The Fall of Sunset Shimmer
Chapter 1: The Fall of Sunset Shimmer.
The Multiverse is, by definition, a collection of hypothetical possible universes that together comprise everything that exists and can exist: the entirety of space, time, matter, and energy as well as the physical laws and constants that describe them.
It goes without saying that there are any number of possible universes out there, one for every decision made or otherwise forgone, be it something as insignificant as which what gender or race you were born into, to more complex conundrums such as which shirt to wear or whether or not to drink Chocolate Milk with everything.
The answer to that last one, naturally, was a resounding YES, or at least it was in the opinion of a certain Lord of Chaos, who was currently reclining on what had come to be regarded as ‘His’ couch in the home he shared with his best friend/parole officer, when he wasn’t making a minor pest of himself in order to prevent himself from going insane.
Now don’t get him wrong, there was nothing wrong with indulging in a bit of dementia now and then, indeed, he challenged anyone to spend a millennium encased in stone yet completely aware of their surroundings and not go round the bend. It was simply that he’d been there, done that, and had even printed several fashionable Shirts (Tie-Dyed, Naturally) to advertise the fact.
That being said, driving other entities barmy had proved to be a welcome anathema to the otherwise humdrum that was sadly becoming his continued existence, now that he was burdened by the oh-so-humbling shackles known as ‘Friendship’.
‘Stupid Writers with their stupid moral lessons…’ he muttered, summoning a glass of chocolate milk which he promptly consumed, chucking said beverage over his shoulder, where it promptly began chasing Angel Bunny around the house ‘Seriously, couldn’t they have pulled some other trick? Like the Reformation spell requiring that I eat it?”
Sure it wouldn’t have worked, after all, trying to impose order on a being whose very existence was chaotic was like introducing matter to anti-matter, or the Cutie Mark Crusaders to Power Tools.
‘Speaking of which…’ he noted, snapping his talons to pause the channel, peering out the window to check on the fillies, having promised to keep an eye on them while Fluttershy and her friends were off doing whatever it is they got up to during 'movie night', a task he, surprisingly, found to be both entertaining and cathartic, as together the fillies made quite the effective trifecta of chaos, and the Unicorn couldn’t even use magic yet!
‘Maybe I should take a leaf or two from Celestia’s book…’ he mused, idly nibbling on a random page from the Sun Princess’ diary, one of the saucier pages naturally, as he watched Scootaloo lay out her latest ‘sure to earn us our cutie marks (or land us in hospital)’ plan, only to toss the idea aside, knocking Angel Bunny out of mid-air as the rabbit once again attempted a futile show of dominance ‘Nah, too much effort…’
Well, that and the fact that it was more fun to simply sit back and watch the fireworks. After all, he’d only promised to keep an eye on the fillies so they didn’t hurt themselves, at no time had he promised to keep them from getting into trouble.
‘Hospital maybe, but not trouble.’ He amended, snapping his talons again to resume watching his show ‘Ooh, I like what Cadence has done with the place.’ he applauded, pulling on a pair of cardboard 3D glasses to avoid lens flare ‘Always did feel it could do with a bit of touching up. Hmm?’
He paused as he spotted something in the corner of the screen that actually caused him to quirk a brow. To anyone else, it would’ve simply been a pretty mare with a fiery mane that would’ve had any bacon-lover drooling in appreciation. What made her stand out was the fact she wasn’t wearing a cloak or glaring at Twilight. If anything she seemed almost…hurt.
No, no she was definitely hurting, those were honest to Faust tears streaming down her cheeks as she raced back into the crowd, followed swiftly by a young Earth Pony Foal and a lanky Pegasus with a VERY intriguing Cutie Mark.
“Well now…That’s interesting…" he mused, sitting up straight as he hit the pause button, zooming in on the Stallion's rump (not like that you dirty, dirty mares) to get a better look at the intricate silver design "I do wonder what could have caused this to come about?"
With that said he snapped his fingers, summoning up a bottomless tub of buttery popcorn before pointing the remote at the TV and hitting the rewind button.
Canterlot Castle – Two and a Half years till the Summer Sun Celebration.
