Sunset Shimmer closed the Mentor’s book, eyes wide and mind still processing what she had read. Everything Mentor Steel Shine had said was confirmed in this book. The Crystal Empire, the portal, the artifacts... All of it. It wasn’t like she didn’t believe the Mentor, but it was something else to read all of it straight from the account of the first Assassin.
It was sad. Her journey had begun all because of Sombra, wanting the Empire for himself. Now, here he was again, as much as a threat as he was a thousand years ago.
It wasn’t fair. None of it was fair. How could Sombra cause so much death and destruction just for power? How could he be so brutal? And why was he still around, undefeated? Sunset was sure Twilight and her friends had defeated him.
Twilight! Of course!
Sunset hit herself, remembering she had a purple unicorn princess she could count on back home. Pulling her backpack over, Sunset rummaged through it and retrieved her journal and a pen.
“Alright, let’s see here…” she said out loud as she pressed the pen to the paper. Scribbling down everything she remembered from the first few chapters of the Mentor’s book, Sunset made sure to add extra notes from the First Assassin’s time in the Crystal Empire, hoping Twilight would be able to find out something on her end. Eventually, she placed her pen down and wiped at her hands, admiring her length of text. “All yours, princess.”
Sunset closed the book and sighed. There was so much going on and she hoped Twilight would be able to help her no matter how confusing it all was.
A knock at the door drew Sunset’s attention up as Morning Blade came in with a paper bag with the Burger Queen logo on it. The green-skinned Assassin had changed out of her off white coat and grey pants into a brown coat and pink skirt. The skirt had an image of a wing with stream lines coming out of it.
“Went out to get some dinner,” she smiled and sat down beside Sunset, handing her the bag. “You were busy, so I thought I’d bring it to you. You don’t mind burgers, do you?”
“Not at all,” Sunset shook her head. “Thanks, Morning, but you didn’t need to do that for me. What if people see you? I mean, the eyepatch and all.”
“Oh, don’t worry, Sunset Shimmer. That is why I changed. And as for this this?” Morning placed a hand over the dark colored fabric. “Well, if it pleases you, I can do this…”
Morning Blade reached for her fringe and pulled down her white hair, covering up her eyepatch. If you looked closely, you could still see it, but at least most people would just pass it by.
“That works, I guess,” Sunset shrugged and opened the bag to see a burger, some fries, and a bottle of apple juice. “At least you’re not Keila. How does she go about? With all the bandages and stuff?”
“Keila generally sticks to the rooftops if she goes out, though that rarely happens. She’s still healing after all. Did you know she was the only survivor in Saddle Arabia?”
“The rest of you weren’t there?” Sunset questioned as she unwrapped her burger.
The Assassin shook her head. “By some stroke of luck, we were delayed. We’d only just reached the outskirts of Masyaf when the explosion happened. Mentor Steel Shine protected us, but the rest… They were all gone. Except Keila.”
“Explosion, huh? So it wasn’t Sombra that took you all down that day?”
“Nobody alive really knows what happened that day. Mentor said the explosion was caused by the artifacts, but we weren’t there to see it. The Templars lost a great deal of their forces as well on that day. No one got out of there without scars, physical or mental.”
“I’m sorry, Morning Blade,” Sunset looked in the paper bag. “I couldn’t possibly imagine what you all must have gone through.”
“Yeah…” she sighed and pulled at her braid. “I admire Keila. She was caught in that explosion and was hurt badly, but still she has the will to fight. I don’t know if I would be able to bounce back from that.”
“I almost didn’t.” Keila pushed open the door and stood by the frame, her one green eye looking at Sunset, a half-eaten burger in one hand. “I lost everything that day, Sunset Shimmer. My friends, family, my home. I didn’t have any reason to go on, but to help Mentor Steel Shine. I made a vow to follow the Creed. I expect to follow through.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that, Keila…”
“Don’t be,” Keila played with a loose bandage around her forearm. “What’s done is done. No matter how sorry we all are, we can’t go back in time. What matters is moving on for the better.”
