All around her was the same, a landscape of pulsing strands of a sort of energy. She saw them in cyan, in different shades of red, in amber and a few in gold. They wove around her, the presence of the being that only knew itself as Dawn Fire, many ending only a couple of armslengths away from herself.

She felt a push and pull inside her body as well as her mind, accompanied by a painful feeling in her head. A sensation that she was not that unfamiliar with, she had witnessed it in her dreams before. Yet this time it seemed to grow continuously to the point of absurdity.

Suddenly, something inside of her changed. Her stomach felt like it had swallowed a couple of spiked stones, her brain was being pulled apart by two opposing sides. In her ears she could hear a familiar voice screaming words, yet she could not make out what it was.

In this mystical and abstract plane, she began to feel all to real as she started to gag. There was something inside of her. And she wanted it out!

Her hands clutched her stomach, she could feel something coming out of her eyes, then her ears, the mouth, the nose. Crimson droplets, then thin streams that flowed weightlessly away from her. The strands around her contorted and pulsed where the blood met them, spaces fizzling and distorting. There were voids, small, black and filled with nothingness; they hurt, letting the pain bring the message that something was missing from them. The voice changed then. She felt it speak inside her yet also all around the void, telling her, asking, begging to stop. Yet she still fought on to purge this thing, this parasite out of her system, rid herself of the unwanted presence that was causing her all this by dragging it out of herself. And it felt like she succeeded, it was indeed coming up her throat.

In one act of willpower, she forced it out of her body.

Or rather, as it seemed, them.

Two globes, one a deep red and the other a golden colour, came out of her mouth. They were dangling in the air as she hunched forward, tethered to her by thin colourful threads.

But one by one these threads snapped and were yanked back into her mouth. And while she felt increasingly better, with each lost connection, the balls became weaker and fainter until they both glowed with but a sickly remnant of their former power.

“It was only a matter of time.” A sad voice sighed out from somewhere.

Before her eyes, the two globes weakly floated away from her, as they formed into two shapes.

The red ball transformed into a girl of amber skin wearing a leather jacket and a mostly orange skirt. She stared angrily, her red and golden hair actually moving and emitting a faint glow, like an actual fire. There was a great desire in her cyan eyes that narrowed like those of a predator, yet, it was overshadowed by something else. Fear.

The golden one changed as well. Appearing in a form that she was unfamiliar with, yet she felt something, a connection of sorts. Her skin was purple, her hair an even darker shade, with strands of two different colours. She was wearing a beautiful dress, like her hair it was flowing on its own in an ethereal wind.

This… being opened her eyes, they were shining like crystals, but they were also showing a deep sadness.

“Hello, Sunset.” She whispered; guilt was present in her voice just as much as resignation.

The one who knew herself as Dawn Fire took a speak back, glaring suspiciously at the two things that had just formed before herself. Her mind flared up as sensations threatened to flood her, yet she pushed them all away only to focus on what was in front of her, even as the strands around her began moving faster, gathering behind her, and more seemed to join.

“Who are you!” She demanded angrily. “What is all this? And why do you call me that, who is Sunset?”

Even as she said the name, her eyes became consumed by light.

“You know who it is. Let them in and remember!” The strands jerked as if struck by electrizity. Spaces distorted like they were boiling. And in them, specks formed, appearing from nothing and banding together into fragments that joined the rest of the swirling colours.

Remember!

She… saw. A building, a home if only temporary for herself and… others. A place where she had been brought, all day long. She remembered; she saw a little… girl? Amber skin and fiery hair, always waiting for her father to pick her up, waving to the other children. And then she saw the memory of the day that he had not come back, how she had waited for hours, how she had cried as the caretakers told her.

She remembered living at the daycare now, for her and few others it was an… orphanage. She saw herself, playing with other children, practicing-? No something wasn’t right.

Then she saw Her. She was tall, elegant and fair like an angel, and just as beautiful. Her skin was a smooth alabaster and Her long hair a number of wonderful colours, constantly flowing in the wind. But, something was still wrong, she felt her own mind pressing against a barrier.

‘I want to know, I have a right to know!’ She demanded and pushed. Like a torn veil the barrier was finally destroyed. She saw clearly. She could make out soft fur instead of bare skin, four hooves. Feathered wings and long and elegant horns that sparked with energy. She herself practicing magic with the other kids, no, foals, like she had been one.

And the Angel. Still She towered over her own self, yet She felt like something that she had never had. A mother.