They say that pride comes before the fall, and if ever a pony embodied that term it was Sunset Shimmer, one of the elect few to be granted the prestigious honour of not only attending Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, but also being personally selected to become the Sun Princess Personal Student.
From the moment she’d first walked through those gilded doors at the academy, it was clear to all that Sunset Shimmer would go far, both in terms of her magical acumen and as a pony. It wasn’t simply her raw magical skill, she simply possessed a force of will that few other ponies could match, or indeed handle. Indeed, prior to being selected by the Princess there was many a time she wound up showing up her professors, many of whom had to take sabbaticals to recover from the humiliation of being shown up by a mare easily half their age in their chosen field.
However, while no-one could doubt Sunset’s magical prowess, her social skills, while far from lacking, were not the kind Celestia approved of from those closest and dearest to her heart. To put it bluntly, her power and skill made her boastful, arrogant, and condescending towards anypony who didn’t measure up to her ridiculously high standards despite Celestia’s many lessons in humility.
In all fairness it wasn’t entirely Sunset’s fault that she was like this. After all, while her rank as Celestia’s Student opened many doors for her, what lurked behind some of those doors was enough to turn the stomach of any decent pony. From the moment she attended her first Gala, she’d been exposed to more potential suitors and ‘business partners’ looking to cash in on her position than many a mare could expect to meet in a lifetime.
This, as you might imagine, led to her becoming jaded on the subject of ‘friendship’, despite it being a key tenant of most of her lessons with Celestia. She grew distrustful of anyone who tried to get close to her, whether they be old classmates or the Canterlot Elite. But what did she care for the opinions of the lesser folk when she had the company of a Goddess? What need had she for friends when every day was spent pushing the bounds of magic further and further under the caring tutelage of her wise mentor? The only Alicorn in existence?
So you could imagine the hurt she felt when Celestia pulled her aside after a particularly boring seminar to introduce her to her recently adopted as a niece, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.
Now Sunset was no stranger to members of the Canterlot Elite claiming to be ‘relatives of the Princess’, as Celestia tended to step in to adopt the foals of old family friends that had fallen on hard times or were on the verge of dying out. Prince Blueblood was a prime example of the latter, his family having served the crown for years until his father passed away due to choking on an apple seed.
But Cadenza, or Cadence as she insisted on being called, didn’t have the benefit of being from an ‘old blood family’ that had served the crown for generations, nor had her parents been a part of the Canterlot Military. No, the only reason Celestia had even given the mare the time of day instead of leaving her to an orphanage was because she had somehow managed to ascend to Alicorn-hood despite being born a Pegasus.
It had been a shocking development for the normally confident Sunset Shimmer. And could you honestly blame her? Here she was, the most powerful Unicorn of her generation, the prodigal student of Princess Celestia herself, arguably the closest thing the Sun Princess had to a daughter, and yet some Pegasus yokel from the sticks had managed overnight something that, to date, had eluded even the legendary Starswirl the Bearded.
Needless to say, despite Celestia’s attempts at kindling a friendship between the two, Sunset had made it clear from the outset that she thought very little of the so-called ‘Princess of Love’ and wanted even less to do with her, going out of her way to purposefully avoid the mare, though she limited herself to being excessively formal whenever in Celestia’s presence.
It wasn’t as if Cadence was a bad pony. Indeed, unlike many of Celestia’s adopted family she was actually rather down to earth, even insisting she attend the academy for commoners instead of simply waltzing into the Academy for Gifted Unicorns, which in Sunset’s opinion had been rather clever of her, as she highly doubted the naive mare would’ve survived one minute among her former colleagues.
No, the reason Sunset chose to distance herself from Cadence was simply jealousy, plain and simple. And could you honestly blame her? She’d worked her flanks off for years to get where she was, had devoted herself entirely to her studies to impress the Mare she saw as a surrogate mother, only to be shown up by some random mare from the middle of nowhere.
So in a rather interesting turn of events, Celestia’s gambit to convince Sunset Shimmer to make friends wound up making her student even more of a recluse, pushing away any and all attempts from her peers to get to know her in favour of bridging the gap she believed had formed between her and Celestia.
