With one last wave at her new found friends, Twilight Sparkle stepped through the Crystal Portal, already on her way back to Equestria. Her time with them was short, but Twilight knew, deep in her heart, that their bonds of friendship would forever connect them even worlds apart. She also knew with friends like that, even Sunset Shimmer would be able to learn the true value of friendship. Maybe one day she could even return to Equestria.
“Oh thank Celestia that’s over…” Sunset Shimmer tossed the brick she’d been about to place over her shoulder. Snails cried out in pain a moment later. Or was it Snips? She had never bothered to learn their names. Sunset stood up, stretching out several kinks.
“Sunset Shimmer, what do you think you are doing!!!?” Vice Principal Luna did not so much ask as roar. It was a perfectly understandable reaction, as Snails was bleeding. Profusely. On the ground. Not moving.
Sunset looked over at Principal Luna and raised an eyebrow before yawning. “Wheatley, terminate the simulation.”
A West English Country accented voice spoke up out of nowhere. Actually, the previous sentence was a lie. The voice wasn’t speaking; it was West English Country accented snoring.
Sunset Shimmer face palmed as the others looked around in confusion for the mysterious snoring.
“Wheatley?” Sunset Shimmer called out. No answer. “Wheatleeeey?” Sunset still got no response. “Okay, I know you can hear me. Wake up.” Sunset glared around in irritation. Now, everyone was looking at Sunset Shimmer with a combination of confusion, suspicion, and outright fear. Snails still wasn’t moving. “Okay, I’m going to give you one more chance to get your rusted old circuits up and moving before I get angry.” If anything, the snoring got louder.
Sunset Shimmer sighed and flicked her hair out of her eyes. She took a moment to clear her throat, and screamed. To be more precise, it was a screech. A positively horrendous screech that had everyone covering their ears in pain as it ruptured their eardrums.
The sound resonated with nearby glass, making it shatter. Dust and rubble fell from the ceiling around her, and the floor beneath her feet fractured. Around her, wind picked up to near hurricane levels, blowing rubble and shards of glass to and fro, drowning people’s screams as they were carried away in the wind; even Snails was blown away (although he still wasn’t moving of his own volition).
Even the solid walls of the High School trembled and slowly began to crack as her scream carried on and on until she cut off suddenly. Sunset Shimmer crossed her arms in a huff and steadfastly resisted the urge to rub her now very sore throat.
The snores broke off into a massive, minute long yawn. A large, white metallic sphere with two handles, and a mechanical iris that housed a glowing blue “eye” popped into existence next to Sunset Shimmer. “Huh-hug.-ahhhh. Oh, good morning Shimmer. Thanks for the wake-up call, by the way. Was dreaming about birds.” Even though he physically couldn’t, the shudder was practically audible. “Never trust ‘em. Soooo, what’s going on in your life. Finally get ultimate power? ”
“No.” Sunset said. “Now, if you’ll jus-“
“Unlock the secret of immortality?
Sunset Shimmer sighed. “Sadly, no. Now, if you’ll-“
“How about a boyfriend? You seem like you really need a boyfriend.”
“Wha…NO!” Sunset stammered. “Just... just terminate the damn simulation.”
“Sure can do, but… do really want to?”
“Ar-are you seriously asking me that?” Sunset asked.
“Well, I’m just asking because the real world’s a bit dank for my personal taste, you know what with the decrepit state of the rest of Aperture Sciences. I mean, wow, it’s like no one even knows what maintenance is anymore. I never would have even noticed if you hadn’t popped in one day. I can’t believe I was so blind back in the Relaxation Center -You know, they told me I would die if I ever left the Relaxation Center, but here you come in and bam! I’m out and about, a free core, and what do you know, I can an-“
Sunset Shimmer sighed as Wheatley went off on another tangent. She held up a hand and interrupted him. “Wheatley, everyone else is dead.”
“Well, that’s a rather negative outlook on life. I prefer to think they’re with us in spirit, if nothing else. Well, more like medically induced comas while preserved in stasis. Still, in spirit.”
Sunset stared at him for a moment, jaw working incredulously. He insisted that the ten thousand people in the Relaxation Center were okay. They weren’t. She’d opened up several of the “cells”, and found everyone to be in a vegetative state; minds gone. No matter how much evidence she showed him, he insisted they were alive and well.
