Diary of Sunset Shimmer
The story of how I ended up in the kingdom of Taralos is a long one, so I will spare you the hours of explaining every detail. But to summarize, I was into one of the most prestigious noble families in Canterlot, my family expected great things from me and I didn’t disappoint them, as my exceptional skill in magic granted me a position as the personal student of Princess Celestia herself, but for reasons we don’t need to go into here (mostly the study of dark magic without the approval of my tutor), a wedge was driven between us, and she fired me from my position, to avoid the shame of my family finding out, I fled through an interdimensional gateway to another world. A world full of strange creatures called humans.
Eventually I found a way back and I stole the Element of Magic, the crown of Princess Twilight herself in order to use it to take revenge against Celestia. I failed, yet Princess Twilight still reached out her hand in friendship, being willing to forgive me, and I took it. From that day onward I would try to find evildoers and give them a second chance, helping in whatever way I can to make them better people. Seems like this attitude drew the attention of a goddess of a distant land, Sarenrae the Dawnflower, a goddess of the sun with an emblem much like the one on my flank, my symbol of destiny. It then became clear that it was my destiny to serve her, the light of the sun, and serve as a Redeemer.
As an agent of the Dawnflower I traveled across many realms, fighting the forces of evil, and redeeming any villain I could, however it sometimes became necessary to end their lives in service of the greater good. While necessary, this act always pained me. For I believe that every wrongdoer, like me, deserves a second chance. Eventually a story would reach me from my home realm of Equestria, of a young Pegasus filly, little more than a foal, who led a coup against the reigning monarch, Princess Twilight Sparkle, not once, but twice. Twilight turning her and her co-conspirators to stone as a punishment, her name was Cozy Glow. There had been whispers across Equestria, whispered only where agents of the Princesses couldn’t hear that some ponies considered Cozy’s punishment unjust, that unlike the likes of Starlight Glimmer, she wasn’t even granted a chance at redemption.
There was something about the story that rubbed me the wrong way, no, it angered me greatly, I imagined myself in Cozy’s position, what if Twilight at the time didn’t reach out to me, but instead imprisoned me in stone for my actions? I would’ve never gotten the chance to be the person I was today. Had something fundamentally changed within Twilight since last I saw her? Cozy was only a kid, despite what she might’ve done, surely that meant she should have been given some leniency. My connection to my goddess seemed to confirm this was the path she wanted me to take. Was I destined to lead her to the path of goodness? Or if it became necessary, put her down? I wasn’t sure, but it was clear which Sarenrae would prefer.
After I made up my mind, I entered my home realm and snuck into Twilight’s Garden under the cover of night, her garden was full of creatures and ponies, I shuddered to think about how many of these were once living and breathing creatures. I had seen many villainous sorcerers and sorceresses of other worlds having similar collections of their enemies. I wondered if it was possible that Twilight had fallen from the ways of a Redeemer and instead have become a self-righteous Punisher. Perhaps if I could succeed in my assignment with Cozy, I would be able to guide Twilight back to the ways of redemption.
I eventually found the statue of my next client, Cozy Glow. Her statue was part of a diorama that also included the statue of a feeble-looking bearded centaur, frozen in an expression of terror, as well as an insectoid pony, who had to have been snarling aggressively in a moment of defiance before she was turned to stone. The centaur I recognized as Tirek, a creature some believed to be demonic who had the ability to consume magic, who had at one point threatened to destroy all of Equestria. The insectoid was the former changeling queen, Chrysalis, who stuck to the old ways even after her hive abandoning her in order to follow the ideology of Twilight Sparkle. The last statue was that of a small pegasus child with curly locks as a mane, she looked as terrified as Tirek, if not more so, her horror forever captured in stone.
I unpetrified Cozy using one of my spells, it took a few moments for her to regain her bearings, her body aging years in mere seconds, the pony that now stood before me was a teenager, her coat was pink and her curly mane a green-blue color. She smiled towards me, in what I assumed was gratitude, then looked at her own body and looked confused. I told her what I assumed to be the truth, but she had been imprisoned in stone for a very long time, and that this was her form as it looked now. I told her why I was here, she laughed, not in an evil maniacal way, but in a way that conveyed genuine relief, or was it amusement?
