I Kick the Train off its Tracks Rip up the Tracks and Blow up the Mountain Pass They were Going Through
So, I brought Pinkie back to the palace and had dinner with her and Trixie after getting my little pony to stop crying over the fact that Dash ‘hated’ her family. Then came the after dinner pre-bedtime board games, followed by the necessary bath and finally, sleep.
Which didn’t really mean all that much to me and Luna. One moment, we were snuggling with the most comfortable of snuggly ponies, and the next, we were standing in the dreamscape. I wanted to go and have a follow up discussion with Celestia, but there a few nightmares to take care of. So, we went to the first mass of negative emotions and…
I blinked at the dark, blackish-blue pegasus with the rainbow mane that looked like it hadn’t been combed in months.
“Bring forth the worst tasting food in all of Equestria,” wobniaR said.
I sighed and looked over to Pinkie as she pulled a cart of pies into the center of Ponyville, where I was conveniently positioned. “Pinkie, we’ve been over this. it’s okay if Rainbow doesn’t like a certain type of pastry.”
“Eeeeeek! SAVE US PINKIE!”
I looked behind me and frowned. “And she wasn’t saying that she hated your family,” I assured her. “Plus, I’m sure Maud would never scream like that.”
Pew pew BOOM!
“And Rainbow doesn’t have eye lasers,” I told her after wobniaR blasted a cart full of pies.
Luna popped her little head up from behind me. “Though, We must admit, that is a rather awful idea.”
As Pinkie gave the little-Luna a wide-eyed, pained look, I let out a long sigh. “Luna, remember the weeks of language lessons we had to avoid stuff like that when we first came here?” I just prayed she didn’t have a relapse come Winter. A princess ordering another bundle of sticks to be thrown into the fire the wrong way could lead to some real problems. Or Blueblood getting his a bit early...which really wasn’t all that bad.
Then, once Pinkie’s nightmare was dealt with, I took care of a few monster under the bed fears, timber wolf worries, and a particularly disturbing dream where Trixie got up on her newly rebuilt wagon-stage but nopony remembered her name. Although, I suppose that was better than everyone hating her for something she could only take five percent of the blame for.
After that, we went to check in on Celestia and...we’ll…
“Luna, would you kindly tell Nightmare Moon that it would be much easier for me to honor our agreement if she not make your dream body as small as a foal’s,” the big mare said in a tense tone.
“Nighty, please inform my sister that I prefer this body in the dreamscape these days as it is more fun,” Luna told me. “And if she has a problem with it, then tough cookies! Nyyyyyah!”
I sighed and slumped. “Tia, can you please just tell me how your dinner with Twilight went?”
The white pony gave me an even look for several seconds before groaning and and rolling her eyes. “Fine. But when I’m done, you’re leaving my sister and I alone to talk in peace.”
I awoke with Luna sandwiched between two ponies. Trixie clung to me with a disturbing amount of fierceness. Pinkie was a lot less clingy and...well, a much better bed partner. She was actually the best pony I had slept with. Her body was the perfect amount of squishiness and support, a living plushie with hair that smelled like cotton candy.
Trixie picked her head up to smack her lips and look around. “Wha? Is it morning already? Trixie is still tired,” the blue unicorn whined.
“Such is the cost of a worried and restless sleep,” Luna told her.
“And it’s nearly noon,” I deadpanned.
The blue unicorn groaned before looking over to the bathroom door. “Trixie needs to pee.”
Either we woke her up with our talking, or Pinkie had some internal clock that...well, okay, if she really did have one of those things, she probably would have been up a lot sooner. Before the sun, even.
Anyway, Pinkie’s head popped up and she looked around. “Wow, I slept really late!” she exclaimed before standing up. “Okay! Morning exercises!”
I blinked as the pink pony began to perform movements that were obviously intended to increase her flexibility while still on Luna’s before trotted in a circle and ended up straddling me with her body going the opposite direction of the one I was inhabiting.
In other words, her butt was right in Luna’s face.
“Pinkie, please point your plot away from my nose,” I asked her as nicely as I could.
“Just a second, gotta shake out the-”
“NOW!” I shouted before doing it for her as she started to move her butt, which ended with Pinkie landing upside down on the floor beside Luna’s bed.
Pinkie picked her head up and gave me a little frown. “Well, somepony’s cranky when she wakes up in the pretty late but still mostly morning,” she said.
“You were rubbing you plot in Luna’s face,” I deadpanned. “I’m willing to put up with a lot of stuff, but that’s one of my lines. Don’t do it again.”
After getting up to look over the bed and giving me a pensive look, Pinkie’s face went back to smiling. “Okay!” she agreed. “So, what’re we doing today?”
Before I could reply, the door slammed open to admit a panicked white pegasus in golden armor. “Princess Luna! Come quick! It’s an emergency!”
I scrambled out of bed and after kicking Luna’s right rear leg three times to get rid of a sheet that wrapped around it, left Luna’s bedroom. Then, we quickly followed the guard out the apartment door and down the hall with Pinkie right behind us. “What has transpired?” Luna asked as we moved. “Has an eldritch abomination appeared? Do the griffons encroach on our realm? Has a display of weakness by young Cadance in the morning court enticed the mob to rise up against the crown?”
Luna’s list of catastrophe’s made me frown as we started down the stairs into the lower levels of the castle. But I didn’t comment on it. “How about you just let the guard tell us?”
