Sunset Shimmer's magic adventures, Volume 2: The Villain Gauntlet.

by Justafanfictioner

Chapter 5: Rumble at the Resort.

Grogar had convoqued Stygian to the meeting room. This one was, like always, looking depressed and tired.

“Is it my turn already?” said Stygian, joyless. “Yaaay....”

“Cheerful, as always, i see” said Grogar with a grin. “But yes, your time as come. It’s time to unleash all your hatred, sadness and rage on those girls.”

Stygian smiled for the first time since he joined the Villain Gauntlet.

“Go all out and don’t hold back anything” said Grogar. “You can leave whenever you want...Just warn me beforehand.”

“I’ll attack in 3 days, at night” said Stygian.

“Hum, i get you’ll be taking advantage of the night to gain a power boost, but why in 3 days exactly?” asked Grogar.

“The Moon will be at the end of it’s cycle in 3 days” answered Stygian. “That’s why...That night happen to have a New Moon.”

“That’s...Very clever” said Grogar. “Attacking at night is a smart move, but during a New Moon as well, is an even smarter move...You’ll be twice, no, thrice as powerful than you normally are.”

“So, you’re okay with it?” asked Stygian.

“I’m fine with that, yes” answered Grogar. “But you better impress me. I’ll inform the rest of the alliance of your decision”

“Yes” said Stygian. “Can i go back to my room now?”

“Yes, you can” answered Grogar.

Stygian immediately left the room, leaving Grogar alone. This one returned to his room and used his magic crystal globe to see what the girls were up to. At the moment, Sunset, Adagio and their friends were enjoying a day on a luxurious beach, on a tropical island.

“I still can’t believe we didn’t make it to the finale” said Sunset, smiling.

“We still made our way to the Final 4” Said Adagio. “And without relying on our magic, what’s more.”

“Personally” said Rarity, near them. “Two weeks of paid vacations at a high-end resort on a private island is a good prize!!!”

“That’s true” said Adagio. “But the staff being all-male is not very reassuring...You know what i mean.”

“Don’t worry, Darling” said Rarity. “The island and resort’s owner told me that none of those men are attracted to women.”

“Wait, so they’re all...Gay?” asked Adagio.

“I can confirm” answered Sunset. “They don’t feel any lust for us, so relax.”

“Except the owner itself” said Rarity. “He’s bisexual, from what he told me.”

“That mean he’s into men AND women” said Sunset to Adagio. “But Rarity’s right, there is nothing to worry about, you’re not going to lose your virginity on this island.”

“I’m NOT a virgin” said Adagio, irritated. “In fact, i’ve slept with so many dudes i lost count of them.”

“Where are the others anyway?” asked Sunset.

“Fluttershy is swimming with the fishes, Applejack and Rainbow Dash are napping in a hammock somewhere on the beach, Pinkie Pie is stuffing herself at the all-you-can-eat buffet and Twilight is at the resort’s library, living her dream” answered Rarity.

“I think Sonata might be at the all-you-can-eat buffet too” said Adagio. “Probably stuffing her mouth of mexican food. As for Aria, i believe she went on a long walk.”

“Another thing i’m afraid of, darlings” said Rarity. “Is another villain attacking us...I don’t want our hard-earned vacations ruined because of their shenanigans...”

Aria suddenly came back from her walk, holding a bottle in her hands.

“I found this while walking on the beach” she said to the girls. “It’s a glass bottle with a scroll of paper inside”

“How cliché” said Rarity. “What are you waiting for? Open it!”

“I tried” said Aria. “But it won’t open”

“Let me try” said Sunset.

She grabbed the bottle and effortlessly opened it. She pushed the piece of paper out to read what was on it. The message was saying 3D, Danger, New Moon, Shadow. Sunset instinctively knew this was a coded message from Discord warning her about an imminent attack. She tore down the paper immediately after.

“I’m getting hungry” she said. “Not you?”

“I do!” answered Adagio. “Let’s get to the buffet room, then!!”

“I suppose i could eat some of their fancy appetizers” said Rarity. “Should we invite the rest of our friends?”

“I’m on it” said Aria. “I’ll join you later”

The trio headed for the resort, and walked all the way to the buffet room.

“Hey, girls!!” said Pinkie Pie, the mouth full of sweets.

“Their tacos are so fucking good!!” said Sonata, the mouth full of salsa.