“Have no fear, my little pony. Your name is Sunset Shimer, isn’t it?”

‘Princess Celestia?’ She called out into the void. But the images were already dissipating, leaving her alone with the two beings that were circling her.

“Now,” the fiery one said. “you know; remember and accept it. What is your name?”

Sunset looked at her, then at the other being behind her. Slowly, she felt her mind clearing, the locks, barriers, and clouds that she had not been aware of giving away. Looking at her own hands, she could see through the transparent red skin like coloured glass, glimpsing at limbs that resembled the self she had just seen in the memories. Fair amber skin, for a long time even with fur. Carefully, she measured every single word against the two creatures. “My name is Sunset Shimmer. Daughter of Falling Flame and pupil of Princess Celestia. Now answer me, what happened, and who are you?!”

They stopped.

“Remember your ambition, your desire.” The fiery one spoke, her demand underlined by an almost feral growl. Black began to fill her eyes.

So, Sunset remembered. She saw herself rise, attending a school to hone her talent. How she had started to learn under the wing of Princess Celestia, the one who had taken her in. How the Great Princess of the Sun had taken her under her own alabaster wing, teaching her magic beyond the imagination of most beings. In those years, the ruler of a nation became the closest thing like a mother to Sunset.

She felt her own wanting need to become powerful, a leader and hero to those around her. She saw her own arrogance grow, how she longed after more esoteric and stronger arts and knowledges. And she remembered painfully how this drove her away from the one she had almost regared as her only and true family.

She saw herself staring in a mirror, seeing herself in the blessed form of an Ascendant, wings framing her horn. And she saw what she ended as; the form before her, a petty tyrant who could only receive anything by threats and manipulation.

And before her the being that embodied her Ambition transformed into the form that her own folly had created, a cruel being unworthy of the power she had sought to unrightly claim. A parody of what she desired to be.

“Remember your actions, the kindness that others brought you. And the determination you had to change yourself.” The ethereal one asked softly.

And so Sunset did. She saw the same figure standing before herself in her memories, offering the broken girl a hand to raise her from the crater of her follies. How she had brought her on a path away from the corrupting wants and influences. Instead she had offered her another way: friendship.

She saw them, all five, wary at first, as they slowly gave her an actual chance at redemption. All those great moments they had spent together, the smiles on their faces. How they had meetings and parties. And the seventh one, she who had started it all and was the first to reach out with a hand. Whenever she visited, they all cherished. And Sunset remembered, everytime she saw the purple face, how her heart warmed and she was again reminded of the kindness…

“Twilight?” Sunset asked shakingly.

The purple figure before her shook her head slowly.

“I am only assuming her form. She is someone you still, even now, care for deep down in your heart. She saved you,” At that her counterpart made a sound somewhere between a snort and a snarl, though she backed off as the Twilight-Being threw her a look. “when you where at your worst, when you needed someone to help you.”

Sunset felt it again: the rush of energy ripping into her and her soul. Changing her very being and bringing her back from the accursed form the… thing had allowed her to take. She saw Twilight at the center, the rightful owner of the crown.

And when it came to an end… she could feel now that something had remained inside her.

“What are you really?” She asked.

“Remnants of two different sides of the same coin.” The Twilight-Being said cryptically.

The response of Ambition was more direct. “Residual influences of great forces of power that once coursed through your body and have now latched onto part of your consciousness as well as your soul, thus creating pseudo-entities like us.”

Instantly, two images shot through Sunset’s eyes before materializing right in front of her. A crown that beheld a purple gem, radiating energy and power. She saw how her past self sat this accursed artefact onto her own head, before it all overwhelmed her and she became the demon.

The other image showed her again, Twilight!, as she rallied the others; the blast of energy that ripped her form apart and brought her back as she was before, driving the corruption away.

She could understand it, they made her understand it.

The element of magic, its power too much for her to remain sane and controlled. And she directed it with her pride and arrogance and her stupid Ambition that caused her to cast hate at so many.

Only to be swept away by the force of unified Harmony. Binding her back together, sustained by her friends and her own actions to redeem the mistakes she had wrought in the last months and years.

Two sides that battled the other, clashing ideologies; two opposites that were given form and thought inside her. Now she knew the truth of her life since the Fall Formal. That fateful night were her life had been reset to a new path, a better one. And she now knew them both: Ambition and Harmony. One a product of her own and the other an agent of a benevolent source.

