Bringing magic back had many perks and benefits. But not all of them benefit the greater good. Sunny is about to learn that the hard way.
Magic has been returned to Equestria, but this is not good or bad, it’s both. Sunny and her friends must start a new journey, making new friends and new enemies. Through this journey Sunny must also face her biggest challenges yet, including.. being the newest alicorn princess.
(By the way all of this is from my alternate universe from G4 all the way to G5 and my next story will be a prequel to this one explaining what Twilight and her friends went through BEFORE all this happened. By the way, at some points this story gets pretty dark. Title is My Little Pony: Friendship is Eternal.)
“I still can’t believe it’s been weeks since magic was brought back,” said Sunny, who was standing in front of her newly repaired lighthouse next to her friends. She turns to them before continuing “it feels like it was just yesterday, doesn’t it?”
“I mean.. I guess. For me, I kinda have mixed feelings about it but it’s whatever.” said Zipp, earning a sigh from her sister.
“Well I don’t know about the rest of you but after these past few weeks, I need some proper rest,” she said before turning to leave and head back to Zephyr Heights. “We still on for tomorrow?” she asked the question both her and her sister were wondering, to which she earned a nod from each of their friends.
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Said Hitch, to which the bright, joyful unicorn beside him agreed.
“Neither would I!” Shouted Izzy before bouncing off towards the direction of Bridlewood. Before she left, she waved goodbye to all her friends who waved back and wished her a safe trip back home. After that, she disappeared behind the hill and the others said goodbye to each other and all went home. Sunny, after closing the door, readjusted the picture of her and her dad when she was little and stared at it for a bit, reminiscing on the good times she had with him, smiling.
“We did it dad.. all three pony kinds are getting along again.. they’re all united, just like we wanted.. we did our part.. hoof to heart.” said Sunny, the sadness evident in her voice as well as the joy that she was able to fulfill their promise. She looked around her lighthouse, glad to see it back to the way it was before.
She let out a yawn, having gotten very little sleep lately, she decided it was best if she went to sleep early. She went to her room, disabled her magic, (That’s how I’m hoping her magic works, like it’s an on and off thing) climbed into bed, and slowly went to sleep. This prompted the strangest thing to occur. She had a dream about not only her dad, but also one of the ponies from ancient Equestria who was also a guardian of friendship, Princess Twilight Sparkle. It started out peaceful, that was until she told Twilight what she managed to do. That was when things started getting scary. Twilight’s smile slowly shifted into a scowl and that made Sunny confused and nervous.
“W-What’s wrong? I brought friendship and magic back to Equestria. I thought you would be happy.” said Sunny, which turned out to be a mistake because when she did, everything went dark and she couldn’t see Twilight or her father anymore. She did see a light coming from behind her but when she turned around, it was Twilight but her eyes were glowing and she looked terrifying and her voice sounded even more so.
“That magic was NOT yours to give!” shouted Twilight, making Sunny cower in fear of the furious alicorn towering over her.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to upset you but if I didn’t bring back magic, who would’ve?!” Sunny shouted back, but that just made Twilight angrier. Seeming to have had enough, she blasted her magic at Sunny but right as it hit her, Sunny woke up, sweating and she could feel herself shaking, tears streaming down her cheeks. She got up and tried to calm down though the storm that had started outside while she was sleeping wasn’t helping in the least. She had always hated storms but something felt different about this one, like it was being caused by some sort of powerful magic.
She looked outside and saw rain, lightning strikes every few seconds, and… shadows that the lightning strikes help her see. They look like pegasi but when she looks again, she sees that one of them has a horn. Another lightning strike forces her to blink and when she opens her eyes, lightning is striking in front of the lighthouse and two ponies, who she guesses to be the shadows she saw in the clouds. Walk out of it.. completely unharmed. Sunny looks shocked and she puts on an orange hoodie and boots and hesitantly walks outside, readying her magic.
“Ummm who are you two?” Sunny asks. As she observes them she sees their colors and the one without a horn is a huge male pegaus with a grey coat and a long, white mane, the lightning mostly coming off of him and he has blue eyes. The other one is a female alicorn with a yellow coat and a red mane and green eyes. They both have their own armor that matches their colors and it looks kinda ancient which intrigues her.
“Sunny Starscout, all will be explained in do time, but right now all you need to know is that Equestria is in danger.. and we need your help to save it from the threat that is coming to destroy it.” says the female alicorn, earning a shocked look from Sunny.
”Not again.. not so soon.” Sunny thought. Once again Equestria was depending on her to save it but this time, possibly from far worse than itself. She invites the two inside for them to explain more and they follow her inside and she offers them something warm to drink and they accept and after she gives them their drinks. They explain and Sunny just sits across from them and listens.
“When you brought back magic and became an alicorn, you also brought back old foes and creatures and allowed new ones to be formed. The most dangerous one was trapped and asleep for thousands of years. She was the reason Equestria needed those crystals to keep magic for a while.. the reason Twilight Sparkle and her friends vanished.” said the female alicorn and that last part alone was enough to make Sunny freeze up completely. This was bigger than she thought. The same threat that's coming to destroy or take over Equestria caused the ponies she looked up to.. to disappear.
“Sooo does anypony have any idea why Sunny wanted us to get to the picnic so early?” Izzy asked her friends, and to her surprise and disappointment, they didn’t have a clue.
“Whatever it is,” Pipp yawned before continuing “I hope it’s important. I barely got any sleep, I kept having the same nightmare over and over again.” She said, earning shocked looks from her sister and her friends, which obviously confused her. “What?” She asked.
“Umm Pipp? Did your nightmare, by any chance, involve one of the old guardians of friendship first being happy, then becoming upset and yelling at you then attacking you?” Zipp asked, gaining a very shocked look from her little sister along with a shrug and a nod.
“Hitch and I had the same nightmare! He told me when we ran into each other.” Izzy said, to which Hitch agreed but then he looked confused and concerned.
“If all of US had that nightmare, do you think Sunny probably did too?” Hitch asked but no pony answered right away. After talking about it a bit more they just decide to ask Sunny when they meet up with her. A few more minutes later and they get to the spot for their picnic to find Sunny already there and looking eager to talk with them as she’s pacing.
Once they all reach her, they all share a quick group hug before cutting right into a conversation. “Guys, I hate to cut the hug short but I really need to introduce you to two new.. friends? I guess?” Sunny said, earning confused glances before Izzy asked the question that they were all thinking.
“Soooo where are they? Are they close-by?” she asked while looking around for the two ponies her friend wanted them to meet. She was always open to making new friends, it’s one thing all her friends admire about her, especially Sunny.
Before answering her questions, Sunny looked up after hearing a sound. “Oh here they come now.” she said, causing her friends to look up as well. Just as they did, a huge, grey male pegasus and a yellow female alicorn, both landed beside Sunny, startling all of them except her. They all back up a bit and looked shocked at the armor the two new ponies are wearing. His has lightning strikes in some places, including the chest and shoulders and hers has a green gem inside the chest plate and blades attached under her forearms.
“Whoooaaa.” said everypony besides Sunny, who was now wearing a nervous smile as she introduced them.
“Guys, meet Artemis,” she gestures to the alicorn then to the pegasus. “and Thunderbird.” she says then turns to the two intimidating ponies. “Artemis, Thunderbird, these are my friends, Izzy Moonbow,-” Sunny starts but before she can continue, Thunderbird interrupts her.
“Izzy Moonbow, Hitch Trailblazer, Zipp Storm, and Pipp Petals. We are well aware of who all of you are, everypony in Equestria is by now and one reason for that is because of a specific somepony's livestreams.” he says, and during that last part, he gestures to Pipp who smiles nervously, earning a sigh from him.
“Is that not a good thing?” Sunny asks curiously, earning another frustrated sigh from him. That was a good enough answer for her to work with. “Guess not..” she says, her ears dropping a bit.
“That’s not important right now, this is what you all need to know. There’s another alicorn on her way from her magical prison, she’s far stronger and more experienced than Sunny so she’ll need to be trained and ready to fight. You all will just in case.” said Artemis, earning uncomfortable looks from all of them, especially Izzy.
“Wait wait wait. FIGHT? Are you sure there isn’t some other way to deal with her and stop her from trying to take over Equestria?” she asked, her voice full of hope, hope that she nor her friends would have to hurt anyone to save Equestria. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case as both Artemis and Thunderbird both nodded, confirming that fighting her was the only way to protect their home and everypony else. Izzy frowned and lowered her ears, giving her the look of a kicked puppy. Sunny saw this and frowned herself but then managed to put a soft smile on her face as she stepped closer to her friend.
She used her hand to gently lift Izzy’s chin until her eyes met her own. “I know how you feel Izzy, and as much as I don’t like it either, if that’s what it takes to defend Equestria then we have to be ready to do our part.. but I can’t do this alone. So I can count on you to be by my side through this.. right?” Sunny asked while giving a soft, warm smile which always helped to put Izzy at ease or reassure her. After thinking about it, she gave a determined nod.
“Of course you can Sunny, you’ve been there for me ever since the first day we met and you’ve had my back ever since then, it’s time for me to have yours. I’ll be there for you, we all will.” Izzy said to which all her friends agreed and at the same time, she and Sunny both said the same thing they told each other the first day they met and started their journey.
“I'm lookin' out for you” they both said, earning smiles from each other and all their friends and secret smirks from Pipp and Artemis. This happy moment didn’t last long as Thunderbird just HAD to interrupt.
“Hate to break up the love fest, but if you two are done, can we hurry up and go now?” he asked before turning around and readying his magic.
“Uhhh sorry if I sound stupid buuut.. where ARE we going?” Sunny asked the same question that she and all her friends were thinking. They became a bit unsettled when they saw a smirk on Thunderbird’s face before he raised a hand into the air, calling lightning down on them and making the Mane 5 all flinch and cling to each other. When they open their eyes, they realize they’re not dead but they are in a different location. Statues in front of pillars, multiple doors that lead to different rooms and multiple flights of stairs, some visibly going all the way up which was VERY high up. Not only that but there were different types of ponies from all races everywhere.
They all had armor of their own and there were even robotic sentries walking with them, keeping guard and even assisting those who needed it. There was advanced technology almost everywhere. Seeing all this, Sunny and her friends all went wide eyed and slack jawed. “Welcome to our headquarters. This is where we find different types of problems, from friendship problems to rampaging creatures causing trouble to evil villains who wanna take over Equestria. Sunny.. you and your friends are standing in the middle of one of the best kept secrets in Equestrian history.” Artemis said as she and Thunderbird led them through the base and Sunny saw something that caught her eye- a statue, but not just any statue.. it was a statue of Twilight Sparkle’s cutie mark.
She went to it and examined it, amazed by how accurate and cool it looked. Artemis chuckles after seeing Sunny's reaction and walked over to her. “Twilight Sparkle was one of the best things to ever happen to Equestria.. whenever we could, we’ve been trying to figure out what REALLY happened to her and her friends after their final mission to trap the same alicorn you’re going to be fighting.. were she still here, it would’ve been her job to stop that monster from ever achieving her goal.. but now.. it’s yours.” she said which earned a nervous look from Sunny before it switched to a determined one.
“I’m prepared to do whatever it takes.” she said but Artemis just shook her head, earning a confused look from Sunny.
“You’re not yet prepared Sunny.. you’re SCARED, but don’t worry, after I’m done explaining, we are going to train that fear out of you. Oh and I should warn you, I might hold back buuut Thunderbird isn’t quite as.. knowledgeable of NOT breaking his students sooo.. I hope you’re ready to never be able to relax your muscles again.” Artemis said, earning a shocked and scared look from Sunny as she walked off and rejoined the others, leaving Sunny to think and start to regret her choice.
“Oh boy.. this is gonna be a LONG adventure..” she said, rubbing her temples before rejoining the others on the tour. Little did she know, it was actually going to be worse than that.. way worse.
Sunny Starscout.. was scared. Actually not even scared, she was terrified. Since she first met Artemis and Thunderbird, she was actually kind of excited just to be on another journey with her friends by her side. Now.. now the two new ponies seemed very very intimidating. It was almost training time but Sunny realized that Artemis was still explaining so she decided to listen.
“Before Twilight started her last plan, she told me and a few others to look after Equestria while she was gone. Those few didn’t make it.. I figured out how to turn myself into an alicorn just in time.. a few years later I met Thunderbird and he told me he wanted to make a difference just like she did.. I knew I couldn’t turn him into an alicorn but turns out I didn’t need to, he was made immortal by the same magic that gave him power over lightning. Together we made.. all this and with it and the ponies who want to make a difference in Equestria for the better, we continue to uphold Twilight’s legacy as the 'Wings of Equestria'.. but then magic disappeared and Thunderbird and I were on the brink of death.. but then you brought magic back and the crystals chose to make you an alicorn in exchange.. TWILIGHT'S magic chose you Sunny.” Artemis explained, gaining shocked looks from everypony. This was a lot to take in, especially finding out that it was Twilight herself who made the crystals.. by sacrificing herself to save Equestria one last time.
This also just encouraged Sunny to wanna be like her more. Her respect and admiration for Twilight had gone up ten times more than it already was (If that was even possible). Then it hit her and she slowly looked up at Artemis and Thunderbird. “Wait so.. that means..” she hesitantly started to ask until she felt Artemis touch her shoulder.
“You and your friends.. are the new guardians of friendship.” she continued for her and Sunny nearly fainted. Her entire life, she had wanted to be just like Twilight and her friends.. then she actually gained friends from all three pony kinds. Now they were all just like them and it was their responsibility to protect Equestria.. just like they would’ve done.
“Ok, now that that’s all cleared out,” Artemis started before walking to Thunderbird then turning around to face the young alicorn and her friends. “who would like to train against Thunderbird first?” she asked and everypony instantly went stiff and Sunny was shocked to find that her friends were pointing.. at her. Her blood instantly ran cold and she started to whistle and walk off. That was until Thunderbird grabbed her tail. “Looks like you’re up first Starscout.” he said before dragging her along with him.
Everypony followed until they ended up outside. They were right by a waterfall and suddenly the speed of the water decreased until it got so weak that the water lowered to the point where even a toddler could stand in it and be fine. Thunderbird took off his armor and switched into a training outfit then gave Sunny one that matched her colors and she teleported it unto herself and they both walked to the middle. “The goal here is to not get knocked off and don’t tap out. Whoever either of those happens to first loses.” Thunderbird explained and Sunny nodded before they both got into their own fighting stances, Sunny pretty much just doing whatever comes to mind, her fists raised in front of her and one foot in front of the other.
Suddenly Thunderbird charged at her and she jumped over him but he kicks back and ends up almost knocking her off the waterfall already. She grabs onto the ground below the surface of the water, trying her best not to fall off. She manages to stop but Thunderbird is already on her again as he swings at her but she knocks his punch to the side and returns it with a kick which ends up knocking him back a bit. “Very good.. for a newbie.” he says before charging at her again and she runs at him and slides under his legs, getting past him and getting a fair distance away from the edge and she kicks water at him to distract him and it gets in his eyes and she takes the chance to jump at him and punch him but he recovers quickly and retaliates with his own punch right to the gut, sending Sunny flying back and gasping for air while holding her stomach.
“O-Ok I think that’s enough. I don’t know how much more she can take.” Hitch says, hoping to appeal to Artemis, but she just holds up one finger.
“Just give her a second, she’s got this.” She says as Sunny starts to get up and quickly dodges a kick from Thunderbird but then gets hit with a punch. Then another one. Then another one until finally she gets fed up and catches one of his punches. This surprises even him but what’s even more surprising is when she looks up, her eyes, specifically her irises, are glowing a golden yellow just like her magic. That’s what REALLY shocks everypony and she throws an uppercut which sends Thunderbird flying into the air from the power that was packed into it.
Sunny just waits for him to land before going to him, stepping on his chest and then punching him repeatedly. Yep, she was definitely pissed off. He tries catching one of her punches and manages to but it doesn’t stop her punch and he still gets hit so he hits her leg when she’s about to punch him again, making her fall then punches her off. They both get up and glare at each other for a while.. until Sunny charges at him and jumps at him but he ducks under her, waits till her stomach is directly over him then punches her in it and she goes tumbling off the waterfall. Her friends start to panic until she flys back up and lands, falling to her hands and knees.
Artemis helps her up and Thunderbird walks over to her. “You’ve got potential Sunny, that’ll only get you so far though.. but anyway, good practice.” he says before patting her shoulder and walking off. Sunny smiles a bit and Izzy huffs then helps Hitch carry her while they all follow Artemis to where they'll be sleeping during their training days. After Sunny and her friends get comfortable, she dries off then lays down, still a little sore.
“Well.. THIS wasn’t what I was expecting.. at all.” Sunny said drowsily, exhausted from the training.
“You can say that again, I still think you did a good job against him though.” Pipp said, who was brushing her mane in the bathroom connected to the huge bedroom.
“We all do, I just have one question.. your eyes.. what was going on with that?” Zipp asked before sitting down next to Hitch and Izzy who were both sitting in front of Sunny.
“I.. I don’t know, I just got so frustrated, almost angry and I felt.. stronger. It felt like all my magic had reached the highest level it can get to.. probably not even the highest and just.. halfway.” Sunny said, sounding confused and a bit scared and when Izzy heard this, she went up to her friend and embraced her in a warm, tight hug.
“We’ll figure all that out together Sunny, just.. not tonight but soon ok? Promise. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Izzy said while doing the motions of the childish promise. Sunny smiled and nodded, trusting Izzy and the rest of her friends with her life. Sure the journey ahead might be a long and scary one, but she knows that with the help of her friends, she can do anything she puts her mind to, after all, the magic of friendship never failed.
Somewhere in Equestria
The forest was quiet tonight, everything was peaceful.. until a portal with a bunch of dark energy opened and shook the trees and the ground, corrupting both and causing a storm. Shadows started scattering across the ground, coming out of the portal, purple magic lightning coming off of it. Slowly an alicorn with a black coat, purple glowing eyes, a flowing mane and tail as black as night starts coming out of it. She had damaged ancient armor on and as she walked out of the portal, the armor slowly started collapsing off her and she slowly flew up into the night sky, thirsty for revenge.. and new alicorn magic.
She suddenly yelled, using the old 'royal canterlot voice'. “EQUESTRIA!! YOUR RIGHTFUL QUEEN HAS RETURNED!!!” she yells, enjoying being free once again. So much for her to destroy, so little time. “Now where is this.. Sunny Starscout.. and when will her magic finally belong.. to ME.” she says, smiling evilly, planning to make Sunny's life a living nightmare.. and when she was done.. Twilight Sparkle’s legacy.. would be no more.
So far things have been going pretty well. The training was working very fast, Sunny was stronger and faster now. She was even way better at fighting and using her magic, so much better that she even beat Thunderbird once. He was kinda upset about losing to someone who's three times smaller than him. He eventually got over it, or at least that’s what he says but hey, can’t win 'em all right? Meanwhile, unknown to any of them, the other alicorn was causing trouble, summoning members of her old organization and destroying villages and her next target was Maretime Bay.
One reason for that was because she sensed a bunch of old magical artifacts there and she began to wonder why they would be in a city full of earth ponies. Of all types of ponies, she figured they would be the worst species to protect them. This meant that she didn’t really need to put up a fight to take them, she could just sneak in.. but where was the fun in that? She wanted a fight, not because she was preparing herself to fight Sunny, but because she just wanted ponies to dominate and enslave. She knew Sunny wasn’t in Maretime Bay at the time. She had asked ponies where she was and they said that she would be there but an anonymous source posted a video of two ponies she recognized teleporting her and her friends to who knows where and one pony she interrogated showed it to her.
As she and her organization made their way towards Maretime Bay on the airship that she herself created, she began to strategize about how to strike and how to find the artifacts. Then she thought that she was just overthinking it and it would be easy. As she gazed upon Maretime Bay, she was amazed at how far earth ponies had come.. it surprised and intrigued her, but it also disappointed her.. partially because she had to destroy it all.. but that was the weakness in her talking. The part of her that actually used to admire Twilight. She commanded for the gunners of the airship to fire at the town and ordered the strike team to go down and search for the artifacts.
They obeyed and Maretime Bay was officially under attack, ponies everywhere screaming and running for cover. Then suddenly robotic sentries and small mech suits were deployed and started firing back. They had the Canterlogic logo on them. The airship took some damage and the alicorn decided to go down there herself. With that being said, she jumped out and landed hard, cracking the ground beneath her and causing a shockwave that reached everything within a two mile radius. This shockwave also contained a spell that was meant to take out the power in that area and all the sentries and mech suits shut down.
As her minions continued to attack the town, now making their way towards Canterlogic, her sights became set on the lighthouse that was on the cliff. She sensed the artifacts there and a familiar one caught her eye.. Grogar's bell. She smiled evilly, making her way towards the lighthouse. “For such intelligent earth ponies, you sure are terrible at hiding powerful ancient artifacts that were used for evil.” she said as she continued to walk to the lighthouse. With any one of those artifacts, she could easily destroy Maretime Bay or brainwash everyone in it.. which is what she planned to do.
Back with Sunny and the others
Everything was going great. Given a day off, the Mane 5 took advantage and decided to have as much fun as possible. Pipp was live-streaming with Zipp and Hitch and Sunny and Izzy were relaxing by the pool.. or at least Sunny was. Izzy was actually swimming in it, obviously having a good time. Sunny giggled when Izzy came up for air and shook her hair out, splashing Sunny in the process. “Come on in Sunny, the water's fine!” Izzy urged her friend and Sunny giggled again and considered it. Before she could agree to get in the water she started to feel.. funny. Not in a good way but in a bad way.. she felt like something was wrong. She stood up but swayed a bit as she felt dizzy from this feeling. “Whoa, you ok Sunny? You don’t look so good.” Izzy said, noticing the change in behavior from her friend.
“I don’t know.. I just have this weird feeling like.. something’s wrong. I feel kinda.. sick.” Sunny said, leaning against a wall to steady herself and Izzy followed, putting a palm against her friend's forehead. To her surprise and confusion, Sunny's temperature was fine. She was about to tell Sunny that she doesn’t have a fever but it could be something else but before she could, Artemis and Thunderbird ran past them all in a hurry for some reason and Sunny decided to follow them.. which prompted her friends to follow her.
“What’s going on?” Sunny asked, getting no answer for a bit until Artemis stopped and turned to look at her, a hesitant look on her face.
“She’s made it to Maretime Bay.. which is now under attack.” she said, earning shocked and worried looks from the five young ponies. “Thunderbird and I are going there to hopefully get her to back off. By force if we have to- which we most likely will.”
“We want to go too! It’s my town to protect after all!” Hitch said, displeased with how the two decided to leave them out of it at first.
“None of you are ready, if she saw any of you, especially YOU Sunny, she would be on you like an angry mob on the thing that pisses them off more than anything!” she yells, flaring her wings and causing everypony to back up. She sighs and looks at Sunny “Please just trust us.. and let us handle this. Please?” she asks her, a pleading look on her face. To Sunny this showed how much she cared and didn’t want any of them to get hurt.. so she nodded. With that, Artemis and Thunderbird leave, grabbing their armor and weapons. Once they were gone, that’s when everypony started questioning Sunny's choice.
“Sunny, you can’t be serious! That’s our home, we should be there protecting it!” Hitch yelled. To everpony's surprise, Sunny yelled back.
“Don’t you think I know that?! I know it’s our home but.. what if she’s right? Maybe we shouldn’t get in the way..” Sunny says, but then the strangest thing happens. She winks at them, obviously planning something. After a bit more “arguing” they all decided to just drop it and walk off. A camera was monitoring the room which is why Sunny had to improvise, she was the only one who noticed it. After they were in a secure location, she and Izzy put an invisibility spell on everypony including themselves and they all snuck around, following Sunny who was leading them to things they’ll need for their first real battle- armor and weapons. After they each got their own, Izzy and Sunny combined their magic to teleport everypony to Maretime Bay.
Everything. Was. Chaos. So much destruction, so many casualties.. it hurt Hitch and Sunny’s hearts to see their home like this.. it wasn’t supposed to be this way. Sunny grew a determined look and went to help somepony who was trapped under debris. She easily lifted it off them and threw it to the side. She used a healing spell on them and they thanked her, her friends all did the same, going around and helping ponies in need while taking down the alicorn's minions. Sunny looked towards her lighthouse and saw that it was damaged.. and was continuing to suffer damage and suddenly Artemis and Thunderbird crashed through the door, tumbling down the hill a bit and the other alicorn walked out, holding Grogar's bell and the alicorn amulet which were both glowing.
She laughed evilly as she walked over to the two downed ponies. “It is SO good to be back! I haven’t had this much fun in ages!” she yells, laughing again. Sunny glares and suddenly takes off flying to her lighthouse and lands in front of her. She looks down at the young alicorn as soon as she lands, unimpressed. “So you’re the earth pony that changed the world and became an alicorn in return.. I don’t see the appeal.” she says.
“And I don’t see why you would go out of your way to hurt innocent ponies! To hurt children!! It’s me you want isn’t it?” Sunny asks, surprisingly earning a shake of the head from the alicorn who slowly walked closer to her, making her back up.
“It’s not you I want dear girl.” she said in a surprisingly warm and soft voice.. before suddenly grabbing Sunny by her throat, her tone harsh and cruel again. “I want your magic. And once I take it, I will take my revenge on this pathetic world. Every creature in it will feel my wrath.. starting. With. You.”
“I don’t.. even know your name.. and you hate me so much.” Sunny struggles to say, choking from the grip on her throat.
“Oh where are my manners? You can call me Midnight Starkiller.. and this stallion right here,” she says as she teleports a picture of Sunny's dad into her hand and holds it into her face. “Your father? He was killed by me.. and our two friends here knew about it.” she continues while gesturing to Artemis and Thunderbird who are just now waking up. Sunny didn’t know what to say, what to think, or if this was even true.. but she felt her heart break into a million pieces. The picture in front of her started to burn and she looked horrified. Suddenly she was thrown onto the ground and her chest was stomped on, the alicorn having a powerful magic blast aimed at her face. “AND NOW IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO SHARE HIS FATE!!”
Sunny stared wide-eyed, both terrified and shocked. The same alicorn that caused magic to disappear along with her idols.. was responsible for the death of her father. Even worse, Artemis and Thunderbird, two ponies she trusted to teach her how to protect Equestria, possibly knew about it. This alicorn took her father away from her.. and now she was gonna take her away from her friends.
Or atleast she would’ve if Thunderbird hadn’t blasted her off her and proceeded to attack her while Artemis helped her up. Sunny reluctantly accepted her help and was about to attack Midnight but Artemis held her back. “Sunny, no, you’re needed elsewhere.” she said but Sunny didn’t listen. No, she did the exact opposite and to Artemis's surprise, Sunny yanked her arm away from Artemis's and slapped her hand away. When she turned, Artemis was surprised to see anger and sadness in her eyes.. but at the same time she wasn’t surprised.
“Now I see why you didn’t want me or the others to come.. you didn’t want me to find out the truth.. well now I know.” she said, the betrayal evident in her voice. She looked like she was close to breaking into tears and Artemis felt more regret than she ever had in her entire life. She was about to apologize but Sunny continued. “After this, you are gonna tell me everything you know and why you lied to me.”
Artemis hesitated at first but then nodded. “I will, I-I promise but please.. we’ll deal with her, but your friends are about to need your help! Look!” Artemis says as she points towards Canterlogic which has a bunch of villains attacking it and blowing parts of it up. This just angers Sunny more and she reluctantly takes off flying towards the building and starts attacking the villains and protecting Canterlogic. As she does, she looks for her friends, worried for their safety and the safety of Phyllis, the workers, and Sprout if he was even in there. She sees one about to throw a bomb through one of the windows and another about to kill a worker.
Sunny readies her magic and blasts the one attacking the worker and punches the one about to bomb the building, knocking him out instantly and she grabs the bomb and throws it at the airship. It takes a little damage but not enough to make it start to go down surprisingly. Sunny hears an explosion and hears all her friends scream and she instantly flys inside and searches for them frantically. “Guys?! Where are you?!” she calls out and for a while she gets no response and she calls out again. “Guys!! Can anypony hear me?!” she yells and this time she gets a response and hears Hitch's voice.
“Sunny! Is that you?! We’re down here!!” he says and Sunny follows the echo and ends up knocking down a metal door and seeing a giant hole that must’ve been caused by the bomb. She sees Hitch and Zipp and a few workers and goes down, her legs instantly becoming absorbed in water. “Oh thank goodness you’re ok. We need help getting these injured workers out of here safely.” he explains and Sunny nods and lifts them out of the hole then lifts Hitch and Zipp. She notices that her other two friends were nowhere to be found.
“Where are Pipp and Izzy? They were with you weren’t they?” Sunny asks and the two nod and Hitch explains that just as they were about to leave, a bomb was thrown in and the explosion separated them all. Sunny felt dread fill her and she instantly stood up and called out, hoping to get a response. “Izzy! Pipp! Where are you?!” she yelled but her friends shushed her and Zipp's ears twitched.
“I think I hear Pipp, she’s through-“ she tried to finish but Sunny instantly took off running, not even bothering to listen to the rest of what her friend had to say. “There..” Zipp finished, sighing. “Typical Sunny, right?” she asks Hitch who just sighs and shakes his head before chuckling after. Meanwhile, Sunny was on her own mission at this point, she knows that Pipp was heard but not Izzy and she was scared that her most joyful friend had been injured or.. no, she shouldn’t think like that. She wouldn’t. Izzy was fine, she was sure of it, she just had to confirm it.
She heard Pipp right before she passed a damaged door. She didn’t sound injured but she did sound scared and frantic. Sunny knocked down what was left of the door and found Pipp but one of her wings were trapped under debris and so were her legs. As soon as she saw Sunny, a look of relief formed on her face. “Sunny!” she said and she tried to move but she winced in pain. Sunny saw this and used her magic to lift the debris off her friend and heal her wing and legs. “Thanks. Is everypony else ok?” she asks and Sunny was about to nod but then she remembered that she hadn’t found her unicorn friend.
“Hitch and Zipp are, but I can’t find Izzy. Do you have any idea where she could be?” she asked hopefully and Pipp nodded.
“I saw her getting ready to help me but then some type of.. creatures with armor, wings, and.. scorpion tails? Yeah they showed up and I told her to run and she did.. I thought they would stay and finish me off- which I’m thankful they didn’t but they chased her instead!” she said, suddenly becoming worried. Sunny was about to run off but an explosion shook the building but it sounded and felt like it might’ve come from the factory underground.
Sunny told Pipp to go help Hitch and Zipp and to hurry before the building collapsed. After that she ran to the elevator that would take her down there and pressed the button. Once she got far down enough, she noticed that the factory was flooded but ponies were still fighting and she saw the creatures that Pipp was talking about and realized that they weren’t just random scary creatures.. they were pegasi in terrifying mechanical suits of armor. She ran out as soon as the doors opened and helped the worker ponies and the defense team but as she did, she noticed somepony struggling under the water and realized it was Izzy. She was trapped under debris.
She quickly rushed over and was about to help her but a harpoon went past her face and she got tackled by one of the armored pegasi, who instantly started trying to drown her. She tried pushing them off and managed to throw them back into a wall, hard enough to crack it which knocked them out. She noticed that Izzy wasn’t struggling anymore and got really scared, just as she was about to help her a blast hits the roof above her, causing debris and a bunch more water to come crashing down into the factory. Great. Now Sunny was trapped too. She looked at Izzy and noticed that she had gone limp and she began to panic even more. “No.. No! Izzy!!” she thought and tried her best to lift the debris off herself.
After she couldn’t because of the debris and the water crushing down on her, she decided that if she couldn’t save herself, she would at least save Izzy. She used what magical strength she had left to teleport Izzy outside to the rest of their friends. She slightly smiled, glad Izzy was safe.. well, as safe as possible, all things considered. As she started to pass out, she began to accept her fate. To her surprise though, one of the mechs that were left lifted the debris off her and picked her up. It was bigger than the others so it had room for her and the other ponies. After grabbing everypony, it flew out of the factory and made it outside before malfunctioning and crashing.
Sunny and everypony else were unharmed by the crash. Phyllis ran over to check on them all as the defense team helped the weakened alicorn climb down and she caught her and gently set her down before turning to everypony else. “Is everypony alright?!” she asked and to her relief, everypony nodded. Suddenly, the mechasuit's chest opened and to everyone’s shock, Sprout climbed out and swayed a bit as he did. “Sprout?!” Phyllis screamed in shock and worry before running to him and checking him for injuries.
“I’m fine mommy.. also sorry about the new mech.” he says, smiling sheepishly and Phyllis just hugs him, more relieved than anything else. Sunny smiled, both at the scene and how much Sprout just stepped up, before remembering Izzy and the rest of her friends and suddenly getting up and walking around weakly and looking for them. She saw them and became relieved but then worried again when she saw Izzy was still unconscious if not.. ya know. She rushed over and checked to see if she was breathing and to her horror, she wasn’t. She tried everything she knew between magic and CPR. Izzy still wouldn’t wake up or at least breathe.
“Nonononono.. Izzy please.. wake up.. wake up, breathe, do something!! Please..!!” Sunny yelled, hoping more than anything for her friend to give her a sign that she was still alive. “Please don’t do this.. I can’t lose you too.. I can’t..” Sunny continued, tears running down her cheeks. She sadly hugged Izzy's body close to her's not willing to give up on her.
To everypony's surprise and happiness, Izzy started coughing up water and Sunny helped her before hugging her tightly, overjoyed that she wouldn’t lose her best friend. Izzy hugged back and looked up at Sunny, smiling. “Don’t worry.. I’m not going anywhere.” she said weakly and Sunny smiled even more than she already was.. until she and everypony else heard a boom and looked up in the sky as they saw Midnight returning to her ship with both the artifacts and all the villains she had brought with her decided to do the same and after all of them did, the airship left.
“Till next time.. Sunny Starscout.” Sunny heard Midnight's voice say in her head. She grunted in frustration and shook her head aggressively.
Thunderbird and Artemis landed next to them, both injured and having regretful looks on their faces. Sunny helped Izzy up then glared at the two. “We know, we know.. we have a lot of explaining to do.. and answers will be given to you.. all of you,” Thunderbird said, looking around and after surveying the damage, Artemis continues for him.
“But first, we should get this place at least somewhat cleaned up and after that, we’ll explain everything.. deal?” she asked, looking hopefully at Sunny. Sunny disregarded the look but reluctantly nodded her head, and with that, everypony got to work, obviously annoyed at how much damage they have to fix.
Things in Maretime Bay were now somewhat better. The damage has been made manageable, Artemis and Thunderbird donated some of their own technology to help repair and improve what was destroyed or damaged that belonged to Canterlogic, and a lot of ponies from their organization came to help repair the buildings that were still standing, even Sunny’s lighthouse. Speaking of the young alicorn, she was absolutely peeved to say the least. She had calmed down a bit when they had first started rebuilding but her frustration grew overtime and at the same time, so did her hatred and anger. She tried not to let those emotions get the better of her because it would go against who she was. But this was driving her crazy.
She wanted answers. She needed answers, and she needed them now. Right now, she’s sitting on the edge of the cliff her lighthouse resides on, thinking. Because of her two “mentors” and their little secrets, she had almost lost her hometown, her house, and one of her best friends. When she thought the energetic unicorn hadn’t made it, she felt her heart drop and felt like she didn’t know what she would do if she lost Izzy. Possibly go after Midnight for revenge? Attack Artemis and Thunderbird? Those thoughts scared Sunny just as much as the thought of losing her friends. Said friends walk from behind her and sit next to her. She looks at them and smiles. “Hey guys..” she says half heartedly.
“Hey” they all say back and after that, a moment of silence followed and continued for a few minutes. “Soooo.. whatcha doing out here?” Izzy asked her, slightly concerned.
Sunny sighed and looked out to the horizon before answering. “Just clearing my head..” she said.
“Sunny.. what happened? We know what happened at Canterlogic but.. I feel like there’s something you’re not telling us.” Hitch said, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder, causing her to look at him then back at the ocean.
She sighs and puts her face in her hands, shaking her head slightly. “Artemis and Thunderbird have been lying to me.. to all of us. About my dad.. about Midnight.. she told me she was the reason he died! That she killed him! And they knew about it! I feel so betrayed..” she explains, gaining shocked looks from all her friends and a sorrowful and confused one from Hitch.
“Argyle.. so he was involved in whatever those two were doing.. and he didn’t tell you.. maybe he wanted to keep you safe and keep you away from whatever harm came with what he was doing?” Hitch asks and Sunny just shrugs and mutters a maybe.
Sunny suddenly feels Izzy lean into her shoulder and nuzzle her and she blushes but doesn’t know why, then she just nuzzles her back and smiles. “Thanks Izzy.. I needed that.” she says and Izzy smiles back.
“Anytime Sunny, whatever happens, we’ll figure everything out.. together.” she says and her tone is so soft and reassuring when she does that Sunny can’t help but feel at least a little better and agree with her. She nods and stands up and her friends do the same.
“You’re right.. together we can do anything and together we will stop Midnight and send her and the other villains back to where they came from.” she says, growing her signature determined look and all her friends agree.
“Okayyy just one question, how are we supposed to take out all of them?” Pipp asks, doubt evident in her voice but this earns a reassuring smile from her sister and a reassuring wing around her shoulders.
“One step at a time sis, one step at a time.” Zipp says and her sister smiles back. They all come together for a group hug and everything feels like it’s gonna be alright. That is until Artemis and Thunderbird land behind them and they all turn to face the two, glaring at them. Artemis sighs.
“I know you all have been waiting for answers so I’ll make this quick. Sunny, your father.. he was a hero.. he was one of us.. he did want earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns to be united and figured that what we were doing was the right way to do it.. but he didn’t realize all the risks and apparently.. neither did we.. before she was trapped, Midnight made clones of herself and Thunderbird and I hunted them all down.. except one..” she said with sadness creeping into her voice at that last part and it’s clear what happened. Thunderbird continued for her.
“Argyle thought he might’ve discovered what really happened to the Mane 6.. and possibly discovered a location of something that could free them from where they vanished to. But before he could confirm it.. Midnight's clone murdered him a day after he started his journey.. we destroyed the clone but by the time we got there Argyle was already on death’s doorstep.. before he died he made us promise.. not to tell you about anything he did.. but things changed when the crystals made you an alicorn.. and we decided that after you had a bit of time to try and get used to being one, we would tell you.” he explained and Sunny was distraught more than anything. Her father was so close to finding her lifelong heroes.. but Midnight, she.. she..
In that moment.. all Sunny felt was rage, sadness, and confusion. This time all her rage was directed.. at Midnight and her magic slightly got.. darker and started turning red. Before anyone could question what was going on with their friend, Sunny let out a scream of anger and sadness right before flying off and causing a shockwave that knocks everypony over. She was going after Midnight and no matter what anyone said or did, nothing would stop her.
Inside the airship's throne room
As Midnight continued to gaze at the two powerful ancient artifacts, she could feel herself gaining strength from them both, imagining all the things she could do with them. She would’ve used them to destroy Maretime Bay, but as well as her, they didn’t have enough strength after not being used for a thousand years but also like her, they were gaining strength with every second that goes by. Someday soon, she would be able to easily destroy a city three times bigger than Maretime Bay.
Her thoughts were interrupted when a boom was heard outside but it wasn’t thunder, it was the sound of an enraged alicorn breaking the sound barrier. She smirked and realize that Sunny must’ve learned the truth, that or she and her friends just decided to attack and steal the artifacts back. Either way she was going to enjoy this.. she killed the father, now it’s finally time to destroy the daughter. She stood up and levitated the artifacts over into her hands but then thought better of it. She wouldn’t need them to defeat Sunny.. probably, she teleported Grogar's bell to a safer place and looked at the alicorn amulet.. thinking about putting it on. She just sighs, knowing the risk but putting it on anyway.
Right after she does, Sunny bursts through the roof and lands, shaking the entire airship. Midnight is impressed but only mildly as she claps. “Very good, you’re learning, adapting, growing stronger. I’m almost hesitant about fighting you.” she says but Sunny doesn’t look amused in the slightest and she notices the outline of red around Sunny's magic and a knowing look grows on her face. “Ohhhh so you’ve come to fight. To avenge your dear old daddy, huh? Well come on then little Starscout.” she says, taunting Sunny. What she wasn’t expecting was for Sunny to teleport behind her and punch her, sending her flying outside the airship. Sunny flys out after her and continues to attack her, punching and blasting her nonstop. She was stronger than Midnight expected and more ruthless, she was punching Midnight so hard, she was actually starting to draw blood. Midnight catches one of her punches and quickly punches her back and that sends Sunny flying miles away, prompting her to follow.
