“Please.”
The humming, midnight voice was harsh.
Something hurt.
Across the summer’s sun.
Singing whispers echoed.
“Wake up.
The rough voice resonated with pleasantness.
“I need you.”
The female voice felt familiar.
“I cannot lose you!”
Where was she?
Sunset snapped her eyes open. Her vision bequeathed an unrecognizable scape. Dark sheets, dotted with silvery pinpricks, stretched like satin across the expanse above. Gradually, it melted into a blazing white fire on the horizon. It grew lighter and lighter to where she stood. The colors of blood crimson and hazardous orange flames intermingled more and more. And where she was, an inferno consumed her bare form.
Stood she in the blaze.
She shivered.
“Remember!”
Cold exploded across her body. Despite the looks of the blazing void, iciness struck her heart. Nothing made sense. She could remember her name. Sunset Shimmer. Falling to her knees. Pain slithered into her veins. Blank after blank drew beyond trying to think beyond her identity. A misty enigma wrapped her mind. Sharp, invisible icicles, pricked every square inch of her skin. Sunset closed her eyes. Welcome blackness. Fire popped. Yet icy agony persisted.
“I’m here for you.”
Purple.
Opaque.
Energy.
Blast.
Beneath solar’s shadow.
These words protruded from the fog she fought to resist. Each one increased the pressure tenfold–her pleas thousandfold. Unfolding her eyelids again, the scene shifted. The flames tipped with a black-violet now. Everything brightened. To blind her. Searing light launched into her pupils as the fire itself arose to smite her. This time, Sunset found herself suddenly unable to close her eyes.
“Forgive me, I’m sorry!”
She sounded desperate.
Who was doing this to her?
“This is the only way to save you!”
Memory dredged itself deep. Far, far below what Sunset could grasp. Attempting retrieval surged the pain. This chilly hell beheld her. Magic. That was all she knew. Her name. And that this magic toiled beyond her comprehension. Trying to fight it worsened it. Indescribable torture rippled. How rang out. Why pulsated. What flashed over and over. Who stoked her thoughts, through and through and through and through.
Pinned in the haze.
“Push deeper than your mind!”
What did that mean?
All Sunset could feel was this blistering, freezing paradox. Everything… fuzzy. Nothing made sense. Who spoke to her? How could she trust it? What did any of this mean? Questions, questions, questions. Only mysteries and endless nightmares. Strangled breaths snatched hold. Did she do something for this torment? The elements themselves bore their might upon her. Mangled tears developed. Stripped of who she was. Dying, dying, dying.
She stood.
Gazing up, eyes burning. The night sky dwindled. Sunset saw as the fire crept into the inky ceiling. Flames swallowed it. For each patch it consumed, the intensity increased. Perhaps this was her essence being destroyed. Who was to say? This female voice didn’t help. Offering nothing but vain hope. The icy pricking jabbed further. Slicing through her body with their non-existence. Closing in on her chest. Inner cold, and surrounding hot.
And she waited.
Blackened sounds rang. The white in the fire consumed itself. Conspiracies. Sunset’s vision faded on the edges. Threats. Her hands raked through her boiling hair. Trying to lessen the suffering. Panic coursed. To no avail. Furthering information about her circumstances delivered electricity to course through her. Sunset gasped. Black-violet replaced the fire’s original hues, edging closer and closer.
“Fight against me!”
Teal eyes bewitched.
Those beautiful lyrics rebound in Sunset's head again. Heat and shock ripped her. Each time the melody strung, the fire lessened a smidgen. The crackling noise worsened. They felt a soothing opposite of the cryptic female. The darkness above drove, bit by bit, into extinction. But they were mere milliseconds to these minutes of constant wounding. They were crushed by the exponentially oppressing temperatures.
Perhaps it’d be best to let it all go.
For a sign belated.
Sinister, yet hopeful.
Maybe-
The icicles stabbed Sunset’s beating organs. Screams erupted. Nerves wrecking, thrashing across her entire threshold of being. Further screaming. She forgot about the lyrics entirely. This new rush of greater bludgeoning consumed her. Looking again, the dark, poisonous flames were nearly at her. Barely any white. Her fiery prison of red and orange under threat of annihilation. Corruption. That single word bellowed past the mind’s meld.
Thoughts, and thoughts, and thoughts.
She couldn’t figure anything out.
Thoughts, and thoughts, and thoughts.
Why was any of this?
Collapsing inward tempted.
It’d be so easy-
“No, your heart!”
Sunset heard her speak, bolder than before.
Did they truly care?
Licking, black-violet fire encircled now. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale–arduous to keep up. Little remained of the inky night above. The thundering reams of ice impaling her heart struck the whole way through. Few silvery stars twinkled through the burning haze of the bright dark fires approaching. Sunset tried to focus on anything except this abusive nightmare or her begging. The voice circled back.
Was she worth it to them?
It might be her only way out. Perhaps, perhaps, she wasn’t a monster though she was here. Sunset’s aching staggered out doses of hit after hit. As if to stop her. Scorching reverbs singed her skin. The elusive why pounded. Gaps in sky and ground diminished faster and faster. To be here. Black-violet broiled nearer, nearer, nearer, nearer, nearer. She could deserve it. To not remember anything but her name might be a sign.
