Chapter 2
Dawn Before Sunset
Sunset Shimmer tilted her head to one side as she stared at the statue of Breaking Dawn. So heroic, that pose. So affected. It took a certain kind of vanity to care about how you looked when you were being turned to stone and simultaneously dying from a mortal wound. That, in Sunset's opinion, had always been Dawn's problem: her desire to be liked, to be lauded. She had always been more concerned with the surface sheen of power than for its substance.
"So superficial," Sunset murmured. "Such a waste. Arial! Balliol!"
The air shimmered around her as two of her spirits revealed themselves. She had found these wisps on a deserted island, and been impressed by the powers they had displayed. She had a score of them serving her, some with the Aethiope forces in the Everfree, some with the main Grevyian fleet, these two here with her. They were invisible to all save Sunset herself; her little secret in case she needed them.
"What service would you have of us, Mistress, on top of the many services we have already rendered?" Arial asked. He appeared to her currently as a mere swirl in the air, a whirling vortex of power hovering at the height of Sunset's eye.
Sunset raised one eyebrow. "Is that surliness I detect in your voice?"
"Many years we have done your bidding, Mistress," Arial said. "My brothers and sisters desire their liberty."
"And you?"
"I ache for it,” Arial said longingly.
"Yet you have forgotten that were it not for me, you would all still be prisoners of the warlock Calibos, who bound you into trees for years on end. I freed you from that."
"Freed us then tore us from our home to this strange place," Arial said.
"You are more free than you were," Sunset said.
"And could be more free still," Arial pressed.
Sunset's voice was quiet, cold as frost and sharp as a blade. "Have I not promised that I will set you free? Do you doubt my word?"
Arial was silent for a moment. When he spoke, he sounded fearful, "No, mistress."
"Good, for it is golden as my coat," Sunset snapped. "Those who doubted I would keep my promises all paid the price for their poor judgement. You may depend upon it that when I have won my war I will release you. Until then, I need your help. Equestria needs your help. Whole worlds may pay the price if I fail in my mission. Are you willing to have that much blood on your conscience?"
Arial's whirling form resolved into a tiny pegasus of shimmering, near-transparent white, with gossamer wings that did not move. "No, mistress. We are your servants still."
"Good," Sunset said quietly. "I don't know if I could do this without you." She looked back at Dawn and frowned. "Balliol, when I de-petrify her, can you heal her wound?"
Balliol had assumed the form of a tiny cloud. "I will need to possess her, mistress, even if only passively." He spoke nervously, as if he feared to incur Sunset’s anger.
"Passively is what I want. I want Breaking Dawn to help me, not you wearing her body. If all goes well she will never need to know that you are there."
"No, mistress."
"Excellent," Sunset's horn began to glow with an azure aura. "Then let's get started."
***
Breaking Dawn dreamed. Her mind floating free even as her body was entombed in stone...
She and Celestia sat upon a hilltop a little outside of Canterlot, the summer sun shining soft and gentle, warming upon them both. A lavish picnic was spread out before them: the sweetest sweets and sharpest cheeses, the finest tea, the most moist cake. The utmost nourishing of sandwiches, the quintessence of quiches, the very best of everything, and the very best company to complete it. Her friends sat quietly around them, chattering amongst themselves even as their sound did not disturb the stillness Dawn felt coming from the Princess. They sat together on the hillside while, in the meadow beyond, a breeze blowing through the grasses and the rushes produced a curious sound, almost like somepony singing at a low pitch.
Dawn looked up into Celestia's eyes, her radiance nearly blinding the young unicorn. Yet Dawn smiled on.
"Breaking Dawn? Is everything all right?" Celestia asked.
Dawn smiled. "Everything is perfect. Absolutely perfect."
Celestia smiled bac., "That's exactly what I wanted. Exactly what you deserve. Happy Birthday, Breaking Dawn."
"Yeah, Happy Birthday, Dawny!" Hard Candy yelled, bursting a party popper.
"Happy birthday, Little Sunshine," Razor Wind murmured.
"And many happy returns," said Cherry Blossom.
Dawn blushed, looking down at the chequered blanket on which she rested, "You guys, your highness..."
"Dawn?" Princess Celestia asked solicitously, her voice soft and her words inviting. "Dawn, is everything all right?"
