In the grand scheme of things, Sunset blamed Princess Celestia for all of this. What right did that old hag have to take away her destiny and give it to some filly who still looked like she lived at home with her parents?! Sunset had worked too hard for this to have it taken away from her.

She ground her teeth, straining again at the manacles that held her securely against the cell wall. If Celestia thought that this would hold her, then she was more blind than Sunset had thought.

Not even this stupid Magic Suppressing Ring around her horn would hold her for long. Getting out of it would be a cakewalk. And then she would be paying a visit to a certain alicorn and taking what was rightfully hers.

Her ears perked up as she heard hoofsteps approaching. Maybe it was this so-called Princess Twilight coming to gloat at her, rub it in Sunset's face how much she had taken from the unicorn.

If she thought that Sunset would just let her, though, then she had another thing coming.

But the alicorn who came around the corner was not, in fact, Princess Twilight, but another. One that Sunset still had trouble believing was real. "What do you want, Princess Luna?"

Luna looked at her, unimpressed and unamused. "I suggest you watch your tongue, Miss Shimmer. Unlike my sister, I do not tolerate open hostility like this."

Sunset spat on the floor. "Like I care. Neither you nor your sister is my princess. I will have what's rightfully mine. And I don't care who gets in my way. All will fall one way or another."

Dianathe shook her head. "Hippothea was right. Your arrogance knows no bounds. It will kill you one day if you keep to this path, Sunset Shimmer."

Sunset sneered. "And what would you know? You're a thousand years out of date! All of your kind are. Go back to whatever backwater hole you came out of."

Luna just barely held herself back from slapping the impudent little brat of a unicorn right then and there. Nopony spoke to her or Dianathe like that and got away with it. "You are fortunate that your fate is in Princess Twilight's hooves. I would have you strung up for your slander, Miss Shimmer."

Sunset snorted, as she looked around. "Where is that purple parasite, anyway? She and I aren't done yet."

Dianathe smiled. "Gone. To a place, you cannot get to them."

Sunset blinked, confused at what she meant. "What do you mean, she's gone?"

Luna smirked. "She and her guards have gone to the world you came from, Sunset. To help repair the damage you have done to it. I have full confidence that the four of them can do it."

Sunset's jaw dropped. She hadn't expected that. "I doubt that they have any idea of what that place is like. I hated every second I was there. But I had time. Your little princess only has three days before the portal closes, and they can't come back."

Dianathe chuckled. "You know her very little then if you think that Twilight Sparkle is incapable of handling a new world. However strange it might be. She is far stronger than you will ever know. And those that stand with her are just as strong as she is."

Sunset laughed, but there was no mirth to it. "Why are you down here? To laugh at me? Enjoy my misery? These chains won't hold me for long, and neither will this darn ring on my horn."

Luna shook her head. "Nay. I had hoped that you might be different if it was somepony other than the ones you hate that came to see you. But I see that I was wrong. When she returns, Princess Twilight will decide your fate. However, you will be looked after while you are here. Princess Cadance is kind in that regard. Too kind if you ask me."

Sunset snorted, as the pair turned away and left the way they had come. "That's always been that up pumped Pegasus's problem. She's far too nice for her own good. It's going to bite her in the flank one of these days. And I hope that I'm the one to do it!"

Neither Luna nor Dianathe said a word and soon passed out of sight, leaving Sunset alone with her thoughts, as she again strained at the manacles around her legs, to no avail. How she hated this. All of it.

"Poor little unicorn. All that anger and hatred. Wasted on those around you. It's almost quaint."

Sunset jumped, as a voice came to her from beyond her cell. But there was nopony there. "Who said that? Show yourself!"

A pair of eyes opened in the blackness beyond the torchlight. Yellow and cold, calculating. They looked at her with malice, and yet not with curiosity as well. "You have a big mouth for someone in your position. I could use that. You will do well in my service."

Sunset frowned. "Yeah? And what's in it for me if I do?"

"You will get nothing!" The voice hissed. "You are in no position to demand anything. Yet you have something I want. Something I need. And I will have it."

Sunset glared at the eyes. "Fat chance, bozo. I ain't giving you anything until you let me out of here."

The voice chuckled, a sound like nails on a chalkboard. "Poor, pathetic, weak, mortal. You do not have a choice in the matter. I will take everything from you, and you will serve me. Whether you wish to or not."

A shadow came from the blackness, blacker than the blackest night. A clawed hand came up and touched Sunset's forehead.

Sunset screamed.

***

Luna allowed herself a few moments to collect her thoughts, as she and Dianathe left Sunset behind. She now understood why Tia had said her former student could be so infuriating. She had tested her nerves far more than she had expected.

Dianathe seemed to catch what Luna was thinking. "It was worth the effort. But I fear that Sunset Shimmer is beyond any hope of redemption."

Luna nodded. "Indeed. I feel the same. But I had to know for sure. A part of me hoped that my sister could be wrong for once in her life." She huffed. "Once again, she is right. I hate it when she's right all the time."

Dianathe giggled. "What do you think Twilight will do with her once she returns?"

Luna sighed. "I do not know. She will not leave her down here, for that is not her way. Only Princess Twilight herself knows for sure what she will do. And she-"

A blood-curdling scream cut off whatever Luna was about to say. The pair turned in shock at the noise. It had come from Sunset's cell. But there was nothing there that could've caused it.

Running back toward the cell, Luna's mind was already considering what could've caused Sunset to cry out like that. Dianathe was right behind her as they turned the corner, and stopped dead at what lay before them.

Sunsets' body lay outside the cell on the floor, the manacles still attached to her hooves. The cell door had been ripped off its hinges and lay discarded inside the cell. Luna's horn lit up, as the torch on the far wall flickered and died.

Sunset's eyes were open. But there was recognition in them, and they gazed soullessly at the pair as they came closer. No movement could be seen in her chest, yet there were no wounds on her body. The Magic Suppression Ring lay broken and shattered by her side.

Praying that she was wrong, Luna placed an ear next to Sunset's heart. Her body was ice cold to the touch, but what she heard confirmed her worse fears. Or, what she didn't hear, as she looked at her guard in sorrow.

"She's. She's dead."

Author's Note

Okay, so this chapter went through several changes. It was going to originally be showing how Luna and Dianathe became like Celestia and Hippothea, and Cadance and Appitrite, are.

But that was boring. So I changed it to this. The beginning between the three is the same as the original draft. It's after Luna and Dianathe leave that's been changed.

And we get our first look at what is to come. It's only going to get worse before it gets better.