Sunset usually tried to ignore the statue of a rearing horse in front of Canterlot High, but today stood in front of it. Early this weekend morning, she was the only one around.
She adjusted her backpack, preparing to do something she hadn’t done since first coming to the human world. She wasn’t dressed as she liked, only how she was sure would work; there was no way to tell how the portal to Equestria would interpret a leather jacket. She only wore a hooded sweatshirt.
“Going somewhere?”
Sunset should have expected this. She turned to find Lucifer standing behind her.
“So what if I am?”
He shrugged. “Just don’t be gone too long. I might have need of you.”
It was more than a subtle reminder that he effectively owned her. He hadn’t yet called in that marker, but it still hung over her head.
She also remembered Mac’s comment about trusting Lucifer.
Without another word, Sunset turned and walked through the portal.
She hadn’t experienced the blinding whirl of colors going to the other world since when she’d first come to the human side. It wasn’t entirely pleasant, but at least she was expecting it.
The portal spat her out. This side, in Equestria, was connected to an ornate mirror. Sunset’s hooves landed on a cobblestone floor in a high tower of Canterlot Castle. The room was dark, and the nearby window revealed a placid night and a full moon.
She dropped down to all fours, the move feeling both comfortable yet strange after so many months spent bipedal. Raising an arm - foreleg - she reached up to check that her horn had returned to its rightful place. It was there, and Sunset instinctively smiled. That was the one thing she had really missed from Equestria, the ability to command magic at a thought.
She looked out the window at the city of Canterlot below. It didn’t appear that much had changed. Home, her mind labeled it, before she banished the thought.
Except...the night sky seemed different, somehow. The stars seemed brighter, animated. Twinkling? Sunset had heard the term before, but never really understood until reading about it in a human textbook. The Equestrian stars now certainly seemed to twinkle even more than that, which was something she had never seen them do before. The moon, too, seemed brighter and clearer than she remembered, practically outdoing the human moon even when viewed through a telescope.
Had Celestia, the regent of sun and moon, learned some new type of magic? Sunset considered it. Not that humans had any such powers, but in the human world Principal Celestia had a sister, Luna. She knew there was no pony princess Luna, which really would have made more sense for somepony to control the moon.
“Somepony.” It seemed that old habits were already coming back. Sunset turned away from the window, preparing herself to go face her old world.
Using her remembered knowledge of the castle, Sunset navigated out of the tower and through the quiet corridors. She had decided to head for the dungeons first. Perhaps if there were any prisoners currently in residence, she might be able to release them for a distraction. She could also raid the royal coffers for any useful artifacts.
She’d avoided Celestia’s royal corridor, skulking in the shadows through empty nighttime hallways. However, she was very nearly spotted by a pair of guards outside a bedroom nearby. Sunset jerked back from the corner, rapidly seeking a different route. She’d never known that bedroom to be occupied before. Could it be some temporarily visiting dignitary? She didn’t recognize the brief glimpse of guard uniforms she’d seen, purple and grey.
“Hey you!”
Bad luck, they’d seen her after all. But Sunset knew this castle about as well as anypony, save perhaps Celestia. Behind a picture just a few steps away was a secret passage and she ducked inside. She heard a set of hooves pull up short and a murmur of surprise.
Sunset came out the other side, choosing a new route to the dungeon. Having learned her lesson, she moved more carefully now.
Reaching the ground floor of the castle, Sunset saw the coming dawn via the changing shadows and knew things were about to get more complicated as ponies began to wake up. Time moved differently here than it did in the human world, so the sun rising here didn’t mean it was already Monday morning on Earth.
She took a shortcut through the kitchen, grabbing a bowl of fruit off the table and emptying it into her bag without stopping. As she heard the sound of the cooks in the hall outside getting ready to come in and begin breakfast, Sunset carefully entered the dumbwaiter shaft, lowering herself down with magic towards the dungeons.
The shaft didn’t go all the way, only reaching the dungeon guard office so the guards could eat without leaving the lower levels. It was a poor security feature, but Celestia had always been unconcerned about that kind of thing, apparently getting lax in her old age and unchallenged rule.
