Expectations of Reality

Bini nervously tapped her pencil against her sketchbook. She had drawn some fanart for Star Trek for the first drawing assignment. "Draw whatever you want." Mrs. Harshwinny the art teacher said for the drawing exercise (Bini was convinced she wasn't actually an art teacher based on Mrs. Harshwinny's ability to not give a shit about art on a daily basis, well to her credit she made it clear she liked Fine art so that was something.). Now she could see the teacher judging her as she looked over her drawing as she passed to Bini to the next student.

It only hit her now, as she sat in class for ten minutes that maybe she screwed up badly by helping Sunset Shimmer. Sunset Shimmer was being a real jerk about a week ago. She had been the "biggest meanie" since grade 7, so why was it now that Bini thought she could suddenly change just because she was blasted by a rainbow beam. Maybe she had a twisted perspective on the matter. After all, Sunset only bullied her once in grade 7 and that was when she was just starting out so it wasn't nearly as bad as it was when she ended her tyrant ways.

No. She did the right thing, Bini repeatedly told herself as she continued to tap her pencil. Failing to notice the annoyed glances she was getting from her peers around her and when Luna entered the room, beginning to talk to Mrs. Harshwinny, then pointed towards Bini.

"Bini." Harshwinny announced with that tone that made Bini want to scratch her eyes out. Bini was brought out of her jumbled thoughts and looked towards Luna and Harchwinny with a dreaded feeling. "You are coming with Vice-Principal Luna."

And just like that, the day got worse.

The class heckled her as she walked in shame across the class, regretting everything in her life. She gave Luna a small smile as Luna gestured her to follow her. They left the class and walked through the empty halls in silence.

"Are you going to explain to me what happened before class?" Luna finally asked to break the tense silence. Bini gulped and slowly nodded as students passed, looking at them with curiosity.

"I guess I have no choice," Bini mumbled. "OK. So I was going down the hall, minding my own business keep in mind when I saw Gilda, Trixie, and her two friends ganging up on Sunset. So I...May...Have..."

"May have what?"

"May have hit Trixie was a very big book on the back of the head." Bini said as she cringed at the memory. "She fell to the floor, getting the rest of their attention after Gilda punched, then slammed Sunset against her locker. Gilda ordered her lackeys against me and then the heroes of the fall formal helped us."

"I appreciate you helping Sunset Shimmer. But I would also appreciate you avoiding hitting people with large books." Luna commented. Bini nervously chuckled again to release some tension as they entered the office. Bini awkwardly waved to Raven Inkwell as Luna lead her past the group of trouble makers giving Bini the death glares, followed by Bini and Luna entering Celestia's office.

Celestia sat at her desk, filling out paperwork when Luna closed the door. Celestia looked up to see Bini looking down at the floor with a guilty expression.

"Miss. Filters...Bini. Come sit." Celestia gestured to the chairs in front of her desk. "How are you?"

"Um...Fine?" Bini said. Her eyes darted around the room before she settled back to looking at Principal Celestia. "I assume I am here about the fight before class."

"Correct," Celestia confirmed with a nod of her head. "So, tell me about it."

Bini relayed the story of what happened to Celestia in more detail than what she gave Luna. Celestia occasionally nodded as she sipped her tea.

"Alright. Thank you, Bini. Unfortunately, I still must punish you for hitting Trixie Lulamoon. You have detention after school."

Bini waved goodbye, respecting her punishment despite clearly not being happy about it, and swiftly left the room. Luna sat on the sofa as Celestia groaned in despair.

"Sunset."

Sunset (In her pony form) slowly walked down the grand throne room in Canterlot Castle. It was dark out. The room was dark so she couldn't make out the figure sitting on the throne. She carefully took a few steps forward, crossing halfway into the room.

"Hello?" Sunset called out, then took another step towards the throne to see if she could make out who was on the throne in the darkness. "Who...Who are you?"

The figure slowly, in jagged movements got up and stepped away from the throne. Going down the small staircase until she reached Sunset's level. The figure stepped into the moonlight shining from one of the windows against the wall... Revealing her old mentor, Princess Celestia.

