Hoofsteps sounded in the castle corridor. Torches flared to life as Sunset Shimmer passed by. She came to an ancient staircase which she took and descended down as if into the depths of Tartarus. Sunset Shimmer had come for power and power she would have if only to win the love and affection of one she held dear.
As she made her way down the stairs her mind reached back to the days of her youth. Fun times and loving times. Studies filled with glee and mirth in abundance. Lessons learned not just concerning magic but of the heart. Each and every tender moment from finding solace from nightmares or from storms to uncertainties to her own abilities filled her mind. Yet through each the Princess had stood by her through thick and thin. Sunset's mind could not bear the thought of a world where she and the Princess could not be together for the Princess was an immortal and she a mortal pony only. Sunset knew the pain that seemed to come to the Princess regarding past friends and loves for she had asked only to be quietly shushed.
Sunset made her way down the staircase to a long and dark corridor "clip-clop, clip-clop" came the steady rhythm of her hooves as they made contact with the aged marble stone. Sunset came to the door where stood the portal mirror. A gateway into another realm but with a bit of magic a means to an end...To gain alicorn acension.
Sunset began to prepare the ritual in earnest she had the knowledge gleaned from ancient texts and had the practical understanding of the forbidden magics that only one should be able to use. The mirror which acted as a conduit could help in magnifying Sunset's own innate power. In normal years it showed what one most desired or the potential they might one day gain but with a bit of leftover chaos magic from the days of Discord himself Sunset would make reality bend to her own will. Sunset locked the door to the room and began.
She took chalk and outlined the symbols of old to tie and bind the magic of the mirror and combine the magic of chaos. Sunset would combine her own willpower into the spell matrix she was creating. Several hours went by as the night went on and finally, she could begin. Finally, she could attain what she most desired for the pony who meant the most to her but who as of the past few years had grown ever more distant with each passing season.
As she began to charge her horn the chamber door was burst asunder "SUNSET SHIMMER!" Celestia cried with a voice of thunder mingled with tears running down her face " What in the name of harmony are you doing!?" the Princess cried as she looked upon the drawn runes and symbols upon the walls and floor. Her mind began to see and add what her student was attempting what was against nature itself save the forces of harmony should will it...Anger filled the Alicorn with a new flame as hot as the sun she daily raised and set.
"Sunset Shimmer answer me" Celestia stated her voice having grown quiet but deadly as any blade.
Sunset had answered her sovereign, not a word. Her own hopes were dashed for what she felt she both deserved and needed. Celestia edged close to her student whose own heart was racing with fear and her own blood which began to boil at the perceived injustices done to her by the Princess's own lack of time and care towards her if only she could yet succeed she could stay with Celestia forever. Sunset Shimmer looked down with tears steadily growing in her eyes. She looked to her teacher and replied to her unanswered question.
"I'm taking what you wouldn't give me! I'm going to be a princess of Equestria! I'm going to take what is mine and keep it and overcome death itself!" Sunset screamed her internal agony becoming manifest to the white alicorn.
"Sunset you cannot do what you are attempting. Cease it right now and I'll forgive you and we can put this behind us. We can go somewhere and talk and figure things out my faithful student" Celestia replied serenely but inside her own fears and anger mixed as a lethal concoction.
"Why can't you just let me be like you!? Why can't you see that I'm smart enough? I'm powerful enough! I'm good enough!" Sunset screamed tears beginning to stream down her face.
Celestia looked at her young student's pride and arrogance shown so openly. She steeled herself internally and made her outer countenance as fixed and cold as any frozen glacier of the north and replied " What you want is not mine to give. What you seek you are not ready for. The very thing you are asking for will manifest itself inside of you and bring out only the worst qualities which you have permitted to infect your own heart and fester like a wound. You do not know what you are asking, for in your quest to seek power divine you would only doom yourself to anguish and destruction."