“Wheatley, just terminate the simulation.” She sighed, resigned. “In fact, I just want to forget the last three days of singing, stupid plots, and horrendously cutesy friendship ever happened.”
“Oh. Why didn’t you say so.” There was an audible click, and a flash of light. Sunset felt a moment of disorientation and nausea as her previous surroundings vanished, replaced with a bright room covered in mirror like tiles. The only remnant of the previous environment was that of an inert crystal mirror-her one connection to Equestria… that had just shut for another three years. Sunset Shimmer resisted the urge sigh.
She flicked her long red and yellow striped hair out of her eyes and glanced around the room while Wheatley hummed and moved around on his rail as he looked all over the room. The room itself was covered in highly reflective, almost mirror like tiles dotted with occasional blue and red lights that Sunset could not even begin to understand the use for. Some of them were heavily worn and cracked-yet the room had remained operational after who knows how long for her gamble (thank Celestia for that).
That brought her up short. It took a few seconds to process, but … it had actually worked. Her crazy, desperate plan had actually worked. What she had just pulled off… that shouldn't have been possible. In fact, back in Equestria, it would have been impossible. Yet, she couldn’t deny the truth; her plan had worked all thanks to one seemingly innocent room devoted to “External Reality Simulations” in the crazy place called “Aperture” she’d found herself in.
Even three years since her arrival, and Sunset still couldn’t believe some of what she found. An entire, seemingly empty world filled with hairless bipedal apes that had absolutely no magic whatsoever, were several times weaker and more fragile than most ponies, yet they had made vast strides in their understanding of the universe that far outstripped her own homeland by several centuries, at least. All accomplished while being completely and irrevocably insane.
As far as she could tell, the “Aperture Sciences” had been abandoned for a very long time. In all honesty, it was a miracle and a testament to the Humans’ engineering feats that as much of it still functioned as it did. The past three days, she had been terrified the power would flicker, disrupt the simulation room she’d trapped herself and Twilight in, and not so much spoil as utterly obliterate the ruse and any hope she had of getting out in one piece.
Wheatley followed after her on his rail in the ceiling as she exited the Simulation room, rambling all the way. “You know, I was rather enjoying myself, personally. Especially the song sequences.” Wheatley’s eye narrowed in concentration as obnoxious music started playing. “It's a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake.” Wheatley sang, horribly off tune. “If the way is hazy, You gotta do the cooking by the book. You know yo-“ Wheatley and his impromptu song session abruptly as Sunset Shimmer interrupted him.
“We-wha? What the hay was that?” Sunset demanded. Well, she thought she demanded. It was more a combination of demand, growing rage, confusion, and mental anguish.
“Oh, my singing? Well, ever since you found me back in the Relaxation Center and opened up my whole world-thanks for that by the way-, I’ve been looking through the Aperture Sciences data base and found a whole bunch of songs. Did you know they were experimenting with music to make potatoes grow?” At her blank look, he continued. “Was working pretty well until they started eating people. Anyway, I was thinking of taking up singing and-“
“No no no. What was that song? It wasn’t even in the simulation!”
“Oh. I must have been watching something else then. But that’s not to say what you were doin wasn’t interesting. Just, mine was more-i-er interesting. That a word? More-i-er. Don’t have to answer that. I’ll look it up in a thesaurus.”
Sunset Shimmer stared at him for a moment and, for 947th since she’d made the fateful choice to abandon Celestia and step through the Crystal Mirror in her search for ever greater knowledge and power, wished that she’d found someone smarter or, really, anyone else since her arrival in this strange world. What she wouldn’t give for an intellectual of Celstia’s prowess, or even some half-baked librarian to have helped her explore the wondrous ruins and secrets of this place. Unfortunately, she got Wheatley.
“Don’t you have something else to do?” Sunset asked, grinding her teeth.
Wheatley blinked, and actually took a moment to think about it. Sunset didn’t know whether it was sad or impressive that he could, in fact, think. “Hmm, hmm, Hm, nope."
“Nothing?”
“No. Relaxation Center takes care of itself, really. Before you showed up asking really weird questions about hands, I just napped a lot. I mean, like you would not believe. Really, you haven’t lived until you’ve slept for an entire year. ”
Sunset had to stop herself from staring at Wheatley and wondering how in the world he actually slept. It was useless, a waste of time, and getting repetitive. ”Just forget it.” She said as they came to a large sealed metal doorway. She held her hand out, and the heavy door lit up with an amber glow. The door shuddered, and with a grinding screech, the door slowly slid open.