Rarity took a plate and picked all kind of appetizers, caviar and sushis. Sunset Shimmer picked a handful of chicken drumsticks, nuggets and fried rice. Adagio filled her plate with all kind of pastas, garlic bread and cheeze. Rainbow Dash arrived in the room 5 minutes later, with Fluttershy and Applejack on her shoulders. Applejack took a large piece of honey and garlic seasoned pork, barbecue ribs, fried chicken and tons of mashed potato. Rainbow Dash picked 3 hamburgers, a big portion of french fries and tater tots, 4 hot-dogs and 2 bottles of apple cider. Fluttershy made to herself a beautiful salad at the salad bar, small plate of fried vegetables and a bowl of vegetable soup. Aria arrived later, at the same time than Twilight Sparkle. Aria picked a plate of clam chowder, smoked salmon, clams, fried octopus and a whole boiled crab. Twilight Sparkle served herself a big portion of egg rolls, fried rice and dumplings. By telepathy, Sunset told them about the message, hoping they would help her understand it.

“Of course!!” said Twilight, sharing her thoughts to the others (by telepathy). “There will be a Full Moon in 3 days...3D...3 days. One of the villain will attack us 3 days from now, at night, on a New Moon. Shadow might be refering to the Pony of Shadows. Putting all those together, The Pony of Shadows will attack us in 3 days, at night, on a New Moon.”

“Amazing!!” said Sunset. “But why would he attack us during a New Moon of all ?”

“The Pony of Shadows will be way more powerful under a New Moon.” answered Twilight.

“I see” said Sunset. “I’ll warn the owner of the resort of the attack, so he can put his employees to safety.”

After their meal, the girls returned to their occupations. They spent the following 3 days exploring the waters around the island, using the magic of their pearls(***) and relaxing. At sunset, the girls told the resort owner they would spent the night on the beach. He gave them blankets and a hammoc they could suspend on metal poles he installed. The girls just had to wait for the Pony of Shadow to come, and speaking of the wolf, this one was waiting in his room for the sun to set down. Sunny was with him, teasing the poor guy with sensual gestures.

“When you come back” she whispered to his ear “I’ll let you do everything you want to me”

Stygian blushed and the bump in his pant got bigger. Sunny touched the tip of the bump with her nails. To tease him even more, she rubbed her ass against it, then her pussy (wearing her panties). Then she stopped, got off the bed and walked out of his room, leaving him hard. Stygian took a couple minutes to calm down and get flaccid. Once the erection passed, he finished reading his book and headed for the meeting room, where Grogar was waiting for him.

“I’m ready” said Stygian. “Send me on that island”

Grogar opened a portal and Stygian took a deep breath. He jumped in the portal and landed on the beach. He walked forward, looking for the girls, but it was them who found him. He was blinded by the lights of 3 projectors and covered his eyes. The Main 7 was surrounding him from every direction.

“Wait” said Rainbow Dash. “Is that him, the Pony of Shadows?

“Yes” answered Sunset Shimmer, troubled. “His soul is reeking of despair, hatred and anger.”

“And i’m about to unleash all of it at once” said Stygian, smiling devilishly.

Under the eyes of the girls, Stygian let the Shadow take over his body. Taking inspiration from his favorite comic supervillain, a man with an alien parasite living inside him, he took the form of a massive humanoid creature with white eyes and a mouth full of sharp white teeth.

“You better give me everything you’ve got!!” said Shadow-Stygian. “Cause i’m never going down!!!”

At this moment, he went completely nuts. 3 shadow spikes came out of his body and destroyed the projectors, then retracted. He did it a second time, with 7, aimed at the girls. They dodged the deadly attack and closed in on the monster. Applejack punched the villain, but her fist got stuck in the black mass. She removed it and jumped back to avoid finishing like a porcupine. Rarity was moving around a crystal sawblade, that the villain quickly shattered with a shadow tentacle. Rainbow Dash was throwing everything she could find at the enemy. Fluttershy was trying to call in critters or birds to help her, but none of them wanted to approach the monster. Pinkie Pie fired a big projectile at the shadow humanoid, that got sent back into the sea by a tentacle.

“Worthless creatures!!” said Stygian, in control of the Shadow. “Your puny powers will never defeat me!!”

He started blasting at random beams of dark magic.

“He’s too much!!” said Twilight, in panic. “None of our attacks are affecting him!!

“We need to use the Rainbow Laser on him” Said Rainbow Dash. “It probably won’t defeat him, but he’ll be weakened for sure!!”