Sunset ate her dinner in silence, thinking about what Keila had said. She was right. Sunset had done plenty of bad things in the past. She didn’t need to keep thinking about them. What mattered was moving on and changing for the better.
“So… How was it?” Morning Blade asked when Sunset tossed the empty wrapper back in the paper bag.
“Delicious,” Sunset finished chewing and swallowed. “Thanks for taking the trouble of getting it for me.”
“Yes, I appreciate the help, Morning,” Keila dusted her sleeves. “If anything, you’re everything our dear acting Mentor isn’t. Nice, caring, and above all, friendly.”
“He’s been through so much, Keila,” Morning Blade said, almost like she’d said it thousands of times. “Give him a chance.”
“I’ve been through a lot! And don’t get me started on the chances I give him,” Keila suddenly snapped, pointing at her bandaged face. “Did I get all frosty and untrusting? No. I didn’t.” Keila noticed Morning’s discomfort and sighed. “I’m sorry, Morning. You know how he is. He shouldn’t be like that.”
Keila pushed off the doorframe and disappeared down the hall.
Sunset placed a hand on Morning Blade’s shoulder. “Everything alright?”
“Y-Yeah, everything’s fine,” she replied, looking down at her legs. “Keila’s right, but different people take loss differently. Frigid just so happened to take it very badly.”
“Yeah, looks like it.” Sunset started on her fries.
“Well, enough of all this brooding,” Morning Blade tried to smile. “Tell me more about yourself, Sunset Shimmer.”
“Myself?” Sunset hummed to herself as she thought. “Well, I’m from Equestria, the other world, but you already knew that. Hmm… I tried to take over the world once.”
“No…” Morning Blade widened her eyes. “Really? When was this?”
“When I first left my world for this one. I wanted power. I didn’t realize it until I was defeated by the girls I now call my friends, but I had been wrong all this time. Friendship is stronger than anything I know.”
Sunset went on to briefly explain her time at school, her evil schemes, her demon form, and went all the way up to the point where they had beaten the sirens.
“Sounds like an interesting tale,” Morning nodded. “Seems I was a few years too early to see all that, huh?”
“Few years early?” Sunset asked.
“Yeah, I was from CHS too,” Morning Blade widened her smile. “Graduated four years back. Just missed you, Sunset Shimmer.”
“Wow… For real?” This really was a small world. “So you know Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna?”
“Sure do,” the Assassin chuckled. “I even knew Applejack’s brother. Though, he was still a young boy then. Never actually spoke to him, but he seemed nice.”
“So you joined the Assassins right out of CHS?”
“Yeah,” Morning Blade looked back in her life. “I was part of the track team. It was High Noon and another Assassin that scouted me out. Did you know that?”
Sunset placed a fry in her mouth. “Now I do.”
“I don’t usually accept offers from people who just walk up to me, but…” Morning Blade placed a hand over her eyepatch. “That day, I just felt like I was meant to be an Assassin.”
“Do… Do you still think you made the right choice, Morning?” Sunset waited for her answer.
“I wonder that myself sometimes…” she leaned back, supporting herself up with her hands. “But I know I was meant for this. Believe it or not, Frigid sometimes needs someone to talk to. If I wasn’t around to be that person, I don’t know if he would be even less reasonable.”
“Oh,” Sunset blinked a few times. “I didn’t know the acting Mentor had that side of him.”
“He’s not like that, Sunset. He’s not a bad person. I think he just doesn’t know how to trust anymore…” Morning looked down sadly.
“He trusts you,” Sunset smiled and patted her arm. “You said so yourself. Maybe you’ll be the one to get him back to normal.”
“Maybe…” the Assassin mused. “Thank you, Sunset Shimmer. It’s nice talking with you.”
“Please, just Sunset will do. We’re practically the same age.”
The two girls shared a laugh as Sunset grabbed for more fries.
“Very well, Sunset,” Morning Blade nodded and stood up. “For now, I’ll leave you to your meal. Goodnight, Sunset Sh- I mean, Sunset. Have a good night’s rest.”
Sunset continued chowing down her fries until there were none left before starting on her apple juice. Eating food like that almost made Sunset forget what they’d been going through. Tossing all her trash in the paper bag, Sunset folded it up and headed out of her room to toss it in the living room’s bin. Keila and Morning Blade were seated on a couch, both of them looking in different directions.
