Thick mist surrounded her, blocking Sunset’s view of what was ahead of her. The last time she was here, Sunset was terrified and alone. She didn’t know what to do and where to go, or where she was for that matter. But not anymore. She now stood proudly with Nurse Redheart by her side and a robot dinosaur in her hooves, walking forward with the courage and determination to make it through.

“So this is the place, huh?” Redheart mused, tapping what she assumed was the floor beneath her

“No doubt about it,” replied Sunset “I’ve been here a few times myself, you know. Do you really doubt me that much?”

“Well, it’s not like I know you that well myself,” Redheart sighed as she scanned the surrounding area. Nothing but mist “We only knew each other for a few hours before that explosion knocked us out cold. And then you disappeared along with Quickfix and Shade. Now you claim that I was possessed by a ghost of my alternate self, and the two you were with have disappeared without a trace. You can guess why I have a hard time believing you.”

“Is this really the time to start suspecting me?”

Redheart rubbed her forehead, her face scrunched up in exasperation “No, I guess not,” she relented “Well, since you have a better understanding of this place, I hope you know where we’re headed.”

“Ehehe…”

“We’re lost, aren’t we?”

Sunset turned to look at the robot in her hooves, not willing to look Redheart in the eyes. Honestly, she was glad to finally be with the Element of Benevolence, but she was quite difficult to work with. Compared to how lax her group of friends were, and the chaotic duo of Quickfix and Shade she was travelling with prior, Redheart was much more mature and independent. If anything, Sunset thought she should have lead them instead of her.

“That robot,” Redheart pointed to the dinosaur in Sunset’s hooves “It’s Quickfix’s, right?”

Sunset nodded her head, her mind wandering back to the Unicorn. Where did she run off to? “Is this thing important to her?”

“Honestly saying, I don’t know. She has a lot of machines and seldom favours one over another. I swear, she loves these things more than any actual living being. If she ever did love another creature, it’d probably be something outrageous. Like a shark.”

Sunset laughed awkwardly, wondering if she should accept that as fact or a joke. Honestly, it’s hard to decide with this Redheart. At least with her world’s Redheart, she could tell when she was joking or serious!

“We’ve got company,”

It took a while, but Sunset finally noticed them. Dark blue and black balls of darkness flew overhead, dropping blots of liquid darkness that slowly took form. Slimy, wet legs moved one step at a time. Tentacle-like arms swayed furiously. Sharp-pincer like mouths snapped at them, making the duo take a few steps back.

“Are you good in a fight?” Sunset whispered to Redheart

“Unfortunately, not quite. I’m a medic and a chemist, my upper body strength isn’t really my strong point.”

“Gotcha.”

The creatures moved closer and closer, absorbing more darkness from the clouds above them. Sunset, though, was prepared for them. Her horn glowed golden with pure magical energy as she got ready to strike. The monsters took one, two, three steps before Sunset let loose her attack, taking down two of the dark creatures in a single strike.

With the first shot made, the monsters screeched and charged forward, too fast for the two mares to keep track of. The first one knocked into Redheart, covering her in thick black goo. As she spluttered out the few specks that went into her mouth, she felt something. Pain. Oh, so much pain. The slime sizzled and sparked, burning Redheart as she struggled to get the tar-like creature off.

A magic beam struck Redheart, bathing her in its golden glow. When she opened her eyes, the goo had disappeared, flung far away where no one could see it. The only proof of its existence was the burn marks covering Redheart’s body.

“Three down…” Sunset huffed, trying to aim for another “A hundred more to go!”

Just as she said that, one of the dark creatures slammed into her flank, knocking her forwards and falling face first onto the non-existent floor. She got up and tried to fire a beam of magic at it, but to no avail. It was moving around too much, already knowing what Sunset was capable of. It slithered across her body, scorching whatever it could touch.

“Get off her!” Redheart wailed, charging towards the Unicorn hastily.

Her path was blocked by four more dark slime creatures, all of whom zoomed forward and struck her square in the face. Five more appeared out of nowhere and followed suit, slamming into the nurse and covering her with more and more venomous slime. Her screams died down by the time fifteen of them had covered her.

Sunset wasn’t having a better time, either. Just as the creatures had ganged up on Redheart, they had done the same for her. She was now faced with twenty of them, all of whom were already poised to attack. She tried desperately to shoot them down, but with every one she killed, three more took its place. Her flank burning like acid, her magic quickly being drained, and her focus shifting between attacking, defending, and fleeing, Sunset thought that this would have been her last stand.

And she didn’t even get to meet the others, too.

Five of them shot forward, covering her in acidic slime that burnt to the touch. Her first manner of action was of course, to scream. Scream so loudly her lungs were about to burst. Three, eight, twelve more shot forwards, covering her in more and more burning sludge. Drowning was what she felt like. Drowning in lava.

GROWRGH!

Sunset’s eyes burst open as she located the tiny robot dinosaur she had dropped when they were attacked. However, it was no longer just a tiny raptor. Oh no, not at all.

