Sunset Rises

It was 11:00 on Friday night at Canterlot High School and everybody was jamming out to music provided by DJ-PON3, aka Vinyl Scratch, and the Thunderbolts, a garage rock band leg by Flash Sentry, who was a nice guy, but wasn't very popular for some reason. Among those on the dance floor was a teenage girl with lavender skin, blue hair with a pink highlight, and purple eyes. This was Twilight Sparkle, and she was in actuality a pony princess from the alternate world of Equestria on a mission to reclaim her crown, which had been stolen from her by the devious Sunset Shimmer, who would stop at what seemed like nothing to make sure she was the one who won the crown, which had been mistaken as the crown given to the Princess of the Fall Formal.

Unfortunately for Miss Shimmer, however, Twilight had managed to overcome the odds and win over the school. In the minds of most of the students, it was merely a formality that kept Twilight from her well-deserved crown.

But, that didn't keep Twilight from worrying. Not once had she seen Sunset or her flunkies, Snips and Snails, that night.

"Has anybody seen Sunset Shimmer?" asked Twilight.

Nearby, a girl around the same age with cyan blue skin and a rainbow colored hairdo and rose-colored eyes wearing a dress that matched her hair named Rainbow Dash boogied over to Twilight. "Maybe she was too embarrassed to show! She's gotta know you won by a landslide!" she said.

Twilight frowned. "Yeah... maybe," she muttered.

As Flash and his band wound down their music, Principal Celestia, a woman with chalk white skin, yellow eyes, and long hair colored bright blue, pink, and green wearing a cream colored jacket, a purple bodysuit, and high heels took the stage.

"First off, I want to say how wonderful everything looks tonight. You all did a magnificent job pulling things together after the unfortunate events of earlier," said Celestia. "And now, without further ado, I'd like to announce the winner of this year's Fall Formal Crown," she continued as her sister, Vice Principal Luna, who had blue skin and shimmering blue hair and wore a crescent moon necklace, a purple shirt, blue jeans, and black dress shoes as she carried a chest onto the stage that contained a golden tiara that had a pink star-shaped gem embedded in the top along with an envelope.

"The Princess of this year's Fall Formal is..." said Principal Celestia as she opened the envelope amid tension thick enough for a knife to cut through.

"Twilight Sparkle!"

And the whole school went nuts as Twilight took the stage to receive her crown. "Congratulations, Twilight," said Celestia, placing the crown upon Twilight's head.

But, it would be a short-lived moment of glory as the next moment, a voice screamed.

"TWILIGHT! HELP!"

"Spike?" said Twilight, looking through the crowd until she spotted her purple and green dragon turned purple and green dog getting stolen by Snips and Snails, despite the little pup's attempts to fight back. "They've got Spike!" yelled Twilight as she jumped off the stage and took off after the dognappers, crashing into a locker as they rounded a corner.

Right behind Twilight were her friends, Rainbow Dash, a cowgirl with tan skin and blonde hair named Applejack, a beautiful fashionista with chalk white skin and curly purple hair named Rarity, a pink skinned party animal with bushy pink hair named Pinkie Pie, and a yellow skinned nature lover with light pink hair named Fluttershy. Together, the six teenagers chased Snips and Snails past Trixie Lulamoon as she got peanut butter crackers out of a vending machine and out of a side entrance and around to the front of the school where a large statue of a horse was.

"That's close enough!" barked a cruel sounding voice.

That voice belonged to Sunset Shimmer, who, like Twilight, was a pony from Equestria posing as a teenage girl with fiery red and yellow skin, orange skin, and light blue eyes wearing a black leather jacket, a hot pink blouse, an orange, hot pink, and yellow skirt, and black and hot pink knee-length leather boots, and in her hands was a sledgehammer, poised to smash the statue, which actually doubled as a portal back to Equestria, the world both Twilight and Sunset were from.

Twilight and her friends stopped dead in their tracks as Sunset got ready to swing her hammer. "Not another move, or I'll smash it!" threatened Sunset.

"Twilight-" said Spike, before Snails clamped the dog's muzzle shut.

"Don't hurt him!" said Twilight.

