20,000 Legumes Under The Sea

“Sunset? Sunset, please, wake up!”

An all too familiar voice combined with the sizzle of burning tears on her cheeks attempted to punch their way through Sunset’s unconsciousness.

She started to stir as flickers of memory rose up inside of her.

“Sunset, I know you’re in there. Please. I need you.”

Sunset’s eyes snapped open, and she sucked in a deep breath. Something dark and purple loomed over her, lit by a strange green light. Sunset twitched, trying to pull herself full awake, but her limbs seemed all discombobulated and felt strange.

“Oh thank goodness…”

Green fire dripped from the vague blur above her, only to sizzle on her cheek like hot wax.

Sunset blinked several times, and allowed her eyes to finally focus. “Twilight?”

“Mmmhmm!” Twilight nodded, smiling.

Twilight was on top of her. Except…

Darker purple skin. Darker purple hair. Glasses and a horn made of green fire. And of course, wings.

Not Twilight. Midnight Sparkle.

“Shit, Fuck!” Sunset said, expressing herself as elegantly as she could in a situation like this. She scrambled backwards, her fingers slipping on wet steel. Her head slammed into a bench, causing red lights to flash across her vision.

“Sunset, wait!” Midnight reached out to her, her expression twisted in anguish. “This isn’t… what you think it is. I’m not going to hurt you.”

When she opened her mouth to reply, rusty water dripped onto her tongue, and Sunset spit it out, sputtering. She blinked several more times, and actually took a look at her surroundings.

Beaten up and rusty lockers lined the walls, lit by a flickering fluorescent light. Another drop of water from the ceiling smacked Sunset in the forehead. “Where am I?” She looked down, and realized that she was wearing a drab gray jumpsuit. “What am I wearing?” Of course, that still belied the real question. “And why should I trust anything you have to say?”

Midnight took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and held a hand over her heart. “This isn’t really how I expected our reunion to go, after so long,” she said, sounding almost whimsical. “But I guess I can’t hide it any longer.” Midnight looked up, meeting Sunset’s gaze. “This has been happening to me for a while now. Whenever I get stressed, or scared, or angry, or really driven, I become Midnight. I’m usually pretty good at controlling it, but well…” She gestured around her, and shrugged. “It’s not like it was the first time. I’m not crazy or hellbent on destroying the world or anything like that. I just feel… better. Stronger. Like the world isn’t such a scary place, and I don’t have to face it alone.”

With a deep, shuddering sigh, she bunched up her dress in her fingers. “I’m sorry I kept this from you.”

“That’s…” Sunset sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I guess that makes as much sense as anything. But you should have told me, Twilight. This can’t be healthy, but I’m sure between me, you, and Princess Twilight, we could fix this.”

“As if I could ask for help from someone who abandoned me!” Midnight snapped.

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

Midnight’s eyes softened, and she raised her hands up placatingly. “Sorry! I, uh, also get a bit snippy when I’m like this.”

“Right.” Sunset pushed herself up from the bench and stood, her legs wobbly. The jumpsuit seemed designed to chafe with every movement. “So my other questions. Where are we? I remember…” She paused, frowning. Her memory was fuzzy, and there wasn’t a good connecting thread between events. “I remember being in the lobby for your stupid bean park, and…”

“Considering what you went through, I’m not surprised there’s some short term memory loss.” Midnight stood up, and flexed her wings. “The elevator down into Beantopia was attacked by a Bean—some kind of undersea monster. The elevator was damaged, but it reached the bottom intact. You were washed down the halls by flood waters, but I managed to grab you, and bring you in here before sealing off the damaged sections.” She looked Sunset up and down, and her cheeks colored slightly. “I uh, changed your clothes for you.”

Sunset tugged at the collar of the jumpsuit. Her skin felt like it was crawling underneath the damn thing. “I take it Rarity didn’t push to have a fashion boutique installed in the park.”

Midnight glanced over her shoulder. “She did, actually, but it’s all the way on the other side of the park.”

“Yeah, that sounds like something she would—” Sunset’s eyes widened as something slowly dawned on her. “Fuck! Rainbow Dash? Where is she? Is she okay? Shit!”

“It’s okay, Sunset.” Midnight closed the gap between them, and put her hands on Sunset’s shoulders. “Rainbow Dash is safe. She got washed way to a different part of the facility than you. While you were still unconscious, I was able to guide her to an escape pod.”

Tension drained from Sunset in an instant, and she collapsed onto the bench. “Thank fuck. I… damnit, Twilight, I thought this park was supposed to be safe. I assume Skystar is okay too? She seems like a nice kid.”

Midnight blinked several times. “Huh? Oh, right! Skystar, yes, she also escaped with Rainbow Dash. They’re um, both very worried about you, but now that you’re awake we can escape ourselves.”

Sunset took in a deep breath and shuddered. “Right. Your investors are going to be so pissed. I don’t suppose you saw my duffel bag anywhere, did you? No, probably not. Fuck. How do we get out of here?”

Midnight smiled faintly, then stood up. She tapped a screen on the wall, which came to life. A jagged crack ran down the LCD, bleeding colors everywhere, but a map was still partially visible underneath. “We’re in the west wing, here. The tunnels here, here, and here are all either flooded or structurally unstable. There should be some usable escape pods here. The best and safest way to get there starts by going through the series of rooms in wing E.”

“Cool.” Sunset rolled her shoulders, and peered at the map. “Let’s get going then. The less time I have to spend in this death trap the better.”

“Well, there’s one thing…”

Sunset stared flatly. “Twilight… what’s wrong with wing E?”

Midnight folded her hands behind her back, and looked away. “It’s not that it’s dangerous or anything. The rooms are just all, well. Escape rooms?”

“Goddamnit, Twilight!”