I DO NOT own Super Mario all rights go to Nintendo
I DO NOT own My Little Pony Friendship is Magic all rights go to Hasbro
SOME SPOILERS FOR RAINBOW ROCKS (Though its an AU on how I believe the movie should've went)
The six mares and two brothers looked at Canterlot. Sunset held her chest. "Beautiful…" Her voice warbled slightly.
"Sunset." Pinkie hugged her friend tightly. "You're home."
"Yeah…girls, let's go back to the Crystal Empire...Mario and Luigi can tell her about Bowser... we can go..." Sunset nervously padded the ground.
"No you don't, Sugarcube. You came here to see Celestia and that's what you're doing!" Applejack declared.
"She'll throw me in prison, banish me, break my horn off, erase my mind, and turn me into a filly, and throw me into the sun-" She was galloping in around the group frantically.
"Sunset, sweetie, you need to breath." Rarity tried to reason by lifting up her spirits calmly.
"Maybe she'll leave me to the griffons..." Her legs where a blur as she ran on.
"Sunset, if Princess Celestia; if she's anything like Principal Celestia, I'm sure she'll do none of that." Fluttershy gently stated.
"-throw me at the Dragons Hoard-"
SLAP
"Sunset, SNAP OUT OF IT!" Rainbow Dash screamed in the unicorn’s face with ear drums bursting volumes. "Get your butt down there, talk to Celestia, and if you wanna still come back with us than you can!"
"Fine then!" Sunset screamed back in Rainbow Dash's. "I'm going to see Celestia!"
"Yeah!" Rainbow hollered in reply.
"I'm going to apologize to her for being a jerk!"
"Yeah!"
"I'm going to warn her about Bowser!"
"Yeah!"
"I'm going to help save Equestria!"
"Yeah!"
"And you're coming with me to the castle!"
"Yeah! Wait, what!?"
"Let’s go!" Sunset galloped away, dragging Rainbow Dash along with her.
The four mares looked around at each other, Mario and Luigi wrung their hands. "Well that was weird."
"Should we go after them?" Rarity asked the group.
"Yipee!" Pinkie bounced along the road.
"Pinkie Pie!" Rarity grumbled and chased after the pink pony.
Sunset and Rainbow made their way down the road. The closer Sunset got to Canterlot, the more of her fears got the better of her. "You can do this, you're Sunset Shimmer." Rainbow flew next to her. "Student of Celestia!"
"You're right, I AM SUNSET SHIMMER!" A bright red syringe shaped spell flew out of the trees. Instantly, Sunset collapsed in a heap rolling across the ground before coming to a stop.
Suddenly, a group of unicorns appeared in front of the shocked Pegasus "Hold Ms. Rainbow Dash." His deep baritone voice shook Rainbow Dash out of her stupor.
"What did you do to her!?" She bellowed, her wings flaring to the side.
One of the unicorns clamped a ring around her horn then clamped her hooves together with hoof cuffs. "Thank you for your assistance." He bowed his head.
"Hey!" Rainbow shot straight at the unicorn team.
"Stun her!" The last thing Rainbow saw was a flash of red.
CANTERLOT
The unconscious mare was dragged through the castle. "Go tell Princess's Celestia about her." Her head skidded across the ground as they went into the throne room. He tossed the mare unceremoniously in front of the large throne, just as a brilliant golden light nearly blinded him.
"Leave us Pride." Celestia all but growled.
"Princess, are you..."
"I said leave us!" She snapped.
"Yes, my princess." The stallion bowed and walked out of the room shutting the door with a thud.
Celestia looked down at the mare. She gently unlocked the hoof cuffs and tossed them across the room. Her horn touched the horn ring, incinerating it instantly. Like a mother caring for her foal she gently raised Sunset off the ground. She healed the injuries caused by the stallion dragging her across the floor before gently placing her on a fluffy pillow she conjured. Instinctually the mare hugged the pillow close to her body. Celestia felt her heart flutter at the unconscious movement. Taking the old ruler back to when this mare was but a filly learning her first spell.
"Sunset, my faithful student." Tears dripped down her cheeks as she gently nuzzled the mare. "Oh how I prayed for this day." Celestia took a step back. The mare was no longer the filly that once told her, 'Nothing but power and potential'. The baby fat that once was in her cheeks and ribs were gone, replaced by healthy curves that mares hoped for and stallions wanted. "You've grown in yourself appointed exile." Celestia dropped down beside Sunset covering her with her wings. Tears dripped onto the cold ground when Sunset snuggled deeply into the warm wings. "You never had to hide from me."