But… what did that mean for her now? She recalled another name: Dawn Fire. Not an old one, words that she had read in a book once or perhaps encountered on a street sometime.

No, this one was fresh…

Her’s.

She was wrong. She did not know the truth about her life, atleast not all of it. There were still voids, fresh ones too. The important moments that would explain everything.

“What happened?” Sunset asked. This was the last question, the final barrier that she needed to clear. Somehow she could feel that she would not like it in the slightest. But it was too late now, she had to know.

Around her, the void shifted rapidly to answer her question. Multiple images flew by, surrounding her. She finally saw what had lead to her amnesia. The chaos that had enveloped CHS in its grasp, tearing apart friends, just like her own. How she had been blamed for it all.

The students that started to sneer at her, shove her and shout hurtful words. The physical attacks and the defiling of her locker. It all stacked on top eachother, a chorus of hate grown from past actions piling against. It pressed against her mind, threatining to drown her, she could feel her own guilt from then, but also the growing anger.

“N-no…” She forced out as her hands held her head, an evergrowing pain making itself known. “Too much!”

Everything stopped. Looking up, Sunset saw that she was standing in a hallway. Students were crowding around a scene that felt like a nightmare, seemingly frozen in time. She saw them both, Rarity and Fluttershy, as they reached out to… herself.

Sunset saw her own body, as her form was staring emptily at her hand covered in blood that she had coughed up just now. She knew what would happen next, short moments of herself twitching and convulsing on the ground while bleeding flashing in her eyes.

She felt their presence as the two entities walked somberly onto the scene. Her own ambition and the agent of Harmony. One resembling herself at her worst point and the other her savior.

“This is your fault!” Sunset snarled at them. There was no refute from either, she was right, she knew that she was right, they knew it.

“I had a purpose, Sunset. I was supposed to let you evolve, for you to fullfill your redemption.” The Twilight-entity motioned to the other. “But in those days, I could feel her growing stronger with your anger and your desperation, while I became weaker without harmony. There was no source for me to draw on, I could not for you had lost your friends. And I could not let you loose yourself again.”

Surprisingly, the other one said nothing; she just stood there, once again assuming the figure that Sunset had been like in her time before the Fall Formal instead of the demon.

“I made a mistake. When she tried to sweep me away that day, to make herself a heard part of you once more, to guide your actions, I resisted. I attempted to fight her. It was the catalyst for everything.” She said, her guilt for all to see. “You could not stand it. Our struggle resulted in nothing but pain for you. By the time that I had managed to achieve a temporary victory the damage was already done and they were trying to bring you to the hospital.”

Sunset felt it once again, albeit for only a fleeting moment. The shattering feeling of her brain, only pain as her mind, quite literally, was splitting itself apart.

“The bridge. They said there was an accident. So, what happened there? Was that because of you too?”

“Sadly, yes.” The agent of Harmony said. Her counterpart still looked at her, judging her with a slight smirk adorning her face. When the other one did not immediately elaborate, Ambition took over the part of recounting their actions.

“While they attempted to bring you away, I sought to find my next best course of action. I was too unsure of the possibilities, there were too many and too little time. So, I gathered some of your magic into your brain and tried to enact a small act of divination. A simple projection of how things may go if I’d do nothing, a calculation if you will.” She explained coldly, like a scientist discussing their latest experiement.

“The results where largely in this one’s favor.” She pointed a hand at the Twilight-entity. “So I took my chance with action.”

“When she tried to attack me again,” The purple figure hesitated for a moment. “…I made the same mistake again, but this time she was prepared for it. I was tricked into fighting back. Her sudden push was too much for me to handle, so I pulled onto your body’s magical wellspring, just as she planned. When she suddenly just stopped her assault, your magic became volatile. And she only left one way for it to go: outwards.”

“My magic?” It was all becoming too much for Sunset. Her thoughts were muddled by the things that she was seeing, as the scene around her changed again. The inside of the medical truck, all the people cramped into it, over her own bleeding form. People who were dead now. “No, no no, I didn’t have magic. This world is barren, I never had even a bit except when I had that stupid crown on my head.”

She already knew the answer though, back in her mind. It was stupid to deny it, yet she could only do that. Otherwise she would have to accept that she had been responsible for their deaths.

“You’re right, but only partially. After your first ascencion, magic started to flow into this world through the portal. And you absorbed it, it and the residue from the scuffle at the Formal.” Ambition corrected her nontheless.

