A Shimmering Intellect

by DungeonMiner

Chapter 19

The wind felt like it would freeze her eyeballs solid.

The sled worked better than Sunset thought it would. She used magic to transform raw materials into something that resembled a sleigh, and then Flash took the lead, pulling them from the air as they slowly made their way down the mountain.

As Flash predicted, they found some twisted tree trucks for campfires, and they did find some Iana berries that Sunset magically altered so that they would be big enough to feed them all the way down.

Their good luck continued as they moved. They saw only one golem during the trip, walking in the shadow of a deep valley, which gave Sunset all the natural advantage she needed to start a small avalanche that buried it in so much snow that it would take days to climb out of.

They only had another three days of travel across the flat plain to the Empire’s magical border.

Flash pulled the sled forward like he had on the mountain, and it slid across the snow easier than Sunset thought it would. Slipping and skipping like a speedboat, they kept good speed, where the deep snow would typically have to be shoved aside and slow them down.

In retrospect, they should have taken a sled with them the first time.

Flash kept pulling, flying ahead of the sled, and using his wings to draw the sled ever onward. As he pulled, Sunset couldn’t help but marvel at how well he’d taken to his pegasus body. Before coming here, he’d never used those wing muscles, yet he pulled them like a marathon flyer, enduring for hours.

It’s good to see that at least one of us can live in both worlds.

She sighed.

Her mind had not let up since they began the descent. A near-constant barrage of snide comments from her inner critic fell on her as they moved.

We’ve done this for years. We’ve lived in the human world and done alright there, but whenever we’re here, we only cause problems. We rise against Celestia, we manipulate those around us, and even when we’re doing something right, we mess it up. We should have been born in the human world. It would have made things so much better.

Sunset also wished she hadn’t worked so hard to nurture a rapier wit. It made her own brain very mean to her.

You reap what you sow. You should know that.

Flash continued pulling them forward, his wings beating hard and doing so much better than Sunset ever had. Or would be doing, for that matter. If she were alone on this journey if Flash hadn’t come with her, she’d be dead, and he would probably still be fine. Flash would have done much better than she had and would likely continue to do better without her.

Sunset sighed as he switched from holding onto the sled with her left hoof to her right. Her mind would continue to drone on about how terrible she was. For now, she just needed to make it across the plain.

---♦---

The warmth of the magical field felt like a relaxing balm on her weary shoulders. After days of existing in constant cold, the Spring temperatures of the Crystal Empire gave her relief she didn’t know she wanted.

“We made it,” Flash said beside her. “What now?”

“Now, I think we earned a rest. My shoulders are sore from hanging onto the sled for so long, and I don’t think you’re feeling much better.”

Flash looked down on his wings, which hung limply from his sides, before carefully folding them back up. “I guess you’re right about that,” he said with a dry laugh.

Sunset noticed that a pony was watching them from a distance, looking confused at them and the sled behind them. “Come on, let’s grab what we can and head to the tower. Maybe Princess Cadence will get us a place to stay.”

Flash nodded and began pulling whatever he could find. Sunset grabbed what she could off the sled and sighed before moving toward the keep. The towering crystalline palace loomed over her as she got closer, and when she got to the soldiers guarding the stairway up, she found herself wishing she hadn’t come.

“Flash? Is that you?” one of them asked. “I thought I saw you come in earlier.”

“It’s not who you think it is,” Sunset said. “We need to see Princess Cadence. We’re working on behalf of Princess Twilight. Let her know we’d like to speak with her.”

One of the guards moved to obey while the other continued to stare. “What, so this isn’t Flash?”

“No, it’s complicated,” Flash said.

“What, are you like a changeling?”

“What’s a changeling?”

“What’s a changeling?” the guard repeated, shocked at what he just heard. “How do you not know what a changeling is? Have you been living under a rock?”

Flash looked over to Sunset, and she only shrugged. She didn’t have the energy to bother with this right now. “Um, let’s go with. I’ve been out of the country for a while now.”

