To say that the rest of Twilight's friends were shocked to learn that she had survived would be the understatement of the year, maybe the century. But it was true.
And on the way to Canterlot (which had to be done under cover of darkness so as not to attract unwanted attention) Twilight explained to all who wanted to know how she had escaped the clutches of certain death.
In the human world, when Sunset had used her fiery demon powers to attack Twilight, the crown that housed the element of magic did indeed spare its rightful host. But only just barely.
Twilight felt a searing, red hot pain begin to take hold of every part of her body! It took all her willpower not to scream at the top of her lungs, she was too focused on the pain to think of much else. And it seemed like the same was true for the five girls she had recruited to help her defeat Sunset Shimmer. Yet Twilight found the will power to work through the pain just enough to grab hold of the other girls, and under cover of the blinding flash crawled to safety with them.
No one saw the escape unfold, and Twilight had been careful not to make any sounds to give herself away. She and the five teenage girls were lucky to escape with their lives, and it was clear to Twilight that if they didn't get help soon they might not survive their injuries. But the pain from the burns was too great. Before any plans could be made all the girls passed out behind the school!
Twilight would open her eyes sometime later to find herself laying on the floor of Canterlot High's nurse's office. A familiar pale faced young woman with light pink locks was watching over her. It took Twilight but a moment to figure out who this human reminded her of. "N-Nurse... Red... Heart?" She weakly called out.
The young woman nodded as her locks swished about and her gentle blue eyes indicated the face of someone who had seen unspeakable horrors. "Don't talk, you need to rest," She insisted. "You were lucky that Flash Sentry found you and the other girls when he did. If just a few more minutes had passed your burn wounds would've been fatal."
But Twilight spoke up anyways. "H-how... long have... we been out?"
"At least a day, probably longer," Nurse Redheart explained. "I still can't figure out how it is you survived, let alone how your burn wounds appear to be slowly healing already. Everyone at the school assumed you six had perished at the hands of Sunset Shimmer."
"Where is she?" Twilight asked even though it was a forgone conclusion in her mind.
Nurse Redheart hung her head as she somberly declared. "The last anyone saw of her, she was heading through some kind of portal at the base of the statue. She hasn't come back since. It's just as mysterious as her arrival into this world so long ago. No one knew where she came from."
"She's gone back to Equestria!" Twilight thought to herself as the horrific realization settled in! "She won! The magic of friendship wasn't enough! I failed!" Then her thoughts turned to something just as troubling, the lack of a certain someone by her side. "Spike? Where's Spike?" She asked out loud as her wandering eyes noticed no sign of the dragon turned dog.
"He ran off when he thought you'd been killed, no one has seen him since, " Nurse Redheart explained to Twilight. "And I'm afraid you and your friends are in no condition to be going anywhere. Magic or not it will take weeks before you'll be anywhere close to normal again."
Those weeks passed agonizingly slow for Twilight. She feared greatly for Spike in this strange world that she still didn't fully understand. And she could only imagine what kind of horrors Sunset Shimmer was bringing to Equestria. She wanted so badly to go back through the portal and confront the disgruntled ex-student turned raging she-demon, but until her wounds healed there was little the girl could do.
It was by a stroke of luck that Twilight found Spike once she had recovered enough to walk. As it turned out Spike hadn't wandered far. He'd been picked up on the streets as a stray and taken to the local shelter that the human world's Fluttershy frequently volunteered at.
Spike was overjoyed to be reunited with Twilight! He leapt at her and clung tightly to her chest as he wept and wailed audibly. "Oh Twilight, I thought I'd never see you again! Please don't EVER scare me like that again! Please!"
Twilight had replied by stroking Spike gently on the forehead, a trick that always helped to calm him down. "I'm sorry I made you worry, Spike. But I'm here for you now and I promise I won't leave your side again. Together, we will defeat Sunset Shimmer and put an end to all of this."
"But how are we gonna do that? We missed our chance to go home, who knows when the portal will open again?" Spike pondered as he was brought out of the shelter. With no place to call home in the human world and not wanting to draw attention, Twilight had reluctantly moved in with Applejack's family. It now served as an unofficial headquarters for Twilight as the unintentionally exiled princess began planning.
"We'll just have to keep watching and waiting, Spike," Twilight explained to him. "The portal will open up again eventually. Once we can figure out the timetable for it we can start preparing for our return trip to Equestria. Then we'll need to figure out whatever it is that Sunset's done and put a stop to it. And if she gets in the way again, she's gonna be sorry!"
Yet it would not be for a few more weeks Twilight and Spike would get their opportunity to go home. The portal was actually opened far more often than initially theorized, though whether this was because of something Sunset had done to the mirror the two didn't know. Still, it was a gift horse they were quite content to not look in the mouth.