The robot started growing, adding more metal and machinery into its parts. Pieces fit together like jigsaw pieces, creating a beautiful pattern of red, white and yellow. Its jaws snapped open and shut, as if testing out the gears in its mouth. Green eyes blinked open as it finally saw the creatures attacking the ponies, and anger filled it to its very core. What was once a small raptor was now a large tyrannosaurus, about the size of Princess Celestia’s castle.

RAAARGH!

It took one step forward, crushing ten dark creatures underneath its massive foot. Letting out a massive roar, it stomped over to where Sunset and Redheart had fallen and chomped down, biting and killing off several of the enemies. Several of the creatures charged and covered the metallic beast in its slime, but the tyrannosaurus merely shrugged them off, emitting a weak magical energy field that deflected them off.

With another mighty growl, the robot bent down and chomped on the mound of slime that surrounded Redheart. When it raised its head, only Redheart remained. Burnt and in pain, but otherwise still okay. The mare panted and wheezed, holding back her screams at the back of her throat. Oh, how she wished that she had her medkit with her right now. She could have put up a better fight if she knew where it was.

“What in the…?!” Redheart exclaimed as she saw the large mech that stood before her. She knew Quickfix had a knack for building weapons of mass destruction, but surely even she didn’t know how to make a small machine grow in size with no extra parts!

The dinosaur chomped down on Sunset’s slime pile, revealing the pony trapped underneath it. Unlike Redheart, Sunset wasted no time in screaming for her life. She rolled around on the ground, trying to get the burning feeling off of her skin. Redheart was quick to run up towards her, holding her and trying her best to calm her down.

“Sunset Shimmer, calm down!” she screamed, wishing that she had her medkit even more now

“But it burns!” Sunset wept, holding her sides in pain “It hurts!”

Amidst Sunset’s panicked screaming, Redheart gazed back upwards towards the towering beast that is protecting them. Imagine her surprise when it turned to face them, staring at her with its glowing green eyes. Before she even had time to react, the dinosaur opened its jaws and leaned forwards. Redheart’s heart seized as the tyrannosaurus’ teeth surrounded them, and then slammed shut, swallowing the duo into itself.

Redheart expected them to be crushed and broken by the multiple gears and mechanical parts that made up the beast. What she didn’t expect was a large black chamber with a yellow floor. A long stand, white with pink highlights, stood in the centre of the room. And on top of the stand…

“Hello, me.”

Standing on top of the stand was none other than Redheart herself, which confused the mare lying on the floor. She touched her face and her mane, wondering if someone else had taken control of her body. Realising that she was still in control, she sighed and turned to face Sunset.

She didn’t notice it at first, but now that the shock of seeing her double had calmed down, Redheart noticed that they were covered in some form of jelly-like water. The burns she had previously experienced were healing rapidly, even her coat was starting to grow back. Sunset stirred, slowly getting up and blinking at the scene before her.

“… Redheart?” The Unicorn rubbed her eyes before realising that she was covered in jelly. She shook it off of her hooves and got onto her hooves “What’s going on here?”

“Well, this would be my Heartyranno mech!” the spirit said gleefully as she made a few gestures with her body “Your friend wouldn’t mind it if I borrowed her robot, would she?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Nurse Redheart muttered “In fact, she’d be delighted to find out you turned it into a weapon of mass destruction.”

“Say, Redheart?” Sunset asked, earning the attention of both of them “Okay, this is gonna be confusing. Hey, would it offend you if I called you Heartyranno? Or just Tyranno, if that’s too long.”

“I’m fine with Tyra, if you want.”

“Great!” Sunset clapped her hooves and turned around, seeing a large screen showing the scene outside.

Whatever action Tyra did, the mech responded and followed suit, taking out some more monsters with a mighty strike. It wowed her to see the fighting, but Sunset knew that this wasn’t what they needed to do. She needed to find out where everyone else is so they could defeat Morpheus.

“Excuse me, Tyra, was it?” Redheart asked, earning a questioning ‘yes?’ from her “But how did you manage to turn that small robot into… well, this?”

“Oh, that? Well, did Sunset ever tell you about my abilities?” Tyra asked as she made a chomping motion with her hooves.

Sunset sheepishly apologised, followed by Redheart telling her that it’s fine. It wasn’t like they had that much time to have a nice long chat, after all. They were at war.

“Well, I have the power to create things from my imagination. On the outside world, Sunset warned me not to use it too much. I was using your body, after all. But here, in this dream world, my powers just seem so… powerful!”

“Your powers are amplified in this realm, interesting…” Redheart muttered to no one in particular “How can we use it to our advantage?”

“Redheart, it’s the power of imagination. We could do anything with it,” Sunset reminded the Element bearer “You know, I think I have an idea. Okay, here’s the plan…”

Back outside, the forces of darkness were starting to falter. The Heartyranno mech had destroyed hundreds of them, and the dark clouds overhead were starting to run out of slime. Seeing as they were about to fail, the slime creatures all started to merge and become one giant monster, standing just slightly above Heartyranno. Just as it was about to attack the robot, a beam of light shot out of its mouth, striking the monster and pushing it back.