Sunset looked upon the teacher she loved with familial love so deep and her own anger began to boil within as a pot which when left unattended grows fiercer and fiercer with time but boils over and spills out so too did Sunset Shimmer's own rage boil over. She brought forth every bit of manna in her and charged her horn intent on accomplishing her own design.
"Sunset! NO!" Celestia cried seeing her students resolve to defy nature and harmony itself knowing what hate could do to ponies of immense power and magical ability her mind quickly raced back to her sister Luna. Her sister whom she could not save and whose own hate and anguish had transformed her into Nightmare Moon. She thought of Luna imprisoned these past nearly one thousand years. Celestia externally was as stone but within was trembling as a filly trembles when a fierce storm rages on in the midnight sky and cries out with fear. So too did Celestia's heart fear for the young mare before her. She quickly charged her own horn to suppress Sunset's own magic and forcibly remove her from the chamber.
"I will not allow you to destroy yourself my little pony. Though you think me harsh to deny you now you have neither the knowledge nor wisdom of age to know what you truly do nor how it will destroy you if your heart is not filled with compassion and humility" Said Celestia the bringer of morn and day.
Sunset merely glared in return and began her spell her horn firing off. As her own horn let loose the fateful spell to activate the spell matrix Celestia's own horn let loose its own spell to shut the spell matrix down. The spells raced towards the center of the oval room where stood the portal mirror and by it the chaos magic sealed within a bottle of enchanted glass. Faster and faster they sped, but to each spellcaster they seemed to move as slowly as a leaf falling from a tree when a light wind blows in the the cold of autumn. The spells came on and met!
Sun-based magic attacked fire magic. The two forces battling for dominion. Ever back and forth the spells pushed to and fro each mare from opposite sides of the room seeking to outdo the other. Sparks ignited as when a volcano erupts and fire is spit forth. The ground began to tremble as they each dug their own hooves in and the ancient stone gave way beneath the immense pressure that was building. Sunet's body bent and began to break while Celestia stood firm and fixed as a valley. One lone spark hit the mirror and the spell began.
The mirror began to glow as the energies were absorbed from the mana which had filled the room so much so that it saturated the air with colors of white, red, orange, and fiery pink. The mirror was never designed for such a feat and had Star Swirl himself been alive he would have shouted a warning to miss Shimmer regarding what she was doing. The mirror began to crack "crick, crick" and then burst forth in a fiery pillar of color and energy circling the room. A mighty gust arose from the center of the room where the energy let loose by the mirror mingled with chaos began a storm of titanic proportions.
Celestia looked on with worry and saw the pillar rise and it suddenly burst forth like an exploding fire from a dragon. It burst forth! Stone, wood, metal, and roof were thrown and the portions of the building were thrown upward into the sky as the magic shot ever upwards and became a vortex of spinning colors not of harmony or rainbow, but of a deep and festering kind of dark magic run amok.
As the explosion had begun Sunset was thrown into the air the latent magic locking onto her and spinning around upwards becoming a magical tornado of sorts. Around and around she was taken. Faster and faster the flow of magic ebbed. Seeking to take vengeance on the one who thought she could command the forces of the universe against their will. Glass and stone struck poor Sunset her coat and mane began to be stripped and her skin burned from the exposure to so much unstable energy.
Sunset spoke the only words that came to her putting forth a bit of leftover magic to amplify her voice. Sunset cried out "Princess! Hel..Hel...Help me!!!! Mother!!! Mother!!! Mommy!!!!! Help meeee!!!" Her words echoing over all of Canterlot where ponies both near and far looked up in amazement seeming to them as though it was a second coming of Discord himself.
Celestia through this all had looked upon and fastened herself to the ground. The vortex and its energies were localized and its destruction appeared to only affect the surrounding immediate area around herself and Sunset and directly above. She prayed no peaguses ponies were out flying. She watched in utter horror and alarm as Sunset was picked up and flung heavenward. Celestia, her keen eyesight sharper than any Griffons, watched in abject terror.
