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// Awakened by a nightmare 
// Story: Heir to the Throne 
// by Arkantos 
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Sunset prepared to attack, but as she started to charge, her horn disappeared. She felt her forehead, and there was no horn. Twilight laughed uncontrollably.

As she calmed down, the Princess of the Stars said to Sunset, “This is a dream. Even if it’s your dream, I can make anything happen. From raising an army,” she said as an army of purple armor ponies with swords and spears appeared, “to making a fortress.”

 All of a sudden, a fortress appeared, bigger than any Equestria fortress that had ever been made.

Sunset said, “How are you doing this?”

Twilight answered, saying, “This is the dream realm. In here, I can make anything happen...like this!”

At her words, Sunset began to shrink. The good news was that she got her horn back. The bad news was that she was suddenly no bigger than a newborn filly. She looked up at Twilight Sparkle who was as tall as Celestial herself.

Sunset then said, “I don’t understand. Why am I a filly?” Twilight picked up Sunset and said, “It’s because I deemed it to be so. You do look adorable this way.”

Sunset searched deeply in her mind, trying to remember what she could about the dream realm from Twilight Sparkle’s book. From what she  recalled, if somepony had entered the pony dream realm, then the pony whose dream it was could control what happened in the dream, not the pony who had entered their dream.

All of a sudden, Sunset grew back to her normal size and two fire wings  appeared on her back. 

As Twilight backed away, a rainbow missile hit her in the jaw. Twilight looked back at Sunset and she noticed that she was not alone. With her was Shining Armor, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Cadence. 

Sunset exclaimed, “Twilight Sparkle, I am not a filly! And I am not alone, because I have  friends to trust in!” Then all five ponyies ran at Twilight.





Before the massive battle of Canterlot, Blue Blood was always cheerful and generous, and he cared for the ponies around him; not just the nobles, but the lower classes too, and he always laughed at jokes he heard. But the battle of Canterlot came and went, and he found out about his father’s fate. He changed. Instead of being cheerful all the time, he was cold to others. Instead of being  generous by giving bits to the ponies that needed them, he wouldn’t give a single bit. He would only go to high society events, and he never laughed at jokes anymore.

“I’m worried about him,” said Snooty Blue. “Whether he knows it or not, Blue Blood has changed for the worse.”

Snooty Blue continued, “He treats everypony like dirt and keeps company with the wrong noble ponyies.” 

The pony Snooty was talking to was Spitfire. She considered what Snooty had said before answering. “Look, I’m the last pony to talk about this kind of thing, but I think you need to let him figure out his own problems.” 

Snooty Blue replied, “He’s not getting better. He’s getting worse and…,”

Spitfire stopped her in her tracks by shouting, “Whether you like it or not, he is going to change! He may stumble, and it is up to you as a mother to help him get up when he stumbles!”

Spiritfire calmed down then and said, “I’m sorry to cut this short and for yelling at you, but I have to get going. I’m late for reporting in.” After putting on her Wonderbolt goggles, Spitfire flew up through the clouds, making a Pegasus-shaped hole in the clouds. 

Snooty thought to herself Maybe you’re right, and I need to be there when he stumbles.





As the fight raged on, Twilight triggered her shadow form before Shining Armor and  Cadence casted a spell together, shooting a beam of massive destruction that leveled the fortress. But it didn’t affect Twilight. 

Twilight created a ball of black fire, but she did not have time to use it, for a beam of white flames destroyed the ball. Then a rainbow blur circled around, creating a rainbow tornado. 

As Rainbow Dash zoomed to Sunset’s side, the rainbow tornado continued for a few seconds before disappearing. On the floor lay a very dizzy Twilight.

Applejack ran to her and used her rope to tie her up. As Twilight struggled to get free, Applejack gave her a strong buck of her hind legs, causing Twilight to go flying a good couple of miles.

Then Twilight got free and said, “ Bravo, Sunset, bravo. You’ve managed to master your dream world.” As Twilight said this, she lit up her horn, and Shining Armor, Cadence, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash all disappeared, along with Sunset’s fire wings.

Then Sunset said, “You were testing me. That’s the only reason you did this.” 

Twilight answered, “Yes, I needed to be sure you could handle anything my mother throws at you, especially in the dream realm. She is better at this than I am. I know you read all three books about the dream realm and what to expect.”

Sunset said, “If you come back, Celestia and I will stop you.”

Twilight looked at her seriously and said, “Is that a threat? Because if it is, then you need better material. And is this the thanks I get for all that I did for you? Oh well. I guess this will do. Oh, and goodbye...for now.”

Sunset saw Twilight’s horn brighten before poof! Sunset looked  around to find that Twilight was gone. 

“Good riddance,” Sunset muttered.

 80 years later, inside the Canterlot hospital

Sunset’s eyes slowly opened. She saw her father Sun Blast holding her hoof. Then she looked around to see Blue Dawn, her uncle. He saw that she was awake and quickly went to shake his brother awake.