“You are lying! I would have felt that.” Sunset’s voice spat those first words through the void loudly, giving her anger a direction in which to go. But even then her own mind could only confirm and accept the things that were said to her. Yet she did not want to accept it.

“Why don’t you ask her?” The smirk finally formed fully on the face that had once been Sunset’s own. Those same cyan eyes pierced into the agent of harmony with satisfaction.

“You…”

“Yes, I suppressed it. Kept it away from you to notice. It was safer that way, to let you concentrate on building yourself up again. If I had not… the risk was too high.” These words came empty from the entity’s mouth.

“What happened then?” Sunset asked restlessly. She had to know! “If I am right, this all happened on a Wednesday. But I was found days later.”

“I did what I maybe should have done earlier. I pulled back my own influence over your body, conceded to my opponent and withdrew. The gathered wellspring was now her’s and she started to reshape the body. Healed the wounds and worked to restore and improve it, but also to forever deny me and my source to influence you once again.” The agent admitted. Her skin seemed to lose colour and fade away slightly.

Fire flew around them. The explosion that had consumed the truck and everyone in it once again played before them. Only now Sunset could witness it. And she had to. She had to look at those people; while the personnel tried to stabilize her, veins under her skin suddenly swelled and pulsed. Magic flared faster then anyone could even see, before it lashed outwards from the form strapped to the gourney.

They did not die when the car crashed onto its side in the middle of the bridge, caused by the chassis and tires being ripped apart by strands of magic. They did also not die in the actual explosion when the oil tank was lit ablaze and consumed the entire vehicle, throwing the doors and more fragments as lethal shrapnel around.

No, everyone but herself had been dead already. Before the crash, before the explosion.

Because they had been killed by herself. Her magic, her consciousnesses. Her hands stained in blood. Their bodies were torn by the radiant energy that cut like hot blades through everything they touched.

“How did I survive this?” She whispered.

“You did not.” The scene played again. But this time Sunset saw it. As the explosion blasted away the doors of the truck, one more thing was thrown into the air from the vehicle’s insides. It must have been too fast or too blurry for those witnessing it, if no one had bothered to search the river. For Sunset looked as her own form was propelled into the stream below the bridge. Maybe it had been simple convinience that the truck had landed in such a way that its back was so near the edge of the stone structure. Maybe not.

“What?!” She could see her own body well as it slowly drifted to the bottom of the river, amidst underwater vegetation. There were burns and gashes from the explosion, bruises and more from the school. And there was no movement anymore.

“Your body was all but devoid of life. What kept you together was all the excess of energy. And while this one did its work own the vessel, I kept your mind and soul together and separate from the flesh.” As the Twilight-entity spoke, a thin and translucent sort of skin formed over the body that had been plunged into the water. “A sort of detached stasis to keep it safe, for we both knew that without them you would die completely and we with you, that was also why none dared to attack the other, not at this point. When it was all done, I brought your soul back to your body.”

They watched as the form started to move, brushing aside everything that had settled on it over its dormant time and slowly rose. The shimmering shield dissipated and Sunset could see… herself. The way that she had lived for the last couple of weeks now. The cardinal red skin, the hair that had changed just enough in composition and colour that people would not immediately recognize her. She saw the limb and lifeless form drift upwards and with the stream. It seemed to be at the river’s mercy, yet it soon resurfaced at one of the stone shores that lined the current. “Then, you were alive again.”

And Sunset saw the first breath of her new life. As so apparent with those memories, she felt some of the aspects of the scene she was witnessing. She bore witness to a body that was systematically re-activating itself. She also felt how neither the frigid water, the freezing wind or even the snow underneath her bare feet brought any discomfort to the naked and soaked form.

In hindsight, there had been several occasions were this unusual fact should have made it known to herself. Yet it had never bothered her. A look towards the entitiy that apparently had been responsible for changing her body earned Sunset a simple nod, and with that a confirmation to her theory. She had been made rather resistent.

“And what about my memories?” She asked the other entity, anger still thick in her voice. “If you said that my mind was kept so safe, then why couldn’t I remember anything?”

The agent looked her directly in the eyes this time. There was the rest of determination besides her constant sadness and guilt. “I kept them away, for your own safety. I used most of my remaining power to trigger your brain into believing it had witnessed traumatic events, so it would suppress the memories. Only that I managed to overload it and thus affect every single piece of your remembered past.”