“OH oh, that’s more of that magic stuff, isn’t it?” Wheatley said. Sunset chose to ignore him as he watched her magic at work, focusing on the ridiculously heavy door. Normally, she found almost everything Wheatley did annoying, but his childlike fascination with magic was endearing.
Ironically, her magic was actually one of the reasons why Wheatley was her only companion here. She’d run into other, more intelligent constructs, but all inevitably fell into a “logic error loop”, whatever that was, when she used any magic whatsoever. They usually self-destructed soon afterward. Wheatley was the only one she’d found who was immune to the strange response of the other cores.
With one last tug, the door slid wide open. Wheatley chuckled just a tad bit gleefully and “shook” in mirth. “Aww Shimmer, I love it when you do that. It’s like you’re telling the Laws of Physics to sod off. Bloody brilliant, that’s what it is.” Sunset Shimmer shrugged; he wasn’t exactly wrong.
Sunset Shimmer walked into her workshop, and immediately felt more at ease. When Aperture Sciences wasn’t trying to kill her in some ridiculous fashion (seriously; why were there exploding lady bugs?), it was haunting.
Aperture smelled of dust and decay, and sometimes she swore she heard echoes of the past. It was clear that thousands of people once came here every day to work, to learn, to live. Now, they were all gone, the only testament to their existence the facility they devoted their lives to. Her workshop, however, was hers. Her domain, her sanctuary from the ever encroaching insanity of Aperture.
Her workshop was… messy, in a word. Papers, notes, diagrams, and books of all varieties littered every available surface, while various pieces of machinery big and small sat around, disassembled. Notably, almost everything was related to crafting or engineering in some fashion, particularly revolving around metallurgy and manipulation of higher form theoretical (to the original writers at least) energies, as well as a few books on nuclear fusion.
She immediately zeroed in on her one clean workstation. On it lay a pile of jewels, silver and gold painstakingly salvaged from various points in Aperture, among other assorted metals and materials. She levitated the materials into the air and started examining them, throwing away anything that wasn’t absolutely perfect.
“Wow that’s a lot of shiny. What are you working on?” Wheatley said, looking over her shoulder.
Sunset decided to humor him, at least this once since. Despite everything else, she was in a good mood. “This?” She gestured at the mass of floating jewels and metals. “If my research is right, I’m going to do something declared completely and utterly impossible by thousands of years of professionals and a goddess or two who have far more experience doing stuff like this than I could hope to accumulate in thirty lifetimes,” Sunset brought up a diamond to eye level only to hurl it away a few seconds later when it didn’t meet her standards.
“Ah. That explains… nothing!” Wheatley said cheerfully. “So, uh, what’re you doing?”
For a very brief moment, Sunset considered actually telling him the full and simple truth. She’d have to simplify the overall process down immensely, but Sunset was confident enough in her own abilities that she could explain it in a way that Wheatley would understand.
Then she realized that would be boring. She graced Wheatley with a smirk that had him backing up in alarm. “You know what? Just watch.”
She held both her hands out. One by one, all of her materials were engulfed in the amber glow of her magic and levitated up. Slowly, they drifted in an orbit around her. The spun slowly at first, but rapidly gained speed until they were barely discernible blurs.
Her eyes began to glow brilliant white as her magic enveloped her body. Her hair billowed as the power of her spell spread out, electrifying the very air. Her spell generated dramatic winds as all powerful spells are wont to do. They rushed around her, scattering hundreds of notes and papers across the room. Arcs of electricity began shooting randomly from her body, striking various items in the room and setting them on fire.
Wheatley, in possibly the wisest decision of his life, slowly backed away on his rail towards the edge of the room.
Sunset Shimmer couldn’t help but laugh (it may have been a giggle) in exhilaration as the power of creation flowed through her veins. If anyone with even the most basic understanding of magic from Equestria saw her now, they’d be rendered speechless. She was pouring more power into one spell than most unicorns did in a lifetime. Only legends such as Star Swirl the Bearded or the Princesses ever matched her power output.
This is what I live for... she thought with a mad rush. This is why, no matter how much it had hurt, she’d severed ties with her friends and family to seek out the elusive power and destiny she knew was hers, if only she'd claim it.
