With her wife stolen away and the world’s magic fading, Sunset must hunt down the monster ripping the power from her beloved to murder the very stars themselves. Because if the stars die… her world will soon follow.
In a world where the stars shine through both day and night, a savage attack upon the Phoenix Tower of Canterlot Castle leaves the city in chaos, a princess abducted and the stars fading from the sky. Now, Princess Sunset Shimmer dons the legendary Solstice Raiment and the Flareblades of the Sunmother in a desperate quest to save the glittering heavens and the love of her life. Because if the stars die... her world will soon follow.
Historian's Note: Set in the distant reaches of the multiverse, this tale is loosely connected with the events of SunLight Sliders, yet requires no knowledge of that story.
A glow of gentle teal magic wrapped around the doors to the highest balcony of the Phoenix Tower of Canterlot Castle. A moment later, the doors yawned wide, allowing the waning sunlight to drift into the marble passage beyond. A stately alicorn stepped out onto the balcony and sighed with contentment, just basking in the warmth of her dear Sun.
Bronze-colored horseshoes clinked against the floor as Sunset Shimmer trotted to the railing. The eyes of the nobles weighed upon her, though she doubted they could see her clearly. There were always a few in the Celestial Court below, talking with attendants, delegations from other nations or chatting aimlessly about whatever dandelion fluff they believed to be important today.
Still, no matter what gossip they happened to be spreading at the present, she allowed herself to be seen. It was important that those under her care beheld the Princess of the Dawn fulfilling the ancient Pact.
“Good evening, love,” came the familiar smiling mare’s voice behind her. Sunset could always tell when she was smiling. Sometimes, she need not hear the voice to know, she just knew. After so many centuries… it was hard not to tell.
“And to you, Sparks,” Sunset replied without turning around, a little smirk on her muzzle.
As expected, she got a huff of exasperation.
“After five hundred years of a nickname, one hopes you would tire of it.” Hooves encased in silver horseshoes clinked onto the marble as the other speaker approached.
“One hopes after five hundred years bearing a nickname, you might accept it,” Sunset quipped.
“Indeed? One wonders why I continue to shoulder these burdens,” said the exasperated alicorn as she stepped up beside her and surveyed their kingdom.
“Because somepony must.” Sunset shrugged. “After all, what terrors would I unleash, had I nopony to rein me in?”
Twilight laughed. It was the tinkling of shooting stars. “The very foundations of the world should crack and tear asunder, most likely. Sun and Moon forbid that to ever come to pass, Shimmy.”
Sunset tried to not twitch. She really tried. And she really failed, much to the amusement of the lavender alicorn beside her.
“Turnabout is fair play, my dear,” Twilight said, gently nuzzling her wife. The starscape in her mane flowed about them for a moment, intertwining with the solar fire in Sunset’s.
“I cannot argue with such divine logic.” Sunset snickered, unfurling her wings in a vain effort to work out the kinks that invariably came while presiding over the High Court.
“You seem weary this evening.”
“I will admit, I am eager to put the Sun to rest tonight.”
Even as she spoke, she knew her true love could not let it rest without an explanation.
“What troubles you, Sunset?” Twilight moved to study her.
Her gentle eyes were worried. No matter how heavy Twilight’s silver crown became, she would cast it aside in an instant for Sunset.
One of innumerable reasons this mare had earned Sunset’s undying devotion.
As if she needed to earn anything, Sunset thought wryly.
Sunset rested her forehooves on the railing, her eyes shifting from the glorious city of arcane light and ancient marble below to the brilliant stars glittering in the clear azure sky. She picked out a few of her favorites and smiled up at them, knowing she was smiling at the mare beside her at the same time.
“Something stirs in the arcane winds,” Sunset murmured. “Have you not felt it?”
Twilight was quiet for a moment. That was answer enough. “It becomes more difficult for you as well?”
Sunset nodded, still looking up. “Have you seen them at noon, Twilight?”
“They’re dimmer,” the alicorn admitted. “They grow dimmer with each passing day.”
Sunset smiled faintly and wrapped a wing around her wife, holding her close as the Sun slipped further toward the horizon. “Of course you would notice. They are yours after all.”
Twilight shook her head, mane flying once more as a faint breeze rose from the immense mountain city below.
“In the last few nights… I’ve wondered. They do not answer me as they did only a few moonrises ago.”
“We are due for an Emergence,” Sunset pointed out. “It’s been some time since we’ve had one. It is why I sent both Philomena and Faerana to scout our lands.”
“Sending our phoenixes was an excellent choice. It has been a century,” Twilight murmured. “But this feels different, love. It feels… it feels as though they’ve been stolen away from me. Pulled somehow even as their light fades…”
Sunset nodded as her great horn began to glow teal. “The magic fades with it.”
They both stared into the sky as Sunset’s colors mingled with Twilight’s before fading entirely. As always, the stars that shone so brightly during the day burned even brighter in the deepening shadows of night. The sun’s hue changed slightly, as it did every evening. Only those who were attuned to the Eighth Arcane Tier would even see it, but of course, the two alicorns always could. They always would.
The Pact wasn’t all harsh duty and responsibility. Many blessings nestled within the ancient agreement they had made together once upon a time.
“The populace are starting to notice,” Twilight said, her own horn glowing with the beautiful magenta magic Sunset treasured. “There have been rumblings of discontent in the High Assemblies, from the Pegasi Provinces to the Deerkin Forests. Whitecoat Elderfall seeks an audience with us both tomorrow after dawnbreak.”
“The Whitecoat would be the first to notice. The deerkin were always among the strongest of our populace.” Sunset gently tucked her Sun down below the horizon. “We’ll speak to him together.”
Twilight nuzzled her. “You need not trouble yourself. You are tired, my dearest. I will handle the matter myself.”
Another smirk lit upon Sunset’s muzzle. “Oh? And why are you suddenly so eager, hm? Maybe somepony’s seeking another deerkin dalliance?”
Twilight blushed furiously even as her wings betrayed her. “I’ll have you know that was a one-time thing.”
“Three times,” Sunset sang.
The smirk turned into a grin as she heard Twilight’s teeth grind together.
“But you knew of it!” Twilight protested. “You even suggested it!”
Sunset finally turned her gaze from the sky—which held far more red in it than usual—and looked at her eternal love. Twilight pouted in that special way she did when she believed Sunset to be mocking her.
Which was exactly what Sunset was doing. Still, it was all for a good cause.
“I know, my dear Princess of the Dusk,” Sunset whispered, forcing her own wings to stay down. “After all, I was with you.”
Twilight almost dropped her Moon. Her magic fluttered, her cheeks flared and her wings twitched. But she kept control. Millennia of experience didn’t vanish after a few teasing words.
“You are impossible,” Twilight hissed even as Sunset laughed, her mirth surging through her mane and tail. Sunset burned like a beacon, turning the Phoenix Tower into a lighthouse for a few seconds.
The entire city would see it, even through the haze of magical light that pulsed through the city every evening. This didn’t bother her in the slightest. The populace would know was that their Princess was happy. Usually, this made them happy, too.
However, Sunset managed to exercise a tiny fraction of restraint. She refrained from teasing Twilight any further until her wife’s Moon was fully in the sky on the eastern horizon and her own Sun was safely on the other side of the world.
Once Twilight released her magic, the lavender alicorn glanced up at her beautiful sky. Her horn flared briefly as she tweaked a few star patterns. Sunset never tired of watching her work. Her craft was as beautiful as she was.
A very long time ago, Twilight labored under a streak of perfectionism nearing the obsessive. But since they made the Pact, she had revelled in new ways to express her brilliance through her nightly work on the diamonds in the sky. In this, she was the sole master. None would gainsay her, as the stars were perfect—just like Twilight.
The stars glittered eternal and forever radiant. Every day, Sunset would look to the blue sky to see them glittering down upon them… but it was only at night when she witnessed the true majesty of her wife’s craft.
Finally pleased with her sky—despite a few dim stars—Twilight turned to Sunset and smiled her tiny impish smile. Sunset knew her little jab about the previous Whitecoat had worked perfectly.
“Now… whatever shall I do with my dear Princess of the Dawn, hm?” Twilight purred. “I have it on good authority she’s off-duty now.”
“Princesses are never off-duty,” Sunset corrected, but her smile didn’t fade in the slightest. “However, they are permitted the occasional—”
Twilight stopped. She heard it as well. Her ears flicked around even as Sunset scanned the city below for the source of the strange noise.
“It’s like… the sound of a waterfall…” Twilight murmured. “Only… different…”
The great spires of Canterlot City beneath them looked normal. Ponies, deer, buffalo and zebras wandered through the streets. The latest model of self-propelled arcane chariots flitted from skytower to skytower. A few beams of light erupted from the entertainment district as the latest unicorn show began with the fall of night. Canterlot was the capital of their nation, so the city never truly slept.
It looked like any other night.
Still… that noise… and it was growing louder. Closer.
“Sunset?” Twilight pointed a hoof at her night sky. “What—”
Sunset’s eyes darted up and her blood froze. Brilliant balls of blue and gold streaked through the night sky toward Canterlot. She counted a dozen of them, yet could not gauge size or distance… only that they appeared to be heading right for—
“I can’t… it—” Twilight mumbled and suddenly swayed, the magic from her horn flaring with a brilliant white light and then flashing out with a loud pop.
“Twilight!” Sunset cried, moving to catch her wife before she could collapse to the marble of the balcony.
