You, Who Killed the World

Sunset stood in front of the portal and felt the slight tingle of the swirling magic in front of her. She pulled the strap on her backpack tight against herself to make sure it was secure. A mental checklist passed through her head as she felt the weight of her bag tug at her fingers. She knew she checked everything three times to make sure it was all there, but the thought of missing something a world away still filled her with tinges of stress. She sighed as she thought of her friends, remembering how much time she spent debating whether her place was here or back in Equestria, how many tears she cried thinking of never seeing them again, and how many more at the thought of her parents and Celestia never seeing her again either. It was only for a few days, she told herself, she could spend time with her old loved ones and still keep her friends.

Sunset took a deep breath. The portal was only open for the next couple of days and after that she'd have to wait years before she might have the chance again. She took a step forward.

"You ain't thinking of leaving without sayin' goodbye, are ya?" She heard Applejack's voice say from behind her.

Sunset jumped and pulled her foot away. When she turned around, all of her friends were there, gazing at her with various expressions of disappointment and longing that Sunset had already gone out of her way to try and avoid. She winced as she looked over them and hoped they wouldn't be too upset. "Girls? What are you doing here on a weekend?"

"Come now, dear. You didn't think we'd forget when the portal opens, did you?" Rarity said.

"And what do you think you're doing leaving without telling us, huh?" Rainbow asked, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow at Sunset.

Sunset couldn't look them in the eye and instead just gave them a sheepish smile. "Well... it's only opened over the weekend and I figured it wasn't that big of a deal..." None of them seemed too convinced as she gained the confidence to look back up at them.

"So how long do ya think you'll be gone?" Applejack asked, trying to hide the uncertainty in her voice.

Sunset cast a glance behind her towards the portal that was the Canterlot High statue, then gave her friends an assuring smile. "I don't think I'll be gone for that long, girls. I just... need to make a few things right, and hopefully talk with a few old friends."

"You don't think?" Rainbow asked. She took a step forward at Sunset, perplexed at her wording.

Sunset looked across her friends, all of which still looked worried. Their eyes wandered around with slight unease, all of them not wanting to meet eyes with Sunset. Sunset knew exactly what was on their minds. She'd thought about it a lot last night before she packed her bag.

"I know what you guys are thinking," Sunset said, rubbing her arm and trying to keep her smile, "about me coming back--"

"You've gotta promise us you will," Rainbow cut her off with an outburst. Rainbow winced when she realized how loud she was. "I mean, we all know you want to visit your parents and everything, but we just..." Rainbow trailed off, rubbing the back of her neck.

Rarity walked forward and put a comforting hand on Sunset's shoulder. The worry in Rarity's eyes betrayed the easy smile on her face. "I think what she's trying to say is that we're all just a little worried that you, well, might stay until the portal opens again, or... indefinitely."

Rarity looked back to her friends, who seemed to share the sentiment. Even Pinkie was looking a bit sad at the occasion. "We know how much you left behind in Equestria," Rarity continued, "and we want you to know that you'll always have a home here with us."

Rarity reached down and grabbed Sunsets hand, letting the little object fall from her fingers into Sunset's grasp. Sunset looked down into her open palm to see a little ornate locket on a silver chain. "But we completely understand if you don't return for a while, dear," Rarity said.

Sunset opened the locket. Inside there was a tiny picture they'd taken after a really fun day of hanging out together. The memories brought a smile to Sunset's face. The massive grins on their faces as they hugged around each other showed a time that was much happier than this one. "Rarity... you didn't have to--"

"Just a little something to remember us by, just in case you... well, you change your mind."

Pinkie couldn't take it anymore. She lunged towards Sunset, wrapping her in a massive hug as she burst into tears. "We're going to miss you so much! Please please please don't forget about us!" she said as her face spewed tears like a water fountain. The rest of the girls moved in around her, hugging Sunset as well.

Once Sunset got used to the immense pressure around her ribs, she returned the embrace to Pinkie and the rest of her friends. "There's no way I ever could," Sunset said as she squeezed her friends lovingly. "It should only be a few days..." Sunset could feel the tears starting to form on her own face.