Instead of doing that, the guard stopped and pointed a hoof through a large open vault door that had another guard that might have well of been his twin brother, like the several dozen others all over the castle. “Here is the problem, Your Highness.”
Although it wasn’t the first time I had seen the emergency book depository, since there wasn’t a big cloud of smoke and fire coming from the room filled with massive amounts of paper, I was at a loss as to what big emergency the guard was so worried about was. I looked inside and, other than the large pile of books haphazardly set up like they were raked leafs next to a ladder attached to the shelves, I saw nothing wrong. “Uh...somepony forgot to lock the door?”
“No, Highness, your aide!” the guard replied.
A voice a recognized as Moondancer’s moaned from inside the vault. When I looked back inside, the Twilight-recolor rose from out of the pile, her glasses a bit askew. “Scholar Moondancer!” Luna cried out before I galloped over to her. “Pray tell, what has befallen you?”
Moony rubbed her head with a hoof before she adjusted her glasses and looked up at us. “Oh, Princess Luna, I um…” the nerd blushed and looked back down. “I was reaching for a book, but when I got my hoof on it, I overextended myself and...fell.”
In other words, a book nerd messed up on books. Yeah, that’d be pretty embarrassing. Plus, you know… “Um, Moondancer, you’re a unicorn.”
“...and?” she asked.
“Magic can make books float,” I said as I demonstrated this well-known fact on one of the tomes that had buried not-Twilight.
Moondancer let out a scream before she jumped up to snatch the book out of the air. “Princess, no!” she cried after landing. “Using magic on the books causes the preservation spells to degrade several times faster than they should.”
“Hey, hold on a second,” Pinkie said, making me turn Luna around to see the pink pony giving the guards a calculating look. “If a bunch of books just fell down, why didn't you two just go inside and get her?”
The guard on the right stood up a little straighter. “Only ponies who have authorization may enter, Ma’am.”
Pinkie blinked. “Really?” she asked before promptly hopping over the threshold.
“AHHHH!” one of the guards screamed in terror. “You can’t do that!”
The pink pony cocked her head to the side. “But...I just did. Didn’tcha see?”
Both the guards moved as if to enter before Pinkie spoke again. “Wait, can you guys not get in?”
The guards froze and...I decided to stop Pinkie from playing with her new toys before she gave one of them an aneurysm. “Pinkie, come here and help us put these up,” I told her before grabbing a book out of the pile and putting it back on the shelf. Hopefully, Twilight had her help a few times at the library reshelving books. She did it like, once a week.
“Okay,” she said before hopping over. “Soooo what’cha doing in here Moony?”
“Princess, er-Nighty, asked me to look through the archives to find a book that might be in here,” Moondancer said. “But, I don’t have any details about its contents or author.”
I rolled my eyes while shoving that little voice in my head that said we were never going to find Sunset’s journal like that. “I’ll know it when I see it,” I told her.
Pinkie’s eyes lit up. “Ohhhh! It’s like a super-secret mystery scavenger hunt!” she said before she started bouncing up and down. “I wanna play!”
“Pinkie-”
Before Luna could get another word out, our field of vision was filled with that of a book cover that came from the pile. “Is this it?”
“No,” I told her.
Pinkie had the decency to put the book up before grabbing another. “Is this it?”
I couldn’t stop myself from reading the title. How to train your dragon, I thought before Luna spoke. “Neigh, good Pinkie. And We doubt that the tome Nightmare searches for is in front of us now.”
“Oh,” she said before zipping off around a corner and out of sight. She appeared in a blur of motion a second later to hold up another book. “Is this it?”
Fantastical beasts and how to avoid them, I read to myself. “No. The book I want is a lot different than any of the others,” I said, hoping that didn’t give too much away. “It’d probably take a lot longer to find.”
Pinkie lowered the book back down. “Okay,” she said. “Be back in a minute.”
When Pinkie zoomed away again, I looked back to Moondancer. “Let’s hurry this up while she’s gone.”
I looked back down the hallway that was lined with bookshelves that stretched well above Luna’s head. From what Celestia had told us, the emergency archives stretched for some ways into the mountain, and that was even with Equestria’s bigger on the inside building style that let Applejack’s chicken coop seem big as a barn once you got inside of it. Ponies could wander around for weeks inside and never get to the other end.
“I just hope we don’t have to go looking for her,” I mumbled. Which...would actually be an MLP kind of thing to happen. Me and Moondancer would have to go searching through miles and miles of books, talking about nothing and growing closer as we combed through the passages on the hunt for a pink poofy pony.
“Is this it?”
“GAAAAH!” I-er, Luna screamed before she managed to overpower my control and rear up...somehow. When I got control of her body again, I looked around and got a mess of shiny and red shoved in my face.
Moondancer let out a sigh. “Pinkie, that book doesn’t even have a title!”
I stumbled back and stopped when I saw the cover.
Pinkie spun it around and I blinked at Celestia’s cutie mark on the back. “Really? What is it then?”
“Tis a communication journal,” Luna said. “Sister used to give it to students when she had to be away or they had to go on long assignments. Her mark is on the back and the student’s is-wait, Pinkie, show us the front of that book again. The cutie mark tickles the memory.”
After using everything I had to keep from squealing in delight, I finished helping Moondancer picking up the books and told her to take the rest of the day off after she told Sparkler to cancel my everything and go hang out with Pinkie. Then I took the journal back to the lunar apartments and flipped open the book.
Dear Sunset, I didn’t bother reading further before I closed the book and looked up at the mirror in Luna’s bedroom. “Well, that confirms it. This is the journal that belonged to Sunset Shimmer, the student of Celestia’s that...went missing.”