Desperate to reach out to her disciple, Celestia decided to bend one of her own rules and unearthed one of Starswirl’s magical mirrors. Normally she would never dream of doing such a thing, not after the falling out that occurred between them due to her abusing his trust, but she was fairly confident that if anything could get Sunset back on the right track, it was to see how happy she would be surrounded by the friends she was so sorely lacking.
Alas, however, it seemed her old friend’s warnings had been well placed, for whatever Sunset had indeed lit a fire in her, however, it was a fire that sought power, power which Celestia did not believe her once erstwhile student was ready to handle. And so she had sealed the mirror away, hoping that, in time, she could wear down her student’s patience with knowledge.
But alas, while Sunset hadn’t inherited Celestia’s desire for companionship, her hunger for knowledge was just as voracious as the Alicorn’s had been during her own tutelage with Starswirl. She was certainly just as stubborn as Celestia dimly recalled her foal-hood self to be, refusing to take a hint, always trying to bring their conversations back to the mirror despite Celestia’s best attempts to distract her.
In this regard, Celestia had to admit that Starswirl had been the better instructor, the old Stallion having possessed the patience of a saint and the knowledge of how to reign in overbearing foals who thought they knew everything. For Faust’s sake he was able to keep two inexperienced Alicorn Foals under control, while here Celestia was struggling with a single, admittedly brilliant, unicorn.
In the end, after countless days, weeks and months of dodging the issue, Celestia’s millennia spanning patience had finally run thin, the Solar Princess making it clear, in no uncertain terms, that she had no intention of discussing the mirror and whatever Sunset had seen within its crystalline depths until she deemed her student ready.
The look of betrayal and anger in Sunset’s eyes as she laid down her ultimatum had cut her to the core, but she knew in her heart that it was for her own good. In time, once she was certain Sunset had matured physically and mentally, she would be more inclined to discuss what her student had seen, but until then she still had some growing up to do.
It was only after the events that followed that she would recall how that very mind-set had cost her another figure close to her heart. But unlike her sister, who was scheduled to return within the next few years, there was no guarantee that she’d ever see Sunset Shimmer again.
Canterlot Castle Library - Dark Magic Section.
“If we cannot get past this, your studies end here.” Celestia intoned as she glared imperiously down at her former student “You are welcome to stay in Canterlot, but you are no longer welcome in the castle.”
“This is the biggest mistake you’ll make in your entire life.” Sunset vowed, her pride and anger overpowering the crippling fear and shame that were practically begging her to throw themselves at her mentor’s hooves, to plead for mercy like some scared little foal. Instead she turned on her hooves and marched out, flanked on either side by the two Royal Guard Stallions Celestia had brought with her.
‘She never even intended to hear me out.’ She growled, glaring heatedly at the normally taciturn stallions, who simply returned her glare with equal venom, as if they were looking down on the scum of Equestria instead of a mare who had more power in her horn than they would ever possess in their entire lives.
A mare that, had she not let her pride get in the way, could have been their next Princess.
There was no doubt in Sunset Shimmer’s mind that she was the most powerful Unicorn in Canterlot, if not all of Equestria. While Cadence had the advantage of being an Alicorn, her Pegasus origins meant her control over magic was even weaker than a newborn filly’s.
This had done little to soothe Sunset’s ego however, and so when the chance arose for her to close the gap, to learn how to ascend to Alicorn-hood, she had leapt at it, confident that between her skills and Celestia’s guidance, she would finally achieve her destiny.
Instead, her Mentor had betrayed her, lied and avoided the issue before outright denying her access to the knowledge she needed to make that next step, and now seeing fit to cast her aside for the ‘crime’ of refusing to dance to her tune for a second longer.
It went without saying that she wasn’t about to take this lying down. Oh she’d gone along quietly to give the Stallions a belated sense of security, but anyone who’d lived in Canterlot for any amount of time knew that the Royal Guard were essentially there to look pretty.
