The Baelfire in which we Burn
When I’m doing all of this, I will think of you. I will think of what brought us here. I will think of how you made me what I am today.
I look at the statue that was once you. I hug you, trying in vain to feel the tiny trace of your existence in the cold lifeless stone. My analysis shows that you are now made of mudstone-- a fragile mixture of clay and minerals. I would never imagine that losing our life force will change our chemical makeup. I should have done the same analysis to those statues in Celestia’s garden, so that I may not be worrying uselessly about how the weather is eroding you.
We will not let him win. We made a promise. But what will it be any good for? We lost. We lost in every aspect. All my current researches are pointing towards one single conclusion: we cannot win. At such times I will miss your heartless snickering and voiceless encouragement. But that is just a delusion. Stone do not talk. And I haven’t delved into schizophrenia deep enough to develop hallucinations.
After all, you are dead. And the dead shall not speak.
They jumped through the portal. At least this time they were still ponies. The ground below their hooves was soft, while the morning dew still hung on the tip of grass. Sunset seemed quite satisfied with that. She threw herself into a roll and spaned her four legs lazily, “About time for a vacation.”
The lavender unicorn shot her a glare, “We are still on a mission. He should be here.”
“Yes, of course, Sparks. You are always so diligent. Do you know that it will bring wrinkles early to your muzzle? Besides, the Princess will not love it. You know, she has a particular obsession with the so-called ‘Innocence’.” Always the humorous, always the easy-going, always the reassuring, always the trustworthy.
Twilight blushed, “Sunset!”
“Righty-righty. No more jokes. But I gotta say, I definitely think she gave you more attention because you are two years younger than me. So how did it happen? Huh?”
“According to the testimony of witnesses, another pair of us,” Twilight mused while managing her words, “ran into Tartarus and got trapped there. Tirek repaired their device so that they could escape there without the restraint of magic there. Tirek has perfect memory and memorized the structure of it and then...”
“Then he came to our world and the Princess asked us to follow him and take care of the trouble another pair of us started.” Sunset rolled her eyes, “Took more than I imagined to drag you out of that library.”
“Hey! The time you spent in the library is at least 78% as much as I do.” Twilight scratched her head, “That didn’t sound as imposing as I imagined.”
“Now, business!” Sunset jumped to her hooves, “According to the readings on the magic tracker, we are in the right dimension. He shouldn’t have arrived here for long. Could you.....”
“Of course.” Twilight immediately extracted portable working center components, “We are currently in the forest southeast to Canterlot, Equestria of this world. There are three red dots on the sensors. Two are in the castle in the northwest, probably princesses in this world. The other one is about three leagues in our south and is moving. It is growing at the moment and I would guess that would be our target.”
“Excellent. And I would guess you have already a plan in your mind. After all what we are dealing with is kind of our natural enemy, magic genius -- a magic consumer.” Sunset nuzzled Twilight on the cheek gently. Twilight got intoxicated by the touch for a moment, then realized her question. She blushed, “What?”
“I said, you have a plan, don’t you?” Sunset knocked on the ground, “After all, you specialize at construction and I specialize at destruction. So I’m wondering if you are thinking the same as I do.”
Twilight blinked, then a smirk emerged, “Of course. By the way, I got inspiration from Rarity.”
A week has passed since I started repairing our transdimensional voyaging talisman. I haven’t drunk a single drop. But I wasn’t weary in the slightest.
Except for that endless hunger.
The first thing I noticed was the grass withering around you. It took three days for them to die out. Then the bushes around my working center. It took one day this time. Once I found myself hugging a tree while half-awake, half-asleep. I was sucking it.... I don’t know what I was sucking. It had been dead.
My horn still doesn’t answer to me. I begin to regret why I didn’t take a bit more time to improve my calligraphy. The writings by my hooves are so ugly that sometimes even I myself couldn’t tell what I wrote.
I still remember the nightmare you once told me about, in which you transformed into a raging demon with batwings who can only destroy. You told me you were grateful that I prevented you from turning like that. I blushed at that time. Not only because of the compliment but because deep down in the bottom of my heart, I suspected I wasn’t as good as you thought.
How right I was.
Now, I would really love to see the demon in your dream, so that I can have a control group to measure how much I have fallen.
Today I commenced 17th testing ignition. Still a failure. We are exiled.
I know that you have always yearned for Celestia’s affection because unlike me, the orphan in you thirsts to be loved so much that you see her as a mother. To be honest, I also miss her kindness. But what I long for more is to return to my blood kins, to bicker with each other with Shining, or to be laughed at for my shyness around you by Cadence.
