Milissa Horris, age six, was your impressionable child. Her greatest talent was drawing. Boy did she love to draw. One look at her room could tell you that. But it would become obvious quickly from that, just how much she didn't like her biological father.

While there were some happy drawings here and there of normal things; the walls of Milissa's room were covered with various drawings Milissa made where what was obviously her biological father being killed in various ways: From an obvious firing squad, to what was supposed to be toxic gas, to being murdered by a street thug. It was obvious that Millissa had no love lost for her biological father. It would bring one to tears on how broken Milissa must feel inside to hate the man who gave her birth so much.

But those drawings were earlier ones. Some more recent ones seemed to be filled more with hope that, her birth father would be jailed, with her and her mother being looked after by an Arcanine. One she had gone out of her way to re-write some older drawings of the Arcanine where she scribbled over his name "Flamer Jackson" and above it put "New Daddy".

It was clear from this, that Milissa Horris saw Flamer Jackson as a true father figure. She believed this with her very soul. She believed that it wouldn't be long before Flamer Jackson could save her & her mother from the clutches of her fake father.

And tonight, thanks to the slaming of a door signaling that her fake father had had a terrible time at work, meant it was time to put Flamer Jackson's plan in action. With hope in her heart, Milissa picked up a recorder disguised as a toy. She was given specific instructions on how to work it, so she could record an altercation between her father and mother so the females can be saved from such an abusive man.

Quietly, Milissa began making her way to the living room after activating the recorder. Thankfully, the yelling her fake father was making was loud enough to be picked up from where she was in the house.

"I don't believe this!" Her fake father yelled. "Not only was work terrible, but I come home and am greeted to this sad excuse you call a 'dinner'. This isn't a dinner. This is slop. I work all day, and I expect to come home to a proper meal."

"I-I'm doing my best here. I slave away at the stove the entire time making sure to get you a meal worth eating. And nothing I've ever made for you is good enough." Her mother yelled back.

"I've had it with your excuses!" Her fake father said. Milissa had gotten to the living room just in time.

...Just in time to see her fake father use his much larger iron jaw to lift her mother up, pierce the skin, and let the blood drain right into the iron jaw Mawile like the three of them are known for. By the time her mother was back on the floor, there was no blood left to pool out from the body. She was dead before she had hit the ground.

At that, Milissa dropped the recorder, and rushed over to her mother. "M-mommy?" Milissa asked. "Wh-what did he do to you mommy? Why don't you move anymore? Mommy? Speak to me mommy. MOMMY!" Milissa was in tears by the end.

"O-oh shit..." Her fake father tried to bail, but was promptly caught by the local police.

"It's over Victus. You are under arrest. And we're going to have audio this time." Flamer Jackson said. "...Wait, what happened here?"

Flamer Jackson suddenly woke up in a cold sweat. "...T-that wasn't just any nightmare." He said. "...I...I have to get to Princess Twilight's Castle on the double!"

"This medicine will really help get Raiden back up to fighting strength sooner rather than later." Fluttershy said.

"I honestly can't believe you've managed to recreate medicine from ages ago from the Hisui Region." Lightning said.

"Where's the Hisui region exactly? I've been studying the maps of the various regions humans created, but I couldn't find any region called 'Hisui'." Twilight said.

"That's because the Hisui region is known as the Sinnoh region these days. Long ago, it used to be called the Hisui region." Lightning said.

"Why was the name of the region changed then? If you ask me, that makes little sense to change a region's name." Sunset asked.

"Because back in the days when the region was called 'Hisui' there were these two clans called the Diamond Clan and the Pearl Clan who each worshiped who they believed was the 'almighty Sinnoh' with the Diamond Clan crediting this 'almighty Sinnoh' as being a being of time, while the Pearl Clan believed the 'almighty Sinnoh' was a being of space." Lightning said.

"That's the thing; they were worshipping two legendary Pokémon created directly by Arceus themself. They had no idea that Arceus even existed, nor the fact that both their revered deities were in fact two additional Pokémon. However, because one of the two deities began going crazy, Arceus summoned a human from modern day Sinnoh to travel back in time to set things right and complete the earliest form of what would become known as the Pokémon Index or 'PokeDex' for short. It was all handwritten back then, and it was only later when Professor Oak of the Kanto Region created the first electronic version that the PokeDex became more widespread." Lightning said. "I'll see if I can't find a unit somewhere for you ponies to use. Distortions, I bet Arceus would even be willing to make one for Pony Use if we asked them nicely."

"Why do you keep referring to Arceus as 'they' when Arceus sounded masculine to me?" Twilight asked.

