Nightmare moved aside as a geyser of infernal red flames shot out of the fissure in the barrier, cracking it wider by the second.

She quickly put her hands around it and used her magic to seal it shut, preventing her sister’s escape.

But before she could even consider victory, two more cracks appeared around her.

And then two more.

Four more.

Eight.

Ten.

Dozens of them started to open as Dawn’s screaming continued, the unbearable pain paired with a wrath that until now had only been for Celestia.

Nightmare flew frantically around the mindscape, fixing them as fast as she could, but the rifts seemed endless.

But she couldn’t give up. She needed to keep Dawn trapped, and even if her escape was inevitable, she could exhaust her and make the following fight easier.

And there was also another problem.

All the fire shooting out of the cracks wasn’t dissipating, it was slowly but surely filling the virtually infinite space of Sunset’s mind with saturated wrathful magic.

And she didn’t want to imagine what will happen once its released.

Sunshine jumped around the[Where am I?]excitedly while her parents watched her with a smile.

“Can you tell her to calm down?” A young black-maned donkey complained from his seat next to them.

The stallion of the family just chuckled. “Sorry, she’s just excited to see the princess.”

The donkey snorted. “What’s so special about her?”
There was a sudden flash of[I can teleport?], and the little orange foal was suddenly in front of him.

“What’s not special about her?!” the little bundle of joy exclaimed. “She raises the sun, [Celestia is not that special], and gives us summers, and loves cakes, and-”

“Okay okay I get it,” the donkey interrupted her, covering his ears. “I hope you have fun.”
He then stood up and walked away to[Is this a train?].

“Thank you!” Sunshine shouted as he left, oblivious of the donkey’s poor mood, and resumed her excitement-fueled antics.

[Who are you?]looked at his wife a little worried.

Their daughter’s lack of selfawareness had already given her problems with other foals, She had a tendency to ignore them and to be unintentionally rude when she went intoher little world inside her imagination and forgetting about the real one.

But[Are you my mother?]assured him that she would be fine, and that once [Am I alone?] she would surely change for the better.

The journey continued, being unbearably long since[Where did we come from?]was very far away from Canterlot, but little Sunshine didn’t mind at all.

In fact, it seemed to just fuel her anticipation of seeing Celestia raise the sun in person.

Eventually, the[I guess this must be a train]arrived at the destination, and the family finally stepped out to the platform.

[My father?]immediately caught his daughter before she could sprint away at full speed and put her on his back.

“You know the rules Sunshy,” he reminded her with a smile.

“Sorry,” the foal said, trying not to pout too much, but her bad mood evaporated as they approached the small festival that preluded the big event.

Sunshine’s eyes were about to escape her head as she looked at all the attractions and stands around her, wanting nothing more than to run around and try a bit of everything!. And then a bit more for good measure.

[Why did you bring me here?]could feel her daughter practically vibrating with excitement on his back, so he separated from[Where are you taking me to?]to go see the different attractions.

Sunshine played on[How could I forget this?], ate some cupcakes and muffins, and even a doughnut she managed to steal from an unsuspecting pony,[How much did I lose?], rode the Ferris Wheel with her mother and a small rollercoaster with her father.

After about an hour of fun, the royal guard sounded the horns, announcing the start of the main event.

Sunshine’s family raced to get a good spot, but still got caught in the crowd, so her father let her stand on top of his head so she could see.

And she saw everything.

Princess Celestia, the great monarch of the sun, walked in front of a large golden sculpture that formed a circle behind her.

She addressed the public, giving a small speech that Sunshine didn’t quite. She was too infatuated with the sight of the princess.

Once she finished her speech, Celestia took to the air, floating directly in front of the center of the golden circle behind her, and stretched her forelegs to the sky as she lit her horn.

The sun started to move over the horizon, reaching the halfmoon in a couple of seconds, showering the crowd in its golden light, and bathing Celestia in a beautiful orange glow, like Sunshine’s own coat.

The little filly stood on her hindlegs on top of her father’s head, copying Celestia’s posture, and lit her horn with all her might.

