Lead Us Not

“Izzy! Zipp!” Sunny hollered, pounding on the door. Her heart was racing a thousand miles a minute, her voice frantic and high pitched. The hectic smashing continued, the din dwarfed only by her shouts. “Open up, open up, open up!”

The door swung open sharply, Zipp and Izzy immediately filling its frame and reaching out to Sunny.

“What’s wrong? What is it?”

Sunny recoiled from their grasp, her body practically vibrating. Sweat flung off of her as she bounced in place, her mane sticking slick to her forehead. “I figured it out! I figured it all out! The nightmares! What’s happened to me! And! I know how to fix it!”

“Sunny, calm down, you—have you still been having nightmares?” Izzy asked, her ears dropping.

“Yes! But it’s okay! I figured it out! You need to—”

“Whoah whoah whoah, slow down. Why didn’t you tell us?” Zipp asked, hurt. “Don’t you trust us?”

“More than anything! I couldn’t, but now I can, I know now, I figured it out, I’ll explain when we’re there.”

“Wh—there where? What are you going on about?”

“Sunny, why don’t you come in, we’ll get some tea, talk this out together,” Izzy offered, stepping back and waving a hoof into their room. “I get you’d be excited to cure what’s wrong, but you’ve got too much energy right now, even for me.”

“No! There’s no time! Get your crystals and meet me at the Lighthouse! Hitch! And Hitch! Go get Hitch and your crystals and meet me there! I’ll explain everything, I promise!”

“Wait—”

Sunny did not hang back to hear Zipp’s concern, instead bucking into the air and prancing frantically down the hallway. In an instant she was down the stairs, out of sight of her pursuing friends.

Sunny Starscout lay on her belly atop the pile of rubble that used to be her home, flinging chunks of concrete and drywall haphazardly behind her. Above her the stars hung, set deep in the abyss of night around her. There was hardly any moonlight, her figure illuminated only by the faint glow from Izzy’s horn as she trotted up the hill.

“We’re... we’re here, Sunny,” Izzy said, catching her breath. Zipp and Hitch followed up shortly afterwards, the sheriff’s mane mussy and his eyes tired.

“She was just as energetic when she woke us,” Zipp whispered to Hitch, who grimaced as he sidestepped a wayward chunk of metal from Sunny’s frantic clearing.

“Okay, Sunny,” Hitch announced, slowly stepping forward. “Zipp tells me that you’re not doing too well, a little worked up about something. You know you can talk to me, right?”

“Crystals,” Sunny said, pounding away at some large mass that blocked her process. “You brought the crystals, right?”

Izzy stepped forward, her hornlight revealing Sunny’s cracked and bleeding hooves. Sunny slammed them down again and shattered the mass, hefting it out of the pile and to her side almost effortlessly. Hitch winced back from the splinters and rocks that stuck out of Sunny’s fetlocks, though they didn’t seem to impede her process whatsoever.

“We did, but you need to let us know what’s going on, okay?” He stepped forward once more, ducking as another stone sailed over his head. “You gotta slow down a little, tell us what’s wrong.”

“My magic! It wasn’t… it wasn’t mine!”

“Gonna need more than that,” he said, placing a hoof on the base of the rubble.

“The alicorn magic! It wasn’t mine to have! It was HERS.”

“‘Her’…? Who is she, Sunny?”

“HER! It’s HER magic! SHE’s upset with me, SHE wants it back! I need to give it back!”

“Come on, Sunny,” Hitch said, trying a more authoritative voice. “What are you talking about? Who is ‘she’? Work with me, come on now,” he said, climbing up a few more steps.

“Please, Hitch, the crystals, I need to get HER out, I need to get HER out! SHE’s in me, in the alicorn magic, this is the only way! You need to help me, just give me the crystals!”

“Alright, Sunny, that’s enough,” Hitch said softly, reaching her as she scrambled like a rabbit digging a den. “Something’s really wrong with you, and I think you should come with m—”

At Hitch’s touch upon her back, Sunny screeched, flailing around where she stood. She spun with a hooffull of rock and rebar in her grasp and smashed it into Hitch’s temple, following through so hard his body was flung to the side of the pile.

Zipp and Izzy screamed as Hitch’s body collapsed lifeless to the ground, his eye bulged out, blood and brain painting the grass pink. As they watched, Sunny stood up slowly, staring at Hitch with only the slightest hint of concern evident on her face.

She stepped down off the rubble slowly, her gaze not turning from the now-dull eyes that stared at her, locked in an eternal state of betrayal and shock. Reaching his body she paused, looking at him, her mouth agape.

“S-Sunny…” Zipp stammered, still holding her hooves to her mouth, “What have you done?”