Luna let out a dejected sigh. “I suppose that Sister will be overjoyed when we present this to her,” she grumbled.
I frowned at Luna’s reflection. “Just what is your problem with Celestia these days?”
“Why do you ask such a thing?” Luna demanded. “You heard her words from the day before!”
Even though it was Luna’s eyebrow, I was the one raising it. “The stuff you said you forgave her for.”
Taking her time, Luna crossed both of her forelegs. “I forgave her for everything that happened while I was away. However, raising an assassin to end your existence and sending Twilight to kill you happened somewhat after my return, so it doesn’t fall under the pardon that I gave her other actions. Not to mention how she has treated you since.”
“Wait, you’re mad at Celestia because she doesn’t like me?” I asked. “Luna, she’s spent a thousand years without you, because of me. Not to mention all of the other stuff I supposedly did. One-thousand years, wishing me dead. It’s not gonna just disappear in a few weeks.”
Luna snorted. “It does not mean I have to excuse it.”
“Okay, so...got the book back,” I said before looking down at it and stopping.
Even though I didn’t have a body, I felt myself beginning to get nervous. I had made the decision regarding Sunset and setting things up for her return to Equestria before smashing the mirror into a million, billion pieces so she couldn’t leave not too long after arriving in Pony Land. Every little step of my plan had been charted out and the groundwork laid weeks in advance with particular lessons on magic portals from Luna and even a moment of indulging a minor bit of curiosity after Celestia told us about Sunset had been manufactured to get a peek at the mirror. And now that I was on the cusp of going through with this, I found myself becoming hesitant.
Part of me said that bringing Sunset back was a bad idea. Certain things needed to happen in certain ways for everything to stay on course for the series. I had made some minor modification here and there, but the long-term repercussions of things like Discord never being freed, a watch tower to report Tirek’s eventual escape, and my plans to throw Starlight Glimmer in a dark hole before filling it with cement the day after Nightmare Night wouldn’t happen until after Twilight got her wings. Everything so far had gone more or less according to canon...aside from Rarity’s lack of back Fluttershy up during her modeling shoot.
Considering that was the biggest character growing event out of that whole debacle, it was a bit of a blow. If little things like that kept adding up, which would be a guarantee with an extra pony running around, I wouldn’t know how things would go. They could even spiral out of control and unleash an apocalyptic event onto the world that only Starlight’s time traveling could outdo.
I could end up destroying all life on the planet!
But on the other hand...I really wanted to pal around with Sunset Shimmer.
Oh! And uh, save her from a horrible human existence, of course. Earlier than she was scheduled to be at any rate.
So, canon, or…
Yeah, fuck canon. I WANT MY SHIMMY!
Plus, having Sunset back wouldn’t be too bad. We could keep her in Canterlot and out of the way. Minimize the damage. It might even encourage Celestia to stop getting so damn involved in Twilight’s life.
So...yeah, it was a good thing that Shimmy would be back.
“Do you suppose she’s still alive?” I asked.
Luna blinked and looked back up towards the mirror. “Pardon?”
I looked back to the book. “Sunset Shimmer. Do you think that she’s still alive?” I asked before realizing something I should have asked first. “If the book still works, I mean. On whatever world that she’s on.”
“Well,” Luna said as she took her horn to cast a spell. When it was done, her mouth started moving again. “The link is still active, so whatever is written in this book should appear in its twin.”
I grabbed a quill and pen in Luna’s magic and tore the journal open to a black page. I nearly put pen with wet ink to paper before I realized a minor detail that I should have before. “Hey Luna,” I said hesitantly. “Can you copy Celestia’s horn writing?”
The big black horse that was supposed to be a dark blue frowned. “Yes. But why would I want to do that?”
“Well, let’s say Sunset is alive somewhere,” I suggested. “Cowering, cold and alone on some evil alien world. Clutching this book next to the exit mirror, her only means of returning home. Then, one day, she gets a message. Wouldn’t it be best if she thought that message came from Celesia instead of some stranger?”
Luna frowned. “Then we should give the journal to Celestia and have her send the missive.”
I groaned. “Yeah, but this is Celestia we’re talking about here. Sunset is her daughter in all but name. Do you think she’s up to having someone giving her the slightest chance that Sunset is still around and then having it ripped away if she’s not?”
“A valid point,” Luna agreed. “What shall I write?”
“Make it short and to the point, no use writing a paragraph if it’s just going to be a waste of time,” I told her.
The Lunar pony fell for the first of my manipulations and took up the quill in her magic to write out text I couldn’t stop from reading mentally. Sunset, are you still there? If you are, please answer me. If just to let me know that you are still alive. I’m begging you.
When she finished, I continued to look at the book.
I’m not sure what I was expecting. Sunset was at school after all. She might not even have the book in her locker. Sure, it was there for Rainbow Rocks, but that was after she had been rainbow blasted. For all I knew, Sunset could have been thinking about trying to get in touch with Celestia for days before the Sirens pushed her over the edge.
“So, what shall we do with the rest of our day, Nighty?” Luna asked before using her magic to slam the book close and quickly moving back to her mouth. “I for one think that a surprise inspection of the guard barracks would-”
Bzzzzzzzzt!
I froze Luna.
Bzzzzzzzzt.
I looked back down and gasped in excitement.
Bzzzzzzzt.
OUR PHONE BOOK WAS RINGING!
Or close enough to it anyway.
