Zephyr Heights/Castle Throne room
Queen Haven found herself standing in the throne room while staring out one of the windows, awaiting the guards who went to investigate an explosion to report back to her. She turned to see Cloudpuff relaxing on her throne and couldn’t help but chuckle at the adorable pup’s actions. “Maybe I’m worrying just a bit too much. What say you Cloudpuff?” she asks and he sits up and gives a scratch to his side then a bark and she chuckles a second time and walks over to her throne and pets him. She hears a knock and she and the rest of the guards who were in the room turn to the oversized double door and with permission from Queen Haven, one of the guards went to open it but before they even grabbed the handle, the doors suddenly went flying off their hinges and through the windows, landing somewhere in the city below. Haven slowly looks up to see who dared to destroy her property and possibly injure at least a dozen of her subjects.
She was shocked however to see.. Sunny, walking into the throne room with a zebra by her side. Cloudpuff growls at them both and Sunny just giggles evilly. “Nice to see you both again too.” she says, smirking. Askari gets her sword ready to strike and it becomes coated with some sort of black and white sinister looking magic. Haven quickly realizes that they’re the ones who destroyed the building and probably why the guards took so long to respond back to her.
“Sunny.. why? Why would you align yourself with her? Why would you attack Zephyr Heights?” she asks, hoping to learn the truth of why the same mare who helped her and her daughters gain their status back would assault her kingdom.
“I did all that because Midnight wills it. I realized that even with friendship back in Equestria, there will always be SOMETHING to try and disrupt it, so I might as well help her destroy everything and everyone.” she said, her eyes glowing purple. Haven frowns and commands her guard ponies to seize them both and they get right to attacking the both of them but are easily taken down by both Sunny and Askari's close-combat skills. Once all the guard ponies were down, they both turned to look at Haven and Cloudpuff, who both back up. They start walking towards them and at this point, Haven is terrified. She knows she can’t take on those two by herself and she can’t outrun them, especially not Sunny. ..But that doesn’t mean she couldn’t try. She quickly grabs Cloudpuff and jumps out of one of the windows and flys around the castle, prompting Sunny to give chase.
Back in Maretime Bay
“Sunset.. Discord.. where have you two been? I mean after the Mane 6 vanished we thought.. we thought everypony was gone.” Artemis stated, to which Discord gave a chuckle and Sunset shook her head.
“That’s the thing, everypony WAS gone, somewhere else. After the explosion from whatever the six of them did, everypony and every creature in ponyville, the dragon lands, Canterlot, even the home of the hippogriffs and the gryphons, Yakyakastan, all those specific kingdoms and some other random cities.. they were all transported to some sort of.. other dimension and we were frozen in time.. well everyone who wasn’t an alicorn. But that didn’t work out so well for Flurry Heart or Cadence.” Sunset Shimmer explained, gaining concerned and shocked looks from the only three ponies there who know who she is.
“Wait, what do you mean? Are they alright?” Thunderbird asked but Sunset and Discord both shrugged, confusing them further.
“That however my old friend, is something we don’t know. You see, while Twilight and the others were trying to figure out a plan, Sombra was brought back as a distraction and he attacked the crystal empire.. which caused it to vanish along with everypony in it.. until now that is.” Discord said and they all slowly started to piece it together.
“So that means.. everypony and every creature who disappeared in the past.. is coming here?” Zipp asked, half excited, half nervous for what was to come.
Both of the historic figures nodded and everypony began to panic. “This is so not cool.. what are we gonna do?” Pipp asked, more scared than she’s ever been. Hitch tried to calm her down even though he himself was scared. Somehow he still managed to grow a determined look on his face.
“We have to get Sunny back.. maybe she can stop this.” Hitch said, as he turned to the others. “Anyone who’s with me can tag along but I’m getting my friend back.” he continued as he began to walk out. Izzy stopped him before he got to the door.
“Hitch wait, we don’t even know where they could be right now.” Izzy said. “I wanna get Sunny back as much as you do but.. we need a plan. If we save her and she’s not in one piece when or while we do, it kinda defeats the purpose.” she continued, causing Hitch to sigh and nod.