None of them is a possibility anymore. We are forever trapped in this strange new world. And I have to hide from other ponies. We cannot let him win. He cannot win.
Celestia above, why can’t you just say something?
Seems I’m crazier than I thought.
Tirek turned from his hiding place, an opening in the forest. He had stopped moving and knelt down with his four legs curved, waiting patiently for his followers. He had performed several calculated pyromancy to clear the dense woods which may be used as hidings for them. Upon hearing the sound of horseshoes pounding on the ground, he knew his targets has arrived. Now that his body-size can match a minotaur, but still, it was way less than his climax. It would quite take a toll for him to fight two smart, experienced, and well-coordinated unicorns. And it would be the first time to fight his unintentional rescuers’ weakened image since his jail. He chuckled when he thought of what that Accord agent told him. More than two hundred pairs of Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle are traveling through the multiverse using their tiny device. It was the best joke he heard for centuries. To know that your worst enemy would become your life savior one day, even for a depraved scum like him it would be quite a joy to know. And where are his manners? He knows when to be reciprocal. This act of kindness deserves a fair turnabout from him! He can even see the innumerable similarities between them and himself: the persistent pursuit for knowledge, the strong faith in their ideal, and most importantly, their shared belief.
“Tirek! For multiple accounts of malicious abuse of magic, intentional acts of violence against citizens, destruction of public property, blah blah blah, and things like that, you are under arrest!” Sunset shouted, “Geez, this line sucks. Why are those officials so obsessed with this?”
“Good afternoon. No, that’s not right. It should be good morning here, my little ponies.” He mimicked Celestia’s tone almost perfectly in his sarcasm, “I believe what brought you here must be quite important. I mean, neither of you are an idiot. But this unprepared way of jumping right in front of me-- you don’t take me for some kind of stupid brute who believes in his own power so much that he becomes delusional, do you? Seriously, I’m feeling kind of offended by that. Actually, I’m quite offended,” his voice turned into one of an enraged, “so offended that I want to shout!”
Fire erupted from Tirek’s mouth. Just as he expected, he hit the air. A teal glow shone. Twilight and Sunset disappeared. The ground began to shake, a mud golem rose in front of him, raising its fist, ready to punch.
“Ahh, construct. Wise choice. Magic hidden inside makes it hard for me to absorb. The protection from soil can fend well against high temperatures. But the lack of agility--” before he could finish, a fierce sense of burning touched his hooves. He looked down and found himself in a lake of lava created by Sunset’s flare melting his standing spot. He huffed. Despite the magical protection on him to deal with the high temperature, his standing in lava makes his posture unstable and hard to move. Well played. Use this trick to make up for the difference in strength and agility. But he is Lord Tirek, the rightful heir of Centaur, the most prominent among princes. He shall not be stopped!
Magical flame hit against the iron punch of the golem and erupted in an explosion. Twilight didn’t get stopped by the dust. Instead, she commanded the golem to continue attacking relentlessly until she couldn’t hold it anymore due to the draining. And Sunset held her heat field to turn the Tirek’s surroundings into a burning hell. Finally, the dust set.
“Thermography shows him stop moving.” Sunset turned and found Twilight still panting, not yet recovered, “Hold it, Twi. Let me share a bit of my--”
“No, don’t!” Twilight shouted, “Ahhhhhh--” Sunset’s heart skipped a beat. From the corner of her visual field, she noticed something flying through the dust. Impossible, it didn’t show on the thermography-- she concentrated her magic to blow it up. But the thing exploded before it was hit. She immediately threw herself in front of Twilight and summoned a shield. The fragments flew towards her at high speed and started waves on her shield. A figure followed behind and hit on the shield with his fist. Sunset yelped as her horn almost exploded under the pressure. The shield lasted less than a second before it broke. But she immediately went into the offensive to shoot a magic arrow towards Tirek’s chest. Tirek advanced without hesitation and bowed down, so the arrow avoided his vital organs and only hit his shoulder, leaving a burn. Sunset didn’t let the opening slip away and teleported with Twilight.