“They’re the creatures that ruined the Royal Wedding. The shapeshifters?”

“Never heard of them,” Flash said.

The guard shook his head. “That’s incredible. I’m almost impressed you haven’t heard.”

Flash shrugged. “I’ve been isolated. Haven’t gotten news in a while.”

“The wedding was years ago,” the guard said, still chasing the point that Sunset could not care about.

The second guard returned at that moment, saving her from the conversation. “Follow me. I’ll take you to the Princess immediately.”

Sunset obeyed without saying a word and walked up the stairs with Flash behind her. He admired the strange architecture and stared at the decorations with fascination behind her, and Sunset just couldn’t focus on any of it.

The guard led them back to the tea room the Princess had met Sunset in before and had them sit at a table that had been prepared with some refreshments.

Princess Cadence arrived with her own Flash, and the two shared a look. The Princess looked concerned about them before her face relaxed, and she said something that Sunset suddenly realized was directed at her.

“—don’t they?”

“Oh, um, yes,” Sunset said, dragging herself out of her daze to be present for the meeting.

“Well,” the Princess said before turning away from the two Flashes, “you have returned. Were you successful in your search?”

Sunset nodded. “Yes, we found the Crystal. It’s in the possession of a stallion who grafted it to the back of his head.”

“What?” Cadence asked.

“It’s not good,” she said. “I think it’s exercising some control over this Doctor Trot that he’s totally unaware of. What’s worse is that he’s making golems acting as his soldiers. He could become very dangerous, very quickly.”

Cadence nodded once and turned to her Flash. “Captain Sentry.”

The armored Flash, who had been chatting with his doppelganger a second ago, snapped to attention and made a salute so crisp it made the cold beyond the warmth-enchantment jealous. “Ma’am?”

“Bring me a scroll, ink, and the emergency bottled dragonfire. As quickly as you can.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Captain Flash answered before shooting out of the room.

“We’ll send a letter to Twilight immediately. Once that’s done, we’ll get you two settled, and you can get some rest.”

Sunset nodded. “Thank you, Princess, it’s appreciated.”

Cadence nodded before turning to a pony in the corner of the room. “Prepare two guest chambers in the Tourmaline wing. The royal apartments will be fine.”

“Yes, Princess.”

Five minutes later, they had a letter. Cadence wrote her part, and Sunset gave her report before they sealed the scroll and sent it away. Soon after, Cadence had them led to a pair of rooms, which Sunset only barely looked at before falling face-first into a goose-down mattress.

---♦---

Night entered the throne room as Princess Twilight was taking the last petitions for court today.

“I do not think this request is unreasonable, Your Highness.”

“Just like you thought me speeding up and delaying the sun wasn’t unreasonable,” Twilight said. Night saw her eyes land on him momentarily before they turned back to the pony before the throne. “They are called curtains. Buy some to go with the hat and sunglasses. Make sure you hang them because they will not be effective otherwise.”

“Princess, I—”

“Your case is dismissed,” she answered.

The pony on the floor looked incredibly disheartened before following the guards escorting him out.

“That shall be all today. I have other business to attend to.”

The throne room doors swung shut without further comment, and Night found himself almost alone in the room with the Princess.

Twilight spoke to the guards around them as though she heard the thought. “Leave us, please.”

The guards left, and Night was alone in the room with Twilight.

“Night,” Twilight said. “Have you come to make a report?”

“I…have,” Night said before he stepped forward. He stood in front of the throne, ten feet away as dictated by protocol, and spoke. “My training efforts with Inquisitor Ardent Rush have proved successful. We have disrupted the efforts of the Scarlet Hoof and dealt a serious blow to their operations. Captain Azure should be returning soon, and we should have everything…”

He trailed off.

He had looked up for a brief second and looked the Princess in the face. The frown on her face hit him like a runaway train, and his mouth stopped working as her eyes stared down at him.

“Everything we need soon,” he finished and stared at his hooves.

Silence filled the room for a long second.