"Of course it is," Dawn replied. "Nothing could be better. I could stay forever in this moment, you know?" Around her, her friends were already tucking into the spread, no food untouched, no drink untasted.
Celestia's smile became tinged with melancholy, "I know you could, Breaking Dawn." The sun's light began to dim, the soft breeze being replaced with the howling of timberwolves far off. Summer's warmth made way for autumn leaves being blown away on a howling tempest, a storm which blew away all her friends as though they were rag dolls. In fact, as Dawn watched them disappear, they seemed to turn from ponies into a poor mare's dolls: things of patchwork rags which unravelled before the oncoming hurricane.
"Razor? Cherry? Laurel?" Dawn yelled, getting up and running to the edge of the hilltop as the remains of those who had been her friends were ripped away from her. "Hardy? Candy? This isn't funny." She turned around, "Princess Celestia, what─"
But Princess Celestia had disappeared.
"Princess Celestia? Your Highness?" Dawn looked frantically all around her. "Princess Celestia?" The howling of the timberwolves began to get closer.
"Princess Celestia, please come back," Dawn begged. "Please, please come back. Whatever it was I did wrong, it won't happen again. I'll do better in the future. Please, come back."
She could see the timberwolves now, howling as they ran towards her.
"Princess Celestia," Dawn murmured, eyes wide and filled with tears, looking distractedly this way and that, too concerned with the disappearance of the Princess to give any thought to how to avoid her peril. "Don't leave me!"
There was a crack as loud as thunder, and Breaking Dawn opened her eyes.
She had moments to take in the night sky and familiar buildings, then there was only a pain like nothing she had ever experienced before: the wound felt like fire pulsing in her flesh, the beating of her heart was like somepony banging on her to get the last of her blood out as though she were a condiment jar. Thud, thud, thud and with every thump the searing pain scorched her even more and the feeling in her legs was colder. Dawn could feel herself weakening by the moment.
Dawn toppled from her plinth and fell face-first onto the ground, even that failed to do more than register compared to the massive agony in her chest where the zebra had stabbed her at the end of the battle for Canterlot. If she could just concentrate her thoughts past the obvious and very distracting pain, she could feel her life blood ebbing out of the gaping hole.
"Princess...help me," Dawn murmured, hooves scraping futilely on the ground as though by getting purchase on the cobblestones she might also gain a purchase upon life.
Had Twilight Sparkle done this, Dawn wondered as her breathing became shallower and shallower. Had she decided to murder Dawn after all?
A white light - blindingly bright - filled her eyes. Then, Dawn yelled and her back arched as she was wracked with a spasm of intense pain. As her head hit the ground again, Dawn noticed that the pain in her chest was fading.
Rolling onto her side, Dawn looked down to see the wound to her breast knitting itself together. After a few moments, it was as if she had never been hurt at all.
"The words you're looking for are 'thank you, Sunset, for saving my life'." A voice, cold and imperious, declared. "I know that you're ungrateful, Dawny, but make an effort for me."
Breaking Dawn drew a deep breath as she lay on the stone. Several gasps later and she looked around at the tall, elegant buildings rising around her.
School quad? They had put her up as a statue in the quad? As far as it went, Dawn supposed it wasn't a bad position - the best in the school in fact - but she couldn't help feeling a little insulted by it. Wasn't there any more room at the palace? She had been Princess Celestia's own student, after all.
With a heave and a deep breath Dawn pushed herself up onto her hooves from amongst from the fragments of shattered stonework that lay all around her. Dawn shook her head, dust falling from her red and white mane.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, Breaking Dawn."
Dawn finally looked in front of her at her mysterious rescuer. She didn't quite know who she had been expecting, one of the princesses maybe, but not who she saw there. An amber unicorn with a fiery red and yellow mane and blue eyes, shaded with green so that in the darkness they seemed almost turquoise.
She was older, but that didn't mean that Dawn didn't recognise her.
"Sunset Shimmer?"
Sunset smiled sadly. "It gives me no pleasure, being right, you know. I want you to bear that in mind, no matter happens. I didn't like you, but I didn't wish this on you."