And could you blame them? Celestia had ruled over Equestria for well over a thousand years and in that time no other country had ever so much as sneered in their general direction. And why would they? Only an idiot would purposefully make an enemy of the immortal demi-goddess who controlled the cycle of the sun and moon.
Now the Wonderbolts, those she might have taken seriously, as only the best of the best were accepted to even try out for the squad. But as it stood the two Pegasus Stallions assigned to escort her out of the castle were most likely from the countless failures who just couldn’t cut it and figured guarding the palace was a cushy job.
Sadly, it seemed they had forgotten a key fact about their supposed escort, one that Sunset was all too willing to remind them of as they drew close to the room she recalled the mirror being stored in. And the remedial lesson for the day is: Never send a Pegasus to guard a Unicorn, especially when that Unicorn is Sunset Shimmer.
‘You’d think Celestia would’ve known better.’ She muttered, glaring down at the concussed forms of the Stallions in disgust ‘Or did she simply think so little of me that she thought these overblown bookends would be enough to keep me in line?’
If even one of the guards had been a unicorn the he might have put up more of a fight or at the very least tried to get a flare spell off before she took him down. The fact Celestia hadn’t deemed her enough of a threat to warrant such concern simply proved to Sunset that her former mentor was underestimating her.
‘Yet another mistake she’ll live to regret.’ Sunset vowed, turning her back on the downed guards in favour of striding towards the source of her dilemma and supposed answer to all of her problems, namely Starswirl’s Crystal Mirror.
A part of her wanted to smash the damned thing, partly for ruining her reputation with the Princess, and partially to spite the mare by destroying one of the few relics from her old friend. This was overshadowed, however, by her desire to delve deeper into the vision she’d seen within, to learn the secrets that would grant her the power needed to ascend, to claim the power and status that were rightfully hers.
While she hadn't learnt much beyond the bare basics before Celestia’s arrival, she’d learnt enough to know that the portal seemed to rely on the phases of the moon, an odd trait given Celestia’s preference for the sun, and would only activate once every thirty moons, or once every fifteen months, give or take.
Obviously she couldn’t sneak the damn thing out of the castle, and while it wouldn’t be hard to sneak back in over the next two years given the ineptitude of the Guard there was no guarantee that Celestia would leave the mirror in the same place once Sunset left. In other words, this was the only chance Sunset had to use the mirror, and it just so happened to be a Full Moon tonight.
‘Just you wait.’ She preened, smirking confidently to herself eve as she heard the familiar dainty hoof-steps of her mentor drawing closer to the chamber ‘When I come back with the power I deserve, I’ll make you regret the day you cast me out!’
And with nary a look back, Sunset Shimmer turned to face her destiny, gathered all the strength she could into her hind legs and launched herself towards the mirror, closing her eyes instinctively as she neared the glass surface, only to gasp in surprise when instead of slamming into it her hooves passed through as if diving into a pool of ice-cold water.
At that moment, an explosion of colour caught her eye, the former student of Celestia turning as if in slow motion to gape at the rainbow-colored shockwave that was bearing down on Canterlot Castle, her eyes widening in alarm as she sensed the sheer magical power of the field just before head was consumed by the portal.
What happened next, Sunset still isn’t sure to this day, but if pressed to recall anything about her passage through the mirror portal, the only thing she could confidently recall was the mind-numbing pain before everything went white.
An Apple Orchard - Jasper Nevada Outskirts – Present.
“And that’s the last one.” Jacqueline Smith sighed as she set down another basket of apples, pausing only to wipe her brow as she gazed out at the massive orchard before her with a hint of pride “I told Granny I’d have my share done before Mac got back.” She smiled at the sight of a familiar red muscle car tearing up the road “Speak o’the devil, though why’s he burnin’ rubber like that? Dinner ain’t goin’ nowhere…”
To her surprise, however, instead of turning towards the driveway leading up to the farmstead, the red Challenger tore off down the road, kicking up dirt and dust and the odd stone in Jacqueline’s direction, much to her displeasure.
“Now what in tarnation was that for?” she demanded, whipping out her phone to give her older brother a piece of her mind only to blink as someone apparently beat her to the punch, the number on her screen belonging to the family phone back at the house “Hello?”