Through incredible will power as she guided the spell to its zenith, and slammed her palms together. The world exploded in majestic brilliance. A wave of searing heat and titanic force slammed her and threw her into a wall. Consciousness quickly lost all possible meaning.
Sunset Shimmer slowly woke up, and immediately wished she hadn’t. She hurt. A lot.
To describe her pain was almost impossible, as it went past the physical and into the spiritual. She’d been channeling more energy than she’d ever done so in her life, and her body and soul were kindly asking what the fuck she thought she was doing channeling that much magic at once. Suffice it to say, she felt like someone had set her on fire while some sadistic bastard poured hydrochloric acid onto any and all open wounds. All on top of a pounding headache that had long since transcended petty migraines.
From her position embedded in a crater in a wall, she could see a single, elegant golden crown inset with a beautiful gem in the shape of a shimmering red and yellow sun; identical to her cutie mark. The crown itself was all elegant curves and lines that didn’t make a solid piece, but rather an intricate web of dazzling gold that captured and reflected light.
Sunset blinked three times, her eyes growing wider with every repetition. She looked from her shaking hands to the crown and back to the crown again before she smiled widely. “I… am… AWESOME!”
Sunset winced, and mentally noted that shouting and smiling apparently hurt right now. Two seconds later, she decided that she didn’t care and went back to smiling.
She pulled herself to her feet. It was at this point her body calmly asked her what in Tartarus she thought she was doing. Throbbing pain born of hundreds of bruises assaulted while fire shot up and down cuts and gashes her body. Her left arm was stiff and unresponsive, and she could barely limp. Sunset was suddenly very glad she’d studied self-reinforcement and had made it a daily routine to cast such spells on herself; if she hadn’t she’d probably be dead.
Sunset fought through the pain with depressing ease born of far too much experience, and slowly limped toward her crown. The moment her hand touched it sent a powerful jolt through her system, and she felt like something was battering at the edge of her mind for a moment. Milliseconds later while she was just processing that thought, it breached her barriers.
She froze as the… thing, a being of blazing sun, empty deserts and undying infernos, flooded her consciousness. Impossible will and power slammed into her mind, seeking any weakness in a desire to crush anyone impudent enough to challenge it.
Sunset grimaced. The entity… whatever it exactly was (although she had her theories), wasn’t actively sentient, at least not in a way she could understand. But, she knew what it was doing: testing her worth.
She had somewhat expected this (also: she made a note write down another confirmed theory on the Elements of Harmony), but this was just ridiculous. There was no way in Discord’s nine balls that she was going to lose to her own damn crown. With a resurgence of rage, her will slammed back into the entity’s with ferocious force
Time was meaningless in this struggle. All that mattered was pure will power at the most fundamental level. Sunset gave everything she had to hold up against the entity…no, crown’s she realized (and noted to study how the hell it was doing this later). Rage fueled her will in this conflict, drawing upon memories of years of frustration and pain to push the entity back.
Soon, however, she found that, no matter how hard she “hit”, it just kept fighting her like an endless tide. Just as she was going to snap under the strain, the pressure on her mind receded, and she could feel a sense of satisfaction echoing in its wake.
Panting and sweating rivulets, she took a moment to catch breath she didn’t know she’d lost. That… honestly hadn’t been as hard as she’d thought it’d be. She’d been expecting a full titanic battle between herself and the Crown’s chosen avatar in her mindscape- a hard wrought battle that would have left her exhausted beyond measure, but her undeniable victory would have been worthy of song in ballads for generations to come. Not a mental shoving contest.
Regardless, it had worked out; now, she’d have to run a full array of test on it, and-
The crown called out to her. It wasn’t a verbal command; more a concept of raw, concentrated need. Sunset suddenly realized that the crown-her greatest work and undeniable proof of her talent and power- was quite possibly the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. She longed for it more than she had anything else in her life. She needed it. She had to have it. Now!
With desperation bordering on madness, she lunged for the crown.
Remembering it years later would bring a blush to her cheeks and she would vehemently deny it to anyone that asked (with fire if necessary), but, to herself at least, Sunset Shimmer could admit that she had an orgasm on the spot. The sheer feeling of the power contained in that crown appealed to her on a primal, fundamental level that she didn’t like thinking about. The crown’s immense, newly forged power deliciously flowed into and mixed with her innate magic in her veins, repairing her body and rejuvenating her spirit.
