On weekends, Sunset would sit around Complex-P0N3. She didn't like being there, but it was her only choice. At Sanctuary, there were three places to go: if they were sixteen or younger, they would be put into Complex-P0N3. Between ages sixteen to twenty, only Abnormalities were forced to fight while the rest were forced to start families. If they were forty to twenty, they lived in Complex-CH@LL3N73. After that, they were sent to death.
Sunset didn't have parents anymore. When she was a baby they had their heads cut off in front of her. This caused her to be irritable and forced to live in a complex to the Abnormalities: Complex-M@6N3. Usually in a complex, twenty people were squished up in a twenty-by-twenty room to live in each other's filth. If they lived in Complex-M@6N3, they were separated, but were sent downstairs for social interaction. She had gotten to where she loved the other girls, and they loved her back. At first she had hated them and they were afraid of her, but then she learned to love and trust them.
Now she didn't want to go down at all. As the beautifully written words scribbled over the pages of the notebook her eyes widened. She then looked down at the six words. Friendship stood out to her the most, and she didn't know why. It didn't define her in the least bit. The words began to change color. The body paragraph became a dark purple, and the words became assorted colors of all different hues as it made a hissing sound.
Sunset Shimmer jumped up from her chair and slammed the book shut. She spotted a latch lock on the side and she turned it quickly to the side. The room fell silent and all that she could hear was her panicked, loud breaths. Deep in her heart she knew that the book would make a move. It would make a sound or lunge at her. Maybe it was even a bad dream, but it was scary to her.
Slowly she decided to back away from it. She didn't want to agitate it, but she was still curious to what it was. She couldn't get close to it. Just a little peek...
Sunset began to tiptoe her way closer to the large journal. The leather cover had a strange sun emblem on the top and the pages were old sheets of beautifully decorated onion paper. Her eyes glistened with the glory of the beautiful book. Beauty meant pain, though.
Her hand reached out slowly.
She bit her lip and her fingers began to shake a little bit and the room was quiet enough to hear a pin drop.
Finally the door was slammed open. She gasped and fell back into the chair, but it flipped back and she fell on her back with a loud shriek.
"Are you alright," Fluttershy asked quickly, running over to check on her. Fluttershy's long, loving arms reached down to help her up and Sunset smiled a bit with a sigh.
"I'm fine, don't worry about it, Shy."
"Don't touch my Fluttershy," Dash murmured under her breath, folding up her muscular arms. Sunset stood quickly and picked up the rolling desk chair. Fluttershy looked down at the book and frowned in wonderment, pointing to it.
"What is that?" Fluttershy reached for the lock on it and Sunset Shimmer felt a cold sweat beginning to condensate on her forehead. If Fluttershy saw the inside of the journal the police would have to arrest her and burn the book.
"Fluttershy?"
"Yes?"
"What are you doing?"
"Making sure I won't have to report this," she explained in a confused manner, "I thought you knew the laws?"
"Yes!" Sunset smiled nervously. "Yes, I do!"
"Alright," she sang as she reached down to the lock, but it wouldn't budge when she touched it. "Why do you have a locked journal?"
"I was looking through my grandma's stuff and I found it. I don't know what it is, but it only..." If she told Fluttershy the truth, she would be arrested for Law 29183. "It's only rusted. I wish I could get into it."
"It doesn't look rusty..."
"I know. I don't know how to open it-"
"Move!" Dash shoved Sunset to the side, making sure Fluttershy wasn't hurt at all, before she picked up the book. Sunset put her fingers to her mouth to keep from screaming at Dash. With all of her strength, Dash tried to rip open the book in all different directions, but it was indestructible. "It's a piece of junk anyways," Dash murmured, throwing it onto the floor. "Come on."
"Where are we going?"
"We're going to fight initiation." Before they left, Sunset scooped up the journal and threw it into a backpack, slinging it over one shoulder. She couldn't leave it alone.
"Ugh," Twilight groaned in agony, hitting her face on the desk.
"What's wrong, Twilight?" Her head lifted off the desk and she turned her head to look up at the ginormous dragon that curled up next to her. How could Sunset Shimmer shut the book? Her grandmother wouldn't have acted like that. But then again, that was when Spike was very young, which he still was a baby, and she was only just an alicorn.
"You seem so sad," Flash offered, tilting his head a bit.