“Jackie? Where the heck are ya?” the aged voice of her granny demanded, forcing Jacqueline to hold the device away from her ear lest she go prematurely deaf “You’re not still out there tryin’ to prove you can do Mac’s share of the work are ya? Get back here and get some grub in ya before he eats it all!”
“Wait, Mac’s home already?” Jacqueline exclaimed, staring at her phone in shock even as her brother’s grunt of confirmation came over the line “But…I just saw his car take off down the road like the devil was after him!”
“Well I’m lookin’ him square in the face right now,” Granny countered “and as for his car, I can see it parked right outside despite my tellin’ him time and time again to leave it in the barn!”
“Must’ve been somebody else then…” Jacqueline muttered, scratching her head in confusion as she turned off the phone, cutting off the age-old argument between her brother and grandmother in favour of staring down at the road in confusion “Weird though…it even had the same horns on the hood…”
While Jacqueline tried to wrap her mind around the mystery, the red muscle car she spotted, which did indeed sport a stylish set of horns on the hood, tore down the lonesome road with nary a sight to see save a few miles of wooden fence and grazing cattle. Normally such a sight wouldn’t be that unusual. After all, Jasper was but a small rural town in the middle of nowhere, hours, if no days, could pass before a single car would pass through the town itself, and even then they were typically delivery trucks, hauling gasoline and other products to keep the town going.
However, there was more to this muscle car than at first met the eye, not just in how despite the revving of its engine, which by itself was enough to make any car buff beam with pride, it didn’t appear to be venting any exhaust, but also because if you peered into the window, there was a decided lack of anyone steering the damn thing.
Not that Cliffjumper needed anyone in his driver seat mind you, especially not to chat with his partner to break the monotony that was their daily patrol.
“So there I am on the lookout,” he recounted over the radio “when outta nowhere these high beams light up my rear-view. And then it hits me I’m illegally parked!”
“Another parking ticket?” Arcee enquired, her tone a mix of amusement and exasperation that Cliffjumper had come to expect from his partner.
“Better,” he promised, chuckling despite himself even as he steered slightly to the side to avoid running over some poor woodland critter “The Boot.”
“Big metal tire clamp, impossible to remove.” Arcee sighed with a hint of annoyance, a sentiment shared by every bot that had the misfortune of encountering one of the earthling’s more annoying inventions. The only reason Optimus and Ratchet hadn’t been clamped yet was because the medic rarely, if ever, left the base and Cliff doubted they even made clamps big enough for the Prime’s alt-mode.
“Bingo!” he agreed with a chuckle at his partner’s annoyance “So the local Po-lice do their thing, and I let ‘em get at all to way down the block.” He chuckled at the memory “That’s when I kick off my shiny new shoe and – BANG!”
“New York’s finest soil themselves.” Arcee finished, her tone deadpan, though Cliff had known her long enough to detect the hint of amusement buried beneath the snark.
“You know me, Arcee.” He preened, chuckling confidently even as he topped another rolling hill and drifted around a dusty bend “Mess with Cliffjumper-!”
“And you get the horns.” Arcee finished, having heard his catchphrase more times than she cared to remember “Not sure about complies with Autobot Rule Number 1: Keep a low profile?”
“What can I say?” Cliff chuckled, his laughter dying down as he gazed out at the rolling hills before him almost longingly “Patrolling for Energon out here in Dullsville gets kinda lonesome. Almost makes me miss the Decepticons.”
“Like Jasper Nevada's a party?” Arcee countered, her tone wry, though Cliff didn’t miss the undertone of hidden emotion, a mix of bitterness and regret, in her words “We’re alone wherever we travel on this rock, Cliff.”
Cliffjumper paused, wondering how best to change the subject when suddenly his dashboard lit up like the skies over Iacon when Megatron launched his coup. However, rather than the displaying the location of the Energon deposits he’d been tracking for Primus only knew how long, his scanners were instead directing him towards the town of Jasper Nevada itself. “What the Scrap…” he wondered, coming to a halt in the middle of the road to try and make sense of what he was seeing “That can’t be right…”
“Cliff?” Arcee called out, her tone laced with concern for her partner that warmed his spark to the core “What’s the matter? Do you need backup?”