Sunny tried to stop but was completely out of control, Midnight tackled her out of the air and they both crashed into a small village in a forest of ponies with.. stripes? Oh Sunny's heard of these, they’re called zebras. Sunny wasn’t concerned about that though, once they crashed, she and Midnight got separated, now she was looking around for her frantically as she was getting up. “Come out Midnight! Show yourself!” she shouted, walking around and not minding the zebras staring at her in confusion and fear. Suddenly she heard Midnight’s voice.
“Gaze upon me Equestria! For I am about to defeat the new alicorn meant to be your 'protector'!” she yells as she walks out of the darkness, a drone next to her, obviously planning to record the battle for all of Equestria to see and for everypony to either gain hope or lose it. Midnight charged at Sunny but Sunny stops her in her tracks and they clash, causing a shockwave that shakes the trees and the ground, also cracking it and causing the zebras to run away in fear. Sunny was starting to lose ground as Midnight was starting to push her back. She gets an idea and lets herself fall back, kicking Midnight over her in the process. She gets up and blasts her through a bunch of trees, making a pathway to her and Sunny follows it.
She sees Midnight getting up but stomps on her, forcing her to stay down. “You’re not going anywhere.. not until I get some answers!” Sunny declared and Midnight lets out a growl of frustration and relaxes. “All I wanna know is why.. WHY? Why did you kill my dad.. or why did you make your clone do it for you? All he wanted was to make things better for everypony, including the guardians.. did you even know he was gonna try and bring them back?” she asks and Midnight stared at her with wide eyes for a bit before bursting out into laughter, confusing Sunny.
“Of course I didn’t know about that!! And you think I was in control of my clone for that?! I just gave her a choice! She chose to end his life because he was with Artemis and Thunderbird. I only saw her kill him, I didn’t make her do it.” she said and Sunny realized her mistake but as soon as she started to soften up, it was too late. Midnight stabbed her in the leg and she screamed in pain before Midnight blasted her, grabbed her leg, and slammed her. After that, she threw Sunny into a house. Sunny tried to get up and blast her but Midnight grabbed her right arm and blasted her horn before grabbing both of Sunny’s hands and starting to push her down, trying to use her own magic to blast Sunny.
Both their magic started to combine and grow until it started becoming unstable and forming a giant magical overload that was slowly destroying houses, trees, anything that was caught in the explosion. When it was over Sunny slowly sat up and looked around and saw all the destruction they caused.. she saw one young zebra who looked to be her age, if not a year younger, crying over the fried bodies of her parents and Sunny frowned.. she did this.. all of this was her fault. She was the one who gave in to her anger and hate.. now a young female zebra and possibly many more.. have lost their families..
Suddenly Midnight pins Sunny down from behind and holds her up in her magic before slamming her around until she’s knocked out. “Instead of just taking your magic and killing you.. I have a better idea, why destroy Equestria myself.. when you can do it for me?” she says and she looks at the still crying young zebra who looks at her back and looks a bit scared and confused. Midnight smirks and gets an idea. “Maybe there’s a use for you too young one.. tell me.. how would you be interested in a little payback..?”
Everypony in Maretime Bay saw the entire battle, meaning they saw Sunny lose and the destruction she and Midnight caused to the village. Phyllis, Sprout, Artemis, Thunderbird, and the rest of the Mane 5 were currently trying to keep the peace. Everypony was panicking even worse than they were the first day Izzy came to Maretime Bay. After a very intimidating lightning strike caused by Thunderbird, everypony settled down somewhat mostly. That’s when Hitch spoke. “Alright everyone! Calm down, and we’ll sort all this out!” he shouts, trying to keep things under control.
Meanwhile, Izzy was losing it and Pipp was trying to comfort her while Zipp was trying to think of something, anything that would help them track Sunny before Midnight does whatever she plans to do with her. “It’s ok Izzy, it’s ok.. Sunny’s strong and she’s smart. She’ll figure out something.” Zipp heard her sister say and she smiles a bit.
“B-But what if.. what if she can’t? Or what if Midnight.. kills her before we get there to help her? I don’t want anything bad to happen to Sunny, I’m scared.. we need to help her. W-We just have to.” Izzy says with a shaky voice. It was honestly scary and surprising to see Izzy so.. worried and freaked out. Then again, it’s understandable since one of her friends is at stake.
“We don’t even know where they are, Sunny was able to find them by using magic but we can’t do that.. but maybe her armor can be tracked by Artemis and Thunderbird? When we get a chance, we should ask them.” Zipp says and both ponies agree. After everything seems to be calming down, the rest of the Mane 5 talk about everything with Artemis and Thunderbird and try to think of a plan in private. “So you can’t track Sunny’s armor?” Zipp asked the two elder ponies and they shook their heads, frowning, causing the others to frown too.
“Well.. any chance we could help?” a voice says behind them and when they turn to see a unicorn with an orange coat and a red and yellow mane and green eyes and another creature with the head of a pony, the right arm of a bear, the left arm of an eagle's leg, the tail of a dragon or a snake and the leg of one while it's other leg was of a goat. Zipp, Artemis, and Thunderbird's eyes all go wide as they realize who the two figures before them are- Sunset Shimmer and Discord.
Back on the airship
As Sunny came to, the first thing she noticed was that her entire body hurt and the next thing she noticed was that she couldn’t move her arms or legs. She looked around and realized that she was being held up by four magical glowing tendrils. She tried breaking free but found that her strength hadn’t returned and also anytime she tried, the tendrils shocked her, causing her to scream in pain. She heard footsteps and became anxious. That feeling increased when Midnight rounded the corner with.. the young female zebra. Sunny frowned and looked down, not able to face her after what she did to her parents. “Well well well, look who finally decided to wake up. Just in time to experience the most intense pain you’ll ever feel in your life.” said Midnight, to which the zebra smirked at the idea and Sunny couldn’t blame her.
“I deserve it.. do your worst.” Sunny says but she hears the zebra scoff when she does, prompting Sunny to look up at her.
“Pretending to be sorry for what you did.. have you no shame at all?” she says, anger present in her voice as she glares at Sunny.
“I’m not pretending, I really am sorry, I didn’t mean for any of that to happen.. I didn’t mean to take your parents away from you.. If I could make it so that never happened, I would.” Sunny says, but it’s obvious that the zebra wasn’t buying it. Midnight smirks then turns to her.
“You know what? How about you do the honors Askari?” She asks the young zebra who nods and walks to a console and looks at Sunny.
“Say goodbye to your old self, Sunny Starscout, hope you said goodbye to your friends last time you saw them too.” she says before pressing a button and suddenly the tendrils start shocking Sunny nonstop and she screams in pain the whole time. As the magic from the tendrils starts to take hold of her, her memories of her friends, her father, everyone and everything she’s ever known.. started to fade away. Her magic started turning purple and so did her eyes. The rainbow strands of hair in her mane started to become black and purple. Sunny tried to resist it but there was nothing she could do.. she was losing everything that made her who she was.
Right as she started to lose consciousness, the tendrils released her and she fell to the floor on her hands and knees. Midnight and Askari both walk to her and Midnight gets down on one knee and uses her hand to lift Sunny's chin until she was looking up at her. She could see that it had worked but she just needed to test it. “How do you feel Sunny?” she asks, removing her hand from under Sunny's chin.
Sunny slowly stands up and looks at herself. “I feel.. I feel.. stronger.. even better than I did before.” she says. When she was going to say something else, her eyes glowed purple and the dark magic inside her made her say those words instead. Midnight noticed and chuckled evilly.
“Good, and your old friends Sunny.. these friends,” she says as she hands a picture of Sunny with her friends to her before continuing. “What do you think of them? How do you feel about them?”
Sunny stares at it for a bit before answering. “They.. are no friends of mine.. they are my enemies. And they must be destroyed.” She says as she crushes the picture and uses her magic to incinerate it.
Midnight smirks and signals Sunny and Askari to follow her as she walks to the control room for the airship. “Good, very good. I have a plan to draw their attention.. and tear them apart from the inside..” she says as she points to a spot on the map that’s on the planning table. That spot is Zephyr Heights. “This would be a good place to start..” she says before turning to Sunny and Askari and continuing. “Go raise some hell.”
In Zephyr Heights
Some royal guards were now knocking down the doors to an abandoned building after tracking Askari there after she destroyed a building. How: they have no idea. There was no trace of a bomb anywhere. However she did it, they would interrogate her about it once they catch her. They knocked down the doors and moved in, their spears and shields ready. Three of them pulled out flashlights and used them to see ahead of them and look around.
They heard a loud bang of something against metal and turned in the direction of the sound, shocked looks forming on their faces when they saw nothing. They continued searching, continuing to hear noises. Suddenly, some of the lights come on and a smoke grenade goes off. They all cough but then notices that some guards are missing and they can hear fighting and running footsteps all around them. Suddenly, the smoke clears from one area and they see Sunny and look shocked and confused. Sunny has black and purple armor now and her appearance seems a bit off.
“Starscout? You’re alive? We thought that other alicorn killed you, what are you doi-“ Thunder says but Sunny starts attacking and downs him instantly and proceeds to attack the others along with Askari. They kill a few guards but just majorly injure the rest. More guards show up but there’s nopony there except the dead or injured guards. The guard pony that Thunder is always with, Zoom goes to check on him. “Thunder, what happened?!” she asks and he coughs a bit and looks up at her.
“S-Starscout.. she’s alive.. but she and the zebra we chased.. they did all this..” he says weakly before passing out. Zoom looks shocked then grows a stern look and turns to the others.
“Someone inform Queen Haven! Tell her Sunny Starscout is alive and dangerous! And that she’s HERE with a terrorist!” she commands and with that, two guards fly to the castle to tell Queen Haven what had just happened. Unknown to them, Sunny and Askari were watching and following them, planning to attack the castle next.
Queen Haven found herself standing in the throne room while staring out one of the windows, awaiting the guards who went to investigate an explosion to report back to her. She turned to see Cloudpuff relaxing on her throne and couldn’t help but chuckle at the adorable pup’s actions. “Maybe I’m worrying just a bit too much. What say you Cloudpuff?” she asks and he sits up and gives a scratch to his side then a bark and she chuckles a second time and walks over to her throne and pets him. She hears a knock and she and the rest of the guards who were in the room turn to the oversized double door and with permission from Queen Haven, one of the guards went to open it but before they even grabbed the handle, the doors suddenly went flying off their hinges and through the windows, landing somewhere in the city below. Haven slowly looks up to see who dared to destroy her property and possibly injure at least a dozen of her subjects.
She was shocked however to see.. Sunny, walking into the throne room with a zebra by her side. Cloudpuff growls at them both and Sunny just giggles evilly. “Nice to see you both again too.” she says, smirking. Askari gets her sword ready to strike and it becomes coated with some sort of black and white sinister looking magic. Haven quickly realizes that they’re the ones who destroyed the building and probably why the guards took so long to respond back to her.
“Sunny.. why? Why would you align yourself with her? Why would you attack Zephyr Heights?” she asks, hoping to learn the truth of why the same mare who helped her and her daughters gain their status back would assault her kingdom.
“I did all that because Midnight wills it. I realized that even with friendship back in Equestria, there will always be SOMETHING to try and disrupt it, so I might as well help her destroy everything and everyone.” she said, her eyes glowing purple. Haven frowns and commands her guard ponies to seize them both and they get right to attacking the both of them but are easily taken down by both Sunny and Askari's close-combat skills. Once all the guard ponies were down, they both turned to look at Haven and Cloudpuff, who both back up. They start walking towards them and at this point, Haven is terrified. She knows she can’t take on those two by herself and she can’t outrun them, especially not Sunny. ..But that doesn’t mean she couldn’t try. She quickly grabs Cloudpuff and jumps out of one of the windows and flys around the castle, prompting Sunny to give chase.
Back in Maretime Bay
“Sunset.. Discord.. where have you two been? I mean after the Mane 6 vanished we thought.. we thought everypony was gone.” Artemis stated, to which Discord gave a chuckle and Sunset shook her head.
“That’s the thing, everypony WAS gone, somewhere else. After the explosion from whatever the six of them did, everypony and every creature in ponyville, the dragon lands, Canterlot, even the home of the hippogriffs and the gryphons, Yakyakastan, all those specific kingdoms and some other random cities.. they were all transported to some sort of.. other dimension and we were frozen in time.. well everyone who wasn’t an alicorn. But that didn’t work out so well for Flurry Heart or Cadence.” Sunset Shimmer explained, gaining concerned and shocked looks from the only three ponies there who know who she is.
“Wait, what do you mean? Are they alright?” Thunderbird asked but Sunset and Discord both shrugged, confusing them further.
“That however my old friend, is something we don’t know. You see, while Twilight and the others were trying to figure out a plan, Sombra was brought back as a distraction and he attacked the crystal empire.. which caused it to vanish along with everypony in it.. until now that is.” Discord said and they all slowly started to piece it together.
“So that means.. everypony and every creature who disappeared in the past.. is coming here?” Zipp asked, half excited, half nervous for what was to come.
Both of the historic figures nodded and everypony began to panic. “This is so not cool.. what are we gonna do?” Pipp asked, more scared than she’s ever been. Hitch tried to calm her down even though he himself was scared. Somehow he still managed to grow a determined look on his face.
“We have to get Sunny back.. maybe she can stop this.” Hitch said, as he turned to the others. “Anyone who’s with me can tag along but I’m getting my friend back.” he continued as he began to walk out. Izzy stopped him before he got to the door.
“Hitch wait, we don’t even know where they could be right now.” Izzy said. “I wanna get Sunny back as much as you do but.. we need a plan. If we save her and she’s not in one piece when or while we do, it kinda defeats the purpose.” she continued, causing Hitch to sigh and nod.
“Oh, I guess now would be a good time to tell you that I’ve been sensing a magical imbalance ever since we got here. Could be your friend or Midnight.” says Discord, who was eating popcorn while listening to them, earning a glare from Sunset. “Whaaat? I love a good show and a snack.” he says and this time she sighs and shakes her head, muttering “unbelievable”.
“Why didn’t you say so?! Take us to her!” Izzy shouted and Discord rolled his eyes and with a snap of his fingers, they were all in Zephyr Heights. As they looked around, they could see everypony running and screaming as the castle was under attack, guardponies trying to calm them down and evacuate. Artemis and Thunderbird fly to the castle to figure out what’s going on and Discord followed. Meanwhile, everypony made a plan to get the citizens out of the area safely. The plan changed when an explosion of black and white destroyed a building and injured some passing pegasi. They looked at the building and standing on top of it was Askari, who’s eyes were glowing white and slowly turn back to normal. She jumps down and charges at the remainder of the Mane 5 but a ball of fire knocks her back into a building. Everypony looks at Sunset and there’s fire coming off her fists. She huffs and looks at the others.
“All of you go do your part. I’ll handle the kid.” she said as she started to walk towards Askari and everypony else went on to do their parts of the plan, Hitch was helping to evacuate, Zipp and Pipp were keeping an eye out for any other bad guys and Izzy was helping anypony who needed it but she couldn’t stop thinking about what was happening at the castle, she needed to go check it out. As she saw one of the giant screens on the side of a building she was horrified to see a video of Sunny attacking the guards and killing some of them along with Askari, she looked up at the castle and knew she had to go and help. So she did go.
Sunny was enjoying this, she had just downed Haven and was about to finish her off. “Any last words Haven? Or any barks, Cloudpuff?” she asked with her newest sword ready. Cloudpuff growls at her.
“Sunny stop it.. this has to be a cruel joke.. you would never do anything like this.. you would never hurt anypony, you’ve proven that to me.” Haven said, hoping that Sunny, the real her, would come out and spare her and Cloudpuff and end this madness.
“Cruel? Yes. Joke? Definitely not. Bye-bye Haven, bye Cloudpuff.” Sunny says as she raises her sword but before she can bring it down on them, Artemis tackles her from behind and they crash through a wall. They both get up and Artemis stares at Sunny, shocked to see her like this.
“No.. Sunny.. what did she do to you?” Artemis asked, the faintest hint of regret in her voice.
Sunny chuckles before answering. “She perfected me. No more friends to hold me back. I’m my true self. I was stupid for trying to be like Twilight Sparkle. Trying to uphold her legacy.. well now I follow Midnight’s and look at me! I’m better than I was before!” she shouts before laughing. Artemis just growls, not angry at Sunny but swearing revenge against Midnight for doing this to her. She continued to try and persuade Sunny to come back home and be her normal self again but then Sunny just attacked her. Thunderbird grabbed her from behind and together they started to overpower her. Discord was just watching, enjoying another show, this one more interesting than the other.
When Sunny started pushing back, that’s when he had to step in, he tried snapping a spell that would easily stop her but she wasn’t affected at all and he sighs and facepalms. “I forgot Midnight can’t be affected by my magic and neither can anyone she’s corrupted or given magic with her own.” he says, frustrated and Sunny smirks and roundhouse kicks him off the castle grounds then starts walking back into the castle until she hears a familiar voice call her name.
“Sunny!!” she hears Izzy shout, which causes her to turn around and face the unicorn. Izzy looks like she did a lot to get up here and she seems out of breath. Sunny rolls her eyes.
“You know there’s an elevator that could’ve brought you up here right? What did you do, climb up here?” Sunny asks, mocking Izzy's efforts. Izzy chose not to listen and chose instead to get her friend back no matter what.
“Sunny come on, this isn’t like you, at all! You’re not a killer, you wouldn’t hurt anypony, I know you wouldn’t, you always thought of everypony as a friend you just haven’t met yet! Just try to remember, please!” Izzy said, pleading for her friend to come back. Little did she know, it was gonna take a lot more than words to revert Sunny back to her old self.
“Maybe that was who the old Sunny was, so in case it’s not clear to you yet, allow me to enlighten your feeble brain, I’m the new and improved Sunny. I’ve been reborn. The old me is gone. But hey WE can still get along if you want, and if not, that’s fine, I can just kill you too.” Sunny says, her features starting out relaxed, then serious. Izzy was shaking so much right now. She was more terrified of hurting Sunny than the idea of Sunny hurting or even killing her. She breathed in and out before readying herself to fight. She knew she couldn’t possibly defeat Sunny by herself but she could at least wear her down. Sunny noticed Izzy getting ready then smirked. “Come on Izz, you know you can’t beat me.” she says.
“I don’t care.. I want my friend back and I’ll do anything to make that happen.. so I don’t care what happens to me.. I want back the Sunny that I love.” Izzy says and Sunny goes wide-eyed at that and her eyes turn back to their normal green as she stumbles back a bit.
“I-Izzy?” Sunny asked, sounding somewhat like herself again. Izzy looks shocked then happy.
“That’s right Sunny, it’s me!” Izzy shouts enthusiastically as she rushes to Sunny and hugs her but just as Sunny was about to hug her back, she screams, pushing Izzy away to hold her own head. She could feel the magic starting to regain control of her and no matter how much she tried to fight, she didn’t have the strength to break free any further.
“I’m so sorry Izzy.. I’m so sorry!” Sunny shouted and Izzy tried to comfort her, to reassure her that they would get her back and things would be better and it helped a little but it wasn’t enough. Sunny had once again lost herself to the darkness and knocked Izzy away. She attacked Izzy and while they fought, the real Sunny was supposedly making it harder for her body to fight so Izzy could get a few good hits in. This gave Izzy an advantage, now she just had to take any change she got and get her friend back.
Down in the city
Things were now worse than they were when they had first got there. Not only were people still evacuating while Sunset was defending them from Askari, but now the Wonderbolt wannabes have decided to show up and cause more trouble. How they survived the flooding of the underground factory, no one knew but they were back now and seriously ticked off. Zipp couldn’t see any way out of this mess, no way to save everypony without some casualties. She looked at Hitch and Pipp and yelled to them “We need a new plan! This isn’t working!” before landing and rushing to them. They agreed as they looked around. Zipp and Pipp were more heartbroken than ever as they saw the state of their home.
“This can’t be happening.. Zipp we weren’t here and all this happened.. we should’ve been..” Pipp says, her voice shaky like she’s on the verge of tears. Zipp saw how scared and guilty her sister was feeling and she looked around at how her home was being destroyed and.. it broke something inside her but at the same time awakened something new. She saw a building about to fall on a family and as she ran towards them, she could see the faintest hints of pink and blue electricity coming off her one moment and then the next, she was with the family in a different location, safe from the building. She was so confused as she looked at herself.
“What.. what just happened?” Zipp asked, confused as more electricity came off of her.
“Zipp Storm.. you just moved as fast as Rainbow Dash..” Sunset said, having a smile on her face at the same time as a shocked look. Zipp looked at herself again and slowly started to smile.
“Awesome!!” she shouts as she uses her speed to run and fly around, knock out the Deathbolts, save anypony who needed help and in moments, everything seemed more under control. Zipp appears in a flash of lightning right in front of her friends, sliding to a stop. “This is so cool! I just took care of all the Deathbolts and saved us SO much trouble.” she says to her amazed friend and sister- who was probably a little jealous.
“Leave it to you to show off Zipp.” Pipp says, earning a pat on the head from her older sister.
“Well you’re part of the reason I do little sis.” Zipp said and Pipp rolled her eyes, smiling a bit. Hitch finally decided to speak after the shock wore off.
“Ok, now that things have settled down here, we should get to the castle and see if the others need any help.” he says and with that, Zipp grabs him and Pipp and flys them up there faster than they were ready for- chuckling when they scream in surprise.
“You two are such scaredy-fillies.” she says, smirking.
As Zipp, Pipp, and Hitch all got to the castle, they heard fighting and when they go to check it out, Izzy is on the ground, struggling to get away while Sunny walks after her. “And where do you think you’re going?” she says before stomping on Izzy’s leg, causing her to scream in pain and look up at her with pleading eyes. “Next time you wanna fight somebody way stronger than you, maybe bring friends.. although to be fair, there won’t be a next time for you.” she says with a cruel edge to her voice as a retractable blade comes out of one of the gauntlets attached to her armor. Zipp quickly knocks Sunny away from Izzy full force, also sending a shock through her that sent her flying even further away than intended.
“Well you have a point, but there are just two things you got wrong,” Zipp says as she slowly helps Izzy up. She turns to Sunny and continues talking. “There will be a next time for her.. and she did bring friends.” she says and just as she does, Pipp lands by her on the right and Hitch walks up beside her on the other. “We’re not giving up on you Sunny, we’ll save you no matter what it takes.”
Sunny gets up and glares at them all and takes out both her swords. “Sure you will.. if that’s what you truly believe.. then come on and try.. but just a heads up, you’ll have to fight me to actually succeed.” she says as she gets in her stance and the others do the same.
“If that’s what it takes, then so be it.” Hitch says as he gets his newly acquired pistols ready and sets them to stun. Pipp takes out two ring-blades with a glowing golden outline. Izzy takes out a retractable scythe that’s in it's mini-scythe form right now. Zipp takes out a sword that is actually two swords that split and become two when a button is pressed on the bottom of the handle. None of their weapons are meant to kill Sunny but they are meant to hurt and wear her down quickly. Either of those or at the very least, they’re meant for breaking her armor, then the punching starts. Sunny charges at them and they all split up and surround her and attack her. She blocks and counters their hits or at least most of them. The others could see that pieces of Sunny’s armor were starting to come off, which prompted them to attack faster and harder.
Sunny just continues fighting but then she starts using tricks, like teleporting to make them mess each other up or to kick one into the other. She kicks Izzy away, almost knocking her off the castle grounds then she kicks Hitch into the castle, cracking the wall and possibly his spine. Zipp tries using her speed to attack Sunny at multiple angles so she wouldn’t get time to do anything and it worked.. for about two minutes but then Sunny caught one of her kicks and slammed her onto the ground and threw her into Pipp who was jumping at her to try and help her sister. They both went flying through the front door, knocking it down in the process. Zipp tries to get up but she just falls back down after feeling a sharp pain go through her back and wings. Pipp gets off her and tries helping her up as she sees Sunny slowly walking towards them, her swords ready.
“Zipp come on! You’re ok, get up!” she shouts as she tries to get her sister up but Zipp just groans in pain whenever she tries. After a few tries, Zipp claimed that it was hopeless and told Pipp to just leave her and get help. Sunny was getting closer and closer and Pipp was getting really scared. She knew that if she stayed and kept trying, Sunny would kill them both immediately but on the other hand, she could fight and try to give Zipp time to recover.. but then she realized it wouldn’t be enough.. she wasn’t going to leave Zipp behind though, no matter what. She stood up and turned to Sunny, her ring blades ready. Sunny stopped and laughed at her.
“Oh Pipp, I gotta say I’m kind of impressed. I hoped you would run away and leave Zipp to die but.. you’ve surprised me.. for the last time it seems!” she says and starts running at Pipp, scaring her but prompting her to do the same. As they charge at each other, Pipp jumps at Sunny while yelling. As soon as Sunny jumps at her, she’s knocked back by some sort of force that came from Pipp. Turns out it was a sonic scream. That much is clear when Sunny realizes that as she goes flying off the castle grounds, she can’t hear anything except the ringing in her ears. She can’t even hear whenever she crashes through a building or into the ground. As she gets up, she holds one of her ears and shakes her head, trying to get the pain and the ringing to stop. “Okayyyy.. apparently that wasn’t the last time she’d surprise me.. ow..” Sunny says as she waits for her ears to recover. After a few minutes they do and she walks through the alleyways of Zephyr Heights and is shocked to see one of her heroes actually here and helping to calm things down. “S-Sunset Shimmer..” she says quietly to avoid gaining her attention. “It’s really her.. wait.. if she’s here.. then..” she continues but before she can finish her sentence, she feels somebody grab her shoulder and quickly turns around, a magic blast ready to incinerate them but she sees it’s Askari, who was covered in a little more than a few burns and bruises.
“Come on, we have somewhere else we need to be.” Askari says with a hoarse voice, gesturing to the castle and Sunny nods and teleports them back up there. “You cover me while I get to the weather machine at the top of it.” she says once they get there and once again, Sunny nods before Askari runs up to the castle and jumps on the side of it, making quite a distance with her new magic and using it to make tendrils come out of her arms and pull her up between jumps and sprints. Sunny sees Hitch about to shoot at her and quickly uses her magic to take the gun away from him and hit him on the back of the head with it. Once he’s down, she does a massive leap into the air and comes down straight on top of him. He rolls out of the way before she lands on him though, so she just ends up severely cracking the ground with her immense alicorn strength then standing up and getting in her stance as he does the same. He feels the pain in his back getting worse from when Sunny kicked him but tries not to show how much pain he’s actually in.
“Sunny, this is your last chance.. stop this now or.. or else.” Hitch says, earning a scoff from Sunny.
“Or else what, Hitch? You wouldn’t hurt your best friend would you? We both know that you look at me and still see the old Sunny inside me. Well maybe you shouldn’t.. then again that makes it easier for me to end you and the others.” Sunny says and Hitch cringes and shakes his head.
“You’re not what Midnight made you! You’re better than this! I know you are, we all know you are.. even you know you are!” Hitch shouts. He really was hoping that his words would get through to his friend.. he honestly didn’t know what he would do without Sunny, she was his best friend.. she was like the little sister he never had.
She sighs and gives him a serious look. “Sorry to disappoint you Hitch, but your efforts.. your words.. they’re all falling on deaf ears, let me tell you something “H-bomb” and I want you to hear me loud. And. Clear. The old Sunny.. who I used to be is gone and she is never coming back. I’m all that’s left.. you mean nothing to me.. neither does anypony else.” she says before one of her retractable blades come out and she aims right at his heart. Her words really hit him hard and he was so close to giving up. Was Sunny really gone? Was there really no way to save the Sunny that he knew? He grew an angry look and decided that there was only one way to find out as he grabbed his guns and aimed at her. She was about to charge at him but then she hears a booming voice from above her.
“I’m afraid the only one who will be disappointed any further is you!” the voice said and when Sunny turned to the source, she was shocked to see two alicorn princesses, one white, one blue, both looking very unhappy. The white one had a multicolored, flowing mane and tail that consisted of green and pink while the blue one had a mane that was blue, flowing, had a darker outline, and sparkled as if it contained stars.
“P-Princess Celestia.. and.. Princess Luna.. you’re both back.. how?” Sunny asks, still shocked that the princesses of the Sun and the Moon have returned and were now right before her eyes. Part of her wanted to give up and bow to them and apologize for everything.. but that part of her was weak. She glares at them both as her eyes glow purple more than the other times they have. “Actually you know what? It doesn’t matter, you’re both too late to stop us.” She says before blasting her magic at both of the original princesses but they block it then combine their own magic before blasting it at Sunny and at first it seems like it hits her but it turns out that she’s holding it back and adding her own magic to it to make it stronger. She then yells and sends the giant ball of magic back at them and they attempt to dodge it but don’t get out of the way in time. They both get sent flying miles away, even going through mountains. Sunny laughs at them both but then hears another voice.
“Hey!! Pick on someone your own size, from your own generation!!” she hears before she gets a hard kick to the back which sends her through one of the castle’s walls. She’s about to get up but then a new alicorn stomps on her chest, this one having a bright yellow coat with a grey mane that has a line of pink hair going down the middle before curving to the left. She has blue eyes and her wings and horn aren’t transparent like Sunny's. “It’s sad really, to see a pony my age like you be turned into such a monster.. this has to be made right and I promise, I will help your friends make it right.” she says before Sunny kicks her off with her right leg and gets up.
“Who the hell are you?” Sunny asks the new alicorn. They circle each other for a bit before she gets an answer.
“Figures that I’ve heard of you but you haven’t really heard a single thing about me. My name is Brightburn Suntamer, and I’m here to save you.. so you can save everypony else.. Sunny Starscout.” the new alicorn says and Sunny growls before attacking her, starting their battle but Sunny quickly starts losing, as it turns out this new alicorn is much more skilled than her. She’s soon on the ground, weakened, both her swords and her armor broken.
“Ok I’ve done it, get us out of here!” Askari shouts through the earpiece that allows her to talk to Sunny.
“I can’t.. I don’t have much strength left..” Sunny responds and Askari lets out a groan of frustration, trying to think of a way for them to escape until Zipp knocks her into a kick from Pipp which ends up with Askari leaning against a wall. It looks like they’re about to lose until a missile is fired at the castle and explodes, causing Zipp and Pipp to stumble a bit and Askari takes the chance to jump off the top of the castle and use a tendril of her magic to swing down right to where Sunny is and kick the alicorn away from her. She grabs Sunny and helps her up and tries helping her limp to where they’re right under the airship. Artemis and Thunderbird both jump out of the smoke that had formed from everything that just happened and chase after them. “Oh no..” Sunny says weakly and Askari grabs a grenade, pulls the pin, then throws it at them. Thunderbird blocks it so Artemis could get to them. She continues chasing them, determined to at least catch Sunny so they could save her. She jumps after them when she’s close enough and after blasting Askari, she tries grabbing Sunny but a magic blast knocks her away but that blast quickly turns into a tendril that drags her along the ground then throws her into the castle.
Sunny and Askari both look at where the magic came from and sure enough, Midnight was right there, floating above them. “Might I say, you two have done a fantastic job. I’m proud of you both. Just look at what you’ve done with the place.” she says as she looks around, taking in the beauty of the amount of destruction that these two have managed to cause to Zephyr Heights along with the Deathbolts. She sees Artemis, Celestia, Luna, and Brightburn all coming together and combining their magic and waiting till it’s strong enough before sending it at Midnight and she just smirks and lets it hit her. It seems to hurt at first but she slowly gets used to it and looks at them, still smirking. “You never learn do you.. and now.. you lose.” she says before curling up into a ball as she starts to glow more. Everyone’s eyes go wide as they realize what she’s about to do.
“Get back and find cover!!” Artemis shouts to everypony but it’s too late. Midnight uncurls and when she does, all the magic she absorbed goes everywhere in a giant wave of purple dark magic, destroying most of what’s left of Zephyr Heights and harming anyone who was caught in the blast, even killing many civilians just from flying debris or overexposure. Discord managed to save who he could including everyone at the castle but not everyone was as lucky. Once the wave of dark magic stopped.. everyone’s hearts felt like they had stopped, even Sunny’s. Zephyr Heights.. was almost completely destroyed, almost every building damaged or just nonexistent anymore, fire everywhere.. injured or dead pegasi strewn throughout the city. Sunny was on the brink from seeing all this.. she was actually starting to cry from how much guilt she felt on the inside.
“Let’s go you two, our work here is done. The rest of our plan will come to fruition later.” Midnight says before flying higher and calling all the Deathbolts back to the airship. She teleports them onto it when they’re close enough then teleports Askari too. Sunny looks at all the destruction and death before looking to her friends who were all unconscious.
The real her comes out and luckily Midnight doesn’t notice as she speaks. “I’m so sorry..” she says before Midnight teleports her onto the ship and gets on it herself afterwards. After she’s certain everyone’s accounted for, the airship departs the fallen city.. leaving it in ruins.
As the airship departs, the illusion of all of Sunny's friends being unconscious fades away and they appear inside the castle with Queen Haven and Cloudpuff who are both unconscious. Celestia looks after the airship as it leaves and glares, very unhappy that Midnight has returned once again and that she had managed to get so powerful so fast. She was even more displeased that she had turned the newest alicorn into a force for evil. Then she grew a worried look and looked into the city, realizing that Sunset was still down there when the city was destroyed. “Sunset..” she says but suddenly Sunset appears in front of her, injured and unconscious.
“Not to worry Celestia, she’s fine.. well for the most part anyway.” Discord says as Celestia goes to check on her original student. She hears her sister speak after a few minutes.
“What are we to do? Midnight is stronger than ever and she just destroyed an entire city.. without Twilight Sparkle and her friends we cannot stop her..” Luna says, the hopeless expression on her face revealing how she feels. Sunset Shimmer, who was awake long enough to hear Luna say that, sits up slowly and looks at everyone.
“Well.. maybe in this case.. it may take villains to stop a villain.” she says, getting confused looks from the Mane 5, Artemis, Thunderbird, and Brightburn. Celestia, Luna, and Discord all pick up on what she means though and nod. Celestia and Luna heal her and help her up. “Discord, you said that the crystal empire is back now right?” she asks and he nods before she continues. “Then that’s where they should go, Celestia and Luna too just in case Cadence and Flurry Heart need help with Sombra still.” she says, gesturing to Brightburn and the Mane 5.
“What about you? Where will you two go?” Hitch asks Sunset.
“We both have some old friends that we need to meet up with, then after that.. let’s just say we’ll need to have a little 'swim' to find what or who we’re looking for.” Discord says and Zipp gets a bit excited and so does Brightburn.
“Is it a hippogriff that’s evil that you’re looking for?” Brightburn asks, to which they both shake their heads while Sunset has a nervous look.
“Nooot exactly.” she says, confusing everypony further but what really confuses them is when Celestia smirks like she figured it out and Sunset blushes and scratches the back of her head. Thunderbird and Artemis soon figure it out too. “ANYWAY, come on Discord, we shouldn’t keep those three waiting.” she says as she turns to leave.
Discord follows her after asking “You mean six right?” and everyone else discusses what’s going to happen. Zipp and Pipp have decided to stay in Zephyr Heights and try to help return to its original state as much as they could.. which they knew wouldn’t be a lot, considering all the loss that was suffered. Thunderbird decides to stay too and help, saying he’ll call every creature and droid back at base that they could spare to help fix the city. After they discuss the plan, the Mane 5 all say goodbye.
“We’ll be honest.. you probably won’t see us for a while.. but in the meantime, promise us you’ll get Sunny back and make this right.” Zipp said and Hitch and Izzy both pinkie swore and then they all hugged before heading in opposite directions. Pipp suddenly stops, her voice having a sudden enthusiastic pitch to it as she speaks.
“Oh wait wait, everypony get together. I wanna take a selfie of all of us just in case.. ya know..” she hesitates to say, “just in case this is the last time we all get a chance..” she says and after they all agree and take the selfie, they all each give her reassuring words of encouragement that restore her hope. After that.. they all split up. Next stop for Izzy, Hitch, Artemis, Brightburn, Celestia, and Luna: The Crystal Empire.
An hour later, along the shore of Maretime Bay
As Discord and Sunset arrive at the shore, they see just the creatures they were looking for: 4 unicorns, a dragon, and a changeling. “Starlight, Trixie, Tempest! You three made it! And you brought Sunburst, Ember, and Thorax!” Sunset said excitedly as she hugged the three aforementioned unicorns who she had come to be very close friends with. “It’s so good to see you guys again.” She continues to which Discord agrees as he greets everyone.
“You too, still can’t believe we were frozen and trapped in a different dimension for a thousand years. Feels like just yesterday we were all supporting Twilight and the others..” Starlight says and everyone agrees with slightly sorrowful looks at the sound of Twilight’s name and the mention of her and her friends. Sunset shakes her head and looks at them all with a determined look.
“Now's no time to be sad, she may not be here and neither are the others but that doesn’t mean they’re gone forever. If Midnight came back then they can too. Now, back to the mission.. who are we waiting on?” Sunset asks, looking at each of them and waiting for an answer.
“A cat named Capper, I met him a few times actually and even used him to find the Mane 6 while I was evil. He’s part of the pirate crew they partnered with now.. Well kinda so he’ll be using their ship to take us to.. wherever we’re going.” Tempest says and Sunset nods in acknowledgment and takes out a map, placing it down and pointing to a location that’s very far from land and Mount Aris. Everyone looks confused when she points there.
“Wait, Mount Aris is way over here so why are we going out to the middle of nowhere?” Ember asks and Sunset smirks, unsettling the rest of them slightly.
“You’ll see.” Sunset says with that same smirk still on her face.
Somewhere near the Crystal Empire
As the two members of the Mane 5 and the four alicorns travel up a hill, they feel the exhaustion they originally felt getting worse. They had been traveling for quite a while, in search of the crystal empire. They were nervous about what they would find but they knew that whatever it was, they’d all face it together. So of course it was shocking that once they finally got over the hill, they saw there was really nothing to deal with.. the Crystal Empire was absolutely beautiful, especially since the sun was setting right behind it, the light adding to the beauty of the kingdom. Celestia teleported them the rest of the way and they looked around and Celestia, Luna, and Brightburn all get excited when they see Cadence and Flurry Heart.
“Cadence! Flurry Heart!” Celestia says as they walk to them and both princesses grow smiles on their faces at the sight of their old friends. Flurry Heart runs to them and hugs Celestia and Luna tightly. To their surprise, Twilight’s students, Luster Dawn, Sandbar, Gallus, Smolder, Ocellus, Silverstream, and Yona catch up with them along with..
“COZY GLOW?” Celestia, Luna, and Brightburn all say, Brightburn obviously only knowing her from legends. Celestia and Luna were kind of happy to see her but SHE was not. Cozy glow nervously waves to everyone and soon afterwards, a female changeling and a male centaur walk up beside her and everyone recognizes them as Chrysalis and Tirek. It was then and there that Hitch and Izzy realized.. that they were standing right before the Legion of Doom.
No one understood what they were going to find this far out into the ocean but if Sunset says to come out here, then she had a good reason. Capper was still new to meeting Sunset but Tempest assured him that Sunset was one of the most trustworthy ponies she knew, so did Starlight and Trixie who were now on the side of the ship, looking over the edge and into the ocean, looking for anything that could be who Sunset said they would find. “See anything?” Starlight asked, still looking around.
“Nope, not yet.. do you.. do you think any of this is gonna work? I mean.. we saw how powerful and dangerous Midnight is.. even the elements of harmony were barely enough to get rid of her, it took multiple tries.. I’m scared Starlight.. she terrifies me.. so does the thought of losing you or anypony else I care about-“ Trixie says and she would’ve continued but then she felt Starlight place a finger on her lips to shut her up before she can ramble on.
“Hey.. we’re gonna be ok Trix.. we’ll make it out of this and somehow everything will go back to normal.. but for this to work we all need to stay focused and have faith.. ok?” Starlight asks her worried friend, earning a nod and a determined look from her. “Also anyone ever tell you that it’s super cute to see 'The Great and Powerful Trixie' so concerned for the safety of her friends?” Starlight asks with a smirk, knowing what Trixie's reaction would be: a blush and a bunch of stammering excuses like “that was just a test!” or “I was only pretending to be scared!” to which Starlight just responded to them all with “Mhmmm sure.” before nuzzling Trixie, prompting her to nuzzle back. After that, they go back to looking after Starlight hears something. “Trix.. do you hear that?” she asks.
Trixie strains her ears to listen and hears.. “Is that.. singing?” Trixie asks, confused and a bit creeped out. “M-Maybe we should leave.” she suggests but Starlight stops her from going to Capper.
“No wait that’s not just any singing.. I recognize the voices.” Starlight says, trying to remember where she’s heard those voices from. Before she can take long to remember, she hears Trixie scream and sees her back up from the edge and fall on her backside while still backing away. “Trix, what’s wrong?!” Starlight asks and when she goes to check on her, Trixie is shaking so much.