"Wow, sounds like we missed out on quite the adventure!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed as Twilight finished her story in the present.
"So Sunset turned into an actual demon when she put on your crown?" Rarity couldn't help but comment. "No wonder she looked so hideous and so odious! I just have to wonder why she hasn't tried to change her appearance to something more presentable. If I'm being perfectly honest she doesn't look scary or intimidating, she just looks weird."
Twilight paused in contemplation, and it took her several minutes to give an answer. "She's probably stuck like that. Perhaps as a curse or punishment for using an Element of Harmony for nefarious purposes."
Pinkie Pie then pointed out. "Speaking of which, how exactly are we supposed to stop Sunset Shimmer if we don't have the elements to blast the baddie with?! It's not like we can just pick up their stone forms and throw them at Sunset until she stops being bad. I don't think even Applejack's that strong!"
"Hopefully we won't need them," Twilight answered. "But I suspect it's not unlike when the Elements of Harmony first passed to us. When Nightmare Moon shattered the stones I thought for sure that was it, all was lost. But I realized that the elements reacted to the presence of ponies who embodied their virtues. So long as their source of power isn't gone and so long as the one using them hasn't been corrupted, they should still work."
"And do you think it's possible to reverse the stoning spell on Princess Celestia and Princess Luna?" Fluttershy hopefully asked. "Nothing will go back to normal if we can't free them."
Applejack firmly replied with narrowed eyes. "If we can't free the princesses ourselves we'll make Sunset free 'em after we wipe the floor with her! Far as I'm concerned she ain't any different from the half a dozen or so other evil forces that have threatened Equestria in our time!"
"I think it's more than that, Applejack," Twilight commented. "From what little I could gather on Sunset while in the human world she seemed to be very... bitter. It's clear to me that she harbors resentment towards Princess Celestia for discontinuing her lessons under the princess, and to me for supposedly taking away what Sunset believes was meant to be hers."
Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Great, so she's crazy and got an ego to boot. But I guess she'd have to be those things in order to pull all this off."
Sunset Shimmer was unaware of the approaching threat. And even if she knew she might not have cared. She was nose deep in the books and scrolls contained within the Starswirl the Bearded wing of the Canterlot Archives. The fiery, demon-like alicorn was desperately searching for something... anything really that could free the royal sisters from their stony prison.
A massive pile of discarded books and scrolls soon built up behind the mare as she let out a growl! "Ugh! Why are you betraying me, library?!" She roared and slammed her down on a desk! "The one time I actually need something you won't give it to me! You never held back on me before! It was because of your supposed 'Forbidden' knowledge that Princess Celestia said I couldn't be her student anymore!"
The only source of light in the wing came from the small bulb of light that Sunset was projecting from her horn. Candles were too risky: Not only could they easily ignite the entire archives but they would also be a dead giveaway to anyone who might wish the alicorn harm. She wanted nopony to know what she was doing, she couldn't afford to show signs of regret or hesitation. The one thing Sunset wanted more than anything else was respect, and for her respect meant power. "Princess Celestia was respected because she had power," She thought to herself. "So why hasn't the same proven true for me?"
Suddenly, there came a loud crash followed by the sound of frantic hoofsteps and the sparking of a horn (or a pair of horns) to life! Sunset immediately rose from her desk, grunting under the pressure as she made her horn glow more fiercely, bathing the entire area surrounding her in light! "Show yourselves!" She roared to the darkness just outside her vision. "Step into the light so that I may know the face of those foolish enough to defy me!"
Sunset's demand was soon met as five very familiar mares stepped forward with scowls and somber expressions upon their faces. And then a very recognizable alicorn with a violet-red skunk like stripe running down her mane and tail, and a dragon with light purple scales and green spines stepped forward as well, prompting Sunset to stumble back in disbelief (nearly tripping over her pile of books and scrolls in the process). "This can't be! You're not Twilight Sparkle! Twilight Sparkle is dead! I saw to her demise with my own hands!"
But Twilight smirked. "You're wrong, Sunset Shimmer. An Element of Harmony could never kill its rightful bearer, no matter who might be wielding it. Why do you think Princess Celestia could only banish Princess Luna to the moon on that fateful night over a thousand years ago?"
The fiery, demon-like alicorn snarled and grit her teeth. "She couldn't bring herself to kill her only sister. That softness made her weak! Unlike her, I have no such hang-ups!" But the way she carried herself was far from convincing, a fact that did not go unnoticed.
"Your emotions betray you, they chip away at the mask you've tried to hide behind," Twilight declared as she stepped forward, her friends doing the same in unison. "You're not getting away this time! The choice is yours, Sunset Shimmer. We can end this peacefully or violently. Stand down and tell us where you've hidden the princesses, and maybe your sentence here will be reduced. Resist, and you will be broken."
