second to react before I slammed into the wall at mach five hundred.”
“So what happened to Marx, then?” Dedede asked.
Sunset’s eyes widened as a haunted look came over them. “He…he was in there when Nova exploded. Even with as much power as he had, I don’t think he could’ve survived that, especially since he hasn’t shown up to try and take over the world yet.” She sank in on herself, feeling a bit numb to the outside world. “I didn’t want to kill him,” she whispered.
In nary a moment, she felt sensation again–particularly, the sensation of being hugged. Looking down, she saw Kirby, speckles of cake still spread around his cheeks, doing his best to wrap his nubby little arms around her. They didn’t speak, but Sunset still moved her other hoof to pat him on the back.
“Thanks, Kirby,” She said.
“The decision to take a life, even if necessary, is never easy,” Meta Knight mentioned. “You made the right choice to save yourself, Sunset.”
Twilight took a deep breath. “I agree.”
Spike looked at her in surprise. “Woah. I did not expect that to come from you.”
“This world is more dangerous than Equestria, Spike,” Twilight elaborated. “A lot more. I wish it was never necessary, but sometimes, it’s the only option. And it’s not like it’s a foreign concept in Equestria, either. Remember what happened to King Sombra?”
“I was a bit occupied trying to not lose my lunch after Cadance caught me,” Spike admitted.
“He died,” Twilight said bluntly. “I was stuck in that trap at the time, but from what my friends told me, the Crystal Heart vaporized him. I don’t know why it decided that that was the only way, but it did.”
Spike brought his claws up to his face, where he stared at them like they were bloody.
Quickly, Twilight wrapped a wing around him. “And don’t you dare blame yourself, Spike. You might’ve gotten the Crystal Heart to Cadance, but Sombra was the one who got himself killed by being such a horrible dictator that the Heart just blew him to pieces.”
An ahem from Dedede interrupted them. “As riveting a story that is, I think Sunset had more to say?”
Sunset frowned. “Not too much. After I teleported out of Nova, I yelled at the Sun and Moon that it was gonna blow and tried to aim for Castle Dedede when I landed.” She cringed. “And uh, landing a Warp Star half-conscious is not a good idea.” Suddenly, she brightened up again. “Oh, but there’s one other thing I wanted to mention.” Flaring her horn, she summoned the leather-bound book she had found. “I found this on Aquarius, but I can’t read it and it’s definitely not Somnic.” Slowly, she levitated it over to Meta Knight. “I was wondering if you had any ideas?”
Meta Knight seemed to frown behind his mask as he opened the book to the first page. “This seems like some ancient form of Astral,” he said. “My language had a character shift some fifteen hundred years ago, but I recognize some of these words.” His eyes narrowed. “But only a few. The word for ‘star’ has been virtually unchanged over the millennia, as has the word ‘dream.’ Both appear quite often in this.” He handed it back, and Sunset took it in her telekinetic field before storing it again. “Do you know how old it is?”
“Two thousand years, minimum,” Sunset said. “There’s a diagram later on that seems to indicate that it’s older than Mekkai.”
Vul snapped his wing, a strange sound to come from a bird. “Ah, that’s where I recognized those characters from!” he suddenly said. “My grandpappy took a few pictures of the area near the Fountain back when he founded the company on Mekkai, and the writing carved into the metal around it looked just like that!”
“Oh, so that was your family’s company?” Sunset asked. “Sorry if we might’ve started a revolution there.”
Vul snorted. “Please, go right ahead on that. My sister and I had a...difference of opinion, let’s say, on how to manage the place after our dad passed, but since she’s older she got the final say. I got off of that sinking ship as soon as I could.”
“Regardless, would you mind bringing that book to Orange Ocean in the future?” Meta Knight asked. “I would like to analyze it with more tools available to me than just my mind.”
“The doc told me to lay off the exercise for a couple weeks,” Sunset replied, “but as soon as I get the all-clear, I’ll be there.”
“Well howdy there, Yer Highnesses!” Applejack greeted in a bow at Ponyville’s train station as Cadance and Shining Armor stepped off of the train.
It was around five in the morning, well before Princess Celestia was scheduled to raise the Sun. Ponyville’s street lights were generally pretty subpar, but the light of the moon was more than enough for Applejack to navigate by. The farmer was just about the only one of Twilight’s friends who was up at this hour, so she volunteered to greet the ruling couple of the Crystal Empire when word had come that they would be arriving extremely early to see Discord’s window for themselves.
