Dead by Sunset

Rainbow

Bum-bum bum-bum bum-bum-bum-bum bum bum bum bum bum…

Mister Sandman… bring me a dre~am.

Make her the cutest, that I’ve ever se~en.

I stir awake to sound of an old song playing from a scratchy radio. One I barely remember my mom listening to, one that my grandma used to listen to too…

Ugh, it sounds like someone is screaming…. Wait… My eyes snap open and I look around. Someone is screaming. Where’s Scoots?!

“Scootaloo?!” I stand up, frantic, looking around. I’m… in a classroom? Whatever, no time now. “Scoots, where the hell are you?!”

“Shut! Up!” A voice hisses from the back of the room, peeking around one of the desks is a familiar young girl with apple-red hair, her face is taut with terror. “Get down and shut up!”

Mister Sa~ndma~n bring me a dre~am!

“Applebloom?” I yelp, drawing another terrified flinch from the younger girl. She looks ragged and scared out her wits.

Sweeping up a book she pitches it at me in a fit of anger.

“Ah said, shut up!” Applebloom snarls, backing me up a step at the fury in her voice. “Do ya’ll want’er ta hear ya?”

Lowering myself down and sidling over to Applebloom, I get next to her and scowl. “Who? And what’s going on?”

Applebloom shudders. “S-Sunset…” she answers. “She’s powerful mad at me n’the Crusaders… she’s turned into a demon again and… and Ah think it’s our fault.”

“Fuck yeah it is,” I practically spit back. “We found out you were Anon-A-Miss right after Sunset tried to kill herself.”

Whatever Applebloom had been expecting me to say, that wasn't it. She looks gut-checked, and she's staring at me in open-mouthed horror.

“S-she what?” Applebloom says dumbly, her mouth working and her brain fritzing out on the concept. “W-what’dya mean?”

Leaning against one of the desks, I just shake my head. “Vice Principal Luna said she pitched herself off of the top of the school building the morning of the day you all were taken. The only reason she didn’t die is that something… took her. Princess Twilight tried to get her out but it didn’t work. Time moves really fast in here I think, like super fast. A day out there is like two or three weeks in here.”

“S-so then… she’s not…?” Applebloom starts but can’t finish the sentence.

“Dead?” I ask grimly, earning a flinch from Applebloom, “I dunno… I don’t know what really counts in here as dead. The Princess thinks she’s still alive though, so, I hope not.”

A song penetrates the air around us, filling our ears and minds with the soft music sung by a familiar voice. A voice I still… I clench my eyes, I don’t have time to get all weepy in here. Scootaloo needs me. Sunset needs me… Applebloom looks even more terrified than before though and starts to stand up. I snap a hand out and grab her.

“Yo, where the hell’re you going?” I say, as she tries to violently pull away from me. “If you run out there she’ll see you right?”

Applebloom shakes her head. “N-no, you don’t get it, Dash! It ain’t that, it’s-”

Ha-haha-ha~...

The air shudders with a sudden low and throaty chuckle and the world cracks and shifts around me. The fog that sat low to the tiles is suddenly much thicker and everything is washed out in shades of gray. Everything feels… surreal and strange… like a dream…

Applebloom screams.

Or a Nightmare.

Five white-hot scars of pain slice through my back and throw me forward, stumbling past Applebloom as I stagger away, I turn to see what just hit me… Applebloom rips past me shouting for me to run.

“Run?” I choke out, there’s nothing there. “From what?!”

Then the air in front of me ripples and for a moment I see something. I see someone. A figure in a black and tattered coat is stalking towards me, her hand held up, displaying her blade-like fingers and the ruby droplets that are falling from their edges as she wiggles them at me mockingly. Her red and gold hair is pale and greasy like it hasn’t been washed in weeks, and it’s hanging over her face like a veil. But I can see her smiling. A crazy rictus that promises me things I’ve never, ever wanted.

“S-Sunset?” The name tumbles out of my mouth as I back away.

I get it now. I get why Applebloom screamed and told me to run. I really get it as Sunset flickers back out of sight and I backpedal out of the classroom

Yeah, running now.

Sunset

The bitch is here.