Without even bothering to wait, I threw open the pages and looked inside.
Celestia?
Was all it read.
“She’s still alive,” Luna surmised.
At which point, I moved onto the second part of my super secret, super manipulative plan. “Wow, Celestia’s going to be dancing for joy after seeing this,” I mumbled.
“Indeed,” Luna agreed before smirking. “Of course, we shall give you all the credit, Nighty. I think I will enjoy watching her having to bow in thanks to you for opening the lines of communication between you and Sunset Shimmer once again.”
I giggled a bit. “Yeah, the only thing that would be better is if…” I made myself undergo a practiced pause and tapped Luna’s chin thoughtfully. “Hey, Luna. Correct me if I’m wrong here, but we have one journal on this side of the mirror, and Sunset’s on the other side, right?”
Luna looked back down at the journal. “That is correct, yes.”
“Then, isn’t there...I don’t know, some way you could...force the mirror portal back open using them as anchors to connect the doorways?” I asked.
Luna sighed. “Nightmare, that’s not how the mirror works. It...wait,” she said before going silent. “I would need to construct a magic circle that drew directly upon the power of the moon itself and...the materials are all here in the castle...so...it is in the realm of possibility. With the books acting as a connecting tether, it would be possible for us to force the portals open for a time.”
This time, it was Luna who gave a devilish smile. “Oh, imagine the look on my sister’s face when we bring her a plan to recover the estranged foal herself and hang the credit upon your horn,” she said with a dark laugh. “Is the photo artist still in Ponyville? I wish to capture the moment we tell her.”
I moved to the next stage of my plan. Despite my love for the bacon-mare, I wasn’t blind to her...pre-harmony cannon personality. While I knew that Sunset was a child crying out for help, it was the type of help that involved the proverbial five across the eyes or boot in the ass. She needed something to shake her out of what she was and back to the nice girl she had to have been before.
“Oh, I just thought of something,” I said. “She and Celestia didn’t part on the best of terms. Sure, Celestia’s gonna be happy to see her, but Sunset...what if she’s not as joyous?”
Luna scoffed. “I am sure she will be.”
I gave Luna’s reflection an even look. “This is the pony whose last words to Celestia were a shouting match. Considering the state your sister’s in right now, do you really want to chance her having to go through another emotional ordeal so soon?”
After several more seconds, Luna let out a long groan. “I suppose not. So what? We bring her back ourselves and keep her here until Sister is done recovering with her vacation?”
“Not quite,” I told her before looking back to the book. “But first, we need to send a letter in Celestia’s horn writing.
Just then the door slammed open and a pretty pink pony princess came in with a smile on her face. “Hey Nighty, hello Luna. I just got done with court and-”
“Oh! And we need to get rid of Cadance,” I said. Cadance was...an unknown. Despite the possibility of them knowing each other, I had never spoken to her once about Sunset. I had no idea what their relationship was. Were they bullies? Friends? ...Former lovers?
Cadance froze in place and blinked in confusion. “Eh?”
Despite the fact that I had planned out a good deal of this ahead of time, there was the odd last minute change or addition I needed to make to the plan in order to make the whole thing viable. Somethings though, I was able to keep on track after getting Cadance to go show Pinkie Canterlot in the hopes of finding out about any prospective mates that Twilight might have stumbled across in Ponyville. Things like the reply to Sunset that I had run through my head a few times to make it sound and Celestia as possible.
My Most Precious Student,
I can not describe to you the amount of joy in my heart upon seeing your reply. The way in which you left and and our broken relationship has been a weight crushing my soul for the past several years, and the simple fact that you are still alive and willing to talk to me once again brings tears to my eyes. So, please excuse any splotches in my message.
Ever since your disappearance, I have been hard at work personally developing a method in which the portal you fled through may be opened so that you can return to Equestria. I understand that you may not wish to come home, I do not know what life you have built for yourself on your new world, but I ask that you at least come for a visit so that we may discuss the future of our relationship in pony.
Eagerly awaiting your response.
Princess Celestia.
To which Sunset responded an hour later with…
How soon can you be ready to open it?
Once we got that out of the way, I needed to get to work renovating the castle. We didn’t have long, so Luna just used a few quick spells to recolor all of the gold to a dark blue and we used some hasty transformation magic on Celestia’s throne to replace it with one of a more evil nightmare empress that was willing to cover the world in darkness type of chair. After that, I went and got all of Luna’s night guard up early to replace all of the guards on staff in the palace.
Twinkleshine and Minuette were called back to the palace in order to pass out the new marching orders for the staff that would only apply for the next twenty-four hours. Servants were given commands to not be in the same hallway as Luna and if they were, quickly run to the nearest adjoining hallway as fast as possible. Paintings and other sun decor were taken down to be replaced by (sigh) Nightmare Night decorations.
Really good decoration that Luna magicked to be very lifelike, but still fake.
Then again, using real pony skulls was a bit too over the top, even for me.
So, after redecorating Canterlot Palace so it had a more Mordor motif, making sure there wasn’t anyone around to screw things up, and positioning the mirror in the right location for Sunset to come through at just the right place, and working out a convincing little story to show her, I went to the lowest floor in the building’s basement to have Luna start working out the mechanics of her spell.
Two painstakingly boring hours after that, the mirror sat in the middle of a complex tri-paro-something-llillagram with squiggly writing on it while the book hung in the air overhead. The whole thing glowed like a blue neon sign, giving the combo basement/dungeon I had made for ponies like Lightning Dust and Discord’s statue an eerie but fitting look. With everything ready, there was just one minor thing to do so that it all didn’t blow up in my face.