"Because Arceus can go female if need be and prefers being called 'gender indifferent' and 'gender neutral' terms. But your free to use whatever gender terms you wish if you want. Arceus doesn't really mind." Lightning said. "Trust me on that. Raiden refuses to call Arceus anything other than masculine terms, and he hasn't gotten put to the gallows for it."

"...I'll keep that in mind..." Twilight said. The trio found Starlight outside the castle; all beat up. "Starlight? What happened?"

"She...she tricked me...dammit, how did I not see through such an elaborate trick?" Starlight asked herself mostly.

Everything was a bit of a blur for Sunset past that point. But, she tried to remember what had happened from there. She remembered finding Marina the Merciless in the Map Room, using the magic shell that Abbicus Cinch had given the Human Twilight Sparkle. On an unrelated note, Sunset thought to ask Rex about her human counterpart's relationship with Twilight's Human Counterpart once Marina the Merciless was excersized from Milissa.

After that, Sunset grabbed a scroll that the mawile discarded and followed through the time portal the Mawile had created to go after her. That's when Sunset had found Marina the Merciless and how she had prevented Young Rainbow Dash from performing the Sonic Rainboom.

As Sunset finally remembered this, she was surprised to find a familliar blue dragoness at her bedside. "Hey, your a pony right?" It was no doubt Ember. "There haven't really been any ponies ever since Arceus judgement killed them all." She said.

"Oh just the war against all the legendaries. I'm surprised you don't know about it, if you've lasted this long." Ember said.

"This...this isn't right..." Sunset said. "This isn't supposed to be what the world is like..."

"I'm from...an alternate timeline of sorts I guess you could say." Sunset said. "In that timeline, ponies were never killed off by Arceus."

"Yeah." Sunset said. "I know how to get back to mine though. Is there some sort of crystal map around?" Sunset asked.

"Oh that thing? It's right over there." Ember said, pointing to a nearby crystal map of Equestria.

"Thanks. I really don't belong here." Sunset said and used her magic to use the spell on the scroll she grabbed, which opened up the time portal.

Sadly, despite Sunset's best efforts, she was unable to stop Marina from preventing the Sonic Rainboom. When she got back to the future, she had been woken up by Gilda that time.

A similar song and dance happened, though Gilda did mention that Sunset didn't seem to have been gone for that long before coming right back. This confused Sunset, but she paid it no mind at first. So, she attempted the spell again.

And even though Sunset had somehow successfully stopped Marina from stopping the Sonic Rainboom this time, she was unfortunatly dropped off at the same exact point again, but the one who woke her up, was some kind of strange creature.

Sunset's eyes went wide when she recognized the voice that came out of the creature's mouth. "...Chrysalis?!" Sunset exclaimed.

Sunset's mind was reeling. She didn't know how Chrysalis got like this, but she's super surprised the changeling queen isn't evil. "I...I don't understand...what the...how is this possible?!" Sunset exclaimed.

"You...know of me?" Chrysalis asked. "Ember did say you acted like you knew her. Gilda did too." Chrysalis said.

"I know of a version of you. But...last I checked, changeling don't look like you do." Sunset said.

"Oh. You must have encountered Changelings who had yet to start giving love generously rather than taking it." Chrysalis said. "I...had realized when the Ponies fell, that there were too many things I loved to let Arceus or any other legendaries control my life. I realized that, if I wanted to assist in bringing Legendaries down and capturing them, that my Changelings would need a way to not rely on love as much. That's when I tried to give as much love to my subjects as possible. The result is before you. Admittedly, this look was so new, yet, I no longer felt hungry. So, I encouraged my subjects to give love willingly towards other creatures, and in time, my entire hive became pretty colorful. I have to admit, the various colors were alarming at first, but...when I realized how helpful we were now, well, I didn't think much else of it." Chrysalis siad.

"So...this is the result of what happens when a changeling gives love willingly rather then takes it..." Sunset said.

"I won't lie to you: I had my doubts about the look at first, but once the effectiveness of changelings changed for the better, and we could assist in greater and greater aspects with this war, the colorful aspect became an oversight. Sure, we looked so very different, but we were still Changelings. We had not changed internally, only our outside changed." Chrysalis said. "The only difference is now, we no longer depend on love to live."

"But why did I end up back here? I went back in time, and I stopped Marina the Merciless from preventing Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom. So how could I have gotten dropped back into the warzone? I thought that letting the Sonic Rainboom happen would allow me to go back to my proper timeline." Sunset explained.

"Perhaps, the answer to your issues lies not in the Sonic Rainboom, but in something else." Chrysalis asked. "For instance, that spell your using. How did you aquire it?" Chrysalis asked.