The previous few weeks after witnessing Sunset’s adventures in space had been…interesting. Starlight and Sunburst moving into Twilight’s old place on Celestia’s dime had come as a bit of a shock, though the group of friends were all generally alright with it when the Princess explained her reasoning. It was a bit weird having three guards hang around at all times to keep an eye on Starlight, though.
(Technically, there were four agents of the Crown watching the mare under house arrest, but nopony but Celestia and Agent Sweetie Drops needed to know her current mission.)
Applejack offered to take some of the pair’s bags as they stepped down from the platform and began making their way towards Fluttershy’s house. “So, why’d you two come down here so early, anyhow?”
Cadance yawned deeply. “It’s the earliest we could come,” she explained. “Those…what did Discord call them again when he came up to tell us what was going on?”
“Plundervines, dear,” Shining reminded, as alert as ever. “Some of them nearly managed to breach the Crystal Heart’s barrier, and dealing with the paperwork and labor of removing half a kiloton of frozen vines from the snow and clearing the tracks took the better part of three weeks.”
“Heh, cleanup here took a while too,” Applejack said. “Rainbow was complainin’ for days ‘bout the clouds.” She chuckled. “Well, really she was grumblin’ ‘bout how the Mayor had her workin’ ‘round the clock on it. Ah think she was pretty happy to get out there an’ do some cloudbustin’ herself.”
Shining nodded, though Cadance just stared at her for a moment. “Is your accent thicker in the morning?” She yawned again. “Because I think I understood about half of the words you said there.” She shook her head with a slight smile. “Goodness, I think I need a coffee.”
“Ah’m sure Flutters can getcha somethin’ when we reach her place,” Applejack snickered. “Jus’ don’t take anythin’ Discord gives ya. Sunburst drank enough o’ Discord’s wine ta give himself a pretty bad hangover, but instead o’ the usual symptoms he was apparently vomitin’ rainbows and had dreams ‘bout polka-dotted elephants.”
“Did Starlight tell you about that one?” Shining asked.
“Eyup,” Applejack responded. “Y’all know ‘bout what’s goin’ on, then?”
“Aunties Celestia and Luna briefed us on the situation when they moved her here,” Cadance replied. “I still can’t believe how lightly she got off.”
Applejack shrugged. “Eh, the Princesses said they had some sorta plan for her to help get Twilight back, an’ she’s got three guards watchin’ her all the time.”
“Speaking of...” Shining said, “Sergeant Sharpwing!”
A pegasus guard, who Applejack hadn’t even noticed in the tree next to them, fell out of it in surprise that she had been noticed. She squawked a bit as she corrected herself in midair, landing with a bit of a thud before immediately saluting. “Sir, yes, Captain Armor, Sir!”
Shining raised an eyebrow. “At ease, Sergeant. I’m not your CO anymore.”
She grinned a bit, not dropping the salute. “Sir, yes, former Captain Armor, Sir!”
Shining kept his stern expression, but Applejack could see just the tiniest corners of his mouth turn up. “Shouldn’t you be at your post?”
Sharpwing’s eyes widened before she took off for the center of town fast enough to make Rainbow Dash jealous.
“How’d ya see her?” Applejack asked as they restarted their trek down the road out of Ponyville proper. “Ah’ve gotta have seen that tree over a thousand times and Ah didn’t even notice anythin’!”
Cadance chuckled. “Shining’s got quite the bag of tricks.”
The stallion in question pointed backwards, where underneath the tree lay a few pegasus feathers. “It’s not so much a trick as it is learning who’s who. I was Sharpwing’s commanding officer for around three years. You could never, never put her on surveillance, because she always got her wings caught in branches.”
Applejack laughed. “Ah’m gonna have ta remember that one if Rainbow ever tries to say she wasn’t nappin’ in my trees! Betcha there’s a whole bunch o’ blue feathers ‘round Sweet Apple Acres.”
By now, they had pretty much reached Fluttershy’s house, which the royal couple looked up at. “So, this is Fluttershy’s cottage?” Cadance asked. “It’s homey.”
“Oh right, y’all’ve never been here afore!” Applejack realized. “Don’tcha worry ‘bout anythin’. Flutters gets up early all the time ta care for her animals.”
She knocked on the door, and there were a few moments before anything happened. Soon enough, though, there was the tell-tale sound of that demon rabbit throwing a carrot at the door for daring to wake him up, and Fluttershy’s soft voice carrying through the door. “Now Angel, that’s not very nice.”
The door creaked open, revealing the yellow pegasus, dressed in a nightgown and stifling a yawn. “Oh, good morning Applejack.” She opened the door a little further. “And Princess Cadance and Shining Armor! Was that today?”