This proved to be a critical mistake.
A shockwave of magical force erupted between them. It shoved Sunset’s back against the stone railing. She cried out as her ribs cracked beneath the sudden pressure as she watched Twilight sail toward the tower wall. She hit with a horrifying thud and slid bonelessly to the ground. Twilight’s eyes were shut. Blood oozed from a gash below her horn. Her tiara toppled to the cracked marble.
Sunset searched the skies for whatever had dared to do this to her beloved wife, vowing to make it pay dearly…
But the ball of light surged again, and a beam of primal force ripped into the balcony. It lasted mere seconds before the ancient stonework shattered beneath the onslaught. Sunset whirled, struggling to get her bearings… fighting to get her wings unfurled and pumping. She fell almost a hundred feet before she could right herself.
Twilight’s inert body plummeted toward the city. Without thinking, she dove toward her wife, screaming her beloved’s name.
“The magic of this world dies,” hissed an eerie voice from the orb of light. “My vengeance is at hoof. I have need of her… but you are far too dangerous. You… you mustdie.”
In an instant, another spear of light erupted from the thing. Sunset was struck blind for a moment too long. When she had restored her vision, Twilight was gone.
Her silver regalia fell to the city far below with a faint tinkle, like falling stars.
Sunset found the central ball of light even as the other spheres surrounded her. Inside, she could faintly see the form of a lavender alicorn being held by… something.
Before she could act, it shot off over the city to the east at an impossible speed. Sunset pursued whatever beast had taken her beloved. Almost instantly, she was struck by one of the magic orbs the attacker had left behind, sending her careening madly off-course.
Sunset blinked and stared at the sphere of magic as it expelled its occupant.
The gargoyle grinned. Its eyes burned with an unholy blue light as it reached out for her and unleashed twin streams of tainted green and white balefire from its craggy, demon-like claws.
Sunset’s teal magic flared to life by pure instinct as she threw up a shield of kinetic force against the balefire. She howled as the gargoyle's magic tore at the barrier, but she knew better than to use magic directly against balefire. That wouldn’t just kill her, such an act would destroy half of the Phoenix Tower.
The hideous gray-skinned monstrosity cackled as more of its brethren emerged from the nearby spheres.
They looked like a madpony’s nightmare, a deformed hybrid of a vampire fruit bat and a dragon crone. Thick leathery scales garbed their twisted bodies. Claws with black talons dripped with green toxins. Fangs jutted from their faces, curving below their blunt muzzles. Tufts of ragged black fur sprouted in random places all over their hides, flickering in the arcane breeze.
The final one erupted from what Sunset now recognized to be a Transit Sphere.
She knew that only somepony within the Tenth Arcane Tier could conjure such powerful magic. She knew that only a creature of the Sixteenth Tier could destroy a piece of the Phoenix Tower with such ease. She dismissed these thoughts in an instant.
There was only one thing she worried about.
And these things were in her way.
Balefire ripped into her shield from all sides as Sunset expanded it into a bubble. Each of the hideous malformed monsters flapped their tattered, bat-like wings as they spun in a circle around her, trying to overwhelm her defenses.
“You are in my way,” Sunset growled as she hovered in midair, the teal energy around her starting to buckle under the strain. “Flee, or I will tear you to pieces.”
She didn’t shout. It wasn’t proper for a Princess to raise her voice—or so Twilight enjoyed reminding her—so instead she kept it as cold as the frozen snows beyond the Crystalline Imperium.
The gargoyles just cackled in the same bone-chilling tone. All at the same time. It was—to use an old colloquialism—freaky.
She didn’t have time for freaky.
“I tire of this.”
A shockwave of brilliant golden fire erupted from Sunset’s body as she channeled her anger and touched the power of her Sun. The gargoyles shrieked as they were thrown backward by the force of the blast, their withered bodies smoking in the cool evening breeze.
They didn’t fall far.
But perhaps it was far enough.
With a twist of her magic, the shield bubble transformed into a disk of enraged power. A quick tweak to the spell matrix gave it teeth. And then, despite the exhaustion threatening to overwhelm her, she threw her spinning disc with as much telekinetic force as she could muster.
The first gargoyle didn’t get a chance to even make a sound before the disc ripped through its deformed head, leaving nothing but a puff of black ash behind.
Constructs! Sunset realized. They’re constructs!
Sunset spun in midair. Constructs or no, they could still use balefire. Despite the fate of her beloved, she could not risk such creatures descending upon her city. Even the Whitecoat would be hard pressed to present a defense to the magic of raw oblivion.
The next one died as fast as the first, though it managed a half-second cry of rage before dissolving into ash. They were already regrouping and trying to flank her.
She managed to dispatch a third foul beast before the drain on her magic proved to be too much. She was gasping for breath as her ability to draw upon the magic of the world continued to give diminishing returns.
They attack during the Transition…This… this was well-planned and well-executed...
She would thank the individual responsible personally… and fatally.
As soon as the other nine beasts were destroyed.
Sunset lost her grasp on her magic, and the razor-sharp disc vanished. The echoing cackle of the beasts once again filled the sky, but Sunset Shimmer had safeguarded the many races of Equestria for millennia. She was the Chosen of the Sunmother herself. She had fought in battles beyond counting, in this world and many others. She had defied gods, imprisoned legends and chastised beings of the Thirtieth Tier.
She would not fall this night. Not to creatures as mundane as these.
However, the inability to use direct magic against the beasts sorely limited her options.
So, she improvised.
Two flashes of teal magic heralded the arrival of the Sunmother’s twin Flareblades. Each blade was elegant, thin and narrow, etched in ancient curving runes that burned with sunlight. Above the mouth-brace hilt of each blade, the amber Suncrystals glowed like miniature suns.
The last time she had wielded them in battle had been a century ago, against the shadowkin invasion during the last Emergence.
They were still as deadly as ever.
So was she.
Princess Sunset Shimmer darted forward with a surge of light and sound, emitting a blast of solar radiance in her wake. The gargoyles apparently had not expected a frontal assault. She cleaved through one’s neck and skewered another before they could bring their balefire to bear. The twin blades burned like pieces of the Sun itself, leaving trails of golden light with every sweep. It was almost a dance.
Almost.
Three of them took up position in tight formation before her and unleashed an enormous gout of balefire at her, the hideous green and white flame eager to consume her magic and her body. With a grunt of effort, she crossed the blades before her, and corona of pure sunlight deflected the ferocious blast of oblivion magic. Her Sun was one of the greatest symbols of Life in creation, and these blades held her power.
However, the other four gargoyles were not content to let Sunset simply weather the storm. Two approached on each side, dive-bombing her with the intelligence of annoyed rocks.
She immediately folded her wings and dropped, keeping the blades up to prevent the balefire from tearing her apart. She almost laughed as the two pairs incinerated each other.
Sunset let gravity do the rest as she plummeted toward her beloved city. She could feel the magic around her, flowing and pulsing in the arcane winds. But the magic was faint… and it was fading faster than before. She did a backflip and shot back up into the sky toward the final three monsters.
But a single glance at the heavens almost made her lose her grip on the priceless ancient weapons.
The stars were going out.
Pockets of the sky were already as dead as the deepest caves beneath the great mountain she called home. She could feel the magic dying around her. Below her, cries of alarm rang out as the magic artifacts that defined the daily lives of every creature in Canterlot began to fail, from skychariots to magical energy conveyors. Yet she knew such things were well-built. Even if they failed, more mundane safeties would see to the well-being of the populace.
She focused on her enemy. She had to deal with them first. Then she could save her city and her wife.
But the cries from the city below reignited the rage she had kept so tightly controlled for eons. Ice flash boiled in the space of a heartbeat and molten fury replaced it.
Sunset Shimmer screamed as she became a blazing comet of furious golden justice. The balefire of the gargoyles found no purchase upon her amber coat. With a single savage spin of her blades, she ripped them apart in midair.
A moment later, mere ash floated lazily in the dying winds of Canterlot.
Despite her every instinct to fly to her rescue, Sunset knew Twilight would be cross with her if she did not see to the safety of their subjects before seeking the salvation of her wife. Still, it was troubling that the teleport to the High Court left her winded to the point of panting for breath.
“My Lady!” cried a familiar approaching white unicorn, running at a full gallop. “We saw the chaos in the sky! Master Windblade and her pegasi attempted to join the fray, but found themselves barely able to rise more than five feet above the ground!”
“Do not concern yourself with my state, Raven,” Sunset said as she fell into one of the Twin Thrones. She winced when she realized she had taken Twilight’s place, but couldn’t gather the energy to move. “The people… how fare matters beyond these walls?”
“Mistress…” The white unicorn shifted her glasses with a hoof—a sight quite strange to Sunset, who was so used to her aide’s soft red magic. “I’ve spoken to Your Majesty of the quiet fear that grips the populace of the city—indeed the whole land—but now? They are seized by panic. An assault upon the Phoenix Tower? A battle waged in the sky, and the failure of nearly every arcane device within the city?”
Raven shook her curling brown locks.
“These are ill tidings indeed, Highness.”
Sunset bit her lip and stared at her horseshoes. The next question was inevitable.
“Highness… I also noticed… the… uh… stars. Highness… if I may ask… is Princess—”
The rage flowed through her, once again coming to her aid. It burned in her and gave her purpose, as did the magical flames inside the chaos engines that ran Canterlot’s infrastructure. When they were controlled, they were astoundingly useful. But if something failed, everything around them would burn…
She would use her rage this night. Use it to ensure the utter immolation of those who dared to assault her city.