Considering what I already knew about the EQG world, I really didn’t want to know what would have happened if Luna crossed the barrier to fetch Sunset while I was possessing her. So, we tested the spell out by tossing a piece of biological matter through the mirror without shattering it before writing in the journal.
We tested the portal by throwing an apple through, if it appears on your side, it’s safe to come through.
I wrote.
There was no reply, just a massive surge of light and energy a few seconds later. “Ah crabapples! Luna get the spell ready,” I whispered a second before She came galloping through.
Although I knew what to expect, it was still a sight to see. The amber-yellow of her coat was just a bit duller than the golden-yellow of her mane and tail, with its fire-red strands creating a thing of artistic beauty on both ends of her body. There was a pair of saddlebags covering her flanks, but she was otherwise butt naked. Something I could attest to since I could, you know, actually see her butt.
Sunset Shimmer stumbled to a stop and wobbled around as she tried to find her footing. “I’m...I’m really-” she stopped and looked over to me in confusion that was slowly giving way to fright. “You’re not...Princess Celestia.”
While not exactly what I had expected her to say, it was close enough for me to work with. “No, no I’m not,” I said before Luna quickly blasted the amber unicorn in the face. Honestly, I wanted to have a big evil super villain moment, but...Sunset could teleport, and I didn’t want her getting away while I was doing the obligatory head thrown back for maniacal laughter thing.
The sleep spell kicked in and Sunset collapsed like a marionette with her strings cut. Not that I had actually seen one of those since before coming to Equestria...or afterwards either. Which...made me really want to go to a puppet show run by a fat unicorn now that I thought about it.
“Nightmare, she will only be unconscious for another eight minutes.”
I shook myself out of visions of dancing dolls and questions of why unicorns didn’t just make dolls dance without strings, and quickly shook loose the horn-ring hidden away in Luna’s feathers before slapping it on Sunset’s head-boner.
Which was something I would never think of to classify a unicorn’s horn as again because of the mental imagery those two words brought up when used together.
Then I magicked her up into the air and carried Sunset into one of the nearby jail cells meant to hold a psychotic lilac unicorn that swapped cutie marks like cheap stickers. Even without the ring on her horn, she wouldn’t have been able to cast crap.
A strange sound sputtered from Luna’s magic circle and I blinked as the magic suddenly died out. “Uh...what just happened?”
“Hmm, bring me the contents of her bag, Nighty,” Luna said.
When I floated the thing over and emptied it out as instructed, Luna let out a telltale hmmm and focused her eyes on one of the books. A book with a pair of cutie marks on it. “Without the other journal, the connection was unsustainable.”
A shiver of fear ran through me as I realized the implications of that. Without further Equestrian involvement, who would deal with the Dazzlings or...Forgetty-McWhat’sherface? You know, the lame villain that got angry because she made everybody forget her?
Well, it wasn’t that big a loss. All the Sirens could do without Equestrian magic was hypnotize people into giving them free tacos and other lame villain was just lame. Earthquestria would survive those idiots.
I had a Shimmy to reform!
Without wasting any time, Luna placed a recording spell so that Sunset wouldn’t be able to deny anything we got her to say over the course of her imprisonment. You know, stuff showing her love for Celestia, concern for others, things that the human student Sunset would deny until the cows came home.
Right on que, Sunset let out a groan and slowly stirred from unconsciousness. “Wha? Why can’t I feel my-” she sat up to look at her forelegs, completely ignoring me. “Right...hooves.” The unicorn closed her eyes and it looked like she concentrated for a second before Sunset opened her eyes again. “What the? Why isn’t my magic working?”
“It’s because of the magic suppressor I placed on your horn,” I said in Luna’s best snide super villain voice. “Not that you would have been able to cast magic anyway. That cell once held Celestia after all.”
Sunset’s expression went from confused and wary to slightly angry and lost. “What?”
I gave my best reserved little chuckle. “You know. Celestia, former Princess of Equestria. Alicorn who used to raise the sun. At least until I returned and...replaced her.”
“What are you talking a-who are you?” Sunset demanded towards the end.
I gave her another ‘kehehehehehe’ kind of laugh. “Don’t tell me you don’t recognize me, Sunset Shimmer. You must have heard the stories. You know, about the alicorn that Celestia betrayed and stabbed in the back during the first few years of Equestria?” I said before walking back and forth in front of Sunset’s jail cell to give her a full view of Luna’s cutie mark. “You must have heard a few stories about this land’s rightful ruler. The true Princess of Equestria!”
“Nightmare Mooooooon! Muhahahaha!” I laughed dramatically before looking back down at the amber unicorn. “Of course, you need no introduction, Sunset Shimmer!”
Sunset tensed a little at the sound of her name. “Wha-”
“Oh yes, Celestia had quite a lot to say about you,” I said before sitting on Luna’s fit butt and speaking in the most mocking version of Celestia’s voice Luna could manage. “You haven’t won yet, Nightmare Moon. One day, my student Sunset will return, and she will help me to overthrow you. Sunset will come back, Sunset will save me! I know my Sunset will find a way to defeat you!”
I went back to Luna’s normal voice. “Of course, she had her variations, like….you can break my wings and shatter my legs, but I know that one day Sunset return to bla blabla bla bla! Eventually it got so boring that I snapped her horn off and drove it through her heart. Then all she had to say was grk! Glk! Gluuuuah! And she’s been silent ever since.”