“Oh, I guess now would be a good time to tell you that I’ve been sensing a magical imbalance ever since we got here. Could be your friend or Midnight.” says Discord, who was eating popcorn while listening to them, earning a glare from Sunset. “Whaaat? I love a good show and a snack.” he says and this time she sighs and shakes her head, muttering “unbelievable”.
“Why didn’t you say so?! Take us to her!” Izzy shouted and Discord rolled his eyes and with a snap of his fingers, they were all in Zephyr Heights. As they looked around, they could see everypony running and screaming as the castle was under attack, guardponies trying to calm them down and evacuate. Artemis and Thunderbird fly to the castle to figure out what’s going on and Discord followed. Meanwhile, everypony made a plan to get the citizens out of the area safely. The plan changed when an explosion of black and white destroyed a building and injured some passing pegasi. They looked at the building and standing on top of it was Askari, who’s eyes were glowing white and slowly turn back to normal. She jumps down and charges at the remainder of the Mane 5 but a ball of fire knocks her back into a building. Everypony looks at Sunset and there’s fire coming off her fists. She huffs and looks at the others.
“All of you go do your part. I’ll handle the kid.” she said as she started to walk towards Askari and everypony else went on to do their parts of the plan, Hitch was helping to evacuate, Zipp and Pipp were keeping an eye out for any other bad guys and Izzy was helping anypony who needed it but she couldn’t stop thinking about what was happening at the castle, she needed to go check it out. As she saw one of the giant screens on the side of a building she was horrified to see a video of Sunny attacking the guards and killing some of them along with Askari, she looked up at the castle and knew she had to go and help. So she did go.
Sunny was enjoying this, she had just downed Haven and was about to finish her off. “Any last words Haven? Or any barks, Cloudpuff?” she asked with her newest sword ready. Cloudpuff growls at her.
“Sunny stop it.. this has to be a cruel joke.. you would never do anything like this.. you would never hurt anypony, you’ve proven that to me.” Haven said, hoping that Sunny, the real her, would come out and spare her and Cloudpuff and end this madness.
“Cruel? Yes. Joke? Definitely not. Bye-bye Haven, bye Cloudpuff.” Sunny says as she raises her sword but before she can bring it down on them, Artemis tackles her from behind and they crash through a wall. They both get up and Artemis stares at Sunny, shocked to see her like this.
“No.. Sunny.. what did she do to you?” Artemis asked, the faintest hint of regret in her voice.
Sunny chuckles before answering. “She perfected me. No more friends to hold me back. I’m my true self. I was stupid for trying to be like Twilight Sparkle. Trying to uphold her legacy.. well now I follow Midnight’s and look at me! I’m better than I was before!” she shouts before laughing. Artemis just growls, not angry at Sunny but swearing revenge against Midnight for doing this to her. She continued to try and persuade Sunny to come back home and be her normal self again but then Sunny just attacked her. Thunderbird grabbed her from behind and together they started to overpower her. Discord was just watching, enjoying another show, this one more interesting than the other.
When Sunny started pushing back, that’s when he had to step in, he tried snapping a spell that would easily stop her but she wasn’t affected at all and he sighs and facepalms. “I forgot Midnight can’t be affected by my magic and neither can anyone she’s corrupted or given magic with her own.” he says, frustrated and Sunny smirks and roundhouse kicks him off the castle grounds then starts walking back into the castle until she hears a familiar voice call her name.
“Sunny!!” she hears Izzy shout, which causes her to turn around and face the unicorn. Izzy looks like she did a lot to get up here and she seems out of breath. Sunny rolls her eyes.
“You know there’s an elevator that could’ve brought you up here right? What did you do, climb up here?” Sunny asks, mocking Izzy's efforts. Izzy chose not to listen and chose instead to get her friend back no matter what.
“Sunny come on, this isn’t like you, at all! You’re not a killer, you wouldn’t hurt anypony, I know you wouldn’t, you always thought of everypony as a friend you just haven’t met yet! Just try to remember, please!” Izzy said, pleading for her friend to come back. Little did she know, it was gonna take a lot more than words to revert Sunny back to her old self.