“Issue a statement to the citizens that there has been an assault upon the Phoenix Tower by a hostile force. This is all the information We are prepared to release at this time.” Sunset sighed. “After dawn, We will give a full report on the events in accordance with the Law.”
“I doubt that will sate the ambassadors, my Lady.”
Sunset’s hair flared, but Raven knew her moods well enough to only wince slightly.
“Raven, I have much more important things to concern myself with than the well-being of ambassadors, when my—”
She stopped before she could say anything else. Raven knew. She always knew. She was eternal as they were. One of their few constants in this life. She was their sister, their mother and their confidante.
But what’s more… she understood.
“I’ll handle it, Sunset,” Raven whispered, out of earshot of the other nobles gathering before the Thrones. “Do what must be done.”
“Thank you.” Sunset’s voice was as quiet as her aide’s. “I do not know where the dawn will find me… but one way or another, it will see Twilight home.”
“Of that, I have no doubt. Shall I have it prepared?”
Sunset shook her head. “No. It will depart with me, quietly and without fanfare. When Philomena and Faerana return, tell them to seek me out. They will find me. I cannot wait for them. As for the rest… try to keep the lights on in our city, dear friend?”
Raven smiled wanly. “I always do.”
“This is different, Raven. The stars are going out.”
“Truly, you have no time to lose.”
Sunset took the time to grace her with her warmest, most heartfelt smile. Ten thousand words were contained in the single expression, but there was no doubt dear Raven understood it all.
She always did.
A century had passed since Sunset Shimmer had last donned the Solstice Raiment. The shadowkin legions had required extraordinary measures to push back. But not even they could murder the stars.
As Sunset stepped out on a distant balcony that hugged the great mountain peak of Canterlot—conspicuously devoid of guards per Raven’s work—she ensured every single piece was securely fastened. With every touch of her weakened magic, the ancient Equestrian runes that lined the old metal flared bright gold for a brief moment. She buckled the helm upon her head and took a breath.
Despite herself, she looked up. Nearly a quarter of the sky was little more than a void. She could feel the magic waning, not just from her, but from the world itself. It cried out to her, pleading with her to save it. To save them all.
Though she should do it for her people and the world, she knew the real reason she would do it. It was the same reason she had clutched at her rage, a reminder of the pony she had once been, so many centuries ago.
She did not enjoy this piece of herself.
But she would use it and those that had taken Twilight would burn for their transgressions.
Even if the stars died this very night, that fire would be enough to keep her going until the end of the world.
She would do it for her.
Just as she did everything else.
Sunset lifted her wings and took another deep breath. The thrum of ancient enchantments came to life, and the golden battle armor of the Princess of the Dawn shimmered. The twin Flareblades were strapped to her sides, ready to be unleashed upon the enemies of Equestria… upon anypony who found themselves between her and her lady.
With a flap of her mighty wings, Princess Sunset Shimmer rose into the air.
If she had been seeking any other pony aside from Twilight Sparkle, Sunset’s task would have been impossible.
Yet, Sunset knew as long as a single star shone in the sky, Twilight lived.
And as Sunset would always know when Twilight was smiling, she would always know where to seek her beloved.
The only thing that troubled her was her foe likely knew this as well. They would be prepared.
So be it.
And so it was that the Princess of the Dawn allowed the magic of the Sunmother—long ago imbued into the armor she now wore—to send her east into the dwindling stars of the night.
The first gargoyle construct died with a single sweep of her blade, never having a chance to make a sound. She granted its companion the same fate.
Something inside of her yearned for a foe that didn’t perish in a single sweep of one of her Flareblades. Something she could pummel with her very hooves. Yet she couldn’t risk such a foolhardy attack. She didn’t dare try to fight these monstrosities unarmed now.
Darkness crept over her kingdom like a shroud. The sky was nearly half dead. Most disturbingly, it wasn’t occurring in some great wave. When Sunset looked up, it seemed like great swaths of the sky had simply been erased from creation.
Worse, the Moon had begun to fade during its journey. It had been almost full when Twilight had first raised it, yet now it crawled across the sky in its meager last quarter phase.
She tried not to look up too often even as she approached the massive spires of Fillydelphia. However, the darkness below was nearly as disturbing as the darkness above. It had been by sheer luck—or Harmony’s divine providence—she discovered the patrolling gargoyles in the suburbs of the sprawling city. The upcoming battles with them was not what concerned her.
Even with her diminished power, she still felt the life of her subjects in the homes below her as she flew ever onward, but they felt weak. However, despite feeling a twinge of guilt as she considered it, the suffering of her people was not why her pulse quickened.
No, what disturbed her was a fact both simple and horrifying: Fillydelphia was dark.
Fillydelphia—nestled against the coast of the Celestial Sea—was one of the great hubs of magical and technological innovation in Equestria. It had been for centuries. The city’s glow could usually be seen from fifty leagues away, and further on a clear night. Now, the once-gleaming towers jutted up from the city center like the bones of some great black behemoth of a dead dragon. They loomed over the city, casting strange shadows in the fading night. Sunset swallowed and pushed forward, her senses stretched to their limits. She fed off of the inherent magic of the Solstice Raiment, yet she knew the power was not unlimited.
Upon seeing yet another flight of the horrifically malformed gargoyles, Sunset dove to street level and wove between fallen chariots. She could escape their notice by banking her power and moving through the darkness, but it was unwise to leave enemies at her flank. While her connection to Twilight gave her a general direction, it was not precise. It was more akin to a compass than a map.
With each passing moment, she felt time slip away. She knew not how much time remained to rescue the pony she loved.
Then again, Sunset’s rage demanded that those responsible for this atrocity to her wife, her subjects and her world be punished.
She waited until they were directly above her and shot into the sky like a Phoenix Skyqueen. Her telekinesis was still strong enough, and flight was something intrinsic to the very fiber of her being. That magic couldn’t be drained from her, so she wielded it with every iota of her indomitable will.
She unleashed the Flareblades. The first one was thrown forward with such force it speared the gargoyle and tore straight through. The beast looked at the hole in its chest before dissolving into ash. Immediately, the other two turned her way, their claws glowing with balefire.
Sunset wasn’t done. She’d moved the Sun at dawn and dusk every day for countless centuries.
A sword, even one as mighty as a Flareblade, was nothing.
With a mighty pull, the sword reversed course, ripping through the head of the second gargoyle as its attention was on Sunset. It perished instantly. She released her magic and let the blade fall to her, snatching it up in time to ward off the balefire of the third and final gargoyle.
The hateful oblivion magic never came. Instead, the warped and twisted bat-like face tilted back and let out a howl that pierced the silent night. It was joined by others. Dozens. Hundreds. Maybe more.
Oh, by the Sun and Moon… Sunset thought as she glanced around to see foul shapes beginning to close on her. They didn’t need Transit Spheres now.
The stars descended upon her, glowing in the rage and hate of the gargoyles’ eyes.
Sunset unleashed a primal battlecry as she flung herself forward at the closest one. It threw balefire, but she ignored the magic of oblivion and forced herself through. It threatened to rip her apart.
It nearly did.
Only her rage allowed her to live long enough to shove the thing’s head between her crossed blades.
A savage jerk of her magic ended its miserable existence.
“And so the Sun sets its last,” came a screeching whisper from hundreds of throats around her. “Would that you had died with your city, consumed in balefire, purged as though you had never been. It would have been… cleaner. Yet I should have known you would not be content to die as your fate demands. Stubborn fool.”
Sunset’s eyes darted left and right. They surrounded her like a massive hive of living evil. Each one moved in the same way. Each flap. Each twitch. Each blink. The same monster repeated hundreds of times.
“You know not what you have brought upon yourself, fool!”Sunset shouted. “The Sun of the heavens may rest now, but even now, its radiance bears down upon you. And for what you have done to me and mine, know that the Sun will have no mercy upon something as wicked as you!”
“I care not how you die, only that you do. Kill as many as you like. You will still perish, knowing that your wife begs for mercy. That you were unable to save your people. You will know my torment. The stars are mine. This world is mine. It will die the quiet death of oblivion as I ascend beyond you all to do what is necessary. Your death will herald my vengeance.”
Some piece of her knew whatever thing had stolen Twilight from her was simply trying to enrage her.
She was already well past that point.
Princess Sunset Shimmer flared.
She called upon her own inherent magic. She called upon the magic of her distant Sun. She called upon the Sunmother’s ancient armor. She called upon the Suncrystals of the Flareblades.
The Flareblades ignited with holy solar radiance. Her armor erupted with runes of glittering golden light. Her horn’s light shifted from its gentle teal into a blinding white blaze of fire.
She became like unto the Sun itself.
For a moment, dawn broke on Fillydelphia.
And as she glimpsed the city through the hovering monsters, Sunset’s heart froze.
Below her, the citizens of Fillydelphia lay as inert as forgotten puppets. Dozens lined the street below her. All around her, she could see fallen arcane chariots and other flying devices. Pegasi and griffons had landed amongst the flat roofs. Even the city’s small dragon population had fallen to whatever sinister force had stolen the stars.
Every single one lay as still as death, as though their very life had been drawn from them.
“Fitting that light of dawn shall herald your end. Now die!” the horde screeched and descended upon her.
Sunset met them with the fury of the Princess of the Dawn.