Dawn grunted, looking away. At their last meeting, on the day Sunset Shimmer was expelled from Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, Breaking Dawn had gone to watch her leave, and crow about her triumph. She had been full of herself in those days, secure in her position as Celestia's student;so when Sunset had warned her that just as Dawn had stolen the crown from Sunset so one day somepony would steal the crown from Dawn, the warning had gone ignored. More ponies worshipped the rising than the setting sun, after all, and a pony on the glory road, as Breaking Dawn had been, had no need to listen to a failure like Sunset Shimmer.
And then Twilight Sparkle had come along and the rest was history.
"Nothing to say?" Sunset said. "That's a first."
"You broke me out?" Dawn asked, feeling completely lost at this turn of events. She had heard that Sunset Shimmer had disappeared, dropped off the face of the world. And now here she was, to save Breaking Dawn? It didn’t make a bit of sense, and Dawn wouldn’t have believed it if she couldn’t see it for herself.
"I did."
"Why?"
Sunset smirked. "Would you believe me if I said my motives were altruistic?"
"No."
"Good, because you'd be stupid if you did," Sunset said with a sigh. "I need your help, Breaking Dawn. Equestria needs your help. Something big and bad is on its way and I'm supposed to stop it."
"You?"
Sunset looked at her sideways. "Don't act so surprised, will you?"
Dawn took a pace backwards, her tail brushing against the plinth she had so recently been mounted on. "You disappeared. Nopony knew what had happened to you. Princess Celestia was really upset. Did you just crawl back out of a hole in the ground and decide to save Equestria?" Sunset had liked to play games, that Dawn remembered. She had liked to play with those she didn’t like. Dawn tried to keep her expression resolute and her tone brave, if Sunset thought to play with her she would be in for a shock.
Sunset said, "More like I crawled out of a whole in the world."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means the world is coming to an end, Dawny. Are you going to do something about it, or are you going to ask stupid questions?"
Dawn scowled, stalking forwards to get in Sunset's face. "Okay, first of all you do not have the right to call me ‘Dawny’ like we're suddenly pals or something. Secondly, why should I believe you when you show up out of nowhere?"
Sunset's expression was level, her tone even. "Can you afford not to?" She turned away, walking towards the school gates. "Your lawyer friend went before the princesses today to try and get you a pardon. Would you like to see her dead? Would you like Cherry Blossom to be stuffed inside her own oven and roasted?"
"Is that a threat?"
"No, it's a warning of what will happen if I do not fulfil my quest," Sunset snapped. "I am asking for your help because you are a powerful unicorn. And because we are a lot alike, you and I. We even look similar." Sunset smirked. "Though I look better, of course, white and red doesn't have quite the same touch as my fire pattern."
"Of course," Dawn said in a voice dry as burning wood.
"The point is, neither of us wants to see Equestria destroyed, do we?" Sunset asked. "This is bigger than either of us, Dawn. That's why I've come to you, that's why I'm asking you to put your feelings aside and work with me. For the sake of everypony we love."
Dawn stared at Sunset, as her rescuer waited for Dawn's response. She was struck by just how tired Sunset looked, how worn down. Her eyes especially, there was so much weight in those eyes, so much sorrow and pain. Dawn found she didn't want to imagine where Sunset had disappeared to before her abrupt resurgence.
"Are you serious about all this?" Dawn asked. "You really need my help to save everypony?"
Sunset nodded. "I'm absolutely serious."
"Then I'll do what I can." For her friends, for Princess Celestia, for Canterlot, she could do no less.
"Good, I hoped I could rely on you," Sunset smiled thinly, her smile not quite reaching her eyes. "We're leaving as soon as Shrike comes back."
"Wait, I can't even see my friends?"
"Do you want to see them or do you want to save them?" Sunset demanded. "We don't have time to waste."
Dawn frowned. "There's something you're not telling me, isn't there?"
"Don't take it personally, Dawny," Sunset said softly. "There's something I'm not telling everypony."
"What is it?"
Sunset looked at her.
Dawn shrugged. "It was worth a try."
Sunset turned away, walking out of the school gates and scanning the night sky. "Come on, Shrike, where are you?"
Dawn followed her. "Hey, Sunset, I still have one question: if this danger is as real as you say, why break me out of my stone shell to help you out? Why not go to Princess Celestia?"
