The Redemption

by Proffesor Candlelight

Motivation

I was so close to finally exacting my revenge. Everything was going so well. Until Twilight and her friends came in. I thought they could do nothing to stop me, that I was too powerful to ever be stopped. But when that rainbow formed, I knew I was done for. I didn’t want to admit it, but I knew it. I was suddenly surrounded by bright flashing colors on all sides. I wondered what was going to happen to me. Was this just going to remove my powers, or something more? I panicked, trying to break away, but it had me trapped. But suddenly, in the midst of all the brightness, everything died down.

---

I looked around and quickly became confused. Where was I? How did I get here? But after a quick inspection, it was obvious where I was. I was back in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. It was weird seeing ponies again. Everyone was staring at a pony at the front of the class. When I checked to see who it was, things got even more confusing. It was me. Pony me, to be specific. If I didn’t have questions already, I definitely had them now. Why was I back here? If I’m here, then who’s at the front of the class? I had already dealt with the other Sunset long ago, so it couldn’t be her. Why hadn’t anybody noticed me yet?

I stood in front of the ponies to check whether they could see me, but nobody batted an eyelid. So, I tried to leave. I knew where the portal was. If I could just get there, I could go back and maybe salvage the remains of my destroyed plan and try again. But when I opened the classroom door, there was nothing. Nothing. Just black void. I reached out into it, and all I felt was bitter cold. I was stuck here, with no way to get out.

Since I couldn’t leave, I decided to stay and see what was happening. Maybe I could figure out where I was. The class was watching Sunset (the other one) expectantly. Celestia started to speak, and I slowly started to bubble up with rage. I’d rather jump into the void and take my chances than see her again. Unless it was to watch her horrified face as I slowly took everything she had from her, I promised myself to never look at her again. But, I couldn’t do anything else.

She started going off about a teleportation spell. She gave a nod to Sunset, and she demonstrated. Everyone clapped, and she stood there with a beaming smile, soaking it all in. I remembered this happening, although it was buried deep in the back of my mind. Honestly, I thought so simple back then. Back then, all I wanted was ponies’ admiration, especially Celestia’s. It seemed so stupid. You can’t get power from admiration, it fizzles out as soon as you do something people don’t like. Fear is what truly leads to influence.

Suddenly, my train of thought was cut off. Now, I was in Celestia’s throne room. It happened instantly as if I’ve been teleported. I saw Celestia and Sunset discussing. This must’ve been one of my one-on-one lessons with her. I quickly checked the doors in this room, but they were the same. I started to think that maybe this was all just a dream, that I was knocked unconscious. I tried to pinch myself, just to check. It didn’t work, pretty obviously. So, I returned to watching.

“Sunset, you’ve been one of the most promising students I’ve had,” said Celestia.

“You’re saying that as if there’s a “but” coming after,” Sunset replied.

“But I fear for what is going to happen to your social life if you keep burying yourself in your studies.”

“I… don’t see the problem. A “social life” has never gotten anybody anywhere, it’s just a time-waster for people who don’t work hard enough.”

“Sunset, I know you like to study magic. But there’s more to life than just that. Study won’t make you happy forever, but a good friend will keep you–”

“So, are you not happy then?”

“Sunset, what do you mean? I’m fine.” Celestia was losing her regal tone.

“You don’t have any friends.”

“Yes, I do! It’s just… it’s just…”

“See? You’re doing fine without anybody. Why should I be an exception?”

“Sunset, listen. I am now canceling all our one-on-one lessons. When I bring them back, you must be able to bring someone with you.”

“No! I’m not letting you change the subject. You just don’t want to admit that you don’t have friends, do you? Why are you forcing something on me that you don’t even follow?”

“End of discussion, Sunset.”

Sunset stormed out of the classroom, probably wanting to never come back. This was the start of me realizing the truth about Celestia. She claimed to be loving, kind, and regal, but I saw through her facade. She banished me for it, then continued to live her life, keeping everyone in the dark about what she’d done. I had to stop myself from trying to confront her now. I knew it would make no difference.

The scene changed again, to a party. The anger I felt before instantly turned to dread. This was one of my most painful memories. If I just could’ve ignored Celestia and her hypocritical preachings, I wouldn’t have had to go through this.

Sunset was combing through the crowd, trying to find someone to talk through. She didn’t know many ponies, on account of all the time she spent doing more important things. After a long time of searching, she eventually found a pony she could hold a conversation with.