The first stroke felled five. The second stroke felled six. Crossed blades took the brunt of four gargoyles’ balefire as she bucked in the faces of two behind her. Claws skittered across her armored flanks as she twisted and dove into the mass. Screeching and screaming consumed her as fangs chomped at her hooves while she dropped like a stone. She slammed into a pair of them and backflipped taking off another six heads in twin sweeps. Her blades wove complex patterns of light as she called upon all the magic she could reach.
Gargoyles who came within reach of her hooves died from a single strike, turned into sun-bleached ash. Blades struck down scores of her foes with every sweep.
It wasn’t enough.
The gouts became bursts as their evil puppeteer changed tactics. Sunset screamed as balefire ripped alongside her neck. She could feel the smoldering armor. It had died to protect her, but it could only die once.
Just like her.
Moving in for the kill, the gargoyles swarmed her.
Sunset screeched in incandescent rage and spun like a Saddle Arabian dervish. Ancient lessons were forgotten. Long-held techniques were thrown aside. All cast off in the raging fury of the Princess of the Dawn’s unleashed temper.
A dozen died. Another dozen. Balefire nearly consumed her right foreleg, saved only by a flare of power from the ancient armor. Two dozen died as she flung her twin blades in a great scything arc and caught them again in her magic. She spun them like sawblades and whirled them around her body like the banner dance of the Colored Monks of Demo-Sha.
The blades were knocked away, though not a single beast could hold onto one for more than an instant before it perished. Then one was upon her. Demonic blue eyes bored into her as wicked metallic fangs glistened in her holy aura.
“If it’s any consolation,” theswarm hissed. “She will never know you failed.”
The fangs came down upon her neck, as did many others. Sunset yowled as the things pierced her armor and her flesh. She jerked in midair, her wings twitching as she lost control. Her vision swam as the poisonous bite infected her with darkness while bleeding the magic from her very soul.
Sunset looked up into the sky. A tear fell from her eye and spattered against the wing of a gargoyle. Another cluster of stars flared and died away as she watched.
She fell into the roiling mass of monsters, the sky fading behind demonic eyes, leathery scales and flapping wings.
Forgive me, she cried out to her dear eternal Twilight.
And fire erupted in the abyss.
Not the fire of the Sun.
But the fire of the Earth.
Twin shockwaves of the violet and gold elemental flame washed over her. She cried out once more, but this was a cry of triumph and exaltation. The flames tore the feeding gargoyles apart at the most fundamental level, not even leaving ash behind. The flames healed her wounds in a second. They empowered her armor. They empowered her magic.
But more importantly, they empowered her hope.
For the Earth and the Sun were linked. The Sun needed a purpose to exist. That purpose was Life, and Life must be grounded. Only Earth could provide the foundation for Life. The Sun’s purpose was to bring Life to the Earth, and the Earth’s purpose was to be a foundation upon which the Life could grow from the Sun.
The very elements of the Earth had answered her cry for help.
Philomena and her dark sister Faerana roared in fury at the monsters who dared to attack their beloved Princess. However, the gargoyles did not flee. Constructs could not feel fear.
The Phoenix of the Sun and the Phoenix of the Moon didn’t fear either.
They struck with wild abandon, beaks tearing, wings shredding and talons ripping. A hundred gargoyles died within five seconds of the twin sisters’ appearance. In mere moments, they had cleared the air three meters around Sunset… outside of which an angry horde hissed.
Reinvigorated by their cleansing flame, Sunset leveled out and soared up between her friends. She reached out with her magic and pulled the Flareblades to her from the street below. She flourished them, and took a breath.
Then, she smiled.
“The dawn breaks upon you!” Sunset shouted in the ancient tongue of the Sunmother. And though she was still exhausted, she flung herself into the battle once more. “Sol Invictus Ascendunt!”
“Thank you, my friends,” Sunset murmured as she sat atop the second tallest spire of Fillydelphia’s downtown city center. “I once again owe you both my life.”
Fair Faerana—lines of dark violet and inky stars pulsing through her feathers—laughed in Phoenixsong, her eyes sparkling like novas in the night. “We lost count of the tally long ago, Sunqueen.”
The red and gold Philomena nuzzled Sunset softly, preening her mangled wings. “Don’t worry about it, Sunny. After all, saving your flanks is what we’re here for.”
Sunset laughed a little, but winced as her cracked ribs protested the motion.
“Tell me, my friend.” Sunset gave her a small smile. “Why is it that I can never get your sister to speak so informally with me?”
Philomena giggled in that musical way she had. “She spent far too much time with Dad in our early Cycles.”
Faerana huffed and crossed her wings. “Somephoenix needed to keep our Clutch together. With you off gallivanting across the world, teasing deer, playing games with dragons and other such nonsense, I stayed and did my duty.”
Philomena shrugged off the comment as she finally finished her work on Sunset’s left wing. Faerana—who had always been better at preening—had repaired her right wing ten minutes ago. As for the rest of her injuries, she’d have to wait a few moments for the armor’s healing magic to mend her battered bones and muscles.
It would be the last healing magic she would pull out of the Solstice Raiment before dawn. And somewhere deep in her soul, Sunset knew that if this did not end by dawn, it would be too late for them all.
Finally, she felt the last pulses of restoration magic course through her body and she slowly pushed herself to her hooves. A glance behind her showed clear skies. With the twin phoenixes' intervention, their enemies had turned to ash before them. Yet they had been only constructs. Constructs were far too easily replaced. For all she knew, her unknown enemy could have a thousand more beasts waiting for her, hidden in the massive dark structure of the great ArcanoTech headquarters, almost half again as big as the skyscraper she now rested upon.
She knew that’s where Twilight was. She felt her beloved’s pull clearly. And considering the hubris of this foal, there was no doubt in Sunset’s mind that the monster she sought was at the very top of the tower.
The eldritch glow of greenish-purple magic pulsing through the windows of the topmost floor also augured well for it.
The question was… why ArcanoTech? Sunset studied the immense steel and iron building. It was peculiar to see it without the constant streams of energy pulsing from its dozens of arcane transmitters spread out over the surface. ArcanoTech was the birthplace of the greatest innovations of the Era. Chaos engines, magno-arcane fluctuation drives and single-pegasus weather hubs were just some of the magnificent creations the brilliant minds within had crafted with their Princesses’ blessings.
Might it have something to do with such technologies?
Was it simply because it was the tallest building in Equestria?
Maybe some madpony researcher had finally cracked and decided to steal all the magic in Equestria.
Sunset hoped that wasn’t it. They’d already had too many creatures who attempted such asinine feats. Things ended badly for them. Sunset made sure of it… though Twilight kept her in check to make sure the punishment wasn’t too severe.
She shook her head and looked up at her wife’s Moon and sky. With every passing second, the light faded with the magic.
She didn’t know if her people could survive without their magic.
She wasn’t going to find out.
“Are you ready?” she asked her two friends.
“Please, I was born ready,” Philomena snarked.
“Ugh, do you ever stop this inane prattle, sister?” Faerana asked.
“Occasionally,” Philomena lifted into the air with a flap of her fiery wings. “But never when you’re around.”
“What course of action do you propose, Sunqueen?” Faerana asked as she too took flight, ignoring her sister’s jab.
“I do not know who or what we face,” Sunset responded as she took to the sky. The three of them headed cautiously toward the ArcanoTech Tower. “Without such knowledge… I admit I am unsure.”
“The magic is fading, Sunqueen,” Faerana warned. “The elemental forces will begin to weaken soon. Once that occurs…”
“I am aware of what it will do to you, my friend.” Sunset’s face hardened as she picked up speed.
“So, why are we helping you, again?” Philomena squawked, glaring at Sunset as she pulled ahead just a little.
“Come now.” Sunset smirked. “Surely, you would wish to proclaim to the world you two were solely responsible for saving all creation from certain doom?”
“Oh, the things I do for you, Sunny,” Philomena sang in something nearly approaching a sigh. “That’s assuming Faerana doesn’t rip this idiot apart the moment she gets a chance for hurting Twi.”
“I recognize your claim our foe’s head, Sunqueen. But if occasion permits, would you object to me ending its miserable existence?” Faerana asked. Her song was cold and hard, like diamonds locked in ice. It was something that always surprised Sunset about her wife’s companion. If Sunset decreed Faerana not to strike down their foe, she would obey. She might not like it, but she would obey.
Philomena would not be so gentle. And Sunset wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Do what you must,” Sunset said as she pulled up toward the topmost floor of the ArcanoTech headquarters. “But this thing shall not see another dawn, one way or another.”
“Good.” Philomena’s song was almost feral, far more savage than her usual gentle mocking. “Because no one screws with my Sunny and Twi like this and gets to walk away with just a friendship lesson. Let’s go!”
Sunset grinned. She couldn’t help it. She didn’t deny it. She felt the magic of their friendship empowering her even as the magic of her love beckoned her ever higher.
She raced toward the top of the tower as another patch of stars went out.
Hold fast, my love.
Princess Sunset Shimmer, one of the two sovereigns of Equestria, the Princess of the Dawn and the Chosen of the Sunmother, smashed hooves-first through the glass roof of the ArcanoTech Tower with wordless battlecry. Her impact dented the steel floor and sent a small inert chaos engine flying into the darkness. Her armored horseshoes severed channelling cables, sending out a flurry of magical sparks. Nearby support pillars cracked and the steel latticework holding the glass above twisted.