Sunset Shimmer just snapped as her horn sparked and crackled with raw magical energy. "No! I won't let you take this away from me! I've come too far to lose it all to a goody two horseshoes like you! I'll never give up the throne, and I'll never tell you where I've hidden the princesses! You can't make me talk!"
Twilight only shook her head and frowned. "Then may the forces of harmony have mercy on you, because I will show you none! And neither shall my friends! This time, the magic of friendship will prevail!"
Just like that, there came a great, white light and six magical stones suddenly appeared! The stones broke open as six familiar gems floated to the ponies who had rightfully wielded them several times before, forming a set of necklaces and in the case of Twilight a familiar crown.
Horror and realization flashed in Sunset's eyes! Her carefully crafted facade crumbled to pieces! "No! This can't be happening! Not to me!" She whimpered even though she knew she was powerless against this sort of magic. Her fears were realized as every spell she could fire off was effortlessly deflected by a barrier. "It wasn't supposed to end like this."
"When you stole my crown and tried to subjugate an entire world, in your heart you knew this was the only outcome," Twilight declared to Sunset as her voice began to echo. "Those who try to abuse the power of harmony pay a steep price for it. You will never threaten anyone or anything ever again!"
A frightened Sunset tried to do the only thing she could think of to avoid her fate, she bolted and made a desperate run for it! She knew it was in vain when she felt a series of six colored beams make contact with her before she had galloped far.
"Oh wow, a bad guy who tries to run. Never seen that before." Rainbow sarcastically remarked.
"This is payback for turning the princesses to stone, you meanie pants!" Pinkie Pie shouted at the top of her lungs! "Let her have it, girls!"
The beams promptly enveloped the fiery alicorn, creating a whirlwind of energy that shook the entire Canterlot Archives! Heck, the whole city of Canterlot and many cities and towns within ready access of it stumbled awake to the shaking ground and a blinding flash of light!
The flash faded as quickly as it had arrived, the Elements of Harmony continued to remain with their rightful bearers as the six mares again touched the ground.
Sunset Shimmer lay upon the ground as fragments of her fiery demon appearance lay all around her. She was an alicorn no longer, now she was just a plain old unicorn with a coat of brilliant amber and a mane and tail a very light red with light apple green stripes loosely hanging at the sides, not to mention a cutie mark depicting a red and yellow shimmering sun. Her eyes had returned to their moderate cyan state.
Spike cheered loudly as he rushed to Twilight's side! "That was sweet! You girls are just as awesome as your human counterparts!"
"Uh, what's a... 'human', sugarcube?" Applejack questioned with a puzzled expression upon her face.
"It's a long story, and that'll have to wait for another time and place," Twilight Sparkle declared as she approached her defeated enemy. "For now we have more important issues to tend to."
The defeated Sunset slowly stumbled to her hooves. It seemed the Elements of Harmony had not inflicted serious bodily harm to her, and had merely taken away her demon form. "Are you happy now, Twilight?" She defiantly hissed. "It wasn't enough for you to become an alicorn princess, you had to crush my dreams and take away the only thing I ever wanted... power."
"Power you abused and lacked the ability to properly control," Twilight shook her head. "You fail to understand the magic of friendship, and that is why you've lost," Then she glared at the unicorn. "Now where have you hidden Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and how can we free them?! I know you know!"
Yet the unicorn coldly protested. "As if I'd tell you. Even I don't know how to undo what I did. That's why I came here. I was in the process of researching a counter spell when you and your friends so rudely interrupted me!"
"At least tell us where they are!" Twilight insisted with a glare that could give even Fluttershy's patented stare a run for its money. "Please, Sunset! I doubt your current state has the ability to wield the powers of the sun and the moon. If you don't transfer the power back to the princesses, it will destroy you from within!"
Sure enough, a pang of pain shot through Sunset's body as her horn started to spark and surge, shooting off sparks at an alarming rate! "A-alright... alright... I'll talk!" She reluctantly insisted. "I never really wanted to rule Equestria the same way I ruled Canterlot High. All I wanted was to be made a princess and be equal to you, to Celestia. But when she refused to grant it to me, I had little choice but to get her out of the way. At the time, turning her to stone was the only thing that made sense."
"Where is she?! And what about Luna?! You hid them somewhere, didn't you?!" Twilight demanded! "We don't have all night, Sunset. Sooner or later the sun must rise, and when it does if the powers have not been transferred to a more capable body, you will not survive."
"Try... the castle dungeons," Sunset weakly answered. "There was... one cell that I never used. Unless one of the castle staff went behind my back, that's where I hid the statue of the princesses. It was the only way I could ensure nopony would ever find them."
Rarity of all ponies shot Sunset a stern glare as she warned. "They'd better be there for your sake, you ruffian." And Sunset gulped quite audibly.