//------------------------------//
// The Final Takedown 
// Story: My Little Pony Equestria Girls 4: Sunset Shimmer Returns 
// by Hopeful Soul 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 12


Meanwhile, while the two Sunset’s continued their battle in a far off part of the dark and rocky terrain that surrounded them, the rest of the gang were tending to the Princess’ and Twilight, who was the first to open her eyes and make a sound, it was weak but it showed that she was alive, much to their relief.
“Twilight!” Pinkie cried.
“Oh, thank goodness! Your awake again!” Fluttershy aid, relieved.
“Hey, you ok sugarcube?” Applejack asked as she helped Princess Twilight back up.
Twilight groaned. “I think so…” she said as the other Princess’ awoke. She then realized something. “Wait… where’s Sunset Shimmer? Is she alright?”
“She’s over there…” Applejack said, gesturing to the multiple explosions coming from close by.
“Oh no! We gotta over there and help her!” Twilight said, as she began to get up.
“Wait! Sunset Shimmer said that she doesn’t want us to interfere.” Fluttershy said. “She said it’s too dangerous.”
“I don’t care! She’s done enough alone! And besides she needs us right now!” Twilight stated. The others all exchanged glances and wordlessly agreed with her by nodding.



As the others quickly began to make their way back to the battlefield, right above them two streaks zipped and zoomed all over the sky, constantly slamming into each other over and over. Up close, one could see the two Sunset’s duking it out viciously. Black Sunset then fired a massive amount of dark energy bolts but Good Sunset avoided and zoomed up toward her other self before finally kicking upside the jaw. She rubbed it with a sour look.
“Lucky shot…” Black Sunset grumbled.
“Luck had nothing to do with it, me. Now surrender! I have friends, the magic of the Princess’ and the Element of Forgiveness, there’s no way you can beat me!” Good Sunset Shimmer told her.
“Careful Sunset, power corrupts after all.” Black Sunset reminded her.
“Nopony knows that better than me!” Good Sunset shot back as she began to continuously throw little pebbles at her evil self who held out her hands trying to block them but they just kept down pelting her and annoying her.
“Ha! Can’t you do better than pebbles?” Black Sunset taunted.
“Is this better?” Good Sunset asked as she pounded the ground and created a rock wave that nearly hit her other self but she dodged it just in time.
“Ha! Not even close!” Black Sunset scoffed as she fired a quick dark magical blast that knocked the good Sunset right off her feet, but she quickly got back up.
The ground suddenly with a sudden tremor, and Sunset suddenly Evil Sunset hoisting one of the monolith sized rocks up above her head and threw it right at the good Sunset. It fractured into a pile of boulders upon hitting its target, and sent Sunset crashing down.
“Ha! I laugh at your pain! Ending your existence will be most amusing!” Black Sunset said, maliciously gleeful. “You have stuck it out this long but now you will be destroyed by your own, personal, demon.”
Beaming with the purest malice, the red skinned girl raises her clawed hands, palms toward her Equestria Counterpart, and warmed up a double magical bolt to finish the job. Horror appeared of Good Sunset’s face but before Dark Sunset could destroy her, a sudden blast from an unknown party sent her flying. Sunset turned and saw Twilight, the girls and the Princess’ coming over the hills.
“Nopony’s gonna lay a hoof on her!” Rainbow declared.
“That’s right!” Twilight agreed.
“Fighting’s still not my thing, it’ll always be fashion…” Rarity began. “But I won’t hesitate to crush you if you hurt her again!”
“Twilight! Girls!” Sunset said, surprised.
“You were expecting another group of awesome ponies?” Rainbow smirked. “I mean other than the Wonderbolts of course.”
“I thought I told you all to stay out of it!”
“This may have started as a solo, darling. But it will end in an ensemble.” Rarity smiled.
Sunset looked surprised by this and then smiled. “Alright, give me some cover, ok?”
“Will do!” Pinkie said, as she zipped away and then came back with her Party Cannon, which she fired at Black Sunset, knocking her back. The others then began to levitate, toss and even buck multiple rocks at the Evil Sunset, essentially pelting her with their own pebble storm and it was clearly getting on the other Sunset’s nerves as she didn’t have a chance to fight back.