"Oh, I wouldn't dream of it," said Sunset, a smug look on her face. "I'm not a monster, Twilight. Let him go," Sunset ordered Snips and Snails, who gave her a confused look before letting the puppy go, right into the kneeling Twilight's arms.

"You don't belong here, Twilight. Give me the crown and you can go home tonight," said Sunset. "Or you can keep it, and never go home!"

Twilight and her friends gasped in horror at this ultimatum, for each option led to a devastating conclusion: if Twilight gave Sunset the crown, this world would be helpless to stop Sunset from taking over. If she refused, Equestria might not last against potentially devastating threats.

"Tick tock, Twilight. You don't have much time. The portal will be closing on its own in less than an hour," warned Sunset, jerking her head towards the slowly rising full moon in the inky blue sky.

Twilight removed the crown from her head as she tried to find the best possible solution to this problem, her eyes watering before she finally uttered one word.

"No!"

"What?!" yelled Sunset in shock. "Equestria,your friends! Lost to you, forever! Don't you see what I'm about to do to the portal?!"

"Yes, and I've also seen what you've been able to do here WITHOUT magic. Equestria will find a way to survive without my Element of Harmony. This place might not if I allow it to fall into your hands. So, go ahead, destroy the portal! You are not getting this crown!" said Twilight as she stood up and firmly placed the Element on her head.

Sunset glared at Twilight, before she dropped the sledgehammer. "Fine. You win," she said as if she couldn't care less.

Twilight smiled as her friends surrounded her cheering for her victory.

"You're so awesome!" squealed Rainbow.

"Ah can't believe you were gonna do that fer us," said Applejack with a southern drawl.

"It's no wonder you're a real live princess," said Rarity with an accent that one would expect to find amongst a group of high society people.

Unbeknownst to the group of girls, each bit of praise they gave Twilight drove Sunset closer and closer to blowing her top, until finally, with Rarity's comment, Sunset spat out in pure rage, "OH, YES, SHE'S SO VERY SPECIAL!" before she lunged at Twilight, knocking her to the ground and knocking the crown off her head.

The crown bounced once, twice, three times before it landed away from them. As Twilight held onto Sunset Shimmer in an attempt to keep her from grabbing the crown, Spike leapt in and grabbed it.

Sunset Shimmer growled in rage. "Grab him, you fools!" she snarled at Snips and Snails.

On their boss' command, Snips and Snails took off after Spike, only to be out ran by Sunset herself as she chased the purple and green puppy to the front doors of the school.

"Spike! Spike!"

Hearing Rainbow's call, Spike tossed the crown to her, thus beginning one big game of keep away. Rainbow used some fancy footwork to avoid Snips and Snails from grabbing the crown from her, before tossing it to Fluttershy, off of whom it bounced off into her hands. Upon seeing the crowd of people heading towards her, Fluttershy was immobilized by fear. A quick-thinking Applejack used a lasso, albeit one used with rope from who-knew-where, and pulled Fluttershy out of the way of the mob, but also causing her to drop the Element, which was then picked up by Snips, only for it to be snatched by Pinkie Pie, who then passed it along to Applejack, who passed it to Rarity, who passed it to Twilight, who threw it directly over her head.

"I'll take that!" said Sunset as she caught the crown out of the air. Giggling crazily, Sunset grinned as she looked at the crown in her hands. "At last... more power than I could ever imagine!"

With that, Sunset Shimmer placed the crown upon her head. Almost instantly, powerful waves of magical energy came roaring through Sunset's body as she held onto the crown for dear life, before a powerful blast of magical energy lifted her into the air, transforming her orange skin into a blood red color as a tail and demonic black and red wings grew out from her back and her hands turned into razor-sharp claws, as well as drawing the whole school out to watch the spectacle.

Where only a moment before stood a beautiful teenage girl now hovered a raging she-demon.

As Sunset looked over her new form, she let out a demonic laugh, before turning Snips and Snails into demons themselves.

"This is gonna be SO cool!" giggled Demon-Snips as Demon-Snails hissed at the girls, who slowly backed up, ready to fight them off if they had to.

Meanwhile, Sunset Shimmer had turned her attention to the frightened school people. "I've had to jump through so many hoops tonight, just to get my hands on this crown, when it really should've been mine all along!" said Sunset, her voice now dark and demonic. "But let's let bygones be bygones. I am your princess now! And you will be loyal... to ME!"