“S-Something in the water, something huge! It swam by so fast though as if it was 8 times smaller!” Trixie says and Starlight goes to check but something hits the ship, causing it to shake and almost make her fall off.
“Uhhh is the stress getting to me or.. is the fog closing in surprisingly fast.. while the singing gets louder?” Thorax asks and to everyone’s shock and horror, the fog really is closing in as the singing got louder and louder. Ember flys up to try and see what or who’s causing all this but gets knocked down by what looks like a tail. Thorax catches her and asks if she’s ok and she nods. Sunset blasts fire everywhere to try and hit whatever’s out there but she doesn’t seem to hit a single thing. She’s suddenly tackled from behind and taken off the ship.
“SUNSET!!!” Everyone yells as she gets dragged into the water by a massive dragon-like creature with fins which they quickly recognize to be a siren.
“You mean Sunset was bringing us all the way out here to find the Sirens?!” Sunburst asks, a bit shocked by their appearance and annoyed that Sunset didn’t tell them that she knew they were out here.
“The what now?” Capper asked, prompting Sunburst to explain before he notices Starlight about to jump in the water and runs to stop her but she already jumps.
“Starlight!!” both he and Trixie scream when she does. Meanwhile Sunset was struggling to get free from the tail that was dragging her further and further away from the ship while also struggling to hold her breath. When she’s slammed against a rock it knocks the air right out of her. She’s then drug up into the air and dropped for one of the other Sirens to get her. She had just gotten dragged by Sonata, now it was Aria’s turn. Aria wraps her tail around her and tries squeezing the life out of her, causing to scream in pain as the strength of Aria's tail started to crush her bones. Aria then spins around with her before throwing her to their leader and the one she would’ve been the most excited to see if it weren’t for the fact that they were trying to kill her and Adagio was just about to but a blast of blue magic hits her in the face, causing her to flinch and drop Sunset. Starlight catches her and tries swimming back but Aria and Sonata grab them both.
“What are you all doing?! It’s us!! We’re friends remember?!” Starlight yells but only gets growls in return. Adagio floats up to them and growls in their faces until she actually starts to remember them.
“It’s us Adagio.. you remember don’t you? It’s me.. Sunset.” Sunset says weakly and Adagio shakes her head and looks at her.
“S.. Sunset? You’re.. you’re alive.. take them back to the ship.” she commands Aria and Sonata and they put them both back on the ship. They then glow the color of the gems in their chests that match their colors and when they stop and land, they’re ponies like them. Adagio walks to Sunset and kneels down to look her in the eyes. “How is this possible.. we thought you died a long time ago..” Adagio says sadly and Aria and Sonata agree.. before Sonata tackles her in a hug.
Sunset chuckles then answers. “Well it helps when you’re frozen in time in another dimension sooo..” they all look shocked then Adagio looks angry and sad and.. regretful.
“I so wish I could have killed Midnight now. Especially after the pain she caused you.. the years all of you lost.. it’s all because we helped her just to try and spite you and the pillars of old.” she nuzzles Sunset.. almost lovingly. “I’m so sorry.. we all are.” Sunset blushes but nuzzles her back and reassures them that it’s fine.
After she gets up she breathes in and out before telling them the truth. “Midnight is back so.. you might get your chance.. but she’s just as powerful as we remember if not more.” she says and they all growl. “I was hoping that you and a few other villains would be interested in helping to take her down.” she continues but gets nervous when Adagio crosses her arms and gives her a look like she just offended her.
“Villains huh?” Adagio asks and Sunset realizes her mistake and instantly tries correcting herself.
“N-Nonononono! I’m sorry, I meant reformed villains!” Sunset shouts but Adagio’s look doesn’t go away. Not until she steps closer and boops Sunset's nose.
“Just don’t let it happen again, ‘Kay?” she asks and Sunset nods, sighing in relief.
“Ok next stop, the Crystal Empire.” Sunset says and Capper instantly turns the ship around and starts sailing back to land. The Dazzlings get an idea and turn back into Sirens and push the ship so they’ll get there a lot faster. Within half the time they made it out there, they’d be back on land before they knew it. Then Sunset realized something. “Hold on.. where’s Discord?” she asked and to her surprise and annoyance, no one knew.
Back in the Crystal Empire
As Hitch and Izzy stared at the reformed Legion of Doom, they didn’t know WHAT to think. From what they heard, they were still evil, Cozy Glow was still an alicorn and a little filly, Tirek was still huge and beefed up, and Chrysalis was still scary and evil-looking but none of them were like that. Chrysalis was now white with a flowing, blue mane and blue eyes, she was actually beautiful looking and she had no more holes, plus her wings were beautiful now. Tirek was smaller to the point where he was at eye level with her, he had silver armor on with four gems in it that were different colors, his hair was somewhat like a teenager's, hanging to the point where it almost covered one of his eyes and he was only still a bit muscular. Cozy Glow was just a pegasus and she actually let her hair down and she looked very pretty that way.. well for the most part it was down, only in the front, there was a pony tail behind her head, her old bow holding it like that.
They looked so different than how they used to.. they actually looked better and most importantly.. they actually looked happy. Cozy Glow was now a teenager and she and Flurry Heart looked around the same age. “Uhhh nice to see you both again but who are the three new ponies?” Cozy glow asks, gesturing to Hitch, Izzy, and Brightburn.
Celestia looks at them before looking at everypony. “Let’s just say.. we’ve all missed a lot. Come on, I’ll explain on the way.” she says, leading everyone towards the castle.
Meanwhile, unknown to anyone, Sombra was lurking along the edges of the shield that protected the empire, watching as his kingdom was subjugated to weakness. He wished he had a plan to get in.. but just as he was going to leave to come up with one, he heard a familiar voice and let out a growl of frustration. “Now isn't this just a sad sight, the mighty King Sombra, kept out of his own kingdom by a pathetic shield.” Midnight says as she walks out of the shadows caused by nearby trees, a smirk on her face.
“What do you want Midnight, if you’re not here to help me, then you should not be here. Leave now while you still have a chance.” Sombra says with a threatening tone but Midnight isn’t fazed at all, if anything it was just amusing that Sombra thought he could intimidate her.
When he walks past her to leave, that’s when she decides to strike and she places a hand on his back, using a corruption spell on him and he screams as he tries to fight it but his efforts are futile. “You can’t fight it Sombra, that spell was strong enough to corrupt an alicorn so you have no chance. You’ll thank me later.. when you topple the Crystal Empire with the magic that’ll come with the spell.” Midnight says and she notices that Sombra's eyes glow purple.. then red as he slowly stands up. “Good boy, now go and destroy the Crystal Empire.” Midnight says as she cuts an opening into the shield and he nods and walks through. Once he was done, there wouldn’t even be a Crystal Empire for him to take over, but by the time he realizes that, it’ll be too late. Midnight chuckles evilly as she walks off, she loved being evil, but what she loved even more.. was tricking other villains into thinking they can be rulers.. when there could only be one.
To say Sunny’s mind was racing was an understatement. She was just a big bottle full of so many emotions like anger, sadness, guilt, hatred.. she was just completely lost.. conflicted. On one hand the real her was struggling to cope with the weight of what she’s done.. all the lives she just saw taken. On the other the darkness inside her was proud of what they had accomplished, what they were going to accomplish. One thing she also couldn’t stop thinking about was her friends, especially Izzy. The unicorn had said she loved her but Sunny needed to know if she meant just as a friend or.. maybe something more. Regardless she wasn’t going to find out anything on this airship.. at least nothing related to her friends. As she walked around the airship, she came across something that made her mind temporarily stop working. Pages from her father’s journal, specifically the ones that were so close to leading him to something that could free the old guardians of friendship.
She looked around before walking in the room and picking them up, starting to read over them. As she read over them, she saw that there were landmarks on a map that he had marked and guessed that those must be places with clues that he had followed. She felt some sense of control and excitement come back to her until she heard a deep mechanical voice behind her. “Mind explaining what you’re doing in here young one?” the voice asks and after turning around quickly, Sunny sees an armored pony in black technological armor with purple lights in some areas and an intimidating mask with purple eyes. She secretly puts the notes through a opening in her armor before answering.
“N-Nothing, I was just looking around, making sure everything’s accounted for. Why are you here?” Sunny asks, to which the response she gets is the armored pony walking up to her, just staring at her and seeming to glare even though she can’t see his face.
“Midnight has requested your presence for training with Askari and if I were you, I wouldn’t keep her waiting little pony.” he says and she huffs and walks off, not knowing that he was going to check to see if anything was missing. Once he saw that the notes were gone he followed Sunny and saw her training with Askari while Midnight watched them and decided to tell her that Sunny was starting to catch on. Once she heard that, the look on her face was a displeased one which turned into a smirk that meant she had an idea. She told them both to stop training for a bit and follow her. She then showed them a far away location, a lone island with a volcano, the next island that was a target to her.. and Sunny's last stop. She placed a device on Sunny’s armor and another one on herself, lying and saying it was something that would shield Sunny from the lava since she would be the one causing the volcano to erupt. What it really was though was a device that would allow her to steal Sunny’s magic no matter where she was. Midnight also told them to deal some damage to any islands along the way, so that way even if Sunny survives what she has planned and turns back to normal, she’ll be so guilt ridden that she wouldn’t be able to forgive herself no matter what.
As they departed, she smirked to herself. Yes.. everything would certainly go according to plan..
At the crystal empire
Sombra had stolen the crystal heart and caused ponies to start panicking and distrusting each other, accusing each other which had ultimately led to fights. He chuckled to himself and stared at the crystal heart.. before crushing it with all his newfound strength. He then walked out from behind a building, a cloud of shadows trailing behind him. He looks around as ponies run away at the sight of him, putting a smile on his face. Once again, his kingdom was about to belong to him. Discord appears in front of him, looking less than pleased. “Well well well, look who decided to show up.” Sombra says with a growl added to his tone to show his displeasure at the sight of the lord of chaos.
“Believe me Sombra, I would much rather be tracking down the Dazzlings but at this point, when do I ever get what I want?” he says before snapping his fingers and waiting for something to happen to Sombra but when nothing does, he facepalms and growls in frustration. “See?! That right there is what I’m talking about!! Looks like Midnight got to you too.. and I’ll have to do this the old fashioned way..” he says as he gets ready to fight and Sombra smirks until Celestia, Luna, and Cadence land next to him.
“Then you won’t be alone.” Cadence says while glaring at Sombra. When Flurry Heart lands, she grows worried and looks at her. “Sweetie, I need you to go back to the palace, protect it no matter what.” she tells her.
“What?! But I can help you all!” Flurry Heart shouts, not wanting to leave her mother to fight while she falls back to protect the castle. “Please, please mom, let me help..”
Cadence gives Flurry Heart a reassuring smile and kisses her daughter on the forehead. “We’ll be ok sweetie.. promise.. now go and help your father defend our kingdom.” she says and Flurry Heart hesitates for a bit. Sombra laughs evilly before speaking.
“Obviously that won’t be enough motivation for her.. but this will!!” Sombra yells before stabbing his scythe into the ground, causing a shockwave of dark magic to spread across the kingdom, summoning shadow ponies to attack the kingdom and everypony is horrified. Sombra wasn’t able to do that before but now that Midnight has corrupted him and given him a power boost, he’s bound to have even more tricks up his sleeve. Cadence looks at Flurry Heart again and urges her one more time.
“Go now! Protect everypony, get the others to help out too!” she yells and Flurry Heart nods before flying off to defend their home. The other princesses and the lord of chaos all turn back to the crystal king himself, glaring as he continues to smirk.
“Now then..” Sombra says, spinning his scythe around until he’s in his stance, and after he is he continues. “It’s time to die!!” he says before charging at them all and they charge back.
Flurry Heart lands in the palace and tells everyone what’s going on, including the reformed legion of doom. “Ok everyone, this is where we stand. Split up into groups, stay with your partner, and coordinate your attacks. Protect each other and the citizens no matter what!” she says and as she explains the plan, Shining Armor smiles proudly at his daughter and informs the royal guard that it’s time to move out. Everyone nods and splits up to do their part. Flurry Heart going on her own to defend the most affected areas. No way she was going to lose her home without a fight. Not now. Not ever. She would rather die in battle than just give up everything like a coward. If Sombra wanted to be a victim to yet another defeat, that’s exactly what he was going to be.
Zipp was currently sitting on top of a building, looking over the streets of Zephyr Heights for a new certain pegasus that had decided to cause trouble about an hour ago. She then heard the sound of something going at an incredibly fast speed and assumed it must’ve been her, so she stood up and looked around. She pressed down on the comm in her ear and spoke into it. “Talk to me Pipp, is it picking up her energy signature?” she asked her sister through the device, having planted a tracker on the mysterious masked pegasus the first time they fought. After a few seconds, her sister responds.
“Yeah, she’s about two miles away from you, head towards the jewelry store.. or what’s left of it.” Pipp says and Zipp instantly flys there and lands outside, looking around.
She sees the pegasus walking inside and she still has the same blue outfit with silver armor, a white lightning bolt going from her right shoulder to her left hip, a lightning shaped belt there for it to connect to. “I don’t think I have to tell you how low it is that you’re trying to steal from a damaged, barely recovering kingdom. Do I?” she asks, gaining the attention of the pegasus who jumps in surprise then sighs realizing it’s just Zipp.. again.
“Look Princess, I know you probably wouldn’t know or care about this, but there are ponies who need the money this stuff makes more than the pegasi here who have had it SO easy for too long, now that they finally got what was coming to them, you mean to tell me they can’t survive without it? Yeah right, now you can either stay the hell out of my way or I can kick your ass again.” she says before going back to looting the store for anything valuable she can find. Zipp zooms up to her and grabs her but she just kicks her off, right through one of the glass doors.
Zipp coughs and holds her stomach as she gets up. “Geez that’s quite a mean kick you have there.. ow..” Zipp says, looking at the pegasus who looks ready to defend herself in case Zipp tries anything else.
“Gee thanks, I work out a lot. In case that wasn’t clear even though I literally threw you through a wall.. you sure you still wanna fight me without armor Princess?” the pegasus asks, rolling her neck then her shoulder and getting in her fighting stance. Zipp does the same before responding.
“Positive..” and with that they charge at each other and begin fighting. Or at least they would’ve if the Deathbolts hadn’t landed out of nowhere, surrounding the store. Zipp sighs and gets ready to fight them instead but the greatest thing happens: the original Wonderbolts show up and defend the city as more of the Deathbolts show up and attack Zephyr Heights.
Zipp is so frozen in shock that she doesn’t even notice the pegasus slip away, but when she does, she groans in frustration and flys up, seeing her flying towards the castle which is also being attacked. “Pipp, she’s heading there, probably planning to steal out of the vault, be ready. I’ll handle the Deathbolts!” Zipp says before flying to the castle and keeping them from attacking it any further.
Back in the Crystal Empire
Artemis, Brightburn, Hitch and Izzy were all exhausted but they continued fighting and saving ponies even with everything going on between the shadow ponies, the snowstorm that was starting to engulf the kingdom in ice and snow, and the giant dragon that Sombra had recently summoned, it was black with red markings and eyes just like his. Not only that but it was attacking Flurry Heart who was trying her best not to get eaten, crushed, or burnt to a crisp. The dragon swings at her but she flys in between it’s claws and blasts him in his face. He roars, stumbling a bit and wraps his tail around her, proceeded to squeeze her as tightly as he can. She can’t even scream as her lungs are being crushed as well. A giant bug-like creature rams into his face and makes him drop Flurry Heart and Cozy Glow catches her.
“Nice one Chrysalis!” Cozy yells before turning to Flurry Heart as she lands on a building and gently places her down. “You ok Princess?” she asks, her voice full of concern and Flurry Heart takes a moment to gather herself before nodding and trying to stand up. Cozy Glow stops her. “Whoa whoa whoa, take it easy Flurry, you could have broken bones for all we know.” she says.
Chrysalis lands by them and uses a scanning spell on her and sighs. “14 actually. She has 14 broken bones.” Chrysalis says and Cozy glow looks shocked but through some sort of willpower, Flurry Heart manages to stand up and responds.
“Which means I have 191 non broken ones.” she says and Chrysalis rolls her eyes while smiling a bit.
“Smartass.” She says and Flurry Heart giggles a bit but winces in pain and holds her sides. She uses a healing spell on herself and looks towards where she last saw her mother, a worried look on her face. Cozy Glow puts a hand on her shoulder and nuzzles her.
“I’m sure your mom's fine, she’s with three of the most powerful beings in Equestria, they can’t lose.” she says and Flurry Heart smiles and nuzzles her back. Chrysalis smiles at them both, the tiniest hint of a smirk in that half-hearted smile.
“Young love.. you two are adorable.” she says smugly and the two young teenagers blush and look away, backing up from each other and Chrysalis chuckles. Flurry Heart looks at the dragon and sees that Tirek, even with the magic from the gems in his armor fueling him, is having trouble dealing with him so she gets an idea and whistles as loud as she can.
“I didn’t wanna have to wake the little guy up but we have no choice now. Come on out Fang!” she yells and she sees a baby dragon with dark green scales and orange spikes jump from the balcony and burst into an explosion of orange flames. Once the flames stop, he’s the same size as Sombra's dragon.
“Whoaaaa didn’t Spike have that same ability?” Cozy Glow asks and Flurry Heart nods before responding.
“After Midnight showed up, all the dragons did, at least the young ones did.. except him. It was a good way for them to protect themselves but he got jealous because he couldn’t do that so he asked my “aunt” Starlight to help.” she hears them roar at each other and start fighting and decided to save that story for later. “I’ll tell ya later, right now we should get back to it.” she says and they both nod them split up. Things were still looking bad though, they had managed to save the civilians but they were being backed into a corner.. if this kept up it wouldn’t be long before there would be nothing left. “I really hope you and the others can stop him mom.. for all our sakes..”
On the Lone Island
Sunny and Askari were currently on the island causing so much chaos and destruction. Sunny was hitting and blasting the volcano, causing it to become more and more unstable, meanwhile Askari was defending her from anypony who tried to stop her. For some reason unknown to Sunny, she could still feel the heat and even got burned from one little spot of lava and she could feel herself getting weaker with every minute that goes by and counted it off as nothing. Meanwhile Midnight was still on the airship, slowly but surely stealing Sunny's magic and the armored pony that Sunny had run into was keeping track of the amount that Sunny had left.
Askari saw one unicorn with a black coat and orange eyes about to blast Sunny but she shoots her in the legs and her friend shows up, this unicorn looking a bit like Twilight sparkle, same mane and coat color and everything. Her mane hung low though, past her shoulders and she had blue eyes. The unicorn attacked her and she dodges, shooting at her. The unicorn blocks it and sends magical glowing knives at her, one managing to stab into her leg. She knows she can’t falter though.
She gets up, dodges more knives and shoots the unicorn in the stomach, causing her to pass out from the shock. More show up and grab them both but the volcano erupts and the black one is suddenly buried in lava along with the unicorn who had went to save her. Askari runs off to try and escape the lava that was falling out of the sky and manages to get on one of the boats that were now sailing away, hanging off the side. “Alright ma’am.. it’s done.. how much magic does she have left?” Askari whispers to Midnight through the comm.
“Hardly any, I’m 80 percent done.” she says but something happens that makes Midnight confused and extremely angry. “Wait what?! What. Just. Happened?! It stopped!!!” Midnight yells and Askari looks around for Sunny, wondering if something happened to her or the device. She sees Sunny fly from behind the volcano but notices that the device is no longer on her.
“She’s lost the device, it’s most likely destroyed.” Askari says and Midnight lets out a scream, obvious rage behind it.
“New plan Askari.. kill her. I have most of her magic.. now we just have to make sure she can’t use the REST.” she says and Askari hesitates. She wanted to get her revenge on her own terms.. but not like this. She takes out a sniper with a silencer on it and sneaks onboard without anyone seeing her then she grabs a black cloak and places it over herself and aims the sniper at Sunny who was looking around for her. She hesitates even more when she sees the guilty, distraught look on Sunny’s face. Whether it was from thinking that she had killed Askari or from seeing what’s she’s done, Askari didn’t know.. all she knew was that she had orders.. and that she needed to follow them.
She breathed in, exhaled out, then pulled the trigger. As she saw Sunny hold her stomach, a confused and betrayed look on her face, she started to feel bad.. then Sunny fell all the way down and landed on the island before tumbling off a cliff and into the ocean. That was it.. Sunny was dead.. and so many other ponies were either dead or suffering because of her.. because of what they had did. As she put the sniper and all her weapons into a bag and went onto the deck, she saw so many ponies with distraught looks on their faces, so many children crying and it reminded her of how she last saw her village. “What have I done..?” she asked herself as she started to feel all the guilt come crashing down on her. …She thought about what her parents would’ve wanted for her.. and this definitely wasn’t it…
The unicorn who was buried in lava had somehow survived but was so injured that they had to wrap up her entire body. Somepony had gone back for her, noticing that she had just barely made it out of the lava and had passed out from all that pain, most likely only surviving by using a spell that temporarily protected her. They laid her next to her injured friend, who’s mouth had been burned by the lava and was now scarred and wrapped up along with the gunshot wound. A pegasus who was friends with them was so sad as she looked at her injured, barely living friends. She saw another pegasus dragging something onboard and realized it was a pony but this one was armored and had been shot just like her friend. Once she saw her face and the armor she realizes that it was the alicorn who made the volcano explode.
“Sunny Starscout.. I’ve heard about her, she’s from Maretime Bay. She brought magic and Friendship back to Equestria.. so why would she do this to us? To our home?!” One of the earth ponies ask, yelling from anger and confusion. They all agree and look at her with angry looks.
“Whoa whoa whoa everypony calm down.. do you really believe that the mare who saved Equestria would just do this without there being some sort of reason behind it? She’s from Maretime Bay and that’s the closest place to us with a hospital.. so while we’re there we’ll ask if anyone knows why or how she turned into.. this.” the young female pegasus says while staying next to her friends.
“OR.. we put it to a vote.. either we take her back to her home like IDIOTS and wait for her to recover and possibly finish us off.. or we be smart and leave her out here to die.. we don’t have to vote right now but maybe in about 20 minutes.. we all need time.” the same Earth pony says before walking off angrily and everyone sits down while two ponies work on covering Sunny's wounds, the gunshot and a wound on her head that she gained from falling after Askari shot her. The pegasus definitely hopes she’s making the right choice by giving Sunny the benefit of the doubt.. because if she wasn’t.. it was over for everyone. She tells some of the other pegasi to go and signal the rest of the ships to plot a course for Maretime Bay.
The ships had finally made it but everypony was far from ok. Askari had managed to sneak away undetected and steal someone’s motorcycle. She knew she couldn’t go back to Midnight until she cleared her head.. figured out what she wanted or.. if she could even live with herself after finally realizing that everything she had done up until now was wrong. Especially the fact that hardly 3 hours ago, she had killed Equestria's best shot at stopping Midnight.. and part of her wishes she could go and take it back. She stops on top of a hill and looks back at the docks, seeing the ponies that she had caused so much pain. “I’m.. I’m so sorry..” she says before driving off to.. who knows where.
She was a fugitive now and that meant she couldn’t be seen anywhere or she would most likely be arrested and sentenced to life in prison for being like a terrorist. She needed to make things right.. first with herself.. then possibly her village.. and maybe the rest of Equestria.
Meanwhile, after she left, Sunny was taken off the ship and rush to the hospital along with the other injured ponies. Everyone was shocked and somewhat horrified to see her. Phyllis knew none of what she did was her fault though. Sprout on the other hand.. had his own doubts and was hesitant at first and decided to talk to his mother. Now they were just outside the hospital and walking in to check on Sunny. “I don’t know mommy.. are you sure about this? We don’t know what Sunny could do or if she’s even actually hurt, maybe this is just a trick.” Sprout said while walking next to his mother. They were almost to Sunny’s room by the time Phyllis responded.
“Sugarcube.. Sunny wouldn’t do any of what she’s done unless she was forced to or corrupted into it. Hell, she’s Argyle's daughter for Pete's sake.. besides what if we decided NOT to help her and she’s actually hurt and she dies because we were too skeptical?” Phyllis asks and the look on Sprout's face turns from a concerned one into a thinking one. He sighs and nods, agreeing that she might be right. “Besides Sprout, we don’t even know how Sunny ended up like this.. Maybe Midnight had no use for her anymore or she turned back to normal then was betrayed?” she continues and Sprout scowls and shakes his head.
“OR one of the ponies from that island shot her then decided to bring her here just so we could lock her up.” he says and after a glare from his mother, he takes it back. When they finally get there, there’s a doctor waiting outside the room to give them the news of her current state.
“We managed to get her stable and fully stop the bleeding, it doesn’t look like the wound was infected with anything but we cleaned it just in case. There is one.. downside though.. she’s in a coma from her head wound.. plus the trauma of everything she went through.. there’s no telling when or.. if she’ll wake up..” she says, earning shocked looks from Phyllis and Sprout. Phyllis frowns and looks through the window at Sunny who’s still being worked on.
“Oh Sunny..” Phyllis says sadly.. Sunny deserved so much better, especially after what she did for Equestria, but at this point.. she wasn’t even sure half of Equestria even remembered the good she did. Suddenly, the area around Sunny's eyes started blackening and she squirmed a bit as the lights started flickering. Everypony was confused and more than a little worried.
“What’s happening to her..?” Sprout asked as he slowly backed up in case something was gonna happen.
“We don’t know, this is the first time that’s happened.. strange.” the nurse says and Sunny groans as if she’s in pain and the doctors try to hold her down before she can hurt herself. “I need to be in there, excuse me, I’ll keep u updated.” the nurse continues before walking in and helping them hold Sunny down.
“I really hope she’ll be alright..” Phyllis says and Sprout reluctantly agrees. “Come on, we should try to contact everypony else and tell them what’s happening.” she continues before they both begin walking out. Meanwhile the female unicorn who was completely wrapped up due to her injuries from the lava was being taken to a secret room in the hospital. Once she was there, she was scared and confused, then she heard a soft, calming voice speak to her.
“Hello there young one.. how unfortunate you are to be subjected to such.. awful wounds. Don’t worry though.. I’ll fix these right up and even.. improve your attributes.” the voice said before whoever was speaking grabbed the unicorn by her face and their hand started glowing.. and she starts glowing too but whatever’s changing about her, the change is so painful it causes her to let out muffled screams. The change continues and her bandages suddenly burst into flames and her body doesn’t hurt anymore but it is very warm. She looks at herself and sees that her fingers are glowing like they’re made of lava and when she looked in a mirror, she looked.. different.. her eyes were now glowing orange and the tips of her ears were now glowing too, her mane started out black but was glowing at the ends of her hair. She was now a lava pony. As she looked around, she noticed that some metal was literally starting to melt just from her being there in the room. She looked at the being who had done this to her and recognized her as Midnight, the alicorn she saw Sunny Starscout fight. The doctors who were with her become encased in green flames and reveal themselves to be changelings.
“Y-You're.. you’re..” she tried to say, having the instinct to scream for help but Midnight gently shushed her. She nods hesitantly but still looks confused. “Why.. why did you help me? Are YOU actually the good guy and Starscout's gone insane?” she asks and Midnight nods.
“You’re right about that young one, I’ve actually wanted to help Equestria for a long time but Sunny Starscout has decided to take matters into her own hands by force. That’s why I said she’s Equestria’s “so-called” protector. She doesn’t look out for everypony else because she thinks it’s the right thing to do, she does it for the fame. She destroyed your home to make it look like an accident, she and the zebra she was with. Sunny Starscout is.. supposedly dead but the zebra, Askari, is still out there.. so how would you like a little.. payback?” Midnight asks with a smirk on her face, earning the same smirk from the lava unicorn. “What’s your name?” she asks and the unicorn thinks about it and shakes her head.
“From now on.. my name will be.. Magma..” she says with the same smirk on her face as her eyes glow more.
Back in the Crystal Empire
Sunset Shimmer's team had finally arrived but even with them here, it wasn’t enough. Sombra was winning as the snow storm was affecting everypony else but not him and his army. Therefore, it was slowing them down which gave him an advantage. They were now all gathered in the palace as Sombra’s army continued to attack. Sombra walked closer to them, his scythe ready to strike even if it didn’t look as so. Flurry Heart was holding the fragments of the crystal heart which she had found behind a building. She was absolutely devastated from the realization that she was about to lose her family, her friends, her home.. everything she loved.. was about to belong to Sombra.. she looked at her mother who was injured along with Celestia, Luna, and Discord. She shook her head slowly, on the verge of crying. “I’m sorry mom.. I failed..” she said as she lowered her head, one single tear rolling down her cheek. “I wish aunt Twilight was here.. she would’ve already stopped him an hour ago, hell even earlier than that.. but me.. I’m pathetic.” she said sadly.
She felt a soft but firm blow to the side and looked at Cozy Glow who was glaring at her. “You’re not pathetic.. but you ARE dumb for being so hard on yourself.. you didn’t fail at anything, this isn’t on you.. you hear me..?” she says firmly as she grabs and holds Flurry Heart’s hand that has the fragments in it. “Twilight doesn’t need to be here just for Sombra to be stopped.. we did the best we could.. and if I have to go.. I’m glad it’s with you..” she said, smiling warmly and lovingly at Flurry Heart and Flurry Heart smiles back and nuzzles her, prompting her to nuzzle back.
“Thank you Cozy.. I’m glad I get to go with you too.. and all the ponies I love..” Flurry Heart said and they both close their eyes after Sombra raises his scythe. “I love you..” she says and Cozy responds with “I love you too, ya lovable dummy.”
“How sad, I almost feel remorse for doing this but now that that’s out of the way, it’s time for all of you to-“ Sombra says but is cut off when both Flurry Heart and Cozy Glow's adjoined hands start glowing and so does Flurry Heart's horn. They both open their eyes and are shocked to see all this. They let each other’s hands go and the fragments of the crystal heart float above everyone, starting to spin and glow brighter than ever. Once they stop spinning, the crystal heart is rebuilt but it’s now pink on the outside and blue in the middle and it’s more beautiful and vibrant than ever.
“Whoooaaa.” Everyone says, stunned by the spectacular display of pure love and affection in the form of a magical light show. Cadence wakes up to this and smiles at seeing her daughter and her chosen love about to beat their sworn enemy for hopefully the final time. They both smile at each other then glare at Sombra who backs up a bit. He blasts magic at them but it’s blocked by the bubble of magic around them.
“Some villains never learn do they?” Cozy asks Flurry who shakes her head in response.
“No they do not.” Flurry says before turning to Sombra. “NOW do you understand Sombra?! No matter how many villains you bring to help you, no matter how powerful you get, there will always be one or two things that will always be capable of stopping you!” she yells and she and Cozy Glow finish the statement at the same time.
“THE MAGIC OF FRIENDSHIP AND LOVE!”
And with that, the powerful magic shoots towards Sombra in a beam of beautiful multicolored energy. Sombra tries blocking it which doesn’t last long and he struggles not to be defeated once again but in his case, it’s a losing game. He screams in agony as he starts to disappear. “No.. not again.. NOOOOOOOOOO!!” he yells as he slowly disappears into nothing, the resulting explosion causing his army to disappear along with his dragon. After the entire army is gone, so is the magical bubble around the two lovers.
“Well.. golly, I wasn’t expecting that.” Cozy Glow says, earning a chuckle and a kiss from Flurry Heart. Everyone celebrates the defeat of the crystal king and the restoration of the crystal heart and empire. Chrysalis crosses her arms and smirks while standing next to Tirek.
“I knew they could do it.” she says and Tirek laughs and nods.
“You only knew because you could sense their love for one another, cheater.” he says.
Izzy and Hitch smile at everyone, happy to be alive but still both exhausted.. and cold. Izzy sighs, looking over everything and everyone. “Seeing all this.. makes me feel more and more determined to get Sunny back.. more optimistic about it, ya know?” Izzy asks and Hitch nods.
“I hear you Izzy.. and we WILL get the Sunny we know back.. it’ll just take a bit of effort. But we’ll keep trying, right?” Hitch asks and Izzy smiles and nods. Both she and Hitch's new phones beeped and when they checked them, they both see a text from Phyllis.. saying Sunny was in Maretime Bay.. they look at each other before telling Artemis and Brightburn the news. After that they instantly head off for Maretime Bay, their exhaustion temporarily being forgotten, hoping nothing seriously bad was happening right now..
As the purple unicorn woke up, the first thing she felt was pain around her stomach and mouth which were both wrapped up. The first thing she heard was.. crying. She looked around and saw her pegasus friend who was in tears, shaking her head. She gently reaches over and pats her on the head. “Hey.. cheer up. I’m not dead yet.” she said and her friend was startled at first but then hugged her, still crying. “There there.. tell me.. what has become of home? And our friend?” she asked but her friend just started crying harder as soon as she mentions their friend and she starts fearing the worst. “Firestar.. is she ok?” she asks, the fear evident in her voice.
Her friend shakes her head then lifts it to look at her. “She.. she’s..” she starts but then starts crying again and the unicorn is instantly filled with sadness and one more emotion, one she hadn’t felt since the island was attacked.. hatred.
“Where is she..?” she asks and her friend looks confused and shakes her head.
“I just told you she’s.. gone, Nebula..” she says and to her surprise, her friend slams her fists down and shouts.
“I meant the alicorn damnit!! Sunny Starscout!!” she yells with a large amount of pain and fury in her eyes. “She has to pay!”
Firestar is very scared at this point. She doesn’t know whether she should lie to her friend or tell her that Sunny was here in the same hospital they were in. “Uhhh just calm down, maybe she was forced to do it, she’s a good pony, I know she is. And you probably would know too if you’d just take a breath, calm down and think.” she said and her friend glared daggers into her eyes and she started to get more and more scared.. that is until Nebula got distracted by something and suddenly got up, disconnecting herself from the wires under her bandages and walked out and she went after her. “Nebula what are you DOING? You were still on pain meds!” she says and she gets no response.
She looks ahead of her and sees that she’s following four ponies, including two of Sunny Starscout's friends, Izzy Moonbow and Hitch Trailblazer. She then goes wide-eyed and frantically shakes her head. “Nononono! Nebula, you can’t punish them for her mistakes and even if they were involved, it wouldn’t bring Shade back! Besides you’re still hurt!” she says, desperately trying to talked the angry unicorn out of whatever she was about to do, but Nebula wasn’t having any of it. One way or another, she was going to get her revenge. The only thing that could possibly stop her is if her friend bursts through one of these doors right now, saying everything was just a cruel joke. She suddenly felt a sharp pain in her stomach and stops for a second to hold it.
“Then HELP me.. because I’m not going to stop.. so you can aid me.. or consider our friendship over.” she says to her friend who hesitates before putting one of her arms over her shoulders to support her and help her walk. They continue following Hitch, Izzy, Brightburn, and Artemis until they stop outside of a room and walk in. When they look through the window, Nebula's blood boils as soon as she sees Sunny laying in the bed, wired up just like she was. “Why. Is. She. Here?” she asks her friend who frowns.
“She was betrayed Nebula.. whoever sent her to attack our home shot her as soon as she was done.. they wanted to kill her but they failed.. we found her in the ocean and decided to bring her back with us.” she explains before Nebula pushes her off, obviously feeling betrayed. She shook her head in disbelief before limping away from her friend, telling her that she needs to be alone right now. Firestar frowns more and pinches the bridge of her nose, shaking her head. “What have I done..”
In Zephyr Heights, the “dungeons”
Zipp stood in front of one of the cells with her arms crossed, the same one that the blue pegasus who was stealing from Zephyr Heights was in. She glared at the thieving pegasus and sighed before speaking. “Ok.. obviously we got off on the wrong foot so.. let’s try this again.. I never got your name.” she says and the pegasus finally turns to look at her instead of looking around the dungeon taking in how.. not dungeon-like it was. To her, it was paradise.
“The name’s Skylight, you can call me Sky.” she says with no trace of anger or hatred in her voice, it was surprisingly soft and calm. And kinda playful. Zipp raised an eyebrow before uncrossing her arms.
“Nice to meet you Sky, I’m Zipp.. buuut you already knew that.” Zipp says awkwardly towards the last part. Sky giggles and Zipp couldn’t help but smile at how child-like it was. “Soooo you mentioned other ponies who needed this stuff.. why didn’t you just ask and I probably would’ve helped you, our family's good for it, we could’ve given you enough to possibly start a small village.. so why’d you think it was best to steal from Zephyr Heights instead, especially considering the state that it’s in right now.” Zipp asked and Skylight crossed her arms, frowned and sighed.
“Because Queen Haven has refused our requests before.. specifically to my parents.. so is it THAT surprising now?” Sky says, looking up at Zipp with a sad look on her face. Zipp was shocked, she didn’t even know what to say. Why would her mother refuse to help fellow pegasi in need? The more she thought about it, the angrier she got, the more confused she got. Sky could see this and she nods. “Yep, so now you understand why I had to steal.. and you stopped my whole plan.. I could’ve ended our troubles but noooo.. you just had to be a hero, a spoiled “momma’s girl” and stop me..” she says and she sniffles, wiping a single tear from one of her eyes and Zipp felt horrible. She sighs and places her hand on the scanner next to the cell, opening it.
“You got your strength back right?” Zipp asks, to which she got a confused look from Sky. “Cause if not, I’m gonna have to carry you out of here.” she continues and Sky hesitantly nods, shocked that Zipp was letting her go. “Good, now get on out of here and take your stuff, it’s in a room not too far from here with a sign on the door that says 'criminal belongings/evidence room'..” she sighs before saying “and feel free to take SOME of the gold and stuff out of the vault, mom will kill me if she finds out I let you steal all or half of it.. and if not that she’d probably disown me and lock ME up.” she says.
“Wait but the cameras here.. they’ll see that you let me out, I can’t just run off. That’d put you in a lot of trouble.” she says, genuinely concerned about Zipp's fate.
“Well you did knock me out.” Zipp says with a wink and Skylight smirks and nods. They make it look like Zipp's taking her somewhere before Skylight's right hand glows white and blue with electric-like energy and she turns and punches Zipp through the wall, actually knocking her out.
“I’ll apologize later.. thanks princess.” Sky says before she runs to the evidence room then the vault and out of the castle faster than anyone can see.
After a while, Zipp wakes up to find her mother and her sister both right by her side with worried looks on their faces. Once they see she’s awake they both hug and nuzzle her happily. “Oh thank hoofness, my little filly is ok.” Haven says and Cloudpuff lands on Zipp's lap and starts licking her face as he flys up and she chuckles and pets him and hugs her mother and nuzzles her sister back.
“Yeahhh I’m just peachy..” Zipp says as she rubs her cheek, feeling a lot of pain there.. and everywhere else.
“Zipp what happened? We heard a loud crash and when we got to the cells, we found you on the other side of the wall knocked out.. and her cell was open.” Pipp says and Zipp remembers what happened and growls a bit.
“That little.. ugh.. she could’ve at least pulled that punch.” Zipp thought before answering.
“I was going to take her somewhere for questioning but she got the jump on me and knocked me out. She’s a lot stronger and smarter than I thought.. wait where did she go?” Zipp asks, trying to put some evidence of confusion and concern in her tone.
“Don’t worry, she left, took all her things..” Haven sighs in frustration before continuing. “-and a lot of the gold and jewels in the vault and just.. left. The royal guards are looking for her as we speak. But Zipp, before she knocked you out, did she tell you anything? Anything at all?” Haven asks and Zipp thinks about telling them what she told her but decided to only tell them her name.
“She told me her name is Skylight.” she said after sighing and Haven raises an eyebrow before answering.
“Ummm alright well-“ she starts to say but before she can continue, Thunderbird shows up and addresses Pipp and Zipp.
“Pipp, Zipp, come on! We have to go to Maretime Bay, right. Now!” he says and they both jump a bit and ask why. “Sunny’s there, she’s in the hospital.” he answers and they both instantly nod and stand by him.
“Mom, when we get back ummm.. there’s something you and I should talk about.” Zipp says and Haven looks confused but then nods and Thunderbird teleports himself and the royal sisters to Maretime Bay and they instantly start making their way towards the hospital.
“Please be alright kid..” Thunderbird says to himself as they fly towards the hospital.
Hitch was sitting down in a chair right next to the bed that Sunny currently resided on, holding his head. Izzy was pacing in front of the bed, her eyes never leaving Sunny. Artemis and Brightburn were currently using a spell on her at the same time. They’d been like this for about two minutes now ever since the doctors had left. Hitch sighs before lifting his head up a bit to look at Sunny. “So what is that spell meant to do again Artemis?” he asks and Artemis turns to him and answers.