Sunny ignored her, bending down and sticking a hoof into Hitch’s saddlebag instead. She pulled out the Earth Pony crystal, nodded happily at it once, and then turned and scrambled up the pile of rubble, continuing to clear.

“No!” Zipp and Izzy screeched, leaping into the air and diving onto Sunny. They smashed into her, pinning her to the jagged rock, each of them trying to wrap their legs around her body and hold her still.

“Get, get off! I have to do this! She’s going to torture me forever, I’ll never sleep again unless I give it back! Get off!” Sunny shrieked, elbowing the two of them as she struggled. Her blows landed hard but the two of them held their grasp.

“Sunny! Stop! Stop this!” Izzy shrieked. “Just stop and we can talk this out, I promise, but stop!”

“Izzy,” Zipp grunted, shifting as another knee cracked into her ribs. “Can you knock her out with magic? I think she’s sleepwalking through a nightmare or something! We’ve got to knock her out!”

“I—I dunno! Her sparkle is like an inferno right now! I’ve never seen anything like it!”

“Well try something!”

Sunny suddenly stopped struggling against them and turned her attention back to smashing and tossing the concrete aside, still jostling and swaying the two ponies on her back.

“This is it, this is the key, this is how to get HER out,” she muttered, throwing one more piece of rock backwards and cutting Izzy’s nose in the process. Before her the familiar base of the lighthouse lamp came into view, the intricate etching of the Pegasus crystal front and center. Sunny’s eyes widened and she gasped, redoubling her efforts at the trash and stone. “This is it! It’s not the key to magic and friendship! It’s the key to HER. It was to get HER, to trap HER, to stop HER, old symbols SHE gave them but they used it and SHE’s in it! Only I took HER magic! She wants it back, I need to give it back—oof!”

Zipp leapt off of Sunny and snapped into the air, slingshotting back with one hoof outstretched. She ratcheted Sunny in the face with her punch, grabbing on to her body as her momentum spun the two of them over and launched Izzy down the pile.

They came to a stop over the lamplight altar, Zipp holding Sunny’s forehooves down with her own, sitting on her legs, completely pinning her. There was a moment while the two struggled, Zipp swearing at her friend while Sunny snapped and frothed at the mouth, and then froze.

“...Hey? Are you back? You with us now?”

There was an eruption of magic from her core, as if Sunny had turned into her namesake for a fraction of an instant. Zipp shouted as she turned away from the blinding light, and then whipped her head back to face Sunny, gasping.

Orange magic enveloped her like fire, her wings colossal and fully extended, her horn curved slightly back and spiralled to a gleaming point. Sunny hollered in animalistic rage and thrust her head forward, driving the horn straight between Zipp’s ribs.

“I—Wh… whglurk?” Zipp tried to ask, blood cutting her off mid-word as it fountained out of her mouth and onto Sunny’s chest. Sunny pulled back quickly and thrust again, the point sliding through Zipp’s sternum as if it were paper, earning another hiccup of blood over her body. She retracted herself, reached up, and threw Zipp’s frozen body off of herself, it too tumbling down the rocks to the ground.

Sunny giggled in manic relief, rolling over and quickly standing to shaking knees, her laugh a voice that was not entirely hers. She stumbled and slid down the rocks hurriedly, reached Zipp’s body, and bent down to rummage through her saddlebag.

A bolt of lilac magic shot through the air, hitting Sunny and causing her to stumble. She froze for a moment, and then smiled, fishing the Pegasus crystal out of her friend’s bag and turning to face Izzy.

Izzy stepped back once, sobbing, screaming, and shot one more bolt from her horn. It splashed impotently into Sunny’s face, and the Alicorn took one slow step forward.

“Izzy,” Sunny said, taking another step and wrapping her friend in her magic, pulling her up off the ground. “Izzy, I just need to borrow your crystal, okay? Just give me the crystal, please, I need you to, Izzy.”

“No, no, this is wrong, no,” Izzy said, dropping her head and looking away from the blood-soaked pony, shaking where she floated.

“C’mon, please, Izzy? Friends share, right? I’ll give it back when I’m done, I promise. I really need it. Just give it to me. Give it to me!”

“You’re not Sunny, this is just, this is a nightmare, I’ve caught your nightmares, no, you can’t have it, no…”

Sunny took another step closer and slammed Izzy against the air as if it were a wall. Izzy’s legs snapped flat in line with her back, and Sunny forced her chin to raise, meeting her eyes.

“Please, please, please, bestie?”

And in her eyes, there was a flash, and Izzy screamed.

She screamed as she saw Princess Twilight Sparkle present the tribes with the combined Elements of Harmony.

She screamed as she saw the Princess’ last friend die in her hooves, watching the sparkle around the Alicorn constrict to blackness as it happened.