Must be keeping watch, Sunset told herself. Morning Blade saw her and waved to her before getting back to keeping alert.
Sunset wondered if they were going to stay like that all night as she headed for the bathroom to change and wash up. Once she was done, Sunset returned to her room and got into bed, pulling the sheets up to her neck.
Maybe I’ll actually get a good night’s rest tonight.
Sunset wondered what Velvet was up to now, but there was no way of contacting her at the moment. Perhaps she had already finished her mission and was on the way back. That was a thought Sunset kept in her mind as she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
Sunset Shimmer opened her eyes, gazing up at a ceiling, black as night.
Hmm…? What happened to the light?
Sunset was sure she left the bedside lamp on before she went to sleep. Maybe the bureau had a power outage or something. She groggily pushed herself up, suddenly aware that her bed felt hard and cold, almost like some kind of jewel.
“What is this?” she sat up and looked around.
Sunset was in some kind of vast chamber, the walls, floor and ceiling were covered over by some kind of black crystal.
Black crystal… Wait a minute…
Sunset recognized the architecture around her. The crystalline structures, the banners… She was in the Crystal Empire. But the black crystal wasn’t supposed to be here, not unless-
“This way!” a voice hissed. We don’t have time to lose!”
Sunset instinctively retreated behind a crystal pillar as the the soft sound of something clinking against the glassy surface got closer. Peeking her head out from behind the pillar, Sunset spotted a group of guard ponies rushing across the chamber, some of them constantly looking over their shoulders.
Curious as to what was happening, Sunset decided to follow them at a safe distance, seeing where they were headed. She crossed over into a smaller hallway at the end of the large room, following the group along a carpeted floor, noticing how dark everything was. Even the shine of their crystal pony coats was absent, though one pony, a pale green pegasus clad in a dark cloak and a set of darker armor, seemed to glow brighter than the rest.
This must’ve been the time Sombra took over a thousand years ago. Sunset understood that much, but she didn’t know why she was here or even how she was seeing all this.
Is this a dream…?
Suddenly, the group stopped in their tracks before shuffling back a few steps.
“Back, back!” the cloaked pony whispered to her friends as they scurried down a connecting hallway.
Sunset watched them go, wondering what had happened. Then she heard it. The sound of hoofsteps against the floor, only this time, it seemed to sound like crystal against crystal.
The girl had wanted to stay and see what the ponies were running from, but Sunset felt something like a tug around her waist, almost like her body was attached to the faintly glowing pony at the head of the group. Without warning, her body was pulled along with the group, Sunset’s legs dangling in the air below her.
What’s going on? Sunset’s mind raced with questions, but the only logical explanation was that this was all a dream. But that pony that glowed brighter… Sunset seemed to sense something familiar about her.
“Does this current hallway lead us closer to the workshop?” one of the crystal ponies asked.
Workshop? Could it be?
Sunset remembered reading about a workshop in the Mentor’s book. A workshop of Star Swirl the Bearded, to be precise.
“Perhaps,” another pony answered as they kept moving. “Maybe we should follow it. See if it leads us back around the golems.”
There were whispers among the group before the glowing pegasus pushed forward and lead the group on. As she moved, Sunset found herself being pulled along again, her feet unable to touch the floor. The troupe of ponies watched the halls wearily, looking out for more ‘golems’ or probably even Sombra himself.
Sunset knew the tales plus her knowledge from the account of the first Assassin. Unfortunately, that meant she also knew what was going to happen next.
One of the ponies had just mentioned Sombra’s lack of appearance when his voice boomed across the crystal hallway, each one of them freezing on the spot.
The dark king seemed to melt out of the wall of black crystal, stopping before the group of ponies, his eyes blazing green and red in the darkness, along with the trails of purple flowing from them.
“Sombra…” a guard pony muttered with distaste. “You will never be king.”
