Reborn

“Really now, dear, didn’t your mother ever tell you staring is rude?” Sunset had been unable to keep her eyes off of the draconequus once he had literally popped out of thin air. He stood there looking down at her, a playful smirk on his crazed looking features as Princess Celestia and Princess Luna returned from the cave that held the Tree of Harmony. “I mean she only has ten millennia of experience, surely she-”

“Will not hesitate to return you to being a statue if you continue with your loose lips.” Celestia’s bark carried an air of friendly annoyance, but held a small, threatening edge. “I see the two of you have met.”

“You’re… Discord…” Sunset said slowly, trying to compose herself as she watched Discord reach out and grab the mouth that separated from his face before reattaching it with a roll of his entire head. “The… The spirit of Chaos that threatened Equestria itself…!”

“Yes, yes, tis I.” Discord said, bowing as innumerable clones of himself appeared and started clapping, a beam of light glowing down around his as roses started to drop around his feet. “And though you and your mother have yet to properly introduce yourself to me, Princess Twilight was more than gracious to explain your situation, Sunset Shimmer.”

“Well then, mayhaps you will finally remove your cursed vines from the soil of our fine lands?” Princess Luna’s voice was less playful than her sisters as the alicorn duo stopped just ahead of Sunset and Discord.

“As I’ve told you- one, thirteen, seven, porcupine- this many times, my dear Luna,” Discord’s paws split into a variety of shapes and creatures as he held them out towards the night coloured sister. “the Plunderseeds were never meant to easily removed.”

“I-Is the ground supposed to be shaking like this?” Sunset asked ominously as she felt something tremble beneath her hooves.

“Ah, yes. Discord’s little greenery project.” Celestia gave a small sigh, shaking her head slightly. “Let us do this quickly, Luna, we mustn't tary.”

Sunset stood there, struggling not to move as the gemstones the sisters had recovered started to move, coming to orbit around the pair, three to a sister. She gulped as she noticed Discord take an unnaturally long stride beside her, getting away from the unicorn as the Elements of Harmony started to glow brightly.

“Er… Can we-” Sunset never got a chance to finish her sentence before a literal rainbow of light shot out and into the sky before coming crashing down on her. Just like during the events of the Fall Formal, she could feel pure harmony washing over her.

However just like at the Friendship Games, her thoughts and memories started vanishing, her very essence being washed away by unrelenting light. She opened her mouth, but to no avail, as white flooded over, under, around, and through her, washing away her very being…

~

“What do you mean, it didn’t work!?” Twilight Sparkle yelled as she assisted her mentor in getting the limp body of Sunset Shimmer into one of the near in infinite guest beds in her castle.

Near everypony in Ponyville saw the massive rainbow of light shoot up into the sky before pivoting and rushing back into the ground. The fact that it was from the Everfree Forest had ponies fearful, and of course as soon as Twilight mentioned that nopony should worry, Celestia, Luna, and Discord popped into being beside her on the impromptu stage the Princess of Friendship had conjured, the still form of Sunset Shimmer floating between them.

“I-I-I don’t know!” Celestia stuttered as she finished setting Sunset down on the bed. “I don’t know what went wrong, alright!?”

“Er, don’t look now, ladies,” Discord said after clearing his throat loudly. “but it seems that “corruption” you all spoke of is spreading.”

Sure to the spirit of Chaos’ word, the red of Sunset’s front right limb was slowly creeping up the unconscious unicorn’s limb in a mixture of splotchy marks and veiny strands.

“Do something, Celestia!” Twilight begged from across the bed, her face lost as she pleaded with her mentor.

“...Discord…” the solar alicorn’s voice was small, her posture defeated as she rested a hoof on the head of her daughter. “...Please… Save her…”

“...Say again?” Discord looked down at Celestia, confused. “You must be mistaken, Celestia. I am the spirit of Chaos, not-”

Discord stopped his tirade once Celestia looked up, her ever flowing mane prevent Twilight from seeing the look that had just stopped the draconequus dead in his tracks, a sad look of his own spreading over his features as he walked forward, resting a scaly paw on Sunset’s head.

“Well…?” Twilight asked, watching as Discord stood surprisingly still for once in his life.

“...I’m not sure…” was his soberingly sombre response as the red colouration fully consumed Sunset’s limb.

The pair of ponies resting on the sides of the bed let their full weight collapse onto the floor as they slowly realized the depth of Discord’s response.

~

Sunset fumbled around awkwardly as she continued to fall.

She didn’t know how long she had been falling, and the first sensation she awoke to was the feeling of nothingness even as she realized all the nothingness around her was going the opposite direction she was.