“He’s not gonna give us the time” said Sunset. “We need someone to distract him...”

“Hey, you ugly bitch!!” said Adagio to Stygian, on top of a cliff. “Come and get us!!”

Stygian turned his head to look at the trio. The girls had turned into Sirens, their instruments in hand. Adagio ordered Stygian to stop attacking, but he was so powerful she could barely maintain her magic. Aria came to the rescue and commanded the sand below Stygian to engulf him. Sonata also jumped in and blasted the monster with powerful soundwaves.

“It’s the moment, girls!!” said Aria. “We won’t hold him back forever!!”

Sunset Shimmer, Twilight, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rarity took each other’s hands and gathered their magic into a Rainbow Laser that they aimed at the monster. When the laser disappeared a couple seconds later, Stygian was still standing.

“It worked!!” said Twilight.

Stygian smiled at the girls and transformed into a shadow monster.

“No way!!” shouted Rainbow Dash. “Not only did he survived our ultimate attack, his magic is still working!! Why?”

“He’s not evil, that’s why” said Sunset. “He’s just lost in his madness...And i’ll help him get out of it!!”

Sunset jumped inside the shadow mass, at her friends absolute horror. She opened up her eyes and saw she was surrounded by darkness. She immediately tried to find Stygian inside the monster. It was not long before she found the poor guy.

“Get out!!!” shouted Stygian.

“No” answered Sunset. “I know you’re not evil, just very confused.”

Outside, her friends were trying to find a way to rescue Sunset. It was Twilight who came up with one.

“Remember Sunset’s magic transformation during the Friendship Games?” she asked. “The one that allowed her to defeat me?”

“Yes, we do!” answered Rarity. “What’s your idea?”

“We need to have her turn into that form again” said Twilight. “She’s trying to save him like she did for me and she’ll need that form to do so!”

“I just hope our magic can reach her” said Applejack. “Okay, girls, let’s share our magic with Sunset!!”

They all hold hands and a magic aura emanated from them. They shaped their aura into a long needle that pierced the shadow substance and reached Sunset. This one was trying to resist Stygian rejecting her from his body and couldn’t resist much longer. Once she was hit by the magic of her friends, an intense light engulfed her and a few seconds later, she turned into her Daydream form. From the outside, a dome of light had covered the shadow monster. Sunset and Stygian were floating in a white, bright space.

“Where are we?” asked Stygian.

“That have no importance” answered Sunset. “What’s important is discussing of your case...You were Starswirl’s apprentice, gathered the Pillars of Harmony to fight the Sirens. But you never got the recognition you deserved, not even from the Pillars. As a result, you stole their relics to take their power for yourself...”

“I’m stopping you there, lady!” said Stygian. “I borrowed their relics only so i could duplicate them. I would have gave them back to the Pillars afterward. But they got the wrong idea, thought i wanted all the power for myself. They got mad at me and didn’t want to listen my version. Full of rage, i ran away, far far way and i one day found the Pit of Shadows, prison of a powerful evil entity created by Grogar a long time ago. This entity didn’t have to do much to convince me to become his new vessel. With my new powers, i came back to take my revenge on the Pillars. They had no choice but to banish me in the Limbos. When i got out if this place, i was told that one thousand years had passed since my banishment. I realized what that meant...realized the mistake i made...”

He paused, with tears in his eyes.

“I felt bad about myself” he said. “Bad thinking about how heartbroken they must have felt when they had to banish me. Bad knowing they died with the last thought of me being a monster, a traitor. Bad realizing we’d never have the opportunity to become friends again...”

“I see now...It’s all clear to me” said Sunset. “You hate yourself for the things you’ve done. “You’re mad at yourself for betraying your only friends. You regret not being a better friend. You feel shame for giving into the hate so easily. But you want to know something, Stygian? It’s never too late to make new friends, turn over a new leaf.”

She offered her hand for him to grab and he hesitated to take it. That is until Sunset showed him the legacy the Pillars had left to the future generations of Equestria: The Elements of Harmony.

“The Pillars knew they couldn’t protect Equestria forever” said Sunset. “So, they infused their very essence into a magic tree, they called the Tree of Harmony. That tree grew up and eventually blossomed. The fruits of this tree created the Elements of Harmony, physical and magical embodiments of the 6 Pillars values. Those Element were created with the purpose to protect Equestria from evil. That’s what i thought, until Princess Twilight gave me Starswirl’s journal.”