The traitor. The betrayer.

“Wonderful, I didn’t even have to come for you,” I whisper under my breath as Rainbow turns on her heel and sprints away from me, putting those lovely runners legs to good use. She tears away, faster than any of the others as she puts on a burst of speed. “Run, run, as fast as you can…”

Reality is my toy as I stride through, into, and between the Fog. Have you ever tried to keep an eye on something in a dream? It doesn’t really work, does it? Dreams aren’t meant to be looked at… they just happen. Just like me. You can’t see me, Rainbow, or maybe you can, who knows?

Who cares?

I track her, my eyes scanning the floors and walls for the red scratches scored into the flesh of my little marble of reality. Every step they take scratches their fear, their hope of escape and respite, and their despair of my claws, into my world. I move and the world moves around me. Am I slow or fast? To me, I’m moving at a nice, leisurely pace. To them, it’s like every step of mine covers two of theirs.

Her prismatic hair bobs around a corner a few meters ahead and I close in. My fingers are twitching, snapping and rasping against one another like a school of piranha. They’ll bite in soon enough.

I turn the corner as Rainbow looks over her shoulder. I can see the fear in her eyes. I can taste it. Guilt, hope, terror, despair… I see why the Entity loves the flavor so much. Well, he’ll have to wait his turn. I get to break the rules for my own ends first. I feel something as I approach Rainbow, she’s moving so slowly to me, but I feel it. Every step I take towards her bombards me with memories.

Walking through the mall by her side; laughing, joking, talking. Stop lying to me you multi-colored bitch, stop it!

Water is pouring over my head and I’m crying my heart out. Everything hurts. My back, my arms, my chest. My heart. I just want it to end. Then she’s there, talking, smiling, a touch of softness in my hard world.

My world is brighter, it’s so bright and so dark, and all I can think about is her. Then she cuts my heart out. I still can’t stop thinking about her. Her smile, her laugh, her betrayal. She was everything to me. She is everything to me. She's my whole world and my unwanted obsession. I want to kiss her. I want to kill her.

I WILL KILL HER.

Two steps and I’m at her back.

“This my world, bitch, you don’t escape me.” The words hiss from my stretched, cracked lips as my blades dig into her back and drive her down. I kneel, driving my knee into the bloody wounds I’ve carved into her, and savoring her scream.

Lowering myself to her ear, I drag my tongue along the lobe and grin as she shivers beneath me.

“You’re going to remember me…” I whisper.

There’s a hook nearby, but I have time. Time to savor her pain. Someone will be by soon to get her off the floor, then we can begin again. Then I can hurt her again, just like she hurt me. I’ll hurt all of them.

But her, most of all.

I see a flicker of pale hair and I grin. immediately I’m out and striding through the halls of my palace of torment. Why shouldn’t it be here after all? This school? It's a place of lessons and I’m the teacher, professor, and the fucking headmistress.

No tardies in my class! I’ll nail them to the seats and carve my lessons into their skin!

I move forward and she’s there, just ahead of me, little Sweetie Belle still terrified of my claws. Good, I love a little fear in the morning. I reach out with one hand and feel for her mind, rigid with terror and frantic like a mouse about to be trodden on. I grin as I dig my mental claws into the frail, supple flesh of her brain, slicing through her brain stem, up to the thalamus and into the cortex, tickling the frontal lobe and plucking the strings of her gray matter.

One... two... Sunny's coming for you~

Her footsteps fumble as she staggers, falling into a half-lucid waking dream where I’m the master. My laughter follows her into my Dreamtime and I’m right on its heels, my claws driving into Sweetie's back and throwing her forward with a delicious shriek of pain.

“You can’t get rid of me this time,” I cackle, as I pursue her. “This is my school now, and I’ve got tenure, bitch!”

I feel Rainbow Dash get to her feet. Someone is helping her. Good, that means more blood, more pain, and more screams. They’re all delicious, but hers? Hers are a delicacy. Too bad I’ve got to finish this job first. Oh well, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Sweetie Belle barely makes more than a few steps before she makes a fatal mistake and turns into a dead end.

