Author's Note

Back from the dead bronys in Pegasisters 😈.

I know I know I haven't been posting for a while, I have this terrible habit that after three chapters I end up hitting a snag on what to write next after a while, things stop flowing naturally, and I get stuck anyways Let's get this show on the road shall we

The past of Sunset Shimmer

Sunset Shimmer looked at the girls before her, thinking about where to begin and if telling her story would help her cause or make matters worse. She sighed, propping herself up against the statue of CHS, "so, as many of you have guessed," Sunset sighed, "I'm actually from the same world as the Princess." Sunset began tracing patterns on the statue where the portal was as if trying to draw out its magic, "however, I'm not a princess. We had the same teacher, though."

"You don't have to tell us anything you're not comfortable telling us, Sugercube," Applejack said as she noticed the discomfort on Sunset's face. Sunset nodded in gratitude, knowing that some things in her past would only make it sound like she wanted pity and were sensitive topics.

"The thing is, unlike her, I grew up with my teacher." She said, looking up at the cloud-filled sky above. "One day, my teacher showed me this mirror and asked me what I saw in the reflection. I told her I saw myself only as a princess, standing beside her as an equal."

"Wait a minute," Applejack said, "how can your teacher be your equal if you saw yourself as a princess?"

"A valid question, Applejack," Sunset said, looking at the apple farmer. "you see, she wasn't just a teacher; she was also the ruler of Equestria." she sighed. "Very few were privileged to such a great honor, and I was of the very few." The other's eyes widened at the revelation, not knowing how to process it. Sunset smiled, remembering the days before the mirror when she was still a young filly. She was lost in her memories as she drew one last glyph on the marble statue.

From behind her, the statue's surface began to glow faintly. Eventually, it showed images as if the statue's face had just become a screen. The screen was a big beautiful castle, its walls purple, but the shadows of the setting sun made the halls seem much darker. In front of where they were seeing things stood a massive door. The door looked like it belonged to a church, solid oak with solid gold handles on both sides, slightly ajar as if someone were inside and forgot to close them on the way in. The image began to move through the door; on the other side of the door was a pure white pony.

The white pony was taller than the average pony, tall enough that she could almost be mistaken for a horse. She wore a pure golden crown kept in place by a long spiraling horn sticking out of her forehead at an angle. Her mane and tail were a radiant variety of colors: blue, pink, red, and yellow, flowing together in some ephemeral breeze that seemed to make the colors dance as her mane and tail swayed. Facing the pony was a massive mirror that rippled like water when she touched it with her hoof. She looked at the background behind her in the mirror, and the pony saw a lone pony peeking out from behind the door.

The larger pony's eyes widened when she saw the orange pony behind her. "What are you doing here, Sunset?" she asked as she turned to face the pony at the door. The girls gasped as Sunset stepped out from behind the door.

"Sunset, that's what you look like as a pony?" Rainbow asked as they watched the two ponies talk. The shorter pony had orange fur and a familiar red and yellow mane styled like the girl facing the statue's base. The others watched as the familiar-looking pony moved to stand next to her mentor.

"Sunset, you look so cute!" Fluttershy squealed in a not-so-shy way at the sight of Sunset's pony form as she stood before the portal.

Sunset couldn't believe her eyes; as she watched the younger pony touch the portal. Curiosity, she mirrored her younger self and put her hand on the portal where her younger self's hoof was. When the two made contact with the portal, the pedestal it was in flashed a blinding white light. As the light cleared, the girls looked at the statue again, seeing the sceneries change, moving backward as if it were a movie put on rewind. When the images finally stopped, the podium showed an aerial view of the castle. The view zoomed in on the front of the castle, showing two cloaked ponies standing before the castle doors, one holding a bundle aloft with an aura of crimson-red magic.

* * *

"Stellar, do you think this is such a good idea?" a male voice said, moving his head to look at the bundle as it seemed to squirm in its crimson cocoon. The figure, now known as Stellar, placed her contents on the steps before the door. She then removed her hood; to reveal a mare with a red and orange mane and fur the same crimson color as her magic.

"We don't have any other choice, Solar." She sighed, clearly having this conversation before. "All we can do now is hope the princess takes her in and gives her a better future than we could." Stellar walked up to the door, giving it a firm knock, and turned to the bundle she put down. She reached out her hoof to remove a small area, revealing a familiar-looking head of red and yellow hair. Stellar lowered herself down and gently kissed the top of the sleeping infant's head.

"Goodbye, Sunset," She whispered, "hopefully, we can see each other again in the future." With that, Stellar and her husband walked away from the castle and away from their infant daughter, hoping that she may find happiness and love in the care of the Princess.

***

Sunset gasped as she pulled away from the statue and fell to the ground shaking and twitching like she was having a seizure. The girls watched their charge as the seizing continued getting worse by the minute. They ran towards the convulsing girl, not knowing what to do. Thinking quickly, Fluttershy and Applejack rolled her onto her side as the others argued if they should call an ambulance. Finally, Rainbow knew who to call, though the others had not met him. Rainbow ran over to the spot where she had seen him disappear from looking into the shadows out of sheer desperation.