Celestia pulled away from Sunset to dab her eyes with a handkerchief. Celestia took three deep breaths, regaining a tight reign over her emotions. Her eyes hardened as she dipped her head, a small bolt arced between the alicorn and unicorn horn. "Ahhh, was the stunning spell necessary, I would've came freely." Her heart stopped when she noticed who was sitting in front of her. Pain, regret, fear, ached away at her heart. "Princess…" Tears pooled at the bottom of Sunset’s eyes. She had grown fond of Principal Celestia, and as tall and regally the school teacher carried herself with she didn't, or couldn't, carry herself the millennia of experience her princess carried herself with.
"Hello Sunset." Her voice calm.
"Princess!" She whaled, hugging the Princess of Equastria. "I'm so sorry, I was brat, I wasn't experienced, wanted nothing but power, I was a stupid child, please mother; please forgive me!"
"My little pony," Her wing completely enveloped Sunset Shimmer. "my Second Sun." She felt the unicorn’s horn dig into the her side. "I've waited years. Every time the portal opened I hoped you would come through." Sunset’s heart skipped. "I knew of your quest. It was something that I couldn't guide you through." Tears soaked her ribs. "I failed you as a mother, but I pray some of what I taught you helped on your quest of discovery."
"You never failed. Once the haze was gone, once I was stripped of my destructive quest for power all I had left was your lessons about friendship. That guided me, I made friends and paid penance to everyone I had wronged…at least I tried some, wouldn't accept my apologies." Sunset buried her face deep in the alicorn’s chest.
"Yes, sometimes a person been wronged can't see past the past." She clenched her wing tightly around the much smaller mare. "Why have you returned, daughter?"
Sunset smiled. "I graduated and my friends were starting to drift apart. I knew it was time to come home. I'll face whatever you throw at me, mother."
Celestia released the mare and looked down. Shock at Sunset’s actions went through her body. 'Was I a bad teacher? Was it me who made the mistakes?' Celestia thought to herself, deep regret going clenching her heart.
"You can't be both teacher and a parent." Princess Luna was sitting in the doorway; her dark blue eyes remained locked on Sunset.
"Sister." Celestia greeted. The sun princess instinctively stood in front of Sunset. The Sisters remained calm, their eyes never leaving one another. Luna knew if she pushed for Sunset's arrest that she would have to butt heads with Celestia. Luna knew that this mare, this mare her elder sister had adopted while she was in exile, this Sunset Shimmer, she had never lost her spot in her adopted mothers heart. No matter the pain she had caused her, this mare was even closer then Twilight to being the daughter Celestia never had.
"Princess Luna," Sunset Shimmer gasped. "Shes alive." She stuck her head from behind Celestia hulking frame. She flinched at the cold stare Princess Luna was giving her.
"How do you know who we are?" Her voice remained the cool calm, but Sunset swore she saw the lunar princess's iris become a slit.
"The other world has a Luna. But I always assumed you were dead." Suddenly, something clicked in her mind. Celestia watched the preceding with calculating eyes. "YOU! You're Nightmare Moon!" Her horn sparked. Instantly, Celestia was in front of Sunset, her wings half flared. "Princess!" Celestia sent her a meaningful glance at Sunset Shimmer.
"I mean her no harm, sister." Luna stared at Celestia with trepidation. After three tense seconds, seconds in which the fate of Equestria was in balance. Celestia lowered her wings revealing Sunset, who felt like nothing more than a foal in between the two rulers of Equestria. "No, I am not Nightmare Moon." Her voice was even as she looked down at Sunset. For the first time there was a glint of kindness in her eyes.
"Princess," Sunset bowed her head slightly. Her mind went to the moment she had been completely and utterly possessed by all the negative emotions in her heart. The feeling of being a passenger in her own body. "I apologize." A moment of deep understanding passed in Sunset’s mind.
Luna placed a hoof on her back, signaling the mare to look up. Luna and her met eyes, and the same understanding that passed over Sunset moments earlier now passed over to Luna "You were right in the assumption. We once allowed our jealously drive us to rule us, and that very jealousy became personified and took a life of its very own." Tears pooled in the mares eyes.
"Nightmare Moon was all your inner negative emotions?" Sunset guessed.
"Yes," Luna frowned, her mind going back to the story Twilight Sparkle once told the two princesses. "I've heard of you, not much though." All her sister had told her about Sunset Shimmer was that she was a former student lost to pride. Never once mentioning that she adopted Sunset when she was but a filly.
