Glowing Embers

by Sun Aura

Ashes

The portal was open, and she had stepped through. It felt almost weird to be a pony again, but it felt so normal at the same time. She took up a candlestick and flipped it in her magic. She missed it, oh so much.

It was odd, feeling the magic thrum through the crystal under her hooves. She knew the mirror was in the Crystal Empire now, that the Replacement had taken a trip here at just the right time. The memory of that ‘dream’ sent a shard of ice through her heart, but she pushed forward.

---

That hadn’t gone as planned. She’d forgotten about the Student’s Familiar, and the stupid Dragon had tripped her up on her escape. Not to mention the Element getting flung through the portal. She’d followed it only seconds after, but it was too late. Someone had already picked it up and brought it to the Principal.

Getting it back was going to be a pain. The Principal refused to hand it over, saying they were going to use it as the Fall Formal crown. Sunset had screamed at her, calling it blatant theft. The crown belonged to her, and she had no right to claim it as ‘school property’.

“Come on now, Miss Shimmer,” the Principal said. “We had yet to get the crown, and now we have one. Considering you’re running unopposed anyway, you’ll get it back. It just gets to be on display for a few days.”

She debated about actually calling the cops, but not only did she have no ‘proof’ that it was hers, but it was hard to get the cops involved with her lack of records. Even a burst of Magic Emotion wouldn’t help on that front.

Instead, she decided to take out her frustration on the girl who, upon seeing something drop on the ground, didn’t bother to ask anyone if it was theirs before giving it to the Principal. Of course it was one of the five. Even if they didn’t know what they were doing, they somehow managed to try and stop her.

“I’m really sorry,” Fluttershy had said. “I-I just found it, and- and I thought I should give it to her. I didn’t know you had dropped it.”

“Well I did!” Sunset barely reined in the need to scream. “And I was about to get it before you swooped in and ruined everything! You shouldn’t pick up things that don’t belong to you!”

“It doesn’t really belong to you either,” she muttered.

Did this girl really have the audacity to say it wasn’t hers? Yes, technically it wasn’t yet, but that wasn’t the point. This girl knew nothing of Magic, so why she believed it wasn’t hers was beyond Sunset’s imagination. She hated it, and her.

“Excuse me?!” Sunset started, preparing to rant.

“N-nothing,” Fluttershy backed down.

“That’s what I thought,” she glared. “It’s as good as mine, and you know it. You really are pathetic. It’s no wonder your best friends are stray animals.”

“How dare you speak to her that way?”

Sunset had whirled around, a glare already aimed at the source of the voice. It was a girl, around her age and colored in various purples. The girl had no trace of fear, unlike what she’d grown used to seeing in the other students. And it drove her nuts.

“What did you say?” Sunset demanded, furiously stalking through the hall.

“I said, ‘How dare you speak to her that way?’!” the girl repeated, heading to her as well.

Sunset glared at her. She looked a bit familiar, though she couldn’t place it. Still, something about her was off, something that felt right and wrong at the same time. But she decided it didn’t matter. She was so close, and one new student trying to ‘play hero’ wasn't important

“You must new here,” Sunset shrugged, tracing a finger along the girl’s face before walking down the hall. “I can speak to anyone any way I want.

She left, glaring at the rest of the students who stood by and watched. They were just as bad as she was, really. But at least new girl, as irrationally angry as she made Sunset feel, had tried something. Those kids just hid themselves away and watched.

---

She’d gone to the gym just to antagonize those two. They deserved it, they were just as bad as Fluttershy. Broken up or not, that whole group wouldn’t stop. Especially since Pinkie helped the ‘new girl’ sign up to be Fall Formal Princess.

It was then that she recognized ‘Twilight Sparkle’, her Replacement. So she waited, knowing that sooner or later she’d go somewhere alone. Of course it had to be the one hallway with lights that always flickered, but a part of Sunset found it beautifully dramatic.

“Should’ve known Princess Celestia would send her ‘prized pupil’ here after my crown,” Sunset said, before adding a joke, “And her little dog, too.”

“It’s my crown,” Twilight growled.

“Whatever,” she shrugged, knowing how little there was to fear. “This is just a minor setback for me. You don’t know the first thing about this place, and I already rule it.”

“If that’s so,” she began, “why do you even need my crown? You went to an awful lot of trouble to switch it with the one that belongs here.”

“Pop quiz,” she chirped. “What happens when you bring an Element of Harmony to an Alternate World?”

Twilight didn’t answer. Sunset was mostly using that question as a joke, but also a test. She wondered what this girl could come up with, or to see if the Princess had told her. She was curious to see the way this girl thought, to see if it was different than her own conclusions. Yet, there was no answer.