“It’s a spell that’ll allow us to stabilize her AND see what’s really wrong.. so far we’ve found out that she still has some magic but whatever she has left is being used to keep her alive.. it’s also fighting the dark magic that’s still inside her but it’s not enough.. Sunny could either turn evil again or die from it.. it depends on how much she recovers but I’ll be honest.. her chances aren’t too great.” she says solemnly and both Hitch and Izzy frown and Izzy's voice turns shaky as she speaks.
“She has to make it.. she will make it.. s-she’s strong.. right?” she asks to herself, trying and failing to calm herself down. Brightburn puts a reassuring hand on Izzy’s shoulder and gives her a reassuring smile.
“Yeah.. she is. That’s actually why the crystals chose her to be the first alicorn in generations before the magic that made her an alicorn chose more of us.. she's meant to lead us.. to be the strongest of us all.” she said and Izzy and Hitch both look at her and are about to question what she means by “more of us” but Zipp, Pipp, and Thunderbird walk in the room and ask what happened. Hitch and Izzy both hug Zipp and Pipp, happy to see them again especially after they thought they wouldn’t for a long time. Artemis hugs Thunderbird and then she and Brightburn both explain everything, including the fact that Sunny hardly has any magic left.
“This is so not cool.. is she gonna be ok?” Pipp asks with a worried look and voice in her features. She doesn’t want anypony else to die, especially not someone she cares about.
“We.. don’t know.. it’s possible but her chances are very low.. the dark magic inside her is trying to take control again and if it succeeds it’s possible that she could die from it..” Artemis says and everyone frowns and Thunderbird pinches the bridge of his nose and groans in frustration.
“Damn you Midnight.. you’ve gone too far.” he says as he sits down and shakes his head. “This is what she does, she pushes the good guys to their limits and either turns them evil, captures them, or kills them. She did it back in the Mane 6's time, now she’s doing it to us.. to Sunny.”
Hitch gets angrier the more he hears about Midnight and what she does or is trying to do to Sunny. “Well she’s not gonna get away with it. We can’t wait until Sunny’s back up and running to strike, we have to take the initiative and attack Midnight first. Find a way to hurt her.” he says with a determined, angry look in his eyes and Zipp, after a few seconds, agrees with him and so does Pipp and Izzy agrees without hesitation.
“No.. we can’t do that. No matter what we do, we’d never be able to beat her. Not only that, but we also can’t leave that darkness inside Sunny for too long or else.. she could.. no, I won’t take the chance of losing our best shot against that monster.” Artemis says to everyone’s annoyance and confusion.
“Ok so what do you suggest we do?! Just wait for a solution to pop up and hope it helps her or better yet, wait till Midnight finds out she’s alive by sensing her magic then coming to finish her off?!” Zipp asks, her annoyance showing very clearly and Artemis tells them all to calm down before explaining.
“There’s a way to remove the dark magic from within her.. light magic.. the magic of friendship, love, the same magic she taught everyone to accept and spread.” she says and everyone just looks confused about where or how they’re supposed to get that and use it on her. Then it hit them.. the crystals. They could use them to heal Sunny and hopefully give her more magic. Only problem was they just had to FIND them. And who knew how long that would take.. but for Sunny they were willing to make the journey, no matter the risks. They all nod and share what they’re thinking. “The crystals could work but they could be anywhere.. if only we had something that could tell us where they went after magic returned..” she says, sighing and thinking. One of the doctors comes in before she can get too deep into thought though.
“Hiii, I just wanted to come and check on the patient. Also I found these in her armor.” He says as he holds up some sheets of paper with drawings and markings on them. They all nod and Brightburn takes the paper, thanking the doctor before looking over it. The doctor gets to work, observing Sunny and making sure nothing’s wrong. Everyone hears a gasp from Brightburn and turn to her as she gives the papers to Artemis and Thunderbird and they see what they really are. “These are Sunny's father's notes!” Thunderbird says, shocked that Sunny found them and that they somehow survived the trip with her. “W-where did she find these?” he asks and the doctor responds with a very.. strange response.
“Probably snuck around on Midnight's ship and got into trouble..” he says, prompting everyone to give him strange, suspicious looks. He shakes his head and clears his throat. “Sorry, it’s not really my place, let me just finish up and I’ll be out of your way.” he says quickly but the damage had been done. Everyone already had the feeling that something was off and that feeling increases when they see him take out a syringe full of a purple liquid that looked as if it was slightly glowing. As he started to inject into the bag that was currently putting more adrenaline inside Sunny's body, the feeling grew and when Pipp saw a symbol on the syringe that gave off a very bad vibe, that’s when all the alarm bells in her head went off and she threw one of her ring blades at the tube that was connecting the bag to Sunny, cutting the liquid off right before it can make it past and Hitch tackles the doctor, pinning him against a wall with a death grip on his wrists.
He pins one of his arms against the doctor's throat and uses his other hand to take out one of his guns and aim it under his chin. “Who. Are. You?” Hitch asks with an angry unsettling voice. The doctor smirks and chuckles before he becomes engulfed in green flames, revealing himself to be a changeling. “Let me guess, you work for Midnight and you were sent to kill Sunny. That right?” Hitch asks the shapeshifter.
“Nope, I just figured that if I killed her myself, I’d finally earn my place as Midnight's second in command instead of that failure and traitor, Askari, besides I could’ve given her useful information.” he says and he can pretty much feel the anger coming from Hitch and he can also feel his hand trembling as if he wants to shoot him but something’s holding him back.
“Well how about you give Midnight the information I’m about to give you. If it’s Sunny she wants, she’s gonna have to get through me, get through us first. You can give it to her.. as soon as you wake up.” Hitch says before using his gun to knock the changeling out. He stares down at him for a bit before fully calming down and looking at Thunderbird, signaling him to send the changeling somewhere else, which he does.
Pipp puts a hand on Hitch's shoulder. “You ok Hitch?” she asks and he hesitates but then nods and looks at her. She smiles a bit when he does. “Nice swing.” She says and he chuckles a bit before responding with “Nice throw.” and they both laugh and Zipp smiles.
“Well now that that’s over, we should probably get some rest, we have a long journey ahead of us and it’ll do us no good if we’re low on energy.” Brightburn says and everyone agrees and cleans up the room, asking for another bag of adrenaline to connect to Sunny. After they set everything straight, they all try to get comfortable and slowly drift off to sleep. Izzy volunteered to keep watch over Sunny just in case someone else tries something. She eventually falls into a deep, peaceful sleep but that doesn’t last long as she has a nightmare.
In Izzy's nightmare
“Sunny please! Wake up!” Izzy shouts as she holds the last one of her friends who was left after Midnight had killed the others. She didn’t wanna lose Sunny too.. Sunny was probably the most special to her and she was the last friend she had left.. the first REAL friend she had ever made. Midnight stepped up to them from behind some of the rubble that was left from her attack on Maretime Bay. “Well well well, isn’t this just a sad sight.. well it would be if Sunny was actually dead, you can drop the act now.” she said and to Izzy's shock and horror, Sunny suddenly grabbed her throat before she could look down at her. Sunny slowly sat up until she was level with Izzy and when she opened her eyes, they were purple and her voice echoed as she spoke.
“Well.. I’m actually kinda sad to say that this is goodbye Izzy.. I’m genuinely gonna miss you.” she says with a smirk on her face as her grip on Izzy’s throat tightened and Izzy felt herself slowly starting to lose consciousness. “Oh and don’t worry about Bridlewood, we’ll be visiting there REALLY soon.” Sunny said to Izzy and more fear than she’d ever felt instantly crawled up her spine.. but it was too late. As soon as she lost consciousness though, she woke up to find herself still in the room with everypony else. To her embarrassment and shock, her head was on Sunny’s lap and she actually.. couldn’t bring herself to move. She just sighed and looked at Sunny who was still sleeping peacefully, atleast she hoped she was. As she stared at her, she made a promise to the both of them.
“I promise I won’t let that happen.. I’ll never leave your side Sunny. No matter what..” she says before grabbing one of Sunny's hands and continuing. “I’m looking out for you..” the unicorn said, smiling as she slowly drifted back off to sleep.
Izzy wakes up feeling extraordinarily cozy and opens her eyes, being instantly greeted by the sight of Sunny and realizing that her head was still on Sunny's lap. She also realized that Sunny still hadn’t woken up so she sits up and gently nuzzles her sadly. “Please wake up soon.. please Sunny.” she says before turning to the rest of her friends and seeing they were still asleep, Pipp and Zipp both sleeping on either side of Hitch, leaning against him while he was just sleeping against the couch. “Awwww.” Izzy says quietly, smiling at the adorable sight. She sees Pipp's phone buzzing nonstop and hesitantly picks it up and what she finds is shocking. She starts frantically shaking Pipp, trying to wake her up and after a few attempts, the younger royal sister finally wakes up.
“Whaaat Izzy? It’s still early right? Go back to sleep.” Pipp says groggily, putting a pillow over her head.
Izzy grabs the pillow with her magic and lightly whacks Pipp on the head with it multiple times. “No! Time! Look!” she shouts, waking up everyone else- except Sunny obviously- and holding Pipp's phone close to her face until she grabs it and gasps seeing at least a thousand messages from her Pippsqueaks that contained the words “MIDNIGHT IS LOOKING FOR YOU GUYS!!!” or “Not to alarm you, but that other alicorn is after you. BTW, LOVE YOU SO MUCH PIPP!!!” or “You all need to run, like, NOW!” and all of a sudden a live broadcast notification popped up on the screen with the same symbol she saw on the syringe, a skull with a star in it's mouth and she looked around at everyone else, silently asking if she should watch it just to see what’s going on and after about a minute, they all nod and she hesitantly taps the notification and is instantly greeted by the faces of Midnight, one of the Deathbolts and a pony in black armor with purple lights. Only thing was that Midnight had her back turned to the camera. They weren’t doing anything but just.. standing there. Then Midnight suddenly spoke.
“Good morning Equestria. If you saw the fight from about a day or two ago, then you know who I am.. or do you? See all you know about me is that I’m an alicorn, good or bad, a lot of you already know.. but you don’t know my name. I.. am Midnight Starkiller.. and I am here to protect you all.. from Sunny Starscout. See, she may seem good on the outside but she’s pure evil. You only know her as the mare who brought magic and friendship back to Equestria.. but do you know why she did it? You see, she didn’t know friendship would come back but she did know magic would come back.. she wanted a war between Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi. She’s already brainwashed her poor.. so called “friends” into believing she’s actually good along with the citizens of Maretime Bay and Zephyr Heights. Well I refuse to let her brainwash anyone else..”She says, pausing for dramatic effect.
“I swear I will stop her before she can hurt or destroy anyone or anything else.. it’s a shame I had to pretend to be bad too but no more.. I need your help.. to everypony out there who hasn’t been brainwashed.. help me end this. Because if we don’t, the rest of Equestria could end up looking just like these three unfortunate places.” She continues before images of Zephyr Heights, the island with the volcano, and Askari's village, all destroyed, pop up.
After roughly 10 seconds, more than 100 comments and counting were on the screen, rooting for Midnight and saying some very mean things about Sunny. It broke everyone’s hearts to see ponies turning on Sunny so easily and possibly them. Sunny suddenly groaned in pain as her eyes started blackening again and instantly, Artemis and Brightburn were right by her side, using a spell to keep the darkness under control and dull her pain. Everyone then heard Midnight say something that sent chills through their bodies.
“Then you can all join me in Maretime Bay during the time of my next broadcast, that’s where I’m going now to begin the next part of my plan. Sadly I will have to use force to take over, lethal if necessary. I do hope you all understand. But don’t worry, it’ll all be worth it in the end.. see you all soon.” She says before the broadcast ends and everyone has shocked and horrified looks on their faces.
“Oh no.. she’s on her way here! We need to get Sunny out of here!” Brightburn says frantically and everyone agrees and someone bursts through the doors, catching them all off guard until they see Phyllis.
“I heard everything, and I want you to take Sprout with you.” She says and Sprout looks shocked and shakes his head, disagreeing with her decision.
“What about you Mom?! I can’t just leave you here!” he says and Phyllis sadly shakes her head and that’s all the answer he needs to know that she’s not planning to go and that she knows her own fate. “I can’t go.. I won’t go!” he says and Phyllis suddenly glares at him.
“This is not up for discussion Sprout!! You have to-“ she starts to say but before she can finish that last sentence, she hears ponies coming and they sound angry and she realizes they must be coming for Sunny. “Damnit.. please just go Sprout.. I’ll be alright.” she says, trying to reassure him and he hesitates before asking if she promises. She puts her hands on either side of his face, smiling at him. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye..” she says before kissing his forehead and walking out, leading everyone towards the emergency exit. She lets them all go through and closes it when they’re gone, praying for the safe return of her son.. and for Sunny to wake up and stop this madness.. someday.
Behind the hospital
“Come on! Thunderbird called HQ and told them to send a jet right away. It should be right up this way!” Artemis says to everyone as they run as far away from the hospital as they can, Sunny on Thunderbird’s back. As they got to the small ship, everyone boarded very quickly, Artemis going to the front seat on the left and using the controls to turn the airship on and slowly lift off. Everypony else looked through the back and saw ponies running towards the ship and Hitch urges Artemis to speed up the process. And speed it up, she did. They were out of there faster than you could process.
As they flew out of the area, everyone sighed in relief.. until Artemis let out a gasp of surprise, warned everyone to hold on, then made the ship take a hard right while spinning. After everyone got their bearings, they realized that she swerved past Midnight’s giant airship/armored blimp.
It started firing at them when they went past it and everyone had to hold on to something or each other once again as the ship dodged between blasts and they eventually manage to escape. They all sigh in relief once again, Pipp having managed to stop herself from losing her lunch from yesterday. Izzy and Hitch sit down next to Sunny and frown. Everything was going so wrong.. and now they’re hope that everything would be alright again was depending.. on a long shot. They just had to hold strong.. for Sunny's sake.
Pipp and Zipp sit by them and Brightburn comforts Sprout who’s visibly upset about the entire situation. Thunderbird was now helping Artemis pilot the ship. They would be ok.. if the crystals didn’t just disappear into thin air when magic returned.. they were still out there somewhere.. they had to be.
Midnight was standing outside of Canterlogic, waiting for her many new recruits who were on their way after the recent broadcast she had made, stating that Sunny was alive and that she and her friends had left Maretime Bay so it was safe to come. She looked at all the prisoners she had taken in such a short time, including Phyllis Cloverleaf. She walked up to them and looked down at her, just glaring for a bit, earning a glare back from Phyllis. “Alright Mrs. Cloverleaf, I’m gonna ask you this one. More. Time.. Where did they go?” she asks and for a few seconds, Phyllis didn’t answer, so she hit her across the face, her cheek turning red really quick, her glasses flying off her face and breaking.
“I.. don’t.. know!! And even if I did, I’d die before I tell you!!” she yelled and Midnight picked her up by her throat, choking her and glaring daggers into her eyes.
“All of you will die if you DON’T.” She said, her grip tightening a little which made Phyllis struggle more until she loosened her grip and said something else. “I was planning to let your son live if I found them, but you’ve sealed his fate now.. he’s going to die along with the rest of them.. because of you.” she says before harshly dropping Phyllis and walking back to her spot. When she turned around, she saw hundreds of ponies if not more coming into town and walking up to the building. They all had some weapons, melee ones that is, the kind that require close combat. “That certainly won’t do.” Midnight said to herself before she walked up to them and welcomed them, ignoring the glares she got from her prisoners.
“I’m so glad you all could make it! We have a lot to discuss!” She said to her new followers as they all bowed to her. She smiled and signaled them all to rise, which they did. “As you all know, Sunny Starscout is still out there, so are her little friends. I’m counting on all of you to find them, bring them to me alive.. but not unharmed. They will fight back, and hard, so you have to fight harder, smarter, faster. Luckily for all of you, we can provide the training you all need and the weapons.” she said and they all sigh in relief and she chuckles. “You all need not be afraid, Sunny’s weakened, so she’s on the run. She’ll be on defense.. meanwhile all of you.. are on offense. Now go inside and start training.. unless some of you wanna go with Magma here..” she says as she gestures to Magma who walks up until she’s standing right next to Midnight. “And help her capture a certain zebra who was working with Starscout.” she continues and a few unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies raise their hands, earning a nod from her.
“Alright then, get a move on. The Deathbolts will lead you all to where they last saw her.” she says and everyone gets a vehicle, including Magma who has her own lava bike, courtesy of her's and Midnight’s magic combined. They all follow the Deathbolts as the rest just take the prisoners inside Canterlogic to a new prison that Midnight built under it. Midnight smiles and flys up, looking over Maretime Bay, readying her magic. “Meanwhile, since you’re all doing that.. I’ll take the time to give this place a little makeover.” she says as she takes out the bell and uses it’s magic and her own to reshape Maretime Bay.. into her image.
Back at HQ
After Artemis lands the ship, they all instantly get off it and walk inside, Izzy and Hitch carrying Sunny to the med bay. Sprout is absolutely amazed by the place and he looks around, Brightburn following him to make sure he doesn’t get lost. Zipp follows Artemis and Thunderbird to look over Argyle's notes while Pipp goes to the med bay to check on Sunny. After a few hours, everyone links up and Zipp explains that all they have to do is follow the landmarks. Artemis notices that there’s a spot on the map that’s glowing and Sunny’s rainbow strands of hair are glowing too. She gets an idea and takes the map and one of Sunny’s hands, placing it on the map and the spot glows more until it makes a shape.. and everyone realizes the shape matches the three crystals all together.
The landmarks start glowing too one at a time as if telling them where they need to go first to get there. It then glows more, making shapes on the map and they realize that those aren’t just any landmarks. Those are old kingdoms and cities from ancient times. Yakyakistan, the dragon lands, the changeling kingdom, ..Ponyville.. and Canterlot.. Everyone looks shocked as the historical locations light the way to their only solution to save their friend and most likely the rest of Equestria. After discussing a plan for about an hour, they decide to leave early in the morning.
Hitch volunteered to stay in the med bay and watch over Sunny and Izzy decided to do the same while everyone else got their rest. Izzy sat on the edge of the bed right next to Sunny and Hitch sat in a chair not too far away from it. He was so stressed out and upset.. he didn’t know what else to do but to go with the plan and try not to worry too much about Sunny.. but how could he not? Sunny was his best friend since foalhood and he already failed to protect her so many times.. he had to make things right. As he watched over her readings, he couldn’t help but chuckle at how much trouble Sunny used to get into, how much she still gets into. He looked at her and saw Izzy gently stroking Sunny's mane after noticing that Sunny’s face had scrunched up in pain and terror like she was having a nightmare but her expression was now a calm, peaceful one.
“You’re really good at that, huh?” Hitch asks, surprising and confusing Izzy for a few seconds until she catches on and answers.
“Whenever I used to have a nightmare when I was a foal, my mom would always comfort me in this exact same way.. I’m glad I get to share something of her's with Sunny.. besides my craftsmanship and creativity that is.” Izzy says with a halfhearted chuckle and Hitch chuckles too and smiles.
“You and Sunny are more alike than you know Izz.. Sunny learned everything she knew from her dad and he was all she had left..” Hitch says and Izzy looks at him then back at Sunny, frowning.
“So we both had single parents who taught us important things.. and when they died we had to live on our own but we somehow made it.. we both want a better world for everypony..” Izzy says and Hitch continues
“Aaand you’re both resilient, joyful, strong, beautiful and you both never give up no matter how tough things get.” and Izzy nods. “If all of those aren’t traits to admire, I don’t know what is.” he said and Izzy smiles. Then she sighs and looks at him
“Did.. did Sunny ever.. ya know.. fall in love or date somepony before?” Izzy asked and Hitch looked confused for a second then sat up to try and remember.
“Well.. yes actually.. with me.. we did date for a while when were younger but.. things got complicated when I found out she was bi.. then there was the fact that I had to uphold the law and Sunny kept breaking it obviously no matter how many times I pleaded for her to stop.. after a while I just.. couldn’t deal with it anymore so.. we broke up.. and sure I’d be lying if I said I didn’t still feel something for her every now and then but.. I’ve moved on and so has she, we’re both fine with just being friends.. plus I kind of have my eyes on.. somepony else now.” He says hesitantly and Izzy goes wide eyed and is suddenly in his face with a huge smile on her face.
“Oh really? Who’s the lucky pony?! Is it Pipp?! Ooh! Or Zipp?! One of those two or somepony else?!” she asks excitedly, all those questions in less than 5 seconds. Hitch gently pushed her back by the snout and she noticed that he had blushed when she mentioned Pipp.. or Zipp maybe? She gasps and squeals. “It is one of them isn’t it?!” she asks and he sighs and hesitantly nods. She picks him up in a hug so tight he can hardly breathe.
“Izzy.. can’t.. breathe..!” he says with a hoarse, quiet voice and she lets him go and smiles sheepishly, apologizing.
“Don’t worry Hitch. Your secret’s safe with me!” Izzy says and Hitch chuckles, rubbing one of his arms which were still sore from the bear hug he had just received.
“Thanks Izzy.. really appreciate it..” he says as he sits down and she goes back to Sunny and continues stroking her mane. “Your secret’s safe with me too.” he thinks to himself as he watches Izzy continue to soothe the damaged, terrified mind of his best friend. Just from the display of affection, he knew that Izzy would always be there for Sunny.. she would take care of her.. and he was just fine with that.
As Askari fixed her new bike which was now painted black and white and had her magic on the wheels, she thought back to when her parents first taught her to ride one. She was 16 at the time and yet she wanted to learn before she entered adulthood. She was always a fast learner and they took pride in that and so did she. This magic inside her though.. she was told that only a few select zebras in the past have had this magic, one that she knew she would always remember, Zecora, she had helped the old guardians, using her magic to protect herself and others.. and look how Askari turned out. Instead of using her powers to help and protect others, she used them to hurt countless innocent ponies.. she used them for revenge.. and that wasn’t what Zecora.. or her parents would’ve done if it was her who was buried right now instead of them. Her ears twitch when she hears a noise and stops what she’s doing. She slowly puts down the tool and picks up her sword which was right next to her in it’s sheath. As soon as she grabbed it, the magic inside it and her formed around it and she stood up and walked around slowly and quietly to avoid alerting any intruders if there were some. For all she knows it could’ve been an animal knocking something over.
As she peaked around one corner, she noticed somepony sneaking around.. and they had a weapon, a spiked baseball bat. She ducked down and slowly walked towards the pony and readied her sword to attack. She slowly stood up and raised it and was about to slice the pony in two but then a Deathbolt smashes through the roof and tries to sting her with its mechanical tail but she dodges it, cuts it off, and kicks the Deathbolt into the other pony. Seeing that they’re right by a huge metal shelf, she quickly makes it fall on them before they can get up. She hears more ponies running towards her location and quickly grabs one of her guns out of one of many of her hiding places. She didn’t wanna kill anypony else but it was them or her. At the very least, she would try to avoid shooting them too many times or in any vital places and avoid slicing off any limbs if she could.
She pointed her gun towards one entrance to where she was and shot as soon as she saw the first pony run through, hitting them in the arm. She knocks them out and uses her sword to deflect one pony's magic attack and send it back at them. A pegasus kicks her in the back and she rolls forward and onto her back, shooting the pegasus and making them fall back.
She gets up and runs off, fighting her way to one of her secret doors/hiding spots. She locks the entrance and quickly grabs her armor, putting it on and grabbing as many weapons as she could carry. She had to get as far away as possible. She didn’t know who these ponies were or why they were after her.. or did she? She could figure it out later, right now she needed to get out of the room and get to her motorcycle. She breathed in and out, using her ears and her magic to pinpoint the location of everypony in the building. Their negative emotions being detected by her magic. A new trait of it that she picked up yesterday. She unlocked the door and quickly jumped up, hanging above it in a split. A few seconds later, it opens and two Deathbolts walk in and one unicorn, one pegasus and one earth pony all walk inside and she senses that there are more outside so she waits till they’re far enough before breaking the split and swinging through the doorway, kicking the ponies outside it back and then locking the door and using her magic to change the lock in a way that makes it so it locks on the outside.
She then proceeds to fight the ponies that she had kicked, making quick work of them then going to where her motorcycle is and starting it up and opening the garage door. She quickly grabs a picture of her and her parents before driving out, closing the door behind her. She gets a fair distance away before the temperature starts to raise drastically and the ground starts to shake and crack. She looks confused and looks behind her to see what’s going on but all she’s sees is the garage fading away into the distance and.. a ball of fire following her? She looks even more confused until the fire dims out and she sees a unicorn.. made of lava.. on a lava bike. She’s so confused but she continues driving as fast as she can and suddenly the unicorn starts throwing fire at her and making lava jump out of the ground in front of her and she dodges all of it.
Magma growls in annoyance but then smirks, getting an idea and she makes lava spew out of the ground in front of and beside Askari so she can’t move then she throws fire again, hitting her wheel and making her crash, her and her bike tumbling painfully down a hill, Askari losing weapons and armor the whole way down. By the time she stopped herself from rolling, she was between the hill and a cliff. Magma was slowly coming down the hill, setting fire to every blade of grass she walks over. Askari slowly gets up, weakened and grabs one of her pistols and points it at her. “Who.. are you..? What do you want from me?!” she yells weakly, genuinely confused about why she was attacked so suddenly and who this pony was.
The unicorn giggles, ignoring Askari's question and gesturing towards the gun. “Planning to shoot me somewhere else other than my leg this time? Better make sure your shot kills me this time cause I won’t stop until you pay.. for every. Single. Life. that you stole or ruined on my island. Two days ago.” she says and Askari looks shocked as she slowly remembers the unicorn that she had shot trying to protect Sunny.. she also remembered that this same unicorn was buried in lava so.. that must be how she got like this. The unicorn blasts lava at her and Askari blasts her own magic at the lava, holding it back but she’s starting to slide back and towards the edge of the cliff.
“I’m sorry ok?! For everything!! I didn’t have a choice!!” she yells, trying to appeal to the unicorn, hoping she would spare her but she freezes up when the unicorn scoffs and says the same thing she said to Sunny after Midnight captured her.
“Pretending to be sorry for what you did? Have you no shame at all?!” she screams and the lava gets stronger and Askari tries stopping from sliding off but it’s no use. She was gonna die here.. but on the bright side, she would be reunited with her parents.. she closed her eyes and started to accept her fate but then an explosion knocked the unicorn through a tree and Askari stopped her magic. She fell to her knees, exhausted and looked around for what or who had caused the explosion and she sees.. an alicorn. This one looking only a few years older than Sunny and this one had a dark blue coat and a long blue mane. Askari looked and noticed that wasn’t a normal explosion.. it was an ice explosion and Magma was now weakened and one of her arms were frozen.
“What are you waiting for?! Grab her and let’s go, they’re coming!” said another alicorn, this one having a dark pink mane and a pale yellow coat, her horn constantly glowing a bright yellow. They both had armor on but it wasn’t like Midnight’s. It was more.. new, advanced but at the same time it was mixed with ancient armor. The blue alicorn picked up Askari while the yellow one grabbed whatever weapons of her's had made it down the hill with her and her bike. The yellow one then readied a spell when she saw the rest of Magma's allies coming, her horn glowing way more. She released the spell, blasting it towards the ground in front of them. Literal sun rays are what the spell looked like and when the spell hit, a massive explosion knocked them all off their bikes and even made the Deathbolts crash into the ground or in trees. She then joined her friend in heading back to where they and a few others were camped.
“W-who.. who are you..?” Askari asks and the blue one gently shushes her, noticing how injured and tired she was.
“Don’t try to speak, you’re exhausted but to answer your question.. we’re just a couple of ponies trying to make a difference. And that starts with helping you.” she says and the other alicorn scoffs and mumbles out.
“Even though you don’t deserve it.” She says, earning a zap of magic to the shoulder from her friend. Askari tried to stay awake but eventually she couldn’t help it and she passed out, more confused than anything.. but just glad to be safe.
The journey had been long and exhausting but now it was almost over. The group had stopped at all the ancient kingdoms and cities and they had met the outstanding creatures that resides in them. After hearing that Sunny was the new alicorn, destined to uphold Twilight’s legacy, they were all very eager to help her out anyway they could and even took care of her while the others explored and looked for clues as to why the magic and the map led them to their homes. Surprisingly enough, what they had found at five of the cities were fragments of the elements of harmony. When they asked Ember where the mane 6's dragon friend was, she just told them she didn’t know. Ember had said that he’d been gone so long she’d have to assume he’s died by now or wasn’t unfrozen from time yet if he was in the first place. But either way, if the map was intentionally leading them to the elements or pieces of them, then maybe they had something to do with the crystals. So far they had found the elements of laughter, kindness, generosity, honesty, and loyalty. Which left just one.
Magic.
Ponyville was the last place to look before they could go to the last city which, thankfully, wasn’t far from Ponyville. When they finally saw Ponyville for the first time, they were surprised by how beautiful it was, looking even better than it did back in the ancient times. New buildings, celebration decorations everywhere, probably to celebrate being back in the world, and there was a huge statue of all the mane 6 together right in the middle of the town. They all got out of the airship, Izzy carrying Sunny who hadn’t even moved for the entire journey but her condition has gotten worse and the area around her eyes was now darkened for quite a while. Everyone was increasingly worried about her but they knew they had to stay strong for her sake. Artemis led them through Ponyville, right to where Twilight’s old castle was.
A few ponies had seen them and welcomed Artemis back to Ponyville and when they heard about Sunny and what she was meant to do, they decided ti help spread the word which didn’t catch the group’s attention. When they walked inside the castle, Luster Dawn, the young 6, Starlight Glimmer, Trixie, Sunset, Sunburst, and Tempest were already in there. “Artemis! You’re back!” All of Twilight’s students say, embracing her in a group hug, even Luster Dawn had joined in. Artemis hugs them all back as best she can. After the hug ended, she was bombarded with a bunch of questions like where had she been or who the others are or what’s even going on.
“Guys.. guys!! Listen.. I’ll explain everything but right now we need to find Twilight’s element before it’s too late.. this young alicorn is dying and she needs the crystals that Twilight and the other’s elements can lead us to. So do you know where it is?” she asks hopefully but that hope dies when they all frown and shake their heads. She walks over the friendship map and sits in Twilight’s chair, sighing in defeat.
“Then.. Midnight’s won.. there’s no way to stop her.. I’m so sorry Twilight..” she says before taking the crystals out of her bag and looking at them. She looks confused when she sees them glowing a bit. She moves her hand around the room and notices that when she moves it further away from Sunny, they glow less so she points them towards Sunny and they glow a lot more. “Hmmm.. I wonder..” she says before walking towards Sunny, grabbing her hand, and placing it on the crystals and they glow as much as they can, creating a blinding multicolored light show. The fragments go to the thrones of their past bearer and illusions start to form as if the crystals are trying to show them what happened. The crystals continue to get brighter until an outburst of magic shakes the ground and the castle. Everyone looks confused and more than a little worried and even more so when they hear something. Suddenly a bright purple light forms in the room, blinding everyone even more.
When it calms down a little, they all look and see that it’s.. Twilight’s element, only slightly damaged with a few tips of the points missing and a crack in the middle. Everyone looks amazed when it goes to Twilight’s throne and floats just like the other elements and together, they complete the illusion and the mane 6 all form, transparent along with the whole, non-damaged versions of their elements. Twilight stands up in her throne and looks at the others, giving a nod as they all take off their elements which were part of their outfits/armor and the elements float to Twilight and she takes off her own and it starts floating with the others and they all spin so fast it would be impossible to focus on one. They float high above the table and soon, above the castle and everyone goes outside to see what happens and see that there are illusions of everyone else in Ponyville. They all close their eyes as Twilight uses a spell on them then on the elements and in a matter of moments, the crystals are formed.. and the elements fall out of the sky. Twilight frowns and catches them, frowning more as she sees that they’ve turned a dull grey now from the lack of magic inside them.
“Thank you..” Twilight says sadly, then she teleports the elements away and brings the crystals down to herself then turns to everyone else. “These should be guarded in Canterlot.. I’ll take them there myself. Thank you so much everypony for your love, encouragement and cooperation, thanks to you, Equestria’s magic will not disappear.” she says to everypony, earning cheers from them and a smile on her own face. After that, the illusion disappears and the fragments reappear. Everyone was so shocked and excited to see the faces of their friends again, even if they weren’t real. Artemis was especially shocked because she just figured out what all of that meant.
“So Twilight didn’t just make the crystals.. she used the elements to do it.. and the love and friendship of the three races to do it.. and the crystals are in Canterlot.” she says before smiling and turning to Sunny. “Just hold on a little longer Sunny.. you’ll be better soon.” she says and she puts all the elements in her bag and looks at the others. “Let’s get her back to the airship so we can get to Canterlot.” she says and a purple flash of lightning startles everyone until they realize it’s just Scootaloo but she looks very worried.
“Scootaloo, what’s wrong?” asks Starlight, walking up to her and patting her on the back to help her calm down.
“M-Midnight.. she’s on her way.. but it’s JUST her, no army, no Deathbolts, no airship.. nothing.” she says, still out of breath and Artemis and the rest of the group all freeze up.
“Oh no.. she must know we’re looking for the crystals.” Hitch says.
“All of you go! We’ll keep her busy!” Tempest says and they all nod and run to the ship and get on it quickly and Thunderbird makes the ship lift off and drives it towards Canterlot.
Everypony else goes to the side of Ponyville that Scootaloo just came racing through. The Cutie-mark Crusaders join the crowd just as Midnight flys through a cloud and makes a hard landing in front of everyone, cracking the ground. She slowly stands up and looks at everyone with an evil smirk on her face. “Hello everyone, miss me?” she asks, earning unamused angry looks from everyone. “Good good, uh hey could you do me one favor? See I’m looking for a few ponies, one is unconscious, has orange fur, purple mane, transparent golden wings and horn? Rainbow stripe in her mane?” she asks and no pony answers and she gives an annoyed sigh. “One way or another..” she begins as she readies her magic and gets ready to fight. “-you will tell me what I want to know.” she continues.
“We’ll never tell you anything Midnight, nothing except that you’re not welcome here or anywhere else in Equestria.” says Starlight, her tone carrying a lot of venom. Midnight glares at her and as she gets ready to attack, Starlight whistles and Midnight is suddenly attacked by the Dazzlings and everyone else takes the chance to attack her as well.
As Thunderbird landed the ship just outside of Canterlot, everyone else got up and ready to get out. Their time was short now, soon Midnight would come after them and most likely capture and kill Sunny, then they would all be next. As soon as the blast doors opened, they all ran out and quickly explained to the guards what was happening and what they needed to do. Artemis lets the elements lead them all to the crystals, which were deep beneath Canterlot. They were right above a pit full of glowing water in a massive cave full of glowing gems. It was extremely beautiful but they had no time to stop and admire it.
They tried getting the crystals but they just would not budge no matter what they did. When they brought Sunny closer, the crystals, and the water started glowing more, so they hesitantly put Sunny in the water and let her float.. then she sinks as the water glows even brighter. When she sinks, the elements float out of Artemis’s bag and go to some sort of structure made of stone and they become attached to it in a specific order. Everypony quickly recognizes what it is when a multicolored wall of energy swirls and spins in the middle.. it’s a portal. The ground rumbles for a split second and everyone looks confused and takes out their weapons when it does it again. Pipp feels a warm gust of wind behind her but then realizes it’s not wind.. it’s breath.. dragon breath.
She slowly looks behind her and sees nothing but darkness.. until two eyes open and two green orbs look down at her with a piercing gaze. She screams and everypony quickly turns to her and look shocked, Zipp quickly moving Pipp out of harm’s way as the dragon breathes fire at them and they all dodge it. The dragon slowly gets up and glares at them all. They all stand their ground until he swings at them and they dodge it and Thunderbird blasts lightning at him while Artemis slashes him while flying around him, the mane 5, Brightburn and Sprout all attack him at once.
While Pipp is distracted, she gets hit by his tail and tumbles for a bit before stopping. She tries to get up and sees him about to step on her from backing up. She grunts in pain as she tries to get up but seeing that she isn’t gonna be able to, she closes her eyes and braces herself and for a few seconds nothing happens so she opens her eyes and sees Hitch.. keeping the dragon's foot from crushing them, his eyes and veins glowing green and yellow a bit. He looks at Pipp with concern in his eyes. “You.. ok?” He asks with a grunt to a still shocked Pipp who has to pick up her own jaw.
“Y-Yeah, I’m ok.. how are you even..?” she starts to ask but he tells her to hold on a second as he pulls one arm back to make a fist and unknown to him, a transparent bear claw surrounding his fist. He uppercuts the dragon's foot, scratching it and knocking the dragon off balance. Everypony is absolutely stunned by Hitch's newfound strength and Artemis smiles.
“Looks like we know who got Applejack's ability.” she says but before Hitch can respond, the dragon roars and breathes fire at them.
“NO!!!” Zipp yells as the fire reaches them both, the last thing she sees being Hitch covering Pipp to try and protect her but she knows it wasn’t enough. They were both fried now.. at least she thinks so until she sees the fire going around them and when she looks to see how, she sees that a wall of ice is protecting them, for now at least. She grabs them and gets them out of the area in less than a second. They all look around and see Izzy’s eyes are glowing a blue-ish white and she touches the ground and a mountain of ice surrounds the dragon. Izzy sighs as she calms down. “Where are these powers even coming from?!” Zipp asks, completely lost about that, most likely just as much as everyone else. Artemis shrugs and the dragon's head breaks free and he roars at all of them, breathing fire everywhere.
“Ok ok everyone I have an idea. Izzy, I need you to make a small ice mountain to bounce me up while Zipp and the others keep the dragon distracted and get it's head in position. And Pipp, remember that new ability you got.. yesterday I think? You can make a lightning lasso and swing me around until I go fast enough, then on my signal, I want you to make it disappear. And Izzy, once the dragon is knocked out, I need you to trap it in ice.” he says and after explaining, everyone nods and goes to do their parts. Hitch runs out while the dragon is distracted and Izzy makes a mountain of ice form fast enough to launch him into the air and Pipp makes her lasso made of purple and yellow lightning and he grabs it and as soon as he does, she swings him around really fast, Zipp helping them so he goes fast enough pretty quick.
Soon Hitch gives her the signal and the lasso disappears and when it does, he goes flying towards the dragon’s face and makes the bear claw again and punches it, causing a shockwave from how hard he hit it. The dragon is knocked out instantly and Izzy once again traps it in ice. They all take a few minutes to relax and enjoy the victory. It doesn’t last long when Midnight smashes through the roof of the cave and lands in front of them all. She smiles at them all.
“Oh thank you so much for making this easy for me. I’m so grateful that I just might spare your lives. But.. I wouldn’t get my hopes up.” she says and everyone gets ready to fight. One way or another, Midnight wouldn’t get anywhere near Sunny, even if it meant they would die in the end. Suddenly the cave started to rumble and the portal starts glowing more and getting bigger. The pool starts glowing gold and everyone looks confused, even Midnight. Rainbow colored magic shoots out of the portal towards Midnight, knocking her out of the castle and all the way back to Ponyville and the magic goes into the sky, opening a bigger portal.
Everyone looks shocked and even more so when they look behind them and see Sunny floating, her hair flowing and her eyes, wings, and horn glowing more than they ever have. She had a golden aura surrounding her body like she was on fire. She flew outside and shot a beam of magic into the portal and after about one minute, a beam of rainbow magic crashes into the center of Ponyville and Midnight gets up, shaking her head as she looks at the magic and looks a bit terrified as she realizes what was coming out of that portal.. or should I say who? When the magic stopped, everyone gasped as they saw 6 familiar faces. Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash.. and Twilight Sparkle herself. They all slowly open their eyes and look around, and Sunny smiles a bit.
“Welcome home..” she says.. before her magic disappears and she passes out, starting to plummet to her own doom.
Sunny wasn’t even halfway towards the ground yet before Rainbow Dash had caught her and landed, gently setting her down somewhere safe.. well safer than the center of town anyway. She then raced back to her friends who were all staring down Midnight who was trying her best to hold her ground and not look nervous. “Figures you all would still be alive.. but I’ll be sure to change that this time.” she said and Twilight walked ahead of her friends and readied her own magic which was weaker after being asleep/frozen for a thousand years, but it was better than nothing.
“I don’t know how you’re back Midnight, but me and my friends stopped you once, and we’ll do it again!” she says with a determined look on her face but after a few seconds, Midnight just laughs.
“Oh Princess.. never a dull moment with you is there? That was when you were all younger and stronger.. now you’re all just a bunch of tired old mules. Meanwhile..” she says as she readies her magic, a few glowing markings forming on her body and armor. “I’ve never felt more awake and alive!” she continues and fires her magic towards them and they all split up, trying to surround Midnight. Rarity using her ice magic to pretty much skate around her and Rainbow Dash flys around her with that same daredevil-ish speed that she always had, even going faster than she could before. Applejack and Pinkie Pie both run straight at her and Fluttershy and Twilight both keep her still, Twilight using magical chains and Fluttershy using her powers over nature to make vines hold her down.