"Ditto." Celestia had only mentioned her battle with Nightmare Moon. Instantly the two realized the deep heart shattering pain they had caused their family figure head.
Luna choked back tears as she eyed a mare so similar to her was doing the exact same thing. "Our stories follow the same path, correct?" Luna remembered the stories told by Twilight and Celestia.
"Became an evil-she demon who was blasted with a rainbow?" Sunset and Luna flinched away from the memories of their time being possessed.
"Yep." Luna replied calmly. "Jealously and fear is what drove us from our family." She stated bluntly, but once again the two struggled to fight away tears that threatened to come forth.
"Yeah." Sunset flinched slightly. 'Nothing but power and potential'. The one of last things she had ever told her mother. The mare who had raised her with kindness and with that thought the tears that had been fought poured down her cheeks.
Suddenly, Luna wrapped her hooves around Sunsets small frame. 'There can only be one princess in Equstria... And that Princess will be ME!' The single worst moment in her life, the moment that cost her a thousand years played over in her mind. "But you've learned from all of that, correct little pony?" Her whispers soothed the tearful mare. She looked at Celestia watching two of her two most precious ponies soothing the deep wound in their hearts.
"Yeah." Sunset sobbed, her tears soaking the Luna's fur.
Suddenly, the two were grabbed by a massive set of white hooves. Celestia completely encased the two in white feathery fur. "Sister," She looked at Luna onto her left. "Daughter", She looked at Sunset on her right. "I will never lose you again." The two nuzzled into the ancient alicorn’s chest.
"Mother." She looked up into Celestia's dark purple eyes. "Bowser, he's going to attack again. We need to find out where..."
SCENE SHIFT
"Rainbow!"
"Dashie!"
Rainbow Dash’s eyes flicked open. She rubbed her head weakly. "Dash!" Applejack helped her to her hooves.
"Ahhh…" She moaned weakly.
"Where is Sunset?" Fluttershy asked gently.
"I think" Rainbow Dash rubbed the cobwebs from her eyes, "some kind of police force arrested her."
"That's not good." Luigi whispered under his breath.
Mario step into the semi-circle of mares saying, "We need to know the whole story, just what did Sunset do?"
The group looked around each other awkwardly. Suddenly, Fluttershy cleared her throat. "Sunset Shimmer, one year she showed up partway through 8th grade..."
Rainbow looked down sadly. "We were best friends. Us five at that time, we did everything together..."
Rarity frowned as she continued. "Best friends, closer than any group in our school..."
Applejack sighed. "That made us a target for her though..."
The memory caused a deep pain in Pinkie Pie’s heart. "She came at us and destroyed what we held dear; our friendship..."
"So why are you friends with her?" Luigi was sitting crossed legged on the dirt.
"In our Sophomore years, a second pony came through the portal" Fluttershy explained. "Apparently, Sunset had learned that her former teacher had taken a second student. Sunset was not happy, she became blinded by jealously and her ego. She wanted to take what she thought was hers."
"She was going to force and accession to princesshood by using a power she barely had an understanding of." Rarity looked away from the brothers. "The Element of Magic."
"Well, one of the bearers of the Elements chased Sunset into our world where she realized the damage Sunset was causing to us and the other students." Rainbow all but growled this out.
"But Twilight Sparkle, that's the one who followed Sunset through by the way. Twilight Sparkle, she was able to bring us all together. But we were too late." Pinkie's hair deflated like a balloon "None of us, or even Twilight. We didn't understand how far Sunset had fallen or what she was willing to do." Pinkies mane was completely flat.
"Sunset was able to force Twilight to give the Element of Magic to her." Applejack shuddered.
"Something happened though. The Element of Magic released all of Sunset’s inner demons. Her vanity, pride, jealousy became a She-Demon of fire."
"But Twilight wasn't going to allow Sunset to destroy everything and used us as a weapon." Rainbow Dash smirked. "She used our bond of friendship as a bridge and we purged Sunset. Twilight regained her Element and left us with Sunset Shimmer."
"None of us trusted Sunset Shimmer though, well, maybe Pinkie and Fluttershy." Rarity chuckled. "No, not in the slightest, but she was making an honest attempt at redeeming herself. She outright came and apologized to us, joined a few clubs, and was overall just trying to be more social. But no one could trust her."
"But then, the Dazzlings happened."
"The Dazzlings?" Mario looked around at the group.