"Don't be a stranger, now," Applejack said, her voice cracking.

"We'll always be here for you," Fluttershy said in a sad, quiet voice, hugging Sunset tighter as tears started to form on her cheeks.

"I promise, girls," Sunset said as they all let her go, "This is just something I need to do."

The sad smiles and tears on the girls' faces put a spike through Sunset's heart. Even Rainbow Dash was aggressively wiping her cheeks on her sleeve to try to hide her crying.

Rarity wiped her eyes and then gave Sunset an assuring smile of her own. "Go, darling, before this moment gets anymore sappy."

Sunset blinked a few tears of her own and gave the girls her most heartfelt smile. "Goodbye," she said, part of her hoping it wouldn't be the last. She turned around towards the portal. As she lifted the locket over her head and placed it on her neck, she couldn't help but have the sinking feeling that this was the last time she'd ever see them. She put her hand through the portal, then let herself fall forward, the sounds of her friends' sad goodbyes slowly fading into the sound of the magical connection between their worlds.

The distantly familiar feeling of being covered and fur and having a horn returned to Sunset as her body flowed through the portal. The sensation was overwhelming for a moment as the other half of her body made its way through.

As soon as her entire body was through, Sunset let out a cry as gravity pulled her towards the ground at least a dozen feet away. Sunset bounced off of the stone walls as she fell, sending her spinning at the floor. She hit the ground with a dull thud, the impact driving the air out of her lungs. Dust kicked up around her with the landing, making Sunset blink as the particles stung against her eyes. With a pained groan, Sunset rolled over off of her back, hoping nothing was broken. She rubbed the dust out of her eyes, looking up to see what just happened. As her eyes turned above her, she saw the glint of the mirror above her, but everything else was masked in a thick layer of darkness.

Sunset groaned and pulled herself up to her hooves. The awkwardness of being a pony again was compounded by the immediate soreness from landing so hard. Once her focus returned to her, she raised an eyebrow at the feeling of carpet beneath her hooves. Sunset closed her eyes and lit up her horn, the soft green glow illuminating the room around her as she remembered that old spell.

"What the..." Sunset whispered as her eyes scanned her surroundings. She'd fallen out of a hole into a... house. The hole above her held the shine of the portal's mirror, held in place by a few large chunks of broken marble stairwell, seemingly one hard jolt away from crashing into the home on top of her. It was well out of her reach now. Sunset narrowed her eyes to try and see what exactly she'd just fallen out of, but her horn wasn't bright enough. Outside the hole was a normal bedroom; there were pictures on the dresser of some pony and her family alongside trinkets and momentos, and the rotted fabric of a bed behind her. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, and rocks and rubble littered the carpet around her. It looked like a tornado had blown through, sending buildings on top of each other and dust and rubble everywhere.

Sunset didn't know what to think at first. She never had a full understanding of the inner workings of the portal, so her first thought was that it might've sent her into some other alternate universe. An alternate universe where everyone was still a pony, but definitely not Equestria. Sunset figured if anything she was going to have to go outside to find her way back into the portal. There was no way she could climb up that far on her own. She pushed open the chunks of remaining door in the frame and worked her way through the rest of the house.

Concern grew inside Sunset as she carefully stepped down the rotting wood of the stairs. Every third or so step had fallen through, and support beams and rubble were poking out of the dusty drywall. She wondered what the hell she just dropped into. This wasn't the Canterlot she'd left three years ago, and certinaly not the crystal kingdom she saw the year before. Canterlot was happy and vibrant and full of life, and as Sunset looked through the burned remains of the living room with all the broken family pictures and broken decorations, she could see nothing but the opposite. Sunset reasoned with herself that this was just some strange alternate world, and she just had to get back up to the portal somehow and try again going through it again.

The front door barely budged as Sunset's magic tried the knob. She looked out the windows to see if she might get out that way, but she could see nothing but black out of the broken panes. She tried the door again, putting as much force on it as her horn could manage. Sweat beaded on her forehead as she pushed. She could feel the wood cracking under the pressure. She finally threw her own weight at it with a soft grunt, pushing it off of its hinges. The weight behind the door made it fly backwards on top of Sunset. She quickly hopped out of the way as giant chunks of concrete and splinters of wood filled the room from the doorway. Sunset backpeddled away, trying to avoid the jagged pieces of rock and metal rolling towards her.