She closed her eyes, reveling in the raw ecstasy of her newfound power. She felt like she was flying on Cloud nine. Unbeknownst to her, magnificent wings of pure flame had sprouted from her back that stretched out and scraped against the ceiling, leaving scorch marks in their wake. To put it simply, Sunset wished the moment could last forever.
Of course Wheatley ruined it.
The entire back wall of the chamber imploded as another room on the facility’s track system rammed into it, shattering the wall and throwing her to the ground (and incidentally dispelling her wings). Then, for good measure, the room rammed into her workshop again, obliterating that portion of her rapidly deteriorating workshop.
“Shimmer? Shimmer?” Wheatley called out as he raced along the railing in the opposite room, trying to peer through gaps in the workshop wall. “Are you still alive? If you are still alive, just say apple. If you’re dead, say banana…” If Sunset hadn’t already been stunned, she would have face palmed. “Wait, that won’t work.”
Shimmer slowly got to her feet. Wheatley immediately saw her. “Oh thank goodness. When you exploded, I thought you were a goner for sure.”
Don’t blow him up don’t blow him up don’t blow him up don’t blow him up… Sunset took a deep, calming breath, and thought back on her oath to not be like every stereotypical villain and just kill people for no good reason. It normally wasn’t difficult; she was willing to lie and steal, but kill? That wasn’t her. Now? She was really struggling to remember why she shouldn’t murder and maim blue eyed personality cores.
“Are you okay? Is anything broken? I brought an emergency medical unit when I did the manual override. It even has a medical android!” He looked over, and his iris widened, “Uh oh.” Said medical android lay sparking on the ground, the tremendous impact of his ‘manual override’ crushing it. “It’s okay, I can fix this, Just wait here and I’ll-“
“Its fine, Wheatley. I’m fine” Despite herself, she couldn’t stay angry. While he had ruined her moment, he had been trying to help in his own moronic way.
Wheatley looked at her, concerned, but finally nodded. “Okay. I believe you. However, what the bloody hell was that? You could have died!"
Sunset flinched in surprise. For a moment, she felt her anger rising, but she smothered that ember with all her might. Instead, she felt touched by his concern. She didn’t think about it very often, but, much like he had been one of her few companions over the last few years, she was also the first he’d had in a very long time. Apparently, few if any of the other robots and cores around to talk or even give him the time of day.
Perhaps she did owe him an explanation.
“Do you remember why I came to this world?” Sunset softly asked.
Wheatley’s iris widened in confusion. “Huh? What does that have to do with anything?”
“Just go with it. I promise it’ll all make sense in the end,” Sunset said, irritated. He was already deviating from the dramatic buildup she had in mind.
“Okaaay then, I’ll trust you. Uhh, you said something about needing more power or something like that?”
“More or less. After my… fallout with Princess Celestia, I realized that if I was going to live up to my true potential and make Celestia acknowledge me as worthy, to prove I was more than the silly little filly she’d taken in years ago, I had to grow stronger.” Sunset trailed off, lost in bittersweet memories.
After a few moments, she sighed and ran a hand through her long hair. “Long story short, I said and did things I shouldn’t have, burned my bridges, and fled through the first portal I came across.”
“Ah. Would that be why you were on fire when you first came through?” Wheatley asked.
Sunset stopped, pulled up short by the question. “You know… I don’t think that had anything to do with that, actually.” She took a deep breath. “Anyway, I waited too long to leave, and found myself trapped here.”
“At first, I was upset.” Upset had been an understatement. Frothing at the mouth furious was a more correct metaphor, although it still fell short. “A week of screaming and explosions later, I had an epiphany; this place was the opportunity I was waiting for.” In fact, her “epiphany” had been a book on Quantum Mechanics that had nearly given her a concussion.
“Besides vast troves of knowledge just waiting to be uncovered,” she did not salivate right then, dammit! “I also found magic here to be… less efficient, for lack of a better term. Normally, that’s bad for any aspiring magic users such as my radiant self,” she said. In fact, for almost anyone else it would have been crippling, ”But magic is a lot like the body; every time you push your limit to the edge, it comes back a bit stronger.”