Having hardly any color then, her hair now flowed and appeared like the swirling, whimsical galaxy. Her eyes shimmered with the most happiness, but behind them was still a piece of sadness.
"Flash, Spike," she whispered. "Come with me. I want to show you the room."
"Oh boy," he giddily cheered, hopping up from his place. The movement rattled the whole palace, but he had managed to keep the walls in one piece. She stood up and looked down as she walked. Twilight had never wanted to show anyone the Sanctuary, but it would have to happen if she needed Spike to help her with her mission.
As she walked by his side down the hall, she nodded to each and every guard that stood near her and Flash. He folded his wings and continued to stare at the sadness embedded on her face. He knew that if she chose him becoming an Alicorn over her friends this would happen. But either way, she would still be sad.
Twilight hesitantly made her way to the door. "You don't have to, Twi-"
She squeezed her eyes shut and rage covered her like a sheet. She hunched up and unlocked the door that only her magic could open and the star spun around a few times, opening up to a beautiful garden. There was a fountain in the middle and the center was shaped like her star that's points branched out to an element with a stone statue of her friend and a memoir plaque in front of them. Spike lowered his head to see inside of the sanctuary and Twilight looked up at him, faking a smile with tears in her eyes.
"S-Spike? Can I have a minute with Flash, please?" Spike saw her sadness and nodded, waiting for them outside. Twilight led Flash into the room and shut the door behind her. In the sanctuary, it was a nice temperature with crystal clear water, the greenest grass and a door leading to nothing. At the top of the point was her own memoir, but instead of a statue being there, a mirror lied there.
She slowly walked past each beautiful, grey, lifeless carving and with each and every one she felt like a new heartstring was broken. Finally when she approached the mirror she burst into tears. Flash consoled her with his wing, pulling her close to him. She nuzzled him softly and pursed her lips, squeezing her eyes shut.
Maybe she thought that if she shut them hard enough, she would wake up and they would all be there and she wouldn't be an alicorn.
But when she opened her teary eyes, everything was back to normal. She recollected herself slowly before she looked up at the mirror. "Sunset Shimmer and the rest are in there."
"That isn't so bad, is it?"
"Their world is corrupted now. Queen Chrysalis still has life and power," she explained, staring at the mirror angrily. "Sunset will not listen to me and the portal is shattered forever. We need to be able to get the Elements of Harmony to them. Twilight looked at him sternly and furrowed her brow. "Now."
"...and the Abnormalities will pick their weapons first." Pinkamena shoved her hands in the pocket of her black hoodie. Her long, straight hair blew softly in the wind as it picked up. She wanted to leave. She wanted to die. Her mother and father forced her to live with the Abnormalities, but her perfect sisters got to live with the normal people.
"Abnormalities, please come to the front." She hung her head and her long hair fell in her cornflower blue eyes. Dash stood to her right with her chest out, chin up and her angry expression on her face. On her other side was Sunset, who seemed serious for the situation, but she could still tell that she was nervous.
Fluttershy lollygagged around, looking around at the sky as she stumbled along. A few times, Dash had to grab her arm tightly and lead her along the way. Rarity's face was stained with tears, for she had to leave her room to go to fight. Applejack seemed alright with war. She was always the kind of person to accept it.
"You will be placed in Bunker-M@6N3. Not much difference between your last one and this one, but there is one room. And it's in the back." Pinkamena perked up a bit when she glanced at a gun on a rack. It had a blue metallic body and a pink trigger. She didn't understand the blue balloon gem on the side, but she loved the look of the gun. "Go ahead."
Dash grabbed a baseball bat with a red lightning bolt. Applejack got a whip with an orange apple. Rarity grabbed a knife with a purple diamond. Fluttershy got a flute with a pink butterfly on it. Finally Pinkamena grabbed the gun and held it in her hands. She spun it around on her finger by the trigger and she grinned a bit, clutching it in her hand tightly. The fingerless, black leather gloves that she wore crunched a bit over the cold metal, but it was a comfortable sort of crunch that sent a tingle down her spine.
President Chrysalis smiled from her throne and clasped her hands together. "Alright. Now turn around." Pinkamena frowned and looked up to watch a gate rise to separate the normal people from the six.
The towering gates to the empty city opened slowly. Out ahead of them was an empty wasteland of what used to be a beautiful city. "I just received word that the bunker was destroyed. Good luck!" Pinkamena walked after Dash jogged through the gates. They slammed loudly when everyone had walked through, making Fluttershy hug Dash nervously.