“Get up, sleepyhead! Your daughter is up.”

As Blue Dawn worked to wake up her father, Sunset realized that this was the  first time she had probably ever seen him. He was a pegasus with a dark blue coat  a mane and tail that were silver in color with a white highlight in each, and his cutie mark was a white lightning Bolt crossing a silver sword. Finally he succeeded in  awakening his brother.

Sunset then felt the embrace of her father. Sun Blast said to her, “Don’t scare me like that, kiddo! You hear? Don’t scare me like that!”

Sunset replied, “No promises, but I’ll try my best to stay out of trouble. Though, that may require me to use my phoenix.”

As she said this, Philomena sat on the hospital window ledge, while Sunset secretly thought Not again. I will not use you like that ever again.

A few days after Sunset’s recovery, she was summoned by princess Celestia and princess Cadence for a talk.

Pushing open the door to the throne room, Sunset saw both princesses waiting for her. The Solar guard stationed in the throne room grabbed the door behind her and closed it with a loud Clunk.

As Sunset stood in front of her, the princess came forward and asked, “What did she tell you?”

After taking a deep breath, Sunset said, “Is it true you have a younger sister? And that she has a daughter? And as time went by, you guys didn’t get any time  alone or even try to talk about it? Why keep all of Equestria’s history from the pony population? What’s with all the secrets?? What are you hiding!?”

Celestia said, “It’s true that I hide things that I shouldn’t. But if all ponies knew of this history, it would cause chaos in our peaceful land. If that chaos broke loose, all ponies would pay dearly. Therefore, I look at it in a different way, more like a half truth. By writing false history I hope to keep Discord in prison. As for my younger sister, I have a plan to hopefully show her the error of her ways.”

Then Sunset asked, “Does your plan include me as your student?”

Cadence said, “It does, but it won’t work if you do not make friends, which is why we are hoping in two years time, you will agree to go to Ponyville.”

Sunset answered, “I will agree under one condition: you two must show me the real history of Equestria. I’m assuming you have the actual history written down somewhere.”

“Yes,” Celestia answered. “I will allow you to see it. But you must swear that you will not tell the real history to any other ponies.”

Sunset walked up and shook hoofs with both princesses. “I do swear.”





Snooty Blue was walking through a dark hallway when she  bumped into Spitfire. 

“Spitfire, where did you come from? Do you know where we are?”

Before Spitfire could answer, they both heard a French voice yelling, “RUN! Run for your lives! They’re chasing us!”

When the pegasus and the unicorn looked to where the voice was coming from, they saw Quiz Lamoni and Hard Stone running away from something. As Spitfire and Snooty Blue began to run, they suddenly saw what they were running away from.

They were being pursued by a mountain of shadow with two purple venom eyes. Sickly green lightning shot out from the shadow mountain, zapping at them as they ran.

Snooty Blue and Spitfire ran alongside Quiz Lamoni and Hard Stone as they tried to get away from the giant shadow mountain. Suddenly, a purple horn appeared in the mount of shadow, shooting out pure black flames that narrowly missed their targets.

Snooty yelled to Quiz, “What is it!?” 

Quiz replied, “It’s something very powerful that is not interested in making friends with us!”

A voice rang out, “Oh, I wouldn’t say that. I saw what you were all trying to hide in plain site. You hid the armor right under Celestia‘s nose, and you willingly sacrificed your members.” As the voice said this, they stopped running, and three ponies appeared in front of them.

One had several stab wounds on him. He had a brown coat and a black mane and tail. He said, “Why didn’t you come up with a plan? Why did you forsake me and leave me to fend off violent mob? You did that to me, and judging by the other two ponies here with me, you haven’t changed the way you run things in the Order.” 

As he finished saying these last words, he fell to the ground and his wounds started to gush out blood. Spitfire and Quiz looked fearful.

Then Snooty Blue said, “Enough of this!”

A familiar voice said, “You’re quite right, my dear. But we all know the Order will sacrifice anyone, including your very own husband.” At these words, the second pony came forward, but his head was missing. The pony’s head was in his hoof where he was holding it.

The second pony continued, “However, my son is not the pony he once was, and I think it’s because I died. He secretly blames you for acting like your mother.” When  he finished speaking, his body fell down and his head rolled in front of Snooty as a pool of blood started pouring out of his head and body.

Then Red Dawn, looking like a porcupine with spears and rusty swords sticking out of him,  walked up to Hard Stone and said, “Look at me. This will be your future. If you want to change it, then I have a message for you from Twilight Sparkle. She says to leave Sunset and the princesses Celestia and Cadence alone. She does not need you. She has a destiny to fulfill and she needs to do it alone.” As he finished saying this, all of his stab wounds started to gush out blood.

Just then, Snooty Blue awoke, breathing very hard with cold sweat running down her face.

Wasn’t expecting that she thought.