Read “The Bridge: A Shimmer in the Dark” here! www.fimfiction.net/story/33407…
 
“Impressive, but useless.”
 
Rodan was prepared for round two, spreading his wings and charging up another blast.  
“Princess, who is this?”
 
He muttered, expecting Sunset to give him some snide remark of ignorance before telling him just who they were up against as it obviously wasn’t a friendly with that coloring and Sunset’s initial reaction. But all her got was stunned silence as Mircalla and Sunset locked eyes. Sunset Shimmer saw her opponent and realized this wasn’t Nightmare Moon. Though she had no name to ascribe to the vampiress, she knew who she was.  
The setting shifted in her mindspace. Away from the Everfree, away from the present day. It took back to cloudy memories of two decades past to a dark night in the streets of Canterlot’s lower quarter. All she could recall where a few still images and the sensation of movement, of being carried. There were voices exchanged, ones that echoed through her mind now that the familiar sight of Mircalla’s red eyes jogged the repressed and traumatic back to memory. A feminine one, pleading for itself and another, and Mircalla answering back. The ghost of a mare’s death screaming returned to haunt her mind over and over again.
 
Princess Sunset Shimmer hit her dreaded eureka moment and was frozen stiff, trembling lightly all over as fearful tears wet her eyes. Mircalla looked upon this and frowned, starting to slowly approach forward.  
Rodan shot his eyes between the approaching mare and the one to his right, speaking with increasing desperation and urgency.
 
“Sunset! SUNSET SHIMMER! Snap out of it!
 
He barked, grabbing Sunset Shimmer by her shoulders and shaking her to try and jostle her to awareness. With no luck and Nightmare Mircalla being only two meters away, he had to react fast. Revving up a quick energy charge, he fired multiple volleys of fireballs at Mircalla’s hooves and surrounding brush. While the attack did no damage, it did ignite the ground substantially and veiled the kaiju and unicorn in a smokescreen. He then grabbed Sunset Shimmer and flew away as fast as he could.
 
Nightmare Mircalla stood idly by as the strange gryphon yanked the unicorn away and out of sight, making no attempt to pursue as the name of the latter as spoken by the former playing through her head. She hadn’t heard it spoken aloud in almost twenty years.  
“Sunset Shimmer…”
 
Several kilometers of flight and a full hour passed before Princess Sunset Shimmer finally snapped out of her shock. Rodan had landed with the setting sun behind them, only stopping once he was sure the isolated glade was free of any dangers. Sunset Shimmer was stressfully weeping in his grasp, but beginning to thrash about. She struggled out of the gryphon’s grasp, stumbling forward while breathing heavily. Sizzling water fell from her eyes while she held her head low. Choked crying became audible to the kaiju, causing Rodan to reflexively take a step towards the unicorn and extend a paw towards her shoulder.
 
“… Princess? You recognized her, who is she?”
 
He whispered, causing Sunset’s crying to take a brief pause. With a snap of motion she threw her head skywards. An explosion of fire and light, so hot it incinerated the nearby grass through convection alone, shot skyward from Sunset Shimmer’s horn. The beam of heat and flames, several meters thick and so long it raked across the glamor dome high above, roared and crackled with untold power. Rodan closed his jaw and watched on as Sunset screamed with fury and agony into the burning blast, it only growing stronger as the seconds ticked by.
 
Kilometers away, the Nightmare Army looked to the blinding light coming from the opposite direction as the setting sun. Back with her forces, Mircalla looked to the enormous pillar of fire with a stoic expression. She ignored her forces’ confused and erratic muttering and sighed. She could practically feel the heat coming from it across her face, watching the distant, roaring fires and knowing full well what it meant. Revenge.
 
Sunset Shimmer carried on her wail and firestorm for a full ten seconds before cutting it off. She cut the spell off and dropped her head, coarse breath stinging her lungs and chest. The unicorn’s horn glowed with a searing heat, smoking at the tip. Steeling himself, Rodan reached up and put a paw on Sunset’s shoulder; causing the shaking unicorn to wince momentarily and fall still.  
Slowly, Princess Sunset Shimmer turned her face towards him; still wet with steaming tears with her expression a contorted mishmash of fury and grief.
 
“… She killed my mother…”
 
 
Story created by tarbano and Evowizard25  
Sunset Shimmer is owned by Hasbro  
Countess/Nightmare Mircalla is owned by tarbano and Evowizard25