Yet someone spoke out.
Sunset abandoned efforts to think.
Instead, she resisted elsewhere.
Blood, with a sparkling feeling, poured into her chest.
Instantly, a hail of razor hail shot from the abyss’s ceiling. Slice and slice. Piercing her skin. She ignored it. The icicles in her slightly wobbled. Stab, and dice, and mince, and cut. Sunset focused all her might on her heart. Ten thousand smoldering suns swirled around her to distract her. The rays beaming into her eyes strengthened. Black-violet fire enveloped the sky completely. It flickered at her knees.
The entirety of this plane attacked her. Bitterness, and bile, and viciousness, and vile. Sunset had to do it. Not cave. Not give. Not take. Not accept. She, and she alone. Survive–nay, live. Crushing blows of burning precipitation. Her knees shook, body trembled. The deepest recesses in her mind urged her to pay attention to the danger outside. Sunset, however, maintained attention inward.
“I believe.”
And it shattered.
Into oblivion, that which entrapped her heart, cracked. The ice compressed to keep form. A new feeling fed into Sunset’s heart. Warmth. Unlike the fire. Positive, and welcoming. Black-violet engulfed everything. No more sky, and no more white. Telling Sunset it’d be moments before her destruction. The cold withered alongside. Bullets of ice rattled strike and strike and strike and strike. It’s furor relentlessly, with admirable ambition, to beat her down.
Wearily, Sunset found herself laughing, derangedly. Pure exhaustion released. She didn’t care anymore. She’d broken free of this magical storm’s grasp at least a little bit. Her newfound, feeble warmth against the gargantuan apocalypse. Her name, her name, her name was all she had for comfort in these moments. The black-violet fire lunged at her. Sunset found a small peace despite the pain.
As well as that voice.
“Come back…”
The following ticks in time crawled.
The evil flames consumed her entire being. Her flesh burnt in an instant. Utter darkness filled all she could see. Minor ripples of purple flowed. Strands of zapping power whiplashed. Numerous times. Sunset sensed the whole of her being disintegrating. Nothing. To be one with everything. Sunset felt it all and nothing at the same time. The infinite burning oscillating betwixt the quaint warmth in her chest.
“You’re almost there.”
And so she fell. Down, down, down to the depths. To where this may finish. Caterwauls of the icy blades weaned in presence. Sunset twitched in the smoking void. It told her to cave. Venomous noises hissed in the shadows. Telling her to let them help. To allow them. That to be ashes was the easier option than vain hopes. Sunset blocked them. Nothing would crack her. Not when someone was relying on her.
After forever, a small relief was delivered. Gradually, the soaring heat dimmed. Further, Sunset went as weightless as a feather. Further. Faintly, her absent fingers brushed upon a soft substance. New coldness entered this dark medium. Electricity writhed her veins. Sunset’s heart anchored her amongst these thrashing chains. The smallest of smiles formed on her face. Then, as if she was never there, it disappeared in a heartbeat. Crunching sounds met her ears.
Loudness howled.
Sniffling tears. Jovial ones.
Absolute cold replaced the previous torment of heat.
Opening her eyes, she saw the source of the voice. Her slender, gryphon-esque wings of dark-indigo splendor wrapped Sunset’s broken body. White-gray clouds rumbled high above them both. Her beautiful magenta-mixed hair whipped in the blizzard’s onslaught of pure power. Glowing cyan ringed her savior’s fraught eyes. Sunset could hardly feel her body. No matter. Sunset weakly manhandled a warm, purple hand. They carefully clasped back.
“Sunset… I-I.. love you.. and… ”
The memories rushed all in at once. Sunset recalled
Midnight Sparkle hyperventilated, tears pouring. “Please, I didn’t mean-”
Sunset shot herself up, damn her weakened state, or complaints of both her broken legs. She wrapped her arms around Midnight’s torso, clinging on with all her strength. Sunset smelt guilt and fear emanate within Midnight’s quaking body. It was just them two. Atop this mountainside. Before Midnight could ramble onward, Sunset pulled her into a kiss. Two pairs of cold, trembling lips embraced against the rampaging storm.
Sunset felt stars explode in her chest.
“It’s okay. It’ll be okay.” Sunset hoarsely interrupted.
Midnight appeared to be at a loss to understand. “But I-”
Sunset cut in with another, shorter kiss.
“You saved me, despite your mistake. That’s what matters.”
Midnight nodded, whilst hoisting Sunset off the ground.
“Now, let’s go before the storm worsens, okay?”
Another nod.
Midnight, with strained effort, managed to fold Sunset into her arms. Sunset grasped her back as best she could, useless legs dangling on her lover’s chest. Magical, pink energy fizzled in arcs. Midnight dipped her legs to the ground, then propelled in the air. Three flaps later, and the two soared into the blurry whiteness of air. Sunset soaked in Midnight body heat to fight the wintery armageddon.
Panicked eyes switched to Sunset. Sunset smiled brightly.
“It’ll be alright.”
“Thank you…” Icy tears poured.
Sunset nodded.
Midnight flipped her attention back to flying.
It’d take time, but Sunset knew their love would prevail.
