A dusty mirror in a dimly lit room, forgotten under a layer of cobwebs, sat silently... Almost expectantly. Unlike the other broken down bits of furniture and scattered books this item did not have the air of an abandoned object. Rather, the looking glass almost seemed to be waiting, like a patient if annoyed companion who's compatriot has been late one too many times. A disturbance in the air causes the webs to shift, the dust to fall in tiny waterfall like cascades. The ancient, mummified corpses of long dead flies and the spiders who caught them dance and twirl in a parody of their former lives. Without warning, a bright flash of light illuminates the storage room, sending tattered dust covers dancing like so many ghosts. The room was suddenly occupied.
The cloaked figure grinned as her hooded eyes darted back and forth. This was all familiar. Good. The element of surprise was on her side, but she didn't have a moment to lose. Without so much as a whisper, the pony moved swift as a fleeting shadow across the dusty floor. With only a moments hesitation, she pushed open the door to the storage room, and stepped out into the palace halls. All was dark and quiet. It was the middle of the night here, just as it had been in the world that the cloaked figure had come from. There didn't seem to be any guards about, which was all the better for her plans. Still, she moved quickly, but cautiously through the hallway. The spell that silenced her hoof steps would only work for so long, but if she was fast, she could snatch the element of magic before Celestia would be any the wiser. She could sense the power of the elements nearby, but they were faint. It was odd how truly still everything was.
There wasn't even a hint of a breeze, a breath of air. Indeed, the cloaked figure couldn't help but think that the edifice was not unlike a neglected tomb, a sepulcher long abandoned. Just how long had she really been gone? Was it possible that what had seemed like a few years to her had been ages on this side of the portal? Had she somehow miscalculated? With a growing sense of unease, she set hoof into the main hall, and her breath caught in her throat. The palace was a wreck. The few remaining tapestries, torn to shreds, hung limply from the walls and archways. A shimmering carpet of jagged multicolored shards was all that remained of the stained glass windows that Celestia had once cherished so dearly. Beyond those glass-less apertures lay only darkness, as if something had blotted out every star in the sky. The cloaked mare wasn't sure if she was relieved or terrified when she discovered that the windows were merely blocked by piles of rubble. Apparently the very masonry of the palace, that had stood for time immemorial, lay thick enough on the ground to bury what remained of the great hall. What had happened here? Had there been some sort of attack? Some terrible cataclysm? Or had the old citadel simply been left to the ravages of the ages and now lay in the relentless jaws of entropy? There was only one way to find out. Deciding that the need to gather information now trumped her need for stealth, the stranger risked a translocation spell. She only hoped that the balcony was still there.
In a flash of green not unlike the last rays of the setting sun, the hooded unicorn found her hooves on solid, if sticky ground. The balcony still existed, though its shape was irregular and bizarre in the chilly moonlight. She had been right in one regard, it was indeed night. If the position of the stars were any indication, it was the right time of year as well, indeed even the correct era, but everything else was terribly, terribly wrong. Beneath the glow of a high, full moon, she could just glimpse the landscape through a thick pall of mist and fog. Equestria spread out below in a twisted parody of its former majesty. The land was luminescent in the dark, sparkling beneath a sugar frosted coating that seemed to dust everything. The distant forests, supported by thick candy cane tree trunks, lifted glowing candied leaves to the stars. What should have been grassy fields stretched far into the distance in bright pink bubblegum shades. A green gloppy sludge, that passed for a river, bubbled and fizzed along its banks. The very air was heavy and cloying, the scent of so many sweets threatened to suffocate the mare. And the city! Once proud and prosperous Canterlot lay in ruin. What few parts of it still stood were now bizarre gingerbread versions of their former glory. Even the balcony upon which she stood, the refinements of the palace itself, all had been transformed into a confectioners mockery of its once sublime beauty.
A chill seemed to penetrate the cloaked ponies body from all sides, though it had nothing to do with the misty atmosphere, even if it was as cold as a Windigo's heart. No, there was deep, dark, ancient magic at work here; the kind that made every hair in her mane and tail stand on end. Lowering her hood, even Sunset Shimmer couldn't help but mutter, "By Celestia's beard... What is going on?" Her red mane vibrant in the silvery light, Celestia's former apprentice felt all her dark ambitions evaporate as she looked down upon the wreckage of the ones mighty pony civilization. What good had all her planning been? What use now did she have for a mind controlled army? Did she really want to conquer this dump?
A distant mountain rumbled suddenly on the horizon, interrupting her thoughts. Was it some kind of volcano? Was that what had blanketed everything in this unnatural candy shell? What truly bizarre feat of magic could spawn such a thing? Had Discord somehow been freed from his stone prison? No, this mountain was something else. As the unicorn watched, lights flicker all across the mountain as tiny blue flames sparked to life all along the craggy surface. The mountain shook again, this time causing the already crumbling city to pitch and heave violently, as though it were a ship caught on a stormy sea. The earthquake intensifying, it was all Sunset Shimmer could do to hold on to the balcony's railing as the mountain rose, and seemed to blot out the night sky. The quakes came in a steady rhythm now, accompanied by a series of thunderous booms. Nearby buildings shattered into cookie crumb pieces, while a great exhalation of frigid air seemed to sweep away the fog.
It was then that Sunset Shimmer could see what the mist had been hiding. Bones. A thick carpet of them were strewn all across the city. The bare, naked bones and smiling skulls of long dead ponies gleamed brightly beneath the pale glow of the moon. As the moving mountain loomed over her, Sunset could see that their were other polished skulls set in the side of the candy crag, though there were far too many to count. Wreathed in azure flames, the skulls jaws hung open in inaudible screams.
It was none of this that held the unicorn's attention, however. No, it was the face. That horrible, hideous face, that hovered just above the balcony blotting out the sky. Beneath a mane of crimson tendrils that cascaded like a waterfall down one side of the gargantuan misshapen head, eyes that seemed to be the size of the moon glowed with malice and madness, focused squarely on Sunset Shimmer. This was no bizarre volcano, or mountain, but something far worse. In that horrible moment of realization, that the colossus Sunset was gazing up at in terror was in fact looking right back at her, the thing smiled. Teeth as large as the palaces shattered spires pried slowly apart and a long, thick tongue scraped across the building sized teeth leaving a trail of translucent drool. Sunset Shimmer could just see a reflection of herself in one candy corn colored tooth.
After a quick, bloody crunch, the Candy Mare's laughter was the only sound that filled that dead world.