Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead

The surface of the mirror shone with a bright light and an amber unicorn fell out of it.

She landed on the crystal floor with a loud “umpf” sound. Sunset closed her eyes and shook her head, raising a foreleg to rub at her bruised forehead. “Uugh... What happened?” She muttered. Suddenly her hoof touched something that she hadn’t felt in years, Sunset’s eyes opened wide and she looked up, catching the glimpse of a pointy amber colored protrusion. “My horn?” She said and looked down and looked herself over. Seeing that she was back in her original pony form, Sunset close her eyes and shook her head, thinking that she was seeing things, but when she opened them once again nothing changed. She was a unicorn once again. “How did I get here?”

Sunset turned around and looked at the magic mirror. It was just as she remembered it. Same thick enchanted frame, same perfect reflective surface that once showed her as an alicorn and kickstarted her plot to ascend. But this time she didn’t see an alicorn, just her own reflection, but for a moment she thought she saw six multicolored lights fading away in the background.

She turned away from the mirror and tried to remember what happened to her but all her memories were shrouded in a thick fog.“Why can’t I remember anything?” She said, closing her eyes and massaged her temples. “Ugh... I... I wanted to go back... but why?” Sunset tried hard to concentrate, but no matter how hard she tried, nothing came of it.

When Sunset opened her eyes, she noticed that her right front hoof had some back substance, that looked like tar, on it. That tar had faint acrid smell to it.

“Yuck.” Sunset scrunched her nose. “Damn, I probably got it on my coat too.” Sunset looked back at the mirror and saw a black splotch on her fur. She tried rubbing her temple with the back of her hoof, but that only smeared the tar on her cheek and her leg. “Ew...”

Not wanting to get smeared with tar even more, she just put her hoof down and wiped it on the floor. When the hoof was sufficiently clean Sunset looked around.

The whole room looked like it was made of polished crystals. The floor, walls, ceiling, even doors and pillars glittered with blue and purple sparks as the light from the lanterns, also made of crystal, fell on them. “Wow...” Sunset made several steps towards the wall and saw her own blurry reflection. “What is this place? I don’t remember such room being in the Palace. Where am I?”

Sunset needed answers, and so far this room has only gave her more questions. Collecting her thoughts, she went to the door and pulled the handles. The doors opened with a quiet creak and Sunset saw a long corridor made of the same crystals, it stretched into the distance until it eventually turned right. Looking around and not seeing any other way, Sunset walked forward.

There were many windows in the wall on the left side, but they were made of stained glass, or probably crystals, and were clearly needed only for illumination, because it was almost impossible to see outside through them. There were doors on the right side at regular intervals, she tried to open some of them, but all were locked.

Sunset wandered the corridors for a couple of minutes, sometimes trying to open locked doors and choosing random directions when one corridor intersected with another, and was already beginning to think that she might be alone in this strange place when she heard the clip-clop of hooves coming from around the corner.

Not knowing what to expect Sunset crept quietly to the nearest corner, and as she peered cautiously from behind it, her heart skipped a beat and her jaw dropped.

Princess Celestia was walking in front of one of the stained glass windows and admiring the multicolored patterns that sparked in the moonlight. The princess did not change a bit, she was still as beautiful and majestic as on the day of their first meeting and her serene smile still was able to calm down Sunset’s racing heart.

Without even realizing what she was doing, Sunset stumbled from hiding place and rushed to the Princess as fast as she could. She wanted to say something, but a lump seemed to roll up her throat, her thoughts began to get confused and scrambled in her head and her vision was beginning to blur because of tears in her eyes. So she just silently ran towards the Princess.

Celestia heard the clatter of hooves on the crystal floor and turned around, her eyes widening as she finally saw the pony running towards her. "My little Sun..." She muttered, and stepped forward, spreading her forelegs for a hug.

When the Princess was only a couple of steps away, Sunset jumped forward, straight into her warm embrace. She wrapped her hooves around Celestia, buried her face in her soft silky coat and cried. She cried and tried to utter at least something: how sorry she was, to beg for forgiveness, for help, for whatever, but she could only sob.

Sunset didn't know how long they sat like that, and she didn't care. But Celestia's embrace grew stronger and stronger, and soon it became difficult for her to breathe, then an unpleasant feeling of pressure appeared in her back.

“Princess?” Sunset muttered, trying to turn her head to the side. The grip tightened even more and the unpleasant feeling turned into pain. “Princess! You are hurting me!” Sunset cried out. With some struggle she was able to turn her head to the side and take a breath, but then she saw black tar dripping onto her from above. Sunset managed to pull away from Celestia a little and look up.

Celestia was looking down at her. The princess's wide-open eyes were absolutely black, her face was distorted by an animalistic grin and black tar oozed between her teeth like saliva.

Sunset screamed in horror! She planted all four legs on Celestia's body and pushed her away from herself with all her might.

With a cry of pain, the Princess fell to the floor and tried to crawl away. “S-Sunset? What’s gotten into you!?” She cried looking at a big bleeding wound on her chest.

Shocked and confused Sunset looked at the terrified Celestia. She opened her mouth to ask what had happened, but as she did so she felt how something fell out and landed on the floor with a wet slap. Looking down, Sunset saw a big bloody piece of flesh covered in once white fur. Sunset stared down at the flesh and backed away from it. “No, no, no...” She shook her head, not wanting to accept what she had done, but the tasted blood in her mouth left no doubt.

She tore out a chunk of Celestia's flesh with her teeth.

When Sunset realized what she had done, her legs trembled and she dropped to her knees. She looked at Celestia, who was still laying on the floor and looking at her with a mixture of fear and confusion on her face. Sunset wanted to beg for forgiveness, but before she could utter a single word her stomach turned inside out and she vomited. Stream after stream of black viscous tar burst from her mouth. Her insides burned but Sunset couldn't stop. After what felt like eternity, she vomited all that tar out of herself and fell to the floor exhausted.

She raised her head and saw how the tar, that came out of her, gathered into one big blob, sprouted tendrils and pounced onto screaming Celestia, entwining her and pulling her deeper and deeper into itself.

“N-no! C-Celestia!” Sunset screamed and slowly got up on her unsteady hooves. She stumbled forward, wanting to help her mentor, but the blob of black ooze slashed her face with one of its tendrils. With a yelp Sunset fell backwards, holding a hoof to her face. She pulled it away, and saw that it was covered in the mixture of blood and that black goo.

That was when Sunset heard a growing rumble. She looked around and saw a huge wave of black tar rolling through the corridor and towards her.

Slipping, Sunset jumped to her hooves and rushed towards Celestia. She was almost completely sucked into the blob, it already covered most of her face, making it impossible for the Princess to breathe. Sunset did everything she could to save Celestia. She tried to rip the tar off with her hooves, pull it off with her teeth, burn it with magic, but nothing helped.

And when she turned and saw the wave looming over them, she realized that there was nothing she could do.

With a cry of pain, sadness and fear Sunset literally dove into the blob of black goo and, embracing already limp Celestia, nuzzled her one last time and muttered, "Forgive me."

The wave rolled over, consuming them both.