They converse about magic, and Sunset said something that made the other pony crack up into laughter. She beams, the same way she did when she was showing off her talent. I almost gagged. I can barely remember the last time someone laughed at me and I didn’t immediately make sure they’d never do it again.

Sunset was riding off the high of making a pony laugh, and she got cocky. “If I can get one person to be my friend, why can’t I make everyone?” The stage was empty, and she seized the opportunity.

She jumped onto the stage and was immediately met with everyone’s gazes. She shifted uncomfortably. She expected everything to go as it did before. She’d do a trick, everyone gawks in admiration, and now she has 30 new friends. Instead, she told the joke that she told the people before and… nothing. Everyone just kept staring, waiting for the actual reason she got up on stage.

Sunset panicked. Hard. She wasn’t prepared for this; she’d never experienced this level of embarrassment before. Thinking quickly, she decided to perform some magic. It never failed to make her the main attraction. Looking back, this would never work. Every unicorn knows, if you try to cast a spell under stress, it almost never works. Half of magical training is just practicing to calm yourself, so you don’t mess everything up. It was no wonder that things went wrong.

She tried to teleport. She managed to do it… straight into the ceiling. Her horn was embedded in the wood, leaving her dangling there like a pathetic chandelier. Everyone broke into a chorus of laughter. Except, this laughter didn’t make her feel better about herself. Even the most naive of fillies would be able to tell that they were laughing at her. She fell to the ground, with a ring of wood still wrapped around her horn. The laughter became even louder. She broke down, not being able to handle this onslaught, and ran out of the room.

I’d feel bad for her if it wasn’t so obvious what was going to happen. Still, I can’t feel too bad about this moment, because it was what led me to finally find out about Celestia’s unworthiness to be a ruler. I didn’t even need to make friends, she was just pushing me into wasting my time with worthless activities. Probably to stall my rapidly-growing skill.

Now, I was moved to somewhere else. It didn't take me long at all to figure out where I was this time. We were at the portal. I haven’t seen this side of it for a long while. I knew exactly what was about to happen. This was the moment when I saw Celestia’s true personality, when she ruined my life.

“Sunset! I have told you countless times, that mirror is off-limits!” Her regal tone and posture were completely gone. She sounded more like a mother who caught her daughter stealing than a queen of a nation.

“You’ve told me a lot of things, Celestia, most of them wrong,” Sunset snapped back.

“I have only wanted the best for you, Sunset, and this is how you repay me? By disobeying my orders, and refusing to listen?”

“You’ve never wanted the best for me. All you’ve been doing is sidetracking me with useless tasks.”

“Making friends is not a useless task. It’s essential to your well–”

“Then where’s yours, Celestia? Everyone only cares about you because you’re the leader. You don’t have any friends, you barely have anyone that cares about you. I’m the only pony that does. Well, I used to.”

Celestia took a step back. She looked close to tears. Any other pony in her situation, with her power, would’ve attacked. It was what Sunset was counting on. She had a plan carefully laid out. Celestia couldn’t fight properly, not in this state. If she just got her angry enough to try to fight, Sunset would probably be able to take her. It looked like it was going to work.

But then, Celestia’s rage seemed to just… fade away. She regained her comforting tone and motherly posture. She bent down to face Sunset.

“Sunset, listen. I’ve always wanted the best for you, despite what you may think.” Celestia hesitated. This was a secret that she hadn’t told anyone. Was she really prepared? But the situation called for it, so she decided to tell it.

“Ever since you joined my school, I knew that you had potential. Potential to be one of the ponies that will go down in history. As the ruler that takes my place.”

Sunset thought over this, and slowly she came to the realization of what this meant. Her, in the chair of the princesses. It’s what she had dreamed of her entire life. All if she just took that option…

Sunset’s attitude dropped. It was her turn to be on the verge of tears. “Celestia… I’m honored that you think I can do this. I can’t wait until I’ll finally rule over Equestria…”

“When I take the kingdom out from under your hooves.”

And with those final words, Sunset ran through the portal to hatch her plan. Celestia was left, staring at her rippling reflection in the mirror, reflecting on where she went wrong. Her spirits at the lowest they’d ever been, she cast a spell on the mirror, locking it. But she made it so that it would be open, once every 30 moons. She was still holding out hope that one day, Sunset would come back through the portal, seeking forgiveness.

This… made me confused. This wasn’t close to how I remembered it. Celestia forced me to leave, I didn’t just walk out like that. Everything else was just how I remembered it, but this… What it’s showing must be wrong, right? How can I even trust this glorified slideshow to show me my memories?

