Sunset over Zaun

There was once a time where things were simpler.

Growing up was a cycle of things any child would go through at her age. She went to school, made friends, learned new things, studied for tests. The list went on and on. As her skills improved, ponies started to take notice. So much so that she landed upon the privilege to be taught by the best teacher that anypony could ask for. The princess and ruler of a whole kingdom, who was capable of the greatest of magical feats.

But the more that she tried to learn from her teacher, the more that she tried to impress them, and in order to gain such achievements, she required more power to do so.

Her teacher disagreed. Insisting that it wasn’t power that made things work the way that they did, but harmony. She would say that power alone could drive anypony to do great and terrible things if rushed. That if you dedicate time to foster the magic you know, then it will grow to new heights.

And yet, the power that she did have was not enough to satisfy her ambitions. She needed it now and could not wait any longer.

So, when she learned that there was an artifact that could allow to cross the threshold and reach places where new possibilities awaited, she turned her back on everything. Her teacher, her family… and the world that she knew. All in the pursuit of new power and possibilities.

And that was where things went wrong.

The moment she leaped through, she felt herself change in ways that she couldn’t even believe. Pain beyond measure as her body was morphed. Her muscles twist in ways that could be seen as impossible. Bones felt like they were on the edge of breaking and splitting apart. Every moment was agonizing as strands of light flew faster than stars.

All she could remember before passing out was the sound of glass breaking and her body hitting the ground.

The moment she began to feel herself wake up, everything was a blur. The floor under her was cold to the touch as she tried to open her eyes. A glare from above her head made it difficult to see. Instinctually, she raised a foreleg to try and block it so she could see-

Wait… this wasn’t a foreleg. And this wasn’t her front hoof.

Immediately she bolted away, staring at her newfound arms. She knew that certain species had these, like minotaurs, centaurs and the like. But this didn’t make sense. None of this made any sense! Why did she have them? Why did she have these weird claws at the end? Are they even claws? There aren't even any talons at the end-!

It was as she thought these things that a new question entered her mind. What else had possibly changed?

Her gaze shifted down, looking to see the clothes that were now on her body. Simple ones of an odd design… but a familiar patch on the sleeve. The mark of the sun. Her Cutie Mark, embroidered on the jacket. As she looked to the floor, the sight of hooves came as a bit of a relief. Even more so when she placed the newfound appendage at the end of her arm to her forehead and still felt her horn there. At least some things didn’t change.

Immediately, her attention shifted at a sound that echoed from the other side of this room. The shifting and grinding of metal pieces as a latch turned. It started to click into place what this was as the equivalent of a door on the other end swung open. Footsteps echoed throughout the room as the door closed and something approached.

“Well, look who’s awake.”

The figure’s voice was deep, but their appearance was unlike anything she had ever seen. The best she could describe it was some sort of Manehattan street wear, with a heavy coat over it. A mask of porcelain white in what almost looked like an owl stared at her.

Whoever they were… she couldn’t tell if they were here to harm her or not, as instinct kicked in. “W-Where am I-?”

The figure was quiet at first, before it folded its arms, “In a better place than where we found you, that’s for certain.”

That wasn’t an ideal answer. If anything, it just left her with more questions. “Who-?”

At this, the figure let out a deep sigh. Their mask covered their face, but their tone sounded rather irritated. “I’m someone who has questions that only you can answer. How you answer my questions determines how much I am willing to answer yours. So, think carefully before you answer and don’t try anything. Are we clear?”

Caught off guard, she felt anger rush through her veins. Just who exactly did they think they were? Did they even know who she was? Or what she was capable of? She wanted to lash out, but a piece of her held back that instinct.

Despite how rude they were being, they were probably the only… well, not a pony, but still, they were someone that could give them genuine answers. So all she did was nod her head and stayed on the floor.

“Okay, now that we have an understanding, let’s start with something basic,” the figure said, before mirroring a question that she had for them only a few moments prior, “Who are you?”