“What are you doing Sunshy?” her mother asked with a smile, finding her daughters attempt extremely cute.

“I want to help move the sun,” the filly explained, scrunching up her snout as she doubled her efforts.

Her father smiled, trying to look at her even though she was on top of him.
“You’re still a bit too little to do that Sunshy. But maybe when you’re older you will be able to do it by yourself.”

[I did!]hit her husband with her hoof, trying to shut him up before giving impossible ideas to the impressionable filly.
The last thing they needed was for their daughter to obsess about something she couldn’t achieve.

However, unbeknownst to almost everycreature around her, Sunshine was feeling something.

Her young mind couldn’t even come close to describing it, but she could definitely feel something coming from the celestial behemoth.

She could sense it like some sort of weird psychic language that she couldn’t fully understand.

But she managed to understand one word…

“Blessed.”

She tried to understand more, but the only other creature that noticed her connection flew over to her and landed on her head, making her lose balance and fall on her father’s back.

Sunshine shook her head and looked at the culprit landing in front of her.

Her eyes widened like plates and filled with stars as she took in the sight of a tall, beautiful, red and orange phoenix looking down at her.

The mystical bird chirped, and got a little bit closer to her, like if she was saying ‘hello’.

“So… PRETTY!!!” Sunshine exclaimed before trapping the poor bird in a bone-breaking hug.

The phoenix pecked the filly in the head before she could turn her into ash, and Sunshine let go, rubbing her head and giving the bird an apologetic look.

“Sorry.”

At that moment, Sunshine’s mother tried to shoo the bird away from her daughter, but the phoenix just looked at her for a second before turning back to the filly.

Sunshine extended a hoof to it, and the bird lowered its head, letting her pet its feathers and take in how soft and warm they were.

[Why did you never mention our first meeting you featherbrain!]looked back at the little bonding happening on his back and stopped his wife’s efforts of scaring the bird off, understanding that it didn’t mean any harm.

Sunshine continued petting the mystical creature, until the phoenix decided to reciprocate and snuggled its head against Sunset’s neck, making the filly giggle as its feathers tickled her.

The crowd didn’t miss the unexpected event happening in the middle of the celebration.

The adults looked at them with a smile, wishing they had a camera to immortalize the adorable moment, while the fillies among them looked on with awe, and jealousy.

But their admiration was short, as they suddenly realized that princess Celestia was walking up to the little family, and quickly bowed in respect.

When[Why are you so nervous?]noticed the princess approaching, his first instinct made him move her wife behind him and take a protective stance between his family and the monarch, unsure if his daughter would be in trouble.

But Celestia’s welcoming smile made his worries disappear, and he moved so she could watch the two on his back.

“Who’s your little friend Philomena?”

The phoenix looked back at the alicorn and flew over to her, landing on her shoulder and whispering something on her ear.

Celestia looked at the filly and found her leaning as close as she could to her, eyes with almost the same wonder that they had with the phoenix.

“What is your name little one?” the monarch asked, and Sunshine took a second to realize she was being talked to.

“I’m Sunshine. You’re the most pretty and amazing princess ever!” she exclaimed with a huge smile.

Celestia was about to respond, but the filly interrupted her. “Can I touch your mane?”

Sunshine’s parents looked at each other with worry that their daughter was offending the monarch, but Celestia just laughed, easing their nerves.

“Sorry little filly, but that would be inappropriate.”

“You can touch mine,” Sunshine offered, pulling her hair closer to the monarch.

Celestia raised an eyebrow in amusement. “You’re an interesting one.”

“Her name’s Sunshine.”[Thank's mom]whispered loudly so her daughter and the princess could’ve a more proper introduction.

“Sunshine? I guess it does fit with what Philomena told me,” Celestia said, giving a glance to the bird at her shoulder.

The filly tilted her head to the side. “What did she say?”

Celestia playfully poked Sunshine’s nose with her hoof as she responded. “That you have a blessing.”

“Blessing? What blessing?” the filly wondered.