Sunset reached the bottom of the shaft and cautiously glanced out. Her timing was good and the guard office was currently empty while the oncoming shift met with the outgoing shift and checked on prisoners. She climbed out of the elevator and crossed the room, pausing to grab a keyring off a hook which she stowed in her bag. After a quick check outside, she left the office and entered the dungeon proper.
This was the most secure part of the castle, but also gave her the most options to hide for a while. The dark corridors, unused rooms, nooks and crannies, and dead ends meant there was always somewhere to go off the literally-beaten path that the guards had walked for centuries. Sunset found a quiet alcove far from the central dungeon and settled in to wait.
She ate some of the fruit she’d taken and planned her next move. Checking her bag, there were the usual assortment of tools she usually carried: knife, lighter, and a recent addition, cigarettes. Sunset herself didn’t smoke, but they were a fantastic item to plant in someone’s locker to get them in trouble.
In her mental map of the dungeon, she’d have to go past the row of prisoner cells to get to the treasure area. She’d have to avoid guard patrols on the way. After all that, she’d have to get back out and up to the tower to return to the mirror, and do it in time to return to the human world before her deadline.
The thought never occurred to Sunset that she might have bitten off more than she could chew - she wouldn’t let it. Nothing was going to stop her on this raid back to Equestria, her slowly stewing resentment since she’d escaped the last time had carried her this far. She was better now, smarter, and a lot more powerful.
Sunset waited, checking the time on a watch she had brought and doing the calculations to convert the time between worlds in her head. She ventured out a few times between guard patrols to ensure her memory of the dungeon was accurate. She’d rarely been here before, and never covertly, but knew the place well enough from previous study of blueprints.
Most of the dungeon was as she expected. There wasn’t much that could change with solid stone walls. Unfortunately, that also meant she was going to have to pass by the line of cold iron cells to reach the treasure coffers. Well, as little as modern Equestria jailed ponies in the castle itself anymore, there was a decent chance they would be unoccupied.
However, what Sunset found as she stealthily prowled the line of cells was not a pony at all, but a beast: a huge furry body with insectoid wings and a wicked stinger. She maintained presence of mind enough not to pause for a stare, but hurried by as quietly as possible. A bugbear!? What could it be doing here?
Sunset managed to avoid its attention, but mostly because it appeared to be sleeping or otherwise listlessly prone, head turned away from the iron bars. It might have made some sort of noise or otherwise alerted the guards if it had noticed her.
Most ponies didn’t realize, but bugbears were not simply wild creatures. They were one of the few animals that were capable of hate, spite, and active malevolence. In Sunset’s studies, she’d even heard of a few being imprisoned in Tartarus. So while finding one in the dungeon in Canterlot was surprising, it wasn’t exactly baffling.
Though, more surprising was the trickle of malice she felt as she went by. It was the same feeling the Ghost Rider noticed back on Earth. So it was evil then? Whatever, it wasn’t Sunset’s place to judge.
Well, it was, sort of. But right now, back in Equestria on personal business, Sunset had other priorities. Such as the treasure room door, which she now approached.
The lock on it was part magic, part mechanical, and the very best possible security that anypony could have designed a few centuries ago. None of the basic keys she’d taken worked. It still took Sunset nearly half an hour of careful and quiet tinkering to get it open, during which she once had to hide from a guard patrol. But at last, with one final click, the door finally swung open before her.
The room was empty.
Sunset’s entire face twitched in an instant of pure rage, which she managed to release in a long, slow breath through her clenched teeth. Bad luck, that was all it was. At some point, the valuables stored in this room had been moved. She couldn’t have known.
That didn’t mean she wasn’t still angry, but without a target, it was hard to hold onto it. All she could do was search a few other likely locations to which the treasure might have been moved.
Or...she could take petty revenge where she got it and let the bugbear out.
She found the correct key on the ring and inserted it into the cell door lock. In that moment, the beast awoke. It sat up, blinking at her, before immediately launching a full-strength charge against the bars with an ear-splitting roar. Ghost Rider or not, Sunset had no intention of being bugbear bait, and stepped back before swinging the door open from afar with magic. She then promptly shut herself in the treasure room.