“That was suitably impressive,” Philomena sang as she dove in. She took up position on Sunset’s right while Faerana hovered on Sunset’s left. “I’ve always said you should never discount the power of a good entrance.”
Sunset didn’t respond. Despite her glowing aura and the shine of the Flareblades, the immense single room that dominated the top floor of the ArcanoTech headquarters was wreathed in shadow. It was some sort of workshop or laboratory, if the tables, cabling and strange devices were any indication.
Movement flickered all around her. Darkness coiled and twisted as if it were a living thing. But she was Sunset Shimmer. Shadows fell before her radiance. She feared nothing from darkness.
It was always the darkness that feared the light.
She crossed her blades before her and called upon the fragments of the Sun. Blinding radiance illuminated… nothing. The light reached no further than it had moments before.
“Have you ever stopped to appreciate the void between the stars?” hissed the voice on her right. Sunset whirled, but saw nothing in the impenetrable darkness. “The majesty of the tapestry upon which your wife draws her night sky?”
“Show yourself, monster!” Sunset bellowed into the gloom.
The voice ignored her as it continued to hiss and whisper. The sound echoed and shifted strangely in the immense room. It seemed as if it were coming from multiple places.
Wonderful. More constructs. Will this thing ever show its twisted face?
Still, there was something about the voice. From inside this room… it seemed even stranger somehow. Haunting and even more mad than before.
“The infinite abyss,” it continued as if Sunset hadn’t spoken. “The sundered midnight? Tainted by the light of magic. Tainted by the things you cannot see? The shadows that lurk between the worlds? And what lurks between those shadows? What evil hides in the lie of life… the mad delusion of the thing you call life.”
The last word was spat out as if it were a rotten vegetable.
“Give up my wife and I will provide you with a quick end. You need not worry about your life any longer.”
Sunset did her best to control her breathing, but she had been running on rage for so long, it was hard to think of anything else.
“A gracious offer. No quarter asked, nor given. Just as expected from the Princess of the Dawn.” The voice cracked at the last word. Both Philomena and Faerana hovered at her side, scanning the darkness with their keen eyes. In this tight space, Sunset’s magic nearly melded with her companion’s. “Sunset Shimmer on the other… heh… hand, that’s a different story.”
There was something in the way it said her name that made her shiver. A strange chill had crept into the room, as if the very warmth of her heart were being leeched away.
“What do you know of me?”
“Enough to make you tiresome. No… my eyes are set on far greater prizes than simply you. Once, I would have been satisfied with just you. Then… I came upon a traveller three days ago. At first, he… nearly killed me.”
“Pity he changed his mind.”
“He didn’t,” the voice said in an almost somber tone. “Now that I consider it… he did kill me. He murdered my mind… and then resurrected me. He made me realize how foolish I’d been. How much time I’d wasted…”
Sunset was getting no closer to finding the location of her quarry, so the time for games had passed. She began to creep forward. The phoenix sisters moved with her, their wings barely shifting as they used their magic to keep them aloft.
“The traveller could not stay, for he was pursued by lesser beings. Beings that could not destroy him… but could annoy him. This place could not give him what he wanted. It was too different. But he did show me one important thing. One very, very important thing.”
Six pairs of demonic blue eyes opened in the darkness, each in a different direction. Sunset froze and her wings flared. Both phoenixes let out caws of defiance. But Sunset held them fast with a twitch of her wing.
These were not the gargoyles they had fought before. These beings were different.
“Don’t… let her... touch…” came a weak whisper from a familiar throat.
“Twilight!” Sunset screamed.
“Silence, fool!” the voice shrieked. There was a flash of… darkness and Twilight wailed before suddenly going quiet. “You resist entropy itself.”
“You’re going to die before the sun rises,” Sunset growled.
“The sun shall never rise again. Only a dim ball of orange red fire. That will be the only thing that rises upon this dead world.”
Sunset blinked. It took her a moment to understand what it was saying. In a way, it was more horrific than anything else.
Almost anything else.
Anything else but that wail.
“Look up, Sunset Shimmer,” the voice hissed as the eyes moved closer. “Look up and behold the majesty of the dark.”
Despite herself, she looked up. She did it just in time to see the moon go black.
“Ahhhhh,” it murmured as if in pleasure. “And so the final bell tolls. You see, my dear, dear Princess… Three days ago, I cast the spell to consume this world’s magic. The stars you see above you are already dead. It just takes time for their light to fade. If you could only realize the beauty of the sundered midnight…”
The eyes moved forward again. This time, Sunset caught the sound of a hoofstep, but it echoed in a way that prevented her from finding its origin.
“Enough of this!” Sunset screamed. “If you are so powerful, if you are so mighty, then why taunt me? You had over a thousand beasts. Why not have them destroy Canterlot and myself utterly? Why the games? Why the taunting? Are you that twisted? Are you that much of a fiend? What are you?”
“This is not a game of what I am…”
An alicorn stepped out from the darkness before her.
“It is a game of who.”
Twilight stood before her.
Five more stepped out from shadows, each at the edge of the roiling mass of black shadows. Even now, the greenish-purple energy seemed to flicker through the blackness.
There was no doubt they were Twilight. But they were not her Twilight.
They were tall and statuesque, just like her beloved. The lavender coat was the same. The wings were the same. The face was the same.
But the eyes… the eyes burned with unholy blue radiance. And her mane and tail flared and flickered, supernovas appearing in what should have been a calm starscape. The patterns of dying stars shifted from one abomination to another.
Each of the horrid doppelgängers leered at her.
“Changelings,” Sunset snarled. “Demonic filth. What could have let you back into the world?”
All six laughed in perfect harmony, if such a word could be used for whatever she was facing.
“Me, a mere changeling?” they all mocked. “Come now. You have served your people for many years. You have fought changelings before. The legends of your deeds have passed into myth and legend. Cast your detection spell upon me, have you the magic to do so. Seek out my true nature and find what lies within. I wish to see your eyes when you learn the truth.”
This monster would dare use Twilight’s image against me… How dare it? How dare it?
Her rage burned hotter than a solar flare.
Sunset burned her power and did exactly what the thing taunted her to do. She probably shouldn’t have. Yet she needed to know what she was dealing with.
To her surprise, the Twilight before her didn’t leap out of the way or conjure a shield. It simply smiled as the teal energy pulsed over her body… and did nothing.
“No…” Sunset whispered. Even Philomena let out a cry of alarm. Faerana was as silent as death itself. “What are you?”
“An echo of what was,” the Twilights whispered. “I came here to fight a monster. It… it…”
For the first time, she saw hesitation in the twisted version of her wife’s face.
“He killed… her. Ripped the very magic of life from her body, leaving nothing but dead stone behind. We had gotten the closest. We were the first to almost get him. And so… in punishment for my sins and my failure… he stole my powers. He stole my soul. Everything that was mine. Everything that was me. Only left with memories of her screams…”
Sunset’s heart sank. Somehow… she knew whose screams this thing was talking about.
“He’s gone and my way home is forever denied me… But I can do more. I can take from this world. I can have my revenge. His last gift to me was the knowledge of how to steal. He forced the knowledge into my mind. Forced me to comprehend. How to feed. How to consume.”
“This… individual.” Sunset was sure not to make any sudden moves. “He… taught you how to take the magic from the stars?”
“No,” the Twilights responded as one. “He taught me how to take magic from creation itself. He… wanted me to suffer. And now I hunger. Now I must feed. I must take… and I must kill him. I will be the phoenix that is reborn from his ashes. Only then… will I finally be able to die as I should have with her.”
Her eyes shot up as tears of red streamed down her muzzle.
“And to do that… I must become the monster. I have already. I have taken so much from so many. Why do you think I chose this place? This city? The brightest minds. The strongest hearts. Now their magic is within me. Roiling. Screaming. Pounding to escape. It is why I had to take myself from you. I needed her power. Once you are dead, I shall finish taking it. I am a monster. I had to become one. It is the only way I can overcome him. Destroy him. And grant him the death he so richly deserves.”
All six Twilights took another step forward.
“I am a monster, Sunset.” Fangs grew in her muzzle even as madness burned in her glowing blue eyes.
Sunset braced herself, her blades at the ready.
“And a monster must feed.”
A crash resounded through the massive room.
“Incoming!” Philomena shrieked.
The darkness behind the Twilights fell away and Sunset’s body went rigid.
Fifteen feet away—just behind the Twilight Sunset was facing—lay the withered body of her wife on an altar of black obsidian. Ancient runes writhed across the surface. Her regalia was missing. Shadows swarmed over her. She’d been beaten to within an inch of her life. Blood seeped from dozens of wounds and cuts. It created small pools of crimson amidst broken power cables and smashed arcane equipment.
Beyond that stood a thousand more gargoyles, who had been hidden in the shadows.
“The sundered midnight falls,” all the things in the room said in perfect unison. “The darkness will take this world. And the next… and the next… until the beast is dead at my hooves…”
“This is most inauspicious,” Faerana whispered.
“No, you think?” Philomena snapped back.
Sunset spun her swords and turned her gaze to the six false Twilights. The gargoyles didn’t matter. The dying sky didn’t matter. The dead moon didn’t matter. Nothing mattered save for the fact that this thing was between Twilight and her.
“The one I loved had such rage in her eyes…” The six spoke in voices as cold as death. “I see an echo of it in yours. What I do is evil. What I do is unforgivable. What I do is hateful. But what I do is necessary.”