“I don’t know, but it will be clear once you earn your cutie mark,” Celestia said in a motherly tone, pointing at Sunshine’s flank.

The filly stared at her blank posterior, her little mind thinking about all the possible cutie marks she could have.

While she was distracted, Celestia whispered to her parents. “When she does discover what her cutie mark is, please bring her to the castle.”

“We will your highness,”[Why? Why not take me now?]replied, barely able to contain her happiness at the beautiful future her daughter seemed to be almost destined to have.

[Wait]

[What happened next?]

[It can't end now!]

[Where are you taking me now?]

By the time the family came back to[Is this my home?]the sun would soon start to set in the horizon.

Both parents and[And what?]entered the home with no other desire than sleep, but Sunshine seemed to still be full of energy, and quickly ran to her room, spilled out all her crayons and papers on the floor, and sat down to draw all the ideas she had in her little mind.

She spent close to an hour drawing, pausing when she got caught admiring her latest creation.

She had drawn herself floating in the air, forelegs extended to the sky, horn glowing with a red aura, and a huge smile on her face.
At the tip of her hooves was the sun, slowly being lifted by her own magic, and at the bottom of the paper it was written: “Princess Sunshine.”

She continued staring at the image, imagining herself in that reality.

She knew she had a connection, the princess told her she was blessed, and her father said that she would be able to do it once she was older.

Eventually, she arrived at a conclusion.

“I need to practice! But how do I make a sun?”

She took a long moment to think, but eventually came to a solution.

Sunshine ran to the kitchen, grabbed a plate and a roll of napkins, and went back to her room.
She put the plate in the middle of the bedroom and tore off some of the napkins, bunching them up before placing them in the plate.

Once she had enough, Sunshine lit her horn with some sparks, and sent a little flame towards the napkins.

The paper quickly caught fire, and when all of it was burning, Sunshine concentrated her magic on the flames.

She concentrated and concentrated, until suddenly, the yellow flames turned crimson.

All the paper burned out, but the flames remained, and with a bit more effort, Sunshine moved them, and united them in a little ball of red fire.

“I did it!” she exclaimed happily, jumping in place. “But it needs to be bigger.”

She took more napkins from the roll, throwing them in to the ball of flames, until she decided to just throw the entire thing into it.

To her surprise, as soon as the roll got close to the fireball, it got sucked inside in an instant, and the ball of flame grew to the size of Sunshine’s head.

The filly jumped in excitement and quickly started gathering more things around her room to burn.

[No no no], [Please stop], [This can't end well], [You can't control this type of magic], and [STOP!]ended up as fuel for the ball of flames, which grew with every small sacrifice.

Running out of things to burn, Sunshine continued around the house, burning even more things that she thought weren’t of much value, until the fireball grew to the size of an adult pony.

“It’s perfect! Now I need to raise it!”

She ran outside, the ball of flame following her, consuming the front door as it passed through it.

As the sun set on the horizon, she reached the center of the town, where a large tree stood, its leaves rippling in the wind.

Sunshine smiled, looking at her fiery creation, and started to concentrate her magic.

The fireball started to move up, but it didn’t get far. Barely over the massive tree.

Sunshine, like any child, pouted and complained at the refusal of her wishes, but the ball of fire couldn’t respond.

Or so she thought.

She didn’t hear words, but it was a similar feeling to what she felt when she tried to help move the sun a few hours earlier.

And it made her understand that, to make her wish come true…

…She needed more.

So, she concentrated again.

Small, flaming red tendrils started to grow out of the fireball, extending around the town.

Searching.

One found a cart laying in front of a store, coiled around it, and fed it to the fireball, helping it grow.

Another one tore out the door of a house.

Another one started gathering the wooden sings of the shops.

And so on.

Anything that could be burnt was delivered to the flaming sphere, and with each sacrifice, it grew more and more.

By this point, the town was starting to notice the filly’s actions.

Some went out to see what was happening.

Others stayed in their homes, scared that the tendrils would grab them next.

But when the fireball reached the size of the biggest house in the town, the tendrils receded.