Sweetie screams as I turn the corner, her eyes unfocused with nightmare terror. There are words in her screams, I think. Apologies? I'm not listening to those anymore. She can bleed her apologies all over my hand as I drive my claws into her gut and nail her to the ground before lowering myself to her level.

“Too little, too late,” I whisper before seizing her by the throat and lifting her up, hauling her small body over my shoulder. She struggles, meaninglessly, as I glance about.

Now I get it. I see why they always knew where the hooks were. It’s all so red. The hooks shine with beautiful red light. They’re not part of my reality, they’re gifts from him, from that Old Stain, and he wants me to know where they are. What a sweetheart. I walk unerringly a few steps down the hall, then turn into a classroom where a hook protrudes from the corner near the blackboard.

One swift movement that feels as natural as breathing puts Sweetie Belle on the hook. She screams, and I purr at the sound.

“Hang out there, won’t you?” I grin as I stare up at her. “She came to save you once, I’m sure she’ll be here soon now that I’ve rung the dinner ‘belle’.”

I step away and leave the room, looking either way and listening. I don’t hear anything, but that’s not a problem. I stride away leisurely, scanning the hallways and classrooms. Any one could hide a veritable feast of hope and-

Oh, what was that?

A little bob of red hair ducks behind the teacher's desk as I pass one classroom. Smiling, I turn back and peek in at little Applebloom. What a love, waiting to free her friend. Moving around the room, I get a bead on her, then reach for her mind and grip it, driving my fingers deep. She sleeps to the sound of my laughter and immediately tries to run, but I’m on her, my claws driving her against her hardwood hiding place.

“Oh look, someone left an apple on my desk!” I slice her and she screams, scrambling away from me as I laugh. I flick the blood lazily off of my claws and pursue her.

She doesn’t get far before I slice her to the ground, like all the others. I stalk around her as she cries on the floor, tears mixing with blood.

I wonder… I reach down and pick her up. The world lights up with hooks like Christmas lights, but I don’t look around, I look down. I’m probably close enough, then I can… visit. I carry her to an open door that leads down into the bowels of my Trial. The dark, stained concrete steps ooze malice, and the moment I step in it’s like slipping into a cool bath after a hot day. This is where his realm and mine meet in joyous harmony. I enter the basement and grin at the two figures hanging between the hooks.

My magic lets me cheat, and I love it. I love cheating. Rules are for losers who are too uncreative to figure out where the loopholes are. I throw Applebloom on a hook almost as an afterthought and sweep around to the taller figure hanging between two of the hooks by chains forged from Fog and nightmares.

“Hello, lover…” I purr, reaching out to caress Tempest’s cheek, careful not to make any more scars on her beautiful body. It was hard enough for both us when I had to put her down to get her here. “Sorry I had to take off, but I’m back now.”

Tempest grimaces at me and I feel a pang of anger. “Don’t talk like you’re her. Mi sol has gone out, and all that’s left is a cinder.”

I bite back a snarl as my fingers reflexively grip to cut her, to hurt her for trying to hurt me. No… it’s not her fault. She’s been hunted for so long, she doesn’t know anything else.

“You’ll understand eventually,” I say, as I let out a calming breath before leaning in to put a soft kiss on her cheek. “I’m protecting you from him, from the Entity. I’ll always protect you.”

Stepping around the shrine of hooks I stop in front of Aria.

“You too, you deserve better,” I say as I reach out and brush a few stray locks from her face. “I’ll find your sisters too, I promise.”

Aria stares up at me, not angry just tired. “Sunset… this isn’t right,” she pleads, trying to reach for me with her chained hands. “You’re better than this.”

For a moment, just a brief, brief moment, I force the haze of red away. Aria’s face changes as my mood shifts. In her bright, mulberry eyes I see my own reflected; clear, sharp aquamarines on a field of healthy white. Then the moment passes and they’re shrouded in darkness again.

“No,” I say softly, cradling her cheek as I lean in to press my forehead against hers. “I’m not.” I lay a kiss on her forehead. “But that’s okay, I’ll save you anyway, I just need time and I’ll figure it out.”