Sunset Shimmer was silent for a moment. "Princess Celestia is part of the problem, not the solution. Equestria, this whole world, can only survive this crisis with me at it's head. Princess Celestia doesn't have what it takes to protect this land. She's too set in her ways, too unwilling to bend. We can't rely on her in this crisis."
Dawn was silent for a moment. "Are you serious? You show up and tell me you want to help, but your idea of help is to dethrone Celestia?"
"My plan is to save this world by any means necessary," Sunset snapped.
"Princess Celestia has led Equestria through every crisis since Discord," Dawn said. "The people will never go for this."
"Who says I have to ask the people?"
"I won't go for this either," Dawn yelled. "I won't let you hurt Princess Celestia!"
"I'm not going to hurt the Princess," Sunset replied dismissively. "I just need to keep her out of the way while I unite the races."
"What makes you think you can do so much better than Celestia?" Dawn demanded.
"Because I haven't been living in cotton candyland for the last few years," Sunset snarled, rounding on Dawn. "I've seen things, done things that you couldn't possibly imagine. I have fought wars, travelled from star and star and walked in the dark places between dimensions. I have fought, suffered, fallen and risen up again to even greater triumphs. I have raised armies to my banner and shattered the hosts that came against me. I have safeguarded kingdoms and I have laid them low. What have you, or Princess Celestia or even Twilight Sparkle done compared to that? What makes you more fit than I to lead us in this fight?"
Dawn retreated back a pace. "I won't let you hurt Celestia," she repeated stubbornly.
"And I told you, I don't mean to hurt her," Sunset said, her tone softening. "Come with me to Ponyville. The three of us will talk: you, Twilight Sparkle and myself. We will see if we can't find a way to be friends."
Dawn's eyes widened. "You think Twilight Sparkle will want to see me?"
"She won't want to see either of us, but she'll have to listen. If she is a true princess, her duty will demand nothing less," Sunset answered. "Come on, Shrike, hurry up."
A light blue pegasus with a dark blue mane and sapphire eyes swooped down out of the darkness to land on the street outside the school gates.
"What took you so long?" Sunset demanded.
"I was trying to see if I could sneak past the guards to get in to see Princess Luna," Shrike explained.
"You WHAT?" Sunset sounded near apoplectic. "Did anypony see you?"
"Of course not, relax-"
Sunset's horn glowed as a magical aura wrapped itself around Shrike's neck. "Do not tell me to relax after telling me that you just did something monumentally stupid!"
Shrike's legs spasmed as she tried to speak. "I had to try and see her, free her from Celestia..."
"Idiot," Sunset snarled as she released her hold on Shrike, who flopped like a fish onto the ground. "Never do anything like that again without my express permission, do you understand?"
Shrike gasped for air. "Yes."
"Who's that?" Dawn asked.
"Her name is Shrike," Sunset said. "She spent a thousand years trapped in a time warp, which perhaps accounts for the brain damage. Come on, both of you gather close to me."
"Do we have to go to Ponyville?” Dawn asked.
Sunset grinned. “What’s the matter, Dawn? Are you worried she won’t be pleased to see you?”
***
Twilight Sparkle wandered through a thick fog. So thick she could barely see two feet in front of her nose.
She had no idea where she was. At times it looked as though it might be Canterlot, but at other times it looked more like the castle of the Pony Sisters, what with the crumbling walls and all. It was just too misty to be able to say for certain.
What were these dreams? She kept having them, but nothing was ever clear to her? Was she ill? Did she need Princess Luna to examine her dreams to see if there was something wrong?
"Can anypony hear me?" Twilight yelled. "Hello? Somepony? I can't see a thing!"
An ethereal voice, broken and distant, echoed through the mist. "...no fate..."
"What?" Twilight turned around, her horn glowing as she tried in vain to burn through the mists with her magic. "Who said that? What are you talking about?"
"...you alone..."
Twilight began to run through the mists, banging into walls and tripping over objects on the ground she could not make out on her way to find whomever was speaking.
"...ask...chosen..."
"Who are you?" Twilight demanded. "Where are you?"
"...storm approaches..."
"Can't you tell me how to find you?" Twilight shouted. "Show yourself!"
"Somepony must unite them," the sad, ethereal voice intoned solemnly.
"Unite who?" Twilight asked. "And why?"