“N-No,” breathed in shock.
I put on a smile and nodded. “Oh yes. It’s really quite rude. She doesn’t talk to anypony now. I put her head up on my new throne. I can go show you, if you wish.” As if I would ever even make such a thing, even with Luna’s magic. No, Sunset was staying right here until she proved how not evil she was.
Sunset looked up at me with a mix of hopelessness and fear. “This...this can’t be real,” as she slid down onto the ground. “Celestia...you can’t...be gone.”
“Oh, I’m afraid so,” I told her as I turned around to walk away a few steps before Sunset could do something dirty, like start crying. Even my acting talents had their limits.
Stay strong! I told myself before moving onto the second part of my super villain monologue. “Of course, I did still need to get information on Celestia’s last pupil. What with Cadance being dead and all, she died screaming too by the way. I was forced to turn to Celestia’s diaries. Talk about emotional garbage!” I said before switching back to my fake Tia tone. “Today, I met the most amazing unicorn filly, her name was Sunset Shimmer. Sunset has more talent than any pony I’ve ever seen! Sunset’s parents funeral was today, I promised them I would watch over their filly as if she were my own.
“Oh! I almost forgot my favorite one,” I said before I started Celestiaing again. “When I began taking care of Sunset, I had thought only to provide for her education and physical needs. But I must admit to myself, that I have begun developing a fondness for the filly that far surpasses anything I felt before with any my other students. I want to go further, become closer, but I have to be fair to her. Sunset already had one mother. It wouldn’t be right to try and replace her. I need to be strong and keep these feelings of maternal love hidden, for Sunset’s sake.”
I laughed again and turned around to grin at the stunned amber unicorn before approaching her cage and grinning. “Celestia actually wanted to make herself your new mommy. Isn’t that rich?”
There was a slight twitch, a visual cue of something snapping deep inside of her before Sunset launched herself at the bars to her cell, screaming in rage. “GAAAAAAAH!” she shouted. “MONSTER! I’ll kill you. When I get out of here. I’ll kill you!”
“Oh my, such rage!” I taunted as best I could. “It’s no wonder a weakling like Celestia decided you were a waste of time teaching in the end.”
“SHUT UP!” Sunset screamed. “WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ANYTHING?! CELESTIA WAS...Celestia…” Tears began to form in Sunset’s eyes. “She was...she…”
I grit Luna’s teeth and sucked in a deep breath through my nose. It was almost done. Had to keep it together. Couldn’t let the...crying pony...get to me. In order to keep my cool, I took a quick ten count.
“Oh Celestia, I’m sorry, I...I should have...why couldn’t I have just listened to you?”
The was a slight rumbling overhead.
“NIGHTMARE MOON! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY PALACE!?”
I looked up at the ceiling and shook off the odd noise coming from above. The distraction helped me clear my head, and I went onto stage three: the evil temptation to cement Sunset’s turn from a heel by rejecting ultimate power. She wasn’t supposed to be crying, but...everything else was good enough.
As for me, I had managed to pull it together again. After all, the...psychological torture I was inflicting was for Sunset’s own good. With any luck, the next time she saw Celestia, only one of them would be a pony with a three foot horn stuck up her ass.
“Oh my, such rage,” I said before opening the door to the cell and taking down the magical wards. Sunset still had her horn ring on, so I didn’t have anything to worry about. “You know, there’s no need for us to be enemies, Sunset. I know what happened between you and Celestia, how she cast you out. How you left seeking power, your rightful place in Equestria.”
Sunset glared up at me. “Fl-urk!” she grunted. I guessed that she ran into the same language barrier I had upon arrive in Equestria. I had to repress a chuckle. “Buck. You.”
“Come now, Sunset. There’s no need for you to be like that,” I told her. “I could do things for you that Celestia never did. Give you what should be yours. Even teach you how to preen them.”
That got Sunset’s attention. “W-What?”
I got in the amber unicorn’s face. “Think of it. Alicornhood...a place in the royal household. Celestia might have been too frightened to take the place of your parents, but I am not nearly the coward she was. Together, we could rule Equestria as mother and daught-” That was as far as I got before she slugged me in the eye.
“AAAAAAAAAAAH!” I reached up and covered Luna’s injury as my ears picked up the sound of Sunset’s hooves on the stone, followed by the cell bars slamming shut.
“As soon as I get this thing off my head, I’ll be back to fry you, YOU BITCH!” Sunset shrieked at me as I heard her galloped away from me and towards the stairs.
Luckily for me, Luna’s body recovered quickly. A very brief bit of fear ran down my spine before I remembered that you had to have a working horn and code to activate the magic dampening field. If I wasn’t the person in this sudden turn-around, I would have been geeking out over Sunset outsmarting the evil mastermind.
As things were, I needed to grab her before something else wrong happened with my brilliant plan.
And that’s when I heard the screams at the top of the dungeon stairs.
Two screams to be precise.
There were was a crash and shattering of some glass.
And some kind of...splooshy sound that Luna’s pegasus ears picked up.
Followed by tumbling.
By the time I got out of the cage and over to where I could see the stairs, the two ponies finished coming down, covered in spots of cake and frosting. The first was Sunset. Thankfully, she she landed on something big and heavily padded with cake on the inside of her white coat.
“Sister...we thought you were to be at the Corner of Sugar and Cubes in Ponyville,” Luna asked.