Even through the thick door, it wasn’t hard to hear the rampage outside. Sunset waited just a few minutes, until she could no longer hear the growls of the bugbear or the shouts of the guards, before coming out. From the inside, the door had a convenient safety latch.
It might have been hard to damage the stone dungeon, but that didn’t mean the bugbear hadn’t made an attempt. Sunset noticed a few fresh scratches on the walls. There was a guard helmet just down the way, lying forgotten on the ground.
She kicked the treasure room door shut with a hind leg and trotted away down the now-empty corridor past the row of cells. The bugbear rampage had seemingly cleared the whole dungeon and Sunset had a leisurely stroll, exiting via the stairs this time. Using the guards’ keys, she poked her head into a few rooms that she had time to check along the way, and in one found some guard’s stash of hay snacks which she put in her bag.
Back up in the main level of the castle, it was easier to see signs of a monster on the loose. Sunset could occasionally hear sounds of carnage in the distance and spotted some wreckage here and there in the halls.
Through one of the broken windows, Sunset saw that the sun was now close to setting. That didn’t mean a whole lot - Celestia might just pause the twilight if there was a bugbear loose in the castle - but it indicated she should probably be getting back towards the mirror. She confirmed this with her watch. Okay, she still had a couple hours.
Ponies were beginning to poke their heads out into the hallway from wherever they’d shut themselves in. Sunset realized the noise seemed to have died down. Had the bugbear been caught? Or hid? She made sure her hood was up and kept moving.
She was nearly to the foyer of the castle when the adjacent front door was thrown open and six mares charged in. “Princess, we brought the Elements!” the purple alicorn in the lead shouted to no one in particular.
It was good that none of them looked twice at Sunset as they ran by, because she would have been wearing a flabbergasted expression. Alicorn!? Since when had Equestria had another!? And...didn’t that look like Twilight Sparkle?
The up-and-coming top student in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns at the time Sunset had left. They’d never really interacted, but Sunset knew who she was. Or had been. An alicorn…
Whether it was hatred or envy that gripped her, Sunset wasn’t sure, but it was directed entirely at Twilight. How could such a thing have happened? What secret of magic had she discovered?
Did it have something to do with the jewelry Twilight and the ponies with her had been wearing? She had said “the Elements.” No…the Elements of Harmony!? The legend that had locked away Nightmare Moon? And if the Elements were real, it stood to reason Nightmare Moon wasn’t just an old pony tale.
A lot had happened since Sunset had been gone, she realized. But it was probably a good thing. Princess Candance’s ascension had been bad enough, but if Sunset had to watch with her own eyes a pony younger than her like Twilight fucking Sparkle become an alicorn and discover incredibly powerful ancient artifacts, she might have had an aneurysm from the jealousy.
Unless, by escaping to the human world, Sunset herself had missed those opportunities.
She buried that thought and took off after Twilight. It wasn’t a long chase. The supposed rescuers with the Elements were stopped with castle guards in the great hall, who’d lost the bugbear.
The damage here had been severe, though. There had clearly been some sort of battle. There was blood. A few guards seemed to be receiving treatment from medics. One of them was clearly in bad condition, deep claw marks still bleeding despite layers of bandages.
Seeing the blood gave Sunset unusual pause. She had never been queasy about such things, even recently when she had done the bloodletting. Maybe she was just thinking about it because technically this had been her doing.
Despite the scene, a slowly growing crowd of various castle workers and visitors had appeared, either to rubberneck or perhaps believing themselves safe now that an alicorn with a fancy crown had shown up. Sunset blended in with them, listening.
She wondered who the five mares were that were with Twilight. She had never seen any of them before, but wondered if she might have heard of their human counterparts. Staying hidden from across the room, she could only see pelt color.
But speaking of alicorns with fancy crowns, the one Sunset wanted to see even less than Twilight entered the room. Princess Celestia was a full head taller than anypony else, and her mane wafted behind her in an unfelt breeze.
Well, Sunset had known there was a chance of running into Celestia if she was coming here, but that still didn’t make it pleasant. She watched with curled lip as Celestia conferred briefly with the guards and with the mares who wore the Elements.