I leave the basement and reach out with my senses. I curse, I’d been too distracted and at some point, they’d freed Sweetie Belle. Oh well, I’ll find them again and-

A generator thunders to life. Well, I guess that was inevitable. It’s a natural inclination here that they’re drawn to the generators. They feel it somewhere deep in their souls that they need to fix them. To bring light to the darkness.

To escape.

Except, no one escapes me. How dare they even think about trying? I’ll drag that stupid bitch back to my fucking basement by her goddamn rainbow hair for that. Let them fix the generators, it won’t make a difference! It just gets me fired up to beat their faces into the ground and cut them til they scream!

My whole body twitches with nervous energy as I stalk the halls of my phantom Canterlot High School, towards the now-live generator, scanning for them. I’ll find them and then I’ll hurt them and it will taste wonderful.

Scootaloo suddenly rounds the corner and sprints past me, I grin, she can’t see me yet, but it doesn’t matter. She will. I reach out and pluck the strings of her mind with a chuckle, and drag her into my world.

Three... four... better lock your door...

She staggers as my will overrides hers, driving her into a waking nightmare. I relish the look of terror on Scootaloo’s face as she glances back and catches sight of me for a moment as I flicker in and out of vision. She moves like a choppy stop motion film reel, slow then fast, as time weaves strangely around us. The world is a faded grey and red all about us as I pursue her at my leisure.

“No amount of running can save you, little chicken,” I call, laughing as she cries out for help that isn’t coming. “Squawk and flap all you like, I’d love to see if you can still do it with your head cut off!”

There’s a flash of cyan at the corner of my eye as I pass the empty hall in pursuit of Scootaloo. A fist is thrown through the air, and it slows as time melts around it. I grimace as I lean back, then swing my hand out and to the side, not bothering to look. I can feel her, I can taste her. My blades slide into soft flesh and athletic muscle, and she screams gorgeously. Her fist connects limply in her failed attempt to attack me. It’s almost like a caress. She’ll learn her place soon enough.

Rainbow staggers away from me with a cry, clutching the wound. I lift my fingers and watch the lovely red tears drip to the floor.

No, I’m getting distracted, I glance around but the little chicky is gone. I look back and, to my surprise, Rainbow is still here. Her eyes are bright but unfocused with slumber, they haven’t learned how to wake one another up yet, I realise. Or else they couldn’t. Whoever found her might’ve been in the grip of my spell.

“S-Sunset?” Her voice is cracked and raw from pain and screams. “What happened to you?”

I step closer… close enough to smell her. That faint rainy scent of her body wash, the aroma of fresh cut grass from the fields, and the taste of new winter snow.

“That’s a stupid question, isn’t it?" I say, smiling at her with a mouth full of shark-like teeth. “You, all of you, are what happened to me.”

She flinches. “I’m sorry, Sunset, I’m… I’m so sorry, we all are! We should’ve believed you! You were right it wasn’t you!”

“Don’t you think I know that!!?" I shriek, and she screams and cowers back from me.

I wonder what I must look like.

“Of course I know that! That’s not the point!” I run the edges of my blades down her face, slicing just through the topmost layer of skin and drawing out little beads of red. “It shouldn’t have mattered even if it had been me all along.”

“What?” Rainbow looks confused. It's a common look on her face.

I turn my lips down in an exaggerated pout and click my tongue.

“Aw, it’s a good thing you’re cute, Rainbow. Your lights might be on but the hamster is dead. Let me spell it out for you then…” I run my blades through her hair and push her against the wall. “Even if I was guilty as hell, it shouldn’t have mattered because you said I was your friend! Friends believe in each other! Friends fight for each other!” I scream, slamming my blades into the wall by her head, sinking down to my knuckles.

“I’m sorry!” Rainbow screams, flinching away from me as I drag my fingers down through the wood with a harsh, grating sound.

“You should’ve stuck by me until you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, but you didn’t!” I hiss, leaning in until I’m right by her ear. “I was your friend right up until shit went so far south we ended up in interdimensional Marexico and then you dropped me in the trash like a prom-night baby.”

Tears are flowing freely down her face by now. I wish it felt better but it doesn’t. Seeing her crying, begging for my forgiveness, spouting apologies… it just feels so hollow. I back away from her, pulling my fingers free with a dull thunk of wood as Rainbow slides down the wall til she’s sitting with her ass on the ground.