For a moment, Sunset considered negotiation. Whatever had happened to this mare—assuming this wasn’t some elaborate hoax or misdirection—it had been horrific. Sunset had little doubt as to the identity of the other individual these Twilights were speaking about.
But this thing wasn’t Twilight Sparkle. Not anymore. This was some hideous dark copy of her Twilight. The heart of Twilight Sparkle had been hollowed out in these things before her. She couldn’t believe any Twilight Sparkle would do the things this thing had done.
Anyway, Sunset wasn’t much for negotiation.
That was Twilight’s field of expertise.
Sunset’s field of expertise was a little more physical.
She flourished the Flareblades in her magic.
“I offer one chance to die cleanly, Princess of the Dawn,” they all said.
In the end, Sunset knew what her decision would be.
She suspected this demented thing once called Twilight Sparkle did as well.
Something in her snapped.
“Buck that,” Sunset spat in ancient Equestrian. “You nearly killed my wife. You’re tearing the stars from the sky. You murdered her Moon.”
Sunset flared the power in her blades, pointedly ignoring the sense that their magic was almost dry.
“If you hadn’t touched her… I might have let you live. But you hurt her. And for that… you are going to burn.”
Sunset leapt at the closest pathetic copy of her wife and struck.
The first one made no sound as the twin Flareblades cut her down. If anything, she looked peaceful as she died. Almost eager. The demonic blue light in her eyes faded a second before she dissolved into gray ash, leaving a tiny wisp of violet that flittered away before Sunset could react.
“Strike them down!” Sunset called to her companions. “I will handle these!”
Five Dark Twilights rushed Sunset even as Philomena and Faerana screeched in fury and dove into the mass of gargoyles. Sunset lost sight of them almost instantly, save for the occasional bout of gold and violet flame.
Then, she didn’t have time to look anymore.
A bolt of kinetic force slammed into her left flank and sent her spinning into the air, but Sunset Shimmer was no stranger to aerial combat. She turned it into a corkscrew and dove for another one of the things that wore her wife’s face. It hissed at her with a feral snarl before conjuring up a pair of obsidian daggers that blocked Sunset’s sweep. With more speed than Sunset thought possible, her attacker brought a dagger around and plunged it into her side. The Solstice Raiment saved her life once more, deflecting the blow and sending her opponent off-balance for just an instant. Sunset struck, but another one of the Dark Twilights parried the blow with a battleaxe conjured from nothing. The second Dark Twilight swung, nearly taking Sunset’s head off.
Battleaxes weren’t meant for close-quarters combat. Sunset demonstrated how ineffective they were at blocking with a slash at the thing’s neck. It died in ash and another spark escaped.
A twirling staff of balefire magic spun forward with quicksilver speed and knocked one of her Flareblades from her telekinesis. Sunset screamed as the backlash of the impact tore at her mind. She glanced over to see the Flareblade fall toward the altar where her wife lay dying.
She is dying because I am taking far too long with these mockeries!
Sunset turned and charged for another, but they were prepared. A flare of balefire erupted from three of their horns and Sunset was forced to take shelter behind a single Flareblade, which could barely hold back one balefire blast, let alone three. She felt the oblivion magic start to rip her very being apart.
Sunset thought furiously, trying to spot where the fourth monster had run off to, but she couldn’t see it in the raging shadows from the phoenixes' war with the gargoyles. She tried to conjure up another spinning disk, but the effort of trying to use the magic of the world nearly made her pass out. She took a balefire blast to the leg and screamed as the piece of armor was turned into molten slag. She kicked it off and it crashed against a support pillar once hidden in the Dark Twilights’ unnatural gloom. An explosion of solar energy pulsed from the broken armor, staggering the Dark Twilights and allowing Sunset enough room to use her great wings to bound backward and catch her breath.
Parts of the room were ablaze with fire now. Some shimmering white, caused by the Flareblade’s inherent magic. Some violet or gold, a result of her companions ongoing brawl with the gargoyles. Some a sickly blue or green, caused by the Dark Twilights’s magic.
She had to find a way out of this. She needed… she needed her Twilight. These Dark Twilights were just as good as she was… or at least as powerful as she was. They did not possess her Twilight’s skill with a weapon, but they made up for it with speed and nigh unlimited magic. Sunset’s was all but gone.
Never bring a knife to a magic fight, Sunset thought wryly, recalling an old adage from the pre-Classical era.
“I’ve learned much from your wife,” said the voices from all around her as Sunset backed up, coughing on the rising smoke. “Of the Emergence. Of how your world becomes bonded to so many others once a century. That is the time of demons and evil. It is how he arrived. A simple case of bad timing. But when we arrived… he was waiting. And this is what he did to my… to my…”
From behind another support pillar, a beam of tainted green energy erupted like a bolt of lightning and speared Sunset through the chest. She screamed as the very magic that gave her life was ripped from her. With a desperate swing of her Flareblade, she severed the connection and fell to her knees, gasping for breath.
“You… you… monster…”
“I am what I must be. I am the rock upon which he will break. I am as inevitable as death,” the four Dark Twilights replied. “He will die. As will you. As will she.”
“No!” Sunset screamed as she threw herself to her hooves and lashed out at one of the approaching alicorns. A blade of violet light blocked the attack and parried her to the side. Then a savage kick sent her crashing through one of the support pillars, shattering glass panes in the roof. They cascaded down around her like falling stars.
Even through the pain of broken bones and the debris that lay around her, Sunset still had the strength to defy these things.
“No! You won’t take her!”
“She is dead,” they replied as they stalked forward. “Her stars are already gone. It is done.”
“Liar!”
Sunset growled and focused. It took far too much power, but she did it anyway. She hurled her blade with all her might at one of the Dark Twilights. She sneered at Sunset, batting it away, but Sunset was ready. With a whip of her head, she allowed it to be knocked aside, only to have it rush back. Again, the Dark Twilight cracked it away with a conjured rapier of blood-red steel.
This time, Sunset shifted tactics. With a growl of effort as she fed upon the dwindling energy reserves of the Solstice Raiment, she levitated the small inert chaos engine behind the Dark Twilights and pulled it forward. It crashed into the leftmost Dark Twilight and she fell, staring at the device in confusion.
Sunset telekinetically slammed the activation button. Swirls of red and purple light filled the cylindrical power source.
Then the Flameblade came soaring through the smoke and sliced clean through it.
The massive explosion of unleashed chaos magic vaporized that Dark Twilight. It was too contained to take out any of the others, but it left a burning circular hole in the floor. And still, a violet spark flittered into the smoke.
Three down… three to go.
“It is time to die, Princess of the Dawn,” the last three said. “Your death shall herald my vengeance.”
This time, twin beams of sickly green light speared the smoke. Sunset was only barely able to get the Flareblade up in time, but to her horror, she realized the magic from the Suncrystal within was being drained by this horrid spell. It wouldn’t last very—
The third struck. Somehow, she had gotten behind Sunset.
Her horn was inches from Sunset’s head.
Sunset had been through many battles. She had been a general in far too many wars. Seen much. Endured much.
All of it paled in comparison to having her very mind shredded from the inside out. She was being pulled apart. Her thoughts twisted and broke. The blade dropped from her telekinesis as her magic imploded. Her armor flared as it tried to protect her. Her brain split open. Agony poured in through the cracks. Coherence splintered and shattered like a crystal statue thrown from the top of the Phoenix Tower.
My one regret… said the voice of the Dark Twilight within her head. Is that by watching you die… I have to watch her die again.
Her body was encased in living magma, burning away her coat, scorching her flesh. It wasn’t enough that the Dark Twilight was ripping apart her mind. She had to rip apart her bo—
The Solstice Raiment, the armor once worn by the Sunmother herself, the symbol of the power of the Princess of the Dawn, worn through countless battles across a hundred worlds… exploded.
All three of the Dark Twilights screamed as they were thrown backward. One crashed through another support beam and part of the roof collapsed upon her. Dimly, Sunset saw another flicker of light twist away. She blinked, trying to figure out what had happened.
Her mind was clear once again. Exhausted. Battered. But clear.
She looked down to see her coat unblemished and untouched… but unarmored. The armor had given itself to save her. An ancient gift.
A ghostly face appeared before her. Sunset’s heart gave a leap.
“All is not lost, my beloved daughter.” It was the voice of her friends, both present and departed. It was the voice of a nearly-forgotten memory, lost in the depths of time. It was the voice of the soul of the universe itself. “All can be redeemed, if given the chance.”
It faded away.
Sunset glanced behind her to see that her Twilight had been thrown off the altar… but she couldn’t see where. Faerana and Philomena were lost in the swarm of gargoyles.
She was alone. And yet… she knew she was not.
She tried to grasp the Flareblade... and failed. The spell wouldn’t manifest. She looked up and realized that there wasn’t the faintest flicker of magic from her horn.
Two Dark Twilights rose from the debris. Both seemed larger. Energy coruscated around their bodies. Now, Sunset could see the flicker of tiny stars as their bodies sucked in the magic of the night sky.
Sunset grabbed her sword in her mouth. The Flareblades were designed to be wielded by magic, but they still had a mouth-brace hilt. Without thinking, she rushed the closest Dark Twilight. The Dark Twilight grinned with a manic smile and battered her aside like a cat playing with a half-dead mouse. Sunset grunted as she smashed into another column, her eyes swimming in her head, but she refused to release her hold on her weapon.