Rainbow dash hits Midnight with a lightning bolt and Rarity blasts ice balls at her, immobilizing her even more. Pinkie and Applejack both jump at her, Applejack's right leg glowing orange and Pinkie’s left one glowing blue and pink as they kick her as hard as they can, sending her sliding back across the ground and soon going IN it, making a trench. Rainbow Dash laughs as she lands by the rest of her friends. “Yep, we still got it.” she says and Applejack agrees while stretching.
“Like we never even left.” she says before bumping Rainbow’s fist with her own.
Twilight can’t help but give a giggle before she sees Midnight getting up. “Focus up girls, she’s not down for the count yet.” she says and everyone gets ready again. Midnight laughs loudly and blasts magic at them again but this time when they dodge, she’s prepared and she wraps magic tendrils around them and starts shocking them nonstop and swinging them around, slamming them into the ground, buildings, and even the statue of all of them, destroying it. She then throws them all back in separate directions, all of them receiving painful and bumpy landings. Twilight rolls to a stop, quickly getting on all fours and once again engaging in combat with Midnight. “Why did you have to come back?!” Twilight says, the rage evident in her voice as she tackles Midnight and kicks her up into the air before flying at her again. “Why didn’t you just learn your lesson?!” she asks before punching Midnight and sending her at least 30 feet back before she managed to stop. She smirks at Twilight and grabs something out of her back pocket and wipes the blood from her lip.
“Oh Twilight.. I did.” She says and Twilight growls and flys at her and once she’s close enough, Midnight takes out the alicorn amulet, puts it on and uppercuts Twilight, her punch packed with powerful magic and immense alicorn strength. The impact was hard enough to cause a shockwave that cleared the sky of any clouds in less than two seconds. “The question is-“ Midnight starts before flying up to where Twilight had stopped at. “did you?” she asks before slamming her fists down on Twilight’s chest, knocking her all the way back down to Ponyville. She then dives down and stomps on Twilight’s chest, knocking all the air out of her lungs. “See you may put on a brave face and look like a fully grown alicorn on the outside, but on the inside, you’re just a scared little filly who has no idea how to stand up to their demons.. to their bullies.. to their fears.. like I was.” she says before stomping on Twilight again in anger.
“You’re just the younger version of me, the weaker version, the little girl who couldn’t face reality after her entire family was taken away from her, right before her very eyes!! You think what I did to you before was bad?! Oh it can’t even hold a candle to what I’ll do to you and everyone else in this.. new Equestria. I’m already thinking of the most painful ways to hurt you, like say.. tearing off Rainbow Dash’s wings right in front of you?” she says as she levitates Rainbow Dash, who had been knocked back along with everyone else after Twilight crashed into Ponyville, over to them and begins tearing her wings off, causing her to struggle, squirm and scream in pain. Seeing and hearing Rainbow Dash in so much pain, something in Twilight broke and her anger reached an incredible height, a very familiar one. Her horn started glowing and so did her body as a few familiar ancient glowing purple markings formed on her face and her eyes started glowing a bit.
“Let. HER. GO!!!” she yelled, really channeling her inner Luna as she used the royal Canterlot voice. A burst of magic exploded out from her body and Midnight was knocked far away from her and Rainbow Dash. Twilight quickly got up and caught Rainbow Dash and gently set her down against a building. “Rainbow, are you ok?!” She asks frantically and Rainbow Dash can’t help but chuckle.
“Geez egghead, no offense, but you really do worry wayyyy too much. Especially about me of course I’m fine. Now go show her who’s boss!” she says and Twilight smiles and nuzzles her before flying up using all her strength or atleast half of it, slightly cracking the ground. As she glared at Midnight she couldn’t help but feel as much hatred as she did in the past for.. what Midnight made her into.
“Let me make something perfectly clear to you Midnight.. If you touch her or any of my friends ever again.. I’ll do more than just trap you this time! I’ll make you wish you had never. Been. Born!” she yells and Midnight scoffs and yells back.
“Little late for that, like.. 3,000 years late, remember?” she asks and Twilight growls. “And if you think that was the worst I could do?!” she chuckles before continuing. “Hon, I was just getting started. And don’t worry, I’ll make sure your precious little Rainbow suffers before they all die!!” she yells and that was the last straw for Twilight as she yells in unadulterated hatred and blasts her most powerful spell at Midnight that was meant to incinerate her but Midnight absorbs the magic from the spell and sends it right back at her. Twilight tries blocking it but it breaks her shield pretty quick, and she knew it would. The shield was meant to at least stop the spell from killing her and it did it’s job. She crashes through Ponyville, tumbling all the way to the other side of it, losing a lot of her armor in the process. Midnight flys up and is about to finish her off but then she holds her chest and groans in pain. She growls at nothing in particular. “You little.. ugh!! I guess our fight will have to continue another time princess! I’ve got some business to attend to! Until next time Twilight Sparkle!” she yells before looking at where Sunny is and glaring. “You too.. Sunny Starscout.” she says quietly before teleporting away. Twilight’s friends all rush to her and make sure she’s ok and she is but just barely.
“I’ll be fine.. Rainbow, where did you put the other alicorn?” She asks and Rainbow gives a sheepish look before disappearing and reappearing in a flash of lightning, having Sunny with her when she comes back. “Ok good, she’s safe.” she says, sighing relief before they all take time to get her to a better place before catching up with their old friends and students and even family members. Sunny’s friends arrive after a few minutes of taking a break but now.. they were on the dragon who everyone quickly recognized to be Spike, he was alive. After seeing Twilight and the others, he came out of his wild, giant state and turned back into his teenage self and hugged them all. Discord had even showed up along with Celestia, Luna, and Cadance to welcome them all back, especially Fluttershy. Twilight looked at Sunny and saw her friends all gathered around her and frowned. She didn’t know what all had happened while they were gone but she did know that if Midnight had put Sunny through the same thing that she had been through, then when Sunny woke up.. the path to recovery ahead of her would be a long, harsh, and unforgettable one. It would take a while but maybe, just maybe.. Sunny could be alright again.. she could be happy. She could stop Midnight.. once and for all.
As Sunny wakes up she realizes that her eyelids feel incredibly heavy and she feels more tired than she’s ever been, like she ran from Maretime Bay to Zephyr Heights to Bridlewood and back to Maretime Bay at least three times. As she tries to sit up, she feels a sharp pain in her back and realizes that.. she can’t feel her legs. As soon as the realization hit her, so does the natural response that anyone would have: panic. Fear. She looks around and realizes that she’s in a hospital but.. it was different from Maretime Bay’s hospital. She sees Izzy in a chair right next to her, sleeping while sitting up. She must’ve been pretty tired.
“I.. Izzy?” Sunny calls weakly, her voice hoarse and quiet. It got the unicorn to wake up though, much to Sunny’s surprise. As soon as Izzy sees Sunny's eyes open she gasps and hugs Sunny and Sunny prepares for the pain of the unicorns signature bear hug but the hug was very gentle as if Izzy knew how much pain Sunny was in and how much more she’d be causing to her if she hugged her so tightly.
Sunny wraps one of her arms around the unicorn and felt her shaking.. then she heard crying coming from the unicorn and weakly nuzzled her. Izzy gently nuzzles back, still crying tears of joy. “You’re finally awake.. I was so afraid you would.. We were all so worried about you..” she says with a shaky voice. Sunny frowns and wraps both her arms around her with as much strength as she can muster.
“You.. don’t have to.. worry anymore.. I’m right here..” Sunny struggles to say and her head starts hurting and Izzy notices her cringe and gently lays her back down. “Wait Izzy.. what.. why can’t I.. feel my legs..?” Sunny asks and Izzy freezes up and hesitantly looks at Sunny.
“I.. I can’t explain that yet.. they took an X-ray to make sure everything was in order like an hour ago but.. they still haven’t confirmed whether or not you’re gonna fully recover. But they did have a theory and.. I don’t think you’ll like it..” she says, trailing off at the end but the look on Sunny’s face was like she was begging Izzy to tell her the truth. Izzy sighs and grabs one of Sunny’s hands, preparing Sunny and herself for what she was about to say. “They think.. they think the magic from the crystals combined with the dark magic that was already in your system.. they think it damaged your muscles.. and your spine. I’m.. I’m so so sorry Sunny.” Izzy says, beginning to cry again and Sunny was frozen in shock and fear. The weight of everything she had done and the consequences of her actions all came crashing down on her at once and she just.. shut down. Her mind struggled to cope with the weight of everything Midnight had forced her to do and say.. now it had to deal with this.
By the time Sunny had somewhat snapped out of it, all her other friends were already in the room but she was so shocked and distraught that she couldn’t do anything but look at them and silently apologize without saying anything. She at least visibly smiled at them a bit and was utterly shocked when she saw the six ponies that she’d admired and strived to be like since foalhood. Just the presence of her friends and her heroes in the same room with her brought Sunny back a bit from the brink of a mental shutdown. “Hello Sunny Starscout, it’s a pleasure to meet you, my name is Twilight Sparkle, these are my friends.” Twilight says before introducing all her friends and turning back to Sunny. “I just want you to know that no matter what Midnight has put you through.. I am so proud of all the good that you’ve done.. you and your friends.” she says and Sunny was even more shocked. Twilight Sparkle herself was.. proud of her? That helped quite a lot to help Sunny feel better but not even close to being even halfway back to her normal self.
“You have a long, tough road ahead of you my little pony.. but in the end I know you’ll do your best to make things right.. I see a lot of myself in you Sunny Starscout..” Twilight says as she places a hand underneath Sunny’s chin and raises her face until she’s looking up at her. “And I know you’ll make an amazing princess.. but just make sure you don’t make the same mistakes I made.. the same ones Midnight made.” she says and Sunny and everypony else looks confused, almost shocked to hear that Midnight might not have always been like.. well how she is now. Twilight notices their reactions and sighs, sitting down.
“Let me tell you all a story.. there was once a young filly.. purple coat, violet mane with sparkles in it.. a planet with a star in the middle of it for a cutie mark.. she was born into a family of royalty and was the most intelligent.. the most beautiful of her friends and family. She was also the most kind.. but arrogant.. greedy at times.. and easily prone to anger.. this young filly’s name.. was Solaris. Princess Solaris.. soon to be Queen. And this was probably 1,000 years before Celestia and Luna’s time so keep in mind that she was the actual first natural born alicorn, besides my niece, Flurry Heart.” she says and everyone nods before Twilight continues.
“One day Solaris's parents allow her to try and go to a school for highly skilled magic-users because they figured that even though she’s a princess, everypony should have an education, besides going to a school might give her ideas about what she could change as Queen. So she goes to the school and for a while it goes well but then she starts getting teased and judged unfairly by the other kids just because they were jealous of her being royalty and confused as to why she has to attend school since she’s a princess. Eventually she couldn’t take it anymore and lost control of her magic from all the anger and hated that she felt for one of the kids after they teased her, hit her, stole a bunch of things from her, including her crush which was the last straw and.. the magic targeted the source.. or sources of her anger and pain.. and killed at least 4 of her bullies, 4 innocent students, and 5 teachers.. and destroyed part of the school.. after that she was expelled and her family received a lot heat because of that.. the guilt she felt was immense.. she shut herself in her room for almost two weeks.” Twilight says, visibly struggling to keep it together as she explains the tragic backstory of her most dangerous and experienced enemy.
“Her mother got sick and one of her siblings was attacked.. they both died. She was so distraught that she just.. shut down for a while.” she says and Sunny goes wide eyed as she realizes that that happened to her and had her friends not showed up, she probably would’ve been so lost in her own guilty thoughts that she wouldn’t have noticed them at all. “After the funerals, Solaris's family was attacked, their house burning, ponies breaking in, and Solaris was the only alicorn. One of her siblings was crushed by debris, another one taken and killed, it was just her, her older brother, and her younger sister left along with their father. They saw an opportunity to escape and they took it but Solaris was trapped under debris at the last second and before her family could go back for her debris fell in front of them and blocked them off.. and Solaris had blacked out. When she woke up, all the ponies who attacked them were dead, their house was destroyed, and Solaris’s family seemed terrified of her and she had no idea why.. until her father explained that something had taken over her.. and she had been the one who killed those ponies.” Twilight said and everypony looked shocked as they continued to listen, actually starting to feel bad for Midnight now.
“Every now and then.. ever since that day Solaris would blackout for no reason and something terrible would happen soon after and she’d have no memory of it, yet everyone would look at her like they’d seen a ghost.. or something worse. Eventually the cause of the blackouts had spoken to her.. it gave itself a name: Midnight Starkiller. This.. dark entity was the very opposite of Solaris, it was cruel, merciless.. evil. One night Solaris got into an argument with her family about the blackouts and the risks they take just to protect her, which made her feel even worse for not being able to tell them the truth. That same night, Solaris woke up to find her family dead.. herself standing right in the middle of them.. holding a sword. That broke her so badly that the entity was able to take over completely.. and ever since then Midnight has been the one in control.. don’t you all see? Midnight has been the one causing so much pain and suffering.. not Solaris.. that’s not who she really is.” Twilight says, her voice just a bit shaky but after a few deep breaths, she manages to pull herself together.
Sunny frowns and looks down. She couldn’t believe that all of this.. was because of a bad decision and a few judgmental bullies. Sunny sighs as she realizes that she can’t change the past.. she can’t do anything in her current condition. As a matter of fact.. she didn’t even want to fight anymore. She just wanted to give up and let someone else stop Midnight.. she knew that even if she did stop her, nopony would forgive her for everything she’s done.. so why bother trying to earn redemption. “I understand.. and I wanna make this right.. I can’t stop her though.. I mean if you barely managed to stop her, how am I.. how are we supposed to do it? No.. this isn’t our fight anymore.. I don’t wanna fight anymore.. I don’t want anyone else to die because of me..” Sunny said, causing everypony to look at her with shock and disappointment.
“Can I talk to Sunny alone for a minute?” Twilight asks and everyone nods and steps out, Izzy hesitating until Hitch assured her that it won’t take long. After everypony was out of the room, Twilight stepped up to the bed and sat in the chair next to it. The look she had on her face was a stern but gentle one, but it still managed to make Sunny feel somewhat nervous. “Look I get it, Midnight has put you through a lot, and you’re scared.. not just for everyone else.. but also for yourself. It’s not getting hurt or killed that you’re afraid of.. it’s losing yourself.. losing your friends.. becoming someone you’re not and I can tell you right now that I’ve been in that exact same situation Sunny.. and let me tell you, it doesn’t get any easier.. but the important thing is making sure you can move on.. if not for yourself then do it for the ponies who love you. Ok? You can try at your own pace if you so choose.. but just think about it.. ok? Your friends need you.. all of Equestria needs you. So.. are you gonna step up or not.. the choice is yours.” Twilight says before standing up and starting to walk out. Just as she grabs the knob, she stops as she hears Sunny speak.
“I’ll do my best and make you proud.. I promise.” she says as she looks up for the first time in quite a bit. Twilight smiles at the determined look she has on her face that reminds her of herself from a younger age.
“I already am..” Twilight says while still smiling.
It had been three weeks since Sunny had woken up and brought back the Mane 6, and to say the least, it hasn’t been easy. Sunny was still in a depressed state as she slowly but surely healed from her injuries, mental and physical. Every now and then, Sunny would wake up from a nightmare, screaming and crying. They only continued to get worse and so did the tests to get Sunny her strength back. For every step she takes forward, she ends up falling two steps behind but as much as she wanted to give up, nopony would let her. She and everypony else were at the HQ for the “Wings of Equestria” as Artemis and Thunderbird call their organization. Sunny found herself staring out a window from the wheelchair they had given her, just reflecting on everything, everything she’d heard, seen, felt. She still couldn’t believe the truth behind Midnight, she doubted anyone else could either. How could anyone have such a terrible start in life as that and live for 3,000 years as a murderer? She just couldn’t understand that.
Sunny didn’t want to admit that she was still scared but she figured that everypony already knew. They could see it on her face, they could see it from the hesitation she displayed whenever it was time for another test. It was almost like she didn’t want to get better. The sad part is.. that’s partially true. She didn’t want to recover because she knew that if she did, she’d have to go against Midnight again.. she’d have to go right back into the war. But.. she knew she couldn’t give up, otherwise that would mean the end for all of Equestria. Sunny sighs and holds her head, shaking it slightly and slowly. Obviously she hadn’t been sleeping well and that was taking quite a toll on her mental and physical health. Her nightmares had often been about Midnight.. killing all her friends and destroying everything she ever loved.. but sometimes they were about Sunny actually stopping Midnight.. then turning evil again soon after and destroying Equestria herself.
She didn’t want either of those things to happen but she didn’t know what to do. She looks up at the cloudy, grey sky and frowns. “I wish you were here dad.. here to.. comfort me.. to tell me what the right thing to do is.. just anything.. I just wanna see you again.” Sunny says, beginning to cry until she hears a voice behind her.
“Well.. I may not be him but.. I’m hoping I can still help.” says Izzy before the unicorn walks up beside Sunny and sits by her. Sunny smiles a bit and wipes the tears that had already started to slide down her cheeks.
“Maybe you can.. If not, thanks for trying.” Sunny said and Izzy smiles and scoots closer to Sunny before nuzzling her, prompting the young alicorn to nuzzle her back. “I’m still.. I’m still scared Izzy.. I don’t know what the right thing to do is anymore..” Sunny says and Izzy frowns and nods, looking down before sighing.
“I’m scared too.. I’ve been scared ever since Artemis and Thunderbird told us we would probably have to fight to protect Equestria, and I’m not.. or I wasn’t much of a fighter.. truth is I’m still learning to fight.. and to accept the fact that sometimes you need to fight to protect what you love.. so when Midnight turned you evil.. I knew there and then that I had to fight.. for you.. for everypony.” Izzy says, and Sunny could’ve sworn she saw the faintest hint of a blush on Izzy’s face. Sunny had a feeling where this was going and normally she would’ve been nervous.. but given what she’d gone through in just one week’s time, she didn’t really feel nervous about anything but seeing Midnight again now.
“Izzy.. about that.. in Zephyr Heights.. you said you loved me.. and I need to know if you meant as a friend or.. something more?” Sunny says and Izzy looks increasingly nervous as she turns away from Sunny, blushing even more, and that was a good enough answer for Sunny, but she needed to hear Izzy say it, so as to avoid assuming the wrong thing. “Izzy.. please.” Sunny pleads the unicorn and Izzy slowly turns back to her and nods. Sunny was now confused, was that a yes for something more or just as a friend. “Izzy, do you love me as more than a friend or not?” Sunny asked with a stern voice and Izzy can’t take it anymore as she stands up quickly.
“Yes!! I do!” Izzy yells, her blush increasing as she feels more embarrassed than anything. She looks like she’s on the verge of crying and Sunny can’t help but ask.
“For how long?” Sunny asks and Izzy hesitates before answering.
“Ummm.. well.. I guess I would say I started feeling differently around you ever since.. ummm.. well the feelings just came as we were fixing the lighthouse and I got to know you better. I don’t know why it happened so suddenly but.. I..” Izzy tries to finish her sentence but she feels Sunny place a finger on her lips to keep her from rambling on.
“Hey.. I’m not judging, I.. I actually feel the same way.. I have for quite a while. So yeah, I’m a fillyfooler too.. well kinda.” Sunny says and Izzy can’t help but smile and hug her as tightly as she can.
“Well in that case.. Sunny.. do you wanna be my marefriend?” Izzy asks, her voice raising in pitch with every word and Sunny chuckles at the adorable voice crack that came from the unicorn and nods.
“Yes.. yes I do.” Sunny says and Izzy hugs her even tighter, nearly choking the life out of her. “Owowowow! Izzy.. Izzy need to breathe!” Sunny says with a strained voice and she notices something.. one of her legs.. it kicked.. and she could feel it. Her leg.. kicked.. and she feels her leg again.. both of her legs! Sunny laughs with joy and tells Izzy she can feel her legs again. They then go to tell the others, both of their new relationship and that Sunny can feel her legs again. Immediately, Artemis and Thunderbird put down the metal supports to help her walk. She slowly stands up out of her wheelchair with Izzy and Hitch’s help and tries using the supports to walk all the way to the end, slowly but surely making her way there. After taking at least five steps, Sunny gets a flashback to the torture and the killing and nearly falls, breathing in and out too fast to calm down. She nearly does fall until she hears Twilight’s voice.
“That’s all in the past Sunny.. you’re safe now.. but you must get over your fears if you wanna help keep others safe.. right now your mind and body think you’re still in danger.. remember that you’re not.” Twilight says and Sunny nods and breathes in and out slowly this time, continuing to go forward, no matter how much pain she’s starting to feel, no matter what she sees or hears. She made a promise to her dad that she would do her part, hoof to heart, and that’s just what she planned to do. After struggling for a bit, Sunny made it to the end.. and was actually standing up by herself.. even if her legs were a little shaky. Everypony ran to her and hugged her, congratulating her on how much progress she just made and she responded by telling them she couldn’t have done it without Izzy.. or any of them.. aaaand then she fell.
At Canterlogic, Inside the new throne room
As Midnight sat on her throne, she contemplated the life she used to have.. or should I say Solaris who was locked away inside Midnight and has been the entire time. Either way she used to have a great family, great friends and a great life.. and it was all taken from her.. mainly by herself. She noticed that something wet was sliding down her cheek and she wiped it off with a finger, realizing it was a tear.. seeing this and knowing it was from her weaker side.. it angered Midnight. She was about to have an outrage about this until.. she sensed something.. joy. Determination.. it was all coming from Sunny and she knew this could only mean one thing.. she had recovered or started to recover. All Midnight did.. was smirk. “About time..” she said as she stood up and started to walk out of the throne room. Just as she opened the door, someone was about to knock and ask permission to enter but they ended up accidentally knocking on her stomach.
As soon as they noticed, they started to panic and apologized nonstop and Midnight just rolled her eyes. “State your business.” she says sternly and with an annoyed tone. As they walked, the pony explained that someone had been breaking into their camps and freeing prisoners who were arrested for supporting Sunny. She teleported them to one of them and instantly recognized the markings of black and white magic left on some structures. “Askari..” Midnight says with a growl and the pony backs up in fear. Two guards walk up and say that she wasn’t alone, about five Alicorns and two hippogriffs were with her, along with a fiery looking pegasus and a unicorn who greatly resembled Twilight but looked different and had her mouth wrapped up.
“And one more thing, Magma said she knew the pegasus and the unicorn but didn’t understand why they were helping Askari.” one of the guards says and Midnight sighs, turning to the three ponies by her.
She looks at the most shy one and walks up to her. “Send a few ponies out into the sea, we need help from.. an old friend of mine. He’s going to go to Zephyr Heights to turn on the weather machine. And after that.. we are going to watch it all burn. I’ll send you his most recent location.” Midnight says and the unicorn nods quickly before teleporting back to Maretime Bay. She then turns the guards with a glare. “Both of you will go to a different camp and hopefully, for your sakes, not fail me again. Ok? I may be kind and forgiving now but I have a very low tolerance for ponies who fail me more than once.” she says with a threatening but tender tone and the ponies nod quickly and begin to pack and Midnight walks off and remembers what they said. “So there are more alicorns.. hm.. good. I was kinda hoping for a bit more of a challenge.” Midnight says while smiling a bit.. this was gonna be fun.
One of the guards that Midnight had sent to another base had started to question the behavior of the other one which involved sneaking away every now and then, skipping training, and often seeming disturbed whenever somepony talks about what Midnight will do to Zephyr Heights and the rest of Equestria. This was one of the many times when the guard had snuck away so he decided to follow her. What he found was truly a shock to him. There the guard was with the very ponies they were supposed to be hunting. They hadn’t noticed him so he had to stay quiet and out of sight. He decided to let them talk, see if he could figure out their plan. “You’re doing great Skylight, at this rate we’ll have destroyed all of Midnight's bases within another.. 6 days.” a yellow alicorn said, prompting the blue pegasus to frown. He was confused but not concerned.
“Six days? I don’t think I’ll even make it past the second one. Midnight said that if we fail one more time.. I don’t even wanna think about what she’d do.. we all see Midnight for who she really is.. but no one else does. And we have yet to find the location of Starscout and her friends..” she says with a disappointed and tired tone. “Besides Midnight is just gonna have more bases built and more people taken prisoner if they don’t choose to follow her instead of Sunny.” she continues, she notices that the purple unicorn tenses up and looks angry whenever they mention Sunny.
“Then maybe we can try and stop all this at the source.. Midnight.” came Askari’s determined response as she steps in between everyone. “If we play our cards right, we can take her down and make things right. We just have to stick together and work as a team.” she continues, earning hesitant looks from everyone around.
“It’d be better than saving ponies who support a real murderer.. but if we stop Midnight.. when is it Starscout’s turn? ..When does she pay for what she’s done?” Nebula asked, earning a sigh from her friend and disappointed or annoyed groans from the rest of the group.
“Nebula we talked about this, Sunny only did the terrible things she did because she was being controlled.” said Firestar, and she was about to continue but Nebula interrupted her.
“I. Don’t. Care. No matter what you say, you will never be able to convince me of that. Whenever I get the chance, I will kill her, no matter who tries to stop me. And you Askari, I may have sided with you for now, but to be clear.. nothing is forgiven.” She says while glaring right into Askari’s soul, the zebra seeming unfazed in the slightest about it.
“I know.. as for right now, Skylight, you should probably get back before someone starts to get suspicious.” she says and Skylight nods and puts her mask back on before starting to head back, the guard pony quickly hiding and planning to expose Skylight in front of everyone. He was just about to go do that but then he was grabbed from behind and strangled until he passed out. The pony that strangled him was a grey bat pony with dark blue hair. He had a hoodie over his head and a mask covering his mouth. He dropped the pony in front of the group and they all thanked him. “Good job Night Fury, thanks for looking out for us.” Askari says and the bat pony nods.
“So what’s the plan now?” he asks and everyone seems to think about it until the yellow alicorn, Sunstrider, spoke up and explained.
“For now, we wait until Skylight gives us the signal, then we move in quickly and quietly. No need for things to get bloody.” she says and everyone agrees. So that’s how their plan will go, now they just had to wait and hope it goes well.
Back at Wings of Equestria HQ
As Sunny unleashes blow after blow against the specialized punching bag, her friends watched with amazement as they could feel each blow from where they were sitting or standing and they saw how fast Sunny was delivering each punch. “She’s getting stronger by the hour, recovering way faster than we anticipated.” Thunderbird says to which everypony agrees until Artemis decided to remind them to be cautious.
“She’s still not fully recovered yet, there are still some mental wounds that need tending to and she’s still barely able to run. If she goes too hard, she’ll run herself into the ground. So she needs to be careful and we need to continue to be there for her, got it?” Artemis asks as she turns to them all and they nod. “Good.” she says before Twilight and her friends all burst in and they look frantic. “Twilight! Girls! What is it?!” she asks and after catching their breath, they all take turns speaking and explain that Midnight and a large amount of her army is on their way. Hearing this, everyone got nervous, especially Sunny. Her breathing quickened as soon as she heard that and fear started to overwhelm her.
“Nonononono.. no..” she says quietly as she starts to back up with a terrified look on her face. Immediately, Izzy was the first one by her side to comfort her.
“Hey hey hey, it’s ok, I know you’re scared, we all are, but we’ve got this.. together.” she says and it helped to calm Sunny down a little bit but the fear was still there. “We’ve got the light..” she starts.
“We’re coming in stronger..” Zipp says at the same time as her.
“We’re in it together.” Hitch continues for her.
“If you want it, it’s all inside your mind.” Pipp finishes and Sunny slowly looks up at them with every line of Pipp’s song. She smiles at them and grows a determined look on her face and nods. Twilight can’t help but smile proudly.
“You’re all right.. I’m sorry for.. letting fear get the better of me for a minute there.. let’s go show Midnight the true magic of friendship.” Sunny says, her confidence returning and the lifelong sparkle in her eyes coming back with a newfound determination. They all got up and went to prepare, if Midnight was gonna be there soon, they might as well show her and her army a few new “surprises” that had been set up just in case something like this ever happened. The best of it? Courtesy of Pinkie Pie and Izzy.
The closer the army got to the base, the more Sunny’s fear increased, but this time she was able to keep it in check. Her magic may be stronger now but it’s unpredictable. Along with hardly being able to run straight, Sunny couldn’t fully control her magic anymore, meaning she couldn’t activate it whenever she wanted anymore. She just hoped she wouldn’t need it and that the traps would keep Midnight and her army back and force them to retreat. Right now, she was on the roof, keeping a lookout and as soon as she saw one of the airships, she went inside to warn everypony. They wait for a bit before Pinkie Pie presses a button that activates a bunch of mines. Soon they all see explosions of pink and blue that doesn’t kill anyone but it does pack quite a punch and send ponies flying, knocking them out.
Pinkie Pie let’s out her signature laugh and gestures to Izzy, prompting her to use her scythe to cut a bunch of ropes connected to catapults. This causes some catapults to send weaponized sweets at the army and the airships and the biggest one sends a massive cake with a “surprise” inside it and when it hits the airship at the front, landing in one of the engines/turbines, the grenade or as Pinkie calls her specialized explosives: Party bombs, explodes, causing it to go down. “Whoohooo! That’s what I call an explosive party favor. Oh, and here come the party-poopers.” Pinkie says as she sees the Deathbolts flying towards them and they have a LOT more members now.
“Alright girls, you’re up!” Applejack says through the comm in her ear. “Show 'em who the better flyers are!” she yells and Rainbow, Fluttershy, Zipp, Pipp, and Brightburn all take that as their queue to go ahead. They all run and jump off and fly towards the Deathbolts, fighting them and proceeding to keep them away from the base. Even with their combined power, they were starting to lose. So Rainbow Dash decided that desperate times call for desperate measures. She slammed her fist into her left hand, closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. Everyone except Artemis and the rest of Twilight’s friends had a look of confusion that quickly turned into one of shock when storm clouds rolled in and streaks of multicolored lightning struck against Rainbow Dash all at the same time and when it stopped, Rainbow’s mane was flowing and she was white and glowing, and her eyes were glowing red. She had an aura coming off her like she was on fire and in a way, she was. She smirked at the Deathbolts and lightning radiated off her arms, causing them to back off a bit.
She sends lightning at the leader and it bounces from them to the rest of the Deathbolts, knocking them all out and making them crash. After that, she grabs a lightning bolt, aims at another one of the airships, and throws it, damaging it and the engines, causing it to go down. Everyone cheers when it does. “Way to go Rainbow!!” Pinkie yells excitedly until one of the downed ships starts glowing purple which slowly becomes red. They all get nervous and look confused when the ship explodes. Out of the explosion, Midnight flys out from the top, her eyes, feathers, and markings on her body glowing red, along with the tip of her mane and tail. She looks at them all and focuses her glare directly on Sunny.
Seeing this, Sunny flinches and starts to back up, scared out of her mind. Midnight smirks and starts flying at them as fast as she can, breaking the sound barrier when she flys fast enough, causing Rainbow's team to lose balance and crash. Everyone prepared to block the impact but before Midnight reached them, Twilight came out of nowhere and punched her with all her might, sending her sliding across the ground. Twilight now had purple glowing markings on her body again. She went down to fight her and Sunny backed up, still a little scared but then she felt something behind her and screamed in fear, turning around and seeing it was Midnight and she looked more terrifying than ever. “Hello.. Sunny.” She says and before anyone can help Sunny, a shot hits the base, causing an explosion and splitting everyone up. After a few seconds to gather themselves, everyone gets up and looks around, checking on each other. They notice that Sunny is no longer with them though.
“Wait.. where’s Sunny?!” Izzy asks, frantically and as they look around, they can’t seem to find her. Anywhere.
As Sunny woke up, she quickly began to panic once she remembered what happened and saw that she was in a different location. “Oh no-“ she says before a voice interrupts her.
“Oh yes actually, I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. And now I finally get to finish you off.” Midnight says with a chuckle as she appears behind Sunny and punches her across the room. “In case you’re wondering, Twilight is fighting a clone right now so she’s not coming.. no one is coming to help you. It’s just you.. and me!” Midnight yells as she charges at Sunny and delivers a magic-fueled punch towards her but she just barely manages to dodge it and find an exit, instantly going out and trying to get as far away from Midnight as she could. She tried summoning her magic but quickly found that she was too scared and it was keeping her from becoming an alicorn.
She hears Midnight’s laugh echo down the hallway, sending a chill through her entire body. She knew she was still scared of Midnight, just not exactly sure how much. She ends up bumping into Midnight again but this time, Midnight doesn’t give her the chance to run away and grabs Sunny by her throat, picking her up and choking her. “Now that you’ve leveled up, what better time to feed on your magic? Believe it or not, I’m actually glad you got more magic because if I steal it at this point, I’ll be more powerful than ever without my arcane form. That’s smart talk for alicorn super form just so you know.” Midnight says before starting to drain Sunny's magic. Sunny starts to panic and kicks at Midnight, hardly causing her to even flinch. “After I’m done here, I’ll make you watch as I destroy this place and all your friends along with it. Ooh, or best case scenario, I’ll make you do it all for me.” Midnight says, her eyes glowing red even more than they already have been. That thought scares and angers Sunny.
“NO!!” Sunny yells as she starts glowing and a wave of magic explodes out of her body, pushing Midnight and herself apart from each other, both getting stunned. Sunny recovers a few seconds before Midnight and takes the chance to teleport away. She ends up on top of the gigantic base and looks around, seeing all the destruction and seeing the army still coming but also seeing her friends still fighting. She wishes that she could do something, anything but stand there and watch as they risked everything to protect her. She sighs and looks down, feeling more useless than ever, especially after just being chased by Midnight and being able to do nothing but run away scared. “I can’t let this continue.. I have to do my part! I won’t let you scare me anymore!!” Sunny says trying to convince herself that what she was saying was true, also trying to force her magic to come out. “My friends are counting on me.. and I refuse to let them down! Ever! Again!!” Sunny yells jumping off the base and diving towards the ground. Midnight smashes through a wall and tackles her as she falls.
“I won’t let you or your little friends stand in my way!!” Midnight yells as she attacks Sunny, all of her hits being blocked and countered. Sunny smirks at her, her eyes glowing as she grabs the alicorn amulet which was attached to Midnight’s armor. As soon as she touches it though, she freezes up and suddenly she’s in a very dark room with hardly any light except from the Moon. She looks around and sees a little ball of purple.. and it’s moving. She touches it and felt it shaking for just a second before it tensed up and slowly looked at her.. and Sunny quickly realizes that.. it’s Solaris. She had tears coming from her eyes and her mane looked disheveled.
“P-Please.. help me..” she says with a shaky voice but before Sunny can say anything back, she’s back in the real world, still fighting Midnight. She glares at Midnight, more determined than ever to stop her and save everypony. That includes Solaris.
“We already have.” Sunny says before a very powerful explosion of magic knocks Midnight away from her, through the mountain and Sunny manages to summon her wings and horn and flys up and away from the ground. Midnight flys up at her and they proceed to fighting, Sunny being smarter than she was being last time they had a real battle. Instead of trying to fight Midnight head-on like last time, she actually keeps her distance and keeps dodging and blocking Midnight's attacks, trying to get her to tire herself out.
“Stand still so I can kill you and take your magic!!!” Midnight yells, enraged and annoyed, noticing that she was starting to get slower and her attacks were starting to pack less of a punch. Instead of completely destroying Sunny's shields, her attacks merely just damaged and weakened them now.
“Oh yeah, that’s REAL appealing.” Sunny says, mocking Midnight’s poor choice of words.
Midnight after a few more attempts and fails at stunning, let alone killing Sunny, had grown tired and once Sunny saw an opening, she went for it and punched Midnight as hard as she could, blasting her to send her even further back than she would’ve gone, sending her straight through one of her own ships. Sunny continued blasting, using it to saw the ship in half, causing it to explode. It crashes by the army, knocking them all down and stunning them. She feels bad for it but she knows it’s what has to be done. She sees that some new and familiar faces have joined the fight and recognizes some of them as Askari, and the purple unicorn that had tried to stop them from destroying their island, Nebula and the pegasus who found and protected her from the other angry ponies, Firestar.
She also saw five Alicorns, a bat pony, and two hippogriffs, and a blue pegasus, the one Zipp said she had met, Skylight. Sunny flys down to help her friends fight and they start to push the army back very soon. Artemis looks at Sunny and laughs, playfully punching her in the shoulder. “You did good Sunny! I’m proud of you. Keep it up and you’re sure to beat Midnight without breaking a-“ Artemis says but before she can finish her sentence, she sees something heading for Sunny and pushes her out of the way to protect her but it ends up hitting her instead and going straight through her back and stomach.
“ARTEMIS!!” came the horrified yells of everypony else and the pure evil laughter of Midnight as she walks up to Sunny and Artemis, Sunny trying her best to keep Artemis from passing out or bleeding out. It turns out that what had hit her was a magical glowing spear.
“Oh I’m sorry was she still talking? Being overconfident? Well that’s what happens to anyone who gets close to you, Sunny Starscout! This is what you bring with you everywhere you go!” Says Nebula as she walks past a few members of Midnight’s army.
“Are you kidding me right now?! We’re trying to save Equestria!! I’m trying to make up for what I did and you just.. you just hurt one of my mentors.. my friends!” Sunny yells, enraged and unable to stop herself from what she’s about to do.
“Nebula!! We need Sunny to stop Midnight!! If you kill her, you’ll be giving her exactly what she wants!!” Skylight yells but the unicorn seems to ignore her words and charges towards Sunny. She makes two magic daggers and aims them towards Sunny’s face but the alicorn ducks and uppercuts her in the stomach. After she stops tumbling away, Firestar holds her down before she can get up.
“Mark my words Starscout, one way or another you’re gonna pay for what you did to my home, to my friends!! And it’s gonna hurt!! Mind control or not, it doesn’t excuse what you did!! You hear me?! You’re a monster, and a murderer!! And you deserve death!!” Nebula screams at Sunny, her voice filled with more anger and hatred than she had ever seen or heard from anyone. Seeing this, Sunny frowned and all she wanted to do was go over and apologize. But then Izzy called her over and she instantly sprinted over and noticed that Artemis had gone limp and didn’t look like she was breathing.
“Sunny.. Artemis.. she won’t wake up.. she.. she’s..” Izzy tries to say but Sunny can already guess what the unicorn was trying to tell her.
“No.. no.. this can’t be happening.. please Artemis get up! We still need you! I need you here to teach me.. to guide me.. to help me make things right..” Sunny says while gently shaking Artemis, hoping she would wake up.. but she didn’t. Sunny and Izzy both started to cry and so did the rest of her friends and Artemis's friends. Midnight walks over, clapping and smiling.
“Well well well Sunny.. that’s someone else close to you that you’ve managed to get killed.. Artemis died protecting you.. this is all. Your. Fault.” Midnight says, lifting Sunny’s chin up so she was looking at her, Sunny just glaring at her. “Perhaps you make a good villain after all..” Midnight says and Sunny’s eyes, wings and horn glow more than ever and she screams while magic radiates off her and shines brightly. When the light disappears, they’re all gone but Nebula is still there. Midnight smirks and raises her fist in the air. “We’ve WON!!!” Midnight yells as loud as she can and everyone cheers and proceeds to march on towards the base to take it over.
After recruiting Nebula and promising to show her something important soon, Midnight notices something on the ground and picks it up, seeing that it was a gem in the shape of a star that fell off of Artemis’s armor. She smiles evilly at it. “Goodbye.. old friend.” She says, dropping it and walking off, stepping on it and breaking it in the process. “You too were not good enough to stop me.” Midnight says, before flying up, laughing evilly. She had just killed Artemis, one of the strongest Alicorns.. and Sunny was next.
A week later
An entire week.. that’s how long it had been since Artemis died and nopony got over it, both Sunny and Thunderbird were enraged and Twilight was devastated. Out of everyone there, they were the closest to Artemis. They were able to bury her three days ago but they only regretted that it couldn’t be a proper funeral. No matter where they went, there were always some supporters of Midnight somewhere in Equestria so nowhere was safe as far as they knew. Well except for Bridlewood, which was where they were currently staying. Sure Alphabittle had been hesitant at first but after a bit of convincing and pleading from Izzy, he ignored all his doubts and decided to let them stay, at least until they figured out a plan. They had managed to get away but everyone was increasingly concerned.. about Sunny.