And grabbed the tree.

The effort it took was evident in the filly’s expression, but it took only a few seconds before the entire tree was uprooted, and fed to the fireball.

Finally, Sunshine felt that she had enough, and concentrated on raising the fireball into the sky.

Except, that she wasn’t lifting a fireball anymore.

Once it had consumed the tree, the flames composing the burning sphere changed in nature, along with Sunshine’s magic.

As it rose into the sky, the fireball changed…

…evolved…

…into an imperfect, unstable…

…Red sun.

The entire town watched the newly formed sun pushing the night sky out of the way.

Some looked in awe.

Others cowered in their homes.

But for the small filly that had created it, it was the most beautiful thing in the world.

“I did it!” she screamed to the world with an overwhelming sense of joy. “I raised a sun!”

Her cries of victory suddenly stopped as she felt something behind her.

Or more accurately, something in her behind.

She looked back at her flank, and to her surprise, she saw a big red sun.

Eyes wide, tears welling up, and with her jaw hanging low, Sunshine shouted in pure joy.

“I GOT MY CUTIE MARK!!!”

It was, without a doubt, the best day of her life.

But sadly, things started to go wrong.

Horribly wrong.

The celebrations and joy at the discovery of her magical talent made her lose concentration on the red sun currently floating over the town.

It was already in a precarious condition, so when Sunshine’s magic stopped keeping it together…

It shook.

Shot out tongues of flames.

And finally…

It exploded.

On the positive side, being an imperfect sun, it didn’t explode with the same intensity as a real one.

But now…

…All the fire it had gathered started to rain down over the houses.

The town quickly became an inferno.

Some ponies tried in vain to fight the fire out of their homes, but it was an impossible task.

Others simply tried to run out of the town, escaping the flames before they could consume them.

But there was no escape.

The fire ravaging the town wasn’t like any other fire.

It was packed full of Sunshine’s magic.

And it was still looking for more things to devour and grow big again.

Ponies were being literally chased out in the streets or in their homes by what looked like flaming specters, and a circle of fire surrounded the town to prevent the kindling from escaping.

And in the center of all the chaos, Sunshine was still shouting in joy, blissfully unaware of her surroundings and the consequences of her actions.

Until [What did you do?]

[What did I do?]

[This can't be real]

[This must be a hallucination]

[It must be]

The crusaders continued watching with extreme discomfort as the wreck that Sunset had become continued smiling happily, murmuring words the fillies couldn’t make heads or tails of.

“I think you broke her,” Sweetie whispered to Scootaloo, unsure of how to react to the situation.

“I think we should go get Twilight,” Applebloom suggested, starting to get really scared and worried.

Suddenly, Sunset’s happiness was shattered, as the last blurry memories of that day trickled into her mind.

“Dad?” she asked to somepony who wasn’t there.

“Dad… what?” Tears starting running down her face, as small sobs shook her chest.

“Dad! No… stand up… please…”

Sunset’s expression changed one more time, making the scared fillies finally run to get help.

Sunset’s eyes narrowed, filled with a palpable feeling of hatred.

“You…” she said through gritted teeth, feeling her heart being torn apart.

Her horn lit up violently with a bright red aura, sending red bolts of magical energy around her that scorched everything they touched.

Sunset said one more word, with all the hatred she had forgotten so long ago.

“Burn.”

In the center of Ponyville, there was a small spark of fire in the sky above the town.

Then another, bigger spark occurred, catching the attention of some of the townsfolk.

But the third one achieved its purpose.

Right above the town, a bright red sun, like the one Sunshine created long ago, appeared.

But with two big differences…

This sun wasn’t imperfect, it was a real sun.

And it was getting bigger by the second.