“One of the guards flew into the bakery and reported that Nightmare Moon had gone mad and seized power back in Canterlot,” Celestia said as she groaned rolled over, knocking Sunset off of her as she stood up. “Then I came home. What did you do to my palace?”
Luna frowned. “Your palace?” she grumbled. “What happened to ruling equally?”
Despite the fact that Celestia made me wonder if she was fucking blind when she got up without even noticing Sunset, I couldn’t help but ask something. “You’re eating a whole cake for lunch?”
Celestia groaned. “Yes, I’m cheating on my diet,” she said before letting out a disgruntled sigh. “Now, about the deco-”
“Ugh,” Sunset groaned before she picked herself. “What hit...me?”
The big white mare blinked. “Oh! I’m sorry my….” Celestia froze when she looked down. “S...Sunset?” she asked in a shaky voice.
I frowned at Celestia. “Hey! We’re having a conversation here!”
“But...how?” she breathed.
“You? Y-You’re...s-still alive?” Sunset asked in awe before looking over to me. “But-”
Ah,” Luna chimed in. “What was a deception on our part.”
“SUNSET!” Celestia yelled before snatching her up.
“You’re...just gonna completely ignore us now...aren’t you?” I asked with a little frown.
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- Admiral Q Ponyform · 49k words · 1,997 164 · 35k views
- LordBrony2040 · 82k words · 2,159 138 · 38k views
- lllWarHawklll · 132k words · 2,333 61 · 26k views
- axelsempai · 262k words · 2,304 100 · 33k views
- Alcatraz · 120k words · 1,393 147 · 35k views
- ratedoni · 34k words · 1,217 76 · 24k views
- Reykan · 487k words · 3,746 127 · 46k views
- Autum Breeze · 128k words · 1,905 146 · 33k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.248 seconds
Total duration
935 users online
329,940 hits today, 2,244,100 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
"It's just a prank, bro"
YEY
Two chapter in, like, a week? Insane!
Embrace the dark side NMM! I can't actually remember your real name!
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE BACON HORSE!!!
i still wonder how celestia is the profecient magic user of the two. could have used that journal to get sunset the whole time.. and it only took luna a minute to come up with a way.
well that happened and I'm glad it did
I LOVE THIS STORY!
No way you finally updated.
Is this the story you're going to be working on for the foreseeable future?
This is awesome!
derpicdn.net/img/view/2017/10/25/1569917.png
Also, damn son. That's harsh.
All problems solved...except the memory stone...and...oh right...Twilight Sparkle researching the wavelength known as magic...um...so...expect a portal ripping open with Sci Twi in the distant future...after all,the Statue Portal is still a thing...
Not gonna lie; I don't see how this plan makes any sense.
I know they were TRYING to force them into reconciliation, but this methodology is one of the worst possible ways to go about doing it.
Sunset would likely believe Celestia was behind it to bring her back in line, and she's the one who needs convincing.
Even if it worked (And especially now that it hasn't), it's going to get both Sunset AND Celestia mad at Nightmare.
...I can't help but think that this method of reforming Sunset will not do anything to improve Nighty's standing with Celestia, if anything it both puts another notch against them and gives Celestia a potential accomplice in any plans to get rid of them. Also I'm hesitant to believe this will actually stick once Sunset gets all the facts and gets caught up on current events, assuming she isn't already (she apparently knew about Twilight and the EoM before she crossed over during EG1 after all).
And I guess this answers my question about Sunset last chapter. Been a while so I'd forgotten most of the subplots all going on. As for the CHS world, yeah the Dazzlings are a minor thing without any Equestrian magic, and just about every other threat on that side all stems from the events of the first movie...except for poor Wallflower. I can't help but think she'll end up dooming herself to an even bigger Background Pony situation than she already is in without the eventual destruction of the Memory Stone. Also there's a 50/50 chance of the rest of the Rainbooms never fixing their friendship because they're all too stubborn to compare notes.
8990156
Sci-Twi's research probably won't go anywhere without the flashy events of the first two movies. At worst, she manages to suck up the magic of the portal, which just disables it permanently, which Nighty is planning on doing anyway. That alone probably won't be enough to turn her into Midnight.
8990156
Human Twilight only went snooping around Canterlot high after picking up strange readings from all the magic at the battle of the bands. No elements = no rainbowblasting Shimy = no attracting the sirens = no battle of the bands = no Twilight investigating the school.
8990183
I'm pretty sure that last line was the intended method to getting Sunset to change her perceptions.
If they're both mad at Nighty, they'll end up planning something TOGETHER to either punish or get back at her.
8990349
I’m pretty sure twilight only went to canterlot high because the massive amounts of magic gave her a big lead in a new energy she was already researching...
Don’t forget the portal has always been a constant,plus the sirens get around a lot draining people...then the memory stone seems to have been from a NATURAL portal rather than the mirrorportals artificial one...meaning magic still has a presence in that world.Pretty sure the element of magic just highly amplified what was already there...
Then again...speculation. at least til the next movie gives us something...
Hilarious ending there, simply marvelous! Of course when Tia hears how Nighty tested Sunset things could get squirrely.
Well now we will just have to wait for the portal to open naturally unless they can force it open another way, sent the journal back through to keep the portal open whenever they want then and also make sure stuff happens like the other EQ-Girls movies.
8990448
Why would they? that world isn't their responsibility, they could go just to fix the damage that Sunset did, if she did by this point, afterwards smash the mirror so the link between the world won't risk the universe ripping itself.