“Night,” Twilight’s voice called. “Night, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” he said.

“That’s not true,” Twilight replied. “You’re not acting like yourself.”

“I don’t know what you mean?”

“Where’s the stallion that would casually steal from the castle hallways to prove a point to me? Where’s the stallion infiltrating my wait staff at the Gala, or who led my guard on chases through the castle? Where has that stallion gone?”

“That…that behavior doesn’t seem…proper for the Spymaster of Equestria.”

“You were making my guards better. That’s exactly why we need that, Night. That’s why I made you Spymaster.”

Night didn’t say anything.

“Night, what’s wrong?”

“That behavior isn’t welcome as Spymaster,” he said.

I’m not welcome here.

“That’s not true, Night,” Twilight said. “We’ve needed this for years now. That’s why Celestia hired you. That doesn’t change with a title.”

I’ve never been welcome here.

“It’s unbecoming.”

“I don’t care,” Twilight said. “I want you here. I want you to be that cocky, charming stallion you’ve been. I want you to be that pony I met when he broke into my bedroom.”

I don’t belong in your world.

“It’s not appropriate, Princess.”

“Appropriate?” Twilight asked. “Appropriate? Is that what you’re worried about? Night, I’m not Celestia. I don’t need to play by her rules. We don’t need to worry about precedent or appropriate, Night. The point is that I lo—”

A scroll appeared in front of her with a soft ring before unfurling in front of her.

Night watched it fall, trying to ignore the anger and tears in Twilight’s eyes.

The Princess picked up the parchment and skimmed it before she sighed. “They’ve found the Crystal. It’s on Everhoof in a cave. It’s already been found, and we need to take it before the pony that has it causes any more damage.”

“I’ll get right on it, Your Highness,” Night said before he bowed and left the room.

The door closed behind him with a sob.

---♦---

Sunset woke up in the middle of the night for the third time. She sighed and rolled out of bed to walk around the hallways again.

“Ma’am?” the guard at her door asked as she entered the hallway.

“It’s nothing. I just need to take a walk.”

Seemingly satisfied, the guard nodded and let Sunset go without further questions. The displaced unicorn took the first left she found and began wandering the crystalline hallways of the Imperial Tower. Sconces shaped like marquise-cut stones burned with soft, magical light while towering pillars of uncut tourmaline reached into the shadows of the roof. These hallways hadn’t seemed to change since Sunset was last here, stealing Twilight’s crown—an Element of Harmony—in the dead of night to fuel her revenge scheme against Celestia.

Taking another corner, Sunset found herself in a new hallway with quartz pillars and heart-shaped sconces, still glowing with that faint brilliance of magic. It was better here; her memory wasn’t as sharp in these hallways compared to the Tourmaline wing, but she could still feel her old self running down the halls, grinning with wild glee and malice as she made for the mirror that would prove to be the undoing of the entire country.

She gave a frustrated groan. Why was this a problem now? Why did coming to Equestria wake this old demon sleeping in her? One Sunset thought she beat, nonetheless. She’d declared it, believing it with every fiber of her being, that her past wouldn’t keep her from improving, but now that seemed so childish.

Anyone could promise to do better when they no longer have the tools to be evil. A miner could be trusted not to mine if you take all their shovels and picks. Now that she was back in Equestria, she had magic again, and her old self came knocking. She lied and manipulated her way into the Doctor’s good graces when she should have just turned around and left.

What’s worse, she was just better at being bad. She played the Doctor exactly how she needed to, but at every step up until then, she had been stumbling over herself just to get the job done. Sunset had failed, and that was all there really was to it.

The windchill slapped her in the face. Somehow, she’d wandered onto a balcony and stared at the handful of candle-lit buildings below her. Magic-powered streetlights threw deep, inky shadows across the buildings. She shivered but just set her jaw down on the balcony rail and sighed.

She should probably head home. There wasn’t much reason to stay.

“Sunset?”

She checked behind her and saw Flash, mid-yawn, approaching. “What’re you doing out here?”