"Wake up, sleeping princess," a voice intruded upon Twilight's dream. "The world is moving too fast to wait for you."
Twilight's lavender eyes fluttered open, light from her horn illuminating the darkness of her loft. Twilight sat up to see a golden unicorn in a dark cloak standing at the foot of her bed, staring at her through a pair of bright blue-green eyes. She looked at once both radiant and drained, her coat glowing and her eyes intense while, at the same time, there was a dimness hovering about her and her eyes seemed like a well of experiences deep enough to drown the unwary in.
"Who are you?" Twilight demanded, levitating the covers of her bed so she could move unencumbered if she had to. "What are you doing here?"
"Since the answer to that is obvious, I take it you meant to ask what I'm doing here in the middle of the night," the unicorn said. "I am here because I am in haste, there are many hours to go before dawn and I cannot spare them, I have many miles to go before I can allow myself the luxury of rest." She looked out of the window at the moon hanging in the sky. "Still, rather appropriate really. Dark for dark business. Thematically appropriate and all that."
She gave a wintry smile. "My name, forgive me, is Sunset Shimmer. I believe you've already met Breaking Dawn." Sunset Shimmer looked back. "Come on out, Dawn, don't skulk in the shadows."
Twilight scowled as Breaking Dawn emerged into the little light given off by Sunset and Twilight's horns. Her head was a little bowed, her eyes cast down, as if she hoped to escape Twilight's wrath by the appearance of a little supplication.
"You," Twilight snarled. "I should-"
"There will be none of that, there is no time," Sunset snapped in a tone of cold command. She spoke with the authority of one used to giving orders and being obeyed, and Twilight found her anger lessened almost immediately. "I know that there is bad blood between you two. But, for the sake of all ponykind, I ask you to put it aside for now. There are much larger things at work than your small feud."
For a while there was silence, disturbed only by the sound of Spike's snoring.
"I took the liberty of ensuring that your dragon friend wouldn't wake up and disturb us," Sunset said. "If he woke up and saw us like this, well it might not look too good. And we do need to speak, urgently."
Twilight raised one eyebrow as she got out of bed. "Is there any reason you couldn't have knocked on the door?"
"Would you have listened if you had seen Breaking Dawn at your door?" Sunset asked.
"No," Twilight growled. "What is she doing here?"
"I'm here because I was asked to come here," Dawn answered combatively. "Apparently what's coming will need us all to fight it."
"That would be for the best," Sunset confirmed.
"What's coming?" Twilight repeated. "What is coming? If something bad is on its way then I'll meet it with my friends, wielding the Elements of Harmony."
"Harmony has it's limits," Sunset remarked.
Twilight stared at her. "Who are you exactly, Sunset Shimmer?"
Sunset's smile did not quite reach her eyes. "I am the old you, Princess Twilight. And this is a conversation best had somewhere more comfortable." Her horn glowed, and Twilight was blinded by a flash of azure light.
Twilight felt grass beneath her hooves moments before her vision cleared. She looked around, she was clearly in the Everfree Forest. More than that, she was clearly in the middle of an armed camp. Zebras moved here and there, many of them stopping to stare at the three unicorns who had appeared in their midst, alongside a few griffons and ponies. Weapons were stacked all over the places, tents and campfires filled every available space between the trees and Twilight thought she could hear the sounds of larger animals just out of sight.
"What is this place?" Twilight murmured. She noticed the hostile looks on the faces of the zebras as they glared at her. "Who are all these zebras?"
Sunset smirked. "I'm not surprised you don't remember them, but I would have thought that you would, Dawny?"
Breaking Dawn shook her head furiously. "Tell me they're not the Aethiope?"
Sunset nodded. "They certainly remember you well enough."
Dawn snorted angrily, her horn glowing.
"None of that, Dawn," Sunset remonstrated mildly. "No one will harm you while you are under my protection. That goes for both of you."
"What is this?" a snide voice, laced with sarcasm, asked from behind Twilight. "Has Equestria's newest pony princess become your newest prisoner, Sunset Shimmer?"
Twilight turned around, her eyes widening as she saw Queen Chrysalis of the changelings sitting on a fallen log, her forehooves bound and some kind of iron ring set upon her crooked horn. On either side of the changeling queen, she saw the Great and Powerful Trixie similarly bound, along with Zecora.