“I have to say I’m quite impressed.” Tirek said, “Such a huge golem, covered by normal soil on the outside, made of carved granite inside. It must have taken you an effort to cut them. But the prize you get is splendid structural stability and defense against high temperature from my flame. And that burning inferno! I would have suffocated from the pressure of lava and lack of oxygen had I not get some endurance of that in Tartarus. And I have to applaud your use of Advanced Golem Control, which granted your puppet superior strength and accuracy. But just as I said, you underestimated me. I have lived centuries more than you. Even if you are highly praised geniuses, I have more knowledge. And we would all agree, that KNOWLEDGE IS POWER! " He waved his arms and clapped his hand in front of his chest. With a series of explosions, a magma wall of five ponies height rose on the circle centering his former position with a radius of fifty steps, “The price for Advanced Golem Control is that the damage on the golem will reflect on the controller in ratio. If I can cut out your heating and endure the high temperature, I could also drain some heat from the lava to accelerate its cooling process. And if I know that the joints of the golem are the most fragile parts and with the help of some ice magic, it would break under such rapid change of temperature. And you wouldn’t be so ignorant that you forgot the first law of pyromancy: the absence of heat is cold, would you? Do you think I would fail to notice your little trick underground to prevent me from escaping? Do you think I would be stupid enough to not leave any monitoring magic on your way here? Now thanks to your prison designed for me, for you are now trapped with me. I would gladly take your offer as an appetizer for me today due to your stupidity. "
Sunset stepped out of her hideout, her expression hardening, “Of course we know you would set up an anti-teleportation field. But we didn’t count on this flame prison to hold you for long. Now that you know how to deal with my lava, we cannot let you run wild out there. Yes, we are trapped here. But you have to remember, it is not we are trapped with you--”
“--But you are trapped with us!” Twilight Sparkle jumped out from her hideout, lifted a rock with her magic, and threw it towards Tirek. Tirek sprayed flame, but just like the rock previously flying towards Sunset, the rock exploded before it caught the flame. Fractured rock pieces cut Tirek’s skin, but he held his ground.
“The golem you threw at us, you set up an explosion spell in it, didn’t you? Now it’s our turn.”
Tirek roared. Just as Twilight was about to intercept his next round of attack, her world exploded.
Ringing in the ear, dizzy head, red in the corner of eyes, water dripping in her nose. Tried to move body, failed. Got hit in the head by kids despising her, kicked in the stomach by Blueblood, scratched in the back legs by a manticore, drowned in the nose in a flood.
Buried below five feet of rubbles, torn apart while alive, four legs broken, got her precious horn cut.
Jailed in Tartarus for death.
We all know what would happen next, you damn crybaby.
You chose it all. You chose to let me live, all alone.
How noble.
You thought I was the stronger one of us. You knew I have seen your most fragile moments. So you made the choice. You sacrificed yourself.
You made me hear his lies. He was a shameless, devious, cruel liar. He cannot win. I cannot believe a single word he said.
He cannot win.
But, how dare you? How dare you make the choice for me? How dare you sacrifice yourself without discussing it with me? How dare you leave me alone？
Don’t you know? I love hate you.
Her consciousness resumed. The air smelt like sulfur. A high fire wall blocked her way. She turned around. All the remaining trees in their jail are now gone. There was fire everywhere and fire only. Though she didn’t like the view, maybe Sunset would enjoy it.
Sunset!
Her eyes widened as she searched her surroundings. Finally, she found her classmate, her friend, her intimate, her love. The orange unicorn got only half a breath in her as she got held in the centaur’s grip. A teal spear shot through Tirek’s left shoulder. Blood was pouring out through that hole. On Tirek’s face, there was fury that barely got contained.
Twilight struggled to stand up. Then she heard Sunset’s snickering, always the brave, always the easy-going, always the flaunty, always hiding her fear, “I have to admit I should have realized that rock wasn’t the only one where you did your trick. You set up explosives in almost every tree around you. But now you don’t have much left, do you? Congratulations! You won! Your last victory. Because there’s no magic in us for you to absorb. "
“Pull your last magic into Light Soul Spear, to count on the curse on it to slow me down?” Tirek sneered and grabbed the spear. With a little force, it shattered into dust. He moved his grip to Sunset’s head, then throw her face-first into the ground. Then he pulled her up again, “it seems that I should kindly give you some additional payback. First I have to enlighten you about a fact, my dear Sunset, your previous effort, your desperate attempt to drain your magic is meaningless because my power was never fueled by your magic, but by something more fundamental-- your life force.”
“Next,” he turned around to face Twilight, “Twilight Sparkle, I want you to watch this moment closely. You should be honored to get a front seat when I show you the limit of my power. Observe. Focus. Don’t blink. Don’t get distracted. I want you to remember this moment when I kill your friend. I want you to remember that she just threw all her magic into your protection and that worthless spear, even if she got the chance to give herself protection and run away through the magma wall. This affection, this devotion almost brought me to my tears. I want you to remember this is her own choice. She didn’t die for you. It is not that your existence made her gave herself up. Or at least, I want you to hope that is actually the case.” He opened his mouth. Teal magic began flowing from Sunset’s body into his mouth. Twilight opened her mouth. She wanted to say something, to shout, to use all her spells in her head to curse, burn, torture, and kill that demon sucking Sunset’s life. But she didn’t make any sound. A weak spark burst out of her horn, then it died out. Her vision is blurred, now not only by blood, but by tears she couldn’t hold back.