She made the journal appear in her hands and passed it to Stygian.

“Read the last page” she said.

Stygian opened the book and got to the last page and read it in his mind.

“My last thoughts are for Stygian, my best friends. If you ever read this, my dear pupil, know that i regret not being able to save you. I saw the note you left in your room and i realized we falsely accused you of being a traitor, when all you wanted was our recognition. I know one day, you’ll get out of the Limbos and i know that the Elements of Harmony i’ve created will finish what i couldn’t do: Save you. Lastly, don’t feel bad for us, and what you’ve done. We are to blame for the way you turned and i hope you can forgive an old bag of bones like me.”

He was in tears after reading this. All at once, his anger, hatred, shame and sadness disappeared from his heart. With no negative emotions to feed on, the magic of Shadows detached from his body. Sunset captured the mass of black goo before he could escape, holding it in her hands.

“Don’t hurt him” said Stygian to Sunset. “He’s just doing what he was created for...It’s not his fault.”

Sunset felt a presence inside the shadow goo.

“This thing is sentient and have a consciousness.” said Sunset. “I should be able to change it’s heart...”

She infused her magic to the shadow entity and entered in contact with it. She also connected Stygian to it as well.

“You seem to have suffered as well” she said. “You deserve better than being a parasite feeding on negative emotions...”

“It’s not like it’s my fault” said the entity. “I just needed a friend that could understand me and Stygian was the first one to do so. But the only way for me to keep him, or anyone else as a friend was for him to stay mad, angry and hateful toward himself. I can’t survive in him if he doesn’t hate himself anymore...”

“I think i can help you with that!” said Sunset. “You just have to trust me”

“I’ll do anything to stay with Stygian!” said the Shadow goo.

Sunset casted a redemption spell on the black goo. Boosted by her Daydream powers, the spell worked perfectly. The shadow entity changed colors and was now white, a white shiny pile of goo with golden eyes and a golden mouth.

“It worked!!” said Sunset.

“What did you do?” asked the goo.

“I used a spell to redeem you! And it worked!!” she answered. “You’re not a Shadow anymore, but a Gleam!! A magic entity that draws it’s power from hapiness!!”

“You mean, i’m not dependant on negative emotions anymore?” asked the Gleam.

“That’s right!!” answered Sunset. “But the only thing you need to survive now is a host, Since Gleams can’t survive on their own. You who wanted to have a friend and keep it, well, you got your wish!!”

The Gleam jumped on Stygian and merged with him.

“From now on, Stygian” said the Gleam. “We’re best friends forever! Don’t worry, i’ll let you in control...Most of the time...”

“As long as you cover my back, you’re welcome in my heart” said Stygian. “For some reason, i can’t remember how i ended up here”

“You were sent to attack us” said Sunset. “You really don’t remember anything before that?”

“No, not at all” said Stygian. “Though i do remember the Sirens, but only because me and the Pillars fought them in the past. I’m glad to know they are good now too...”

Sunset and Stygian reappeared on the beach. Her friends jumped on her, glad she was alive. She presented Stygian to her friends, then the Sirens, Saying him and his friend the Gleam were good now.

“Welcome to the team!!” said Pinkie Pie.

“Well, i’m glad he’s on our side and still have his powers” said Applejack. “He’s definitively going to be a powerful ally”

“And a friend!!” said Rarity.

When she presented him to Adagio and the others, they immediately jumped on him.

“He’s so cute!!” said Sonata.

“And he’s packing quite a big gun!” said Aria, looking down.

“We’ll give this cutie a welcoming gift he won’t forget” said Adagio, winking at Sunset.

This one knew what she meant and winked back.

“Let’s get back inside” said Sunset. “I’m hungry and we need to tell the owner everything is fine!”

The girls followed with joy. Back to Grogar’s castle, Grogar had assisted to Stygian’s redemption and was surprisingly not mad. Sunny, however, was pissed that the Sirens were going to have sex with him.

“We lost yet another member” said Moonlight. “Why didn’t you try to save him.”

“I couldn’t see a damn thing because of all that light!” said Grogar. “Fortunately, i was able to erase his and that traitor of shadow parasite’s memories of us.”

“I’ll make up for it, Lord Grogar” said Starlight, who assisted to the discussion. “With the Alicorn Amulet you gave me, it’s going to be a piece of cake. He he he he”

Author's Note:

(***): I'll probably make a bonus chapter about that marine expedition, probably.