Once the pile had stopped moving, Sunset let out a sigh of relief as light poured through the open doorway. She climbed over the rubble, careful to avoid anything that might cut her and stepped into the fresh air outside.

Sunset stopped. She fell to her haunches, her mouth hanging open as her eyes adjusted to take in the world around her.

This was Canterlot. There was no mistaking the stained ivory towers piercing the sky in front of her. She had seen it all a million times. The golden crowns and the marble columns, the waterfall going down the mountain in the distance, all of it capped by a thin layer of snow. She was in the residential district of Canterlot, looking up at the castle as it clung to the mountain. Half of the towers had blown over and much of the city around her was in complete ruin. The once-bright colors of Equestria's capital had faded, leaving behind a dull collection of destruction.

Sunset's mouth hung open at the sight. Her mind desperately tried to reason that this was just some strange alternate universe the portal put her through as some sick joke. She looked behind her, seeing one of Canterlot Castle's towers broken off and laying on top of multiple houses, crushing most of them besides the one she'd just came out of; that one it just covered completely in rubble. There was no way she was going to get back to the portal by herself now.

"Hello?" Sunset asked the world.

It didn't answer. The silence made Sunset shiver. The snow around her didn't even make any noise as it fell from the sky, marking little white specs across Sunset and the saddlebags draped across her back. She got up off her haunches and walked across the brick streets, scanning for anything alive.

"Hello!" Sunset said, this time much louder. Not even the echo of her own voice would answer her as she walked.

The sky above her was a dull shade of dark gray, the only light coming from the sun at the very edge of the horizon. The sunset painted half of the clouds with orange, promising a clear sky somewhere far to the west, much farther than Sunset could see. The light was barely bright enough to illuminate the street in front of her, and the rest of the buildings casted dark shadows around her and the gaps in the rubble. Sunset gulped as the combination of the overbearing silence and encroaching darkness became more apparent with each step.

Things seemed to stand completely still around her. The sound of her hooves clacking on the brick streets was the only thing Sunset could hear for miles. The only thing that seemed to move was the snow. Sunset became anxious in the silence, feeling the stress build inside her as the seconds ticked by with nothing in the world bothering to move.

"Hello!" Sunset cried out, desperation in her voice. She let out a whine after another few seconds of silence. She hoped that something, anything would answer her. Sunset could feel panic building up inside her. The implications of this dead world edged into her thoughts, and she desperately tried to push them away. It was just some cosmic joke, she just had to find a way back and she could forget about everything, she thought. Sunset closed her eyes tightly, not wanting to look at the broken buildings around her.

A rock dropped somewhere around Sunset, making her gasp and snap towards the source. Her mood immediately lifted, knowing that something finally answered her call.

A demolished house shifted to her side, sending rocks clattering to the ground. Sunset watched it intently, hoping a pony might push their way through the rubble and finally greet her and tell her what was going on and how to get home.

She wasn't so lucky. More and more rocks fell to the ground until the entire house changed in shape. As dust poured off the new shape, Sunset could see the sun reflecting off of the crystalline features. The rubble separated, showing the long, spindly limbs attached to the massive chunk of gemstone. Eight glossy rubies shook away dust as they looked towards her.

Sunset's heart dropped. It was an azorach; a massive crystal spider that made anything in Equestria terrified to explore the caves of the Everfree.

Sunset shrieked as it took a step towards her. She reflexifly shot a bolt of pure energy out at it, but it simply bounced off the beasts reflective exoskeleton. After she watched the green bolt fly off into the sky, Sunset turned tail and ran as fast as her body could manage.

The monster let out a shrill cry and was quickly after her. It's razor-sharp legs dug massive holes in the brick pavement. Sunset's heart thundered in her chest as her body filled with adrenaline. The thought of being impaled by one of those limbs then eaten alive drove Sunset to run faster than she'd ever run in her life.