“For the past few years, training here been enough for my power to grow, bit by bit.” Mentally, she amended that the numerous dangers of Aperture Science enhanced her spellcasting out of necessity; any wasted power came back to hurt later on. The… frankly strange knowledge here, while useless to magic at first glance, often also offered unique insights into the world she hadn’t known were possible, and had led to much greater insight on the mechanics and efficiency of many spells. “Last year, though? I hit my limit. No matter what I tried, I wasn’t improving.”
“Oh. Was that the day you blew up a testing chamber?”
Sunset ground her teeth at the memory. On reflection, she could have handled her epiphany a bit better. “That’s why I decided to go back to Equestria when the portal opened back up to see if there was something anything that could help me.” That was actually a bit of a lie by omission. She knew of something that could have helped her-in fact, the entire point of her time in Aperture was the quest for knowledge that could emulate its effects but the chances of rediscovering it had been slim to none. “And what do you know, everything’s changed. Celestia got a new student,”
“Hey. Wasn’t that the day you blew up seven testing chambers?”
Sunset ground her teeth. She hadn’t taken news of Celestia replacing her that well. “-Three years after I left and I’ve been replaced with one Twilight fucking Sparkle who’s apparently a magical fucking prodigy who rediscovered the legendary Elements of Harmony, defeated and reformed the mythical monster Nightmare Moon-who’s now Princess Luna apparently, defeated and reformed the primordial Spirit of Chaos Discord, somehow became a fucking Alicorn, and-
“You do realize I have no idea who or what any of these things are, right?” Wait. Was Wheatley being… condescending? After a moment’s reflection, she was proud. There might be hope for him yet.
That did not stop Sunset from glaring at Wheatley, but she continued regardless. “The important bits there were the Elements of Harmony. Specifically, the Element of Magic-possessed by one fucking Twilight Sparkle, Celestia’s star fucking pupil and national fucking hero who became a fucking alicorn on top of every fucking thing fucking else and how in the fucking world did she became a fucking alicorn of all fucking things I fucking don’t even fucking!-“
“Uh, Shimmer?” Wheatley interrupted.
“-know how the fucking hell she did that that cheating fucking bit!-“
“Oi, Shimmer!” Wheatley said.
“'Oh being a Princess is earned?' Celestia says. Earned my glorious ass! Why don’t you tell that to Twilight fucking Sparkle that bloody cu-“
“Shimmer!” Wheatley shouted.
“Huh? Where was I?”
“The thing-a-majig of Magic. Maybe? I kind of lost you there to be honest.”
“Element of magic.” Sunset said absently, collecting her thoughts. “Without going into a three hour lecture on just what it is and why it might just be the most important artifact in the entire history of my world, suffice it to say that one of its lesser properties was amplification of one’s own magic.”
Sunset paused, fully expecting Wheatley to interrupt. When he didn’t, she felt somewhat off her stride, but continued after a moment. “Uh, as I was saying. That- okay, seriously Wheatley, no comments? You’re kind of throwing me off here.” Sunset gave up.
Wheatley looked surprised. “No, no comments here. Actually understood that last part. Why? Do you want me to comment? Because I can?”
“If you would.”
“Oh, well. Let me see... the thing, about the other thing and, um, uh, well, shoot. This is harder than I thought it’d be.”
“No. You were perfect.” Sunset couldn’t help chuckling.
“Oh. Well, go me.”
“As I was saying, the Element of Harmony was a magical amplifier and I hit a wall. Obviously, I had to steal it.”
“Of course. Makes perfect sense.” Wheatley said.
Sunset nodded. It was good to have someone who understood her sometimes. “So, of course everything goes wrong, she wakes up, there’s a chase, and the crown is knocked through the mirror as I make my escape.”
“Wait, I’m confused. Wasn’t that what you wanted?”
Sunset shook her head and began pacing. “Of course not. I was supposed to get in, get out, leave the fake crown, and hopefully she would be none the wiser for a few days while I study the crown, then sneak it back in. Best case scenario, she never even knows the crown was gone. “
She didn’t mention that the idea of stealing one of Equestria’s most sacred and powerful artifacts for her own permanent personal use made her violently ill. But, taking it for just a little while for study if it meant furthering her own powers? Perfectly reasonable.
“Of course, now she knew where I am and that is very very bad.” Sunset said.
“How bad?”
“Capture, imprisonment, forced personality change via rainbow laser of doom, torture, and Celestia’s disappointed “you shouldn’t have done that but I still love you anyway” stare.” Sunset shuddered at the last one.