As he laughed, a group of crystallized ponies appeared the same way Sombra had, coming out of the black crystals like they were some kind of dark portal, marching over to surround the group. They looked almost like ponies, but they had no facial features and their crystalline bodies looked sharp enough to cut flesh. Sunset shivered at the thought of what these golems could do to ponies.
“I am already king, and as your ruler, I ask you. What are you doing in MY castle?”
The guard ponies seemed to lose their courage as Sombra and his crystal minions made their way to them, their legs shaky and their breaths held. Then before Sunset could figure out what was happening, there was a bright flash of light from one of the ponies, a unicorn in flowing robes, and every one of the ponies scattered, using any means necessary to get past Sombra and his golems, while the bright flash blinded them.
Sunset Shimmer was pulled along with the group, yelping as she phased through a crystal golem, floating along the halls as the group of ponies galloped past a set of gates, the roars of the dark king echoing behind them.
Sunset was glad she hadn’t been born during all this. Even though she was watching them like some sort of ghost, she was scared to the bone of Sombra and his crystal constructs and what they would do to anypony who stood in their way.
And then the walls and ceiling disappeared around them, the group entering into an open-aired corridor. Only a single tower stood ahead, standing tall in the night sky.
“There!” the guard pony in front ran past the others. She looked like she was the one in charge. “The entrance to the workshop!”
She kicked the door open with her hooves, waving for the others to enter. Sunset watched each pony go through, floating behind the one in the cloak, heading down the steps. Then the pony stopped, turning around and trotting back up the steps. The one that looked like the captain was still outside, along with two other guards, weapons in their mouths. Sunset didn’t need to know what they were saying to know what they were planning. They were going to buy more time for the others.
“Jade…” the cloaked pegasus said. “They're buying us time... If we stay here, we're wasting their lives. You need to open the door to the mirror. Dash and Spirit have already made up their minds, and there's no changing them. But us? We still have a mission to accomplish. For the Empire and for the both of them. We will find the artifacts and we will stop Sombra.”
Sunset couldn’t help but tear at the sight of the ponies giving their lives to let the others go on. It was sad, but incredibly valiant. The girl watched the captain and the cloaked one rush down a flight of steps, descending down into the darkness in a spiral. She didn’t like how everything was so dark. From what she’d seen, the Crystal Empire was basically the brightest place in Equestria. To see it fallen to such darkness and shadows was very depressing.
The two ponies regrouped with the rest of their friends at the bottom, proceeding through yet another dark tunnel. Reaching a door, the captain pony took out a golden key, using it to unlock the old door.
This must be Star Swirl’s old workshop, Sunset guessed.
Now, according to the book, these ponies were supposed to be looking for the mirror, an older prototype of the one Princess Twilight now had, created by Star Swirl the Bearded in his early days, which would take them to the human world to find those artifacts like the Mentor’s sword and Templars’ Apple. Sunset knew the rough story from here, but to actually see all this… She knew it was going to be something she would remember forever.
The captain had moved to a barrel of lances and pulled one, opening a secret wall, which looked like it hadn’t been used in ages.
Probably not since Star Swirl was here.
The crystal ponies entered the passage, heading down yet another flight of steps in the darkness. The robed unicorn led the way, lighting up the space with her magic. Sunset noticed the sides of the steps simply dropped off into the abyss and any misstep could simply lead to anypony’s death.
“Whoever built these steps had no idea of decent architecture…” Sunset mumbled to herself as she floated alongside the cloaked pegasus.
That pony herself seemed to be watchful, always keeping an eye out around the space, besides the edge they could fall off from. Her expression remained stoic, unlike that of her fellow guards; most of them had trembling lips or frightened faces. Sunset didn’t blame them. If she had to go through everything they did, she figured she’d simply be crying in a corner, or at least cowering at the back of the group.
And then the steps finally ended, stopping before a large metal door, somehow gleaming and reflective, almost like somepony had been polishing it over the years. There were also magical symbols around the door, ones Sunset had never seen before, spiralling in a pattern around the cutie mark of Star Swirl the Bearded.
“This is definitely it,” the unicorn said as she stopped casting her light. “I can feel the magic behind this door; it’s like nothing I’ve ever felt before.”