Yet all around her whispers could be heard, small flashes of misty shapes materialized before vanishing as Sunset struggled to stop panicking, her voice still lost to whatever this indescribable limbo was.

“Traitor…”

Sunset turned to the side, just in time to see a shape wink out of existence.

“Whore…”

Another voice behind Sunset, or was it…

“Bitch…”

Shapes suddenly sprang up around her, her motion stopping instantly as she jerked around, like a marionette on its strings as the voices continued all around her, more and more misty shapes coagulating in the void.

“Liar…”

“Coward…”

“Thief…”

Sunset tried to bury her face in her hoofs, flattening her ears against her head in a vain attempt to shut out the voices as she wailed in mute silence.

“We tried so hard…”

“We gave you so much…”

“We let you into our house…”

Sunset froze as a trio of instantly recognizable silhouettes coalesced in front of her, their hairstyles unmistakable even as the rest of the shape was a sea of mist. Each “figure” had a pair of piercing, judgemental shapes of hate filled magenta that stared down at her, moving in time with the voices echoing in Sunset’s head.

“We called you Sister…” the three figures echoed of one another before shattering in an explosion of wailing cries, swirling around one another and forming another shape, one of lavender and vitriol.

“I saved you from the problems you caused…”

“I convinced others to give you a second chance…”

“And you decided to make them all think you were dead…”

A third figure bloomed from the second as Sunset wept openly, her body refusing to shake even as she choked silently on her cries of sorrow, even as the figure of mist slowly shifted into one of pure light.

“I took you off the streets…”

“I taught you everything you know…”

“I gave you your life…”

“And you tried to usurp me…”

The figure reached out it’s monolithic hand towards Sunset, grabbing her and bringing her up to its inhuman eyes, filled with regret and furor.

“And yet…” Sunset paused as the voice instantly changed, a dual tone to this one as the sounds of hooves clopping against glass echoed through the air. She looked up, unable to glance behind her as the hooves grew closer and closer. “All of this is nothing compared to the single being that judges you worst of all…”

The pony shaped figure made her way around Sunset’s figure, everything vanishing once more into blackness as the figure came to a stop in front of Sunset, reaching down with a hoof as the force that restrained her let go, letting the unicorn collapse to the ground in a heap. Sunset found her head slowly pulled up, the black shape slowly gaining colour, an unnatural red seeping up the limbs towards the head, the pony’s mane and tail erupting into fire before settling down somewhat.

“And that’s us, Sunset…” the corrupted version of her pony self said as the blackness finished retreating into her sclera, the aquamarine orbs looking down at her duplicate with remorse, pity, and anger.

“No…” Sunset’s voice finally returned to her as she shook her head, refusing to accept the figure that loomed before her. “No… You’re gone- I defeated you!”

“Is that what you tell yourself, dear?” the pony laughed as she sat down, before pausing and motioning to Sunset with a roll of her eyes. “Do sit up, Sunset, you lazy oaf.”

“Why are you still here!?” Sunset yelled, rising instead to all fours, glaring indignantly at her evil self.

“You may have rid yourself of the corruption from the Element of Harmony you stole from Princess Twilight, but you can’t get rid of parts of yourself so easily.”

“There’s no way you can be part of me!”

“Look, would you stop yelling? Please?” the figure rubbed at her ears, a look of annoyance on her muzzle. “And seriously, please sit down. Look, I even got you a drink!”

Sunset gasped as a table instantly appeared between herself and the other her, its surface an exact replica of-

“And if I remember right, you really enjoy Sonata’s fresh made lemonade, correct? Oh, who am I kidding, of course we do!” Sunset looked down in shock as a non distinct white mug materialized on the table near her, her doppelgänger already floating her own version of the mug up to her lips and taking a sip.

“You know, it sure is something for Sonata to wake up so early every morning to start making food for the family, eh?” the figure gave a sad smile as she watched the amber unicorn finally sit down at the table. “There we go, good little pony. Now we can finally talk like the intelligent, civilized being that we are!”

“...Why are you here…?” Sunset asked again, slowly.

“Like I said, I’m a part of you, Sunset.” the figure responded simply, rolling it’s shoulders lazily. “You, and everyone around you, may think of me as a byproduct of your interactions with the Element of Magic, but that only magnified me.”

“But you still admit you are caused by the Element then.”

“Seriously?” the figure groaned, ramming her face into her front hooves. “Will it get you off if I say yes? Look, I’m you, alright? I’m all your negative feelings all bundled up into one tiny little equine shape of depression, loneliness, hatred, jealousy, and all other sorts of emotions.”

“...Your my literal inner daemon.” Sunset responded cooly, her face a stony visage of disinterest.