“I-I’m…” She paused, wondering if there were options. Surely, after the stunt she pulled, there would be others trying to find her. But, if what she was seeing and hearing meant anything… then maybe there was the chance that nothing followed her here. “Sunset.”

“Excuse me?”

“That’s my name,” she repeated, “Sunset Shimmer.”

A long pause filled the room, as if time came to a standstill. There weren't any retorts or follow up questions just yet, but the fact that a name could bring the room did not make the unicorn turned… whatever she was now, comfortable.

“Really? Shimmer?” the figure retorted. “Was that by choice or did your parents have a cruel sense of humor?”

“What the buck are you talking about?” Sunset was quick to snap back, “What’s wrong with Shimmer?”

Again, another long pause. But the figure on the other end seemed less annoyed by what she had to say and more baffled instead. “You don’t know about Shimmer? At all?”

“Other than it being my last name, no! What are you even talking about!?”

Once again, the mask on their face portrayed no emotions. But their tone was enough to say otherwise, “If you are certain that you haven’t heard of Shimmer, then either you are lying or you’re not from around here. So, if you’re not from the Undercity, then where are you from? One of the districts up in Topside?”

“What’s a Topside?” Sunset shook her head, “I’m from Canterlot.”

The figure, almost instinctively, shook their head, “Never heard of it. If anything, it sounds like a place in a children’s book.”

The nerve of this guy! She was being honest and their only responses were to question her name and to dismiss where she grew up as imaginary?! Who do they think they are!?

“So, Sunset, if you claim to be from somewhere else entirely than either Piltover or the Undercity, then what the hell were you doing, lying unconscious in the middle of a junk heap where we found you? People don’t exactly come down here as tourists and most people who just lie in the streets are either dead, asking to be robbed or just waiting to be snatched up by a Chembaron.”

That was a question that threw Sunset off guard. So many terms and names that would be familiar to them did not make sense here. Piltover? Undercity? Chem… baron? What were they even talking about? All she came here for was to find… What was it again?

Ah, that’s right. Power. She came looking for power. Something that she thought could have her capabilities rise to new heights. Sunset didn’t know the form it would take or what it could do, but as long as she had it, then she could go home and prove her teacher wrong. That she didn’t have to simply wait for it to come to her, but that she could take hold of it and make it hers-

“I’m… looking for something.”

“Hate to break it to you, but everyone’s looking for something down here. Some more than others,” the figure interrupted, “You’re going to need to be a little more specific.”

“I was going to, before you interrupted me,” Sunset snapped back, “But since we’re on this subject, I now need to ask you something in order for what I have to say to make sense.”

The figure paused in its movements, before crouching down to be at the same level as her. “Enlighten me then.”

“Do you know about magic?”

The figure let out a small sigh, “Obviously. Much of the ‘grand inventions’ on Topside are rumored to be powered by it. Other people in the Undercity claim to know magic, but I doubt that simple card tricks and predictions really count.”

Okay, that was at least something that she could work with. “What if I told you that I could use magic?”

A bit of a chuckle could be heard now, before the figure moved its arms and its ‘claws’ out the pockets in the jacket. From the edge of one pocket, the sight of a silver chain dangling freely. “I would need to see proof before I even think that what you are saying is remotely true or not. Because people these days say a lot of crap like that, but don’t have the means to back up their claims.”

All the more reason to prove otherwise.

Like almost every other time she practiced with magic, Sunset focused herself. While conjuring magic was as natural as breathing air to her, there was the matter of being in a body she was unfamiliar with. Still, if the same principles applied, then it should work. A levitation spell would be simple enough to do the trick, but what object could she-?

Then, her gaze shifted to the dangling silver chain that peaked out of this figure’s pocket… and an idea started to form.

With a deep breath, she focused. For a moment, Sunset thought that she needed to have the magic flow through the unfamiliar limbs she now possessed. But of all the things that had changed, the horn on her forehead was the same as always. As the familiar feeling of mana coursed through her horn, she reached out and tugged on the chain.