"They were a group of sirens who witnessed our fight with Sunset Shimmer. Realizing that our school was the epicenter of magic in our world, they began to feed off the residual magic around the portal and used their new found strength to cause the strife they feed off, which allowed them to feed off more of the pure magic in the portal, which in turn gave them more strength.” Fluttershy explained to the two with a hitch in her throat.
"A circle of never ending power." Mario cringed at the thought.
"But Sunset saw what we didn't. She realized what they were. One day after school, we practiced for what the Dazzling’s turned into a battle of the bands. Sunset came to us, got down on her knees, and begged for our help." Pinkie Pie frowned at the memory.
"Why?" Luigi quizzed with some worry in his voice.
"Twilight had embedded us with magic. We didn't realize it, but Sunset had watched our practice and during it Rainbow had used her half Pegasus state." Applejack revealed with some amount of pride.
"And she realized that we may be the only ones on planet with the magic required to counter the Dazzling’s magic."
Rainbow grunted out. "We failed her though. I had gotten a massive headache. Heck, I even named a song, ‘Awesome as I Wanna Be’. Rarity and AJ were constantly arguing about costumes. Yeah we didn't know at the time, but we were fuelling the Dazzlings."
"She tried with everything she had to bring us back together to reignite the magic of friendship in us. But why would we listen to a cruel and mean bully like Sunset Shimmer." Rarity growled at her own past stupidity.
"Sunset then did something very stupid." Applejack cringed. "She tried to take the world onto her shoulders."
"How?" Luigi questioned worry clear in his tone.
"The Dazzlings won the battle of the bands, but then came Sunset Shimmer she-demon form." Fluttershy was in tears at this point. "She challenged the Dazzlings to one last battle, on her own."
"Sunset was completely and utterly rolled over, but she didn't flinch, even as the Dazzlings drained her very life energy from every pore in her body. She continued to sing with as much ferocity as a wild beast, never allowing the Dazzlings to intimidate her." The five mares where in crying as they continued. "In that moment, we were brought together though. Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack..." The five looked at each other with a smile "And Sunset Shimmer."
"We got onto the stage and began to sing. We began to force back The Dazzlings with all the magic we could muster, but they were still stronger than us. Then it happened. Sunset, somehow, someway, she began charging herself up. She became super charged with our magic and with all our magic she was completely overwhelmed and destroyed the magic within the sirens gems."
"So, what exactly did she do to get arrested? Because other than becoming a She-Demon, she seemed to be a hero?" Mario looked pointedly at the group.
"She assaulted royal guards, betrayed the princess, stole the crown of a princess, and attempted a coup d'état." Rarity summarized simply.
"And you told us her whole story, so we want to go and rescue her?" Luigi guessed correctly.
"Eyup" AJ looked at the two pointedly.
Mario and Luigi cast a glance at one another. They just stared at each other for ten seconds before in unison saying, "Ok, we'll go get Sunset Shimmer!" The brothers scrambled up a tree. Luigi hugged the tree trunk as Mario hand stood on top of the tree.
"What are you guys doing?" Rainbow was hovering beside the two.
Their eyes traveled along the wall. "Well, this isn't good."
"What is it?"
"The wall is well maintained and we can't just walk through the front gate, we'll cause a ruckus." Mario explained.
"Bro." Luigi pointed at a gate.
"Luigi." Mario looked at his younger brother questioningly. "We can't- ohhhh the direct approach."
"Yep." Luigi and Mario high five each other.
"The direct approach?" Rainbow Dash looked at the two like they're crazy. "Guys, they took out me and Sunset in a blink of an eye. Not only that but I promise you there’s an army down there."
"An army, we take on armies." Mario and Luigi dropped out of the tree. "But these aren't bad ponies, so we can't beat them up thoroughly." Mario put a finger on his chin. "So we’ll run, get Sunset and get out of Canterlot."
"You girls go ahead, try and figure out where Sunset is, and when the ruckus hits we'll find you and you’ll tell us what we need to know." Mario told the five pony friends.
"Me and my bro, we'll wait a couple hours. If you need us, Rarity, use your magic send a spark up into the clouds." Luigi stated to the white mare.
"Ok!"
Suddenly, Mario clapped Applejack and Pinkie Pie on the back "Be careful, the ponies here don't seem to be dangerous. But still we can't just assume."
The five jumped into the bros arms hugging them tightly. "Thank you for helping her!"
"No problem." The bros laughed joyously. "We always help our friends."