"Zecora?" Twilight hissed. "What are you doing here?"
"In my forest these Grevyians chose to take their rest,
So now I am old Grevyia's unwilling guest," Zecora responded. There was a mixture of nervousness and hope in her turn as she continued.
"I see that you with Sunset came friendless and alone,
But I hope that your friends know where you have gone."
Twilight shook her head imperceptibly. "No. No they don't."
"That is hard news, and hearing it I fear,
That you, like me, may soon be detained here."
Twilight's lips pursed, her jaw tightened, and she felt anger rising in her chest as she rounded upon Sunset Shimmer. "Just what in Celestia's name is going on here? You talk of common cause and mutual enemies, but then you bring me to an armed camp filled with the very same zebras who tried to put a muzzle on Princess Celestia! You hold my friends prisoner? Is this some kind of sick game you're playing?"
"Calm yourself, Twilight Sparkle," Sunset replied mildly. "This is not a game."
"Don't tell me to calm down!" Twilight yelled.
"And don't you dare raise your voice to me, you spoiled little filly!" Sunset snarled, baring her teeth and getting up into Twilight's face. "I am the one who was chosen, not you! I have seen the future, when your crown and wings and friends and precious harmony avail this country nothing. You need me, far more than I will ever need you, because I can do the things that you can't even dream of.”
Sunset's voice quietened, and a ready smile flashed across her face. "But let us not fight. We are all friends here, or should be. Friends united against a set of common enemies. Now if we-"
"Mistress," a light brown pegasus with a black mane dashed through the zebra camp, coming to a panting halt in front of Sunset. "Mistress, you're back. Nopony told me."
"I only got back here a moment ago, Firethorn," Sunset said, sounding amused. "Did you miss me that much?"
The pegasus' eyes widened. "Do you doubt it?"
Sunset smiled, a much warmer and more genuine smile than any she had hitherto displayed. "Never." She nuzzled the young pegasus. "Did you complete the reading I set you."
"Yes."
"What did you think?"
"It was better than I had expected, mistress."
Sunset chuckled. "That's true for more books than scholars like to admit. You will get used to it, in time. Where is Virtue?"
"Here I am, mistress," the biggest unicorn Twilight had ever seen stomped towards them. He was coal black, save for his silver-white mane and tail, and his coat combined with his red eyes and curved horn put Twilight in mind of King Sombra. She retreated a step away from him.
Sunset grinned. "Don't be alarmed. He may look imposing, but Virtuous Fury is as gentle as a kitten, aren't you, Virtue?"
"I prefer to say I am a gentlecolt well-mannered, mistress," Virtue replied in slightly long suffering tones. He bowed to Twilight and Dawn. "If you had informed me you would be bringing guests, I would have made arrangements."
"Somewhere we can sit and talk will be fine," Sunset said. "Perhaps something to eat, are either of you hungry?"
Dawn nodded. Twilight made no response.
"Follow me mistress, ladies," the huge black unicorn led them towards a roaring campfire like a waiter ushering them to a table in a restaurant, before he then went to another fire nearby and started acting like a chef, taking up a ladle in his mouth and spooning some sort of brown stew out of a cookpot into a pair of tin bowls, which he carried over to Sunset and Dawn.
"You are sure you will not have some, Your Highness?" he asked her.
"No, thank you," Twilight replied coldly.
Virtue bowed once again, shuffling away to leave them in peace. Firethorn, on the other hoof, sat down just behind Sunset, looking ready to pounce like a guard dog.
"You must forgive Firethorn," Sunset said breezily. "He is very protective. Quite unnecessary of course, but at the same time rather comforting."
"I might be able to forgive him," Twilight said. "The real issue is whether I can forgive you and your zebra friends. Or even you, Breaking Dawn."
Dawn grunted. "Isn't the fact that you won good enough for you?"
"No," Twilight said coldly.
"Yet you may have to be content with it," Sunset said. "There will not be much time for settling old scores in future."
"Are you going to explain all your cryptic warnings now?" Dawn asked.
"You'd better," Twilight added sternly.
