All the girls standing in front of the statue felt their heartbeats increase watching Sunset use the rusted key and step out of her cell. The dark corridor and the bodies looking like corpses were the only welcome that the redhead had. It was a desolate feeling that she had as she took short steps along the stone floor, being wary of the rest of the inmates.
For their part, the girls watching the mirror flinched at the spectacle in front of them; how the few creatures residing on that nightmarish place looked empty and hollow, not knowing how important that last word was in the world Sunset set foot on.
“I hope Sunset wasn’t teleported into one of those movies Dashie loves!” the so far quiet and taciturn Pinkie Pie said surprising the rest of the girls. It had been proof of how much depression, guilt and despair the six girls had been feeling over the possible death of the defeated bully that none of the others had even reacted to Pinkie’s now straight hair.
“Ah hope not, she may have been a pain in the ass but Ah don’t wish that kind of fate to Sunset,” the farm girl answered back without taking her eyes from the screen. Seeing Sunset turn her face to one of the broken bars and the body impaled on them, then they all saw what had caused the impalement.
Sunset gasped in fear and put as much distance as she could to the open window, her back now getting cooled by the stone as her eyes widened at the spectacle mere feet from her. The rest of the girls saw the creature too and couldn’t blame Sunset for reacting in that way. After all, a monster of those proportions would scare everyone. It was a demon; there was no other name to call it. A winged demon as tall as a building and holding a hammer that would crush anyone either by an attack or due to sheer size and weight.
“Okay, it’s official, she is not in a zombie movie,” Rainbow Dash said holding a frightened and whimpering Fluttershy as they all observed the abomination walking circles in its small chamber. Then Sunset began to move once again in search of an exit or anything at all.
“You don’t think that we… sent her to hell?” A nervous Rarity asked to her friends, but they didn’t have an answer, afraid of the truth if indeed that was the destination of Sunset. Thankfully, Twilight Sparkle answered their doubts without moving her eyes from the scrying mirror.
“She wasn’t sent to Tartarus. She’s obviously in another world. I don’t think this Hell of yours has buildings of that kind. Besides, we already saw that Knight so it’s probably a world more in tune with mine.” Twilight only told them her hypothesis to calm them down because she had no way of knowing if it was true, but at least she knew that Sunset wasn’t destroyed. They just had to see more to be sure of it.
Sunset for her part wasted little time on walking away from that corridor and began to ascend up a ladder, hopefully close to an exit, but the only thing that appeared to welcome her was an empty courtyard with a sword in the middle and ashes around it. There was something beckoning Sunset to it and as she got closer she felt better, as if life finally throbbed through her veins. With that quick rest she found two doors, one made of metal on the right but seemed to be locked, and a huge set of doors at the north that made her way.
“Do you think that’s the exit?”
“Ah think whoever made that building didn’t make those doors just for decoration,” Applejack answered back just as Sunset began to push with all of her strength on the doors, finally getting enough space to get inside another courtyard. The sight before her however was a big letdown. She finally thought she had escaped that nightmarish place, only to be greeted by another set of doors; this one even bigger than the set she had just opened.
Sunset slowly trudged to the doors, but unfortunately something else had another idea in mind. A shadow descended over the open room, followed by a creature crashing with enough strength to shake the whole place. Gasps of terror resounded throughout the girls as they took in the sight of the creature; a demon that they had the unpleasantry of bearing witness to just a few minutes ago.
“It’s the same demon!” Fluttershy screamed in terror, while inwardly thankful that she was only just looking at it through the screen. She would’ve fainted if she ever saw the demon in real life.
“No, this one’s smaller, not that it makes a difference.” Twilight continued watching the confrontation, feeling apprehension at the sight of the minuscule Sunset having to fight against that monster.
For her part Sunset knew that the only weapon that she had was a broken hilt. It would barely scratch the skin of that creature, let alone doing any actual damage. She needed to think of a plan fast. Unfortunately the demon wouldn’t allow her that and began its assault. She barely had time to roll back to avoid the first hammer strike, but couldn’t avoid the next attack, sending her crashing against the stone pillars; her scream resonating through the room and constricting the hearts of those who hours ago had condemned her to that reality.
Sunset felt as if her ribs - scratch that, as if her whole torso - was shattered by the power behind the hammer. She began to lose consciousness, barely making out the form of the demon as it closed in. Even if Sunset had found the energy to get back up after such a hit, she wouldn’t have been able to avoid her imminent death. The demon took its hammer and, after raising it above its head, slammed it down upon Sunset, the hit strong enough to shake the foundations of the Asylum. Blood was splattered in all directions, with nothing more than a pile of blood and guts staining the area where Sunset was in her final moments. The sight of such gruesome display was enough to make Fluttershy scream and Rarity faint.
“No… she’s dead… that demon killed her,” Twilight could only whisper while Pinkie, Rainbow and Applejack simply stared in silence at the remains of the redhead. They knew the girl had to pay for all those years of bullying, but this was too much. It was beyond excessive, and they were the ones responsible for this cruelty.
Then a gasp from both Twilight and the other side of the mirror took them from their thoughts, and upon seeing the sight Twilight saw, reacted in the same manner. There, sitting up at the previous bonfire, was Sunset Shimmer, once again complete... and still looking like death, but very much alive and no injury present.
“I’m… I’m back, but… he killed me,” Sunset said in complete surprise before getting up and taking a look at the other side of the doors. The demon was still there, wandering around the room as if searching for Sunset Shimmer, who now having more time saw what could be the only way to avoid another confrontation with the demon; a human sized door on the left wall. Preparing herself, she then took off in a mad dash in the direction of the door, hearing one stone pillar crumble into pieces behind her as the demon missed its target. Without looking backwards Sunset jumped through the door before a metal gate fell down behind her, making it impossible for anyone to follow her.
Taking a few seconds to recover her breath, Sunset finally began to walk through the dark corridors, making sure to light up another bonfire as she continued to make her way through this forsakened prison. She was sure that her miraculous recovery was product of these strange things.
Taking a turn through a corner she saw an arrow strike the wall just inches from her face. The guilty party was another walking corpse shooting arrows and guarding the only walkway. A quick look later and Sunset saw a destroyed cell and made a run for it, barely dodging an arrow much to the relief of the other girls, who had no idea of how Sunset could be walking again. Maybe it had something to do with her new look.
Sunset found another dead body inside the cell, but this one was not empty handed. It had what Sunset could only call the remains of an old wood shield, but it was better than nothing. Carefully moving out of the cell with the shield up, she felt the sharp head of the arrow bounce back on her shield, the impact shaking her arm. The creature then turned around and began running away, as if knowing its attacks were useless now. Sunset began to chase the creature, then she saw another body in the floor, this one holding something that made Sunset grin. She then threw away the useless weapon she had and in exchange she was the proud owner of a beautiful hand axe.
Walking up the stairs in the next room she quickly showed the archer how much she liked being armed. Watching the way the redhead was using that hand axe made the girls flashback to Sunset using the sledgehammer with ease. Looking at the creature being hit directly in the head, practically breaking in half its head, they were really happy that Sunset never found axes interesting in the past.