Before the figure could even turn to see what it was, the contents of what was inside now dangled in between them. An ornate pocket watch that has shown some age.

“What the-?” Almost instinctively, the figure tried to reach it. Only to stop when he realized that it wasn’t being held by anything except for a cyan colored glow. “How are you doing that?”

“I told you. Magic.” Sunset smirked, before gently floating it down back into the jacket pocket where it originally was. “Is that enough proof for you?”

With a deep groan, the figure sighed. “Okay, you proved your point there,”they admitted as Sunset stopped her spell, “But that still doesn’t answer what exactly you’re looking for here. The Undercity doesn’t exactly have much to offer, not with Silco in charge anyway.”

When she heard that, Sunset couldn’t help but notice that the tone of this figure had shifted. It was already tense earlier, but now it seemed full of hatred. “I know you'd rather hear me say answers to your questions, but I have to ask this. Who’s this ‘Silco’?”

At first, Sunset thought that her question was going to get ignored like with many of the other questions that she tried to ask earlier. Instead, the figure did something different. They stood up, back on… whatever they called their hooves and looked down at her.

“Walk with me. There’s something I think would be best for you to see.”

Reluctantly, Sunset tried to get up and follow the figure. The first couple of times she tried to walk on her rear legs, it almost led to her buckling over and falling on the floor. It wasn’t that it was impossible, but that the feeling of walking on two legs instead of four took a lot to get used to. But, if she had to do this to at least get some answers, then dear Celestia she had to try.

It took several attempts in order to get it right, but eventually, she left the room and followed the figure down a series of tight metal corridors. The creeks underhoof did little to set her at ease as they went higher.

After a few moments, that was when they arrived at what looked like a makeshift balcony attached to a large pipe. A faint glow was seen at first… but as she moved closer, the glow grew in size and intensity. And once she reached the balcony itself, the sight in front of her left her horrified.

In the distance from where they were was a city. One that was under the cracks of something larger. The buildings were makeshift of various materials and glowing lights could be seen everywhere along with the dense air.

But it wasn’t the spectacle that drew her attention. It was the horrors in the streets. Fights that broke out in the streets with the losers always ending up bloodied and bruised while others shivered in rags under the dim glow of street lamps. Some looked sick, with discolored skin as they tried to get hold of some violet colored liquid. And the moment they consumed it, the figure changed and violently smashed the proprietor’s head into the pavement like it was a grape.

This was nothing like the home she left behind. In fact, this was far worse.

Horrified, Sunset only had one question as she turned her gaze away from what she just witnessed back to the figure that brought her up here, “W-where am I?”

At this point, the figure moved their arm to the side of their head. A small click was heard as the mask loosened, before they slowly removed it from their face. In front of her stood a person much like the ones she saw below. Yet, this one had darkened skin, white frizzled hair and the markings of what looked like an hourglass as they looked at her. His voice now no longer muffled as she soon realized that they… were probably just as old as she was.

“This is the Undercity. At least, what it is now. This place used to be a home to be proud of, but one man hellbent on power changed all that and made things worse. And his name is Silco.”

He then pointed down, towards the one who now had blood on their hands as parts of their body glowed the same color as the substance they consumed. “Remember when you asked about what Shimmer was? Well, that is what that man injected himself with. Makes you feel as if you’re on top of the world. Power flows through you when you’re on it and at your lowest point when you can’t get enough. Under Silco’s watch, incidents like what you just saw have become normal. People would resort to killing each other and betraying their friends just to get that feeling again.”

It was as he spoke that a revelation was starting to set in for Sunset. If this was what she abandoned everything she knew to try and seize for herself, then it made her sick. It was power, yes… but it came at a cost and the toll it took on those who paid it was a fate that she did not want to face.

She wanted to leave. Just go back through the way she came and forget everything. This was just a nightmare. If only she could know where that mirror was and just leap back through.