“Do I ever need backup?” Cliffjumper chuckled, trying to calm his partner down before she blew a gasket “I’m just picking up a weird energy signature coming from Jasper…whatever it is it’s making my Scanner go crazy.”
“I think I’m picking it up too…” Arcee muttered, her tone decidedly grim as she opened a channel to the rest of the team “Arcee to all members, are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
“I am.” Ratchet confirmed, his tone serious as spark-failure “Though I certainly wish I wasn’t. Because unless my scanners are failing, someone just opened a Ground Bridge in the middle of Jasper.”
“Wasn’t me!” Bulkhead protested over the coms, accompanied by a series of binary from an equally alarmed Bumblebee “Heck, I thought Ratchet was the only one who knew how to operate it remotely!”
“I am,” the Medic-bot confirmed, his tone decidedly grim “and I can confirm that the Ground Bridge hasn’t been activated, remotely or otherwise. Which leaves only one option.”
“A Space Bridge.” Optimus deduced, the Prime’s grave tone adding a somber, if calming presence to the conversation “Still, why would they open the portal in the middle of a human settlement of all places?”
“Maybe it wasn’t the Cons.” Cliffjumper opined, trying to see the bright side “Arcee and I hitched a ride on Shockwave’s Space Bridge back on Cybertron to get here, remember? Who’s to say some other Bots didn’t manage the same after all this time?”
“Let’s not go counting protoforms until they’ve come online.” Ratchet cautioned, his tone suspicious, though Cliffjumper could tell he was hoping for the best himself “In any case, how should we proceed Optimus? The signal is already dying down but with the exception of Cliffjumper our team is scattered across time-zones.”
“Cliffjumper, proceed towards the designated co-ordinates.” Optimus commanded after a moment’s silence “Remember, do not engage unless absolutely necessary. We cannot allow the humans to come to harm. The rest of us will rendezvous back at base and prepare to Ground Bridge to your location.”
“Try not to get yourself into trouble till I get there Cliff.” Arcee quipped knowingly, her tone wry though Cliff could make out the concern beneath the layers of snark due to their time together.
“Don’t you worry about me darlin’.” Cliff assured his partner, pulling off a perfect 180 before tearing back down the road he’d traveled, his sensors locked on to the portal's last known co-ordinates “There ain’t a Con alive that can take me down!”
Decepticon Flagship Nemesis - Bridge
“What is it, Soundwave?” Starscream demanded, the Wing Commander and temporary leader of the Decepticons turning to face the Nemesis’ silent Intelligence Officer warily, unable to help the shiver of apprehension he felt at the sight of his own crimson optics glaring back at him on the impassive, featureless screen his fellow Decepticon had in lieu of a face “Have you picked up anything worth reporting?”
It was a meaningless question and Starscream damn well knew it, as Soundwave wasn’t the type to interact with anyone unless absolutely necessary. Regardless, with nary a gesture, Soundwave's screen lit up, displaying a 3D map and an audio file, Starscream listening intently to the Autobots Conversation, marveling yet again at just how skilled his fellow Decepticon was at gathering intelligence.
‘It’s a good thing he’s about as ambitious as a maintenance drone or I’d have considered him a threat before now.’ He mused, shivering at the idea of having to wrench control of the Decepticons from the silent Intelligence Officer. He had a hard enough time as it was getting the Vehicons to refer to him as ‘Lord Starscream’ despite reminding them that Megatron had placed him in command until his return. If Soundwave ever got it into his processor to seize control Starscream doubted there’d be much objection.
“A Space Bridge eh?” he mused as the message came to an end, tapping his chin with a pointed talon as he gazed at the energy signature smack dab in the middle of some unimportant primitive Earthling settlement, virtually indistinguishable from any other on this dirt ball of a planet “And clearly not one of ours…Autobot reinforcements?”
Soundwave, as ever said nothing, the Intelligence Officer standing impassively while Starscream mulled over the information in his processor before coming to a decision.