Sunset let out a deep breath, bowing her head and staring into the flames. "My name is Sunset Shimmer. I was, Dawn will remember this but Twilight probably won't, Princess Celestia's student once." She smiled. "We three are united in a common apprenticeship. All three of us took our turn jumping through the hoops for that manipulative mare, and it is only pure chance Twilight was standing at the end of the daisy chain when Nightmare Moon returned."
"Don't talk about Princess Celestia like that!" Twilight shouted, only to realise that Dawn had said exactly the same thing at exactly the same time.
Sunset chuckled. "Now, see? We're finding common ground already. I have been away from Equestria for quite some time. Years, in fact. There were times when I didn't think I would ever get home. There is no time for the full story now, but take it from me: the things I've done, the things I've seen, would have destroyed lesser ponies than myself. I think, I know, that is why the dreams came to me."
"Dreams?" Dawn asked, leaning in closer.
Sunset smiled thinly. "The dreams that foretold the destruction of all Equestria, unless I prevent it."
"Dreams?" Twilight asked. "Is that what this is all about? You've had dreams?"
"You say it like you don't believe me," Sunset said, sounding affronted.
"I don't believe you're serious," Twilight said. "Prophetic dreams are a myth, not even Starswirl the Bearded could find any evidence to support precognition."
"Starswirl, as Clover the Clever points out in her commentaries upon his research on the subject, was searching for evidence of an in-born disposition amongst certain ponies to dream of things that were yet to come, so-called foresight, or else of an ability to learn the skill, similar to the way dream-walking can be learned," Sunset said. "What he never considered, but what Clover makes note of in her own research, is that when prophetic dreams were reported in the old legends, they were all sent to the ponies who received them from a higher power, who simultaneously granted somepony, not always the dreamer, with the power of interpretation. When Puddinghead dreamed of the seven healthy apples followed by the frost which destroyed the apple tree, she claimed it did not feel like her own dream. And Smart Cookie reported something like another voice telling her how to interpret the dream: that there would be seven more years of rich harvests followed by a harsh winter."
"You're saying that you think a god has been sending you dreams?" Dawn asked. "I always knew you had an ego, but sweet Celestia."
Sunset paid her as much attention as she would a fly. "Have either of you heard the name Creatrix before?"
Twilight shook her head. Dawn followed a second later.
"Whoever she is, she has some destiny in mind for me," Sunset continued. "She chose me to save Equestria, to save this whole world by uniting all the races in it to resist evil. I don't intend to disappoint her."
"How can you be so sure these aren't just ordinary dreams you've been having?" Twilight asked. "How do you know that this is destiny, or fate or some powerful being having chosen you."
"Because I know," Sunset spoke with absolute certain. "All my life I have known that I was different from other ponies. I knew it from when I was a filly and could not join in the play and laughter of the other children. From my earliest youth I have known myself to be touched by some power higher than pony kind, set apart for greater things. All my life I have followed my star to greatness and to glory. I have a destiny, I always have. It is no shock to me that Creatrix has made me her champion. Indeed I find it the most natural thing in the world. I am a superpony who can stand outside the stifling confines of society and accomplish great acts that will reshape the world."
"I know that these are not ordinary dreams because I am anything but ordinary. And I know that this is my destiny because, when the fate of the world is at stake, what lesser destiny could be fit for one such as I?"
Twilight would have recoiled from this display of sheer hubris in all of its grotesqueness, had not her present circumstances stood upon the knife's edge as they did.
Dawn was less restrained. "You didn't learn humility wherever you've been then?"
Sunset smirked. "Only those who have no choice but to be humble preach the virtues of humility. That must be why it suits you so well right now."
Dawn growled wordlessly.
"Even if we accept your dreams as accurate," Twilight said, not mentioning what a staggeringly large ‘if’ it was. "What is it you plan to do?"
"Sweep away the dead wood, strengthen this land to resist attack," Sunset declared. "I will set such a fire, it will burn away all the rot that has infected this place."
"’A fire, once begun, can scarcely be controlled by any pony, and will consume all that it touches without discrimination’," Twilight warned.
"Don't quote Cave Shadow at me," Sunset snapped. "I am not a filly, I know exactly what I'm doing, I need no sanctimonious philosopher or self-righteous princess to instruct me."
"Then why haven't you gone to Princess Celestia to warn her about this impending threat?"
"I asked that," Dawn remarked.