“Where did you find me, exactly?” she asked, looking around again to see anything. Anything at all that can give her the slightest of hope that there was a way out.

“One of my friends found you in the Junk Heap outside the Bridgewaltz,” he pointed, not that far from the main hub of activity that everyone seemed to be moving in and out of, “You looked to be in rough shape, laying in a pile of shards from a broken mirror. Luckily for you, you got off unscathed somehow.”

And like that, whatever hope that Sunset had sank, tears forming in her eyes as she dropped to her knees. Her way out was gone. Her way back to the life she once had and to the ponies who cared deeply for her, shattered. Sunset had made her choice to leave in pursuit of power… and now, she was coming face to face with the consequences of that choice.

Reality was now setting in. An all too familiar feeling that the one she was talking to seemed to recognize. “You okay?”

“N-no,” she muttered, wiping the tears off her face as a new feeling started to boil. Anger, “No, I’m not. What I thought I could find here… sickens me now. The way that I came here is gone. I’ve been cut off from my family and the place I call home! I’m stuck here… all because I made a stupid decision and thought I knew better than anypony else!”

For a moment, everything went silent. Nothing but the sound of birds flying, steam released from vents and the murmurs of the crowd. The boy watched as Sunset’s emotions were released, hands in pockets as he looked at the pocket-watch. Watching the hands on the clock move with each passing second as she let out her frustrations.

Then, after several moments passed, he sighed and sat down next to her. Something that caught her off guard. Even more so when he started to speak. “I know how you’re feeling.”

The remark threw her for a loop. She only just met this kid a short while ago, and now at her lowest, he’s acting like he knows how painful this is?! How-?

“It’s the feeling of wanting to go back. The feeling of ‘if you had the chance to turn back the clock and change your fate, you would do something different to avoid where you are now’,” he said, hand on the pocket watch, “Isn’t it?”

It… was that feeling. The feeling of wanting to travel back in time to make sure that the events that brought her didn’t happen. The ‘What If’ of things being different and where she could be if she just listened to her teacher and didn’t act on impulse. But how would somepony she only just met know about something like this?

“When I was a kid growing up here, there was someone that we looked to for anything. His name was Vander and he was kind of a father figure to kids like us. Someone we look to for guidance and who helped keep the peace between our home and Topside,” he said, pointing to a crack in the earth above their heads as a faint glow can be seen from the night sky, “On the night that Silco took control, he was the first one to die. For nights, I just thought that if there was a way that Vander was still with us and none of this would’ve happened, that’s what I would’ve wanted.”

His eyes shifted from what was above them to back to his hands as he held onto the chain of the pocket watch. “Then, one night, I remembered something he told me. It didn’t matter how much time I had in the world. What matters the most is how I use it. Vander spent much of his time helping people here and now rather than being stuck in the past or fantasizing about the future. The people that need help are here in the present, so the best way to use my time is for us to help whoever I can no matter who they might be.”

Sunset had a feeling of where this talk might be going, “Why would you want to help me? You haven’t even told me your name-”

The boy, almost realizing this, let out a sigh before giving a simple response. “Ekko.”

Sunset blinked, caught off guard and confused by the response, “Huh?”

“You asked earlier, so I’m telling you now,” He said, “My name’s Ekko.”

At least that answered one question. But still, there was another one that floated over her head. But before she could reiterate the question, Ekko was quick to continue, “As for why I want to help… I don’t really know you or understand your situation too well, but from the way I see it, you have two options on what to do now. Either try your luck out in the lanes with how bad things already are. Or you can help us try to change things for the better.”

Now, puzzled, she had a follow up question, “Wait… us?”

“Well, yeah.” It looked like he was going to continue, but part of the way through, a different idea came to mind as Ekko got back up on his feet, “You know what? It might be better if I just showed you instead. Follow me.”