Inserting the key and twisting it, the captain pushed the doors open, moving across the cavern floor smoothly without a sound. Sunset guessed there must’ve been some kind of magic cast on it to keep it clean and unblemished.
“Get inside, everypony,” the captain pony ordered, waiting by the entrance as each of the other guards made their way in. “Light Speckle, seal the door.”
The pony in the robes, which Sunset knew was some kind of mage from reading the book, fired a spell from her horn, sealing the doors from the inside.
Inside the new room, there were heaps and heaps of items, most likely inventions of Star Swirl, left abandoned all over the place. The crystal ponies spread out, searching the piles for the mirror that would lead them to the artifacts.
“I think it’s over there!” a male pegasus pointed to a raised platform with more junk. Sunset immediately recognized the shape of the mirror behind some of it. It looked almost just like the one she had used to cross into the human world, but this one lacked the decoration and beauty it had. This mirror was but a piece of reflective glass with a horseshoe support around it.
Sunset followed the cloaked pony over as she inspected a scroll that was pinned to the mirror.
“Uh... everypony?” Her face instantly told Sunset that it was bad news. Really bad news. “It says here that the mirror we’re looking for was moved to Canterlot fifty years ago.”
Moved to Canterlot…? Sunset wondered. They must mean the one at Twilight’s! That’s what they were looking for!
“This must be a prototype... there must be a way to get it working somehow.”
The captain and the cloaked pony began arguing, which Sunset thought was rather pointless in a situation like this; there wasn’t time to fight amongst each other.
“How much time do you think we have?” the pale green pegasus asked the mage, the one called Light Speckle.
“If we hurry, we should have-” her voice was cut off when a loud crash echoed around the cavern. Something had thrown itself at the door, creating a large dent in the polished metal. The silence that followed stopped Sunset’s heartbeat as she waited in anticipation for something to happen. “None.”
The ponies began scrambling, each of them doing something different to get the mirror working as more dents began appearing across the door. A group had split off, moving to barricade the door with anything large enough to work. The three ponies in guard armor drew their weapons and stood before the mirror’s platform, facing the door as the cloaked pony and mage searched the mirror, looking for a way to activate it before it was too late.
Sunset knew the rough story from here. She wanted to wake up, to escape the nightmare before the events took place, but she couldn’t. All she could do was watch. The guardsponies had their glimmering coats renewed as they stood at the ready, their fear dissipating and their hope in a better future restored.
Sunset teared at the sight of the guards, ready to give their lives to save their kingdom and all of Equestria from the tyrannical Sombra. It was touching, but also sad that none of them would get the chance to do so.
Suddenly, the doors had blown apart, a wave of dark magic sending the ponies’ barricade flying, the metal door shattering, knocking the guardsponies back in an instant. One was already down, his neck bent at an odd angle, while the other two were clearly wounded, some bones likely broken. One looked like she couldn’t get up, while the other was limping badly. The pony that Sunset had been following didn’t get away unscathed, even at the distance. Something had cut across her head, dripping blood down one side of her face.
“My little ponies...” Sombra stepped forward, his golems following close behind. The room seemed to grow darker from his presence. “I wondered where you were running off to. I already said nopony leaves my kingdom, and as its ruler, my word is law. Your friends have already paid the price for disobedience. Bow down to me, and I may yet spare your pitiful lives. If not…” He looked to the closest pony to him, the one unable to get up, firing a straight beam of magic at her, burning a hole right through her body.
Sunset screamed and threw her hands in front of her eyes, sobbing quietly at the brutality of the dark king. He’d done the same with the Assassins back at the Trottingham bureau and Sunset never wanted to see all that again.
Why? Why am I here? What is this?
“You... you monster!” the captain screamed, homing in for Sombra’s head with her sword.
“Jade! No!” the pegasus yelled with a hoof outstretched.
Sombra responded with a blast of magic, sending the captain up to the ceiling with a crash before letting her fall. She got up one more time, only to be knocked down again.
“I can’t watch…” Light Speckle cried out. “Why is this happening to us?” She covered her ears with both hooves, not wanting to hear the screams of their guard captain. Sombra then picked the captain up in a magical grasp and pulled at her wings, attempting to tear them off.