Staggering upright, she rushed forward again, using her wings to propel her forward, though she couldn’t become airborne without her magic.
She was slapped aside again, and crashed against the dark altar. More ribs broke, but she refused to cry out. She looked around for her Twilight, but she was nowhere in sight.
Have… to do… something… Sunset’s thoughts were hazy. The room swayed and shook around her. Have to take down… at least one more…
Both stalked toward her as Sunset scrambled backward, desperately thinking. She was a general. She was a warrior. She’d been one for countless centuries. She’d fought in battles beyond measure.
And yet… no secret moment of enlightenment came.
The Dark Twilight to her left speared her with a bolt of balefire. It tore clean through her shoulder, leaving a cauterized hole the size of a filly’s hoof. Sunset’s eyes bulged, her brain unable to cope with the pain. A strangled gasp escaped her throat. She desperately fought back the blackness threatening to overwhelm her.
The second one charged up another bolt. Sunset weakly lifted her Flareblade.
Only after the Dark Twilight had unleashed her bolt did Sunset realize the Suncrystal was dark.
The bolt struck the Flareblade.
The ancient weapon shattered.
Sunset howled as the remnants of the blade speared her in a dozen places. One jagged shard pierced her straight through the middle. Another in one of her hindlegs. Blood flowed from innumerable cuts and wounds.
Then the pain began to fade away, as if it were a distant memory. Her thoughts were slugged and confused. Still, she tried to rise. Her body refused to respond.
She reached out with her magic. Nothing.
The two Dark Twilights stood over her and Sunset looked up beyond them through the shattered roof. Only a hoofful of stars remained in the sky.
“You were a worthy opponent,” the Dark Twilights said with nods of respect. “But—”
Another Twilight came screaming out of the smoke and flame, the second Flareblade in a weak field of magic. With a savage strike, she beheaded the rightmost Dark Twilight, who instantly crumpled to dust. The spark inside of her immediately surged into the final Dark Twilight. Her eyes shifted from a demonic blue to a hellish red.
The last one whirled and fired a thin bolt of balefire point-blank at Twilight’s horn.
Twilight’s horn exploded.
Her eyes went wide. The sword fell from her magic. Sunset gaped as her wife toppled backward, unconscious before she hit the ground. Blood poured from the gaping wound in her head. The only sign of life was the ragged rise and fall of her battered chest.
The Dark Twilight’s eyes burned with hatred as she readied a final balefire blast to murder Sunset’s wife.
Sunset shoved away the pain. She shoved away the exhaustion. The bruises, the injuries, the agony. It didn’t matter. None of it mattered.
There was only one thought in Sunset’s head:
Twilight is about to die.
Sunset lunged forward and caught the sword in her teeth.
Dark Twilight’s eyes tracked the motion. She turned. Death crackled on her horn.
And Sunset rammed the Flareblade straight through her chest.
She twitched as Sunset fell backwards, leaving the blade embedded in her enemy.
She didn’t turn to ash.
The Dark Twilight’s magic evaporated from her horn as she dropped to her knees.
“No…” she whispered. “I… I must… I have to… avenge…”
She fell with a meaty thud.
The red light faded from her eyes… making her look all too normal. Violet eyes, staring up at Sunset. Pleading. Begging. For something… anything. An ending? Peace?
Absolution?
A sound came from behind her. It sounded like somepony pouring sand out over an entire building.
Shrieks of panic came from two familiar throats. In a flash, Philomena was at Sunset’s side, but Sunset couldn’t help but notice the phoenix was far darker than she usually was. Faerana had her head buried in Twilight’s chest.
“It’s… it’s over…” Sunset managed to gasp.
“I can’t heal you,” Philomena trilled. “The elements… they…”
“I know…” Sunset nodded weakly and stared up into the night sky. From her vantage point against a pillar, she could see a single star in the sky. It was dim. But it was there. And it didn’t fade. “I know… but the stars still… they still...”
The last Dark Twilight twitched.
Sunset’s eyes dropped to her, but she knew that if this Dark Twilight did something… she was helpless. They both were.
She twitched again. Her eyes closed as if she were in great pain.
When she opened them again, they were pure white.
Then she shrieked. It was a shriek as if the universe itself was being ripped apart. Sunset shielded her eyes, but she could still see it. Streams of light poured from the body of the dark alicorn, flowing, twisting, pulsing around them all. She felt a wave of undiluted magic pour over her like a tidal wave would a grain of sand. Sunset would have cried out if she could, yet she drowned in the unleashed magic. It overwhelmed her. It flowed into her, through her eyes, her nose, her mouth. Through her wounds and through her very skin. Through her very soul.
It was as if the sun had gone supernova and she’d been standing beside it.
Her magic ignited like it had never ignited before… but still, she knew there was nothing she could do to shield herself. She could not save herself from being ripped apart by the raw energies of creation itself.
Then there was something in front of her. Something that screamed in defiance.
She opened her eyes to see Philomena, smirking that special smirk of hers as she took the brunt of the raw magical storm. She grew larger with each passing second, absorbing the power into herself as her eyes danced.
“Anypony ever tell you, Sunny?” Philomena trilled. “That you and your wife are more trouble than you’re worth?”
With a laugh, the phoenix turned to ash before her just as the magical maelstrom stopped.
Now, where once had been a dark and twisted alicorn calling herself Twilight Sparkle, now lay only a small lavendar unicorn, no more than three decades old.
So young...
To Sunset’s surprise… the unicorn was still breathing. There was no sign of the wound she should have sported in her chest.
The Flareblade lay beside her, clean and bright, the Suncrystal glowing softly in the broken room. To her right, the other Flareblade rocked from side to side, restored once more to its former glory.
Sunset looked down to see a small mound of familiar-looking ash and smiled faintly. Philomena had earned a rest and she would leave her dear companion to it. Nearby, her Twilight looked up, confused as another pile of ash lay before her. Faerana had saved Twilight just as Philomena had saved Sunset. But more importantly… Twilight was whole once more. Her horn had been restored. There wasn’t even a single scar from Dark Twilight’s horrific acts.
Immediately, Sunset leapt to her hooves—not even taking time to marvel at the healing the magic had provided her—and rushed to catch Twilight in her forelegs. Twilight sobbed for joy as the Princess of the Dawn and the Princess of the Dusk were reunited once more. They stayed like that for a long time.
“Sunny…” Twilight whispered as she gently pulled away and pointed upwards through the broken ceiling.
Sunset followed her hoof and smiled. Her horn glowed as she felt the time come. Twilight’s horn did the same.
The brilliant moon set as dawn broke over the world and into the sky filled with stars.
As the stars shone in the crisp blue sky, once more flooding the world with renewed magic, the unicorn named Twilight Sparkle stepped off the royal skychariot and onto the springy grass. Sunset and Twilight joined her, breathing the heady scent of a world alive.
Three sunrises had graced the eastern horizon since that dark night. The one thing Sunset was most delighted of—aside from the restoration of her wife—was their kingdom had fared far better than they had feared. While panic had gripped their citizens, the two Princesses had chosen their subordinates well. Raven’s wisdom and the provincial leaders had calmed the populace of their lands. Little lasting harm would come from the night the stars had nearly died, save for nightmares.
And those would fade in time.
It had been Twilight who had decided to grant her unicorn counterpart a single boon. Not for her acts—for they indeed had been terrible—but out of compassion. Yet another reason why Sunset adored the alicorn who had agreed to share her life with her.
The other Twilight hadn’t hesitated. She had asked for a single thing.
There had been no reason to refuse it.
With a nod from Sunset, the Royal Guards departed. Philomena and Faerana both gave little waves with their wings, each of them still recovering after renewing their Cycles. They hadn’t been pleased, being asked to stay behind, but they did as requested. For once.
The unicorn didn’t even notice. She just shuffled her hooves against the dew-sprinkled grass. The Princess of the Dawn and the Princess of the Dusk flanked her on either side. The unicorn wore no chains. None were needed. Only a small ring around her horn prevented her from wielding her magic.
The unicorn Twilight was thin, haggard and worn. Her head was bowed and her shoulders slumped.
Sunset had never seen a more beaten-looking pony in all her long years.
The grassy field was simple and quiet. There were a few scorch marks in the ground. And in the very center of the clearing lay a small withered statue of a pony, lying on her side.
The unicorn didn’t rush up to the statue. She plodded along slowly toward the figure, as if she were walking to her own execution. In a way… it was an apt analogy.
Save for one detail.
This Twilight Sparkle had already died.
She died when she and her marefriend—a unicorn who shared a name with the Princess of the Dawn—had pursued a monster known as Tirek into this world. She died when she was forced to watch Tirek drain Sunset of every bit of magic… consuming even the very magic of life until there was nothing left but a cold stone statue.
Tirek was now beyond their reach. Justice for him would have to come at the hooves of another. The Emergence would be over in hours and once again, their world would be safe from interference for another century.
And this young Twilight would be stuck here for the rest of her days with only memories of pain and horror.
The unicorn fell beside the body of the pony she’d loved. She didn’t cry. She stared at her face and gently stroked a hardened cheek.
Twilight sidled up to Sunset and Sunset wrapped a wing around her.
“It’s not fair,” Twilight murmured to her wife. “It’s not fair for her. To see us together like this… while hers is nothing more than a stone husk.”
Sunset nodded. There wasn’t much to add. It wasn’t fair.