Sunset’s anger was surpassed by disbelief. “You… Y-you did what?!”

“It had to be done. The risk of you falling into darkness upon your awakening had been too high. It was a blank slate, a chance to allow your body to complete the last transformations that it was undergoing without the weight of your past. Without this… it was the better choice.“

“THE BETTER CHOICE?!” Sunset could feel fire coursing through her veins, but it did not concern her for it felt good. The scene around them, how the newly awakened form staggered through the snow towards a group of three relaxing with their vehicle, started to melt away. The void became oppressive as the girl’s anger flared and the long-repressed magical power once again obeyed her whim. Both of the entities took an immediate step back. Though where the Twilight-Being looked like a dog that just got yelled at by its owner, the other one permitted itself a small smile.

“You… you are both guilty for causing this shit.” Small flames were licking Sunset’s finger tips.

“Please, Sunset-” The agent of Harmony tried to plead with her.

“Shut up!” Sunset growled at her. “Give me a reason, I beg you! You have no sway over me anymore, I have everything! One good reason why I should not ripped your pathetic little sentience apart!”

“Because you don’t have to. Our efforts worked… too well.” Ambition said coldly. She still smiled, but it was an empty one now. She had gotten the satisfaction of seeing her counterpart and long-time opponent be berated and diminished. But that was it now. “This vessel that we inhabit, we both attempted to ward it, to best of our individual ability, against foreign influences both physical and mental, a typical procedure really. But it was misjudged how strong our own influence really was and how strong these defences were that we created. In the end, it has recognized us both as foreign entities and now it is consuming us.”

“Wait, you mean… You are dying, right now?” Sunset said, completely baffled. The flames around her flickered out.

“No,” Ambition said. “and yes. We are separated from the pieces of your mind and soul that we held claim over, our energy is being siphoned away back into your own pool. Without both, we will fade away and stop being as we are. What I gained from you, your body will reintegrate and me with it. I will lose my current conscious and become a part of your mind one more. While she, she might either return through the portal to the elements or maybe just fade completely.”

“That is what had happened until now. Now it is complete, this is our last moment.” The agent of Harmony spoke somberly, eyes still cast downward.

“The sudden intake of raw energy that occurred only a day ago has proven final for us. With it, your body has undergone the rest of its changes, the last development has been completed, and with that it has finally driven us out from you.” Its skin started to glow. No, it dissolved into tiny pieces of light. Few at first, but then more and more, until there were uncountable little specks of light, like embers, seperating themselves from the agent of Harmony. Its face showed no pain or discomfort. But there was fear in those familiar eyes. If the entity could have, it would have cried.

As the agent just stood there, Sunset’s Ambition began walking towards its originator. As it did, its hair started to dissolve too. “It has begun long ago and now it is done.” It said.

Sunset stared at them. It was too much for her, too fast. She was becoming overwhelmed, did not know what to think, or how to feel. Her mind was slowly drowning in all the new memories that had been unleashed upon her. The void around her frayed and disappeared into a bright light at the edges. She knew this would all end soon and she would have to awake. And she could do nothing but watch as these two beings died in front of her. To be forever erased as they dissolved into clouds of floating lights, coloured crimson red and amber and like a rainbow, respectively.

If not for everything else, it would have been beautiful.

“Sunset. I-I am so sorry. For everything that I have caused you.” The hand the Agent of Harmony had reached out dissappeared into a cloud of lights that gently flew away into the ether. The feet followed soon after, as the pace seemed to pick up.

“Please! Don’t lose yourself, not aga-“

Then, it was gone.

The voice, so familiar now to Sunset’s regained memories, echoed like a death cry.

Ambition allowed itself one final tidbit of spiteful satisfaction as she saw her longtime enemy come apart first. Its own form was already halfway gone, the little embers floating directly towards its master.

Turning its face, Ambition looked plainly at Sunset. There was no emotion betrayed on its face, as there was none to show. Idly, Ambition wondered if it had already lost the capability to feel anything. Or maybe, that ‘feeling’ had been a lie from the very beginning.

No… there was something right now.

And even if it was just simulated, Sunset’s Ambition was content with its fate.

“I don’t want this. This is too much!” Sunset choked out.

“I know.” Ambition replied calmly.

“But you are free now. From me, her. You can follow yourself.” And just as before with its counterpart, Ambition could sense its own death accelerate. The last words of an old poem came to its mind from Sunset’s now freed memory stores. Smiling, Ambition lowered its dissolving torso and arms in a bow before its master.