On her last words, Sunset used her dark magic to tear a gaping hole in the front of the school entrance causing the gathered students to panic and flee in terror. Nobody got very far however, before Sunset used her magic again, this time to brainwash them into becoming her mindless minions.

"Round them up and bring them to the portal," Sunset ordered Snips and Snails, who saluted and left to do Sunset's bidding. Sunset, meanwhile, attended to the teenage girls and dog outside. "Spoiler alert: I was bluffing when I said I was going to destroy the portal. I don't want to rule this pathetic little high school! I want Equestria! And with my own little teenage army behind me, I'm going to get it!"

Twilight gave a small gasp of shock when she spotted Flash Sentry among the zombified crowd, before she regained her firm stance. "No. You're not!" she said.

"Oh, please! What exactly are you going to do to stop me?! I have magic, and you have NOTHING!"snarled Sunset, her hair momentarily turning into a tuft of actual fire.

"She has us!" said Rainbow Dash as she and the others ran up to stand behind Twilight, who looked back behind her and smiled.

Sunset glared at the ensemble before laughing. "Gee, the gang really is all back together again!" she chuckled, wiping a tear from her eye, before charging up a massive ball of fire. "Now, step aside! Twilight has tried to interfere with my plans one too many times already! She needs to be dealt with!"

With that, Sunset launched the fireball at Twilight, her friends tried to shield her from the attack only for the fireball to increase in size and hit them dead on… and no elements of harmony came to save them. The blast vaporized her friends in front of her while Twilight had third degree burns over most of her body. She knew it was due to the Element of Magic holding back on her since it still saw her as it’s true host but she also knew Sunset would rectify this mistake… and soon. And when she did, there might not be a way to stop her from burning both sides of the portal to the ground... countless lives lost, all because a spoiled brat didn't get what she wanted and threw a temper tantrum.

“S-Spike... you need to get out of here,” gasped Twilight

“WHAT?! Twilight I’m not leaving you come on! We can both get through the portal-!”

“N-no, Spike… I-I won’t make it... y-you have to warn the others... g-go... t-tell them... I-I'll miss them...” Twilight said as she just laid on the ground in extreme pain. Spike had tears in his eyes but otherwise did what he was told to do. However, Sunset had other plans.

“STOP THAT DOG! HE CAN’T BE ALLOWED TO GO THROUGH THE PORTAL! HE CAN’T TELL CELESTIA!” Sunset shouted with... was that fear? Spike couldn’t notice or care as he leapt through the portal… just as the thirty moon time cycle ended. Snips and Snails just hit a wall instead. “RRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!”

...

Meanwhile, on the other side of the portal, a group of eight ponies consisting of two pegasi who had striking resemblances to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, two Earth Ponies who resembled Applejack and Pinkie Pie, a unicorn who resembled Rarity, and two alicorn princesses who greatly resembled Luna and Celestia. Additionally, there was a third alicorn princess with pink fur, purple eyes, and a cream, lavender, and hot pink mane and tail. Additionally, she wore a small crown, a heart-shaped pendent, and  golden horseshoes. This was Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, or Princess Cadence.

"What's taking them so long?" asked Rainbow Dash as she fluttered back and forth like she was pacing the floor.

Not even a second later, the portal rippled and through it stepped Spike, a baby dragon once again. Almost immediately, the ponies could tell something was very, very wrong.

"Spike! Where pray tell is Twilight? I certainly hope she isn't saying a long romantic good-bye to some boy who is spat upon by the community... the bad boys always go for the smart ones," said Rarity.

Spike gasped and panted, out of breath and exhausted... but he needed to get out what Twilight had told them, for her sake.

"Sunset... crown... Twilight... hurt... really... bad... dying-"

"Spike, calm down, and talk slowly," said Celestia.

Spike took several deep breaths, using Rarity to help him keep him steady as he told his tale, about how Snips and Snails had kidnapped him and used him to lure Twilight out for a final confrontation with Sunset Shimmer.

"...and then Sunset got her hands on the crown and put it on and... changed," said Spike.