Cadance nodded. “May we come in?”
“Oh, of course!” Fluttershy said, moving away from the door. “You’re here to get to Discord’s house, right?”
“That we are,” Shining agreed.
They entered the cottage, and Fluttershy began fluttering around and opening every cupboard and drawer that she could.
Cadance and Shining both blinked. “What's she doing?” Cadance asked.
Applejack groaned. “Discord can’t be bothered ta put the door ta his place in the same spot every time, so we’ve gotta check everywhere.”
“Found it!” Fluttershy’s voice rang out. “It’s in my bathroom mirror cupboard today!”
They made their way over to Fluttershy just as she was pulling herself out of her mirror. She fell to the ground with a slight oof, but smiled up at them all the same.
“Before we go,” Cadance said, and then yawned again, “could we get some coffee?”
“Oh, you can go on ahead,” Fluttershy smiled. “I’ll make some and catch up. How do you like yours?”
“Black,” Cadance answered.
Fluttershy looked at Shining.
He looked distinctly embarrassed. “...How much cream do you have?”
The pegasus smiled softly. “I’ll be sure to cut yours with some milk.”
With that, she left for her kitchen and Applejack began moving towards the door as well. “Whelp, Ah best be goin’. It’s been a pleasure seein’ ya, but the farm chores ain’t gonna do themselves!”
Now alone in Fluttershy’s bathroom, Cadance and Shining stared at the open mirror cupboard. They couldn’t quite see the other side, what with the entire thing glowing a bright white. “So I guess we…just go in?” Cadance asked.
Shining shrugged. “Let me go first.”
He clambored up, struggling to fit his broad frame in the cupboard, before it felt like he began to fall forward. He tumbled aimlessly for a bit before suddenly regaining a sense of direction and being launched upwards. Moments later, Shining was expelled from a drawer of a filing cabinet in Discord’s living room and landed uncomfortably on the floor.
A few seconds later, his wife landed on top of him.
“Oh goody, visitors!” Discord’s voice exclaimed from the other end of the room. He was seated on a sofa that was an appalling shade of neon green, but Shining’s eyes were more focused on the screen behind it, displaying Twilight and Spike sleeping comfortably in a large room.
“Hello, Discord,” Cadance greeted, stepping off of her husband.
Discord seemed uninterested in greeting them back, instead shrugging. “Is that all for today? Ah well, I suppose the Princess of Hormones and Mister Goodie-Four-Shoes will have to do as an audience.”
There was a flash, and suddenly Discord, Cadance, and Shining were all seated on the sofa, which had changed colors from neon green to an equally horrible neon orange.
“You’ve come just in time!” the draconequus exclaimed, a bowl of popcorn situated on his lap. “Something interesting is happening!” He snapped his tail and summoned a tablet of some sort, which displayed another image. “I had to work a bit to get this second window up, but it lets me monitor the whole system! And something new just entered it!”
A Clockwork Star was a powerful thing, capable of rewriting reality itself if commanded to. It was the magnum opus of its creators, and the final nail in their coffin as they finally created a weapon too powerful for them to counter.
The destruction of one did not go unnoticed.
It took a while for the Darkness to determine what had happened, but when it did, it made sure to send a scout. This piece of Darkness in particular had been separate from the Whole for nearly a millennium, one of the last to have been severed without being immediately reabsorbed, and it developed its own sentience over time. That capability for advanced decision-making, as irksome as it might be for the Whole, was what made it such a great scout.
As it reached the place where the Clockwork Star was destroyed, it stared down at the star-shaped planet below. It could sense something down there, something that could actually prove a threat to it. Carefully, it split itself in two. One piece retained its thoughts and intelligence, with the knowledge of its mission. The other was naught more than a dumb blob of Darkness, given a single goal: distract the Voidspawn.
As it sent the blob on its way, the Darkness considered its options. Its goal was simply to reduce the overall happiness of this world to make a full-scale invasion easier, and there were a few ways it could do that. It could hardly target the Dreamwater by itself, but there were other options. It descended through the clouds, briefly considering a series of floating islands before determining that its reach would be too small. Further down, it saw its prize: a set of true islands connected by rainbow-colored bridges. It could feel the disgusting emotions they were giving off, even from all the way up where it was.
Now it just needed a host.
Choosing a location was easy. There was a castle upon a mountaintop where it could feel true power simply emanating from. It sped there as quickly as it could, and began searching inside.