"Marina dropped it in my original timeline. So I grabbed it and used it." Sunset said.

Sunset didn't know the answer to that. But then, she remembered something Starlight had said.

"She...she tricked me...dammit, how did I not see through such an elaborate trick?"

"Before I chased Marina, a friend of mine said they were tricked by Marina. How could I have missed it?" Sunset asked. "I know what other change Marina has caused now. I know how to get back to my timeline."

"Sunset...there's a chance that, if you succeed, this timeline will cease to exist but..." Chrysalis started. "...I...I would rather ponies be in this world, then let this war be a thing."

Sunset smiled at Chrysalis. There's only one kind of trick Marina could've played on Starlight that would've been so easy to overlook. The worst kind of trick at that. I can't believe it. I overlooked something so crucial. But, with this knowledge, I can stop Marina.

This time, Sunset had gone further back. Several months prior to the Sonic Rainboom, in fact. She had gone back to the day that has haunted her to this day: The day her brother fled to the human world. That's the event Marina changed the most.

Sunset found herself back into the past, where she dropped onto Marina who had grabbed Sunburst. "What the...HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO FOLLOW ME TO THIS POINT IN TIME?!" Marina said. The impact caused her to let go of Sunburst who just fled the scene.

"There's no time Princess. That Mawile, she's being possessed by an evil spirit. We got to catch her and excersice the evil spirit." Sunset said. "Short version: I'm from the future, and if we don't stop her, all of ponykind is going to get killed. Don't ask me how I know."

"I...I trust you, Sunset." Celestia said. "You've never given me a reason to do so yet." She added.

Sunset and Past Celestia got on Marina's trail, soon finding the Mawile having Sunset's past self in her iron jaws. "! No!" Sunset said.

"Better come chase me, unless you want to die~" Marina taunted as she fled the scene again.

Sunset and Past Celestia then chased Marina who had Past Sunset in her grip. Yet, the Mawile snuck past them a few times.

"I am curious...why exactly did this Mawile get possessed in the first place?" Past Celestia asked.

"She got possessed by a---wait, did you just ask why and not how?" Sunset asked as the two continued chasing Marina.

Sunset eyes suddenly diluted, then expanded again before a shine appeared in them. "...Princess Celestia, your brilliant! That tells me everything." Sunset said.

At the next room, Sunset then used her magic to quickly blast Marina away, allowing Past Celestia to grab Past Sunset with her magic. "Ow! Okay, I was admittedly getting tired of our little game of chase anyways." Marina said.

"Milissa Horris...there's a reason you were so easily able to possess her." Sunset said.

"I know how you possessed Milissa: It's the Mega Stone around your neck. That's the how." Sunset said. "But never once, did I ever question why: Why was Milissa so easily possessed by you, Marina? I didn't begin to even think that, until Princess Celestia asked me the same why question. I know how you possessed Milissa; but I never understood how Milissa was so easily possessed." She explained. "...That's because I was asking the wrong question: Instead of asking how Milissa was so easily possessed, I should've been asking why. The moment Princess Celestia asked me why Milissa was so easily possessed, it all clicked." She continued. "Marina the Merciless...your real name is Marina Horris...isn't it?" Sunset said.

For a while, no pony moved. Marina didn't either. Please...let me be wrong... Sunset thought to herself.

And then, Marina began to laugh an evil laugh like no other. "I suppose some congratulations are in order." Marina said. "Oh yes, what you just said is one hundred and ten percent correct."

"That's beside the point: You, Sunset Shimmer, have hit the paravirtual nail on the head. My real name is indeed, Marina Horris." Marina said. She then began using the magic in the conch shell, and it warped reality all around them.

When things stopped, the elements both their grown-up selves and their past selves suddenly found themselves with past & present versions of Princess Celestia, Starlight Glimmer, Raiden, and Lightning. Rex was there too, but there was no past version of him there. "What the heck...?" Future Twilight asked.

"So, how'd you figure it out huh?" Marina said, suddenly appearing and floating. "How'd you managed to put something like my true name being Marina Horris together through just one question?"

"The breadcrumbs were there the whole time. I only pieced them together right then." Future Sunset said.

"Be that as it may, I simply cannot allow you to live now. None of you." Marina said. She touched her Mega Stone. "And this time, I won't be so...easily defeated." She said.

Behind the Slaughter
Mega Marina the Merciless

AKA

Ghost from the Past
Mega Marina Horris
Deca's Power Level Reading: Unable to Determine

"I'm going to unleash hell on earth for you all. I'm going to beat all of you into your last legs one way and then do it all again another way. Then, and only then, will I kill you." Mega Marina said. She then started unleashing what amounted to bullet hell: Ghost jaws came flying at super crazy fast speeds, iron shields came raining down nearly instantaneously, mysterious clouds of hearts came flying out of nowhere rivaling Mach 4 speed.