"Changed? Changed into what?" asked Celestia, concern evident in her voice.

Spike gulped. "S-some kind of monster... she used the crown's power to brainwash everyone in the school... then, she hurt T-Twilight... th-the kind of hu-hurt th-that do-doesn't get be-better," choked Spike on his own tears.

Seeing the expression on Spike's face, the gathered ponies quickly realized one thing: newly-minted Princess Twilight Velvet Sparkle... was gone.  And none of them would ever see her again. Applejack took her hat off in respect as tears welled up in her eyes. Pinkie's bushy pink mane and tail suddenly became as straight as an arrow. Rainbow Dash floated down and sat there, trying to hold back tears like the stubborn pony she was, Rarity and Fluttershy on the other hand, didn't even bother trying hide their sadness and very openly wailed. The Princesses, meanwhile, simply hung their heads.

"Oh, Faust in Elysium..." muttered Celestia, a truly devastated look on her face as, like with Applejack, tears began to well up

"Oh, my stars," gasped Cadence, covering her mouth with her hoof and fighting back her own tears

"Son of a bitch..." muttered Luna, causing an almighty uproar from Rarity.

"Princess Luna! Such language! And at a time like this!" she cried, her wet eyes wide with shock and her mouth hanging open.

"Oh, don't worry about it, Rarity! Joker's given this story a T-rating and he's added the Sex and Gore tags just in case, so I think we can damn well swear as long as it's within reason, and by Faust I say we damn well have a reason!" snapped Pinkie in a most uncharacteristic way before she remembered something. "And now that I think about it, I have a SERIOUS issue about that script that I'd like to discuss with that crazy clow-"

"Pinkie, Ah don't believe this is the time to go on a rant, especially since it just ain't your Pinkie way, AND to top it off, the one pony who brought us together is headed fer Boot Hill!" said Applejack, her voice cracking as she placed a hoof over Pinkie's mouth.

"Applejack is right," said Celestia. "This is not the time for bickering. This is a time for mourning. For honoring the memory of a pony who helped reunite me with my little sister, who taught so many other ponies the values of friendship. However, this is also a time for preparation. I have no doubt that right now, Sunset Shimmer is preparing for war. There is no doubt in my mind that we must do the same in order to insure that other innocents do not suffer the same fate as Twilight. Now, go, all of you, and rest while I have council with my sister and niece. Tomorrow, we must prepare for Twilight's memorial service."

Very, very, reluctantly, the Mane 5 and Spike slowly shuffled off to bed. The minute the door closed, the war talks began.

...

Back on Sunset Shimmer's side of the portal, as the sun rose, Sunset hovered in the air and watched as Snips and Snails examined the portal from every angle.

"I don't know, boss, this thing looks pretty solid," said Snips.

"That's because the portal's sealed off, you idiot! You let that mangy mutt get away, and now he's ratted us out to Celestia, and more importantly, my plans have been set back by another 30 moons!" roared Sunset, her hair turning to fire once again.

"So, what do we do now, bossssss?" hissed Snails.

Sunset placed her claw on her chin in thought for a moment. "Perhaps fate has stalled my plans for a reason... perhaps I am not meant to lead a mindless, untrained army into battle... yes, now that I think about it, it would've been quite foolish to launch my campaign tonight. So, what we will do for the next thirty moons, we will train and train hard, so that when the curtain rises on the big finale, we will be ready. Am I making myself clear?!" barked Sunset.

"Ma'am, yes, ma'am!" said Snips and Snails.

"Yes, Queen Sunset," droned Sunset's army.

"Good! Then march yourselves back into the school, NOW!" barked Sunset, before she caught sight of her ex-boyfriend. "Except for you, Flash Sentry... I have something very... special in mind for you," she said in a seductive tone of voice as she landed and fluffed up her hair a bit.

The mindless drone formerly known as Flash Sentry slowly made his way over to Sunset, and when he got her, the raging she-demon and her puppet began to lean in towards each other, their eyes closing...

But, mere milliseconds before their lips touched, Sunset grabbed Flash's head and snapped his neck in one lightning-swift move. After the dead teenage boy crumpled to the pavement, Sunset Shimmer crouched down and whispered in his ear.

"That was for breaking up with me."