As they made their way back down through the winding tunnels and corridors, Sunset couldn’t help but feel that there was something different about where they were headed now. When she first woke up and followed Ekko out to the overlook above this ‘Undercity’, she thought that where they were was like an underground maze. Winding tunnels with secret doors and passages around every corner. A place to hide or end up easily getting lost in if you’re not careful.

In a way, it almost reminded her of Canterlot Castle with how big it was. Though, Sunset didn’t quite remember the castle or her old teacher being as gloomy and dimly lit as where she was now.

“Alright, we’re almost here. Just need to get the door open,” the boy in front of her said, grasping hold of the handles of a metal door in front of them, “Though, fair warning, it’s going to get rather bright in here. You might want to shield your eyes for a moment.”

Sunset didn’t have the chance to follow through on Ekko’s suggestion, for the moment he cracked open the door, light immediately filled the room and hit her in the face. Instinctively, she raised her arm to shield herself as the door laid open and she heard the sound of his footsteps go through to the other side. Thoughts started to bounce around in her head as what could be inside that would warrant so much sunlight down here.

As soon as her eyes adjusted, she found herself staring at that exact answer. “Woah…”

What stood in front of her was a massive full grown tree in the center of what looked almost like a community. Various homes and structures were built not just around the tree, but also on it as a couple of people raced around the tree on boards that glided on air. Children were playing with one another, while other figures acknowledged and greeted Ekko as the two of them walked.

The more she looked at it, the more that she began to realize that this wasn’t just a tree. It was a home of sorts, “Did you… do all of this?”

“Most of it,” Ekko replied as the two of them ascended a stairwell on the side of the tree to a balcony that overlooked the space below, “To be honest, we were just as surprised when we realized that this tree survived despite being all the way down here. But then it sort of clicked. Because it’s one thing to give people a place to call home, but it’s another thing entirely to give them hope of a better tomorrow.”

Sunset looked down at the passersby, some of whom waved to her and Ekko as they carried on with what they were doing, “So, these… people,” she paused, trying to get familiar with the new phrase she just heard him say, “Did you rescue all of them, like you did with me?”

“You could say that,” he replied, leaning back on the railing as he put his foot against a support post, “Many of those who we brought in are either orphans that lost their parents, whether that be because of enforcers from Topside or some other reason, or patients recovering from Shimmer addiction. We try to tend and take care of them the best we can.”

That was something that she was caught off guard by, but that was followed by a new question that surfaced in her mind, “And who is the ‘Us’ that you were referring to earlier?”

“You probably have seen a bunch of us already who have masks like these or ride around on dropboards?” Ekko mentioned, holding up his own that was clipped onto his waist while the two dropboarders that flew by earlier landed at the base of the tree. “Well, we are called-”

Right before he could say the name, a loud noise echoed from the base of the tree that caught the attention of both of them and everyone within earshot that was down on the ground level.

“FIRELIGHTS!!”

A cacophony of cheers and cries echoed from all around as small green lights began to fly around. It was beautiful to watch them glow and dance in the air, so much so that it took a while for Sunset to notice what these lights were until one of them landed on the railing that Ekko was leaning on.

“Heh, it seems like Scar beat me to it.” He chuckled, watching the Firelight that flew over to them look around for a moment and take off in another direction, before returning his gaze back to Sunset. “But yes, that’s what we call ourselves.”

As she watched, Ekko pushed himself away from the railing and started to walk towards the trunk of the tree as he reached for what looked like the handle of a door, “Now, I do believe I answered all your questions-”

“Actually,” Sunset spoke up, turning to look back at him. “There’s one more thing I want to ask.”

The boy paused, turning away from the tree and the handle to look towards her, “Really? Then ask away.”

“How does someone join the Firelights?”

With that, the boy savior and leader of the Firelights stretched couldn’t help but smirk. Things have been difficult these last few years. But, perhaps with the help of a newcomer and a few gifts of their own, this is what they needed to turn the tide in their favor.

“I’d say at this point, you already are one.”