//------------------------------// // Demons // Story: Forgotten: Sunrise // by milesprower06 //------------------------------// Sunset found herself walking down tiled hallways that felt eerily familiar. Each hoofstep echoed off the dimly lit walls, as faint ghostly whispers reached her ears. "You could be great. I thought I saw compassion and sincerity in you, but it was nothing but ambition." "Hello?" Sunset called, getting no kind of direct reply in return. As she continued down the hall, the light shifted, revealing ghostly, barely visible equine forms standing and moving through the corridors. Needless to say, this was a bit creepy. "How dare you keep this kind of magic from me!" The voice felt closer, and was angry, but was still at a whisper. It felt as if these voices weren't coming from these faded, transparent spirits, but from right next to her, or from within her. "I deserve to stand beside you and be your equal, if not your better." There was a set of double doors to her right, and it felt familiar. She stood here with someone, long ago... "Every time you say you 'deserve' to get something without the effort just proves to me that you are not ready." "I am ready." Sunset stepped up to the doors, and pushed them open, trying her best to ignore the voices. She took a single step into the lecture hall on the other side of the doors, before coming to a halt as her breath left her. "I told you it would be the biggest mistake of your life." This voice wasn't a whisper, and it wasn't right next to her, but directly in front of her. Her eyes widened as she saw the winged, bipedal form standing over the prone, barely moving Princess Celestia on the floor in front of her. She immediately recognized the hair, and her shoulder blades began to tingle and ache as the she-demon turned her head to look back at her. "All this power, and you just threw it away," the figure sneered. "How foolish." Without another word, the demon raised her right arm, and a stream of fire erupted out her palm towards the unicorn. Sunset barely had time to put up a magical shield. But in protecting herself, the flames smashed against her shield and bounced off towards the walls and floor of the lecture hall as she backed up into the hall. The defensive retreat worked, and with a flap of her wings, the demon moved towards her and away from the injured Celestia. Sunset jumped out of the way of another duo of fireballs, quickly extinguishing the flames before returning her focus towards her demon form that had exited into the hall. "You think I'm baited so easily..." the demon taunted, before generating another fireball in her right palm, before whipping it directly to her side back into the lecture hall, getting a flash of flames and a wave of heat rushing out into the hall. "She sealed her fate when she denied me my rightful place. And so did you..." Snarling, the demon thrust forward her arms again, sending dual streams of fire out towards Sunset. When she lost sight of her demon form, she lit up her horn, and vanished from where she was standing in a flash of light, and reappeared behind the demon, firing off a burst of magical bolts at her back before turning and galloping back the way she had come. The demon grunted in response to the attack's impact, and gave chase down the hall, shooting out bolts of fire as she flew. Sunset kept up her gallop, weaving from one end of the hall to the other, still hearing the whispering voices. "I want Equestria, and with my own little teenage army behind me, I'm going to get it." Sunset made a left at the next junction, and skidded to a halt, as the corridor came to an inexplicable dead end, with the magical mirror. She turned to head in the opposite direction, but that way was also abruptly cut off, and her demon form came around the corner, trapping Sunset between her and the mirror. She let loose with another fireball, and while Sunset got her shield up in time, she didn't get enough time to brace herself, and she lost her balance, tumbling end over end, feeling herself tingle all over as she fell through the mirror. She lost all sense of direction as psychedelic colors spun past her. Moments later, she felt gravity take hold again, and she felt herself scrape against concrete. Her blurry vision cleared, and she saw hands and flesh in place of her front hooves. Groaning, she rolled over onto her back, and began to push herself up, only to be pushed back down as a glowing white shoe pressed down on her chest, as she heard a familiar, snickering voice. She looked up into the burning gaze of Midnight Sparkle. "Mmm hmmhmmhmm, I see your better half has finally cleared the way for me," Midnight sneered triumphantly, her dark violet wings flaring out. She glanced back at the portal as it ebbed, as Sunset's demon form stepped through. "I suppose I could share the spoils of conquest with someone equally ambitious. If you could do me the favor of making sure she wont get in our way again," the she-demon replied, flashing a fanged smile at Midnight as Sunset felt around her neck in a panic, not finding her geode necklace. "Well, I was going to leave you with this worthless high school, but a price is a price. Goodbye, Sunset," Midnight growled, reaching out an open palm towards the prone Sunset. The girl braced herself a split-second before a blinding white beam of magic shot out of Midnight Sparkle's outstretched hand, enveloping her in a white hot light. She gritted her teeth, and tried to endure the burning... Sunset shot up in her sleeping bag with a gasp. After taking a few deep breaths and looking around to confirm her surroundings, she brought up her front legs out of her sleeping bag to confirm that they were indeed hooves at the ends. After one more breath, she felt how damp and sweaty her sleeping bag had become in her sleep, and unzipped it, tossing the top flap off of herself, and rolling to her feet. She tapped the screen of her phone charging in the corner, and saw that it was a quarter til five in the morning. Groaning lightly, figuring it wouldn't be worth it to try and get back to sleep, she unzipped her tent and stepped outside, and after a momentary glow from her horn, the fresh kindling in the campfire lit up into a small crackling blaze, and she sat down in the dirt. A couple minutes later, Pipp's tent unzipped, and she stepped out, sans tiara, towards where Sunset was sitting. "Everything alright, Sunset?" "Rough night... Pretty bad dream, not sure if I'll get back to sleep," Sunset answered. Pipp reached back into her tent to grab her phone, and checked the time. "Well, if we want to grab a quick bite to eat, I don't think I'd have a problem with breaking camp and getting an early start," She offered. Sunset's horn lit up and the tub of snacks and quick meals opened up and two fruit-filled granola bars floated out and came over to the pair, one to Pipp, and one to herself. Sunset quickly unwrapped hers, and took a bite. "You read my mind, Pipp."