Rainbow saw a shadow that looked big enough for a human to crawl out of and bent down to look directly at the shadow.

"SHADOW, SUNSET NEEDS YOU!" She yelled at the top of her lungs into the darkness.

At first, nothing happened. Thinking it was the wrong idea, the rainbow-haired girl stepped away from the shadow as she tried to think of another way to contact him; just as she was about to turn away, the shadows began to twist and warp as if something was climbing out of it. They then took on the shape of a man, and a clawed hand popped out of the darkness, followed by the other till eventually; Shadow pulled himself completely out. Shadow looked at the prism-haired girl with a raised eyebrow.

"What's the situation?" he asked, sounding calm and calculating. Rainbow turned to her group, gesturing for him to follow her, not knowing how to describe what happened. Shadow nodded as he followed Rainbow close behind. Rainbow tried to catch Shadow up on what caused her to summon him. Shadow nodded along to show that he understood the gist of it.

"And then she started acting like she was having a seizure or something," she said, "I figured with her not being from this dimension, she wouldn't have proof of identification or her being a horse, she wouldn't react to human medication the same way as us." She looked at Shadow in worry for his response.

"I get the point, Rainbow," he grunted as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "also, for one: she is a pony, not a horse. If you did call her that, you would be calling her a whore, and for two, just because she is a pony in Equestria doesn't mean that everything about her is one over here."

The girls looked up as they heard Rainbow and Shadow approaching. Shadow, not in the mood for any more nonsense or questions, shoved his way to his charge's side to check on her condition. She had stopped seizing, but she seemed to have trouble breathing instead.

"Sunset, can you hear me?" He asked as he pulled out a flashlight pen and checked to see if her pupils would diolate. With a great deal of effort, Sunset nodded. Shadow seemed satisfied with her reaction as he moved his hand to Sunset's forehead. Shadow doing much more than taking her temperature winced as his hand was shocked when it came into contact with her skin. Shadow looked into Sunset's eyes and sighed.

"I was hoping that it would happen naturally," he muttered, "but it looks like your magic is off balance, and it's trying to tear you apart like I thought it would." He looked deeper into Sunset's eyes, seeing all the fear and pain she was in. "I guess I have only one question for you now; do you want to be good and with people who make you happy or wicked and forever be alone?"

"I...I want to be good." Sunset gasped in between labored breaths.

Shadow nodded as he stood up and looked at the girls looking on in curiosity and annoyance at being shoved. Shadow drew a circle in the air as the shadows cast by the afternoon sun mimicked his actions, forming a much bigger circle on the ground surrounding the two as arcane symbols began to form along the outer edge of it. He then drew a smaller circle around Sunset, encasing it in a pentagram of a star, with Sunset at its center. Shadow put his hands together as if he were praying and began to chant in a language that sounded older than any other had ever heard. Halfway threw his chanting, Shadow knelt, putting one hand on Sunset's head and the other over her heart. He leaned his head back looking up at the sky, his chanting getting faster.

"What in the Sam Hell do ya think your do?!" Applejack yelled as she stormed toward the circle. Before she could step into the outer ring, she stumbled back, holding her nose as if she had slammed face-first into a brick wall. As Applejack was about to try again, Rainbow put her hand on the apple farmer's shoulder, stopping her in her tracks. Applejack looked at her friend, showing her anger. "Ya better have a damn good reason for stopping me, Dash." She growled with her fists balled, ready to throw her prism-haired friend's hand off.

"You mean aside from stopping you from hurting yourself and making things worse?" Rainbow asked with a raised eyebrow.

"How am Ah going to make it worse exactly?" Applejack asked, an indignant look in her eyes.

"Well, for starters, he knows what he's doing, and for second, what he's doing is magic, and last I checked, neither of us knows anything about it," she said, raising an eyebrow as if to challenge her logic, Applejack mulled over her words as she looked her friend in the eye, seeing Rainbow being honest, and sighed in defeat but then grew to have a curious look on her face.

"How exactly do you know he's doing magic, and how did you know how we needed him," She asked, looking down at the circle, "and are you sure he's doing magic that will help looks like witchcraft to me?"

Rainbow laughed, "Yeah, not going to lie, it does, but trust me, it's for a good reason." She then looked at Shadow and sighed. "He's not a bad guy AJ, but he does use magic, just not the same way we did last week."

Both girls looked at Shadow as he seemed to be done with whatever he was doing. He stood up and sighed, cracking his neck in discomfort. "Damn, that always puts a major kink in my neck," he muttered, stretching his stiff joints. "Well, looks like all that's left to do is wait." He announced, moving over to lean on the statue.

Rainbow realizing it first, watched as her eyes grew wide. "Shadow wait, don't lean on-" she yelled, but it was too late. With another blinding flash, the statue's surface showed the streets of Canterlot City.