Twilight gently pulled Sunset away from the grieving unicorn until they were out of earshot, but still within sight. Even then, Sunset doubted the other Twilight noticed.
“Can we do nothing for her?” Twilight whispered.
Sunset felt the Sun itself swell in her heart at the earnest words of her beloved.
“You would have her companion restored, despite what that unicorn did to our world… our people... to you?” Wonder tinged every word Sunset uttered. “We have cleansed her of the taint of that wicked beast’s hunger. That is a gift in and of itself, my love.”
Twilight turned to look at the unicorn. She now lay beside the statue, as still as her counterpart, as if simply waiting for the end to come upon her.
“I…” Twilight licked her lips and took a great breath. “Sunset… if something were to happen to you… if I had been forced to watch… I cannot say how I would act.”
“You would not attempt to destroy an entire world for a moment’s vengeance, Twilight.”
“Maybe… maybe not.” Twilight’s shoulders slumped and her silver regalia seemed to dim. Even the stars in her mane faded as she pondered. “But grief can drive a pony to madness, Sunset. We both know this. I know what you unleashed upon her forces three moons ago. Even now, I can still see it in your eyes, seeking escape… eager to burn.”
Sunset was unable to meet her wife’s gaze. “There is truth in what you say. Wisdom in your words. But to simply pardon her… to forgive her… I do not know if I have that capacity. We were lucky, my dear. So many could have died. If we had not insisted all those years ago that measures be taken to counter arcane failures…”
Twilight lifted a silver-shod hoof to Sunset’s muzzle. “But we did. The Sunmother choose you for a reason, my love. Never forget that. She saw wisdom in you.”
“You are far more wise than I shall ever be,” Sunset replied.
“That is a given,” Twilight said with a twinkle in her eye. “So perhaps you will listen when I ask you to trust me in this. I, more than any, have been wronged by her. She took my stars and my moon. She nearly took my life. Is it not my right to determine her fate?
Sunset was no stranger to battle. She knew when to press an attack, and when to yield.
“What would you have us do then?”
“Restore her beloved.”
Sunset nodded. “I suspected as much, my love. It will require much from her though.”
“She will do it,” Twilight said. “For I know I would, without hesitation.”
“We shall see.”
The two alicorns stepped over to the two prone unicorns, one of flesh and one of stone.
“Twilight Sparkle,” Princess Twilight proclaimed. “After deliberation, We have decided what is to be done with you.”
The unicorn didn’t respond. She just nodded. Her hooves never left the side of the statue beside her.
“It is the judgement of the Princess of the Dusk and the Princess of the Dawn that you are to be exiled from these lands. However, as We have seen what you are capable of alone, you require a keeper. One to watch over you, lest you fall to temptation and seek to recover the spellcraft We have removed from you.”
“Why not just kill me?” the unicorn Twilight asked in an empty voice. “This land and all within it would have been consumed by the void had you not stopped me.”
“Yes, it would have,” Sunset intoned. “That is something you shall live with for the rest of your days. But the dead cannot learn. The dead cannot grow. And the dead… the dead cannot love.”
Finally, two violet eyes looked up at the two Princesses.
Sunset took up position near the head of the stone statue, while Twilight took position near the tail. They took flight in unison and called upon their celestial charges. Both were eager and willing, as a puppy might be upon its master’s return. Shafts of sunlight bathed Sunset while even in the light of day, starlight swirled around Twilight.
For nearly five minutes, they gathered the power required. The sky never denied them. Never refused. They trusted their Princesses, as the Princesses trusted their sky.
“May the light from which all Life blooms restore through the power of the Dawn,” Sunset called, bringing forth the ancient spell.
“May the light from which all magic flows restore through the power of the Dusk,” Twilight called, completing the next portion of the spell.
They both closed their eyes and gently pushed themselves toward one another. As always, each knew exactly where the other was.
And so, they gently touched horns.
Through the vision of the Pact, Sunset could see the result, as she knew Twilight could as well. A beam of light, twisting and swirling with both the power of the sun and stars pierced the heavens. It was so pure and holy that it would make the greatest of prophets fall to the ground and weep. It engulfed the stone unicorn at their hooves.
“Twilight Sparkle,” the Princess of the Dusk called. “You took much from others to gain revenge against the one who stole your beloved. Now, We ask of you… are you willing to give of yourself to restore her?”
Sunset’s eyes opened even in the near-blinding stream of holy radiance.
The unicorn’s eyes were wide despite the brilliance about her. She shook with fear or disbelief. Perhaps both.
With a scream of desperation, she cried, “Yes! Anything! Please!”
Sunset smiled and removed the ring blocking the unicorn’s magic.
In an instant, the young Twilight threw her entire self into the great and intricate spell. Her magic was raw and unfocused, but Sunset and Twilight were used to working with such things. It was but a matter of moments to weave it into the holy power of the combined sun and stars. Rainbow light swirled around them all as the two alicorns allowed the ancient power of Harmony to come forth.
It felt so wonderful to have the magic of life at their command once more.
And so it was that Princess Twilight and Princess Sunset unleashed the very essence of creation itself into the stone unicorn once known as Sunset Shimmer.
A blinding flash of light. A joyous cry of song. A tinkle of moon dust. These things and a thousand more. A moment in time, forever remembered by the three who poured their very souls into the spell.
Mere seconds later, a fourth mind ignited in the fires of friendship, compassion and love.
Twilight and Sunset burst with light.
And then… all was still. The sounds and colors and lights and majesty of their act faded away, leaving little more than a few twisted blades of grass… and a single amber unicorn who was now very much alive.
The unicorn known as Twilight Sparkle threw herself into the hooves of the unicorn known as Sunset Shimmer. Both sobbed and kissed, clutching at each other as if they had no intention of ever letting go.
With a flap of her great wings, Sunset moved up beside Twilight and nuzzled her.
“You were always the better of the two of us, my love.”
“We are better together,” Twilight corrected. “We are always better together. No matter the form.”
Sunset nodded slowly as the two unicorns beneath them laughed and cried in equal measure.
Then she felt it. A surge of power. Of pure magic washing through the world from somewhere far away. Something different. Something unique. It felt like the ancient Harmony power, yet with more love, kindness and friendship than Sunset thought possible. Twilight perked up. She had felt it as well. Even the two unicorns beneath them stopped to look around.
With the sound of arcane winds through crystal, something appeared in the field.
A swirling portal of amber and violet magic.
For a moment, Sunset believed she spied a smiling figure in angelic blue, but the vision was gone in an eyeblink. When she looked once more, only a field of green grass spotted with orange poppies lay beyond the gateway.
Sunset wasn’t sure how she knew, but she knew.
“Their home,” Twilight whispered.
“Something great has happened.” Sunset nodded. “I know not what…”
The two unicorns were staring at the portal. They knew the truth as well.
“My dear… you did sentence them to exile. I confess I cannot think of a more appropriate exile than to send them beyond the divide of worlds.”
Twilight hummed beside her. “You may have a point, my love.”
With that, the two alicorns descended so the two unicorns stood between them and the portal.
“Twilight Sparkle,” the Princess of the Dusk intoned once more, though she could not hold the smile from her lips this time. “We have granted you a boon beyond your request and now would hold you to the rest of your sentence. You are hereby exiled from these lands. In our wisdom, We have decreed the land beyond that gateway is where you are to be.”
The lavender unicorn turned away from the portal and gaped at the two of them, unable to form words. The amber one looked as well and jumped back in fright. Sunset chuckled at her antics.
So very young indeed…
“There is one further condition,” Sunset added with a tiny smile. “We charge Sunset Shimmer to act in accordance with the ideals of Harmony and Love and to assist Twilight Sparkle endure the future, knowing her past. To be at her side whenever she has need and for Twilight Sparkle to do the same unto Sunset Shimmer.”
“We can go home?” the other Twilight asked in a voice that would not have startled a mouse.
“If that happens to be where your home is, young one,” Sunset said in her best attempt at a grave voice—though she was no more successful from keeping the smile from her muzzle than Twilight. “Then so be it. That is not Our concern.”
The unicorn Twilight stared at the two of them. Her expression was impossible to read. Too many emotions flowed across her face. Finally, it ended with tears and a smile.
“Thank you…” she whispered.
Sunset and Twilight dropped the pretense, unable to stop a hint of weeping themselves.
Sunset smiled. “Go with our blessing.”
“And may the Sunmother watch over you both,” Twilight whispered. “Always.”
The other Sunset looked at them with bewilderment, but allowed her Twilight to pull her toward the portal. A moment later, they were through. Sunset caught sight of other ponies rushing to meet them, but before she could get a clear look, the portal shimmered out of existence.
Time passed as the two gazed at the spot where the portal had been.
“I have been thinking, my dear,” Sunset said as her Sun continued its journey across the star-speckled heavens. “Do you recall my words about a Princess never being off-duty?”
“I do, indeed.”
“I am reconsidering. I think it would do Raven well to spend further time as Regent.”
“Is that so?” Twilight quipped. “And then what would the Princess of the Dawn and the Princess of the Dusk do in such an eventuality?”
Sunset smirked. “Whatever we wished. Indeed… perhaps now is a good time to discover just what possibilities exist in being ‘off-duty.’ Would you not agree?”
Twilight’s blush turned the sky just the faintest hint of pink. Or maybe it was Sunset’s blush.
Either way… it didn’t matter.
And then it was just them, two eternal alicorns alone in the grassy field below their blue sky full of stars.