Though, the next pony to appear almost surprised Sunset more than any she had seen so far. He was a disheveled unicorn with glasses and an orange mane and yellow coat, though mostly wrapped in a bathrobe-like garment that featured a pattern of stars. It was her cousin, Sunburst. She vaguely knew he was some kind of magic researcher of no repute, but didn’t expect him to have upgraded to working at the castle.
Sunburst wore a worried expression. He was carrying a book and spoke briefly with Celestia. She nodded and lifted her voice to address the room. “Ladies and gentlecolts, the escaped bugbear has gone to ground somewhere in the castle. Now that the Elements of Harmony are here, we will be conducting a thorough search. We will be ending the day a little early, so please make your way home and stay safe.”
And then, yet another alicorn walked into the room. She was dark blue and lithe, and stopped beside Celestia. The two of them lit their horns, and outside, the sun slipped below the horizon and the moon rose.
Sunset knew enough of her hidden history and quiet rumors to realize that this must be Celestia’s long lost sister of legend. Another alicorn. Maybe leaving Equestria had actually been a blessing.
The crowd among which Sunset mingled had begun to disperse and she made herself scarce. This was hardly a place she wanted to spend any more time.
She just had to get back to the tower and the mirror, and then pretend this outing had never happened. A world where her biggest problem was high school sounded pretty good after this.
Getting to the upper floors while avoiding everypony required a few detours. Sunset also kept the bugbear in mind. It wouldn’t do to be caught in her own trap. Well, it wasn’t really a trap, but it still hadn’t gone how she pictured it. Maybe it had intentionally stayed in the castle to cause maximum damage.
The word regret came up, but no, Sunset didn’t regret releasing it. Regret would imply that she did something wrong. But its presence was causing her troubles now, and the senseless violence hadn’t helped. At least Sunset could pride herself on that: all her violence was always for a purpose.
Passing a balcony, she paused, hearing hooves below. Twilight, Sunburst, and the others, though minus the two astronomical princesses, were hurrying through the promenade hall the balcony overlooked and lighting torches as they went, the sun having just set minutes ago.
Sunset was tempted to throw something at them. Still not senseless violence - it would make her feel better. But as she watched from the shadows, she realized she wasn’t the only one. There was movement on a balcony mirrored across the hall from hers. The darkness made it hard to see, but she picked out a set of red compound eyes, tracking the ponies below.
The bugbear, when it leapt, chose the easiest target. That is, the academic stallion trailing behind the others and distracted by a book he carried. The creature dove from the balcony, stinger first, and aimed directly at Sunburst.
Sunset was already on fire and leaping to make the intercept midair before she had a conscious thought. She tackled the bugbear, belatedly realizing her forelegs had gone to bone. The two of them slammed into the wall, hard enough to shift the stone blocks, and slid down to the floor, Sunset on top.
There was no point in going through the song-and-dance of look into my eyes. Sunset didn’t think the bugbear understood words, and at any rate, its faceted insect eyes meant that it couldn’t look away even if it had wanted to.
Its soul, or whatever evil there was to burn in a bear-bug hybrid, set to burning, and Sunset stepped off of the creature, turning to face the ponies who’d just seen her in the act. At least with the fire and bones there was no chance of recognizing her.
Sunburst cowered behind the others. There didn’t seem to be even a scratch on him, as Sunset had stopped the attack. Her disgust flared, even as she had saved his life. It hadn’t really been conscious on her part. If it had been anypony besides family, would Sunset have just watched? Would the Rider have intervened regardless?
There was a long moment as the two sides stared at each other, broken by Sunset moving first to press her factor of surprise. She might not have had her motorcycle in Equestria or alicorn wings, but between her Rider ability and the general surprise in the room, she darted forward as quick as lightning and aided by magic snagged the golden crown right off Twilight Sparkle’s head.
Her momentum carried her up the wall and back down the other side, pointed directly towards the door to the tower, just down the hall. On the spiral staircase inside the circular tower, Sunset’s hooves left fiery prints up the wall, so great was her speed that it let her run on the curved walls instead of the stairs themselves. Well behind her, she could hear the others reacting, but between her surprise appearance and capabilities, and the mirror being so close, none had a hope of catching up before Sunset burst into the room at the top of the tower and dove through the portal.