“No! Stop it! Stop it please!” she practically begged.
“Alright! She’s open! Go for it!” Rainbow cried.
“Got it!” Sunset nodded, she started to run before Twilight called out to her.
“Sunset!! I believe in you! You are by far… the strongest unicorn… I’ve ever known!” Twilight declared.
“Thanks! But I could have told you that already!” Sunset smiled with a giggle as she began to run forward.
As Sunset Shimmer ran towards her doppelganger the sun suddenly began to rise up from the horizon while the moon set and as it shined, a glimmering rainbow was created thanks to the light and the reflection from the drops of light rain sprinkling down. The rainbow then began to swirl around Sunset until finally it gathered together and became a ball of pure white light in the palm of Sunset’s hand with swirling multicolored lights flowing from it. Everyone watched as the seven colors swirled all around in amazement.
“Look! It’s the Rainbow Power! It’s just like in my vision!” Twilight cried.
Princess Celestia had very wide eyes filled with shock but they soon settled as a happy and proud smile appears on her face. Black Sunset attempted to strike her but Sunset leaned backwards as if it was a limbo pole and then faced her directly.
“Take this! Power of the Rainbow!” she shouted as he slammed the sphere into Black Sunset Shimmer’s chest. She screamed as the magical energy grinded into her chest before creating a massive explosion, followed by a rainbow hurricane that quickly surrounded and enveloped her.
“Gah! What’s… happening!?” Black Sunset screamed as her whole body glowed brightly as she let out more yell before a sudden flash filled the area and consumed them all.
Once they finally opened their eyes, the flash had ended and it seemed that the battle was over. They all looked a bit stunned and confused.
“What… what just happened?” Fluttershy wondered.
Luna turned to Celestia. “Sister?”
“I’m not sure…” Her older sister responded. Then suddenly, little magical balls of light flew out towards them and hit their flanks, restoring their cutie marks and their powers with it.
“Our magic!” Cadance gasped. “It’s back!”
“But that means…” The youngest Princess out of the four of them began.
Twilight then turned and saw the good Sunset Shimmer laying on the ground, presumably unconscious, with the her evil self also laying on the ground unconscious, just a bit further away. She gasped.
“Sunset Shimmer!” Twilight cried as she and the other rushed over to her.
“Sunset!” Pinkie called out.
“Are you ok?” Rainbow asked, panicky.
“Speak to us!” Applejack added.
“Darling please!” Rarity begged.
“Is... is she ok?” Fluttershy inquired, now close to breaking down and crying. Princess Celestia, now fearful and worried, started to reach forward and check her, but a voice catches her, as well as everypony else’s attention.
“Sunset!”
They turned and saw that it was none other than Sunset Shimmer’s older brother galloping all the way towards them, he also looked worried, surprisingly.
“Solar Flare!” Twilight gasped.
“But… how did he get here?” Rainbow questioned, baffled.
“Well, before we left, he insisted on coming along with us, so we took the carriage and placed it way over there before telling him to stay put.” Cadance explained. “Obviously… he didn’t listen.”
Solar Flare rushed past them, bent down near his sister and lifted her up with his two forelegs. 
“Sunset please, please just open your eyes.” Solar Flare begged, but there was no response, which quickly made him fear the worse and he became severely depressed. “I’m the worst brother ever, I should have excepted your apology sooner but I was just so… so…”
“Angry?”
“Exactly… wait wha… Sunset!” Solar Flare gasped, along with the others as they saw a now awake Sunset Shimmer smile at her brother “You… you little nerd... you scared the hay out of me!”
Sunset Shimmer chuckled a bit as she stood up “Sorry big brother.”
“Ah, forget it, I’m just happy your alive.” Solar Flare sighed, relieved as he hugged her.
The others smiled at this and let the two enjoy their nice family moment.
“So… is it over?” Fluttershy asked. They all looked around the destroyed area waiting for any other surprises, but it was still as silent as a grave. Twilight smiled at this.
“Yeah, I think so… We did it! We stopped her! Hey girls! We saved Equestria… again!” Princess Twilight said, excitedly.