I led her back to the portal at the entrance to the garden, Cozy seemed hesitant to enter at first, I reached out my hoof, telling her to trust me, she took it and stepped through the portal with me. Only it didn’t lead where I expected, instead it led to another alternate reality, filled with ponies much like Equestria. As soon as I stepped through the portal, I felt that my powers were greatly weakened, I still felt a connection to my goddess, but it was not as strong as it was previously. Therefore, I was unable to open another portal. Not that this seemed to bother Cozy, in her own words: “I am in an unknown world where nobody knows who I am, I see this as an opportunity to start over with a blank slate.”
What she said made a lot of sense to me. I didn’t know what to think of Cozy at this time, she was supposedly one of the greatest villains in Equestrian history, yet she seemed so affable, brilliant and charismatic. I didn’t know exactly what was going on, she would either be the easiest client I had ever helped, or the hardest.
We found ourselves in the kingdom of Taralos, where we established ourselves with the royal family by investigating the matter of the crown prince’s missing horn. We found the maid Lilac Blossom, who had a secret boyfriend, an unknown group blackmailed her into slipping the Prince a sleeping drought. I promised her I would find her boyfriend and I didn’t plan to let her down. Throughout all of this, Cozy had been rather helpful, using her intelligence and charisma to lead the investigation, and with a little nudging from me, to convince the authorities not to punish Lilac Blossom who I really only saw as a victim in all of this. I don’t believe Cozy is such a bad pony deep down, at the very least she is capable of a lot of good when she puts her mind to it. Even if I had started to fear she only did so to increase her own notoriety. Every move Cozy had made since we got here seems to ingratiate herself in the royal court, maybe that wasn’t a coincidence. Was she planning something?
After spending some of our money on the town, we went back to the palace the following morning. Staybright smiled at us and told us we did a great job on the previous day. Lilac had been telling him a lot of interesting things, some which we already knew, that she was seeing an earth pony called Brown Ocher, and that she agreed to drug the Prince because her coltfriend was threatened by the true culprits. No one seemed to know where that earth pony was now, nor was there any trace of the horn.
Staybright managed to get a description of the pony who gave her the vial, as well as a description of the earth pony she was seeing Brown Ochre. Brown Ochre had a room in a house on Cooper Street, our mission was to go and see if he was still there or had been there recently. Suited me fine because of my promise to Lilac Blossom, that they would find her coltfriend no matter what. I could hit two birds with one stone. Staybright gave us a royal warrant allowing us to search any house on the street and question anyone there. He also told us to keep an eye open for a pony matching the description of the blackmailer, he was tall and had a deep purple coat and a black mane and tail, his mark of destiny was some kind of animal, although witnesses were not sure what animal. Cipher and Silverwing decided to tag along with me and Cozy, both friends we had made while in Taralos, Silverwing a Griffin of the royal guard and Cipher, a unicorn who was a member of the royal spy network.
Cooper Street was a narrow-cobbled road surrounded by neat and well-kept houses, it wasn’t a rich area but not a poor one either. We found the address we had been given without much difficulty; it was a small house with a bright blue door. The owner of the house was home, a unicorn with a silver hammer as his mortal destiny and a jet-black coat. He introduced himself as Black Smith and explained that he worked in the forge but couldn’t afford this house on his own without renting out a room to other ponies. His last tenant being Brown Ochre, who he was more than happy to talk about and was shocked when hearing he might be connected to events at the palace. Black Smith was eager to show us the room he rents out. The room appeared to be completely empty apart from the furniture, which seemed to greatly surprise Black Smith, who told us it wasn’t like this last time he stepped into the room.
He said that Brown Ochre came home late last night and left with a full bag, but he had no idea that his tenant might’ve moved out. Brown Ochre was alone and in a hurry, according to him, but didn’t seem scared or nervous. Cozy showed him the picture of Lilac Blossom from the day before, and the blacksmith told us he recognized her and that she had been spending a lot of time with his tenant for the last few weeks. Cozy followed with asking him if he recognized the description of the pony we knew as the blackmailer, he recognized that too, he had also been meeting with his tenant regularly, coming by at least once a week for the past month, he got a good look at him and saw that his brand of destiny was a white cat. When asked if, he could swear that Brown Ochre was called by the name “Valentine” at least once. Whenever the two met, they would just disappear to Brown Ochre’s room, and he had no idea what was discussed between them.
