Power Above All Else

For the simple mortal pony, an alicorn is a god. They are all the three pony tribes fused into one, powerful magnificent being. They are the deity that watches over the lands. While most ponies in Equestria didn’t view them as gods, a small few did. They stood in awe as these beings raised the powerful celestial bodies across the sky. They had powerful magic that could do anything. Most importantly, they were the rulers of Equestria. Not only did the alicorns hold vast amounts of magical strength; they also held lots of political power. They were, for all intents and purposes, gods.

Sunset Shimmer wanted nothing more than to become a god.

That was why she enrolled in Princess Celestia’s school. To become a god. She was hand-picked by the princess herself at her entrance exam. Princess Celestia had seen the raw magical power inside of her, the power she’d seen inside of herself for a long time. She hoped that Princess Celestia could shape that power and mold it into something more than herself. She knew it was possible to ascend to alicornhood. She’d read books and even Princess Celestia herself had brought it up occasionally. It was a possibility on the horizon, so long as Sunset worked hard and studied.

But that wasn’t quite enough. Sunset desired power, more than anything else she’d wanted in her entire life. She started to feel impatient over the years. Her magic was good, good enough to ascend. The only thing standing between her, and her well-deserved ascension was Princess Celestia herself. No matter how hard Sunset pushed, she felt like she wasn’t getting to where she wanted soon enough. She felt like she was running at the same pace she’d always been going.

Then it all went sideways. Princess Celestia had a foal.

Sunset hadn’t known that the princess was pregnant. The Princess hadn’t been around as often to give her personal lessons and the princess had gained some weight, but they weren’t necessarily close, especially recently as Sunset raced to complete her studies. But Princess Celestia hadn’t even mentioned it to her. She’d kept it hidden from Sunset and seemingly everypony else as well. And then suddenly, there was the foal. A ruinous little alicorn foal that changed everything forever.

Princess Celestia was unable to give private lessons after having the foal. She was unable to continue giving Sunset private practice, tutoring, or even suggestions. Princess Celestia became frustratingly obsessed with her new daughter, whom she named Eclipse. There was no room for Sunset anymore. Of course, Princess Celestia had assigned professors and private tutors to her in her absence, but it wasn’t the same. Sunset had been all but abandoned and at this rate she would never ascend. There had to be another way.

It was at that point that Sunset began to research other options. Princess Celestia could not be the only way forward. Sunset Shimmer wanted to achieve ascension before she grew old and withered and she knew that somewhere in Equestria was the secret to exactly what she was looking for. One day, she found that something. But it was blasphemy and if Sunset achieved what she wanted through these means, Princess Celestia would turn her back on her. But if this method worked and Sunset achieved limitless power then she was more than willing at this point to make sure that if Princess Celestia didn’t accept her as a new alicorn princess in Equestria then she would remove Princess Celestia from the equation entirely.

~

The building wasn’t too hard to find. Sunset quietly walked through the Everfree Forest, a golden shield protecting her from any hidden monsters and her horn aglow with light to see the way in the dark forest. Some way ahead was the building she’d been searching for, The Castle of the Two Sisters. It had been spoken about in the old books that Sunset had found in the Canterlot Library. Here was the place that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had ruled before Princess Celestia moved to Canterlot. The building was still well preserved, probably by order of Princess Celestia to protect the historic location.

Sunset entered the building with ease. There were no locks in the building whatsoever. A spell pulsed outward from Sunset’s horn, quietly disabling any traps and security measures inside the building.

The inside layout was simple. A long hallway stretched forward. On the right side was a stone wall with many doors leading to many hallways and rooms. On the left side a stone wall with stained glass windows like in the Canterlot castle, depicting a story. It was the story that every pony in Equestria, the story of the death of Princess Luna. Sunset walked past each window, remembering the simple tale in her mind.

Once upon a time, Princess Celestia had a sister named Princess Luna. Her sister was her opposite, as dark as the night sky and her mane filled with many stars. One day, after returning home from defending Equestria from attacking monsters, Princess Luna fell ill, having been gravely wounded by one of the monsters. Princess Celestia tried her best to cure her sister but the poison the monsters had given her had already taken over her mind and she fell asleep, never to awaken again.

Sunset pulled her map from her bag and looked it over once more. Then she opened the first door at the beginning of the hallway and opened it. Torches along the side wall instantly lit up as a stairwell led down into the darkness. Sunset followed it down.

Princess Celestia didn’t want Princess Luna to be buried at the new Canterlot Castle. She wanted her sister to be buried in a familiar place. So, her body was laid to rest in the exact castle they’d lived in for a good portion of their lives.

Sunset watched as the torches lit up as she made it to the bottom hallway and walked down towards the room ahead. When she got to the room ahead, she reached the door. This door was made of stone and had an inscription on it.

Here lies Luna, my dear sister.

This was probably where the tour guide would’ve turned the group around. But Sunset knew this wall was a door. The old books she’d found said so. She carefully used a spell to unlock it but found it wouldn’t budge. The magic guarding the door was seriously powerful. More than powerful enough to keep out a stupid thief. It was just her sister’s corpse, why go this far?

Sunset didn’t like doing this because she didn’t know what exactly was behind the door, but she hoped it was the room with the corpse. She needed to get in there. She braced herself and teleported directly into the room behind it.

The room itself was dark but Sunset lit it up with a spell. Four blue torches lit each corner of the wall, giving Sunset all the room she needed to see the area.