“IYAAH!!”

Sunset Shimmer appeared from the beam of light, but she was no longer a pony. She had taken on her human form, kicking the monster and making it toppling over onto its back. In her hands was a black ballpoint pen. She dramatically held it up, one hand on its hilt and the other on its cap.

“Please don’t lie to me, Discord!”

She pulled the cap off, fully expecting to see a pen inside. Instead, a shining golden blade emerged from the tip, growing in length the further Sunset pulled the cap out. She gazed wistfully at the weapon, surprised to see that Discord was not lying when he said that it was a magic pen-sword. But then again, it could have been Tyra’s ability, she didn’t know.

Her amazement at the weapon had to be cut short when the monstrous black slime got back up, letting out an ear-splitting screech that rocked the ground she stood on. Heartyranno stumbled, dropping onto its knees from the vibrations. It would take a while for it to get back up, especially with those tiny little arms. Sunset knew exactly what to do.

“YAAA!!” she screamed, jumping high into the sky assisted by Tyra’s imagination ability.

She struck the monster square on the forehead, plunging the blade deep into its form. With a mighty yell, she pulled the blade downwards, cutting the beast in half. She let gravity finish the rest, pulling her and the blade lower, cutting off its torso, and then its waist. With a final shout of “SEIYA!”, she pulled out the sword, watching the monster split in half and falling apart.

“Whew,” she wiped her brow and turned around, giving the giant tyrannosaurus mech a thumbs up.

Another beam of light fired from the dinosaur’s mouth, revealing Nurse Redheart. The robot managed to stand back up after several tries, and stared intently at the two. Sunset and Redheart both waited for Tyra to also emerge from it, but she never did. Only the robot stared back at them.

“Redhe- I mean, Tyra!” Sunset called out “Come on out!”

The robots shook its head.

“I don’t think she wants to, or she probably can’t,” Redheart hypothesised “She didn’t give me a reason when I was inside, though.”

Sunset felt crestfallen, but quickly perked up.

“Well, as long as she’s with us, it shouldn’t matter.” Sunset waved her hands happily “Now then, we’ll just have to go underground.”

“Underground?”

“Yup! I remembered that I had to break through the ground last time I was here,” Sunset snapped her fingers “But since I’m in this form…”

She took one look at her sword and nodded her head. It was strong enough to cut through a giant monster, which was probably made by Morpheus himself. Surely it had some sort of magical properties. Honestly, just where did Discord find this weapon?

“Hyaa!”

With a thrust of her arms, Sunset stabbed the ground beneath her, forming a visible mirror-like crack. Gritting her teeth, Sunset stabbed the sword even deeper into the ground, breaking it apart slowly.

Redheart watched Sunset try to pierce through the glass-like surface. Even if she does not know her that well, she had to agree that this Sunset was just as determined as her own. With a small smile, she placed her own hooves on the hilt of the sword and assisted the girl in pushing the sword deeper and deeper. Shouting as loud as their lungs would let them, the two girls managed to push the blade deep enough, making the ground shatter beneath them. The two girls and one robot fell through, falling along with hundreds of glass shards that broke simultaneously.

Sunset didn’t know what to expect when she broke through the glass, but she was sure she didn’t expect this. As the two fell from the sky, the Unicorn-turned-human could see thousands of creatures fighting against the dark forces of Morpheus.

Several brown-skinned men put on colourful belts, transforming into bug-eyed warriors with a shout of ‘Henshin!’. A pink puff ball sucked in a few dark creatures, swallowing and absorbing their powers. Blue armour-clad robots came charging through, shooting down waves upon waves of enemies. She could even spot a blue dinosaur covered in green slime that exploded everything it touched.

Just how many worlds did Morpheus put to sleep already?

“Your Sunset probably did this,” Sunset turned to face Redheart, who had remained calm despite the perilous drop

“Well, I don’t doubt it. She does have a knack for leading others into battle.”

The trio landed squarely onto the battlefield, no doubt thanks to Tyra’s imagination ability. Brandishing her sword, Sunset prepared a battle stance. Tyra had also created a weapon for Redheart, a laser gun that could shoot out syringes at enemies. It isn’t something she would have chosen, but it was better than nothing.

“Let’s go!” Sunset shouted, joining the multiple factions as they battled with the infinite dark slime creatures.

The Heartyranno roared, charging after a group of Morpheus’ minions with a look of pure malice in its eyes. Redheart, on the other hand, fell back, firing at whatever enemy she could see. In a battle this large, there must be a place where the injured go for medical attention. She would be more useful there than on the field of battle.

Deep within the recesses of the world, Morpheus stirred. He did not expect a single pony to cause so much mayhem, especially in the world he had created himself. In fact, he was facing said pony herself, and she wasn’t going to let up any time soon.

“Your days are numbered, Morpheus,” Sunset scoffed, firing several more fireballs at the false God “And that number is zero!”

Author's Notes:

So we've finally come at the climactic battle. Well, I assume it's climactic, anyway. I'm not really good at writing fight scenes. But hey, what can you do?