We proceeded to search the room, floor to ceiling, but found nothing of interest. When we reported back to Staybright, he called in the captain of the guard to hear the report. The captain was an impressive mare called True Blade, wearing chain mail, her brand of destiny a pair of crossed swords. I explained to her what we had found out about both Brown Ochre and the blackmailer. Upon hearing of the brand of destiny of the blackmailer was a white cat, the guard captain suddenly pounded one hoof on the floor, telling us she knew who that was. Midnight Cat, a notorious criminal who ran the Forge Cats gang. She told us they had an hideout down at Forge Lane. True Blade also recognized the name Valentine, she scowled as she heard the name, telling us that she had heard reports about that pony. Valentine was a well-known con artist that seduces people, manipulates them and then disappears with their life savings. True Blade told us she was very dedicated to bringing them both to justice. Upon hearing about Valentine, I realized that he had used Lilac Blossom, which made me very angry, I would make him apologize to Lilac if it was the last thing I did.
True Blade told us she had a pretty good idea where the Forge Cats current hideout was, but that she suspected they were watching her guard because every time she went to raid them, they were done before her ponies could arrive. She wasn’t aware that there was a connection between the Forge Cats and Valentine until now.
True Blade suggested that she would have her ponies stage a distraction elsewhere while we raided the hideout of the Forge Cats and captured the criminals inside. After staging the distraction her soldiers would move around and block the back exits to prevent the miscreants from escaping that way while we would go in through the front. Both True Blade and Staybright emphasized that both Midnight Cat and Valentine must be captured alive and that this was of the highest priority. Which suited me fine, I didn’t like killing anyone if I could avoid it.
The Forge Cats had an underground hideout beneath Forge Lane, which we could access through the drains, the guard captain staged the diversion and then moved her ponies to seal the back exits while we stormed the front. True Blade believed if she collapsed one area and flooded another, they could cut off their escape routes. She recommended us to go in quietly and take down as many of the gang as possible before we were spotted, as that would make things easier. She told me to not use my horn as a light as that would make us incredibly easy to spot.
We dropped down from the streets into the sewer system, following a narrow passageway heading east, the northern half of the passage was full of stinking and stagnant water. Cozy looked visibly disgusted just by the smell of it, I would have been as well once upon a time, as I was born into nobility, but I had been through a lot of adventures since then and I just I got used to mucking about in the sewers. It was not pleasant, but it was often necessary for the greater good.
Fortunately, the southern half of the sewers was raised up and we had the option of walking along instead of wading through the muck. A glimmer of light shone directly towards us from somewhere ahead. The corridor widened out ahead and there was a raised plinth in the center. A bored looking pony in dirty leather armor was leaning against the plinth and gazing into the light of a torch burning on top of the plinth. Cipher attempted to sneak up on him, the rest of us followed suit, but only Cipher and Cozy managed to get close before we were spotted. Cipher tried to strike at the thief and missed, the thief ran away and through some kind of bag at Cipher, he dodged it effortlessly and the bag turned the area around it to cement on the floor, the thief’s escape path was cut off by Cozy, who seemed to know that he was going to try to escape to warn the others of our approach, I cast a spell to make sure all damage would be nonlethal before we all beat the thief unconscious.
There was a side passage in the wall to the north, as we approached, I could see a passage that looked like it led to an octagonal room. From here it didn’t look like the side room had any other exits, however it was flooded by disgusting liquid so it would be hard to investigate without getting both filthy and wet, something that neither me nor Cozy was willing to do. Fortunately the nice dry walkway continued to the east. While walking along the walkway, Cozy noticed a tripwire going over the path, it was well concealed and seemed to lead to even better concealed hidden blades in the walls which I could see after she pointed it out to me. I asked if anyone in our group knew how to disarm a trap and Cipher told us he had expertise in the subject. Cipher managed to disarm the trap with ease.