In the center of the room was a glass box. It was raised up on a platform. Inside was a cushioned bed and placed on said bed was, unmistakably, Princess Luna.

Which Sunset thought was odd. Instead of a rotting corpse or some bones, there was the corpse of the perfectly preserved Princess Luna. Her mane and tail had been frozen like the liquid mane as stopped in time itself. Her body was perfect without any scars or injury. It was weird. She’d been dead for at least one thousand years. Maybe slightly less time than that. But it’d been a while. Sunset wanted to believe that Princess Celestia had perfectly preserved the corpse with some kind of magic but upon checking the body, there was no trace of Princess Celestia’s magic on the body. Sunset checked the vitals of this corpse. It was a corpse. It had no vitals. But it did still have the one thing that Sunset was looking for. It’s magic.

Sunset’s plan was simple. She was going to use a spell she’d learned in class to siphon what little magic Princess Luna had out of her body and integrate it into her own magic. From there she would proceed with the alicorn ascension spell and use it on herself. Only an alicorn could perform the spell and she would have the magic of an alicorn. Sunset looked over the corpse. Defiling a body like this felt wrong but Sunset knew she was past the point of return. There was nothing that she wanted more.

Carefully, she pried the glass top off the box and teleported it to a secure location, which was her house. Sunset approached the body and stood over top of it, preparing herself mentally for what would come next.

“Sunset Shimmer.”

Sunset jumped. Something said her name. It didn’t sound like anypony she knew. She looked around wildly. It was just her and the corpse. Being around a body was starting to freak her out. There was nothing else here.

“Calm down, Sunset,” She loudly told herself. “It’s just a body. Nothing to be worried about.”

Sunset slowly approached the body once more.

“Sunset Shimmer.”

The words entered her mind once more. It felt like they were coming from inside her brain, but they weren’t her own thoughts. It felt like they’d come from somewhere else, but she hadn’t known where. She definitely heard them this time.

“Do you know who I am?”

“I don’t give a hoof about who you are,” Sunset said back loudly. Now she had lost her mind.

“I want them to love me, Sunset. You want that too.”

That’s not what Sunset Shimmer wanted at all. Sunset wanted power. She desired power more than anything else. That was what brought her here. And yet, it felt like, the longer she stared at this corpse, the more she felt that desire start to slip from her mind. Why… why was she here?

“Sunset.”

“Sunset.”

“Sunset.”

Her name echoed in her mind and with each echo, it felt like she was slowly losing her grasp on her goals and reality itself. She grew nauseous as the room swayed. It felt like a psychic attack and there were spells for defending against that, but Sunset could not defend against this. It felt too ancient, too powerful. Too much. Visions flashed through her mind of Princess Luna, standing at the top of the castle and then falling off the roof and hitting the ground. Those visions kept happening over and over while the voice echoed in her mind. The sound of Princess Luna’s bones cracking as she hit the ground. The feeling of pain, sadness, loneliness and most of all jealousy filled her body as though she was feeling what Princess Luna felt at the time. It was all too much.

Suddenly, Sunset screamed. It didn’t even sound like her voice anymore. It felt unknown. She brought herself down over the corpse, her face inches away from its body.

“W-what do you want from me?” She whispered.

The noise in her mind ceased.

“Eat me.”

The lingering thought crossed her mind. It was so ridiculous and gross that Sunset wanted to gag. But she couldn’t. She realized that she couldn’t move. A more powerful force held her in place and was slowly pushed her head towards the body. She was actually starting to get scared. She’d decided to mess with forces more powerful than her for power and now it was too late to regret things.

“eAt mE.”

The voice began to echo in her mind, urging her to eat the body. Sunset resisted, unwilling to give into the force. She would not let it overtake her. She would not let it win. She was Princess Celestia’s student, for Celestia’s sake. She was more powerful than some stupid ghost.

Before she knew it, a large, blood flavored piece of something hit her tongue and she swallowed. She shakily stared down at the chunk she’d taken out of Princess Luna’s corpse.

She felt backwards, the force having let her go. She retched several times, but nothing came up. Surely, this couldn’t be real. Maybe it was all an illusion? A trap meant to capture ponies who weren’t supposed to be there.

Sunset tried to coax herself into thinking that. That’s all it was. She didn’t even want power anymore. She wanted to go home. She quickly teleported the glass top back on top of the corpse and teleported to the other side of door. She raced up the stairs and collapsed at the top of the stairway and gazed at the moon above outside the way.

It was big and bright that night. It felt brighter than it had been in a long time. When was the last time that Sunset Shimmer had seen the moon? It felt like it had been one thousand years. She was starved, despite the circumstances that happened and wanted nothing more than to get back home and each a hay sandwich.

Well, maybe not a hay sandwich. Sunset was in the mood for something different, but she couldn’t put her hoof on what. She could figure that out when she got home.

As she was about to leave, the door swung open, and a stallion entered holding a broom. He had a trash bag tied to his waist and he glanced at Sunset. He seemed to be some kind of janitorial cleaning staff.

“Who’re you?” he asked in surprise, dropping the broom on the ground.

Sunset stared at him, suddenly realizing what she wanted to eat for dinner tonight. Her stomach growled as she slowly approached. She barely noticed the way her body changed, or her bones cracked and broke and mended themselves to match her new form. Or how her large four wings stretched outwards. Or how her new long horn was sharper than any knife. Or how sharp her teeth had gotten. She only really wanted one thing. Well, two things.

Food and to be adored.