She screamed as she saw thousands die by the score of the unhinged princess, as survivors frantically gathered the separated symbols of unity, as the alicorn was eviscerated by rainbow light into nothing.

And then she closed her eyes and swallowed hard, her throat raspy and aching from the shrieking, and through whimpers whispered, “No.”

There was a crack, and the whimpering suddenly ended.

Sunny frowned, her head tilting as she observed the paralyzed Unicorn in front of her. She stuck her tongue out in thought and then nodded, determined.

There came another crack, and then another. One by one, Sunny’s magic forced Izzy’s body to move how it couldn’t, each bone individually snapping in turn while her body curled up smaller and smaller. Sunny furrowed her brows in effort, focusing as Izzy rapidly curled and twisted into a perfect sphere, floating in the air before her.

She paused and then breathed a sigh of relief. It was almost over. She just needed to get the last crystal, and now nopony was holding it back from her. She frowned, concentrating, and her horn shone a little brighter. Izzy’s body squelched and squealed, issuing a dozen groans and gurgles before the Unicorn crystal slowly pulled itself out of an indeterminable mass of purple flesh.

Sunny flicked it once in the air, flinging the gore and viscera off of it. She turned around towards the rubble pile before stopping mid stride, glancing back at the floating remains of her friend while she panted and caught her breath. She started to hum a tune, a catchy song that Izzy had sang for her when they first met, while ambling around until her back faced the cliffside.

“This is how an Alicorn hoops,” she sang, gently tossing her head back and lobbing the mass of Unicorn towards the rocks and waves below.

She sat down, taking a moment to breathe. Looking down she saw a shadow start to spread from her, and she glanced back to see the sun rising above the ocean, the sky clear and gorgeously yellow behind her.

Sunny basked in the sunlight for a moment and settled herself before standing up and stretching. She hopped lightly up the blood-spattered pile until she found the altar, and couldn’t help herself from giving a light laugh in relief. Soon she would be free of this endless nightmare, free to relax, free to sleep. She didn’t need Twilight’s magic. All she ever wanted was a friend who could fly, or a friend who could levitate things, never once wishing it for herself anyways.

She placed one crystal in, wondering to herself. How come her friends were so unwilling to help her? Clearly she was struggling. But it worked out, anyways. She had gathered the crystals and come to the lighthouse. She placed the second crystal in, dreaming of the wonderful slumber she was going to be able to have tonight, entirely dreamless for the first time in a month. Without hesitation, she set the last crystal in place, and then sighed happily.

And then she blinked, and she was sitting in the endless void, the only source of light before her coming from the altar and crystals. A sensation of cool quietness came over her, and for the first time in weeks, Sunny could finally think clearly.

Her jaw dropped slowly as she brought her hooves up, the legs shaking hard as she recognized the glint of blood all over her body. Visions of her friends dying, of her killing her friends, rushed into her brain and stuck there, replaying over and over.

She started to hyperventilate, started to cry, started to panic. What had she done? Why had she done it? She was just trying to get rid of the magic, right?

“Everything that can be done by magic may be undone,” the monster spoke, stepping from the darkness towards Sunny and the altar. She was a full Alicorn now, her coat lustrous and her mane flowy and ethereal. Sunny saw her once-skeletal body had completely filled out with flesh. Even the teeth that had been so shattered and broken were full now, evident in a malicious grin that bore down on her.

“What did you make me do?” Sunny whispered, returning her gaze to her blood-covered hooves.

“You took my magic,” Twilight Sparkle said, leaning down close to Sunny, her blazing white eyes burning a hole through her soul. “I figured I might as well share my pain with you, too.”

“I’m—I’m sorry! I would have given it back! I didn’t know!” Sunny sobbed, burying her face in her hooves. “I didn’t know…”

“I forgive you.”

“You… what?” Sunny said, lifting her head ever so slightly, cringing away from the demonic face before her. “But my friends…”

Twilight stood tall and threw her head back, laughing with a fillyish giggle that Sunny immediately recognized. She cut her laugh off suddenly, glaring down at the Earth Pony.

“Friends?” she asked, lifting a hoof and jabbing Sunny in the chest with it. “You have been an awful friend,” she said, grinning madly. “But don't feel too bad,” she said, moving the accosting hoof overtop the crystals. “I forgive you, because you got me out.”

And suddenly it all became clear to Sunny.

She had not gotten the Princess out of her mind.

Sunny shouted, diving forwards towards the altar, but Twilight erupted into laughter again, stomping down onto the glowing crystals. Sunny landed hard onto nothingness, the altar and Alicorn gone, leaving her there alone in the dark.

She lifted her hooves one last time, drawn by the sickly reek of blood, and found she could not see them.

There was no light source here, nor any magic she could call on to bring it. There was nothing she could see.

Nothing except her nightmares.