Only she was injured. Badly. Deeply injured. One of her front hoofs had a deep cut. One of her wings was barely attached to her, there was a large hole in her stomach. Parts of her face and body were burned. Her mane had been cut short but still waving despite her weak state.

Yet she continued to slowly limp towards her former student. She opened her eyes for Sunset to see that one was badly burned. She left a trail of blood behind her when she finally stopped a meter away from her. Her breathing was deep and slow. Any normal pony would have died from blood loss at that point but this was Princess Celestia. The Alicorn of the sun.

"Princess, w-what happened?" Sunset said, frozen from shock at the current state of her former teacher. Tears trickled down Celestia's face as she looked at Sunset with fear. She was scared of her.

"You...You turned into a demon. You...Killed so many...I tried to stop you...I didn't think you hated me enough to..."

Celestia stopped briefly to watched as a fireball slammed into one of the few houses not burning in the streets of Canterlot below. Screams of pain and terror echoed in the citizens below, followed by a low booming cackling of delight from the demon side of Sunset somewhere in the city. Celestia lowered her head as she sobbed.

"I couldn't save them from you...My little ponies are dying because I was too weak..."

"NO!" Sunset cried out in distress. She galloped up to Celestia, desperate to see some hope in her eyes. "W-We can stop this! We just need Twilight and the others!"

"Dead," Celestia said softly. "After she killed Twilight and her friends in the human world, she killed them here. Right where you are standing. You killed them. You killed my precious student."

Sunset's jealously flared for a moment. A brief moment but was quickly pushed aside in panic as the pony version of her demon flew past the window, followed by an army of brainwashed pegasi moving to protect her. Sunset Shimmer yelped in pain as she felt the sudden jagged pain in her hoof, she lifted it up to see a blue color fading from the crystal fragment stuck in her hoof.

"Are...these...?" She said softly as she yanked it from her hoof with her magic, ignoring the gash it left drawing blood, carefully holding the fragment to eye-level with other pieces with different colors scattered around her and Celestia. "The Elements of Harmony?"

"Yes."

The castle shook, the walls cracked, windows shattered around them. Sunset put up a shield around them but the glass cut through it anyway, cutting the already wounded Alicorn and the failure of a unicorn. Tears poured down her cheeks as her actions hit her like a tone of bricks. She couldn't believe she did this. She didn't want to kill anypony.

The walls cracked more, Sunset looked to the city outside to see the bottom of the city collapse. The foundation was coming apart. She saw ponies fall off the side of the city, through the cracks. The city was starting to fall off the mountain. The castle floor cracked open. Separating Sunset and Celestia.

"You have to stop this! Stop her...Stop me!" Sunset begged the elder Alicorn. Celestia softly smiled despite the circumstance and her battered body. Her horn flickered to life, her eyes grew white as she was slowly lifted into the air.

"I will not let my ponies be tortured to death. Equestria is doomed. My last action as Princess will make their death short...Painless. They must not suffer any longer."

The sky grew red as the sun rose into the sky. Celestia...Or maybe it was Luna somewhere who didn't bother lowering the moon. The room heated up dramatically. Making Sunset sweat more at that moment than she ever did in her life. Then the sun grew bigger and bigger in the sky, the heat got worse.

Then Sunset looked towards her mentor in fear.

She was slamming the planet into the sun. Sunset covered her eyes, along with the rest of the pony nation, followed by the dragons, griffins, and other species who populated the small planet as the sun...No...The sky got too bright, burning their eyes. Then it was over.

The heat stopped. The smell of fire and burning flesh stopped. The screams of terror stopped. In the castle, her mentor disappeared. The crumbling castle disappeared. Sunset found herself floating in the dark void. Her heart hammering in her chest at what she just witnessed. She frantically looked around until she spotted her demon self (In her human form now) floating above her with a satisfied evil smile on her lips.

"I am you. You are me. You can never escape yourself. You will never change."

Sunset took in deep breathes as fear was her only emotion. Her mind was screaming at her to get away. But to where?

"Sunset. Sunset! Wake up!"

---End of Chapter Five---