We continued onward, eventually, as we peeked around the corner we could see another room ahead, it seemed to be where the underground drain ended. The far side of the room was raised up and there was a fire burning on the raised area. Two ponies were sitting next to the fire idly throwing dice and talking to each other, behind them was a gate. It seemed like we had found the Forge Cats hideout. It was fortunate for us but these guards weren’t paying any more attention to her job than the one at the sentry post earlier was. After talking to each other in whispers for a few minutes, this time we decided a quick frontal assault might be the best strategy, taking out the guards before they could sound the alarm. We would try to sneak up on them and then try to take them out as quickly as we could.
Of course, as we started sneaking, Silverwing accidentally kicked up some gravel, alerting the guards. We managed to take care of them quickly, although with great violence and bloodshed, which I deeply regret even if it might’ve been necessary. The door leading to the hideout seemed to be barred from the other side, but Cozy quickly pointed out that the hinges were attached to this side of the door, allowing us to pass if we remove the hinges, Cipher got to work and managed to remove the hinges of the door, allowing us entry.
The following room seemed to be some kind of gathering area. There were tables with dice on them scattered around along with an assortment of chairs and furs. Most of the tables seemed to have javelins lying around or leaning against them. But more importantly the Forge Cats seemed to be ready now, the two ponies who were close enough to hear the noise decided from her fighting the previous room met us with force, but they seemed reluctant considering the huge imposing Griffin wielding a gigantic sword among us and the fact that they were outnumbered. Silverwing roared in an attempt to frighten them into submission, getting the thieves to surrender without a fight.
We saw a crossroads leading to a room on each side, but we decided to press on to capture the boss first. Further on there was another crossroads, to our left we saw what was until recently a narrow tunnel angling upwards, this must’ve been one of the escape routes the guard captain promised to block as it was filled with fresh rubble. On our right we saw a narrow tunnel angling downwards, although it seemed to have become connected to a source of water somehow and was completely flooded, also the work of True Blade. We decided to take the road forward. Where we came across a sleeping area, if the hay scattered on the floor and personal items stacked around the room was anything to go by. The room was empty. Up ahead we came across another crossroads with rooms on each side and the path forward leading to a set of huge wooden doors leading to an important looking room.
This was the largest room we found in the hideout and was arranged almost like a throne room. There was a raised platform with an ornate chair on it with cushions scattered around the room for ponies to sit down and look up at the person occupying the chair, and the one occupying the throne was none other than Midnight Cat, a dark purple unicorn with a black mane and a mark of destiny consisting of a white cat. On his side was a pony I suspected was Valentine, with a black coat and crimson mane with a mark of destiny depicting a red rose. Maybe his identity as Brown Ocher was the result of using magic to disguise himself, his true appearance didn’t match our description of Brown Ocher. There were also four other thugs standing before the throne, ready to defend their boss. I told Midnight Cat and Valentine that we wouldn’t hurt them if they surrendered now, both Midnight Cat and Valentine just laughed at us. Valentine turning directly towards me and speaking:
“Are you here on behalf of that floozy Lilac Blossom? Did you seek to rescue me? Sorry to break it to you, but I don’t need rescue, I already have Lilac’s valuables. But you will never leave this room alive.”
With that Midnight Cat ordered his subordinates to attack.
We really entered a fight for our lives, while Silverwing and Cipher engaged with a group of thugs, I had my eyes on Valentine, engaging him in a magical dual, me firing a bolt of fire at him, which he was able to dodge. Cozy started an inspiring speech that drove us all to fight on within increased vigor, there seem to be some kind of lingering enchantment in that girl's voice, I had heard of such power before, in the world of Golarion, Spellcasters who infused their very words and music with enchantments, they were called bards.
Midnight Cat nimbly darted and dodged his way through the fighting, using the dagger in his mouth to attack Cozy, wounding her. Silverwing took down thug after thug with his gigantic sword he wielded in his claws. I used my horn to bathe the area in an invigorating healing light, healing the wounds of my allies. Valentine saw an opportunity and approached me and touched me with his horn, I entered into an uncontrollable laughing fit and was unable to help my allies for a few seconds until I recovered. But this was long enough for Midnight Cat to dodge past Cozy and stab Silverwing in the back, bringing him down with a potentially fatal injury. I tried to healing him with another burst of light from my horn, it didn’t seem to be enough to bring him up from the floor, but it was enough to keep him alive for now. Midnight Cat gave me a sadistic smirk before darting past Cozy once again and landing his knife directly in my back, the world went black, I wondered if I finally had met my demise.