Author's Notes:

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Warning the ȩ̛͇̖͇̜̈́̉̐̔͑͟r̢̩̪͂̇̏r̠̿̈́͢o̢͍̬̰͆̈́̇́̉̒̕͜ͅͅr̛̮͙̺͕̲̞͖̈́̆̀̋͂̕ ̲͙͚̙͈̖́̓̉̇̌̅ẽ̘͙͖̹̋͋͡r͕̋ŗ̧͕̙̝͌̆̿͒̕o̻̣̗͆͑̏͟͝r̜͚͕̆̑́ ̨̝̟͔̿̃̓̚er̖̥̽̃ŗ̢͍͎̖͇͔̓̋̓̉̀̈̔ô̮͇̞̘̱̗̓̀͒̃͡r̦̦͐̂ ̱͖̜̗̤̌̆̿͠͞ě̡̞͈̪͙̽̾̍̃̾͟r͇̹͕̮̹̲̙̋͌̍̀͆͒̕r̞̭͍̜̬̓̊̆͒̇o̧̩̣̫͙͇͍̾͑͐̈́͊̋͂r͍̞͖̦͈̞̖̾̒̋̿̍̄̓ ̭̙̰̹̗̱̅͌́̚͝͠e͕̮͇͛͑͆r̫̰͖̤̍̎̈̿͟͠r̢̮̖̬͎̻̈́̾́͗̂͗ơ͔̬̯̝̲̭̗͒̎́̏̈́̚͟͞ȑ̨̹̘͉̤̊͊͛͑͘͜ ̧̆ȩ͇̠̙͑̾̋͡r̛̟͎̬͐̀r͙͖̯̬̝̳̲̉̃̆́̄͝͞o͇̿r̩̗̯͇̝̝̂̌͋̔̚͠ ̣͇̳̱͎̬̤̋͆̀͐̃̕͘é̝̰͕̂͡r͔̯̜͎̀̅̇͝r̜̃ò̪̦̺̾͘r̪̳͐͡ ͇̺̰̱̜̬͂̈̋͗̀́ê̫r̖͝r̨̨̳̦͋̂̋̆ỏ̧̳̹͎͕̹̔̃̿͘̚͢͝r̜̠̺̜̀͗͒͡͡ͅ ̳̗̲̗̥̿́̈̕͠e͔̬̜̭̠̒̃̒̓͜͡͞ṟ̠̜̭̔̀͗̿̕͟r̳̠̯̖̐̃͑͋̐͟o̳͡r̟̖͖͈͛͐̿̏ ̥̗͈̈́̒͝e̲̹͙̝̤͛̄͒̀͝r͕͌r͍͎̯̝̭̎́̌̎͂o̘̟̎͐ř̖̬̼̈͞ ̛̲̜̹͕̑̑͌̓͟ḛ͔̩͙̎̐̅͋̏ͅr̜̰̰̄͂̎̕̕͢͜ȓ̛̜̞̱̼͑͗ơ̢̬̺̗͍̺̂͐̐͐͘ŕ̨̤͎͈̮͂͐͊̕͜͞ ̠͈͋̏͘͟͟͡eř̹̟͎̐͋r̨̯̞̣̯̻̤̃̾̃͌̋̔̚or̨̞̺̃̉͞ ͍̻̯͞͝͠ë̺̳͕́̄͘r̮̘̒͆r̳͗͗ͅo̥̙̪̭̔̾̏͡r͉̓ ̜̌e̡̛͉̫̖̮̹͆̅̀̓̽͌͟r̳̠̳̓̀̀r̦̰̜͔͕̫̬̂͑̀̊̕͝͠ơ̜͍̥̤͕͎̐̓̍̋̕͢͝ŗ̢̛̣̗̝͖̠̋̋̏̐͝͝ ̡̡̱̘̪̺̅̄̀̽̏̿e̢̞̩̯̥̋̑̌͛̽r͍̜̮̼̾̔͑̾r̻̹̯̘̥̥̅͑͆͆̽̕͢͞o̙̖͗̈́̕ͅr͖̃ ͚̬̈̎ĕ͍͓͂͜͡r͕̮͛̑r̨̨̛̠̱̲͙̾́̓̀̚͘͟͟͝or͎͉͑̌

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Next chapter: Chapter 34: "You..."

Next chapter: Chapter 34: Sunset

8 chapters remaining