“Maybe that was who the old Sunny was, so in case it’s not clear to you yet, allow me to enlighten your feeble brain, I’m the new and improved Sunny. I’ve been reborn. The old me is gone. But hey WE can still get along if you want, and if not, that’s fine, I can just kill you too.” Sunny says, her features starting out relaxed, then serious. Izzy was shaking so much right now. She was more terrified of hurting Sunny than the idea of Sunny hurting or even killing her. She breathed in and out before readying herself to fight. She knew she couldn’t possibly defeat Sunny by herself but she could at least wear her down. Sunny noticed Izzy getting ready then smirked. “Come on Izz, you know you can’t beat me.” she says.
“I don’t care.. I want my friend back and I’ll do anything to make that happen.. so I don’t care what happens to me.. I want back the Sunny that I love.” Izzy says and Sunny goes wide-eyed at that and her eyes turn back to their normal green as she stumbles back a bit.
“I-Izzy?” Sunny asked, sounding somewhat like herself again. Izzy looks shocked then happy.
“That’s right Sunny, it’s me!” Izzy shouts enthusiastically as she rushes to Sunny and hugs her but just as Sunny was about to hug her back, she screams, pushing Izzy away to hold her own head. She could feel the magic starting to regain control of her and no matter how much she tried to fight, she didn’t have the strength to break free any further.
“I’m so sorry Izzy.. I’m so sorry!” Sunny shouted and Izzy tried to comfort her, to reassure her that they would get her back and things would be better and it helped a little but it wasn’t enough. Sunny had once again lost herself to the darkness and knocked Izzy away. She attacked Izzy and while they fought, the real Sunny was supposedly making it harder for her body to fight so Izzy could get a few good hits in. This gave Izzy an advantage, now she just had to take any change she got and get her friend back.
Down in the city
Things were now worse than they were when they had first got there. Not only were people still evacuating while Sunset was defending them from Askari, but now the Wonderbolt wannabes have decided to show up and cause more trouble. How they survived the flooding of the underground factory, no one knew but they were back now and seriously ticked off. Zipp couldn’t see any way out of this mess, no way to save everypony without some casualties. She looked at Hitch and Pipp and yelled to them “We need a new plan! This isn’t working!” before landing and rushing to them. They agreed as they looked around. Zipp and Pipp were more heartbroken than ever as they saw the state of their home.
“This can’t be happening.. Zipp we weren’t here and all this happened.. we should’ve been..” Pipp says, her voice shaky like she’s on the verge of tears. Zipp saw how scared and guilty her sister was feeling and she looked around at how her home was being destroyed and.. it broke something inside her but at the same time awakened something new. She saw a building about to fall on a family and as she ran towards them, she could see the faintest hints of pink and blue electricity coming off her one moment and then the next, she was with the family in a different location, safe from the building. She was so confused as she looked at herself.
“What.. what just happened?” Zipp asked, confused as more electricity came off of her.
“Zipp Storm.. you just moved as fast as Rainbow Dash..” Sunset said, having a smile on her face at the same time as a shocked look. Zipp looked at herself again and slowly started to smile.
“Awesome!!” she shouts as she uses her speed to run and fly around, knock out the Deathbolts, save anypony who needed help and in moments, everything seemed more under control. Zipp appears in a flash of lightning right in front of her friends, sliding to a stop. “This is so cool! I just took care of all the Deathbolts and saved us SO much trouble.” she says to her amazed friend and sister- who was probably a little jealous.
“Leave it to you to show off Zipp.” Pipp says, earning a pat on the head from her older sister.
“Well you’re part of the reason I do little sis.” Zipp said and Pipp rolled her eyes, smiling a bit. Hitch finally decided to speak after the shock wore off.
“Ok, now that things have settled down here, we should get to the castle and see if the others need any help.” he says and with that, Zipp grabs him and Pipp and flys them up there faster than they were ready for- chuckling when they scream in surprise.
“You two are such scaredy-fillies.” she says, smirking.