This girl couldn’t even offer a guess. She couldn’t even bring forth some panic-fueled answer of Summoning Eldritch Monstrosities and Lovecraftian Horrors. Yet she had somehow been given everything Sunset was denied. It made her want to scream, but instead she laughed. Because it was the only way she could keep from crying.

“You don’t know? Seriously?” Sunset laughed. “And you’re supposed to be Princess Celestia’s star student? Then again, what were the chances she’d find somepony as bright as me to take under her wing after I decided to leave Equestria? Bit embarrassing that you were the best she could do.”

With a growl the Dragon-turned-Dog poked his head out of the girl's backpack, and she glared once more. He was a part of this, but she’d give him a little bit of a break, being a kid and all. Maybe some actual advice, though she wouldn’t hesitate to add more insults to the girl who got everything she never deserved.

“I’d keep an eye on your mutt,” Sunset said. “Hate for him to be taken away from you.”

“Is that a threat?” the ex-Dragon asked.

“Of course not,” she said, quickly shushing him as he tried to bark. “But I’d cut down on the chatter if I were you. Don’t want everyone to know you don’t belong here, now would you? You want to be Princess here? Please, you don’t know the first thing about fitting in.”

Sunset walked off, but that last comment stuck with her. No, Twilight didn’t know anything about ‘fitting in’. But neither had she for a time. If Sunset had managed to charm her way to being Fall Formal Princess in her Freshman year, than this girl could possibly manage to be just charming enough to win. Especially the girl who had somehow gotten to Celestia.

There were other tactics for that, specifically two Freshmen that loved to follow her around and do what she said. Really, it was almost ridiculous how they latched on to her, but as long as they did what she wanted, she didn’t care that they followed her around.

---

Nothing had worked. This girl had not only gotten her group back together, but cast off both the smear campaign and the sabotage frame up. She even got Flash on her side, though his interest was far more romantic than the one he’d had with Sunset. Why? Why did everyone love her so much?

Sunset resorted to more drastic measures, having the Freshmen grab her dog and threatening the portal with a hammer. But even that hadn’t worked. Twilight just refused, saying she’d rather stay here than go home. She believed that Sunset being happy was somehow worse than whatever magical monster would pop up in Equestria. Sure, she’d been a bitch, but had the Princess really told her she was that bad?

Did the Princess really believe she was that bad? That if she were happy and loved she would be worse than any terror that could attack Equestria? She shook with rage, hearing of how the Princess truly felt.

It burned worse than before. She had trusted the Princess, but it was all a lie. It had always been a lie, hadn’t it? She’d only ever taken from her, withholding the only thing she wanted while freely giving it to others. She’d abandoned her, kicked her out, let her run off into another world alone. It was cruel, and she felt tears begging to start as she heard those girls talk of how she’d never been worth anything. Of how ‘Twilight’ was.

“You are so awesome!”

“I can’t believe you were going to do that for us!”

“It’s no wonder you’re a real live princess!”

“Oh, yes, she’s so very special!” Sunset screamed.

With that she snapped, tackling Twilight. She didn’t care anymore. There was nothing left. Her last chance was slipping away, or maybe it already had. But she was done trying to hold back, she cared so much that she stopped caring.

---

It hurt. Sunset thought she knew this pain, the pain of Emotions so strong they became physical. But this was literal. The moment she put the crown on her head, it blasted through her. She felt her body being ripped and twisted and burned, but it was barely anything compared to the rest.

Some of it was what she had felt, everything she had felt the moment the Princess left her. Betrayal, like everything she deserved was being held from her, like she had been tricked into searching for something that wasn’t there until she was kicked out, until she was left scared and alone and crying.

But she also felt the choices she had made. Lies she told to get what she wanted, every time she tried to hurt those she thought deserved it, because they had withheld something she never truly had. Everything she did that ruined what happiness she made, because she was so sure she could fix it.

“I am your princess now, and you will be loyal to me!”

That wasn’t her. The Demon she saw was not the real her. It was everything she felt, intensified into a monster. It was what she was when she no longer cared for anyone, and while part of her screamed that no, there were still those to care about, she couldn’t feel it through the pain of everything that had been taken from her.

“I want Equestria!”

She had never wanted Equestria. She never wanted to rule. She knew she got lost, trying to be a Princess so ‘Celestia’ would talk to her, and that desire reawakened when her Replacement got that so easily.

What was left, but everything to take? Power was all that was left. The Princess had never cared about her, these girls were worth more than she was, and she had pushed away everyone else that wanted to care about her.

“She needs to be dealt with!”

She hated them, oh stars did she hate everything they represented, everything she’d never been given. Everything she'd wanted.

Yet her Magic shifted as she cast it. Some small part of her knew how far this was, how much pain was caused by this Magic. She hesitated, because as much as she hated them, she didn’t want to hurt them.

Author's Note:

BOI! One more part to go. Not sure if I'll put it up today or tomorrow.