"Yikes!" Both versions of Rainbow Dash were able to outspeed everything, because they were naturally fast. But this was approaching even their limits.

"Uh huh..." Past Lightning said. "Let's just hope we live long enough for you to get that cool, kiddo."

Future Sunset looked over at Mega Marina, and then got close to Future Raiden before whispering something. "Go grab the mega stone; I'll cover you."

"Trust me: You'll thank me for this." Future Raiden said before he tossed his Past Self at Marina.

"Hmm? What's this shiny thing?" Past Raiden then tore off the Mega Stone. Future Raiden managed to grab his Past Self after that, then took the Mega Stone and crushed it into little itty-bitty bits.

"! No! Not that! Anything but that!" Marina said as she suddenly de-mega'd. Everything started to revert back to Future Twilight's Castle.

Marina was holding her head in pain. "You...you destroyed my Mega Stone..." Marina said.

"Like I aways say to Megas: You get way too cocky with all your juiced up power, that you leave yourselves wide open." Future Raiden said.

"As...pleasant as this is. How do we get back to...our time?" Past Celestia asked.

Suddenly, Arceus appeared out of nowhere. "I can take care of that. But it'll be better if these events are left forgotten until the time is right." Arceus said before teleporting the past versions of everyone who had past versions away.

"We came as quick as we could!" Cheif Marison announced as he and Mayor Sentry barged into the room with Flash in tow.

"Seems my counterpart saw Marina heading to this castle. Looks like we got here just in time." Mayor Sentry said.

"Gah...you broke my Mega Stone! How could you break my Mega Stone?!" Marina exclaimed.

"You should do that." It was suddenly Flamer Jackson who spoke, as he soon entered the Room. "It's over Marina. Let Milissa go."

"He told you to let Milissa go, and I think it's high time, Milissa got back the childhood she lost!" Sunset exclaimed. Suddenly, as if responding to Sunset's claim, the spell she had suddenly reacted to her magic, and a blast hit the possessed Mawile Square on.

"No! No! Noooooo!" Marina yelled. Suddenly, while the body of the Mawile became a six-year old again, a seperate more mature ghost version started to float above Milissa. "I'm not ready; not ready to go..." Marina said.

"The nightmare is over. I'm going to give Milissa the childhood you stole from her. What I should've done in the first place. I should've never had denied becoming her father. I should've accepted becoming her father the moment she asked me. Even if that meant turning in my badge as a result." Flamer Jackson said. "So you lose Marina. It's over."

"No. It can't be over; you can't stop my influence this easily..." Marina's Ghost said.

"Yes I can; because I will." Flamer Jackson said. "MOVE ONTO THE OTHER WORLD AND NEVER BOTHER THIS WORLD AGAIN YOU MONSTER!"

"How? How did everything go so wrong?" Marina's Ghost said. "I should have never trusted Lightning..."

"Perhaps. But it doesn't matter if you had, or hadn't. In the end, you would've still lost Marina." Lightning said. "And that's your reality: A loser who will never get what she wants."

"No, Impossible, I-I..." Marina's ghost said, before the ghost turned into a blue ball of spirit fire. Suddenly, it was like something supernatural happened, as flashes of the past appeared, showing off Raiden's initial tanking of the lightning bolt for the mayor's office, then the moment the Elite Four were rounded up, then the moment when Marina had found Lord Tirek, and then even some from the time mess she created. Before the images started flashing rapidly on repeat for a good, long while and when it finally stopped...Marina's ghost simply vanished altogether.

After a bit of silence, the restored Milissa only said one thing. "...Is...is she gone daddy?" Milissa asked.

Flamer Jackson smiled, as tears rolled down his cheek. "...Yes...yes she's gone now Milissa. It's over." He said.

For a bit, no one said anything as Flamer Jackson put Milissa on his back. "I never should've let Milissa become an orphan. That orphanage in town; it was going to be bad for her. And I was right: The others there bullied her constantly. That's what allowed Marina to possess Milissa. It's my fault. I had a chance to prevent Milissa from ever being possessed to begin with, and I blew it." Jackson said. "So...that's why during the town's first catastrophic thunderstrike, I-I burned down the orphanage."

"You did WHAT?!" Mayor Sentry exclaimed. "You mean the fire that killed several Pokémon and caused massive damage to several homes beyond repair was YOUR doing?!"