“Sure, we’ll go with that. But as long as you continue to see yourself as you do now, things will never change, Sunset. That arm and eye of yours? They’re yours until you realize the truth.”

“What truth? That I’ve done nothing but ruin everyone’s and everypony’s lives that I’ve ever been a part of?” Sunset hiccuped as she finished her sentence.

“That you need to forgive yourself… Everyone else has…” the figure gave a small sigh as she set down her mug, twirling it around and studying it. “Well, maybe not everyone, but you know what I mean. Princess Celestia, Princess Twilight, the Sirens… They’ve all forgiven you, Sunset.”

“Yeah, right, like they’d ever really do that…” Sunset rested her head on her table, laying her hooves over her eyes. “Did you not hear those voices? See those figures?”

“They were figments of your own self deprecation and self hatred, Sunset. They were all facets of you and how you see yourself in the eyes of those around you.” the red pony stood up and slowly walked around the table, coming to stand just to Sunset’s side. “But you have all the truth that those aren’t true.”

Sunset looked up as she felt her shoulder being nudged, the reality in front of her having been replaced with a blank white canvas, a collection of smiling faces appearing and disappearing, pleasant words and compliments ringing through the air.

Twilight Sparkle reaching out a hand from the lip of a crater, a hopeful smile on her face.

The rain being blocked by a massive white wing as Princess Celestia smiled down at her.

The Shadowbolts waving towards her to come join her at their lunch table.

Octavia, Vinyl, Bon Bon, and Lyra all handing her different sweets with smiles on their faces.

The beaming faces of the three Sirens when they learned from Sunset that she would be coming back to live with them, that she still wanted to be their sister.

“...Come oooooon! We still haven’t shown her the narwhal room!”

“Well I think we all agree that it’s better that you are again.”

“It’s time for a cuddle puddle!”

Sunset sat there as more and more memories came flooding through, tears streaming freely down her muzzle, her body shaking slightly.

“See…” the other her said as she rested a hoof across Sunset’s back. “The only one holding you back is yourself, or me…? Whatever you know what I mean.”

“So I’m just supposed to say whoops and move past every mistake I’ve ever made then?” Sunset asked, looking over at herself.

“Accept that you have made them, but that you will move forward a better individual because you know how to be better.” the figure smirked, before suddenly getting overly excited and point towards the screen. “Oh! This one is awesome!”

Sunset turned back to the screen just in time to see Celestia, soaking wet and covered in bubbles looking at her, a motherly smile on her face as everything started to wash away into a pure, blank white, her mother’s voice echoing with all the love that she had.

“...Your past is not your today.”

~

“What you two are worrying about!” Discord added with sudden and surprising mirth, backpedaling and slapping at a leg.

All eyes instantly trained on Discord in mortification at his comment, three sets of mouths opening only to be silenced by a groan coming from the suddenly moving form of Sunset Shimmer.

“Remind me to never ask to be blasted by the Elements of Harmony ever agai- Oof!” Sunset would have finished speaking if it weren’t for the fact that she was suddenly covered by an alicorn twice her size, her mother’s tears raining down on her in a steady stream. “M-M-Mom! You’re heavy!”

“Sunset!” the Princess cried, wrapping her hooves around her daughter and pulling her up. “Thank creation that you are alright!”

“Better than alright…” Sunset squeaked out as she tried to pull free from Celestia’s grasp. “And I’d love to show you! Would you kindly let me go?”

Once Sunset was released from the loving clutches of her mother, she held up her daemonic looking hoof, a cocky grin on her face. “Now you see it?”

The next instant everyone in the room was looking at a regular looking amber pony hoof, cries of joy echoing through the room and Sunset gave a pleased chuckle. “Now you don’t.”

“Oh, Sunset! I’m so glad that it worked in the end!” Twilight cried happily, before scowling at Discord. “And you! We should blast you back into a statue for the next ten thousand millennia for that stunt!”

“Hey, Twilight?” the purple alicorn, as well as everyone else looked back over towards Sunset, only to be blinded momentarily.

A new figure hovered over top of the bed, tall and with a long tail of fire to match her equally fiery head of hair. Her elongated ears sticking off the side of her head as her toothy, maniacal smile looked back at the Pony Princess of Friendship, her aquamarine orbs nearly hidden in the blackness surround the tiny pinpricks of colour. The red figure’s large, batlike wings gave a lazy flap as she raised her clawed hands up and towards Twilight.

“Boo!”

~

“Now what did we learn?” Celestia asked, struggling to keep herself from laughing.

“Never pull pranks on friends that think you’ve died a second time and come back as a daemon.” Sunset spat out, groaning as she turned her head over in her new guest bed. “Seriously, Twilight! Did you have to go full power on me?”

“...You started it…”