“It was just supposed to be them, y’know,” I say, gesturing behind me towards where Scootaloo had run away. Towards the basement where Applebloom is hanging. I grimace as I realise she’s gone. Was hanging. Oh well, I’ll find her again. “Guess I’m not the only one fucking with the rulebook. You stink of chaos magic, Rainbow. I don’t know where you found a chaos witch powerful enough to pry open one of the Old Stain’s rifts, but you’re going to regret it.”

Rainbow mutters something I don’t quite catch, and I lean in.

“Sorry, sherbet-head, but you’re gonna have to speak up,” I say, kneeling down and gripping her face so she’s looking at me. My eyebrows rise at the semblance of a fight that's still left in her eyes.

“I won’t regret it,” she says, through split lips. “Because either I save you… or I belong here with you.”

I sigh.

“How dramatic,” I say, shaking her head back and forth before jerking my hand to the side and pitching her to the ground. “Such a martyr complex, I guess it’s that guilt you’ve always had, huh? Let me be clear, lover-girl, we’re nothing. Not anymore, capisce? I want nothing to do with you six fuckups. I’ve got enough people to save.”

“Save?” Rainbow spits and I feel my temper rise. “Look at you! You’re hunting them like friggin’ animals and you expect me to think you’d save any-”

I don’t let her finish. My claws come down on her head like the hammer of wrath, slamming her into the ground and spiking her there.

“I don’t give a damn what you think!” I scream. I lose it then. My temper and my sanity briefly vanishes as I grip her head and slam it repeatedly into the ground, over and over until she's bleeding across the filthy tile, and I'm left breathing hard with exertion.

“You want to know the truth?" I snarl as I flip her over and plant a boot on her throat. "Fine!”

Reaching into my jacket I pull out my Journal. It’s smoking and leaking black smoke. There are black crystals growing along the edges that crackle with an unpleasantly brackish energy. I flip it open and turn it around, showing diagrams of arcane formula and figures etched in blood.

“I may be able to bend the rules, Rainbow, but no one can break the laws of magic,” I hiss, shoving the book in her face. “I can’t steal, because all magic has a price. I have to exchange! The Entity needs energy to stay coherent. Just like we need food, he eats hope, and when I came here I met people who were almost out of it. Almost, but not quite, and through it all, they still fought. For all their pain and anguish and sorrow, they’re still fighting.”

“M-more?” Rainbow chokes out around my boot. “What? How many?”

“Too many,” I answer grimly, “but I only care about four. I promised the Old Stain replacements with interest in exchange for my real friends. Two for three, a good deal for him, but it's the only way I’m getting them out of here.”

“You’re taking more people?” Rainbow asks, horrified, and I nod. “And you’re… you’re going to-”

“I’m going to do whatever I have to,” I cut her off with a wave of my hand. “You were right to drop me, Rainbow, because I’m not worth it, but I don’t care anymore. Once a monster, always a monster. That’s Sunset Shimmer, eh? Fine, I’ll be a monster. I’ll save who I want and damn all the rest to this pre-digestive Tartarus.”

I reach down and haul her up to my shoulder, slinging her over and walking towards the basement. We’re close enough, I might not’ve gotten Scootaloo but the Entity isn’t picky about whose hope he’s devouring, so long as he’s getting his dinner on time, I stay on his good side. So long as he gives me my friends, he stays on mine too. Also, I might’ve lied a little to Rainbow; I could steal from him, but there’s a price for that too.

One I have to be very careful about how and when I pay.

Rainbow

Did you know getting hung from a butchers hook really fuckin’ hurts? Because I didn’t.

I mean, I did, obviously. Like, duh, it’s a hook stuck through your meat. That’s gonna hurt like a bitch, right? But you don’t really appreciate that kind of pain until it happens to you, and I would’ve been super glad if I’d kept right on not being able to appreciate how much a butcher hook through the shoulder hurts.