Even Dash seemed nervous when they faced their first enemy. A changeling came from the trees, but Pinkamena's hair finally scrunched up into curls and a smile spread across her face. She shot the gun and it collapsed dead and the others stared at her. She squealed of happiness and smiled at the others.
"Come on," she squealed in a high-pitched, happy tone, "let's go!"
"What's wrong with you?" Rainbow Dash grumbled as she was practically pulled along by Fluttershy. For the first time ever, Fluttershy was excited to be doing something that dealt with harm. What she didn't understand is why Fluttershy had picked up a flute instead of a real weapon.
Finally it hit Dash. Fluttershy wasn't looking for victims at all. She was looking for shelter. She was hunting for sanctuary. Dash grabbed tight onto Fluttershy's hand and then reached over, grabbing onto Rarity's. Rarity looked confused for a second, but then grabbed onto Pinkamena's hand tightly. This led on until they were linked to a chain and Fluttershy squinted her eyes, looking off into the distance. Through a line of enemies, there was a small, colorful cake shop. It was dull, but had colors on the rickety thing.
She broke into a fast sprint. Dash could hardly keep up and she never realized that Fluttershy had it in her. The small girl ran and Pinkamena shot with the utmost happiness, until they were all in the little cake shop. All was quiet, until a short, chubby woman made her way downstairs with a gun.
Pinkamena dropped her weapon and they all held their hands up. The woman lowered her gun and finally dropped it on the creaky steps, sighing of a bit of relief. "Oh, Celestia..."
"Whoa ma'am, calm down there," Applejack tried to soothe, walking up to her. She pat the lady's back, helping her over to a chair. "You a'right?"
"No..." The lady stared deep into Pinkamena's eyes. Dash leaned against the door frame. She was the only one that remembered what happened to little Pinkie. Dash picked at her nails before adjusting her eye patch and finally Applejack said her name.
"Hm? No."
"What do you mean, no? I didn't even tell you to do nothin'!"
"You were going to," Dash murmured grumpily, folding her arms. Sunset Shimmer listened to the two argue before she watched a man slowly walk downstairs with two babies in his arms. She smiled a bit and tried to calm the man down as well by talking to the small children, pinching their cheeks.
The little girl yanked at her hair while the boy pulled her ear and she yelped of pain, holding her face. "Ouch..."
"Yeah," the tall, skinny man nervously murmured. "They do that."
Prologue - From Alicorn to Human
Dear Sunset Shimmer,
Many decades have passed. My friends have gone along with them, including your great-great-great-grandmother and her friends. I do not know of your whereabouts, but I do know that you have the book. You do not understand what you hold in your hands. You have never opened the book until now. You may wonder why you are staring at these pages and there are letters appearing before your eyes. If this is the case, which is comprehensible, I shall tell you my story.
My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle. Your name is Sunset Shimmer the second, named after your ancestry. Your great-great-great-grandmother was a lovely young woman, you know. Even as an old one she was perfect in every way. But, she didn't always use to be that way. She used to be a daemon: a monster. She stole away the Element of Magic when she resided here in Equestria. You may not know what Equestria is, but that is the second part of my story.
Equestria is, well, hard to comprehend at first. We are a world of ponies. Strange, right? Do you know Pinkamena? She used to be so happy and bubbly, with that thick curly hair and such pretty blue eyes. Dash didn't use to have so many scars and muscles, but she was still protective over Fluttershy. She also didn't think she was a boy, and she still had her right eye and a smile on her face. Rarity was a fashion designer. Now I know that you have no time for fashion anymore, but she continues to make dresses in her bedroom upstairs on the second floor of your complex. Hear that clamoring right now? She dropped a mannequin. Applejack still used to get dirty and work. That was all she did. She was also honest, but in your society today, she was raised to be quiet, but still have integrity.
It is up to you now. Pick up your pen and write to me. I don't want to stare at you through a portal.
I want to feel you.
I want to know your emotions.
But here's my advice: stop crying and be the brave young woman you are. You can defeat President Chrysalis, for you have what you need.
HONESTY
LAUGHTER
FRIENDSHIP
KINDNESS
GENEROSITY
LOYALTY
Dearest regards and the best of luck,
Princess Twilight Sparkle