Sunset lifted her hoof weakly. A sad smile crawled up her face, which reminded her the first time when she went into Sunset’s heart. She was in the tower when her respected, proud, indifferent senior Sunset was standing on the balcony alone, watching the sunset in the distant sky. At that time her face was occupied by the same sad smile.
Hi, I’m Twilight Sparkle. Do you remember me? I’m Princess Celestia’s new student.
Hello, Twilight.
.....I enjoy the view up here, too.
......Pardon me?
From here, you can see the mountains surrounding Canterlot, the crop fields far away, and the snakelike Osiris river. The world not clouded by architecture is so big that you feel so small. Even though you can truly feel that you exist, while... a bit lonely.
......Yes, though lonely, we do exist. Right here. You should talk to me less. They all think I’m a moody bad pony.
.....Do you think yourself as a bad pony?
......Maybe. I don’t know either. I would love to hear your opinion on that when you get to know me better, which isn’t quite possible, because, you know, I’m moody. They all think I’m weird, so I rarely encounter somepony who would stay long enough around me to know me.
Okay, I’m moody, too. We can be weird together. I would love to know you, so you can know me. Then we can be lonely together.
You are really a strange idiot, Twilight Sparkle.
Thank you. And you must be...
Sunset, Sunset Shimmer.
Sunset’s voice pulled her back into reality. She struggled to speak, but the life force is draining from her body. So she made an incoherent cough. Eventually, she caught herself, “Don’t let him win, Twi. I know you can do it. And,” she hesitated, “I don’t allow you to die.”
Then she closed her eyes. Tirek finally drained up the last bit of her life out of her body. She turned into stone.
“That was touching. I thought she would say something like ‘I will always love you’, like in a romance. That would be really disgusting. But seriously, you know she is just cheating herself, right?” Tirek let the lifeless statue fall to the ground and swung his arms for several rounds. His wounds are already healing, “because you know, you are already dead.”
Twilight raised her head to face him. Tirek frowned. She still hasn’t succumbed. In her eyes, he could spot sadness, anger, hatred, fear, and contempt. But no despair. That’s bad. “You can kill my body. But you will not kill my soul.”
Tirek flashed a cruel smile, “Actually, on the contrary, I just find the means to kill your soul right now.” He walked to Twilight and grabbed her by her chest. Twilight screamed as his fingers pierced her skin, but Tirek paid no attention. This time, Twilight can feel her magic leaving her body from Tirek’s finger even without him opening his mouth. But meanwhile, something began to go into her body. She struggled in fear, but to no avail, “What... are... you doing?”
“It’s simple, my dear. I’m being reciprocal. You see, as I take your everything away from you, I’m giving you something quite valuable in me in exchange. This is my essence-- to seize. You will find yourself unable to generate any magic except to take from others. You will be hungry. You will be desperate. You will be ... like me. No, you will actually be worse. And I, I would treasure the look on your face in my memory for a lifetime. By the way, you are welcome.”
When I woke up again I knew I had lost everything. HE destroyed our voyaging device, with only I and the statue that was once you remaining.
Friend dead.
Magic lost.
Way home broken.
It took me much time to learn about this world. It was hard to hide my identity, but it was harder to use HIS magic without raising alarm.
I learned that the ruler of this world, the two big red spots on the sensor were our counterparts.
Princess of the Dawn, Sunset Shimmer. Her life companion, Princess of the Dusk, Twilight Sparkle.
You believed that I was the better of us.
How blind you were.
You said it, we decided it together. He cannot win. Even if we lost, he has to lose with us.
No matter the cost.
I have a plan.
The stars in the heaven is the source of the power of this world’s ME. Unlike in our world, stars here don’t share equal status as the sun.
But I can still steal their power.
I will kill HIM, even if it means killing MYSELF.
Even if to be YOUR enemy.
Even if I have to watch YOU die twice. This time I will kill YOU with my own hooves.
Then I would gladly embrace the death I deserve. Even if after my death my soul will burn in Tartarus with HIM, but to know your soul would roam free out of his grasp among the stars, what a small price it is to pay?
Author's Note
This is something I wrote in a day because I love the idea of Twilight descending into madness upon seeing Sunset dying in front of her. Man, we authors are truly sadistic. This was originally written in Chinese, my native language, and you can find a link to the original version in the description. But I really want to share it with more people and since it's quite a short story, I did the translation myself. I would appreciate any editing advice.