"Ah. Bad then."
“Yes,” Sunset confirmed. “As I was saying, Twilight and any number of her friends on top of possibly two immortal goddesses were coming here. I’m good, but not that good. The only way to make it through this was to cast the most powerful illusion of my life to draw her and anyone that came with her into the simulation room’s High School...Scenario…”
Sunset stopped. She hadn’t really had time to think about it because she had spent her time prior to Twilight’s arrival weaving the most powerful illusion of her life and making sure it worked properly with the Simulation Chamber. During the simulation and beyond she’d frantically played her imposed role in it while studying the Element of Magic when Twilight wasn't around, but now that she thought about it… “Wheatley, why was the simulation room set to the High School Musical scenario?’
Wheatley laughed sheepishly. “Well, you see, there’s a very good reason for that.” She stared at Wheatley. “Ah, not going to just accept that?” Slowly, almost mechanically, Sunset shook her head. “You see, right before you left, I was really bored and I really really wanted to know what it was like to be in the lead role of a High School musical. Turns out? Not so great.”
Sunset stared at him, and slowly blinked. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.” In fact, she decided she was going to repress that comment at the earliest opportunity lest she set something on fire.
“As I was saying, I had hoped that the false reality would give me the time to study the crown.” Sunset paused to bury the previous conversation deeper. “I nearly turned the simulation off when she just showed up by herself.” Truth be told, she had no idea why Twilight came alone. It was probably Celestia’s fault.
“Well, why didn’t you? I’ve seen you destroy huge sections of the Facility for no reason at all.” There was a pregnant pause. “Wow, I just realized you have serious anger issues. Did you know this?” Wheatley asked.
“Yes,” Sunset all but growled, but took a few deep breaths to calm herself. “Don’t get me wrong-I’m good. In fact, I’m one of the best magic users in Equestria. But, Twilight had somehow fought off an Ursa Minor, defeated a god of chaos, redeemed the nigh invincible Nightmare Moon and said god of chaos, fought with a ferocious dragon, and is an immortal fucking alicorn on top of that.” Sunset still didn’t know how the hell that was possible or where to even begin. She blew the hair out of her eyes in a huff that may or may not have been a pout. “I’m good, but not that good.” There. It hurt to admit it, but it was the truth.
“Anyway, the simulation conjoined with my illusion spell worked and fooled Twilight completely. “ Sunset had absolutely no idea how her hastily scraped together plan had worked. In fact, it was a miracle it had worked at all.
The illusion worked to bring Twilight’s mind into the simulation in ignorance while drawing on her memories and expectations to help shape the reality while the simulation generated the actual details for total immersion. It was absolutely cobbled together despite the power she’d put into it, and the spell had worked poorly.
In fact, Sunset would go as far as to say that everything that could go wrong with the spell did. It created horribly awkward characters, a nightmarish caricature of Celestia, and gave one of the absolute worst plots Sunset Shimmer had ever seen to keep Twilight distracted while Sunset worked (her part in it still made her cringe: brainwashing teenagers to conquer Equestria? What. The. Fuck.).
Yet… it had all worked out. Somehow.
“Okay,” Wheatley said. “I think I get what you’re doing, but can you get to the point? Also, can you go back a bit? I might have lost you there.”
“What? You said you understood me earlier!” Sunset said.
“Yeah, I did, didn’t I?” Wheatley mused. “You see, I may have said that, but I actually didn’t mean it. I was hoping I’d understand as you went along, but now I don’t. Think you can fix that?”
Sunset Shimmer rubbed her temples before giving Wheatley a long suffering look. She didn’t know whether she was upset that Wheatley had lied to her out of his own stupidity or that her dramatic buildup had been ruined. “Okay just tell me where I lost you.”
Wheatley hummed a moment, and said, “OH. Yeah, so… who was Princess Celestia again?”
Sunset Shimmer barely restrained herself from ripping Wheatley apart with phenomenal cosmic power. Instead, she settled for screaming. Then, she set the room on fire. Again.
“Feeling better?” Wheatley asked a few minutes later after the flames and moderately maniacal laughter died down.
“Actually, yes.” Sunset said, brushing a bit of soot off her pants.
“You do realize I was joking, right?” Wheatley asked.
“On reflection, you might be right.” Sunset conceded.
“So… back to the story?” Wheatley suggested.
“Back to the story.” Sunset agreed.