“Send Laserbeak and a few Vehicons to scout out the area.” He commanded in what he believed to be a facsimile of Megatron’s commanding tone “If it does turn out to be Autobot Stragglers, we cannot afford to let them make contact with Optimus Prime.”
Soundwave, outwardly, made no response save to deploy Laserbeak from his chest-panel, the Minicon’s iconic shrill filling the air as it took flight headed for the co-ordinates even as Soundwave ordered two Vehicons to vacate their mining positions to provide back-up.
The first thing Sunset Shimmer could feel as she slowly returned to consciousness was pain, not the stiff kind of pain one got for sleeping funny or from hitting a limb in the middle of the night, nor the dull ache from overusing one’s magic, but a deep, numbing pain that was thankfully fading the more she came awake, replaced with the kind of headache that made her wish she was dealing with the Yakistan ambassadors again.
‘At least then I’d have the benefit of having gotten drunk beforehand.’ She muttered, recalling the sweet, if powerful ale the Yaks were so proud of that not even the Griffin Kingdom could deny was potent stuff. As it were, however, her headache was most likely the result of a magical overload, probably to do with whatever the hay had caused that…Sonic Rainboom…just before she passed through the portal.
‘Wait…I passed through the portal!’ she exclaimed, moving to jump to her feet only to curse as she felt several somethings weighing her down, her her spine literally grinding as if in protest of her actions as she slammed face first onto the floor.
‘Agh, Stupid…’ she hissed, bringing a hoof up to rub her snout only to blink as something soft and claw-like beat her to it, her eyes widening in alarm as she gasped in surprise only to blink as the limb retreated with her hoof.
“What in the world…?” she stammered, attempting to rotate her hoof, only for the strange, paw-like appendage to turn in response, the blunt, claw-like appendages twitching at her merest thought “Don’t tell me…!”
Turning her eyes downward, instead of the well-toned equine body she was so familiar with she found herself gazing down at something that resembled a sickly primate, all long limbs and torso with nary a patch of fur save for her mane. She didn’t even have her Cutie Mark!
“What…is this…?” she stammered, pawing at her body with her new appendages, hands she believed the Minotaurs called them, her horror slowly reaching its apex when she reached up to her forehead only to find her horn missing.
“No-no-no-no-no-no-no-no this can’t be happening!” she shrieked, gripping her mane between her claws as she settled into a full-blown panic attack “This wasn’t how it was supposed to be! I was supposed to become powerful! I was supposed to become a Princess!”
Was this Celestia’s plan all along? Did her mentor purposefully let her stumble onto the mirror, knowing she’d take the chance to seize her destiny, only to cast her away in a world where she couldn’t use any of it?
No, that made no sense whatsoever. If Celestia had simply wanted to banish Sunset, there were plenty of ways she could’ve done so without jeopardising the lives of her guards. True, Sunset had never intended to hurt the stallions any more than she had, but it still was highly unlikely Celestia was behind any of this.
“Calm down…” She urged herself, taking several deep breaths of foul smelling air in an attempt to calm down only to freeze at the sound of approaching footsteps, looking up just in time to be blinded by sunlight before two heavy bags were dropped on top of her “Ow…”
“Hello? I-Is someone in there?” a concerned voice called out, prompting Sunset to raise her head despite the pain to meet a pair of black eyes, set in an alien face that was gaping down at her from the roof of her prison with a look of horrified concern.
“I want to go home.” She wept, tears streaming down her cheeks as she peered into those alien, comforting eyes, the image of them widening in alarm the last thing she remembered before the events of the day finally caught up to her, sending her tumbling back into darkness.
Author's Note
So yeah, this is a thing.
Bit of a spoiler, as you might have guessed, there will be slight changes to canon from this point onwards. Nothing too major, though everyone's favourite Muscle Car will be getting a longer shelf-life than he did in show for one thing.
Note: Changed 'Mustang' to 'Challenger' after primeoetgrunn sent me a picture of an actual 70's Dodge Challenger. Even had the right color scheme too so thanks for that!