I can’t really imagine a worse place than this basement, either. I don’t know why. Like, I’m sure there are worse places, but I can’t even imagine what that would be like. I don’t think I want to either. There are whispers all around me and even the air is like a thick, bitter syrup. The stink of death, all flavors of death, are all around me. The kind of coppery, salty taste of new death. The sickly-sweet rot and decay of old death. It’s all here.

“So what’re you two in for?” I say with a smile that’s really just grimace turned upside-down.

There are two other’s hanging between the hooks, weirdly, not on them. Girls I think, I didn’t get a good look. They’re chained up, I can see the weird, misty-looking shackles keeping them tied up.

I hear the shackles shake to my right as one of them moves around then a familiar voice absolutely dripping with sarcasm speaks up. “Oh, great, it’s the Rainboom’s poster girl, we’re saved.”

My eyes widen as I try to move around. I definitely know that voice. Groaning in pain as the hook cuts and jabs I manage to swivel myself enough to see her. She different than I remember, she looks worn out and more mature, who knows how long she’s been in here.

“Aria Blaze?” I gape at the siren who’s hanging adjacent to me. “What the hell’re you doing here?”

“I was taken, dumbass, just like everyone who ends up this shit-hole” Aria snaps back before giving a heavy sigh. “Just like Red.”

I wince. “Was that our fault too?”

Aria scowls but finally shakes her head. “Nah, as much as I wanna blame you pastel fuckups, this one was our mistake. I can’t exactly blame you for stopping us from turning your school into a negative emotion farm.”

“Uh, yeah, that was pretty uncool,” I say, breathing raggedly as the dull roar of the pain starts to pound in my shoulder again. “So, uh, who’s she?”

I nod to the other, much larger girl hanging to my left side who had remained silent this whole time. She’s big, like, powerlifter big. She could probably bench press six of me without breaking much of a sweat. She has a rad red warhawk that’s hanging along the side of her face and she’s just… ignoring us. I think she is, anyway.

“Tempest?” Aria calls out softly. “C’mon Tempest, you can’t do this forever, I need you to shape up.”

“Is she one of them?” The girl that Aria called Tempest finally says. Her voice is low and deadly, with a pleasant, rolling accent. “This girl, is she one of those puta that abandoned Mi Sol?”

Aria sighs.”Uh, yeah, that’d be them.”

The words are barely out of her mouth before Tempest moves like a surge tide, lunging for me. I scream, trying to jerk away but only end up digging myself deeper on the hook. The shackles stop her, but barely. The wood of the hook posts groans horribly as she strains to reach me, a rictus of rage on her face, and her fiery teal eyes, so much like Sunset’s, burning with fury as she reaches out grasping for my throat.

“You motherfuckers!” Tempest spits viciously. “How could you do that?! How could you?! You ruined her!”

A jab of pain hits me that has nothing to do with the hook in my shoulder.

“I know!” I yell back. “We all know, okay!? We… we fucked up really bad and we’re trying to fix it!”

Tempest just stares daggers back at me. “You can’t fix this, puta, once you change you’re gone forever. Sunset is dead. All that’s left is a Killer wearing her skin.”

I feel my heart break a little hearing those words, but before I can try to argue it, Aria speaks up.

“Is she?” We both turn, as best we can, to look at her. “Changed, I mean. The other Killers don’t talk, they don’t heckle or explain anything, or do anything but kill, really. What makes Sunset so different? It’s like she’s… lucid.”

Tempest just shakes her head but for once I think I actually have an answer.

“Her Journal…” I mutter, and both of them wrench their heads to look at me. “T-the Journal she keeps is like, a… a smartphone that can talk between dimensions. It’s some kind of Equestrian artifact, I think their Princess or Goddess or whatever gave it to them. Princess Celestia is like, an immortal ruler or something.”

Aria stares back at me dumbly. “Are you serious? The Journal she has on her? That thing is that powerful?”

“Uh, I dunno how powerful it is,” I reply, grimacing. “It’s just, like, long-distance texting right?”

The shackles on her wrists jerk as Aria presumably makes an attempt to facepalm. “No, you dingus, it’s a dimensional channel! It would have to be! It creates a miniature gateway between Equestria and wherever the Journal is. She must be drawing on Equestrian magic through the Journal to stay sane!”

"Five... six... grab your crucifix...