But then I heard a familiar voice speak a string of words in the language of power, magical words I knew all too well, cure wounds, I opened my eyes and saw Cozy standing over me. I had no idea she was capable of magic, let alone healing magic. Her spell was enough to get me back on my hooves. As soon a side got up, I rushed over to Silverwing and uttered the words for cure wounds while holding my horn against his wounds, I saw his wounds close and now it was enough for him to get up. Valentine took his spear and rammed it into my side, I felt a sting of pure agony, I was standing, but barely. The last remaining thug managed to stab Cozy, she was also severely wounded. Midnight Cat turned towards me and was just about to finish me off as Silverwing blocked his path, and raised his greatsword, cleaving him in half. This dismayed me as we were supposed to capture him alive, yet Silverwing had done what was necessary to save my life and I was grateful for that. After the fight was over, I quickly patched up the wounds of the rest of the group using my magic.
After the death of Midnight Cat, Valentine decided to go quietly. We found various magical items on the bodies of Valentine and Midnight cat, including a cloak with magical protections weaved into it worn by Valentine. They also both carried keys which led to other rooms in the hideouts. Inside the room Valentine carried the key to the found an assortment of clothes belonging to different social classes and occupations, probably to help him run his con of exploiting young mares for money. In the room Midnight Cat had the key to we found an assortment of stolen items, including a scroll of cure wounds and a collection of gemstones in addition to a bag of coins, all bearing the image of what appeared to be the king of the Gem Gnolls. We also found documents in Valentine’s possession, something about Lilac Blossom being a good target for phase 1. And another note saying to take a package out of the city and give it to someone called Rotgut. I had no idea what the package could be, other than possibly the missing horn, so I was sure this was important, I would be sure to deliver this to Staybright.
Valentine tried to cut a deal with us as we attempted to interrogate him, promising to tell us everything in return for letting him go. But thinking of poor Lilac Blossom, I couldn’t do that. Cozy and Silverwing decided to play good cop bad cop using persuasion and intimidation respectively, with Cozy playing the role of good cop. It turned out to be very effective. Valentine confessing, he was hired by a Gem Gnoll called Rotgut to drug the Prince so that something could be stolen from the palace. In the middle of the night a sealed package around 2 feet long and 6 inches in diameter was dropped from the palace walls to a waiting gang member. They took it to the north gate of the town and gave it to Rotgut there who paid them 50 gold in exchange.
Outside the hideout, we met up with True Blade again, when she heard the news of Midnight Cat’s death, the guard captain sighed as she gazed down at the corpse. Mumbling something along the lines of: “Justice finally caught up with him.” However when she saw we brought in Valentine alive, she had a satisfied look on her face as she looked down on Valentine standing in chains, “I guess you won’t be stealing any more hearts or cleaning out any more lonely fillies of their valuables” she said.
When we got back to the palace, we gave Staybright our report, Silverwing taking full responsibility for killing Midnight Cat, but insisted it was necessary as we barely got out of that fight alive. We told him everything we knew about the Forge cats working with the gem gnoll Rotgut and handed him the papers and showing him the coins. After taking a good look at them, Staybright handed back the coin purse and told us we could keep it as payment for our job.
After this day, I started to feel closer to Cozy. After all, she had saved my life, I asked her why, she just told me that it was the only way any of us was going to get out of that place alive, Midnight Cat wasn’t going to spare us. In fact, he was very close to killing us all. She confessed that she had been frightened throughout the fight, especially facing down Midnight Cat who was more than willing to kill. Plus, she told me she had been in my debt since I freed her from her stone imprisonment, and that I could view saving my life as repaying that debt. I asked her where she learned magic, Cozy told me that she had known how to do it in theory for quite a while, but that her status as not being a unicorn had made her unable to wield it. It worked a bit differently here, but it seemed that the rules of this new world were different from our home realm, and that magic was possible even without the horn in this place. Cozy had just copied what I did when healing Silverwing back in the forest of dreams, she didn’t expect it to actually work.
We talked for a while that night, her telling me her story and why she became one of Equestria’s greatest villains. Her reasoning felt very familiar, so I told her the story of how I attempted to conquer Equestria. Cozy just laughed, telling me that an army of mind-controlled teenagers would be far from enough.