The scene changed again – to a white void. I walked around, but it was just bright whiteness, all around. For some reason, it was only now that it began to dawn on me how weird my situation is. I was wrapped in a rainbow laser, had my memories played back to me (except for that last one) and now I’m trapped in a white void. I tried to come up with some explanation for what could be happening, and more importantly, a way to escape.

After ten minutes of searching for something other than white, I was beginning to lose faith. Was this just where I was going to be trapped, forever? I wasn’t a person who gave up when the going got tough, but it really seemed like there was no exit.

Then, I saw something come out of the void. I ran over to get a closer look at what it was. I hoped it would be somebody, I didn’t really care who at this point. Whatever it was, it could help me finally find a way out of here.

I got closer, and it stopped being a distant dot, and I began to see some features. I stopped dead in my tracks when I figured out who it was.

Not her.

Anyone but her.

I looked around hoping there would be someone, anyone else. No luck. As much as I hated her guts, I had to talk to her, in case she knew the way out. This void was posing a much bigger threat than her. And I knew that Celestia wouldn’t fight. She never does. I approached her, in the most intimidating way I could.

She calmly said, “It’s been so long since I’ve seen you, Sunset.”

“I was hoping the next time we met, it would be me taking over your kingdom. But, now I’m stuck here, probably because of you. I’ll cut to the chase: tell me how to get out, and I might just lock you in a slightly better dungeon than what I had in mind.”

I was pretty sure the intimidation wasn’t working. She was much taller than me, and I didn’t have any magic to back up my threats. But, Celestia never did like confrontation. She could be intimidated by a chicken.

All Celestia replied was, “To leave, you must answer this question...”

Answer a question? Seriously? What was this, a fairytale? I knew that Celestia wouldn’t be honest with me, she was always out to just waste my time.

“Why have you done everything that you’ve done?”

What did she mean? She knew exactly why I did all this. Still, I wanted to leave. On the slight chance she was being honest, I answered.

“I did this because I wanted to be the ruler of Equestria.”

“You and I both know that’s not the right answer, Sunset,” Celestia replied.

“Stop screwing with me, Celestia. That’s the answer. Now let me out, or I’ll do it myself, and you’ll be tortured on top of being in a dungeon.”

Celestia seemed unconvinced. “Clearly, you haven’t been paying attention to what’s going on.”

Her horn lit up, and a black rectangle appeared beside both of us. Another spell cast and images were being displayed on it. They were from the one-on-one lessons I had with her back in Equestria. Picture after picture of me with her, both of us enjoying ourselves.

“What is this for, Celestia?” I asked. “Yeah, I used to like you before you banished me, what does that have to do with anything?”

“I wasn’t the one who banished you. You made the choice to leave.”

“Yeah, like I’m supposed to believe that. You were just showing me some random scene back there. Why should I believe it’s true?”

I looked back at the screen, which was now displaying the scene where I went through the portal. Celestia was saying, “I knew that you had potential. Potential to be one of the ponies that will go down in history. As the ruler that takes my place.”

I looked back at Celestia. She said, “If you truly wanted power, you would’ve stayed. You know there’s some other reason.”

“The reason I didn’t take that option isn’t because I didn’t want power, it was because I didn’t want to spend any more of my life with you.”

Celestia looked at me with a smile, as if she was approving what I said. She then said, “Here’s another question: Why do you hate me so much?”

I answered that question in a heartbeat. “The reason I hate you? The reason is that you’re unfit to rule Equestria. I deserve the throne more than you. But you stopped me.”

“I never stopped you. I have always only wanted the best for you. I said that you would inherit the throne.”

“You use that excuse all the time. ‘I have only wanted the best for you’. Stopping my lessons so I can waste my time on pointless activities isn’t ‘wanting the best for me’. I could see through your lies when I was just a filly.”

Celestia looked down and breathed a sigh of disappointment. “So that’s what this is all about. You’re still in denial about how important friendship is.”

I paused. That can’t be the full reason. All of this… started from an embarrassing moment at a school party? It seemed so insignificant now, but there’s nothing else I can think of that could be a reason. How had things escalated from there, to now? I never tried to look back on why I was doing the things I did, I just kept doing what I thought was right, but what was right became worse and worse as time went on–

“You were so blinded by your emotions that an embarrassing moment at a party turned into you trying to conquer Equestria,” Celestia replied, cutting off my thoughts.