They all smiled at this.
“Hey, she’s right.” Sunset realized.
“We did it!” Fluttershy smiled.
“Ha-ha! We’re heroes!” Rainbow Dash cheered.
“Yay! Superheroes!” Pinkie Pie added. She then jumped for joy. “Yahoo!”
The others laughed in amusement and smiled at each other, happy that the crisis was finally over. They then noticed Sunset glowing a bit and gasped after it stopped, though Sunset herself didn’t seem to notice.
“What? What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Uh… Sunset? Sugar? You might wanna look at yourself.” Applejack told her.
“Look at myself?” Equestria Sunset Shimmer echoed. “Why?”
“I… uh… do this.” Rainbow told her as she shook her hoof a bit.
“Ok…” The fiery haired girl said as she began to do so.
She looked at what she thought was her hand but to her surprise she saw that it was a hoof, she had been restored to her original form.
“Huh? Oh… I guess I’m back to being a pony again,” she observed, smiling.
“Not quite…” Rainbow said, slowly, as everypony continued to stare at her in astonishment.
“What do you mean?” Sunset inquired.
“Maybe we should let the reflection do the talking.” Pinkie Pie suggested as she pulled out a mirror from out of nowhere and held it up towards Sunset Shimmer who gazed at her refection, curiously. She appeared to be back in her unicorn form but much to her shock she also spotted two wings on her sides.
“No way…” she breathed, shocked. “It can’t be… it can’t…”
“You’re… you’re an Alicorn!” Rarity gasped.
“Just like… me.” Princess Twilight added, stunned.
"Another Alicorn party! Yay!" Pinkie Pie cheered.
“This… this is incredible…” Sunset Shimmer breathed, just as shocked. “I’ve wanted this for so long in the past but now… I just don’t think…”
“Oh, but you do deserve it.” Princess Celestia said, stepping forward.
“I do?” Sunset asked, surprised.
“Of course, this whole adventure… this was your final test.” Princess Luna added.
“A test?” Sunset Shimmer said, surprised.
“Yes, your test was about you accepting your past and not giving in to all the power that we granted to, proving that you have truly changed.” Princess Celestia said. “When you were able to do just those things your ascension to the form of Alicorn was complete and the path you took toward it became your destiny. You’ve proven that your finally ready.”
“Ready? Ready for what?” Sunset Shimmer questioned, confused.
“To fulfill your destiny.” Princess Celestia replied.
“My destiny…? And what is my destiny anyway?” Sunset asked, still confused.
“You’ll know what it is soon enough.” Princess Celestia nodded, smiling.
They then noticed that the Black Sunset Shimmer’s body was surrounded by a glowing green aura. The good Sunset Shimmer rushed over to her and lifted her body up as her black and gold mane became red and gold again and her face was now back to normal she also transformed into the Good Sunset’s unicorn form.
“Hey… this Sunset’s back to normal!” Sunset Shimmer realized.
“But how?” Pinkie Pie wondered, surprised.
“It looks like she’s been freed from her hatred.” Princess Twilight observed. “The Rainbow Power purified her.”
“Oh, thank goodness!” Rarity expressed.
“And she’s a pony too.” Fluttershy added.
“Guess whatever dark magic was in her was keeping her in that form, once it was expelled…” Sunset began.
“She’s back to normal!” Pinkie finished.
“Exactly.” Sunset Shimmer nodded.
“Great to hear… can I clobber her now?” Rainbow asked, quickly.
“Rainbow!” They all scolded.
“What?” she asked.
“Rainbow, she’s not a threat anymore, ok? There’s no need to fight anymore.” Sunset told her, she glanced at her other self. “She tried to destroy me, but this Sunset Shimmer… is still a part of me so until she gets better I’m gonna take care of her. It is what a Princess would do after all, right?”
Princess Celestia nodded, proudly. “Right.”
Sunset smiled at her old mentor and gazed at her unconscious other self, who seemed to smile a bit now. The others also gained smile smiles on their faces while also letting themselves recover from the fierce battle they just waged. A battle that was finally over, thanks to their new friend, Sunset Shimmer.