Each impact from glass, stone, or magic was like a thousand arrows piercing her own heart. As she watched her little Sunset cry out in pain and anguish. Her own heart being torn asunder frozen and unable to mentally handle what she was seeing for what was mere tens of seconds was like an eternity to her. She watched and heard Sunset cry out in anguish and her very spirit broke within her nearly. When she heard Sunset cry out her final cry for help she filled herself with action and courage and flew upwards.
She met the vortex and its almighty power. Her own wings were bashed and scarred as she allowed herself to follow the flow of magic. Her own healing powers barely kept up with the damage. Bone and sinew were broken, torn, and shredded dozens of times in the span of mere seconds. She tuned out the pain as she circled ever close to her target who was still in the monstrous grasp of the magical titan.
Sunset's own voice having gone hoarse long since circled over and over. She screamed a breathless scream of agony with no sound coming out she would gladly give up magic forever if only to make this nightmare end. Around and around she was spun. Faster and faster she was taken and then in the course of her own tarturus made flesh she impacted a wall of muscle and flesh. Princess Celestia had caught the young mare.
Celestia caught Sunset and barred her wings close. Falling to the earth and crashing upon the earth below. She gasped out in pain as air left her lungs and ribs and organs were ruptured. Her powers of healing having not been so taxed for millennia. She cast a spell upon Sunset to offer protection and keep her bound to the ground. So stood noble Celestia against the fiery vortex of chaos and doom. She charged her horn calling upon her heavenly body for strength.
Sinew and bone snapped back into place. Organs and blood vessels flowed and filled with divine magic accelerating her healing and imbuing her with the power of life itself. She stood up her own little Sunset beneath her sheltering her from the pull of the vortex itself. Celestia focused all the power flowing from her sun and focused to her horn. The channels of manna threatening to destroy her. She cast her spell.
A stream of light erupted from Celestia of pure white light. It circled upwards and sought to contain the vortex of Tartarus her student had unleashed. It ached and fought but Celestia the fixed and firm could not be moved. Celestia fought the beast of chaos nearly mindless and which sought only revenge against her beloved student. Slowly ever so slowly the vortex of doom was brought into control. Chains of light seemed to encircle it and it ceased to move. Cracks erupted from the earth below and the earth itself cleaved open and more chains erupted to take on the foe. Ever downward it was dragged into the depths of Tartarus and if it had had a mind it would have screeched in terror.
Celestia stood fixed her concentration never slipping beads of sweat mingled with beads of blood coming from her pores dyeing her white coat a monstrous color of crimson red. Finally, the thing of evil was contained and the earth cleaved together the vortex of madness contained within the deep pits of earth and shadows. Celestia sighed weaker than at nearly any other time. She stepped forward and looked down upon Sunset Shimmer and in fear she looked upon her beloved daughter whom she had neglected.
"Sunset!? Sunset!? Sunset!?" Celestia cried. Nudging her daughter with her muzzle. Tears flowing as rivers and oceans in mere moments. Celestia began to frantically shake the young mare. She poured her magic into her pupil and daughter willing the cells and sinew of flesh to be made whole and repaired. Slowly but surely Sunset's frame began to heal and Celestia felt a steady heartbeat within. Sunset Shimmer would live but whether she would ever walk, or move, again unassisted was another matter never mind casting magic.
Sunset Shimmer stirred in agony still looking up at her flesh and blood mother for such Celestia was and Sunset Shimmer smiled weakly with Celestia picking her broken daughter's body and setting it upon her back securing her lightly to her frame with woven streams of magic erupting from her horn. Firm but gentle to hold her precious cargo. Celestia's body ached as did her soul. The damage reports could wait. She stepped uneasily towards what was left of her once glorious castle to seek a place to lay her daughter and obtain medical attention and rest for the both of them.
What would become of her Sunset Shimmer? Her fire of life and breath? "Only time will tell," she thought if Sunset Shimmer would rise as the sun to her challenges or fade as a Sunset.