Nightmare has enough issues managing one reality, adding another one would be idiotic.
Sirens will never grow in power there, and if portal is destroyed the magic wont leak there, making all the issues none and void.
Also i don't seem to get Nightmares plan here, why does she act as a villian, just secure Sunset in Eqeustria by destroying the mirror and have talks between the three to solve the issues, why the emotional torture?
Also why so harsh towards Starlight? Nightmares knows she a good pony deep down, just needs a few friendship lesson, and a unicorn of her power and talents could be very useful, secondly Nightmare could help Starlight right away, he knows where is the village that Starlight brainwashes, or at least knows generally, just like with Sunset, he could help Starlight much sooner, before any real damage is done.
8990473
This emotional torture part was for aknowlegding Sunset, that she truly care for Celestia, despite was she think and to test her, if she can be free. This part with proposing help with ascension was such test. That's what I think. Dark and morally grey as f**k, Nightmare and Luna overdoned there.
8990479
Possible, but by doing so Sunset may hate Nightmare for this forever, solving one problem and possibly creating another.
As someone said in the comments "it's a prank bro", people doing horrible stuff and the expect forgiveness for it just cause reasons is not right.
Sigh, Nighty should had made it private and tell the guards some excuse.
Awe! Cute..... I,was,expecting,for but that wasbabgrear chapter. Darn guards messing with there fun....
Welp, this chapter nearly ruined the story for me.
The hell was 'Nightmare' thinking?!
Now they turned Sunset against themselves by luring her into a trap.
And gave Celestia another reason to want to get rid of them, by manipulating Luna into barging into Tia's old heartache and then messing with Sunset.
Such a shame, it was a fun story so far...
Did you mean That
More, so soon? YES!
8991349
For me it hasn't wholly ruined it, but for the life of me I can't figure out how Nighty managed to talk Luna into going along with this plan. Especially after the immediate response of 'How soon can you get it open' makes it sound like she's TOTALLY RECEPTIVE already. Just… throw the plan out the window and say HI and wing it. I guess I can see Luna being wrapped up in things and Nighty being carried along.
Maybe a tweak to this chapter, to make Sunset seem less eager to return? I'm not sure exactly what I'd do - not my story (not that its BEING my story helps all that much when it is) - but this chapter does not work as presently written.
Holy shit this updated! And it's awesome!
8990493
8991548
8991349
After some thinking I believe, that I know what was a plan of Nightmare and Luna.
It was making Sunset hate them.
Why? Because Sunset is supposed to be a gift for Celestia, who longed for her and treated her almost as lost daughter. Now imagine what would happened in Celestia soul, if Sunset for some reason started being closer to Nightmare Luna than to her. And we know that, in normal situation, it would be very possible. It could send Celestia truly balistic. So Nightmare secured herself from such possibility. Pretty permanently. Also few things unite as strong as shared hatred and we know that Celestia hate Nightmare wholeheartly.
That is f****ng, ruthless gambit.
8991590
maaaaybe. That'd be a way to handle it next chapter, yes.
Yeah Celestia is still a jerk.
Nice reunion between Sunset and Celestia. I can't wait to see how things go from here with the train so off the rails.
The plot thickens
Super glad to see this story still kicking, (literally the only story I’m following that’s updated in the last 2 months)
I don't know if I said it before but I am worried about Discord and Starlight. I mean Nighty is extremely biased. Ponies and creatures she doesn't like get sentenced to a life sentence of prison and those she likes get reformed. It isn't exactly fair and I can only hope Luna will stop this.
Also that reformation prank was quite nice!
Nighty is best Nightmare Moon.
I was worried that this was going to blow up in their face when Celestia was a plot-face over the whole thing. But thankfully she did genuinely miss Sunset after all. No doubt it'll still blow up in someone's face next chapter. Which will probably also serve as a litmus test for Sunset, and what her actual character is beyond idolising Celestia. Call is a stab in the dark, but I don't think canon is going to be terribly useful here...
Well, that happened.
This will never stop being one of my favorite fics
You know, virtually all the problems in this story could have been solved if this idiot had just been smart enough to convince Luna and Celestia he wasn't NMM and that she was probably stuck in his human body and trying to take over his world.
Not that a single pasty brony would have a chance in hell of doing that (unless he was me, naturally), but they don't need to know those details.
8990183 The guy is a brony fan of Sunset Shimmer.
So, clearly not the brightest penny in the pool.
And Luna is... well, Luna.
A guy who shot half his brains out with a 44-Magnum could outwit them.
So when will Celestia finally realise that Nightmare Moon is basically Luna's daughter?
8999768
To his credit, he does at least have the sense to realize Starlight is a monster who needs to be put down or, barring that, thrown in the deepest, darkest hole he can build for the rest of her natural life.
9000037
Shhhhh
Damn I was hoping Sunset would have made it to the throne room first
8999763
Yeah cause that would go well, hey Luna im not NM just a random alien spirit who took NM place in your body, that's cool with you right?
9000112
And Celestia is the daddy, after all she's the one implanted the seed of envy and hate into Luna in the first place.
9000060 Nah, she's just a Sue. Punch her in the face.
9000591 It would have prevented a number of problems, and been demonstrable by his ability to predict future events.
Logic wins.
9001698
Of course, that's the only way she can basically go around being a monster without anyone thinking there's anything wrong with it. Seriously, I've lost count of how many times she has mind raped someone since her supposed reformation and no one seems to care.
9002138
Sue, sue them into the ground. nothing is 'too big to fail'.