Shorts, As I Write Them

by Rewan Demontay

I Feel Alive; Sunset Shimmer

This was it. It was surely the cessation of her existence.

She had pushed the limits of her magic too far. The screams of the Grand Galloping Gala’s fleeing attendants only further fueled her panic.

Try as she might, Sunset could not recall the expanding arcs of plasma swirling from her horn, lashing in all directions. She’d tipped her scale over too far, seeping.

One second she was testing her durability–the next the balance within her cracked, The white fireball engulfing her horn exploded outward in a phloom of heat.

What have I done to myself?

The flames roared, swiftly consuming every inch of matter around her. Sunset writhed in agony as it threw her to the floor. The castle stone melted, morphing slurries. Few escaped the throne room–they sizzled into charred remains, burned away at temperatures most would be dead at,--unlike her.

This was supposed to be a simple trick!

She tried to crawl, but her flesh quickly stuck to the heated stone. By a cruel miracle, her cutie mark flank remained intact, as if to remind her of her abilities in her last moments. The magma ate away at the stone she lay on, cutting off all escape. Slowly eating away at the chunk of floor effused to her.

A whirlwind of fire, with wind speeds she couldn’t understand, unfurled around the growing lake of liquid rock. The princesses burst through the door to save her, but the inferno prevented them from going any closer. Celestia’s tearful eyes met Sunset’s, turning away, forced to retreat and save others.

Damn myself, damn it all!

Soon, all she could see was an abyss of crimson, orange, yellow, and white, as if the sun had come down to earth. She felt herself cooking, her stone-attached skin boiling as she attempted to scream–her tongue no more. Redness skewed through as she boiled away in the heat. The water in her eyes evaporated.

Nor did any air remain in the pure brilliance of fire. She could not screech, she could not breathe. Sunset gaped silently as she stared, frozen in place to the hot hell surrounding her. How she had done it mattered not. All that was going to happen was that she knew she would die.

I’m sorry! Save me! I care not how!

Despite her pleas, nothing but pain endured as the stone she lay upon lowered and lowered. The swirling convection in the air more than tripled her burning. The magic inside her evaporated as her body turned into a slurry. Sunset’s vision remained intact to see it all. Coherent thoughts struggled.

Minutes and minutes passed.

Nothing could save her now.

In due time, she finally collapsed into the magma. Sunset’s magic gave out as she fell beneath the waves. Fire consumed her reserves, drawing upon her. The last bits of magic were yet to give way. She watched, betwixt the immense suffering beyond compare or words, as her immobile body sank.

The last of her unicorn essence slipped from her horn into the melting rock. She drowned under brimstone and pain. And it happened then. Her skin eviscerated, not a moment too soon. Flesh roasted before becoming magma itself. Bones became ash, unto the earth itself. Fur singed into nothingness. Nerves blazed, now hot dust.

She saw her very essence morph into the elements she thought she had mastered.

Her eyesight went black, as her head crushed from pressure.

The core of her bodily magic gave way to the fire sea.

And then…

… she awoke with a gasp.

Heat flared her eyes before she could see again.

Wings flapped on instinct.

Wait, how am I alive?

She lay on a cool, black rock, staring into the remains of the castle surrounding the throne room around the crater. Guards were in every corridor. Shields prevented the heat from going beyond the sphere of destruction. Daylight shone through the melted roof. It had been hours, hours since she died. Yet, here she was.

White and black wings flashed in vision as their owner slammed into the ground beside them. Sunset, still paralyzed, moves her eyes to look. Celestia’s eyes were wet and confused. Luna looked worse, exhausted as her magic hummed. For Sunset, everything burned. Alive again, every part of her burned.

“Sunset, you are now…” she shakily informed, “the Princess… Of Flame.”

Sunset felt herself choke up, unable to cry for lack of hydration.

She felt her fiery essence flicker.

Why?

Comments

[Pete100]

What the hell happened?

[Rewan Demontay]

11760033
Magic done wrong.

[Pete100]

11761152
Makes sense