We all shut up as Sunset’s low singing voice comes through as she walks down the stairs, her dream-form shimmering and shifting until she was visible. Scootaloo hung limp and crying over her shoulder as she made her way towards the back hook.

“C-C’mon, Sunset,” I plead as I follow her with my eyes. “Don’t do that to her, she’s just a kid. She doesn’t deserve that.”

She glances back at me with those furious, black-and-aqua eyes, but doesn’t answer.

I brace myself for what I know is coming. There’s a harsh, meaty shunk and Scootaloo screams. She’s crying for her mom and dad, she’s crying for me.

"Seven... eight... try and stay up late..."

“It’s okay, squirt!” I shout, trying to move around to see her. “It’ll be over soon! I promise! I’ll get us outta here!”

A pair of sharp, metal blades come to rest on my cheek and guide my face back around to look straight at Sunset. She’s not smiling, or scowling, she’s just… staring.

“It will be over soon, the other two are hooked not far away,” she says softly. “Now he’s coming for you, and he’ll take you, and then he’ll rip you apart, turn you inside out, drain you dry, and then put you back together piece by rotten piece.”

I start shaking as I hear a thunderclap above us.

“And do you wanna know the best part?” Sunset says, a manic grin growing on her face as she leans in to whisper in my ear. “Once he’s done, he’s going to put you right. Back. Here. With me. Then we get to do it all over again. Over and over and over and over and over again.”

She lifts my head up and I see a dark stain of clouds above me growing and roiling as horrifying claws lower out of the ceiling like a twisted version of one of those prize machines at the county fair. I close my eyes as I feel them pierce into me. It doesn’t matter, I can feel that where I’m going is just more and more darkness.

"Nine... ten... never sleep again.

Sunset

I watch the Old Stain take them, and in that final moment, as they're passing through the dimensional rift between my realm and his realm, here where the walls are so deliciously thin, I reach out.

Their power is so damn bright. They’re still so full of hope. The Entity will like that, but so do I. They’re bright enough that he won’t notice if I siphon just a little for myself. Skim a bit off the top as it were. I need the power if I’m going to make this next part work. I take a deep breath and cut away a little sliver of hope from each of them and drink it in.

Written's Quill but that’s a powerful surge. No wonder the Old Stain’s addicted to the stuff. I only take a nibble, though. I just need enough to take a few sideways steps. Just a couple of trips here and there. I need to stack the deck before the next step in my plan.

Walking around the now partially empty shrine, I stop in front of Tempest and reach out to touch her. For once she doesn’t flinch away. She’s staring at me in suspicion and… hope?

“Is it true, Mi Sol?” Tempest asks, her voice low and fragile. “Are really, actually still you in there?”

My eyes widen a bit. I should keep playing the part. I can’t give anything away until the last moment. If I tip my hand too early then… then… I clench my eyes shut. Fuck it, the Old Stain is gorging himself like the fat ass he is right now, he's not looking at me. I can have a moment. Just… Just one.

Forcing the edge of madness away, I let the darkness fall from my eyes, and I nod.

Tempest’s jaw drops open. “H-how are y-”

I silence her with a finger to her lips and flinch as I accidentally cut her a little. My fingers are too sharp. They're forged from the unearthly immaterial matter of the Fog.

“Ssh… I promised, alright?” I lean in and press my lips to hers. “I promise I’ll save you all.”

Turning on my heel I pull my Journal free and siphon another fragment of Equestrian magic through it. The Crystals grow, solidifying. I won’t be able to keep doing this for long. If I fuck it up then that’s it, the Journal will crumble as the crystallized dark magic overwhelms it and turns it to dust.

Sunset Shimmer only needs one shot, though.

I raise my hands and close my eyes, falling back into my old training.

“Starswhirl’s Dimensional Doorway,” I mutter, sifting through the arcane incantations in my mind, as the air around me ripples.

I stab one of my blades into the open air, and it vanishes. Then I cut down, and reality peels away like a curtain. Time to start doing my rounds. I haven’t got long while he’s distracted. Not long at all. I rip space and time apart and fling myself across the darkness to another trial ground.

It’s easy to find.

Just follow the humming.