A few times now when they were attacked or ambushed, Sunny had shown signs of new levels of aggression that no one had seen from her and she had nearly killed a few ponies and if they weren’t dead, they definitely had some internal and eternal injuries and bleeding. Izzy went to check on Sunny, despite everyone’s protests and pleas to give her some space. They had done plenty of that already but she didn’t want Sunny to feel like everyone was avoiding her or that they thought she was dangerous because neither of those things were true. She hesitantly knocked on the door but no answer came, not even a sound from the room. She knocked again but still nothing. She tried opening the door but it was locked so she sighed and after exhausting those options, she teleported in and.. Sunny was nowhere to be found.
“Sunny? You in here?” Izzy asks as she walks around, looking for her. She doesn’t find her though, but she does find a note and read over it.
Hey guys
You’re probably wondering where I am or what I’m planning to do but if I told you in person, you’d just try to stop me.. so this is the best way for me to go about it. As you probably already guessed as soon as you saw I was gone.. I’m going after Midnight.. by myself. I know you don’t think this is a good idea but it’s for the best..
I can’t allow anyone else to die because of me. I don’t care what happens to me, as long as you all can live long, happy lives, I’m ok with anything Midnight does to me.. and as long as I can buy you all time to figure something out to put an end to all of this. I’m.. so sorry it has to be this way but if it keeps you all safe, I don’t regret it.. or anything else I’ll probably do. I love you guys..
Sunny
Izzy can’t believe what she just read but she does start to cry. Sunny was gonna get herself killed but she didn’t care.. as long as she and everyone else stayed safe. “You noble dummy..” Izzy says with a shaky voice and a smile as she continued staring at the note and crying. She knew she would have to tell her friends but right now.. she just needed a moment to process the fact that Sunny was more noble than anyone else had ever thought. Sunny knew this path would most likely lead to her death, but she was happy knowing that her sacrifice would at least give her friends time to stop Midnight themselves. “Don’t worry Sunny.. we’ll find you.. and we’ll save Equestria together.. I promise.”
“Ok.. based on what I know so far.. one of the last bases should be.. somewhere around this mountain.” said Sunny, who was hardly managing to stay awake, while pointing at a location not too far from her on the map she was holding. It had been a tough couple of months, resulting in a high lack of sleep and relaxation. She was constantly being hunted, which meant she had to constantly move from place to place, hiding out from Midnight’s followers. She had her old armor again which was greatly damaged. She also had a torn red cloak covering her. The mask she had.. borrowed a while ago was damaged as well and Sunny’s twin swords were on the verge of breaking. Her hair was longer and thicker now and looked messy and out of all her features, the thing that drew the most attention was the scar on her left cheek and the one on her right eye.
The one on her eye wasn’t permanent but the one on her cheek was. Sunny would be lying if she said there wasn’t a single time where she almost regretted leaving instead of staying with her friends. She shook those feelings away, knowing that what she was doing was for their safety and she would continue doing it even if it killed her in the end, which-at the rate she was going, was a very real possibility.
She didn’t know whether she was gonna work herself to death or whether Midnight and her army were gonna kill her first. Regardless, she couldn’t bother to stop now, so close to her next mission. She got up, folded the map, put it in her bag then made her way down the mountain. “I promise I’ll make things right.. and if I survive.. maybe.. maybe we can all smile together again.” Sunny says, thinking of her friends.. thinking of Izzy.
She missed them all but she hides her pain from the world.. and from herself. Or at the very least she tries to. She sees the base and glares, about to fly in but as soon as she gets five feet off the ground, she’s tackled by a Deathbolt and slammed and dragged against the rough surface of the mountain as the Deathbolt continues flying while holding her. She quickly gets annoyed and kicks her in the face, breaking one of the lenses in her helmet, which causes her to fly up a bit, still holding Sunny.
Sunny sits up and grabs the Deathbolt by the neck before kicking her in the stomach so they flip and grinding the Deathbolt across the ground. Sunny jumps off her before grabbing her tail, swinging her around, and throwing her all the way to the base. She wasn’t far behind as she landed in the middle of the base hard enough to make a cloud of dust and dirt spread throughout the base. She sends a wave of magic out, knocking every enemy back into a wall or through one. One soldier starts shooting at her from above and she growls, running as fast as she can to avoid the bullets, jumping off a wall to where they were and kicking them off their vantage point. She fires her magic everywhere, destroying the base and knocking out a bunch of soldiers, using every spell that she’s learned so far to defeat them, shield or heal herself.
“So much for stealth, but it is what it is.” Sunny says as she walks around, looking for what or whoever this base was “protecting” from her. She finds prisoners and after freeing them, she senses powerful magic coming from a single room.
She teleported all of them to safety before hesitantly walking in and looking around. If something was sending off magical energy so powerful, she knew it couldn’t be left in Midnight’s clutches. Strange thing was it felt strangely familiar somehow. She sees a purple light coming from inside some sort of armored case. She opens it and just sees some sort of glass and metal container with purple magic inside and realizes it’s just some of Midnight's magic in the container, she’d been tricked. She hears ticking and instantly goes to run out and she makes it to the exit of the base and that’s when it explodes, knocking her through trees until she stops, tumbling into a rock. She takes a minute to recover and gets up, holding her right shoulder and coughing. She looks around and sees fire everywhere.. good thing it was raining as soon as she made it outside.
She sees the magic slowly going out of the fire and into the clouds and she gets ready to fight, knowing that Midnight was up there and she could come down at any moment. She hid under one of the trees while looking up just in case. She was exhausted and a little banged up but she wasn’t going down without a fight. She feels a presence behind her and instantly kicks back but Midnight blocks it and swings at her but Sunny dodges it and punches her, making her slide back a bit.
“Not bad, you’ve certainly gotten better since our last battle.” Midnight says but Sunny doesn’t respond, she just glares as they start to circle each other. “But as much as I would absolutely love to fight you, I’m having trouble keeping rhythm in my fights nowadays. So they’ll do it for me.” Midnight says before a few Deathbolts land around Sunny, the armored pony she met comes from behind a tree along with Nebula and Magma, and the ponies that Sunny had just saved come back but then reveal themselves to be changelings. Sunny, for the first time in a while feels betrayed.
She shakes her head slowly before letting her rage take over and magic comes out of her body, knocking them all back and she doesn’t give them the chance to recover, before they’re even on the ground, she attacks them faster than anyone can see. The armored pony tackles her and swings her into a tree, sending her straight through it. He kicks her as soon as she tries to get up and takes out a sword and attempts to stab her. She blocks it with one of her own swords though and instantly goes on offense. The armored pony quickly starts losing ground and soon loses his footing and Sunny knocks his feet from under him and raises her leg, bringing it down on his chest. She then grabs him by his shoulder and continuously punches him, breaking his mask more and more until it comes off and Sunny feels her blood run cold and her heart stop. The pony underneath, the pony she had almost killed just now.. it was her..
“D-Dad..?” Sunny asked with a shaky voice as she dropped him, backing up as she looked at the lifeless, bloodstained face of her father. She shook her head, unable to believe that what she was seeing was real.
“Neat trick huh? I will admit it was hard to find him, considering I didn’t see where he was buried but after a while of searching.. well.. you know the rest.” Midnight says but Sunny ignores her and goes closer to her father as he tries to get up.
“Dad.. come on.. it’s me, Sunny.. your daughter.. your family.” Sunny says softly, keeping her distance from him but still trying to talk him down. He looks up at her and tilts his head but he just glares, not recognizing her.
“I have no family.. I live to serve Midnight.” he says and Sunny feels her sadness grow.. and so does her anger. She turns to Midnight and stands up, glaring her scariest glare. She starts walking to her, then running.
“LET HIM GO!!” she yells as she jumps at Midnight but Nebula blasts her away from Midnight and Magma lava punches her into a tree. Sunny gets up to fight but the Deathbolts surround her, shooting harpoons and hooks at her. The hooks actually going around her body with ropes attached but the harpoons go into her shoulders and legs. She screams in pain and tries to break free but it’s no use and she starts getting electrocuted from the hooks and harpoons. The changelings all take turns repeatedly punching her. She falls and slowly looks up, seeing Midnight walk up to her.
“Well done. All of you. As for you Sunny, I’m afraid this is goodbye, I don’t really need your magic anymore.. I think? Either way I’ve been wanting to kill you for a long time, so what better chance than now?” she says as she takes out her own sword and aims it at Sunny's heart. “Any last words? Any regrets? Anything at all?” Midnight asks and for a few seconds Sunny doesn’t answer.. but then she looks at her dad.
“Dad.. I know you can’t remember me because of.. whatever she did to you but no matter what, I want you to know that I never forgot what you taught me.. I managed to bring the three tribes together.. I managed to make friends.. amazing ones.. an amazing marefriend.. and I couldn’t have done any of it.. without you.. I love you..” Sunny says but the fact that she can’t see his reaction because of his newly repaired nanotech mask made it hard to accept that she was gonna die in the middle of a forest without even seeing if her words got a reaction out of him at all.
Nebula and Magma look at each other then back at her, starting to question if Sunny really was who Midnight said she was. They then remembered everything that she had done to them and continue to watch. Midnight raises her sword and brings it down but right before it hits Sunny, a wall of ice forms in front of her and traps Midnight’s sword. She looks confused and so does everyone else. Even more so when a purple glow comes from the ice and it explodes and Izzy jumps out and magic punches Midnight into a tree, clearly pissed off.
“STAY AWAY FROM MY MAREFRIEND!!” she yells, her eyes glowing white and a bit of purple and Sunny couldn’t help but smile a bit, happy to see a friendly face in what felt like years. Well.. not exactly friendly at the moment but still. Magma and Nebula were about to attack Izzy but Skylight and Askari stop them, blasting them with their magic.
“Grab Sunny and let’s go!” yelled Hitch as he shot the ropes keeping Sunny still, allowing Sunny to fall only to be caught by Izzy. Argyle tries to tackle them but Izzy teleports herself and the others to the edge of the mountain. They see them almost immediately and Izzy gives Sunny to Hitch then focuses, making a spell in the shape of a white glyph that forms into a snowflake and she slams it down, making a blizzard cover the area and they use that to slip away. “Well.. that went better than I thought it would.” Hitch said as he ran with the others while still carrying Sunny.
After a while of running, Sunny, who was secretly healing herself the whole time, pushes Hitch away from her and sits on her knees. “What the hell are you all doing here?!” she asks in a commanding tone, earning shocked looks from everyone.
“Saving you, silly filly, what does it look like?!” Izzy says but Sunny just frowns and looks away from her, her arms crossed.
“I don’t need.. or want your help. You all should’ve just stayed away.. as long as you’re all near me, you’re in danger.” Sunny says, looking down. The last thing she wanted was for her friends to be in harm’s way but they were too damn stubborn to care.
“Sunny, you may not wanna hear this but you need to get it through your thick skull that not everything is in your control!! Whatever happens to us is not your fault! You’re not responsible for hurting anyone.. but you are responsible for fixing things. You’re responsible for making sure nobody else gets hurt.” Izzy says with a surprisingly firm tone that clearly stated that there would be no room for discussion.
“That’s what I was trying to do!!! I was trying to keep you all safe from me and the pain I bring with me everywhere I go!! But nooo.. none of you learned your lesson after what happened to..!! To..” Sunny struggles to say as she thinks of her deceased mentor and friend. The pain and guilt she feels starts to show even more as a few stray tears roll down her cheeks and her ears flatten against her head in sadness. Izzy goes to Sunny, crouches down next to her and hesitantly puts a comforting hand on her shoulder and Sunny finally lets the tears fall, crying into Izzy’s shoulder. Hitch hugs her too and Askari smiles a bit along with Skylight who smirks at Askari for finally softening up, prompting her to roll her eyes and look away.
Sunny suddenly stands up and backs away from the group. She puts on the hood of her cloak and everyone gets confused and nervous. “I told you not to look for me..” Sunny said, referring to the last letter she sent to her friends, warning them not to look for her. “Pleaded for you to stay. Away. But no.. you just had to be your normal, stubborn selves.” Sunny continues, grabbing her mask which was attached to her hip. “So this is your final warning..” Sunny says, putting on the mask, storm clouds rolling in. She looks up at them and her eyes are glowing a darker gold than they used to. “Get the hell out of my way..” Sunny says forcefully but her friends instead of agreeing, stood their ground and reluctantly took their weapons out.
“Sorry Sunny but.. one way or another.. we will bring you home.. pinkie promise..” Izzy says with a determined look on her face to match the ones the others had. Sunny hesitated but after assuring herself that this was the only way to keep them out of it.. she lunged at them.. and the fighting began.
The city is in absolute turmoil after one of Midnight’s most powerful and skilled allies came and activated the weather machine a few months ago, which was supercharged by whatever Askari did to it. Zipp and Pipp were still having trouble figuring out how to completely shut it down. They couldn’t destroy it because the explosion would destroy all of Zephyr Heights completely and they couldn’t get close to it because of the freakish storms it kept causing every time they tried. Right now, Pipp was doing a livestream to encourage her fans and anypony else who was left to hang in there and not give up hope. “I promise that before you know it, things will be back to normal. Ok guys, love you lots, don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe, and keep on smiling. Pipp-pipp hooray~” Pipp says before ending her stream and sighing, looking at her sister who was currently leaned against a wall with her arms crossed. Zipp was always so serious these days.. well.. more serious. “Could you at least try to smile too sis?” Pipp asks, genuinely concerned about her sister’s wellbeing and upset that she hasn’t seen her smile in quite some time. Zipp looks at her and sighs, walking to her and sitting next to her.
“How do you expect me to smile after everything that’s happened to us in the past few months sis? Midnight and a bunch of other ponies and creatures are after us, Sunny left us, and we don’t have a plan.” Zipp says, frustration evident in her voice as she sounds like she’s trying to refrain from yelling. “All that happened, yet you’re able to act like none of it has.. why? How?” Zipp asks, finally making eye contact with her sister and Pipp, for a few seconds at least, doesn’t know how to answer that but she eventually figures it out.
“I guess I just know not to give up now, if we don’t keep fighting, if we don’t keep defending our home, our subjects.. if lose our hope then.. what would all of this have been for? And I guess it helps when you learned not to give up from a sister who never stopped trying to find an answer as to why nopony could fly, but at the same time, never stopped caring about her family enough to find some time to hang out with her little sis.” Pipp says as she smiles up at Zipp who looks shocked then smiles back, wrapping her wing around her little sister and pulling her close. Pipp nuzzles into Zipp's shoulder and Zipp chuckles. ”There she is. There’s the happy Zipp.” Pipp says, earning an eye roll from her sister.
“Love you sis.. and thanks.” Zipp says and Pipp smiles up at her even more.
“Love you too and anytime. Consider it payback for all the times you were there for me whether you were saving my life or just spending time with me.” Pipp responds and Zipp chuckles and nuzzles her.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” She says and for a while, they just sit there until Zipp gets an idea. “I think I figured out how to stop the machine.. but it’s gonna be pretty risky.” Zipp says and Pipp nods, willing to consider any idea that comes to mind at this point. She and Zipp both get up and race outside, the wind instantly causing their manes to wave around madly.
“I already regret agreeing to this!!” Pipp yells, trying to protect her mane from getting ruined, earning an eyeroll from her sister.
“Don’t worry, we’ll be back inside before you know it, promise!” Zipp says as she grabs her sister and flys them to the top of the castle faster than Pipp can protest. They both stop right in front of the weather machine but don’t get too close, so as to avoid being electrocuted and fried. Or at least Zipp was trying to keep her sister from being harmed by it. Zipp’s electrical properties were not as limited as Pipp’s, therefore, she couldn’t really get hurt from electricity anymore.. unless it was a tremendously large amount of it. “Ok so my plan is, and this is gonna sound crazy, but I’m gonna try and see if I can absorb some of the energy from the machine, and you have to be ready to destroy it with your sonic scream. Meaning you’ll have to scream louder than you ever have, and maybe charge your scream with electricity to add a more destructive effect.” Zipp explains and Pipp looks at her like she has two heads.
“Have you gone insane?! That’s suicide, even if you take some of the energy, it’ll still explode and take half the palace with it! And if you take too much, it could.. you could.. please Zipp, we need to figure something else out!” Pipp says, hoping to save her sister and all the ponies who would die if they went through with it. Zipp shakes her head.
“Pipp, we’re out of time and options! Zephyr Heights shouldn’t have to suffer through this any longer.. maybe if I try taking the full energy of the machine, it won’t explode, then I’ll just.. fly up as high as I can and try to release it.. without blowing myself to atoms.” Zipp says but before Pipp can protest, they both get blasted from behind with dark magic. They both look to where it came from and see some sort of.. dragon-hippogriff hybrid that’s about three times their size with blue scales, yellow eyes, and large wings.
“Well well well, nice to see you again princesses. I wasn’t sure you were finally gonna show your faces instead of hiding. Yet here you both are. Trying to mess up my handiwork no less.” He says before landing by them and taking out a two bladed axe. “Don’t you know it’s rude to try and mess up someone else’s hard work?!” he asks angrily before throwing the axe and it hovers around them, spinning and they keep dodging but don’t see him making his move.
His tail comes out of nowhere and hits Zipp, knocking her to the edge of the roof. Pipp sees this and tries jump kicking him but he sidesteps, grabs her leg and slams her onto the ground before throwing her into the air, flying up, grabbing her and slamming her back down hard enough to send her through the roof.. aaand several floors below it. He flys back up but as soon as he gets to the roof, Zipp lightning punches him across the face and sends him flying right off the roof and crashing into the ground, making a huge crater. Zipp flys down to check on Pipp and sees she’s unconscious and her head is bleeding, along with the numerous scratches she suffered while falling through several floors. Seeing that, Zipp’s anger reached incredible heights and she swore to fry him from the inside out.
“Just sit tight sis, I’ll handle this..” Zipp says before suddenly getting grabbed by the hybrid's tail and being swung back up through the roof and slammed down, the spikes on his tail stabbing into Zipp, causing her to let out a pained scream. He just smiles when he hears it and throws Zipp into the machine, causing her to get electrocuted before falling. He walks to her, his axe ready.
“Any last words from you, princess Zipp Storm?” he asks as he positions the axe right above her head.
“Just these last words to you..” Zipp says before she grabs the axe and slowly looks at him, her eyes glowing green and pink, her mane and wings sparking with electricity of the same color. “Thanks for the charge..!” she says before delivering a very powerful lightning uppercut that sends him flying and she causes lightning to strike him from the clouds and keep striking him until she decides that he’s had enough of being fried, but not enough of being beaten to a bloody lifeless pulp. She jumps on him and keeps lightning punching him until some of his scales start to come off and he starts losing teeth. She feels something stab into her back, making her scream and it was one of his tail spikes. While she’s distracted, dark magic surrounds his clawed fist and he punches her off him and gets up.
“Now that’s the spirit.. but if you really wanna beat me.. make sure you’re not too distracted.” he says as he walks towards her, continuously blasting her with dark magic. He gets blasted from behind with silver lightning and thrown into the machine and Zipp, while slowly getting up, sees it came from her mother. Zipp looks shocked and she doesn’t even know what to say.
“Mom..?” Zipp asks, still utterly shocked.
“Yes yes, I know, this is amazing and shocking, I see why you like these powers so much. But there’s no time to really go into detail, buy me some time and be ready to do your part sweetie.” Haven says before helping Zipp up. Pipp lands by them, holding her shoulder before taking out her ring blades. “Pipp, you and your sister distract him, give me time to make my move.” Haven says and they both nod and rush at him, proceeding to attack him while Haven frowns, going to the machine and starting to absorb its energy, like Zipp had originally planned. Neither Zipp or Pipp notice what she’s doing until the machine is already almost fully drained. They also notice that the energy is starting to tear Haven apart.
“MOM!!” They both yell as they rush to her but she tells them to stay back and they do rather reluctantly. Haven continues to drain the machine of its power and when it’s completely empty, she backs up from it and falls to her knees, weakly looking at her daughters. “Do it..” she says and both Pipp and Zipp target the machine with their powers, combining them and destroying it.
They both run to Haven but as soon as they touch her, the energy she absorbed knocks them back. “I’m so.. sorry.. I can’t move.. but I need to release all this energy..” Haven says as she tries to stand up and fly but she can’t move her legs or her wings. Zipp gets an idea as she sees the hybrid getting up and she looks at Haven.
“Then try to direct it! At him!” she says and Haven looks hesitant but then closes her eyes and tries to focus. He roars and runs towards them and jumps at them with the intention to kill them all. Haven opens them and blasts him with all the energy and power in her body. It knocks him back but after a few seconds of screaming, he looks up at them and smirks. They all can instantly tell that something’s off. Haven tries to stop blasting but realizes she can’t and eventually, she does stop but doesn’t feel any power in her body anymore.. at all. They all look at him and it’s all radiating off him. He suddenly takes one of his claws from behind his back and he’s wearing a gauntlet with a glowing gem inside it.
“Gotcha.” he says before he aims it at them and a giant ball of energy and power head straight for them. Haven, without thinking, pushes Zipp and Pipp out of the way to protect them and an explosion destroys the roof or what’s left of it.
When Zipp and Pipp wake up, they’re inside the castle but dust and smoke are everywhere and some areas are on fire. They look around and see Haven but she’s crushed by debris and she’s not moving. Zipp instantly rushed over and starts lifting the debris off her and Pipp helps. After a few seconds some of the guards pitch in and help them. After they get enough of it off, they carefully try to move Haven from under it. “Mom! Mom, can you hear us?!” Pipp asks frantically, to which she gets no response. Zipp tries to see if Haven’s breathing and finds that she is but just barely. She and Pipp perk up when she coughs and looks at them both.
“My little fillies..” she says weakly and they both are relieved that she’s alive but when she starts coughing, Zipp realizes that.. that may not be the case for very long.
“Mom.. you’re gonna be ok.. we can still fix this..” Pipp says in a shaky voice but Haven just frowns, earning a confused look from her. She then smiles and places one hand on Pipp’s cheek and the other on Zipp’s.
“I know you will.. as for me.. I’m sorry.. I wish I had more time to prepare you both for something like this.. but.. *cough* I know you two will be alright without me..” Haven says with a weak smile.
Pipp frantically shakes her head, starting to cry. “No.. no.. you can’t.. you can’t leave like this.. we need you..” Pipp says and Zipp hesitantly agrees.
“Besides I.. I don’t think I’m ready to be Queen Mom.. I can’t.. not yet.. Pipp’s right, we do need you.. we’re not ready for you to.. to..” Zipp struggles to say and Haven wipes off the stray tear that had started to slide down her cheek.
“You don’t need me.. not anymore.. all you really need.. is each other.. I love you my little fillies.. and *cough* ..I know.. you’ll make things right..” Haven says, her eyes slowly starting to close and her hands slowly starting to fall from both her daughter’s faces. “Take care.. of each other..” she says before finally letting out her last breath and closing her eyes.
“No.. no.. no no no mom please! Please wake up!! Please..!!” Pipp says, trying everything she can to make Heaven open her eyes and admit that this was all some twisted joke.. but she never did.. she was gone. Both she and Zipp start to cry, Zipp actually trying to restrain her tears. Cloudpuff walks up to Haven, whimpering and nuzzles her. Zipp holds her head trying to block out the guilt, sadness, anger and hatred. The hatred for the hybrid that had killed her mother. Anger at herself for not being able to save her. Sadness that she was now gone. And guilt.. that she wasn’t the one who had passed away instead. She was supposed to be the one to absorb that energy, not her mother. But because she didn’t, Haven lost her powers and still wanted to protect her daughters.. so she sacrificed herself and got injured. Now she was dead..
“It’s my fault.. I’m so sorry.. it’s all my fault..” Zipp mumbles over and over again until eventually she feels a hand on her shoulder and turns around to see Pipp, tears in her eyes but a reassuring smile on her face.
“Come on now sis.. *sniffle* she wouldn’t want us to sit here crying when we could be doing our damndest to make this all right. Come on.. we need to *sniffle* get back to Bridlewood..” Pipp says, obviously still devastated and scared but trying to put on a brave face. They both look at one of the guards when they point something out.
“You might wanna do that fast cause it looks like we’re about to have company.” he says and they look out the window and see more Deathbolts than they could ever hope to take on by themselves and the hybrid and Zipp feels anger surge up inside her as soon as she sees him. She wants to kill him, to rip him apart, to fry him from the inside out, but before she can decide to do any of that, Pipp snaps her out of it, saying they need to go. She has Cloudpuff in her arms who seems to bark in agreement and Zipp nods but sees something on the ground. She picks it up and realizes it’s Haven’s crown. Zipp looks sad at the sigh of it but then gives Pipp the all clear and they both fly out of Zephyr Heights quickly and land on a cloud.
They both frown at the signs of a fight coming from the city and Pipp falls to her knees, crying more. Zipp looks at the crown and a single tear falls from her face and onto the crystal attached to it. “Goodbye mom.. we’ll make you proud.” Zipp says as a sort of final goodbye to her mother.. and a promise to kill the hybrid the next time she gets a chance.
Dodging Sunny’s attacks was not easy, especially since she kept constantly attacking after her friends kept dodging. Askari, who had refrained from using metal bullets was only left with rubber ones. They didn’t pierce Sunny’s skin or armor but they did leave bruises wherever she was hit. Sunny was quickly getting more and more annoyed. She distracted her friends by blinding them all using her magic and targeted Askari. She landed next to her hard enough to cause a shockwave that created a massive crater in the ground and knocked Askari 20 feet away. Askari quickly recovered and threw a flash grenade at Sunny, only for it to be knocked miles away. Askari sighs and stands up straight staring at Sunny. “Look I get it, ok? You want revenge but you also wanna protect your friends. I wanted revenge against you and when I thought I finally got it.. I realized that it wasn’t worth it, and I know that’s too little too late but.. I finally realized it wasn’t your fault for what happened to my parents.. so I wanna help make things right, but look at you.. this isn’t the way to go about it.” Askari says as she and Sunny circle each other.
Sunny just glares at her, sick of all of them trying to convince her to stop and come home. She couldn’t stop now, not when she was so close. “It doesn’t matter.. what you say..” Sunny says, sounding out of breath. “I. Will never. Stop.”
Izzy suddenly freezes Sunny in place and keeps it up, trying to make the ice as thick as possible so Sunny can’t break out. “Sunny please! If you keep going at this rate, it’s only a matter of time before you get yourself killed!” Izzy pleads, still keeping Sunny trapped. “What happened to Artemis wasn’t your fault..!” she yells and Sunny suddenly stops trying to escape, her eyes starting to fill with tears. Everyone looks concerned as Sunny’s memories of Artemis start to resurface. She smiles at them, tears running down her cheeks as the memories bring her happiness.. until she remembers the moment Artemis died. She opens her eyes, both of them glowing a darker gold than before and her body and hair starts glowing.
“Yes. It. WAS!!” Sunny yells before screaming and having a magic overload that causes a explosion that destroys the ice and knocks everyone away from her. She flys up, glaring at them all, the wind picking up from the power she’s emitting. “I have to make it right! No matter the cost! I owe it to her, my dad, and everyone else who’s died, suffered or lost someone because of Midnight.. and me!” she yells before landing and causing another shockwave. Hitch quickly gets up and charged at Sunny, dodging all her attacks before grabbing one of her arms, sliding behind her and pinning her arms back. Hitch uses his strength from his powers to keep her pinned but she’s slowly starting to slip free.
“Sunny this has gone far enough.. you’re not to blame for anything that happened.. you didn’t intentionally hurt anyone. You couldn’t save them either, but how could you? There was nothing you could’ve done but there’s something you can do now.. you don’t have to do it alone though. We can help, we’re your friends.. your family..! We’re in this together!” Hitch says, still struggling to hold Sunny still. Sunny yells and head-buts him, flipping him over her and cracking the ground as he lands on his back really hard. She throws a punch at his face but he dodges it and moves from under her. She blasts him to make him stay down but Skylight tackles her soon after, tumbling with her before kicking her away. Sunny slides to a stop and charges at her. Before she gets to her, her magic glitches and she falters a bit, feeling pain throughout her entire body. She falls and tumbles to a stop right in front of Skylight and cries out when the pain intensifies.
“M-Make it stop..!!” Sunny yells desperately, not knowing what’s going on but really wanting it to end. Her friends are all instantly by her side, Izzy trying to form a spell that would ease her pain.
“What’s happening to her?!” Skylight asked, worried just like the others. Naturally, no one knows but they just want to help Sunny however they can. The glow in Sunny’s eyes flickers on and off until it stops and she passes out, her alicorn magic deactivating automatically. Izzy starts panicking and so does Hitch until Askari tells them she’s alive, just passed out. Skylight feels her phone vibrate in her pocket and she checks it, seeing she got a message from Pipp and her face pales when she reads it. “Uhhh in other news, I just got a text from Pipp, Zephyr Heights was taken over.. and Queen Haven is dead.” Skylight says, earning shocked looks from everyone. “Ummm.. there’s going to be a funeral for her this afternoon so.. we better get back to Bridlewood.”she says through her own shock. Izzy nods slowly and teleports them all back to Bridlewood.. or at least close to it. She had exhausted her magic on the way over, during the rescue, and in the fight with Sunny, and from healing Sunny as best she could and now from this. She was very close to collapsing, but for Sunny, who was in her arms, she could endure.
Three hours later
Sunny had startled awake and looked around, breathing heavily. She then went through some breathing exercises she learned a while back until her heart rate slowed. She noticed that Izzy was next to her, running a soothing hand through her hair softly. Sunny would be lying if she said she didn’t miss how good it felt and how much it calmed her down. It was nostalgic for her. She couldn’t help but let out a sound of contentment, making Izzy smile. “Hey.. how do you feel?” Izzy asks with the softest voice Sunny’s ever heard. Sunny tries to sit up but realizes that she’s too tired and way too sore, falling back onto the bed.
“Like I ran around Equestria nonstop..” Sunny says with a chuckle, prompting Izzy to giggle. Sunny looks at herself and sees that her armor is gone along with her gear and she’s wearing clean new clothes. Sunny frowns at the idea that Izzy saw the evidence of everything she’s been through. “Did.. did you see?” Sunny asks hesitantly and Izzy looking down and sighing was all the answer she needed.
“Only for a second.. I didn’t see them all but.. can I..? Please..? I need to know just how much you’ve been through Sunny.. how much pain could’ve been avoided.” Izzy says with a pleading tone, the hurt in her eyes almost painful to look at. Sunny sighs, turns away from her and lifts the back of her shirt up, revealing the multitude of scars and bruises on her back. Izzy gasped in shock and hesitantly touched the biggest scar and gets very angry, promising to make Midnight and her goons pay for every. Single. One. Sunny tenses up, feeling the anger coming from Izzy and remembers that she’s supposed to keep Izzy and the others safe.
“Izzy.. if it helps, a lot of these were from myself making stupid mistakes.” Sunny says, hoping to calm Izzy down so she won’t do anything stupid. Izzy shakes her head, still angry.
“No.” Izzy says firmly and Sunny sighs, pulling away from Izzy’s touch. She needs to leave before she gets too attached and something bad happens again because of her.. but a part of her cries out in anger and sadness at the thought of leaving everyone behind again.. and fear. Sunny may have said she was ok with dying if it meant her friends would be safe and have a chance at stopping Midnight for her.. but she wasn’t actually ready to die.. especially not with all the information she has.. especially not with her dad depending on her.
“Izzy.. why did you bring me back here?” Sunny asks and Izzy smiles then frowns, grabbing Sunny’s hand and sighing.
“Because I love you dummy.. and I’ve wanted you back ever since I found your note.. and.. and there’s about to be a funeral for Queen Haven in a few minutes.. so the least you can do is be there and support Zipp and Pipp..” Izzy says and Sunny is shocked by the news of Queen Haven’s demise but then grows a determined look, planning to actually be there for her friends and nods. Izzy smiles then helps her up. Sunny smiles back as Izzy helps her walk out of the room and get ready to go. After they’re both properly dressed, they head out to where the funeral is supposed to be. Everyone in Bridlewood is there, including Alphabittle, Thunderbird, Zipp, Pipp, Sprout, Brightburn, Firestar, Twilight and her friends and everyone else. Everyone looks shocked when they see her and she flinches under their gazes.. until they smile and all greet her, welcoming her back. She almost cries but apologizes instead for leaving, realizing that doing that might have been a mistake. It had almost cost her her life and the lives of innocents multiple times.
She walks up to Zipp and Pipp who had obviously been crying and hugs them both. They hug her back and she tells them that she’s sorry for their loss. They stay in the hug for quite a bit before separating. After that, the funeral starts and everyone takes turns saying nice things about Haven and saying goodbye. After Zipp's turn, she takes out the crown and places it on Haven’s head carefully. “Goodbye Mom.. don’t worry.. we’ll be ok.” she says sadly before they close the casket and bury Haven. Zipp and Pipp both start crying more but this time, ALL of their friends are there for them. Sunny’s magic glitches again and she groans in pain, pulling away from the group hug and holding her chest.
“Again..? Why does this keep happening?” she asks and everyone looks confused and concerned. Before Zipp, Pipp or anyone else can question exactly what’s going on, someone they never expected to meet there practically limped from behind a tree: Nebula.
“I.. I might have the.. answer for that..” she says weakly and out of breath. Everyone gets ready, aiming their weapons and powers at her and she frantically backs up, tripping over a log. “Wait please! I didn’t come to fight.. I came to help you.. in hopes that you would help ME.. I need your help to save my friend.”
Zipp scoffs, her arms radiating with lightning. “Why should we believe a word you say?” she asks harshly, wanting nothing to do with an agent of Midnight. Nebula chuckles before coughing, her injuries clearly worse than they look.
“Because I stole something from Midnight.. that you wouldn’t have been able to get yourselves.” she says as she reaches in her pouch, causing everyone to instantly go on alert and move closer as a warning. Nebula holds one hand up in surrender and slowly takes out.. Grogar’s bell. “You’re welcome..” she says before passing out, everyone instantly rushing to her side and trying to help her. If she was serious about helping them, they couldn’t afford to lose such an advantage and opportunity to get the upper hand against Midnight for once.
Nebula awoke to find herself inside of one of Bridlewood's trees used as a medical station. She was wrapped in more bandages than she was at the hospital in Maretime Bay. She looks around and sees that she’s alone but after trying to get up, that quickly changes as Sunny, Izzy, Zipp, Pipp, and Hitch all walk in and of course, none of them are happy that she’s here, especially not Zipp it seems. Nebula sits up against the wall that she was next to, holding her side in pain. “Don’t look too excited to see I’m still alive, it’s not like I have useful information or anything.” she says, earning glares from them all.
“Yeahhh, considering all that you’ve helped Midnight accomplish, what were you expecting?” Sunny asks and Nebula gives her a glare of her own. Sunny doesn’t acknowledge it at all.
“You’re one to talk.. but just because Magma.. just because Shade needs my help, I’m not gonna argue with you about our past faults. That’s not why I came here.” Nebula says in an annoyed tone. “So are you gonna help me? Help yourselves or not?” she asks and everyone seems to think about it but then Hitch speaks up.
“Not so fast, how do we know this isn’t just one of Midnight’s tricks to capture or kill us?” Hitch asks and everyone agrees and Nebula sighs, facepalming. She uncovers her face, revealing the exasperated look on it.
“Obviously you don’t Sheriff boy, and I couldn’t believe myself either at first.. but after seeing Sunny interact with her father.. I guess a small part of me realized that she might not have been the monster Midnight claimed she was.. so I investigated for myself and found out the truth.. and I knew that I had to warn you about what she’s planning but when I told Shade to come with me she..” Nebula sighs before continuing. “She attacked me.. that’s why I was so injured.” she says with a sad look on her face. Everyone but Zipp starts to feel bad for her.
“It’s a little late to switch sides now, don’t ya think?” Zipp asks with a cold edge to her voice, to everyone’s shock. Pipp was especially confused and concerned about her sister but she doesn’t say anything, not yet anyway. “We can’t trust a word you say, and we shouldn’t. This is just another trap and guess what? We’re not falling for it.” Zipp says and had Sunny not interrupted, she would’ve continued rambling on.
“I don’t think it is.. before she was healed, I looked at her wounds.. Magma did attack her.. and she was being brutal when she did.. wasn’t she?” Sunny asks and Nebula frowns and nods, which causes Sunny to frown. Zipp is far beyond annoyed at this point because of her friend’s stupidity. She pulled Sunny away from Nebula and glared daggers right into Sunny’s soul.
“Are you serious Sunny? This is obviously a trick. Why can’t you see that?” Zipp says, not even trying to hide her displeasure about this. Sunny yanks her arm away from Zipp and glares back.
“What if you’re wrong and this is actually a chance for us to plan ahead of Midnight for once. Think Zipp, I know you’re upset about Haven.. but with this, we can make sure her death wasn’t in vain.. but do you really think she’d be happy seeing you like this?” Sunny asks but instantly regrets it when she sees the expression on Zipp’s face morph into an even darker one, hurt and anger evident in her features. “Z-Zipp I.. I didn’t mean-“ Sunny tries to say but Zipp let’s out a hysterical chuckle as she shakes her head, one of her hands covering her face.
“You know Sunny.. you talk a lot about what a parent would want but how do you think your dad would’ve felt.. knowing that you made a stupid decision that didn’t fix anything and instead it just got you and a lot of other ponies hurt.” Zipp says as she walks towards Sunny, prompting her to back up with a look of shock and hurt on her face. Pipp tries to step in, but what Zipp says next disturbs everyone. “You of all ponies should know better than to speak about what dead parents would want. After all, you’re partially the reason why there’s so many of those now..” she says and that was the last thing Sunny needed to hear before something inside her broke.. and she tackled Zipp through the wall and they go crashing out of the medical station. Even when they get outside, Sunny doesn’t stop running until Zipp shock punches her and she tumbles with her. They both get up and Sunny knees Zipp in the face before she fully gets up. She then grabs her and throws her into a tree and tries to punch her but Zipp ducks under it and lightning punches her in the stomach.
“Guys stop! Don’t do this!” Pipp yells but they don’t listen as they continue fighting. Neither of them pull their punches but Sunny does at least try to avoid causing damage to Bridlewood. She slams Zipp down when Zipp flys towards her at lightning speed. Zipp quickly recovers, jumping up, wrapping her legs around Sunny’s neck and using that maneuver to slam her onto her back and proceed to punch her in the face repeatedly. Sunny gets fed up, using her magic to blast Zipp off her. She gets up, uses a magic lasso to yank Zipp out of the air and back to her then she punches Zipp, making her slide across the ground. Once she stops, she stands up slowly and glares at Sunny, receiving a glare in return, both of their noses bleeding and dirt coating their fur. Zipp suddenly takes out one of her blades, which was broken just like the other one and Sunny readies her magic. Just as they charge at each other, Twilight and Thunderbird land between them, sending waves of magic towards them that knock them away from each other and keep them them down.
“ENOUGH!!!”Twilight yells, her eyes slightly glowing and her voice shaking the trees. She was obviously angry but also confused and concerned. Thunderbird walks towards Sunny and helps her up. Twilight helps Zipp up and they both ask the same question at the same time. “What the hell is going on here?” but neither Sunny or Zipp answer but as Sunny soon opens her mouth to answer, she screams in pain and holds her sides as she falls to her knees, resting her head on the ground. Twilight tried using a healing spell on her but realizes that her magic is.. glitching.. just like Sunny’s. Zipp felt the same thing happening to her wings and when she looked at them, sure enough, they were glitching too.. and the same thing was happening to everypony else. Sunny’s screaming just got louder and louder and the glitching happening to her magic got worse and worse until she eventually passed out.. leaving everyone with more questions than answers.
Five hours later
Sunny was still unconscious and everyone was increasingly worried about her, especially Zipp who was worried it was something she had done to her. Speaking of Zipp, she was now sitting alone in a tree, staring at the sunset and reminiscing on all the good times she had with both her mother AND Pipp.. then the good times she had with her friends.. including Sunny.. which just made her regret what she said and did even more than she already did so she just curled her knees up to her chest and started to cry. “I’m sorry mom.. I’m sorry Sunny..” Zipp muttered to herself as she continued to cry. Her ears flickered when she heard someone coming up and she quickly wiped away her tears and straightened herself up to appear like she hadn’t been hunched over, crying. She turns to see who it is and sees Hitch and Pipp. “Hey guys..” Zipp says softly and they greet her in return. After a few minutes of just sitting in silence, Pipp decides to break the tension.
“Zipp.. why.. why did you say all that to Sunny.. she was only trying to help.” Pipp says and Zipp sighs and slowly nods for a few seconds before answering.
“I know.. and I regret it.. I don’t know what came over me, I guess when I heard her mention mom.. some part of me just got annoyed at the nerve that she had to talk to me about what our mom would want for us.. and I was jealous that she at least has a chance to save her dad and be with him again.. a chance I.. WE will never get.. and knowing that.. HURTS..” Zipp says, starting to tear up until she feels a gentle but firm hand rest on her shoulder and she looks to see it belongs to Pipp who then cuddles into her sister’s side.