“So, life continues its eternal helix. For at Dawn in Fire rises again, the Phoenix.”

She fell out of her bed as her body shot up suddenly. Everything was spinning around her; her eyes couldn’t find any spot to focus on. Her insides were loose, a single entire mess in her stomach, falling all over itself.

Everything was in flames around her. She could not hear anything.

So much…

It was painful. Flailing down on the ground trying to get herself together, even though her brain was in shambles and it felt more like she was tied to the ceiling. Progress was extremely slow, yet she was getting there-

“HUUERGH!”

Luckily, she could finally muster enough coordination-power and strength to push her face off the ground, thus keeping it away from the puddle of… whatever she had just barfed up. Then she did it again, and again, until it felt like all her insides had finally exited through her mouth out onto the floor and her throat was hoarse.

Just… too much!

She heaved, a raggard and unregular snapping for air. Her eyes blinked rapidly, as she tried to clear away whatever was clouding her vision.

After what felt like minutes, she looked around, now able to take in the room she had just woken up in. It was big, the floor carpeted and soft under her fingers. It was also empty, it felt empty to her. This was not her home. She had to find her way out, this was all simply wrong.

She tried to stand up, yet not even seconds later she crumbled backwards onto the floor again. Her body curled up as her mind was wracked by pain. Images of people and places flashed before her eyes, even as she squeeed them closed with all her might.

There was little sense that she could make out of what she saw, the only consistency was that she knew the people she saw in those flashes, yet their names al alluded her.

It was too scrambled, there was no sense in it, no order. It was too fast for her.

“T-too much!” She whimpered on the floor.

She wanted to will it to stop, to scream at her own head or at the thing causing all this. But her cries went unanswered and without effect. Eventually, through the haze, she managed to muster enough strength to start dragging herself towards what she assumed to be the door leading out of the room. All the while she was still screaming and begging in her own mind.

I don’t want this!

Just stop this already!

Her red fingers scratched against the wood as she pulled herself upwards on the door, reaching after the handle. Pulling herself to her own feet was a difficult task, yet she finally managed it after about a dozen tries.

Stepping out of the room, she let her own feet chose a direction and held one arm out to the wall as she made her first steps.

It seemed that with every ounce of pain that vanished, a part of her memory returned, placing itself somewhere in the massive puzzle that slowly took form inside her mind.

One step foward, one memory back. Again and again.

She was barely aware where exactly she was going, only conscious enough to brace one arm wherever she could to steady herself. At one point she had slowly stumbled down a set of stairs.

The pain was now bearable, enough to not blind her mind atleast. She was in the dinner room, right next to the kitchen; yes, she could remember this room now. This enitre house infact. Leaning against the table, she cupped her head between her hands to try and fight against her throbbing brain.

“Dawn? Is that you?”

Memories flocked to her, this time only few, brought to the front of her mind by the voice she heard. The voice of her roommate, her friend, Aria Blaze. The person who had taken her in out of sher coincidence, who she had lived with for a couple of weeks now.

Aria Blaze. Another student, of CHS, whom she had introduced. Who had two sisters.

Aria Blaze and her sisters. The manipulators, the instigators behind the Battle… of the Bands? Which they had almost won, but then, they had lost, somehow… There was something missing, she missed an aspect, a very great aspect of it.

She should feel relieved, her friend could help her, but instead she felt dread. They could not be friends, after all they had been enemies? It was too much, the memories were too much, she did not how to act. But she could hear the footfalls approaching, she had to act now.

They would not get her now.

Author's Note

"HAPPY HALLOWEEN SUNNY!" *Author dumps this mess on her*

Also before anyone asks
“I had a purpose, Sunset. I was supposed to let you evolve, for you to fullfill your redemption.” The Twilight-entity motioned to the other. “But in those days, I could feel her growing stronger with your anger and your desperation, while I became weaker without harmony. There was no source for me to draw on, I could not for you had lost your friends. And I could not let you loose yourself again.”

In a way the Agent of Harmony needed the Mane 5 to generate energy from and keep Sunset's Ambition at bay. So yes, they are all partially at direct fault for this.

Anyway, hope this chapter made it out well (enough). Must admit this one was difficult to write, mainly because it was supposed to pretty much explain everything. I pray that it worked.
The aftermath was much easier to write, weirdly, considering what is gonna happen. But that will have to wait for now.

Unitl then: Happy Halloween