Sunset Shimmer—Earth, Tent outside Canterlot High School. 11:59 p.m. on Day Three.
Sunset had waited impatiently for the ending of this story, and the chance for her to truly play her part by switching the remaining ponies and humans, including Princess Celestia. She had desperately wanted to use the portal to cross over to Equestria and help in any way that she could, but to do so would be catastrophic, so she sat on her hands.
The tent was illuminated by harsh lights that Vice-Principal Luna had brought out of storage. They were placed outside the tent and shined through the canvas walls, because they were far too bright to actually use directly. Luna too wished to cross into Equestria, to help her sister, to see what the wondrous place truly looked like, and to see what she would be as a pony, but she decided to support Sunset and follow the Princess’ command not to overuse the mirror and stayed on Earth. Those were the thoughts she had when she didn’t look at Sunset’s face; when she did look, she wanted to abandon the monster to her well-deserved grief. With an effort of will, she buried this false emotion.
Sunset first received a note in her Zero-X book, telling her that the Princess, the Principal, both Raritys, Pony Rarity’s parents and sister, both Rainbow Dashes, and Pony Pinkie Pie had returned to the basement. (The Princess, unable to teleport everypony and up against a strict time limit, had left the rest of Rarity’s search party to return to Ponyville on their own, with the support of her royal guards.)
That was five minutes ago. ‘What is taking so long?’ Sunset wondered.
And then, at the very last minute, Human Rarity, Human Rainbow Dash and Human Celestia emerged from the portal—but not Pony Celestia. Sunset had time to notice that Principal Celestia looked back at the portal with a mix of regret and anger when a distant clock struck twelve, and Sunset was dropped to her knees. She gritted her teeth in discomfort as she felt her magic being sucked out of her by the mirror, every last drop of it.
The minute of midnight passed. It was now 12:01 a.m. on Day Four.
Rarity reunited with Sweetie Belle as Rainbow Dash reunited with her family and the family of Fluttershy.
“What happened?” Sunset said, looking down at her hands.
Celestia tried to explain to her, but found that she could not stand to look Sunset in her cruel and calculating face, so she turned away. She vowed to one day be able to look her in the eye and see the true individual within instead of the mask that the Princess had inflicted her with. Finally, she spoke: “Your princess rigged the spell to take all of your magic from you when the portal deactivated. She said it was so you wouldn’t be tempted to misuse your power.”
“I don’t care about that!” Sunset cried out. “What about your bodies? Are you stuck in her body right now?”
“No,” Principal Celestia said with a deep sigh laced with bewilderment. “She took me to a special room with a talking rock named Cecil—I can’t believe that that sentence exists, and makes sense. Anyway, she cast the switching spell at Cecil—it didn’t do anything, because of course a talking rock doesn’t have a counterpart on Earth, but doing that caused him to instantly learn the spell. Cecil then re-cast the spell on us, putting us in our rightful bodies.”
Sunset’s jaw dropped open in shock.
“‘Technically, the rock performed the spell instead of me,’ she told me. ‘Therefore I wasn’t lying when I said no pony could cast the spell.’”
“She used me,” Sunset said, rising unsteadily to her feet. “She wasn’t sure she could trust me to carry out my part of the plan, so she exploited my compassion for little fillies in order to trap me here, on this miserable world, for the rest of my life!” She clenched her hands tightly at her sides in rage.
“I’m...sorry,” the Principal said in a shaky voice, her own hands clasped together at her belly.
“Of course you’re sorry!” Sunset said, turning on her. “All of the Princess’ patsies are sorry!” She flinched on seeing the look in Principal Celestia’s eyes, the one of somebody who expected to be hit at any moment. “I’m sorry,” she said contritely, looking away so the Principal wouldn’t have to keep seeing her face. “I’m the one who brought all this trouble to your school. Your deal is way too good for me. I should—”
“Our offer still stands,” Luna said, stepping beside her sister. Unlike Celestia, she could look Sunset straight in the eyes without recoiling. “Canterlot High School is the best possible thing that could have happened to you under the circumstances. We will stand by you, even if your whole world has rejected you.”
“You’re invited,” Pinkie said from behind Celestia. “To our get-together tomorrow morning.”
Sunset thought for a moment. “I owe you all an apology, so I’ll at least show up to give you that.”
“Alright, although we wouldn’t mind you staying the whole time.”
“I certainly wouldn’t mind,” Fluttershy’s voice chimed in from behind Luna.
“You should totally be there,” Rainbow Dash’s voice added, also behind Luna.
Sunset saw that she would be performing most of her conversations from now on with something or somebody between her and anybody who’d want to associate with her.
Meanwhile Luna pulled her sister aside. “How can she do this?” she demanded. “How can the pony who represents the ideal of friendship to everyone else be so cruel to her own student?”
The Principal sighed. She hoped that the Princess had some kind of convoluted plan, to manipulate Sunset into redeeming herself. But she strongly doubted that there was any reality in this hope. “Because the Princess is always a hypocrite to those she considers to be family,” she finally said.