“I’ll miss her too..” Pipp says. While it wasn’t much, it was all Zipp needed to hear from her before she finally let the tears fall from her eyes as she held her little sister close to her and Hitch wrapped his arm around them both.
“We’re all here for you.. both of you. That includes Sunny.. just make sure you make things right with her Zipp. Ok?” Hitch asks and when Zipp nods, he smiles and leans his head against the tree.
She blushes and smiles back. She sighs in contentment, happy to know that her friends and sister would always be there for her, no matter what. Sure it took a bit of convincing but still.. wait. Convincing.. that gives Zipp an idea and she looks at her sister. “Pipp, do you still have a way to contact that girl?” Zipp asks and at first Pipp looks confused but she quickly catches on and nods. Hitch looks confused but they both quickly explain that who they’re talking about is a pony Pipp used to be a rival to about two months ago. Well a rival in anything involving music, subscribers, followers, videos, and views. While the other pony wasn’t a royal, she was famous and rich enough to be one. The news of the petty rivalry along with Pipp’s girl-crush on her amused Hitch. Once he calmed his laughter, he asked how she could help them and they both smiled as if they were waiting for him to ask.
“For quite a while, she’s been recording all the BAD things Midnight's done, including the attack on Maretime Bay and the destruction of Zephyr Heights.” Pipp says before Zipp continues for her.
“So she can probably get Midnight’s army, and hopefully the entire world, to turn against her and support Sunny and the rest of us.” Zipp says and Hitch goes from looking shocked to looking happy.
“That’s great, so how do we-“ Hitch starts but before he can finish his question, Thunderbird calls them all down to talk and it sounds urgent. After they hurry down, he leads them to the medical station, where Sunny and Nebula currently were. Everyone was there, Izzy, Brightburn, Sprout, Twilight and her friends, and even Alphabittle. When they asked what this is about, Twilight stepped forward into the middle of everyone.
“We figured out what’s wrong with Sunny… it’s all the negativity in the world now.. it’s killing the magic.. and her.” she explained and everyone except Thunderbird and Brightburn look shocked. Brightburn was the one to speak up next.
“It’s the crystals, in a way, they’re powered by ponies. And since we used the crystals to remove the darkness from Sunny, she’s connected to them, so whatever happens to them.. happens to her. And also since the crystals brought back the Mane 6 and were made from THEIR elements, it’s the same thing with them, just not as intense.. but they are dying too.” she says and everyone was distraught by this but then Pipp grew a determined look.
“It’s not over yet, we can totally make it so everyone can have fun and vibe together again. And we know someone who can help.” she says, walking to stand beside her sister who crossed her arms and nodded.
“Good.. but first we should all get some rest. It’s been a long day.. and tomorrow’s gonna be even longer.” Thunderbird says and everyone separates to turn in for the night but Zipp stops when she hears a familiar voice speak up.
“Wait, Zipp, can I talk to you.. please?” asks Sunny and Zipp hesitates for a bit before nodding and walking to her, sitting beside her. “Hey.. I.. I wanna apologize.. for earlier.. I know I had no right, especially since all of this is my fault.. I know I can’t make up for what I’ve said or done but.. I want you to know I’m sorry..” Sunny says sadly and Zipp realizes just how much she’s messed up. She shakes her head and looks up at Sunny.
“No Sunny, I’m the one who should be sorry. I’m the one who had no right to say what I said to you. I was just.. annoyed.. and jealous.. and so.. SO angry. So you have nothing to be sorry for.. but I’m sorry too.. looks like we both have some adjusting to do huh?” Zipp asks with a slight chuckle and Sunny giggles and nods.
“So.. are we good?” she asks and Zipp nods and holds out her hand for Sunny to shake.
“We’re good..” she says and Sunny takes her hand, instantly pulling her into the tightest hug she can muster. Zipp would be lying if she said it didn’t hurt.. a lot. But Sunny didn’t need to know that, so she hugged her back as best she could. After wishing Sunny a good night, Zipp left, happy that everything would soon be ok and right again.. happy that no matter what, they would stick together through thick and thin.. they’d do their part. Hoof to heart.
While everypony else was out looking for the mystery mare Pipp brought up, Sunny was in Bridlewood, practicing magic with Twilight and Thunderbird. Right now she was struggling to hold up the connection between herself and a rune made from golden alicorn magic. “Focus Sunny. This won’t work if you’re distracted by anything. Anything at all. You need to hold the connection for this rune to be effective.” Twilight continues to urge Sunny which just adds to Sunny's rapidly increasing frustration. It wasn’t that Sunny wasn’t excited to be learning from her foalhood hero. It was just that she had been trying to master control of her magic for the past few months on her own and she hadn’t even gotten close. Even with as many books as she had read about old spells and everything that would be effective in combat. She had tried some and that’s what had lead to some of the scars on her body. Mainly when her magic started glitching did the spells go completely wrong.
On one occasion, she was practicing a spell that could be destructive if done wrong. She was doing it right, at least she thought she was, but then her magic glitched and the spell went berserk and blew up the entire area. Luckily no one else was around but Sunny was injured and momentarily crushed by tons of rocks. Had she not learned a healing spell, she would’ve been a sitting duck on multiple occasions. Regardless, a lot of spells she’s tried and failed, and this rune was no different. Sunny puts more focus and effort into it and it starts to become more solid.. but that doesn’t last long as it starts flickering and fading and Sunny groans in frustration, breaking the connection and punching right through a tree. “I can’t do it! I’ve been trying all morning and I can’t manage to do a single! Stupid! Rune! If I can’t even manage to do a teleportation spell, how could I possibly hope to beat Midnight?! Especially since you just barely managed to?!” Sunny yells, turning to Twilight, who isn’t even the least bit shocked but she does have a sorrowful look on her face.
Twilight walks to Sunny and puts a reassuring hand on her shoulder and smiles at her. “I understand your doubts Sunny. I too have had the same mindset.. do you wanna know how I overcame those doubts?” Twilight asks and Sunny looks up at her, tilting her head a bit to show her curiosity. Twilight chuckles before answering with “I realized that I didn’t need to learn every spell in the world just to overcome every obstacle that Midnight throws at me.. I realized I could count on my friends to be there by my side no matter what.. and you can do the same.. but you have to trust them. Trust that they can take care of themselves. Trust them.. trust yourself. Trust.. the magic of friendship.” Twilight says and that long dead spark that Sunny used to have.. that spark of hope and faith.. was reignited. She now knew that it was a terrible mistake to leave. So she turned around, thinking about everything that her departure had caused.. and decided to stay. To fight beside her friends from now on and never leave their sides again. It was obvious that Midnight was going to go after them or anyone close to them whether she was with them or not. Leaving wouldn’t save them.. but she was done running. She turned around to Twilight and Thunderbird with a determined look on her face.
“Alright.. I’m ready to try again. Thank you Princess Twilight.. I promise I will never turn my back on friendship again.” Sunny says and Twilight gives a proud smile.
“Anytime.. and I know you won’t.. Princess Starscout.” Twilight says, slightly bowing her head and Sunny’s heart and mind temporarily stopped working from shock. Princess Twilight Sparkle.. acknowledged her as a princess.. and bowed her head. Sunny felt like she was gonna pass out but she shook her head and tried to continue her training instead. She could freak out over it later.
Beside a nearby hidden pegasus city
“We’re here.” Pipp says as she excitedly hops off of Spike who was in his “rampage” form. They had landed just outside the city’s border on top of one of the small mountains that surrounds it so no one had noticed. Good thing too, because if any of the pegasi saw a dragon, or a giant one at least, they would instantly go into a panic and flee the city. Spike turned back to his normal size once everypony was off him and followed them into the city. Everypony looks around amazed, this city was very similar to Zephyr Heights but more advanced looking and more colorful. There were billboards advertising different products, like perfume, pizza, video games, new phones, and other things. Then there were some that were showing some of the mystery mare's music videos. She was a beautiful white pegasus with a brown mane that was dyed violet at the tips. Her wings had purple primary feathers while the rest were blue just like her eyes. Pipp instantly squealed when she saw them.
“I’m guessing that’s who we’re looking for?” Spike asks, earning a nod from Zipp who's smirking at her sister. When Pipp notices, she immediately tries to make herself seem calm even though she’s internally screaming in excitement on the inside.
“Sparkle time 88? Is that her real name?” Izzy asks and Pipp gives her a dumbfounded look before breathing in and explaining.
“No silly, her real name is Violet. Violet Sparkles. She lets her friends call her Sparks for short. And since you’re all friends with me and Zipp, you might get that privilege.” Pipp says, and to her mild annoyance, Sprout, Spike, Rainbow dash, and Applejack all laugh. “Uhhh is something funny?” Pipp asks.
“Sparks? Seriously?” Sprout asks while laughing, earning a punch in the shoulder from Brightburn. “Ow! What?! It’s a funny nickname.” he says and she glares at him, growling. He instantly falls silent and she crosses her arms.
“Honestly, I don’t know why I expected better from a former racist egotistical tyrant.” Brightburn says and Sprout frowns and pouts. Before anyone can call her out for that comment or agree with her, tons of ponies start running past them in excitement, confusing them as they try to follow them and find the source. Pipp’s shocked expression, followed by an excited squeal gives away what or who it is.
Everyone looks shocked when they see Violet walking through the crowd and she looks even more beautiful in person than she does in the videos. When some kids run up to her, asking for her autograph, and one has his wing in a cast she searches for something to write with but then shrugs and pulls out one of her feathers and uses it to sign the colt’s cast and sign the filly’s photo of her. They both squeal excitement and the filly looks as if she almost faints when Violet puts her feather behind her ear for her to take as a gift. She then walks off and stops in her tracks when she sees Pipp and Zipp. She then smiles and flys to them. “Pipp! Zipp!” she yells and they fly to her and meet her halfway, Pipp embracing her in a hug that’s immediately returned. Violet hugs Zipp gently as soon as she’s done with Pipp. “Wow, it’s been a while. I’ve been trying to contact you after your mission-stream. You didn’t respond to any of my messages or calls.” she says, turning to Pipp who has a sheepish smile on her face.
“Yeahhh about that.. my phone was damaged, the screen was cracked badly and it messes with my texts and I couldn’t call you because the weather machine in Zephyr Heights was scrambling communications so I got no service and I couldn’t leave the city at the time.” Pipp explained and Violet gave her an understanding look and put a wing around her, pulling her into a hug.
“I understand Pipp, you had a lot going on and you still do.. which brings me to ask why you’re here.” Violet says and Pipp perks up, remembering why they came here.
“Oh right, we need your help. You’ve been recording everything bad that Midnight’s done right?” Pipp asks and Violet nods. “We thought maybe you could expose her actions and her lies. You can prove Sunny’s innocence and save her life, along with the lives of the mane six.. of everyone in Equestria.” Pipp continues and Violet seems to think about it as she looks around at the city and everypony in it. She looks down, shaking her head.
“I don’t know Pipp.. that wouldn’t just put me in danger. It would put my home and everyone in it in danger as well.. and as much as I wanna help you.. I have to put their safety first.” Violet says much to everyone’s shock and disappointment.
“Violet, hiding the truth from the world isn’t gonna protect them, if you want them to survive and be safe, Sunny Starscout is your best bet, but she’s not at her best right now because all the negative energy in Equestria, it’s killing her. I.. Pipp and I already lost our mother and our home.. we can’t lose anyone else.. do you really want anyone else to go through the same thing?” Zipp asks, looking at her with pleading eyes and Violet looks shocked at the news of Queen Haven's demise and Zephyr Height's destruction. She slowly pulls Zipp and Pipp into a hug and they both accept it sadly.
“I’m.. I’m so sorry for your loss..” she says before sighing and backing up. “I’ll help you.. just not here. If you can get me somewhere secure, I can help Sunny clear her name. We can fix the world.. unite everypony together again.” Violet says, her voice full of hope and determination and everyone smiles. Spike feels like something isn’t right. He looks up at the sky and he could’ve sworn he momentarily saw a small scorpion tail. He sees another one and silently warns Rainbow Dash by tapping her and gesturing for her to look up.
As soon as she does, she sees one too and throws a lightning bolt into the clouds above them and it lights up, revealing silhouettes of at least a dozen Deathbolts. Everyone notices and gets ready to fight except the civilians who start to panic. The Deathbolts fly down out of the clouds and start attacking the city. “No no NO!” Violet yells as she looks around at all the ponies running away in a panic then looks at the Deathbolts and frowns. “I’ll be right back. Keep them busy and away from the civilians!” she says before running off and the others go to protect everyone. Zipp taking out some of her built up aggression on them, but the others are too busy to notice or care. After two minutes of fighting, one of the Deathbolts sneak attack Pipp. She tries to defend herself but with one strong attack, her ring blades shattered. She looks at them in shock and horror before the Deathbolt scratches her arm with its tail, making her cry out in pain and fall and hold her arm. Zipp notices and tries to help her but a Deathbolt tackles her and she struggles to get free.
“Pipp!!” Zipp yells, fearing for her sister’s life. She already lost her mother, Pipp was the only family she had now, she didn’t want to lose her too. As Pipp closed her eyes, pinned between a wall and the Deathbolt and prepared herself for her own demise, she became confused when she heard it’s tail move towards her at lightning fast speed.. but she felt nothing. No pain, no metal piercing flesh. So she opened her eyes and saw that it’s tail was cut off. Violet suddenly kicks it into a building, knocking it out. She helps Pipp up and she has her “combat outfit” on which consisted of a silver jacket, black pants with blue stripes and black boots with purple straps. She also had a sword that was slightly glowing blue and it looked amazing.
Pipp stood there at a loss for words and Violet notices and blushes. “Is.. it a bit much?” she asks, tucking her hair behind her ear in embarrassment. Pipp quickly shakes her head.
“No not at all, you look amazing.” Pipp says and Violet smiles at her and giggles, making her heart rate increase rapidly.
“Hey lovebirds! Once you two are done fangirling for each other, mind helping out?!” Brightburn shouts as she’s being chased by three Deathbolts. They both nod and go back to helping everyone but it’s a losing battle when more show up. Violet sees one drop a bomb near a family and she quickly goes to move them but ends up getting hurt herself and being knocked unconscious. Pipp quickly goes to get her and goes back to the others. Spike frowns and looks at everyone else.
“All of you go, get her back to Bridlewood.” He says and everyone instantly objects but he growls at them. “Go! I’ll be fine! Even if these guys catch me, I can buy the rest of you time! I’ve got this.. trust me..” he says as he starts walking forward and Rarity smiles and goes with him.
“We do.. but we need you to trust us as well..” she says and the rest of the mane six that are present step forward as well and get ready. Fluttershy turns to everyone else.
“Tell Twilight that we’ll be ok.” she says with a smile and they all agree before running off and starting to make their way back to Bridlewood as the mane 6 stay behind and fight till the end, having faith that they’ll end this madness.
Back in Bridlewood
“So.. when I sensed that Midnight was attacking Maretime Bay.. that was an alicorn ability?” Sunny asks Twilight who nods.
“Alicorn empathy.. every alicorn possesses it. It’s what connects us all. If you can feel how scared the rest of the Alicorns are, that’s because It allows us to sense danger, each other’s emotions, read minds, etc.” Twilight explains before continuing. “And that must be why you sensed Solaris when you touched the alicorn amulet.. she’s still in there Sunny, fighting to get out.. I just wish.. nevermind. That is a story for another day. Ok let’s try this again.” Twilight says, getting in her stance and Sunny does the same but before they can commence their training, the others show up in a hurry and Twilight notices that her friends aren’t with them.
“You’re back, what happened?!” Sunny asks, noticing their injuries. After catching her breath, Izzy steps forward and answers.
“We.. we found her but then the Deathbolts attacked the city.. Spike, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash all stayed behind to fight them.. I’m sorry Twilight.. they wanted you to know they’ll be ok.” she explains and Twilight doesn’t even know what to say.. but as the weight of the situation started to make itself known to her, she started to feel so many emotions piling up inside her mind but there was one that was strongest among them.. anger.
“They will.. because we’re done wasting time.. tonight.. we take the fight to Midnight.” Twilight says, clenching her fists and Sunny would be lying if she said the thought didn’t almost scare her but she pushes that fear away and grows a determined look.
“She’s right.. Midnight has hurt WAY too many ponies and other creatures.. it’s time she answers for every single one.. tonight we end this.. once and for all.” Sunny says, her eyes slightly glowing.
In Maretime Bay
Midnight, sensing the decision the two princesses have just made, smirks as she opens her eyes. “Took them long enough.” she says as she stands up off of her throne and walks outside, looking around at the new and improved, heavily fortified “Darktime Bay”. “They have no idea what they’re heading into.. they’ll be responsible for the destruction of every single creature who attempts to oppress me.. on this world.. or the next.” she says as her eyes glow red and so does the alicorn amulet which was currently around her neck. Yes, Sunny and Twilight would come and attempt to stop her.. but they would fail.. then they would finally meet their ends. “And once I’m done, no one will ever be able to resist me again.. not even you.. Solaris.” she says. Solaris hears every word but she still tries to hold out hope that everything will be alright..
“You’re wrong.. please.. Sunny.. make things right.” Solaris says weakly before she screams in pain and becomes surrounded once again by nothing.. but darkness.
Everypony was gathered in the center of Bridlewood and Sunny was the only one pacing. She was nervous about the mission, but also everyone’s safety, especially Thunderbird’s who said he had to go to the old base to get a few things. She suddenly snaps out of her thoughts when she feels a gentle reassuring hand on her shoulder and she looks only to see that it belongs to Izzy, who has a loving smile on her face and Sunny smiles back. “So what exactly is your plan once you get to Maretime Bay? You can’t just rush in without a plan, we all know it’s suicide.” Alphabittle says and Sunny turns to him with a determined look. She then walks to the front of the group and begins explaining.
“Since Canterlogic is big enough to be a castle, and all castles have dungeons, that’s most likely where Midnight will be, where she’ll be holding Phyllis and the others prisoner, and where she’ll be making new weapons to throw at us. If we cut the power there, the factory will stop making weapons, mechs, and vehicles for her army. We’ll have to be stealthy about that part. Then once she’s distracted, whoever goes into the factory gives everypony else the signal to move in. With her army distracted, Midnight will be vulnerable, that’ll be the perfect chance to take her down.” Sunny explains and she looks around at everyone to see if they agree with the plan and they do until Twilight gives Sunny a look and Sunny goes wide eyed and looks nervous.
“Sunny.. it’s time. Tell them the truth.” she says and Sunny breathes in and out then turns to the confused looks on everypony's faces and sighs.
“During our battle with Midnight at the old base.. I touched the alicorn amulet and.. I saw Solaris.. she was so scared.. and she asked me for help but.. before I could do anything I was fighting Midnight again.” Sunny says, looking down, afraid to face the reactions that everyone would have.
“Why didn’t you just tell us that in the first place?” Zipp asks in a restrained, calm but firm voice and Sunny rubs her arm nervously.
“I.. I didn’t know how any of you would react, I mean how would YOU expect anypony to react at the news that a filly has been inside the same monster that’s been causing so much pain and suffering? How do you think that would go? How many ponies would want both Midnight AND Solaris dead because of that fact.” Sunny says and everyone seems to begin to understand. “Don’t you see? I didn’t tell you because I also wanted to protect Solaris from that kind of hatred. She’d been through enough.. do we really wanna add to it more than we already have?” she asks and everyone instantly sees where Sunny’s coming from.
Hitch stands up and looks at Sunny. “Well if we’re gonna be working together Sunny.. if this is gonna work.. no more secrets, no more lies, and no more half-truths. We’re all in this together.. Ok?” He asks and Sunny nods with a smile.
“I promise..” she says with teary eyes and her friends invite her into a hug and she instantly jumps into it, hugging them as tight as she can and even accidentally lifting them all up with alicorn strength but none of them seem to mind it. Everyone around them smiles and after the hug ends, lightning strikes by them and Thunderbird walks out of it with armor for the Mane 5. Each one matches their colors, has some sort of representation of their names and their powers, and has a weapon that they’ve proven best with. Sunny has a sword and a shield, Izzy has a sword that’s somewhat shaped like the moon, Pipp has blades that can be turned into rings blades that absorb kinetic energy, Zipp has a bigger sword than her last one that can still split into two using magic, and Hitch has pistols that are also tasers and a gauntlet that projects a shield.
“Armor and weapons fitting for heroes such as yourselves.” Thunderbird says and they all smile at him and go to get ready but not before thanking him.
When they come back they all have their armor on and their weapons attached. Brightburn flys to them and lands, looking exhausted. “How did it go with the Alicorns and the old kingdoms? Are they willing to help?” Sunny asks and Brightburn looks up at her with a frown and sighs, standing up straight.
“Sorry.. but the kingdoms.. they’ve all lost a lot to Midnight in the past.. they can’t afford to lose anymore.. they’re afraid to face her. And the Alicorns still aren’t completely sure they can trust you.. they wanna help but.. they’re scared too.. of both you and Midnight.” she says sadly and regretfully. “I’m sorry Sunny.. but they can feel a bit of darkness in you.. anger, rage, pain.. hatred. And I’ll be honest.. so can I.” Brightburn says and that causes Sunny to reflect on the countless nightmares she’d had in the past few months.
She frowns as she comes to the conclusion that the nightmares about her evil self weren’t just nightmares.. they were possible outcomes of the coming battle. This just caused Sunny to fear herself and fear for everyone’s safety more than she already did. She grew a determined look as she clinched her fists and looked up at everyone then focused her attention on Brightburn. “Either way, I won’t let it control me. I promise..” she says and Brightburn seems to hesitate before nodding, a clear sign that she trusts Sunny to keep that promise. At least to some degree. She looks around at everyone. “So uhhh.. who’s ready to go?” she asks and after quickly exchanged glances between them all, they all agree with determined looks and Sunny can’t help but smile as they start to head to the ship that’s waiting to take them to Maretime Bay.
Nebula, Firestar, Askari, and Skylight all exchange nervous looks and Nebula goes to walk beside Sunny. “You know if this goes wrong, we’re all done for right?” she asks and Sunny continues walking for a bit before looking at her and answering.
“This is gonna work.. it has too.”
Just outside of Darktime Bay
Sunny would be lying if she said she wasn’t scared out of her mind. She was sweating, her heart was racing, her breathing became rapid and her thoughts were filled with dark possibilities of what could happen to them all. She breathes in and out repeatedly and slowly to try and calm down but it barely helps. Twilight and Brightburn sense her fear and they both send their own calming thoughts to her through alicorn empathy and Sunny starts to calm down. She smiles and thanks them both, earning smiles and nods from them. They would be fine, she knows it. They would make things right and everything will go back to normal.. or as normal as it can get, considering everything that’s happened. She sees Maretime Bay through one of the ship's windows and goes wide eyed from shock and horror at the state of it. Instead of a beautiful town full of ponies who were just casually walking through it, it looked more like a fortress, an armored wall around it with mounted turrets and everything was black and had something about it that was red.
It added a sinister look to the town. The buildings were different, more scary looking. Canterlogic was more of a castle than a factory now and Sunny’s lighthouse wasn’t safe from these changes either, it was bigger, scarier, and looked nothing like how it used to.. Midnight had ruined it. She ruined everything. It was one thing to go after Sunny’s friends but it was another to take over her home and change it to her liking and have her own dad help her with all this. It was already personal when Sunny found out that Midnight had brainwashed Argyle, but this? This was taking things to a whole new level. At this point Midnight has taken almost everything from her.. and she refused to let her take anything or anypony else.
After discussing that she and Izzy would go into Canterlogic and shut everything down, everyone agrees and Thunderbird opens the back of the ship. Before both Sunny and Izzy jump out, Hitch stops them and looks at Sunny. “Try not to get killed in there alright?” He asks and Sunny smiles and nods.
“We’ll add it to the plan.” She says playfully before she and Izzy run and jump out when they’re right over Canterlogic, cheering and having a little fun. Sunny then wraps her arms around Izzy and teleports them both onto the roof. When they find the vent they both smirk at each other and speak at the same time. “Maximum sneaky, engaged.” They say and after that, they waste no more time in getting to the ventilation system and making their way into Canterlogic through there.
Meanwhile, Thunderbird lands the ships just outside the range of the turrets on the wall while it’s in stealth mode. Everyone exits and looks around. Twilight puts an invisibility spell on everyone as they start moving towards the wall and try to find an opening. After a few minutes of searching they run into something they weren’t expecting.. a graveyard.
Sunny and Izzy were both nervous and trying their best to stay quiet while they moved through the ventilation system. There were ponies, Deathbolts, and Sentries everywhere. So if they were spotted, they would have to fight their way through them, and they could probably handle that, but if Midnight showed up and intervened, they were both doomed, and so was Equestria. They kept wandering until they found the elevator and they pressed the button that would take them to the underground factory then got out and got on top of the elevator, Izzy using an invisibility spell on them both. Once it gets there, they’re shocked by the state of it but have no time to react as two of the Deathbolts down there look to see who’s coming down and go to the elevator when they see no one in it and search it. Sunny and Izzy quickly get in it then walk out of it and look around quietly. After a few minutes of looking around, they find the dungeon and find Phyllis and everyone else who was captured. They didn’t look too injured but they were scared and they were shackled up. Sunny released them and asked if they were ok and they all said yes but Sunny could tell something was.. off.
Sunny calls Zipp and tells her what’s going on. “Zipp, you’ll never guess who we found in the dungeons. Phyllis and everypony else.” she says but the gasps that comes from the other end of the comm confuses and worries her.
“Sunny.. that’s impossible.. we just found graves for all of them.. including Phyllis.” Zipp says and Sunny freezes up and looks at Izzy, then at everyone else.
“So that means..” Sunny begins to say and they both come to the same conclusion at the same time.
“It’s a trap!” They both yell and “Phyllis” suddenly tackles Sunny then reveals herself to be a changeling.. along with everyone else. She kicks her off and Izzy helps her up but they both end up backing up into Midnight, who’s smirking.
“Hello again Sunny, I see you brought one of your friends this time.. or should I say all of them.” She says as she presses on the comm in her ear. “You found their location? ..Good.. take them out.” she says and they all hear the turrets outside firing and Sunny’s heart instantly fills with dread and anger and.. hatred.
“I’ll kill you!!!” Sunny yells as she charges towards Midnight and she does the same, both of them ready for what would be.. their final confrontation.
Everypony was running and avoiding the blasts from the turrets, but Askari, Firestar, and Brightburn were already injured. They had no idea how they had discovered their location, the ship was still in stealth mode and Twilight had placed an invisibility spell on everyone. Violet flys up and avoids blasts for as long as she can but eventually has to block one with her sword which absorbs the energy from the blast but she’s sent flying back a bit and is stunned. Another blast heads towards her but Pipp moves her out of the way as fast as she can. Thankfully neither of them are hurt. Twilight and Thunderbird do their best to destroy some of the turrets but only end up disabling five of them which leaves 9 more. Things get worse when Deathbolts fly from behind the wall and start heading towards them.
Twilight wishes more than ever that her friends were here, Rainbow and Spike would easily take care of them all but right now it was just them and.. she could sense something. She could sense Sunny struggling.. she’s struggling to fight Midnight.. and she’s in distress. She uses alicorn empathy to see what’s happening with her and sees Sunny throwing everything she can at Midnight, fighting wildly and Midnight is blocking, countering, and dodging all of Sunny’s strikes and she immediately knows HOW she’s doing it: alicorn empathy. She secretly tells Sunny that they’re all ok and tells her how to block Midnight out of her head and after a while, Sunny tells her she’s got it figured out and Twilight sees that she’s actually starting to land hits on Midnight. She then refocuses on the fight. She knows Sunny will take down Midnight.. she has to.. for all their sakes.
While Sunny was taking on Midnight, Izzy was handling the Changelings with little difficulty. She was a bit confused as to why Sunny suddenly went from being rageful and fighting wildly to being calm and fighting stylishly. Seriously, the way Sunny was fighting, it could almost be mistaken for dancing with how smoothly she was moving. Sure Midnight got a few good hits in but most of them were blocked by Sunny’s shield or countered with magic or her sword. After taking down all the changelings and encasing them in ice, Izzy goes to help Sunny. “Izzy no! Stay back! You need to shut down the power!” Sunny yells and Izzy stops and gives her a hesitant and worried look. Sunny gives a reassuring smile as she blocks one of Midnights attacks. “Don’t worry.. I’ll catch up with you!” she says and Izzy nods and runs off, allowing Sunny to turn her attention back to Midnight, immediately receiving a kick to the face that sends her sliding back.
While Sunny is stunned, Midnight takes the chance to throw her newly formed bident at her and Sunny manages to block it, causing it to stab into the wall and get stuck. Sunny smirks at Midnight who smirks back and reaches her hand out towards Sunny and Sunny can tell something isn’t right. She hears something and when she looks behind her she barely dodges when she sees the bident coming straight at her and it flys back into Midnight’s hand. Sunny tries to get up but a magical tendril wraps around her and swings her around, slamming her into the floor, the walls, the roof and finally, right into a punch from Midnight. “It doesn’t matter if your little friend manages to shut off the power, I have more than enough weapons and tech to make my army unbeatable.” Midnight says as she walks towards a downed Sunny. She raises her bident and sends it downward straight towards her but Sunny uses her sword, which was charged with magic to block it and knock it out of her hand. Midnight growls and grabs Sunny, flying back, spinning around, and throwing her into a wall, cracking it and making a crater.
Sunny coughs and rolls out of the way just as Midnight slams down on the area where she had just been, a wave of destructive magic blasting out from her attack. They both glare at each other and suddenly the floor above them starts collapsing and melting and Magma suddenly drops through it and glares at Sunny. “You!” she says before taking out some lava claws and putting them on her hands. Midnight holds her hand towards her, telling her to stand down.
“No! You go after the unicorn, don’t let her turn the power off!” she says and as soon as Magma tries to object, she gives her a death glare, making her back down and start to go after Izzy and Sunny secretly warns her that she’s on her way. She then gets up and faces Midnight. “Now, where were we? Hmmm.. oh right, I was just trying to kill you.” Midnight says before disappearing and reappearing behind Sunny but this time Sunny was ready for her as she blocked her attack, the magic that she charged into her shield sending a shockwave towards her that knocks her into a wall. Sunny chuckles and looks at her weapons.
“Thank you Thunderbird.” she says before firing a beam of magic at Midnight, who does the same. Their magic clashes together and starts combining and becoming unstable.
Sunny stops firing and moves out of the way and the magic hits the wall behind her, causing a massive explosion that knocks both her and Midnight through the next wall and makes the entire building shake. Sunny shakes her head as she starts to get up and she sees Midnight doing the same but before she does anything, Sunny senses something as she sees the alicorn amulet glow: pain. The weird part is that Midnight doesn’t seem like she’s in pain so.. it must be coming from Solaris.. that would explain why she could barely sense her now. She had to confirm what she was thinking first. “What are you doing to Solaris, Midnight?!” she asks angrily and Midnight looks at her before breaking into fits of laughter.
“Oh you haven’t guessed it yet? Boy, you really are dumb. The amulet doesn’t just strengthen my magic it drains my soul, or in this case, Solaris’s soul since I don’t have one. This is the only way for me to get rid of her without dying in the process. I’m bonded to hers, and as long as she continues to live inside my mind and body, I’ll never reach my full potential.” she explains coldly and Sunny gives her a look of shock, which quickly turns to anger.
“You. Are. Pure. Evil. You’re destroying the good part of you just so you can become more cruel! You’re killing Solaris!” Sunny yells in anger, her eyes glowing gold and Midnight chuckles evilly, her own eyes glowing red.
“Exactly.” she says before both she and Sunny charge at each other and clash, once again making the building shake.
Izzy was so worried about Sunny but she knows she can handle herself. She just has to hurry and cut the power so the others can get past the defenses. While she was running and looking for a generator or whatever powered the place, she found something even better. She found the rest of the Mane 6 and Spike and they were in some sort of specialized cage. The room it was in was massive and it was hanging right above a pit, and Izzy doubted she wanted to know where it led to. “You’re all okay!” she yelled in excitement and they all smile when they notice her.
“We said we would be, didn’t we?” Rainbow asks with a smug look on her face and Izzy giggles before searching for some way to get them out of there.
“Does anypony know how to open it?” she asks and all of them shake their heads, and Spike explains that whenever they try using their powers, the cage shocks them with electricity that not even Rainbow Dash can absorb. That gives Izzy an idea.
“Hmmm maybe it only shocks those who are IN the cage trying to use their powers. All of you stand back, it’s about to get a little cold in there.” Izzy says and they all get ready before Izzy attacks the cage with an unending blast of ice magic. She hears footsteps behind her and feels the room heat up. “Oh no..” she says before turning around to see Magma who’s smirking at her.
“Well look who we have here.” she says before slamming her fists on the ground, making lava come out of it and continue straight to where Izzy is. Izzy quickly makes a mountain of ice below herself by stomping but she continues to try and freeze the cage but with Magma here, it’s way more difficult. Especially since she has to keep the mountain from melting as well. Magma sends lava boulders up at her and she dodges them both but just barely. She then starts attacking the mountain, making it melt.
“No no no no! I’ve almost got it!” Izzy yells but Rarity steps up to where she’s blasting and has a determined look on her face.
“Rarity don’t-!” Pinkie tries to say but Rarity starts freezing the cage as well and the cage shocks her but she continues to do it, despite the pain. Suddenly Applejack and Spike start trying to break the cage and she smiles at them both. Rainbow, Pinkie, and Fluttershy all start helping as well and Izzy smiles at them. No wonder Sunny admired them so much.. they always stick together and they never give up. So she wasn’t going to give up either.
Suddenly she feels the mountain shake and she slips and starts to slide right to where the lava is. She screams and tries to stop but it’s no use. “IZZY!!!” the Mane 6 yells and she closes her eyes, preparing herself for the slow and painful death that awaits right below her.. but it didn’t happen. She opens her eyes and sees she’s enveloped in dark purple magic. Magma growls and turns to see her ex-best friends, Nebula and Firestar standing right next to Askari. Nebula levitates Izzy over to them before walking forward.
“Shade please.. this has to stop.” Nebula says but Magma just growls and her hands glow and so do her eyes.
“I’ll never stop! Why can’t you see that Midnight is who’s side you should be on?! You’re helping the very pony who destroyed our home and killed so many of our friends!!”
“Because the only reason Sunny did it was because of Midnight! She was controlling her! Don’t you see?! Midnight has been lying to you!” Firestar says and Nebula stomps making lava rise up but stop right in front of them.
“You’re the ones lying to me! I was about to spend the rest of my life burnt. Scarred. I probably would’ve died. But Midnight.. she healed me. Hell, she made me better than I was before. So excuse me if I would rather side with her than the pony who almost ended my life. Just like you two are doing now.” Magma says as she gestures to Askari, who looks guilty as soon as she does. “She shot me in the legs and I couldn’t run away when the volcano erupted. She shot you too Neb!” she says, causing Askari to look down.
“Look, I get it, I’ve made mistakes and so has Sunny but Midnight.. she manipulated both of us. She promised me revenge too but when I finally got it.. it didn’t feel right.. I don’t know why, maybe it was because I realized that everything I did.. all the ponies I’ve hurt or killed.. was just so I could kill one more.. that it was all meaningless. I also realized, after seeing the damage and pain that I caused, that my parents wouldn’t have wanted all that for me.. so I left.. now I know what the right thing to do is, and it’s time you did too.” Askari says and Magma seems to think about it before she glares at them all.
She yells in anger, sending a wave of lava at them all but Nebula teleports them past it to the other side of the giant room. She and Izzy blast Magma, sending her through the door. “Izzy, get them out of that cage! Now!!” Nebula yells and Izzy nods and continues to blast the cage. Magma blasts the door in and starts fighting with the others as they give Izzy time to free the rest of the Mane 6.
After Twilight sent Nebula, Firestar, and Askari into Canterlogic, everyone thought the power would’ve been off already but something was wrong, the plan was going wrong. Twilight prepares to send a powerful magical blast towards the wall but before she can, an explosion knocks her and everyone else far back and wounds them all. Twilight shakes her head and looks around to see if everyone else was fine and also to find out what caused that explosion. After confirming that everyone’s alive, she sees that it was the same hybrid who she had faced in the past, the same one who had hurt her parents.. and the same one who killed Zipp and Pipp’s mother. “Ragnar..” she says and he smirks down at her.
“Well well well.. Princess. Twilight. Sparkle. Should’ve known I’d eventually see you on the frontlines again. Shame your little friends couldn’t join us though, but I guess they were too busy being tortured by Midnight to join us so I guess we can’t really blame them.” He says, smirking evilly at the mention of Twilight’s friends being tortured. Seeing that just makes Twilight even angrier but she breathes in and out to calm down. She senses a huge amount of rage from behind her and instantly realizes it’s coming from Zipp, who’s shaking with anger and radiating with electricity.
“You.. take away my home.. my mother.. and yet you’re still. Smiling.. like it’s something to be proud of!!” She yells, startling everyone, especially Pipp and Hitch. She then points a shaky finger at him aggressively. “So now.. I’m gonna be proud when I make you pay for all of it! I’m gonna kill you myself!” she says earning a stunned look from him before he suddenly breaks out into fits of laughter. This just serves to annoy and anger Zipp even more if that was even possible. He then glares at her.
“Come and try it, you’ll be the next Haven.” he says and Zipp is about to attack him but suddenly the doors to the wall opens and most of Midnight’s army comes out through them and stand in front of the wall.
“This is not good..” Hitch says but he still gets ready to fight and so does everyone else. As the army starts getting closer, dread starts to fill everyone’s hearts until they remember the plan. Twilight looks at Violet and nods, giving her the signal that it’s time. Violet flys up as high as she can and uses a new feature on her upgraded phone that makes a giant holographic screen in front of her army.
“Hello to all of those in Midnight's army and to every creature everywhere. My name is Violet and it’s about time you knew something.. in case you didn’t know already.. Midnight is not who you think she is.”
Sunny and Midnight both go flying out of Canterlogic, spinning and locked in a clash, magic radiating off of them both. Both of them were injured, Sunny even more so, but they continued to fight each other. Midnight suddenly drags Sunny down and slams her onto the roof and uses her bident to pin her down and start strangling her. She teleports away from her but glitches as soon as she reappears a few feet away from her. She grunts in pain and holds her side as she falls on one knee. Midnight seems to get stronger as Sunny gets weaker. She walks to Sunny and uses her bident to lift her chin up. “Any last words Sunny Starscout?” She asks and Sunny sees the screen appear where her friends are and she smirks.
“Yeah.. we’ve already won..” Sunny says and Midnight raises an eyebrow, looking confused.
“How so?” she asks and Sunny gestures behind her.
“Turn around.” she says and Midnight turns her head to face the direction Sunny gestured to and goes wide-eyed as the screen replays all the terrible things she’s done. She can sense that it’s being broadcasted across the entire world and she could feel that the more Violet said, the more ponies and other creatures started to turn against Midnight. She could also sense that she was starting to get weaker and she sees Sunny starting to.. glow. Her mane also began flowing and the rainbow strands of hair in her mane got brighter than the rest of her.
“No.. NO!! Impossible! You’re ruining EVERYTHING!!!” Midnight yells as she swings her bident at Sunny but it bouncer right off the fire-like aura surrounding her. Sunny smirks as she walks to Midnight.
“Here’s what you need to understand Midnight. It doesn’t matter how much you try and try to divide us forever. It doesn’t matter what challenges you throw at us! It doesn’t matter how many times you knock us down! We will always get back up and rise against you! It happened once, you should’ve known it would happen again! You may be strong.. but together.. united.. we’re stronger.” Sunny says as she stops right in front of Midnight and raises her fist in the air. Suddenly a beam of multicolored magic shoots from it and into the clouds, lighting up the sky and returning hope to Equestria and every creature in it.
“NOOOO!!!” Midnight yells and as soon as she’s about to attack Sunny again, they both feel the ground shaking a bit and sense a lot of creatures coming. Twilight senses them too and turns to where they’re coming from. After a few seconds, they all see creatures of all kinds coming towards Darktime Bay, past and present. Suddenly Canterlogic radiates with multicolored lightning which shuts all the power in the building off and, after a few seconds, shoots into the clouds to slowly form into Rainbow Dash who lands by Twilight and helps her up. Their both soon joined by the rest of the Mane 6 and Spike. Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Flurry Heart all fly out of the clouds and they’re followed by all the other Alicorns. Sunny smiles at them all. “You have got to be kidding me..” Midnight says as she sees the so-called army in front of her. Past heroes, villains, all kinds of figures from the past. She growls and while she’s distracted, Sunny teleports to the others as soon as she sees Izzy teleport back with Askari, Firestar, and Nebula next to her. She looks at Zipp, Pipp, and Hitch, then at Izzy then back to Midnight with a smirk.
