Of Dreams and Magic

The static pop in Sunset’s ear signaled her comms opening. “Pyrebright, Starfall is on her way to move you. Sorry to say it, but we need Lightshow even if she’s injured. All of you are to enter the fray. Behemoth’s on the ropes. Long Arch out.”

Not a minute later the air split apart as a rift appeared several feet from Sunset before Twilight stepped through. She was covered in dust and ash, her clothing was scorched and torn but her person appeared unharmed. At least physically.

“Hey, Sunset, I’m here to portal you all. Oh hello, Lemon. Tri—Stars above, Trixie! Your arm!” Twilight ran over to Trixie and fought between wanting to hug Trixie or forcing her to stay still. “You have a debilitating wound, dangerous blood loss, oh my gosh did you burn this shut? We need to get you to a hospital right now. Give me a moment and I’ll move you to the medical ward. How are you even functioning right now?”

Trixie stepped back from the hysteric girl. “Sparkle, Lightshow is hardly in need of medical care. She has simply lost a single limb. Yes, it hurts a lot, and frankly Lightshow wished it didn’t. It is simply because Lightshow is so amazing that she doesn’t feel pain as mere mortals do.”

Sunset was also worried about Trixie, but seeing as she had endured losing her arm and then having Sunset cauterize it with an unflappable attitude made that worry tone itself down. “Wait, really?”

Trixie gave a quick mocking laugh. “No, not really. It’s part of my powers. Alas, Lightshow has been dealt worse in the past.”

Twilight nearly screeched. “Worse!?”

Lemon gulped. “Dang, girl. Are all these nightmares as bad as this?”

“No.” All three girls shared a look of relief. “May Lightshow remind you that this is a baby nightmare? This is the easiest she has ever faced. Look at us; only one injury amongst the dreamers. You may thank the great and powerful Lightshow for being as amazing as she is.”

Lemon smiled warmly. “Thanks, Trixie.”

“Yes yes, that was mostly rhetorical but nevertheless appreciated. This still hurts a whole lot, so let’s wrap this up, shall we? Sparkle, I assume you are here to send us to our victory.”

Twilight nodded and ripped open a rift in front of the group with a swipe of her fingers. “This goes a couple blocks over to near Behemoth. Be careful when you exit.”

Sunset flexed her fingers and wondered about the fight. Real or not she had seen many heroes die with ease fighting Behemoth. “So what actually happens if we die here in the dream?”

Trixie met Sunset’s eyes and the look she gave her sent a shiver down Sunset’s spine. “I highly advise that you don’t. You may not be really dead, but that’s not the worst there is to be, Shimmer.”

With that and a small flourish of her arm, Trixie jumped through the rift.

“So… does anyone else get scared when she drops the third person speech?” asked Lemon.

Nobody else said anything before Sunset jumped through the rift. If there was a flaw with Twilight’s powers it would be that you cannot see the other side of the portal until you step through. Breathing sent ice cold air down her throat and into her lungs as her skin bristled from the unexpected chill. Trixie was barely two feet in front of her holding her arm outstretched blocking a torrent of snow and ice with a barrier wall.

Lemon and Twilight quickly followed through the rift and ended up bumping into each other as everyone was huddled behind the barrier wall. “It seems that the beast doesn’t like the amazing Lightshow very much. She dares to say the feeling is mutual!”

When the flurry died down Trixie dropped the barrier wall to reveal Behemoth, in all its massive glory, staring down at them with frosty vapor trailing from its mouth. All eyes went wide as it snorted out white smoke. Trixie pointed at the blue and green shell and yelled, “Its shell is acid and ice. Scatter and let’s finish this!”

Twilight flung her arms down, a black light trailing from her hands, as she said, “Lemon, take the right. Sunset; the left. Trixie? Um, do what you do. I’ll try and support whoever is still around here.”

Rifts opened up underneath Sunset and Lemon causing both girls to fall through them. Sunset’s feet hit the ground a second later as she was dropped a foot downwards. Behemoth was still so close it took up her entire vision, but she was relieved she wasn’t looking at it face to face and instead was off to its side.

“Okay, let’s do this.” Sunset flexed her hands and took off running toward Behemoth’s backside. With every other step she lobbed balls of air at the monster’s flesh that burst into a fiery explosion. Unlike earlier when it ignored her attacks each explosion left charred flesh and blackened muscle oozing with ichor.

Behemoth roared in pain. Large chunks of building debris were being rocketed into its body, spears of lightning were thrown by a hero atop a roof near her, Trixie’s hexagonal barriers bludgeoned and cut into its face and maw with Sunset’s fiery explosions against its legs and side. It was merely a drop in the bucket compared to all the injuries caused by the numerous heroes that have been battling it, but everyone could tell it was reaching its end.

Each movement was labored and its breath heaved with each swipe of its claw or tail. Numerous pools of ichor were littered about the battlefield with the largest being where Trixie was fighting Behemoth far closer than was safe considering it had headbutted her through several buildings last time.

“Shell, shell.” It needed to be broken somehow as it was the source of all Behemoth’s defense. Sunset observed the numerous cracks and chipped panels of its shell. She could cause a large explosion, but it wouldn’t be enough to do what others have failed at so far. “No, wait… not alone I can’t.”

Sunset changed her course from going around Behemoth to running at it. Air focused underneath her feet and exploded as she jumped. Her body tensed as she flew several feet in the air and then did the same thing again and again until she landed on Behemoth’s shell.