Sunset chuckled. Then she sighed, sadly, and stared down once more into the fire. "I am afraid, Princess Celestia will be the first enemy we must overcome if we three are to save this world."
"WHAT?" Twilight leapt to her hooves. "You did not just say what I think you said."
"She has grown corrupt and complacent in her power. Celestia no longer has the energy or the vision needed to do what must be done," Sunset said, her voice as sharp as broken glass. "All she sees now is how to maintain her iron grip upon the throne."
"That's a lie!" Twilight yelled. "Princess Celestia works hard every day for the good of all ponies."
"The good of all ponies? You sound like a propaganda leaflet," Sunset said dismissively. "Do you remember your Heagle? Monarchy inevitably begets Tyranny once it lasts long enough that the monarch forgets that they own the throne to the common people and begin to exploit them."
"Heagle was a griffon writing for griffons, even if one accepts his political theories - highly theoretical and lacking in applicability as they are - he never predicted an immortal monarch who would be immune to the decaying effects of time. Heagle doesn't apply to Princess Celestia."
"Power has corrupted her as it corrupts all who wield it," Sunset insisted.
"Including you?" Twilight asked sharply. "Power does not corrupt, power merely reveals who we truly are and always were. And in Princess Celestia's case it reveals nothing but goodness."
"Goodness!" Sunset laughed sarcastically. "Look at us! Look at what she makes us give! We are nothing but toys to her, to be cast aside when the next year's model comes around. Dawn, she took away everything that mattered to you, and in the end she turned you to stone. Is that good? Is that compassion?"
Dawn looked down at her hooves. "I...I'd done some bad things."
"Nothing that deserved such a cruel fate, surely?" Sunset asked, her voice soft and dripping with sympathy. "A fate normally reserved for the likes of Discord? Except Discord was set free, at Celestia's command. I guess he had more to offer her than you did."
"Stop it," Dawn murmured. "Please, stop."
"It's hard, I know, to accept the truth," Sunset continued. "I know that because I struggled to accept it too. But that mare took everything from me. She destroyed me, and I had to build myself up from scratch and when I was finished I wasn't really a pony any more. Princess Celestia used me up and spat me out without so much as a second glance, banished me to another world so that she wouldn't have to deal with me any more. Your fates were not so cruel, but they are of a piece with mine, depend upon it. Maybe, when you grow too loud, she will do to you as was done to me."
Twilight laughed derisively. She couldn't help it. "My fate? What, are you going to tell me that becoming a princess is a punishment now?"
"Exile is," Sunset remarked.
"Exile?"
"Why else would you have been sent to Ponyville, out in the boondocks, far from the centre of the political action. Celestia fears you, she fears what you might do if you started to think for yourself, so she gave you a meaningless title with no authority and sent you to a backwater on a makework 'mission' to stop you causing trouble for her or worse rising up against her."
Twilight shook her head in disbelief. "I'm sorry. I don't know who are you are but this is the biggest load of ponyfeathers I have ever heard! Are you delusional?"
Sunset Shimmer became very still, and very quiet. She stared into Twilight's soul with an unwavering gaze through eyes that seemed to become as hard as iron. "Most ponies don't talk to me that way, princess."
"Then maybe they should, for your own good," Twilight shouted. "I wasn't sent to Ponyville as a punishment or an exile. I was sent to Ponyville so that I could come out of my shell and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Princess Celestia - who apparently fears all of us so much that she'll do anything to stop us getting close to power - allowed me to stay here because I was happy here, because I'd found my friends─"
"Your friends?" Sunset demanded. "Where are your friends, if they're so very true? Do you think anypony has even noticed that you're gone?"
"Hey, Twilight, can you hear me?" Rainbow Dash's voice echoed through the trees. "Come on, Twilight, answer!"
"Twilight! Where are you, sugarcube?" Applejack called.
"Twilight! Twilight!" it sounded like they were all there, even Spike.
Twilight could not resist the urge to smirk.
"Nopony say a word," Sunset said, her voice seething. "Virtue!"
"Yes, mistress?"
Sunset took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. "Seize them!"
"No!" Twilight yelled, her horn lighting up as she summoned her magic. Dawn rose to her hooves, her own horn alight. Only Sunset remained seated and still.
"Everypony run, it's a trap!"