“Everyone! Together!” She yells, making good use of the old royal voice. Together everyone yells what they’re all thinking at the same time before charging towards the so-called kingdom.
As soon as both sides clashed, the battle started and started strong. Sunny and Midnight once again engaged in battle but this time Twilight stepped in to help Sunny. The others were currently helping to keep the army at bay and a lot of members of Midnight's own army were helping them instead of her. They must’ve believed everything that Violet had revealed about their leader, now they were choosing to revolt and do the right thing. Zipp was actually happy and relieved that things were starting to turn in their favor.. that was until she saw him. Ragnar.. the demonic abomination responsible for her mother’s death and the loss of her kingdom. She wanted more than anything to make him pay.. and that’s just what she would do.
She flew up to him and tackled him with newfound, rage-fueled strength, taking him away from the battlefield and flying him right through the side of one of the buildings in Maretime Bay. As they tumbled throughout the building, they landed pretty hard hits on each other until Ragnar manages to kick Zipp away from him, separating them and they both get lost.. except Ragnar could smell where Zipp was, so he followed the scent while trying to maintain the element of surprise. He eventually found her and continued to stalk and play games with her. Knocking over things, scratching the walls, making low growling noises, and all the while, she still wasn’t able to determine his exact location. He eventually gets bored and starts attacking her and fleeing before she can react. Zipp was quickly getting more and more annoyed and angry. She gets an idea and when she hears something she unleashes a huge wave of electricity throughout the building and he gets electrocuted, falling from the roof and she tackles him, both of them falling through the floor.
Zipp proceeds to attack him without mercy until he knocks her off and they both take out their weapons. Zipp charges first and attacks him, going on full offense. That turns out to be a mistake as she leaves an opening from one of her attacks and he notices, taking the chance to stab her in the leg with one of his tail spikes and while she’s distracted by the pain, he slashes her across the cheek with his claws. She quickly recovers and slashes his chest with her sword and knocks his weapon out of his hand. She kicks him into the wall behind him and blasts him with multicolored lightning. She sees him starting to absorb it and he gets up and reveals the gauntlet on his right claw, getting ready to send it back at her but she quickly cuts off his claw, making him roar in pain and hold his arm tightly. She kicks him back and stabs him in the shoulders with both her swords to keep him pinned down. “Now.. what.. princess.. or should I say Queen since.. well.. you know.” He says, smirking and Zipp grits her teeth then smiles, cracking her knuckles.
“Now.. I take my sweet time killing you.. I take out all my built up frustration.. rage.. hatred.. I take it all out on you. This is for the torment, the boasting, for my home. For my friends! For. My! Family!” Zipp yells before proceeding to punch him with all her might repeatedly in a flurry of quick, powerful punches. She soon ends up knocking scales off his body, teeth out of his mouth, and spikes off his head. With every punch, every drop of blood spilt, every scale lost, Zipp felt more and more satisfaction, knowing that she was causing the same monster who killed her mother pain. Sure her fists had received injuries after a bit but she didn’t care, she just wanted to be done with him and never see his face again, never hear his voice again, never see that damn smirk of his again. When she felt like she had gotten it out of her system, she pulled out one sword from his shoulders and aimed straight for his heart. “Good riddance you monster..” she says before raising the sword more. Before she could bring it down, Pipp’s lightning lasso wrapped around her hand and pulled her off him and Hitch instantly grabbed her to hold her back and Skylight took the sword from her. “What are you doing?! I was so close to avenging mom and you’re saving him?! What the hell Pipp?!” Zipp yells and Pipp gets in front of her, looking at her with teary eyes and Zipp freezes up when she sees them.
“I know you’re angry and you miss mom Zipp but ask yourself.. is this what she would’ve wanted for you..?” Pipp asks before suddenly hugging Zipp who can feel her trembling with emotion. “We already lost mom Zipp.. I don’t.. I don’t wanna lose you too.. please don’t do this Zipp.. don’t be a killer.. don’t be him.” Pipp says, gesturing to Ragnar and Zipp can’t decide whether to listen to her sister, or give in to her own desires for revenge. She eventually breaks down and starts crying, hugging her sister back and deciding to let Ragnar live.. despite how much she feels he deserves to be put down. While Pipp and Hitch comfort Zipp, Sky and Violet tie up Ragnar. He would receive his punishment soon enough, but right now they had to be there for their friend. She needs them.. now more than ever.
Sunny and Twilight were quickly getting the upper hand against Midnight who was now on the defensive while they were going on full offense. Every time Midnight tries to attack, she’s instantly knocked back by a blast of magic. She growls in annoyance and draws more and more strength from the alicorn amulet but the more she does that, the more time Solaris has to recover. This was actually helping both Sunny and Twilight sense her more, so they form a plan and don’t waste a single second to carry it out. Twilight forms magical glyphs around Midnight and chains come out, wrapping around her and immobilizing her. Sunny dodges all the wild blasts that Midnight sends at them and grabs the alicorn amulet and as soon as she does, she’s on top of a mountain and it’s storming. She sees Solaris curled up under a small shelter of stone and walks to her.
She reaches out to touch Solaris and as soon as the tip of her finger touches her, Solaris shrieks in surprise and fear, making the storm worsen. Sunny gently tries to calm her down. “Shhhhh. It’s ok, it’s me.. Sunny. Remember..? You asked me for help and I’m here to do that.. I’m gonna get you out of here..” Sunny says, reaching for Solaris but only waiting for her to come to her instead of grabbing her and scaring her away. Solaris hesitantly looks at Sunny with tears in her eyes.
“P-Promise..?” she asks weakly, obviously exhausted from all she’d been through. Sunny gives her a reassuring smile and the storm slowly goes away and the clouds part to make way for the sun which shines brightly and, in a way, gives Solaris as much hope as Sunny's smile does.
“I promise.” Sunny says and Solaris smiles back and slowly reaches out to grab Sunny's hand. As soon as she does, a monstrous scream that sounds like Midnight booms through the sky, shaking the mountain and causing the storm to roll back in and Sunny picks up Solaris before teleporting away. She repeatedly does it as the storm continues chasing them as if Midnight herself was controlling it and the lightning that constantly tried to strike them. And at this point, Sunny wouldn’t be surprised if that was actually the case. She grew curious as to why she hadn’t come out of Midnight's mind by now. Then it hit her: Solaris. She might not be able to leave with her. Not yet anyway, not without trying to fight. Sunny dove behind a wall of rocks and used magic to shield herself and Solaris with a makeshift cave. She looks at the sky and sees a vortex in it that’s VERY far away but after thinking about her options, she grows a determined look and looks at Solaris.
“Do you trust me?” Sunny asks and after a few seconds, Solaris nods and Sunny puts her on her back, using magic to keep her there. And after waiting for the right time, Sunny drops the shield and races past the lightning, just barely dodging each strike. She has to block a few of them and that, along with the wind pushing against them was making it very difficult to get to the vortex but they eventually made it and Sunny touches it but it seems to reject her and she knows why. Midnight doesn’t just want Solaris gone, she wants her dead. But she wouldn’t let that happen. “I’m taking Solaris home Midnight. I’ll never let you or anyone else hurt her! Ever! Again!! I’ll take on anyone I have to!” Sunny yells and her body starts to glow brighter than ever and Solaris.. she starts to glow as well and she looks amazed and touches the vortex as well and with both their efforts combined, they manage to escape, Sunny flying back away from Midnight while holding Solaris in a protective but gentle embrace.
Midnight yells in anger and pain, breaking free of the chains and hold her sides, sliding away from Twilight and Sunny as Twilight walks towards her glaring. Black mist was starting to come off Midnight’s body as she slid away in fear. “No.. no no no no no, this isn’t how this was supposed to end..!” she says and Twilight scoffs and stares her down.
“Well whether you like it or not.. you’ve lost.. and this won’t be like last time.. it’s time for you to go.” Twilight says as she aims a powerful magical blast at Midnight who closes her eyes and seems to accept what’s coming to her.. until she smirks.
“No, princess.. because your newest student forgot to consider something.. she had the bell on her and she thought I couldn’t move while she was in my head..” she says before taking out the bell, blasting it and quickly aiming it at herself. “Thank you Sunny.. for bringing about the end of this pathetic world!” she says as the bell fires unknown magic into her and starts to transform her. Instead of just two wings, she has six, instead of her feathers, mane, and symbols being black or purple, they’re blood red, and instead of a sultry, smooth, but intimidating voice, she has a demonic, terrifying one. She blasts them all to the roof and slams them down with tendrils of red magic, pinning them down with them. She gets so close to Sunny’s face, she can feel the enraged breathing coming from her. “It’s about time you learn.. that even without Solaris’s abilities, I can still cause you a LOT of pain!!! Physical!” she says before looking at something and Sunny follows her gaze, freezing up as soon as it lands on Izzy. “And emotional!!” she continues before making a giant spear and throwing it straight at Izzy.
“NO!!!” Sunny screams before breaking free and teleporting to where Izzy is and pushing her out of the way. She didn’t care what happened after, she was just glad Izzy was safe. So it didn’t bother her as she felt the spear hit her instead.. the others would stop Midnight. As the spear went into Sunny’s back and straight through her heart, leading to her falling to the ground, lifeless, her friends all had the same reaction.. their hearts dropped and they all cried out the name of their now fallen friend.
“Sunny!!!” Everypony yelled simultaneously in shock and fear. No way Sunny was dead, she couldn’t be, not after all this. Izzy quickly gets up and runs to Sunny to check if she was still alive. She sighs in relief when she finds that she is but she’s barely breathing and she’s losing quite a lot of blood. “Sunny.. why.. why did you do that?” She asks with a concerned, shaky voice. If only she had seen the spear coming at her, Sunny wouldn’t have had to save her.. it should be her with a spear going through her heart, not Sunny.
Sunny opens her eyes and smiles at her. “I.. don’t.. regret it.” she struggles to say, her voice weak and full of attempts not to cough. It hurts Izzy’s heart to see and hear her like this. Hitch stops right beside them and kneels down to Sunny’s other side.
“Sunny! Sunny, are you alright?!” He says frantically and Sunny looks at him, chuckling but coughing when she does.
“I’ve..been better Hitch..” she says and Hitch smiles a bit then frowns, knowing his friend doesn’t have much time left.
“Oh Sunny.. You didn’t deserve this.. You deserved a much better, much longer life..if only..if only I could’ve..” Hitch says, his voice trailing off into restrained sobs. He’s always had Sunny’s back, ever since they were kids..he’s always protected her..but not this time. He’s failed..and now she was dying. He feels a hand on his shoulder and he looks to see it belongs to Zipp who’s standing beside him, frowning. Sunny places her hand on his, causing him to look at her and she has a smile on her face.
“Hitch.. There was nothing you could’ve done.. any of you.. this.. was always going to happen at some point. But don’t..don’t give up just because of this..don’t let Midnight win.. She..can’t..win.” Sunny says before turning to Izzy when she feels a tear land on her cheek. Izzy’s face was a mess of tears that she was trying to hold back.
“It wasn’t supposed to end like this.. not for you.. we were all supposed to.. make it out of this. Sunny please.. please don’t do this.. you can’t.. leave like this..!” Izzy says and Sunny frowns, putting one hand on Izzy’s cheek and slowly bringing her head down to lean her forehead against hers.
“I wish.. I didn’t have to.. but you’re safe.. And that’s all I care about. You’ll stop Midnight..you’ll all live good..long lives.. And I’m at peace with that..” Sunny says, her voice revealing that she was also holding back her own sobs too.
Izzy shakes her head. Sunny never ceased to amaze her with how selfless she truly was. She stays silent for a few seconds before saying the words that she’s always wanted to say to Sunny. “I love you..” she says and Sunny goes wide-eyed before smiling and nuzzling her.
“I love you too..” Sunny says, a single tear rolling down her cheek before her eyes close and she can’t see, hear, or feel anything. Everyone watches as Sunny’s head slowly lays back on the ground and she stops moving.. and breathing. Izzy’s eyes widen in horror.
“No.. no no no no no.. Sunny please.. wake up..” Izzy says in a panicked voice but she gets no response. The spear slowly disappears and that seals the deal.. Sunny.. was dead. And all of Equestria would soon follow. Midnight laughs evilly and Twilight, who’s still pinned, watches on in horror as Equestria’s newest and possibly most powerful alicorn dies.
“No..” she says quietly before turning to Midnight with an angry look. “What have you done?!” She yells at Midnight who gets close to her face, smirking.
“I’ll tell you what I’ve done Princess..” She says before picking Twilight up in dark magic. “I’ve. WON.” Midnight continues before throwing Twilight towards the battlefield and beginning the final stage of her plan. She takes off the alicorn amulet and looks at it and Grogar’s bell. She then flys to Sunny’s old lighthouse and goes below it. Argyle watches on as his leader goes to his old home to finish what she started, he hears crying and looks to where it’s coming from, only to see a unicorn crying over the body of.. his daughter. As he looks at the lifeless body of his own flesh and blood, he starts getting flashes..memories of his life before he..died and Midnight reanimated him. He holds his head as the memories continue to come until he focuses on one..the day Sunny was born. He remembers the room in the hospital, his wife in the hospital bed..holding their little newborn filly.
“What do you think we should name her?” Argyles asks in the memory and his wife giggles before looking down at her.
“Hmmm.. how about..” She starts to say but then the memory ends and he looks at the body, his eyes becoming their normal color.
“Sunny..” he says, remembering everything now. He starts to cry, realizing that everything he’s done has led up to this.. has led to the death of the only family he had left. He then remembers who’s fault it is that he ended up coming back and turning evil in the first place.. who really caused his daughter’s death.. Midnight. He swears to make her pay as he also remembers how his suit works. He walks to the lighthouse and goes in, weapons locked and loaded.
Solaris slowly sits up, looking around unaware to what all had happened. She sees Twilight slowly getting up but everyone looks like.. like they’ve given up and she can hear Midnight's army cheering, most likely unaware that she’s about to destroy the world.. but the cheering tells Solaris all she needed to know.. they lost. She hears crying and looks shocked when she sees Sunny’s friends all distressed but that wasn’t the shocking part.. it was what they were distressed about.. Sunny was on the ground.. lifeless.
“No..” Solaris says, frowning and almost giving up too.. until she remembers how Sunny made her feel when she was saving her.. Sunny wouldn’t give up on her.. Sunny saved her.. now it was her turn to save Sunny. She tries walking to her but she falls, still exhausted from everything she’d been through. So she just decides to crawl instead. She slowly makes her way there but she’s running out of strength alarmingly fast and just when she’s about to stop, someone picks her up, and she looks to see Twilight who nods at her and she nods back before Twilight takes her to Sunny, setting her down next to her. Solaris grabs Sunny’s hand and looks at her face.
“You saved me Sunny.. you’ve saved so many ponies from me and I thank you for that.. but you’re not done.. not yet. It’s my turn.. to save you.” She says before unleashing her magic into Sunny, both of their bodies glowing brighter and brighter until everyone is forced to cover their eyes.
Sunny opens her eyes and she’s in her lighthouse on the couch. She looks around confused and looks at herself. Her armor is gone and she’s in her usual clothes. She could’ve sworn that she had just.. “Hey Sunny Bunny.” a gentle and familiar voice says from beside her. She recognizes that voice but.. she hasn’t heard it in such a long time. She slowly looks to her side.. and sees her mother sitting next to her with a soft smile on her face. She looks shocked and her eyes start filling with tears.
“Mom..?” She asks, getting a nod in response. She instantly hugs her mother who hugs her back.
“It’s me sweetie.. I’ve missed you so much.” Sunny’s mother says and Sunny continues hugging her before replying.
“I’ve missed you too.. wait.. if I’m here.. and you’re here.. that means I’m really..” Sunny says as she pieces it together, earning a nod from her mother.
“I’m afraid so dear.. but you can’t stay. You’re not ready.. and you still have a job to do.” Her mother says before showing her everything she’s been through, telling her that her journey is just beginning then showing her what’s happening. Currently her father, Askari, Nebula, Brightburn, and Sky were about to be killed by Midnight but then Magma shows up and saves them. Her lighthouse.. was floating through the sky on a huge chunk of land that it had been on, surrounded by dark magic and boulders. Everyone else has just given up and her friends.. they were still surrounding her body, crying. Sunny knows now that without her, they’ll all die and Midnight will win. She hears a voice and looks around, recognizing it.
“Solaris? Where are you?!” Sunny asks before a flash of purple magic comes out of nowhere, scaring her and making her jump back. She looks at what caused it and sees Solaris on the ground in front of and she instantly picks her up. “Solaris what are you doing here?” Sunny asks and Solaris slowly opens her eyes to look at her.
“We need you to come back.. you have to stop her. Also you saved me first so.. I thought maybe I could return the favor.” She says and Sunny chuckles at that last part before looking at her mother who gives her a reassuring smile and a nod that tells her “It's ok, I’ll see you again.” Sunny smiles and looks at Solaris and nodding. Solaris nods back and begins taking them both back to the world of the living. Sunny looks at her mother with a sad smile.
“I love you mom.. and thank you.” She says and her mother smiles back.
“I love you too.. now go save the world.. my little princess.” She says before both Sunny and Solaris disappear.
“Sunny please.. please come back.. Equestria needs you, we need you.. I need you.” Izzy says before closing her eyes and letting her tears continue to fall. Suddenly Sunny wakes up, gasping and coughing and everyone looks shocked and relieved. Before hugging her and she hugs them back. She looks at Izzy and smiles.
“I’m here..” she says and Izzy smiles back with teary eyes before they all help Sunny up, seeing that her now healed wound left a scar that they can see the smallest hint of through the hole in her armor. Solaris walks up to her, giving her something.
“I found this on the ground while I was trying to reach you.” She says while holding up the emblem of Sunny’s cutie mark that goes on the breastplate of her armor. She smiles at her before taking it and reattaching it.
“Thanks.” She says and Solaris nods with a smile.
“So now that you’re back.. what are you gonna do?” Pipp asks and Sunny thinks about it before growing a determined look and shaking her head.
“It’s not what I’m gonna do,” she says before backing up a little bit and smiling at them, holding one fist forward. “It’s what we’re gonna do. Together.” Sunny says and soon the others do the same with their own fists, putting them with Sunny’s. “We’ll do our part,” Sunny says before the others say the rest with her, for better or for worse, one last time.
As the fierce battle between Argyle, Alphabittle, Askari, Brightburn, Firestar, Magma, Nebula, Skylight, Sprout, Violet and Midnight continued on, so did the magical overload that would soon destroy the world. Midnight was fully confident that her plan would work. Without Sunny and her little friends, and without the elements of harmony, Equestria was doomed. Speaking of which, the same crystals that the elements had been used to make were currently also being used to carry out her plan, being supercharged and overloaded by the bell and the amulet. It seemed very fitting, seeing as in the past they were used to protect Equestria.
Now they would be the reason for it’s complete destruction. The attacks from the small team trying to stop her just continues to grow fierce but she wouldn’t be denied. She screams in frustration and anger, sending destructive magic everywhere in the room. It unfortunately doesn’t kill any of them but it does injure them enough that they don’t get back up, not that they could. “Now.. to enjoy some of the time that I have left, I’m going to kill you.. one. By. One. Hmmmm.. let’s start with you Argyle.” She says as she uses magic to pick him up and bring him towards herself. “I can’t help but wonder.. why betray me now? What could have possibly undone my spell and forced you to this?” She asks and he glares down at her before answering with a restrained angry voice.
“You. Killed. My. Daughter.” He says and Midnight chuckles before glaring back at him.
“She got what was coming to her since the moment we crossed paths.” Midnight says with a cold edge to her voice and Argyle yells in anger as a railgun forms on one of his arms and he blasts Midnight with it, sending her flying to the other side of the room and crashing into the wall. He lands on his feet and stands his ground as she slowly gets up and glares at him. “You’ll regret that!” She says as her eyes glow more. He shoots at her more and she blocks and dodges the blasts before picking him up by his throat and pinning him against the wall behind him so fast that it cracks. He tries shooting her again but she tears the railgun off before he can then disables his suit. “I gave you magic and this armor.. so I can take it away.” She says before making a blade come out of her own armor’s gauntlet and raising it up. Just as she brings it down. The wall beside them explodes, pushing debris in towards them and knocking Midnight away from Argyle. She looks up to see what caused it, only to receive a powerful magic punch to the face that sends her flying through the wall behind her, knocking her out of the structure.
Argyle looks surprised at what just happened and looks to see that it was none other than his daughter who saved him. She turns to look at him and he’s overfilled with joy and shock. “Sunny.. is it really you?” He asks and she smiles and nods before speaking.
“Not just me.. remember when I said one day I’d make friends with a unicorn or a pegasus? Well.. meet my friends.” She says as she gestures to her friends who all smile at him as soon as he sees them and Argyle looks amazed.
“Wow..” He says and Sunny introduces them all to him. She then tells him about her relationship with Izzy and he stays quiet for a bit.. before picking Sunny up in a hug and welcoming Izzy to the family. They all then hear something that breaks them out of the moment and see boulders crashing towards the field and the city and everyone running or flying for safety while also fighting Midnight’s army that is trying to stop them.
“They’re sitting ducks down there! We need to help them!” Violet says and Sunny nods in agreement.
“All of you go, we can handle Midnight.” She says and they all hesitate but nod. Argyle is more reluctant to go than the others though. He grabs Sunny’s arm and tries pulling her with them.
“No, you’re coming too, all of you! I won’t let you go up against that monster!” He says as he tries pulling Sunny but she doesn’t move an inch.
“Dad.. we can do this. Trust us.. trust me. We can do this.” Sunny says and Argyle hesitates before reluctantly nodding and letting her go. He then steps next to Nebula and the others and they teleport onto the ground and start helping everyone to safety.
Midnight bursts back through the wall, pushing the Mane 5 back with magic. She then quickly grabs Sunny, swinging her around and throwing her. “I just don’t get it!! I saw your life end. I saw you die! Why. Won’t. You. DIE?!?!” She screams as she swings at Sunny, getting her punch blocked then countered by Sunny’s shield. The bash she receives from it knocks her back quite a bit and Sunny takes the chance to blasts her again and again and Izzy makes the floor icy below her and Pipp yanks her legs out from under her. Zipp and Hitch take the chance to jump up and bring their firsts down on Midnight, making a crater in the floor.
Midnight quickly recovers and uses magic tendrils to send them up into the roof before slamming them together. She senses Pipp and Izzy coming at her and throws Zipp and Hitch into them. Sunny jumps on her, wrapping her legs and arms around her and flips her, using the maneuver to throw her. After that she throws her shield and it hits Midnight in the face, scratching her cheek and bloodying her nose. It then flys back to her and just in time as Midnight throws her bident at Sunny. Sunny blocks it and every attack after that comes from different weapons belonging to Midnight. Midnight’s attacks become more and more relentless until Sunny dodges one but is instantly dragged around by a magic tendril and slammed from wall into wall into the floor, into the roof and it just continues on. She eventually pins Sunny against one of the walls and and blasts magic at her that’s meant to kill her but it’s countered by Izzy’s own magic. Midnight charges at Izzy who slides under her attack before jumping up, sending her sword towards her and it stabs into her back. That doesn’t do anything but anger Midnight even more though.
Suddenly the sword shoots out of her back and straight towards Izzy. Izzy dodges it but can’t dodge when Midnight tackles her and slammed her against the wall behind her. Midnight chuckles as she attacks Izzy over and over again before stopping. “It was a nice try Izzy but you forget.. it takes an alicorn to kill another alicorn.” Midnight says as she smirks down at Izzy before choking her and slowly lifting her up. Izzy struggles to say something but Midnight doesn’t care what it is.. until she gets stabbed in the back and it actually.. hurts. She yells in pain and drops Izzy before slowly turning around to see it was Sunny who stabbed her using her sword. She then hears Izzy say what she was trying to say a few seconds prior.
“I didn’t forget..” She says with a smirk of her own and Midnight is actually impressed. They had outsmarted her in the best way possible.. but she wasn’t done.. not yet. She chuckles evilly before sending Sunny’s sword back at her and the handle hits her in the stomach and knocks her back, knocking the air out of her. She then picks up Izzy and slams her onto Sunny.
“Clever.. but still not enough.” She says as the stab wound heals terrifyingly fast.
As soon as Sunny gets up she blasts her back down and continues blasting her, making her scream in pain. “You just don’t understand, do you?! You can’t beat me! You never could, all of your efforts have been for nothing! Every life you’ve tried to save was always going to end! So tell me Sunny..” Midnight says as she stops blasting her and stands over her, sneering down at her. “How does it feel.. to know that no matter what you do, you will always be a weakling.. a coward.. a failure?” Midnight asks as she raises her own sword and prepares to finally take Sunny’s life. Sunny can’t think of an answer so.. she just closes her eyes and lowers her head.
“You’re wrong!” She hears Izzy yell and they both look at her. “Sunny’s strong.. one of the strongest.. bravest ponies I’ve ever met.. she hasn’t failed yet and she’s not gonna start now!” She says and Sunny can’t help but smile, receiving a smile in return and Midnight shakes her head with disappointment.
“Love.. a dreadful bond.. and yet..” Midnight says as a magic tendril slowly forms out of her back. “So easily severed.” Midnight says before sending the tendril straight into Izzy’s stomach and Sunny feels like her whole world is crumbling right before her eyes.
“IZZY!!!” Sunny screams in terror and Midnight chuckles as she twists and turns the tendril to torture Izzy and make her groan and grunt in pain before retracting the tendril and Sunny runs over to her.
“Now to take back what is mine.” Midnight says before blasting a spell into the sky and it goes to the Deathbolts, Ragnar, Magma, Askari, Argyle, Chrysalis, Tirek, Cozy Glow and anyone else who was given magic by Midnight. She starts draining it back into herself, taking it from them and also draining the life out of them. Sunny senses this and tries to stop her but before she can do anything Midnight blasts her into a wall. Midnight laughs evilly as she starts glowing more and radiating with raw magical energy. She then flys to the crystals that are floating in the middle of the room, being held up by magic coming from the bell and the amulet and starts charging them up more. Suddenly she’s blasted away from them and it was because of Solaris, who somehow summoned the strength to make it up here. “Ah, my lesser half.” She says and Solaris just glares at Midnight.
“Give up Midnight! You’ve caused enough pain! For everyone!” Solaris yells but Midnight laughs and smirks at her.
“I know, and it was fun while it lasted!” Midnight yells back and Solaris growls in annoyance. She sees Sunny trying her best to heal Izzy but whenever Midnight injures someone herself, the injuries are very hard to heal.
She then makes a risky decision and charges at Midnight who charges back and she slides between her legs all the way to Sunny and makes a shield that keeps Midnight out. She notices Sunny crying and sees Izzy not breathing anymore. “Oh no.. I’m so sorry Sunny.. this is my fault..” Solaris says and Sunny doesn’t say anything until she looks and sees her friends fighting Midnight. They get some good hits in but that doesn’t last long. Hitch goes to power punch Midnight but she catches his fist and breaks his arm and tossing him to the side. After that Zipp flys around her, blasting lightning and Midnight eventually blasts one of Zipp’s wings, making her crash into Hitch. Pipp steps up and tries using her sonic scream on Midnight and it seems to bother her.. until she suddenly sends it back towards Pipp, making her fly back into a wall.. and Sunny can see her ears are bleeding from that.
She then looks back at Izzy with a frown. She sees all this.. and yet she’s sitting here, mourning.. she’s lost her mom, she’s lost her dad, twice now, and now.. she’s lost Izzy. Maybe Midnight was right.. maybe she is a failure.. she then remembers what Izzy said and grows a determined look before standing up and looking at Solaris, holding out her hand. “Come on.. we’re not done yet.” She says and Solaris smiles and takes her hand and Sunny puts her on her back like she did when they were in Midnight’s mind. She then picks Izzy up sadly and Solaris angles the shield so it separates Midnight from them and Sunny’s friends. They ignore Midnight trying to break through and walk to Sunny’s friends who slowly get up. “Get out of here.. and take her with you.” Sunny says and they all hesitate but nod. Zipp carries Izzy and after Sunny backs up, Solaris teleports them onto the ground. Sunny turns to face Midnight and she and Solaris glare at her. “Ready?” Sunny asks Solaris and gets a nod in response.
“Ready.”
After the confirmation that they both were ready, Sunny charges at Midnight faster than ever, breaking through the shield and sending them both out of the structure. Sunny throws Midnight into the swirling, flying boulders surrounding the lighthouse. Sunny then flys above it and starts diving towards it, planning to destroy it and the relics. “No!!!” Midnight says before blasting Sunny away from it and to the other side of the surrounding boulders. “I’m not gonna make it easy for you Starscout!!!” Midnight yells as she flys above it and charges towards Sunny and Sunny charges back. Right before they clash, Sunny turns at the last second and blasts Midnight then makes tons of boulders start crushing her from all sides. After that she tries destroying the lighthouse again but something else happens.. it starts glowing red and the crystals fly out and knock Sunny off balance and they’re all red too. They fly to Midnight just as she breaks free and they start floating around her, confusing all three of them, Midnight even more so.
“What’s this..?” She asks before the crystals start spinning even faster and they all connect to each other.. before connecting to her. She screams when they do, feeling much more power than she ever has before. Sunny and Solaris start to get nervous and when Midnight suddenly turns into a much bigger, much scarier shadow version of herself, that seals the deal. She then laughs and looks down at Sunny and Solaris. “And so it ends.. betrayed by the very thing that you thought would keep Equestria balanced..friendship.. how pathetic. Now.. TIME TO DIE!!!” Midnight yells before attacking Sunny and she dodges it, flying around Midnight and blasting her with as much magic as she can muster but it barely fazes her.
“What are we gonna do Sunny?! With her like that, beating her will be impossible!!” Solaris says and Sunny tries her best to think of something.
Surely there must be a weak spot, she just had to find it. She’s so distracted looking that she doesn’t see giant shadow magic tendrils coming at her until Solaris warns her and she just barely dodges them only to get grabbed by Midnight and brought to where she can see her. She then starts using both her hands to crush Sunny as she uses her magic on her. Sunny and Solaris both scream in pain. At this rate, they’ll both be taken out in the most painful way together. Wait.. that gives Sunny an idea. “Solaris! Your magic! Use it on me! A LOT of it!!” Sunny yells and Solaris instantly starts channeling her magic into Sunny like she did before and it doesn’t seem to do anything as everything just gets darker and darker..
Midnight chuckles before looking down at everyone else. Now that Sunny was gone.. the rest of Equestria would follow suite. She aims at the sky and prepares to fire the spell that would would end everything and everyone. “It is over Equestria! I conquered you!! And now.. I shall destroy you!!!” She yells as she charges up the spell and just when she’s ready to fire it.. she feels her hands starting to open and separate. She looks at them, more than a little confused and sees a blinding golden light before it’s revealed that Sunny has opened her hands. Her mane was flowing, her eyes were golden, her wings and horn were glowing more than ever before along with her entire body. At this, anyone could say she was truly as bright as the sun. She glares at Midnight, Solaris still on her back.
“You talk too much.” Sunny says before she blasts Midnight’s hands, nearly destroying them and Midnight screams in pain and glares at her. Sunny smirks and flys down and around her legs, blasting them with magic and slicing through one. Midnight loses balance and falls hard and Sunny takes the chance to punch her in the face, knocking a few giant teeth out. She then does it again and again until Midnight uses tendrils to keep her back then slam and drag her across the ground before throwing her up and blasting her into the ocean. She then gets up, her leg growing back and waits for Sunny to come out of the water.. but she doesn’t. This confuses Midnight and sets her on edge.
The ground suddenly shakes and as soon as she looks down, Sunny flys out of it and straight into her chest, taking her into the sky.. and all the way into space. She then turns Midnight’s back to Equestria and glares at her. “Now Midnight.. this is for my dad.” Sunny says before flying straight into Midnight’s stomach, punching her and knocking all the air out of her. She then teleports onto Midnight’s chest and raises her fist. “This is for Artemis!” Sunny says before unleashing a flurry of quick but powerful magic fueled punches at her face. She then pushes off Midnight, knocking her onto the ground, the now destroyed lighthouse underneath her. “That was for Izzy!!! And this..” She says before flying up into space.. then suddenly blasting off towards Midnight faster than even Rainbow Dash could ever hope to go. “This. Is! For!! EVERYTHING!!!” Sunny yells as she reaches Midnight and delivers her most powerful punch ever.
“NOOOOOO!!!!!” Midnight screams as the magic of friendship and love inside that punch spreads further and further until the blinding light that comes from it covers all of Equestria.
When the light clears and everyone uncovers their eyes, they all cheer when they see that Midnight is gone and all that’s left is a massive crater that Sunny had made with that magic. Twilight smiles proudly and sighs in relief at the fact that Midnight is finally gone.. she wouldn’t hurt anyone ever again. She then sees something in the distance and realizes it’s a portal of some sorts. Suddenly multicolored streams of magic come out of it and go in all directions. She wonders why until she sees one go towards Izzy’s body and she suddenly jumps up, gasping for air. Hitch and the others all hug her. She hugs them back and then suddenly Phyllis, the rest of the ponies Midnight killed, and the ponies who had died from everything that had just transpired come back to life and Sprout runs to his mom and hugs her as tight as he can. Firestar and Nebula do the same to Magma when she jumps up and Skylight helps Askari up when she comes back. Zipp and Pipp hear thunder and look up at the clouds.. seeing silver lightning. They looked shocked when it strikes the ground and Haven comes running out of it, clearly looking for them.
“Mom!!” They both yell in happiness and relief as they run to her and hug her as tight as they can. Thunderbird smiles then frowns until a flash of yellow magic occurs behind him and when he turns around, he’s shocked and relieved to see Artemis who smiles at him before running and jumping on him, tackling him into a hug. Izzy and Hitch smile until they notice that.. Argyle hasn’t come back.. and Sunny is nowhere to be found.
“Wait.. where’s Sunny?” Izzy asks, and to her dismay, no one knows. They had just gotten Sunny back, they couldn’t lose her again.. they couldn’t.
Sunny opens her eyes and is surprised to see her mother right in front of her.. along with her father. She jumps up and hugs them both and they hug back. She hears laughing and crying and she turns around to see Solaris with her own family, apologizing to them for everything, especially her father and siblings. They tell her that there’s nothing to forgive and she finds it hard to accept that but Sunny walks over and helps her. “We’ll both have to learn to accept that what happened.. what we did was out of our control.. but we can both do it.. together.” Sunny says and Solaris smiles before looking at her family and Sunny’s parents.
“But what about them..?” She asks and Sunny looks at her parents who have sad smiles on their faces. Sunny frowns and her father steps up to her and lifts her chin up.
“Come on now.. it’s no reason to be sad.. we’ll always be there for you both every step of the way..” He says and Sunny smiles at him and her mother when she steps up as well.
“We just wanted to bring you here to tell you how proud we all are of you.. both of you. You finally stopped Midnight.. you saved Equestria.” She says and Sunny and Solaris smile at them then each other but look shocked as they start to disappear. “We love you Sunny bunny, never forget that.” Both Sunny’s parents say and Solaris’s family all talk after them.
“We’ll miss you Solaris.. keep living, if not for yourself then do it for us.” They say and Solaris nods sadly before she and Sunny completely disappear, glad to have at least gotten even a few moments more to spend with their families.
As everyone searches and calls for Sunny and Solaris, they slowly start to lose hope.. that is until the portal gets brighter and turns golden and everyone looks shocked. They notice someone walking out of it and recognize as Sunny. She survived. Her friends are the first ones to run to her and tackle her in a group hug. Solaris goes flying from the impact but Sunny catches her and smiles at her before hugging her friends back. Twilight walks up to them along with her own friends and smiles at Sunny. “You did it Sunny. You stopped Midnight.. you did what I failed to do. And for that I’m proud.. and we are all in your debt.” Twilight says before using her magic to form a crown that’s perfect for Sunny and Sunny understands what she wants her to do as she stands up and walks closer to her only to kneel before her. “By the right of all Alicorns past, present and future. By the power invested in me.. for your bravery and heroic exploits, I now crown you.. Princess Sunny Starscout.” Twilight says and Sunny stands up and Twilight slowly places the crown on her head and as soon as she does, everyone cheers and all the Alicorns shoot their magic into the sky, making fireworks and Sunny smiles, all her friends standing beside her, Solaris on her back. Midnight may be gone but there was still a lot of work to be done.. but that’s ok.. because she knew that with her friends by her side, she could do anything.
Four years later
“Sunny! Come on! We’re gonna be late!” Sunny hears Izzy call from downstairs in their new “Unity Brighthouse” as it had been called for two years now. Sunny chuckled as she remembered the first day she, Izzy, Hitch, Zipp, and Pipp had moved into it. It had just appeared out of nowhere, formed by the unity crystals and they had absolutely no idea what to do after except.. decorate it. It had been a disaster of course but they worked it out. They had worked out everything. Solaris had now gotten used to school and making real friends who wouldn’t judge her. Zipp was now a detective and working with Hitch on Ragnar's case, the evidence they found against him had been enough to land him a execution sentence that would take place in three days. They had also started dating a year ago. All the Alicorns, including Brightburn were now traveling Equestria with Artemis, Thunderbird, and “The Wings of Equestria” just in case of any new threats. Violet had started dating Pipp and they had become partners in the music industry. Their name needed some work to a lot of ponies but to them, “The Vi-Pippstars” wasn’t that bad. Plus the music they made totally made up for the name. They were pretty much the “Queens of Music”. Askari, Skylight, Magma, Firestar, and Nebula had all returned home but would often visit and spend a lot of time together.
The ponies, creatures and kingdoms of the past had all worked with the ponies of new Equestria to make things better, rebuilding old towns and cities and building new ones. There was now a train system that could get anypony anywhere they wanted. Everything was perfect now and Sunny doesn’t think she can be happier. “Coming!” She yells as she summons her magic to fly down to the first floor. She sees Izzy and Solaris waiting for her and walks out with them towards the new and improved Maretime Bay. As they walk through the city, they’re greeted by tons of ponies and other creatures and Solaris even runs into some of her school friends. They eventually get to the center of Maretime Bay where everyone is heading to and the decorations, the activities, the stage. It all looked amazing and fun. They see Zipp and Hitch and go to join them. Suddenly one of the intercoms tells everybody to look towards the stage.
Everyone does so with interest and they cheer when Pipp and Violet fly out from behind the curtains and do a few maneuvers in the air that look like they’re dancing, causing everyone to cheer louder. Zipp cheers louder than she ever has, which was rarely, so she looks embarrassed when her friends give her knowing looks and she blushes, looking away. “As you all know, today is a very special day! Today is the anniversary of Sunny’s coronation and her amazing defeat of Midnight!” Violet says and everyone claps in Sunny’s direction, causing her to shift nervously. Pipp then steps up and continues.
“So we took the liberty of throwing all this together and inviting everyone from every kingdom. So thank you lots to those of you who could make it! Give it up for yourselves!” Pipp says, prompting everyone else to clap.
“And now without further ado..!” Violet says before she looks at Pipp, earning a nod and they both turn to the crowd at the same time. “Let’s get this party started~!” They both shout in unison in their best singsong voices.
And with that the party begins and goes on for quite a while. Sunny eventually steps away and sits on top of Canterlogic. She’s deep in her thoughts until Izzy snaps her out of it. “Hey.. you ok?” Izzy asks and Sunny nods but she’s lying and Izzy can tell and she glares at Sunny. Sunny sighs and breathes in before answering.
“Pipp and Violet threw this party for me but.. I don’t feel like I truly deserve it.. I couldn’t save my parents.. Solaris’s family.. I at least wish I could’ve saved YOUR mother..” Sunny says and before she could continue, Izzy cut over her.
“Sunny.. I wouldn’t change a thing.. Ok? At least I still have you and besides, You, me and Solaris are a family now, us and our friends. I wouldn’t give that up for anything.” Izzy says and Sunny looks shocked before kissing Izzy and leaning her head against hers.
“I love you Izzy.” She says and Izzy smiles before leaning against her.
“I love you too.” She says before they both go back to the party and enjoy the peace that would last for generations to come..
Or would it..?
Sunny's inner monologue
So Midnight is finally gone and life continues on in Equestria.. a job well done.. but my story is just beginning.. while another remains unanswered. I’ve learned so much.. most importantly that as long as you’re with friends and family.. you can do anything you put your mind too. But from here on out, whenever there is danger or new threats, no matter how small.. my friends and I will be there.. all you have to do.. is look for the light.
To be continued in My Little Pony: Harmony and Chaos..