"I-I just couldn't bear it. Milissa had gotten possessed because of me. So, I tried to make up for it. But I knew it wasn't enough. I pinned the fire on an Absol I had spotted on the outskirts of town; made everymon believe that an Absol had caused the fire. And I kept the truth hidden." Flamer Jackson said. "I just wasn't able to stomach that I had become responisble, for one of Lightning Town's most notorious gangster mob bosses existing."

"...You do realize that, I'm going to have to arrest you now." Cheif Marison said. "I...honestly never thought I'd be arresting my own boss."

However, before Marison could get close, Sparky got between Marison and Jackson. "What the..." Rainbow Dash said.

"...Well what are you waiting for? Get out of here." Rex said. "You better make sure that girl gets a proper childhood this time. Because the next time I see you, you had better have been arrested by that girl."

"Better to nip the problem in the bud then let it snowball. Isn't that right, Raiden?" Rex asked.

"...Raiden, what just happened?" Mayor Sentry asked. Suddenly, Rex tossed him and Marison a file on the Horris family. It didn't take long, before they just dropped it. "...Dear Arceus, all that time..."

"Jackson knew. This file was apparently originally his." Rex said. "So better to let Milissa change her destiny, then let this problem snowball into something much bigger and harder to break in the future." He said. "Seriously, the next time I see Flamer Jackson, he better have made sure that girl becomes a bonifide police officer of her own right."

"Sunset Shimmer..." Arceus suddenly appeared. "Congradulations are in order." They added.

"You are in the realm where Celestia had given Twilgiht her alicornhood. The Realm of the Beyond. I'm sure Celestia wouldn't mind if I took this one. Especially since I have so much thanks to give to you, that it's not even funny." Arceus said.

"That is exactly what I'm saying." Arceus said. "You have gained such a mastery over emotions themselves, that it transcends time itself beyond scopes even I cannot comprehend. Therefor, I hearby christen you, Sunset Shimmer, as the Alicron of Time; where you duties will simply be to make sure what Marina did cannot happen again any time soon."

Sunset wanted to argue, but then, she was suddenly gifted wings, and transformed into an Alicorn.

Outside, the group had gathered just in time for Sunset to return, now an Alicorn. "Whoa...these are going to take some getting used to." Sunset said, touching her own wings.

"Dang Sunset, did you HAVE to go and get on the alicorn action like Twilight did?" Applejack jokingly asked.

"Oh ha ha ha. Very funny Applejack." Sunset said, but she was smiling. Arceus soon appeared again.

"Forgive me for taking this one. I just figured you had other matters to see to first." Arceus said. "But tell me straight: Where's Flamer Jackson?"

"He already left." Rex said. "Milissa deserves a better life then her predecessors." He added.

"Still can't believe it...Flamer Jackson committed a crime and blamed an Absol for it..." Marison said. "And you!" He then got in Rex's personal space. "You let him get away!"

"...Judge me all you like. Milissa's future is more important to me then Flamer Jackson's arrest." Rex said.

"...Wait what? What'd I miss while Arceus was making me the next Alicorn?" Sunset asked.

Twilight smiled. "...I have no doubt, we might hear from her sooner then you think, Pinkie." Twilgiht said.

And so, Sunset Shimmer had officially become the Alicorn of Time. News spread fast and quickly. It was honestly quite the news breaker. Future Spike wrote down in the book he was writing. And we did indeed hear from Milissa quite soon after that. In a way no pony or Pokemon ever expected.

Future Spike couldn't help but look at a framed drawing signed by Milissa on his desk. This one had everyone who was there, all labeled, with either 'aunt' or 'uncle' in front of their names. There was one part in particular that made Future Spike smile every time he saw it.

An obvious drawing of Marina's ghost with an 'x' over it, as it was floating away. A symbol of Milissa's changed future. Her future was hers after that moment. And Spike couldn't help but think of the Mawile she became as she grew up.

"But that's probably a chapter for another time." Future Spike said as he got up to go grab some snacks.

Post Author's Note: Four thousand, eight hundred, nighty-one. That's how many words the main bulk of this chapter ended up becoming. I did say this was going to be a long one folks. If I somehow misspelled somethings, or there's obviously bad grammar in parts, let me know down in the comments so I can fix it, because this has turned out to be one of my longest chapters to date. And I don't see it losing the crown as the longest chapter I've ever written anytime soon. Not counting this bonus Author's note. This is only here to tell you that the bulk of this chapter is 4,891 words long. That's a lot of words.

My Little Pony: When Friendship Shimmers - Reboot

by RobtheMorpherPony

Special Movie: Getting Back Time (The Cutie Re-Mark AU)