For a moment, it stopped to look at a blue penguin of sorts. It was certainly powerful, but the Darkness could feel a better option nearby.
A bit further, and it passed a room that it could feel the remnants of power in, but its wielder seemed to be out at the moment. A pity.
It was a few doors down that the Darkness finally selected its target: a sleeping winged unicorn, softly snoring with a tiara atop her head. Greedily, the Darkness attempted to invade her body, aiming for total control of her mind. The tiara pulsed brightly, however, and the Darkness retreated, hissing. Whatever that thing was was preventing it from choosing the pony as a host.
Worse yet, its attempts at possession had caused the creature to stir. She was restless in her sleep, and seemed on the verge of waking up. The Darkness needed a new plan, and fast.
Frantically, it searched its senses around the room before settling on the only other occupant. It was unideal to use such a weak form as a host, but it couldn’t afford to be found out this early.
The dragon would have to do.
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Aww, poor Spike, I don't think this is the type of involvement he was looking for.
Thanks for the chapter, can't wait for more!
Heck yeah! Sunset's got a permanent power-up! For almost destroying herself due to overexertion, that's a pretty sweet outcome for her
Damn this is gonna be rough on poor Spike coming next chapter, really hope there's a silver lining for him after all of this is over!
Also wasn't expecting Sunset getting an Alicorn upgrade (minus wings of course) & confessing her wish so kudos for her!
Uh. Wonder how this will go with Spike as the host. No army to control. No power beside fire breathing. Small size.
Unless...
Dark Matter is able to use Spike's greed to make him grow to the size of a house. Then, yes, we will have a problem.
Ahhh I see the anti-Kirby's have arrived.
... Gooey?
The monkey's paw curls, Spike. You're gonna be involved, consent optional.
Well, considering we got bandanna dee that way...
Also, little detail I missed last time, though I'm not sure if I got it right or not: Sunset wished for a way back to Equestria, not earth. It might be because she's feeling guilty about dragging Twilight and (soon to be playable) Spike to Dreamland, since she's extremely against meeting Celestia.
The problem is, if she's feeling guilty, she might try to aquire another object of ultimate power to try and get back to Equestria.
... Magolor Epilogue might be a bit more Sunset-themed, this time...
11610749
Spike: "I want in on the plot!"
The universe, forcing him into an antagonistic role: "lol. lmao, even"
11610853
Don't forget, even with the magical upgrade, now she tires out way faster. She was already a bit of a glass cannon, but now it's even more so.
11610867
Sunset never really wanted to be the villain, but was driven to it by cynicism (which she, of course, calls pragmatism) and her unrelenting drive to succeed. She's capable of admitting when she's done wrong, which is an improvement, but still deflects on reflex; notice how she admitted that she messed up and then immediately called out Marx for having done worse.
11610993
As Spike has insisted, he may be a small dragon, but he's still a dragon. And well, Dark Matter is rather skilled at getting...creative with its host's abilities.
11611034
Kirby truly is the antithesis to Dark Matter. So full of life, of energy, of emotion. To the Darkness, he is, in and of himself, a cosmic horror.
But Popstar's just too good to pass up.
11611236
Mindless creations aren't necessarily known for their allegiance, especially if they might develop a mind of their own in the future. This may come back to bite Dark Matter later.
11611609
Sunset's had a bit over a decade's experience in being a cynic, but as much as she would hate to admit it, I'm sure she is feeling guilty about dragging innocent parties along. To her, Twilight is just as much one of Celestia's pawns as she was, so from an in-universe perspective, that did influence her wish.
Hopefully that's enough of a reason, because from an authorial perspective, I simply couldn't allow her to wish to go back to Earth. Because the thing is, locations.txt would contain information on a planet called "Earth."
11612252
Dark Mattter matter... creative.
Looks like it's body horror time!
Poor ponies usually they are the cute universe with horrific undertons, but the dynamic is in complete reverse here!
This is not a bad fanfic or anything, but it feel kinda weird that Sunset keep cursing/swearing when basically no one else did.
Although, this is probably just me finding curse word in MLP fanfic unnesesarry. Unless it M-Rated.
11613700
That's fair; with the complete lack of swearing in canon it can be a bit jarring. There is a reason for it though: the Earth Sunset's been in for the past eight years isn't the exact same as the EQG Earth; it's ours with some minimal modification, like the existence of Canterlot, OH, and the lack of existence of Nintendo and MLP. Swearing exists in Equestria, but it's extremely common on Earth by comparison, especially in high schools, where Sunset's been hiding, so she's picked up some habits.