From atop its shell she saw the whole battle. There were less than seven heroes left to her dismay with four of them being her and her friends. Sunset couldn’t help but admire Trixie for staring Behemoth in its eyes as she continued to pummel its face and block each attack in return. The trump card of the heroes couldn’t have been a better person. “Probably. I mean, it’s still Trixie.”

Twilight flitted about between her portals helping the remaining three heroes continue their attacks and saving them when Behemoth turned its attention toward them. She couldn’t see Lemon from her vantage point but assumed the girl was doing what she could.

Sunset precariously walked across Behemoth’s back looking for a weak point in the shell. A plate or section that took more damage than the others. A massive slam from Trixie shoved Behemoth enough to make Sunset stumble. Even over the monster’s pained roar Sunset could hear Trixie’s haughty laugh.

“Ah.” Up near the base of its neck was several plates of its shell discolored from the odd immunity coloration it adapts. “I hope this works.”

She hurried along its shell and knelt down next to the discolored plates. Air gathered in Sunset’s hands and exploded over and over. Cracks formed and chips of its shell were blasted off, but it wasn’t much progress. “Think, think, what do I do?”

Her own blasts weren’t hurting her, but any more and she would knock herself off of Behemoth’s back. “Wait… Trixie! Trixie!”

Sunset’s yell was answered by Trixie’s own. “What do you want, Shimmer? Lightshow is being great and powerful over here! “

“Cover me with a barrier! All of me!”

“Sure, whatever. Victory shall be ours, beast!”

Air gathered and condensed itself into Sunset’s hands, but kept gathering to the point where each breath felt humid and suffocating. She was nearly obscured by the air so thick it appeared similar to a fog when the hexagonal light barrier enshrouded Sunset in a small dome. “This won’ hurt me. This won’t hurt. Probably. Dangit.”

Sunset stared at her hand, flexed her fingers, and winced as she snapped. A small spark turned into a blazing inferno before she could blink. There was no air to breathe, no world to balance, nothing existed but roaring heat and cacophony inside her ears.

The flames evaporated in what felt like minutes later. Trixie’s barrier was gone, destroyed or dismissed she couldn’t tell. Beneath her knees was a bulbous and knotted mass of flesh charred black and burned away a foot deep into the body; The plates of the shell she knelt upon were nonexistent. Sunset smirked as she went to radio in that Behemoth was exposed, but found no helmet on her head. In addition, nearly all of her suit was gone or scorched to barely maintaining itself.

Her breath was knocked out of her by the most unexpected thing anyone anticipated. Behemoth, in its gargantuan body, leaped several feet into the air with surprising speed. When it landed the earth shook. What few buildings left standing crumbled, a massive cloud of dirt, dust, ash billowed out around it and silenced the battlefield. A moment later Sunset impacted back down onto the shell and bounced off.

She couldn’t make heads or tails of any directions to orient herself, let alone use her power to prevent her falling. “Oh Celestia this is g—”

Immunity to fire was definitely not one of Sunset’s abilities. It shot through her back and spread throughout her entire body. A scream was ripped from her throat as the pain needled all her muscles. Her ears felt wet as she could barely focus enough to open her eyes.

A familiar sound of air being torn open came through muffled. “Sunset? Sunset!”

Sunset cracked an eye open to see Twilight and Lemon emerge from within the dust cloud. Even now there barely enough light to see each other. Twilight slid to her side and she felt hands gently cradle her. “By the sun… Sunset…”

“Jeez, oh man.”

Sunset bit back another scream when she tried to move her arm. “H-hey girls. How did you find me?”

“I saw you fall. Look, I’ll get you help. You’ll be fine, just fine.” Twilight’s hand became enveloped in black light.

“No! Twilight,” said Sunset. Speaking felt like eating sandpaper. “The shell is broke. Base of neck. We need Trixie. Someone to attack it. I’ll be f-fine when this is over.”

Twilight bit her finger. “I didn’t see what happened to Trixie. Lemon, can you do it?”

“Um. I don’t know. Maybe?”

Sunset coughed which only made her back burn and felt like needles were tormenting her chest. “You can do it. Remember, any friend of Trixie’s is amazing.”

Lemon firmly nodded. “Right.”

“I’m not leaving you here, Sunset. Not like this,” cried Twilight. “I can’t.”

Twilight’s forehead was flicked despite the burning agony in Sunset’s everything. “I’m not dead. Just go save the world or something so we can go home.”

“O-okay. Okay.” Twilight ripped open a rift beneath Sunset and gently lowered her into it. Sunset found herself atop a tall spire many blocks away from the battle. Behemoth seemed small, like a pet amongst a playset. Twilight’s hand vanished back into the portal as it closed with a snap.

She could barely spot through her blurred vision the black rift open atop Behemoth’s shell. Her friends stepped out of it and disappeared from her sight. The beast that had tormented and butchered this city froze. It felt that something was amiss before it began a wild tantrum. It threw itself against the ground, shook itself with all its might, and screeched in pain. It screamed over and over, its voice weakening each time before it slumped to the ground.

A siren slowly crescendoed over the silent city. Its monotone blaring was accompanied by a bright light. Its whiteness consumed Sunset’s vision as her chest tightened. Her body felt like it was being squeezed through a tube and compressed before everything went dark.