“Thinking,” she said almost automatically. “What are you doing here?”

“Your guard was worried about where you went and thought I was Other Flash, so he sent me. I wasn’t cognizant enough to correct him.”

“Ah,” she said.

“You should probably go back to bed,” Flash said. “If Twilight’s sending the army, then we need to be ready to head back up the mountain.”

Sunset glanced back at the shadows that clung to the alleyways below. “I…I think I’m just going to head home, Flash.”

There was silence for a long second.

“What?”

“I think I’m done with this little adventure. I’m going to head home.”

Flash stared at her.

“I don’t belong here, Flash. I’ve overstayed my welcome.”

The pegasus didn’t answer.

“I did what Twilight asked of me. It’s not like I’m giving up on her.”

She felt like she was defending herself now.

“I’ve given her everything she needs, but I don’t know if—”

“I get it,” Flash said.

The anger in his voice told her he didn’t.

“Flash, I’m—”

“No, I get it. You’ve done the bare minimum; now it’s time to abandon your friends. Like you used to do.”

“I’m not abandoning anyone, Flash,” Sunset began. “I just don’t think—”

“Sunset, this is a country at stake. You spent half an hour explaining to me how dangerous this stupid Crystal is, and then we found it being used to make an army of golems, and you’re going to say, ‘Yeah, okay, that’s enough?’ Our worst-case scenario shows up, and you’re just okay with it?”

“Flash, I’m not a guard. This situation is beyond me now.”

“Oh, don’t give me that,” he said. “You’re one of the most powerful mages in Equestria, Twilight said so herself. You’re running for no reason.”

“It’s not for no reason!”

“So you are running?” Flash asked. “Dammit, Sunset! This isn’t a football game, meeting my family, or any other hundred things you ditched me for. This is for the fate of a country! Innocents could die because of this.”

“Do you think I don’t know that?” she yelled. “Do you think I don’t know how many lives I could ruin around here? Flash, my first day back, I used magic to brainwash ponies into doing what I wanted. I gaslit them with magic so easily that it wasn’t even a speed bump. What if I get the stupid Crystal, Flash? Have you thought of that? Would you trust me with one of the most powerful artifacts known to Ponykind?”

Flash didn’t answer. He just glared at her.

“It’s safer for everyone if I just go home,” Sunset said her voice just a whisper.

“Yeah,” Flash said. “Maybe it is.”

---♦---

Flash felt a burning hot rod of iron in his gut.

There was the old Sunset again, thinking only about herself. Could she go long enough to think about someone else for a change? Only long enough so that she could hurt even more people, of course!

Really, he shouldn’t have been surprised. Sunset’d always bail on him whenever he needed her. He was always just a means to an end. Sure enough, that’s what everyone else has always been to her.

Princess Twilight, who stopped her from turning into a demon, one of her supposed ‘close friends,’ is only important enough that she fixes Sunset’s beat-up car. Because caring about her problems is too much of a commitment, obviously. Never mind that it could send thousands of ponies to their deaths. No, no, the money’s obviously more important to her.

The worst thing is that she’s always so sweet about using you. She gave you whatever she wanted but took twice as much. She’d use your hormones against you and twist you around her finger, make you some dinner, and then make you backstab your friends.

And the worst, the actual worst part of this whole thing, was that he almost—

He briefly—

He wanted—

He wanted to believe her.

He wanted to believe she’d changed.

Comments

[Frazikar]

Hmmmm, is Sunset having a 'Twilight at Camp Everfree' moment ???

[Lotharin]

Losing respect for Flash here, if anyone is being selfish in this situation it's him. He should be helping her build herself up, to help prove to herself that she's not as emotionally weak as she thinks, instead all be can do is think about himself and his own insecurities.

At least Sunset came out and aired what was on her mind.

[Babroniedad]

Count me among the fans, though late to the party.
Can’t wait for the next installment. And wow that’s a lot of emotional angst floating around. Really sucked me right in.

[MoonlightRift]

Ouch, that is.. Damn.