“Hey, sorry I’m late!” Sunset said in greeting, grinning a goofy grin as she walked up the hill, ignoring the odd looks shot her way from the other couples she passed by. She sat down on the picnic blanket with a tired grunt. “You wouldn’t believe the trouble I went through to get here.” She stared at amused amethyst eyes. “Who knew Timberwolves here could be hard to trick, let alone, be immune to fire?” the redhead asked with an incredulous roll of her eyes. She distributed the plates, and then took out the cake she got just for the two of them.
“That’s odd,” Twilight said with a giggle before she added with a teasing, “but are you sure you used fire? I remember a certain someone who thought she got the grill going but we ended up eating cold barbeques and a lot of raw meat instead.”
Sunset scoffed with a playful roll of her eyes before she defended, “That’s different, I meant for that to happen. Raw food is healthier and helpful for better digestion!”
Deadpanned, Twilight replied, “for fruits and vegetables perhaps.” At Sunset’s pout, it was the bespectacled girl’s turn to roll her eyes. “Could you not be in denial for once?”
“Unless I’m right, nope,” Sunset quipped, getting another exasperated sigh from her girlfriend. “Sides, that’s totally different. I’m sure I’d know when I’m using my magic.” She emphasized this with a quick snap of her fingers, immediately lighting the candle wick between them. Far above, tiny dark clouds were slowly gathering.
“I could never get over how we can freely use magic, and that more and more of it started coming through this world,” Twilight said, her plate of cake untouched as she rested her head on her knees that were drawn up. “That had always frustrated me since I still didn’t know why or how it happened.”
“You’ll figure it out,” Sunset replied, taking a bite of her cake and moaning at the taste.
Twilight simply smiled at her, while the dark clouds neared. Sunset spotted the expression, making her raise a brow. “What?” asked the redhead with a light chuckle.
A sigh was the response before Twilight shook her head with a sad smile. “It’s just…nice to see you this laidback now. Ever since more magic came up and the incident, you’d been nothing but stressed and frazzled…even up to my standards.”
Rolling her eyes, Sunset playfully elbowed the other, missed, before going back to eat her cake. “No one could out-Twilight you, you know?”
Another giggle, amethyst orbs seemed to shine before she replied with a mocking “Of course, whatever you say, Your Highness.”
Sunset pouted. “Oh, come on, are you really going to bring that up?” Storm clouds were now above them, gathering more of its kind with a light rumble.
Twilight’s brows furrowed. “It’s who you are now. You’re a princess, an alicorn.” She pushed back her frames when Sunset let out an indifferent shrug. “You have to accept what happened.”
“And what if I don’t want to? I handle the occasional rogue magic on the loose, but it doesn’t mean I’m ready to accept the title.” Sunset waved a hand with a scoff. “Immortality and wings were what I used to want, but not anymore. I’m happy with being the ‘Scarlet Vigilante’ or whatever they called me these days.”
Lightning struck from above, briefly illuminating the hill where couples started packing up.
Twilight’s frown was evident, much to Sunset’s chagrin. She briefly zeroed in on the six stones behind the bespectacled girl’s shoulder before her girlfriend’s voice brought her back to focus.
“Are you really happy?”
Cyan orbs narrowed. “What are you getting at?”
The sky was dark. The other couples laying by the hill packed up lest they get rained on, but Sunset didn’t mind. When the drizzle started up, Sunset merely closed her eyes and allowed the feel of light pitter patter drops trickle down her face, calming her briefly.
“Just humor me,” Twilight finally said, making the redhead turn to the frowning face, “are you really happy?”
Lightning struck and thunder responded with a rumbling clap.
With her hand now closed into a fist, Sunset looked down and finally said…
“No.”
Through whatever calm façade she tried to use as a shield, somehow anger still won out and broke the walls she meticulously built.
With the admission said aloud, Sunset stood up while she glared at the other. Rain poured heavily by the time tears started falling down her face. “No, I am not happy. I never wanted this world to suffer because of my mistakes.”
Fists shaking beside her, cyan eyes sharply glanced at Twilight. “And I never wanted you, to suffer!”
She was shouting now, chest heaving as finally all those bottled up feelings started pouring out. Another flash and Sunset got a good look of the scars marring purple skin.