I should have known. I didn’t know how she was doing it, but Celestia must be trying to get me on her side by implanting crazy thoughts into my mind. I had to resist it, no matter what.

Celestia continued. “You’re a smart pony, Sunset. I know that. But your emotions were, and still are, clouding your judgment.”

“Nothing’s clouding my judgments, Celestia. I found out how much of a terrible pony you are, and you’re trying to pass it off as faulty logic.” I was trying to convince myself as much as I was trying to convince her. I sounded more desperate than confident, at this point.

The image on the screen changes. I glanced at it, to see a lavender pony in Celestia’s castle, wearing a crown. Celestia pointed to her.

“This is the pony that came after you left. She had all the talent you did and learned the power of friendship as well. She’s now on the road to taking over after me.”

I stared at her accomplishments flashing on the screen. Villainous looking ponies, and her defeating them. Different times she saved her town. The time she beat a demon-human monster with only the magic of friendship.

And her becoming an alicorn.

I stared at the image of her coronation. It was everything I dreamed of. Me, being adored by everybody. It was what I felt like I’ve been striving for my entire life, stolen by this stupid purple pony. I felt like bursting into tears and crying on the floor and destroying everything and fighting Celestia and Twilight and so many other things I couldn’t even process.

“That could have been you, if you listened to me.”

I turned to Celestia in a fit of rage. I jumped at her, having no clue what I’m doing trying to fight an alicorn with no magic. To my surprise, it turned out that this wasn’t real, like everything else. I passed right through her, falling on the floor behind her.

I didn’t have the energy to get back up. I just laid there, crying. I was pulling at straws, trying to find something that put me in the right, instead of being stupid for passing up the opportunity to be royalty and choosing to throw my life away for some petty rivalry. But my entire motivation, the past years I spent convinced I was right, were unraveling in front of me.

I heard a voice behind me. “Now, Sunset. Why have you done everything that you’ve done?”

I didn’t want to answer the question, but I couldn’t stop myself. Something was forcing the words out of my mouth that I didn’t want to admit. I said, in between gasps and sobs, “Because I didn’t want to make friends. And because I was mad at you for trying to make me. And because after that, I never looked back on why I did this. I’m sorry, Celestia.” I hated that I was saying this, but it was the truth. All I could think about was how stupid I was, and how I could’ve convinced myself I was being smart this whole time.

I could barely see because of all the tears. But when I could, it wasn’t white I was seeing. It was the night sky. I silently rejoiced that it was all over. Then I realized it wasn’t.

Everyone was staring at the crater I was in. Everyone that suffered because of my actions. And Twilight. Seeing Twilight there, I thought I would get angry. But I was actually relieved to see her, because I knew she’d accept me, no matter what I’d done. After that whole ordeal, I couldn’t believe I was still the same person. It felt like everything before was the action of some older, worse, version of me. But, now I’m virtually a new person, with a new start. I’m going to make sure things are right this time. And that starts…

…with apologizing.

Author's Note:

This is my first story written this long, so I'm a little out of my depth. Any and all tips are appreciated.

Comments

[DesiArcy]

The thing is, Sunset isn't actually wrong about Celestia being a hypocrite in trying to force her to have friendships while setting a personal example that friendships aren't actually valuable, and she's also not actually wrong about Celestia lying about wanting the best for Sunset. At least as far as that not being her only motive as she claims -- her real motive was to try and railroad Sunset into the proper path for an element bearer in order to handle Nightmare Moon, which was in Celestia's best interest, not Sunset's.

[Proffesor Candlelight]

10581824
That's an interesting idea. I was going to include that point in the story, but I decided that 3k words was long enough, and I didn't want this to drag. Specifically, I was going to go in-depth about how Celestia was slowly falling apart, because there was no one she could rely on. That she wanted Sunset to make friends because she wanted to make sure Sunset didn't follow her mistake of banishing her only friend to the moon for 1000 years.

But, you're kind of right. Celestia forcing Sunset to have friends while not showing any signs of friends herself is hypocritical. But I see it more as making sure Sunset has what Celestia doesn't but needs. I might spin this idea off into a separate story – I've always wanted to do a story focused on Celestia and her friendlessness.

[DesiArcy]

10582528

I think it's a very well written story in terms of realistic character development and motives. But while Sunset did make some very bad decisions, she was a *child*, whereas Celestia was the responsible adult who pretty much completely failed at parenting-and-mentoring, and pretty much drove Sunset to go the way she did.

[Pete100]

Now when I think about it, we never actually figured out how the elements worked.