“Kill you…” the pegasus muttered under her breath. “I’ll kill you!”
Sunset threw her hands to her ears as well, trying to block out the screams of the guard captain being tortured. It was all too much for her to handle. Even while covering them, Sunset could still hear everything, almost like she could do nothing about it all.
“Emerald…”
Sunset looked up, hearing the quiet voice somewhere close by. She removed her hands from her ears and searched for the source. It wasn’t the unicorn that was sobbing nearby, nor was it the guard captain, who was still screaming in agony, so who-
“Emerald…” Sunset noticed the white male pegasus close to the platform, his head slightly twitching, still alive somehow. “Emerald, the mirror!”
The cloaked pegasus and Sunset turned to the mirror, not believing what they were seeing. The mirror was lighted up with a soft purple light, while the horseshoe support was glowing like heated metal in a forge. Sombra’s dark magic must have somehow re-ignited the mirror’s power source.
“I-It worked,” Emerald gasped, staring in disbelief and wonder at the mirror. “It actually worked. Light Speckle! The mirror! It worked-”
And then both their attentions were taken as the guard captain’s screamed before falling to the ground, unmoving, both her wings thrown aside as Sombra stepped forward.
“Who’s next?” his voice boomed as he levitated the mage pony off the platform and towards himself.
Sunset turned to the cloaked pony. So this is Emerald Edge, the First Assassin. Come on, Emerald. You’ve got to do something! The girl knew this was all a dream or vision and that she couldn’t be seen or heard, but she needed to do something.
Almost like she had heard the human girl, Emerald Edge wiped the blood away from her eye and took flight, jetting towards Sombra with a warcry. The dark king dropped the mage and fired a spell at Emerald, but the pegasus turned at the last second, just barely missing the blast, before picking up her friend and swooping back towards the mirror.
Sunset held her hands to her mouth, anxiously shaking as the pegasus flew back towards her, her friend in tow. Would she make it? Then disaster struck as a bolt of magic seared past her left wing. Sunset flinched as the bolt struck her, but sighed with relief as it flew right through her, hitting the wall in the back, leaving a scorch mark across the cavern rock.
Emerald Edge and Light Speckle fell to the ground, rolling along and stopping just short of the mirror platform. Where the First Assassin’s wing had been was now a scorched stump, sticking out of her back like a fin.
“How could you, Sombra?” Sunset whispered, turning her angry eyes to him. “How could you do such a thing?”
And then Emerald Edge was floating, lifted up in a faint white magical aura coming from the unicorn, her face half burnt from the magical blast.
“Light Speckle! Stop!” Emerald yelled, kicking out with all four hooves, trying to break out of the magical aura.
“Go on without me!” the mage said as Sombra moved in for the kill. “The mirror’s going to melt down in a minute, and I’ll only slow you down.”
Sunset watched the unicorn, giving her life so that her friend might be able to get through the portal. The act was so selfless of her, something Sunset wished she had more of.
“It’s okay, Emerald... I’ll see you on the other side. I promise.”
And then the pegasus was hurled through the mirror, with Sunset being pulled back into it as well. The last thing she saw before she was engulfed in white flames was the menacing smile of Sombra as the Crystal Empire disappeared from sight.
Sunset Shimmer jumped up in her bed, her hands scrambling across her body as she released a loud scream from her mouth, echoing in the small room.
I’m fine… I’m fine. It was just a dream… But all those ponies…
Morning Blade and Keila rushed into the room, their weapons drawn.
“What happened?” Keila asked first, her two daggers in her hands. “Were you attacked?”
“It was… It was just a dream… I’m fine,” Sunset wrapped her arms around herself.
“Oh,” was all Keila said before returning back outside, disappearing behind the door.
Morning Blade, on the other hand, stowed her hidden blade and walked over, sitting by the edge of the bed. “Are you alright, Sunset? What was it about?”
Usually, Sunset forgot her nightmares quickly, but this one, this one stayed crisp and clear in her mind, like a movie she had just seen. “It’s a long story, Morning Blade, but… It was about Emerald Edge, the First Assassin.”