“Every day, every single, fucking, day I am reminded of how much I screwed up by stealing your counterpart’s crown and having your world turned into a magical cesspool and creating new problems for this dimension’s inhabitants!” Sunset stomped her foot, the grass turning to ash, but she didn’t care.
“I’m tired of feeling endlessly guilty over this and I’m angry at myself for feeling tired when I shouldn’t be because I’m still the one to blame!” Sunset gripped her hair, red and gold knots tangled while amber hands clutched at them in frustration. “I’m tired, angry, and confused!” She stretched out a hand, voice increasing when not a human was within miles could be seen. “I’ve done everything I could! I had Princess Twilight close the portal, I’ve tracked down all the known artifacts here in this world, I even tried destroying the creatures left behind but it still. wasn’t. enough.”
Anger boiled, head pounding, Sunset’s hand struck, and a jet of fire shot out. The trees and grass on top of the hill went up in flames but Sunset didn’t care as she turned back to the bespectacled girl who continued to stare at her with sad eyes but to the redhead’s point of view, they looked lifeless.
“The magic is still growing and I’m all alone!”
The last word seemed to echo throughout the empty space, the rain poured down relentlessly, making the inferno behind the distraught girl fizzle as it made contact.
Sunset, now drained, fell to her knees as she gripped the charred grass in a futile feat to maintain some sort of stability. Tears dropped and touched the ground while she bowed her head before the purple girl, who did not say anything throughout her tirade.
“I-I’m all alone,” Sunset whispered. A flash of lightning before cyan eyes widened a moment later. She stared at nothing. “I-I’m alone, all of you are gone.” Her body wracking with tremors, Sunset curled into a feeble ball as she wrapped her hands to her head, tears flowing freely as she sobbed. “You all have been for a long time…Pinkie Pie, Applej-jack,” she trembled, “Rarity, F-fluttershy,” she sniffed, “R-Rainbow Dash…”
Shakily, she glanced up. Her vision blurry, Sunset forced herself to blink and stare at the sad amethyst orbs gazing at her with guilt.
“…Y-You’re not real, a-are you?”
The image of Twilight Sparkle offered one last tearful smile before it fizzled like a hologram and disappeared into mist. The previously glowing geode around Sunset’s neck stopped sparkling, absorbing the last of the fog-like shape that came from the projection.
It was quiet on top of the hill, with the faint crackling of charred wood and dying embers providing hollow company. Silence, heart-crushing and deafening silence, was only shattered by a gut-wrenching wail.
Down below, at a secluded spot, Princess Twilight glanced down while the painful sound rattled her core before she found the courage to gaze at six well-kept tombstones, surrounded by a patch of flowers. While the rain poured, the alicorn trudged forward and came face to face with the only purple one among them. She bowed her head, low and steady, while empathic tears streaked her saddened face.
“She still denies how things roughly ended between you two, being tortured everyday by the guilt because of what happened.” Another flash before thunder shook the earth. “By everything that happened.”
The tombstone said nothing.
“I just hope, wherever you ended up, you could find it in you to forgive her,” her grip on the umbrella handle tightened, “and please…forgive her.”
“She loves you, even until your last breath, she loves you so much that when you died,” another stronger, louder wail pierced the air, “it killed her.”
Again, the tombstone said nothing, but Twilight managed a watery smile as she wiped her tears. “However the argument began, whoever started the fight, it doesn’t matter anymore. I know you didn’t mean to break things off with her or leave it that messy at the end.”
“Some part of me hoped, that before the incident, you both would have patched things up, letting the fight be a distant memory.” The darkened sky slowly got brighter but neither of the present beings noticed.
“Anger knows how to hurt the ones we love the most. Destructive, all-consuming rage, like a massive inferno it will eat everything up,” Twilight straightened, a frown still on her face yet her eyes sparkled with few unshed tears, “…but it will die too, in the end, and forgiveness can start rebuilding…” Princess Twilight glanced at the broken figure on top of the desecrated hill, heart fueled by hope and optimism once she finally took stock of the clearing sky, “…alongside time.”
Author's Note
I always like the headcanon that Sunset might outlive her friends or turn into an Alicorn in the end. Still, friendship carries on right?
Anyways, hope you like it! Yiee this is really nervousciting! But whatever happens, I'm still happy that I finally got the chance to submit one! It's just a bit bittersweet since the show's ending and all and to think I just got ~~kung fu~~ mlp and equestria girls...