Sunset turned her head every few steps to send another bolt of energy at the azorach, hoping to slow it down. Every time she looked it got closer to her, and every bolt she sent just bounced off. Sunset cried out for help as loud as she could, making her body panic as it had to suck in another breath to feed her limbs.

Sunset felt her limbs burn from fatigue, telling that she couldn't do this forever. She desperately searched for some way to lose the massive azorach, since her magic just bounced off of it. Just as Sunset could feel a swipe of one of its limbs through her tail, she spotted a large building down another street. It was the local theater for the district, though just as rundown and desecrated as everything else.

Sunset made a sharp right turn onto the next street, causing the beast behind her to crash in a shower of concrete in dust into a nearby building. The azorach barely even noticed the slip as it crawled out of the hole it made and was right behind Sunset again. The harsh sound of it's legs cracking the road grew louder behind her, filling her body with more and more fear.

Sunset focused her magic on one of the door handles as she sprinted towards it. Without enough time to realize it was locked and change her path, Sunset lowered her head and closed her eyes tightly. Her horn pierced the glass door, sending little chunks of it across the dull, red carpet as it shattered. Sunset let out a cry as she stumbled into it, feeling it puncture her as it fell to the ground. She quickly got back up once she turned back and saw that the azorach wasn't slowing down.

Sunset leaped further into the main room just as the azorach crashed through the entrance, sending glass and concrete flying everywhere. Sunset ran into the first open door her eyes found, with the monster still right on her tail.

Sunset sprinted down the aisle of the theater, jumping over broken chairs and debris. The azorach squirmed its way through the doorway behind her, making the wall crack around it as it broke through after her.

Sunset looked back at the monster for a split second, just long enough to trip on a jagged piece of metal. She flipped a few times down the aisle until her head slammed into the stage, blurring her vision for a moment. When her senses returned, the azorach was right on top of her, a limb raised high above her to strike that final blow.

Sunset crossed her hooves over her head, letting out one final scream in anticipation of the searing pain of the crystal edge piercing her.

The pain never came. A thunderous crunch resounded in front of Sunset, and with it came a pitiful final cry from the azorach as hundreds of tiny chunks of crystal showered the theater. The beast collapsed onto Sunset, it's lifeless mouth settling onto her legs, thick, yellow fluid dripping out of its mouth and onto her fur.

Sunset scrambled away from the azorach and up onto the stage, her eyes darting around the scene to see what happened. Her breath was quick and ragged as she tried to regain her composure. Sunset had never been an athlete, so after something as rigorous as that she felt dizzy, and her lungs felt like they were on fire. She choked a few times as she gasped in the cold air, trying to stay conscious as the adrenaline in her body faded away.

At first Sunset couldn't believe her luck; some massive rock falling from the heavens and saving her life? There was no way that would happen again. That was until Sunset spotted the lengths of tattered rope wrapped around the boulder.

As her breath slowly normalized, Sunset brightened the room with her magic. She looked up to the ceiling, seeing more rope and steel haphazardly strapped to the rafters, along with several other large rocks precariously hanging around other sections of the theater. Sunset followed the ropes down until they disappeared behind the curtain.

"How the hell are you doing that?" A ragged voice asked.

Sunset jumped once her eyes landed on a pegasus walking up next to her. Once Sunset studied her for a moment, her eyes went wide.

"Rainbow Dash?" Sunset asked. There was no mistaking the collection of colors in her hair and those magenta eyes, as faded and sickly as they might've looked.

As soon as Sunset said her name, she stopped in place and adopted a confused expression, looking over Sunset a few times. "How the..." Rainbow asked, growing more perplexed by the second.

A different pony came forward. Sunset turned her eyes away from Rainbow to see the dull purple fur, ribs readily poking through on her sides, and above that was another pair of wings. Her once-beautiful purple eyes had turned gray, and her old, neatly trimmed hair was now long, unkempt, and tangled now. Despite all this, Sunset recongnized her immediatly and her jaw dropped at the sight.

"Sunset Shimmer?" Princess Twilight Sparkle asked.