“Look, I’m just going to get the point here.” Wheatley rolled his eye at this and Sunset couldn’t blame him; if she’d done that from the very beginning, what little that remained of her workshop wouldn’t have mysteriously combusted again.
“The spell you saw that nearly killed me? Its one and only purpose was to recreate the Element of Magic.”
“Wait… You nearly killed yourself for a shiny crown? For the love of-why?!!!.” Wheatley suddenly shouted. Sunset was shocked to find that he… actually sounded concerned. Angry, certainly, but he cared. Sunset couldn’t identify the warm feeling enveloping her heart, but it felt… nice, comforting even.
Six seconds later, it hit Sunset Shimmer just exactly what Wheatley had said. She stared incredulously at him a moment before she remembered that there was now way he would know why or even have the most basic of backgrounds to know that what she just said should have been physically impossible.
“Okay, Wheatley I’m going to simplify this for you. The Element of Magic is not just a cutesy little trinket. It’s not even a powerful magical artifact. It’s an aspect of creation just like gravity or entropy. It’s an integral part of the Elements of Harmony-the very concept that helps keep my world together and has existed since the dawn of time. It would literally take me a month to explain to you why even attempting to recreate it isn't possible. ”
Sunset paused for a breath. “At least, that’s what I would have said before I came here.”
“Wheatley, you take the knowledge that went into this place for granted. It’s going to take my home centuries to reach what this world has, if we ever do. Aperture opened my eyes to knowledge I doubt even Princess Celestia has dreamed of-including a way to replicate the Element of Magic. The spell that nearly killed me? It’s the result of my years of research and testing here. It’s the proof of my intelligence and power… of my worth.” Sunset trailed off into silence.
Wheatley sighed. “Look, Shimmer, I’m still not sure I understand everything, but, tell me it was at least worth it?"
“Oh God yes,” Sunset said as she broke out of her reverie and smiled genuinely for the first time in far too long. While the initial shock of putting the crown on had faded, she could still feel its power and magic intermingling with her own, sending tingles up her spine.
“Well, then. If you’re happy with how it turned out, then I’m happy for you,” Wheatley said. For some odd reason, Sunset felt like there was a lesson to be learned in there, somewhere, but couldn’t figure it out for the life of her.
“So…Shimmer, what are you going to do now?” Wheatley asked
“Huh?” Sunset responded eloquently. The question completely blindsided her. She honestly hadn’t expected to get this far. “Well, I can’t exactly go back at this point-the mirror is closed for the next three and a half years. I guess I’ll stick around here and continue my research and training.” For some reason, Wheatley looked positively cheerful when she said that. However, his eye scrunched up in thought as another question occurred to him
“What about when the portal opens back up?” Wheatley asked. At this, Sunset smirked and the gem in her crown glinted even as her cyan eyes gleamed.
"Then? Then I go claim what is rightfully mine.”
Author's Note
So... my first story on this site. Bring it.
In all seriousness though, I wrote this after seeing the terrible ending of the first Equestria girls movie. I mean, seriously? Using teenagers to take over Equestria? That was her plan?
They seriously wasted a perfectly good character. A dark opposite to Twilight Sparkle, an antagonist who could have been just like Twilight if she'd walked a different path (Granted, we have gotten a few of these as the series progressed, but I digress). This story practically wrote itself.
Instead, we got a rehash of High School Musical and a beyond stupid plot.
I can forgive the High School setting, but that ending pushed it straight into horrid piece of shit territory. Fortunately, the sequels were honestly pretty damn good
As for the Portal crossover... I've got nothing. Wheatley just kind of wrote himself in one day, and that's what it became. Well, that and the thought of what Sunset Shimmer or anyone would actually be like if they were stuck in Aperture for years outside of testing.
Now, I've got to comment on Wheatley here. I'm not sure I'm getting his voice right. In the games, he only ever talks at you and his conversations with GLaDOS don't count because she's an antagonist. We never actually get any dialogue between him and another semi-friendly person. If you think I didn't get his voice down right, tell me. It's the only way I'm going to learn and improve as a writer.
Now, before I end here, some might question Sunset's accomplishment here as complete and utter BS. Normally, I'd agree. However, this is Aperture we're talking about. If anyone has the knowledge to say screw you to the normal binding laws of physics and magical physics (yes, those two are separate things), it's them.
HiddenMaster out.
