Sentencing
Everything hurt. She was tired, and didn't want to move. The whole world was white, white noise, and white pain. There was a ringing in her ears, blinding the outside world completely. Only then did she start to remember. The crown, the demon, the crimes, everything made sense.
Sunset Shimmer slowly opened her eyes, taking in her surroundings. The walls around here were gray, and the floor she was laying on was hard. Her body felt, smaller and sore from pain. Sunset struggled to stand up, but after a few tries, she leaned herself on the cold stone wall and got a better look of where she was.
One, she was not human, she was back in Equestria. Two, she was in what looked like a cell. Three, other than a stack of hay where she had been laying, and herself, the cell was empty. Memories began to flood back to Sunset's mind. Princess Twilight Sparkle had taken her back to Equestria, Twilight didn't tell her why, she did seem pretty angry.
A voice broke Sunset's thoughts. "The prisoner has awoken!"
Sunset limped to the bars of the cell. "What's going on?" she murmured as guards with stern looks on their faces moved towards her cell.
They were all clad in golden and crystal like armor their horns a glow as they carried spears in their auras. The door of the cell opened with a metal sound, and before Sunset knew it, chains had locked themselves around her hooves. One of the guards, who wore a special star on his chest grabbed Sunset's shoulder roughly, causing her to grimace and suck in her breath in pain.
Turning her head to face the area of conflict, she saw a rough red, and might she say half-assed stitched cuts. It felt as though they would fall apart at any second if she stretched too much or ran to fast.
The guard pushing her forward scowled, and leaned in close in Sunset's ear. "You tried to kill my sister, and her friends, try to resist and I'll bury you in the ground myself."
Sunset's ears folded back as she walked forward, fearing if what the guard said was true. Sunset thought for moment before something clicked in her brain. If this guard said that she tried to kill his sister...His sister had to be Twilight Sparkle! That would explain why he wanted to end her life so much. Great.
They walked through the halls with tense and awkward silence. The horn inhibitor ring on Sunset's head added a suffocating feeling, like she was under a blanket. But that's not what was bothering her the most. Sunset had a huge hole of guilt carved in her chest. Anything and everything she had done in her past came back to her.
Sunset felt the pain that others felt when she bullied and blackmailed them. The depression they went through, the embarrassment, and shame. Sunset choked back a sob as the squad of guards led her to, she guessed, the courtroom. She had never been in a palace like this before, she had never been in this palace at all in fact. Everything seemed to be made out of crystal, even the guards had a crystal gleam to them.
Finally the squad and their prisoner reached two large doors, the guards on either side of the door tapped their spears on the crystal surface, causing the door to open slowly. Bright light filled Sunset's eyes and she blinked and looked away. Slowly she turned her head as she was once again lead to the large courtroom.
The first thing Sunset noticed was that the room was full of ponies, noble ponies of course. Further down she saw more guards, and four large thrones. Each one occupied. Sunset looked up and met the eyes of all four princesses, and instantly regretted it. Especially Celestia's commanding gaze.
Sunset hung her head in shame, she didn't want to be here, she didn't want to hear what the Princesses had in store for her. She was in enough pain already, physically and emotionally. Sunset couldn't stop herself from crying, letting painfully silent tears slide down her muzzle.
Murmurs and whispers ran through the courtroom for a few seconds before a loud banging noise shut off their chatter. Sunset flinched with each bang of the mallet, after three bangs, all chatter ceased and strong silence filled its place.
"Sunset Shimmer."
She flinched at her name.
"You are being charged with regicide against Princess Twilight Sparkle of Friendship, and attempted overthrow of Princess Celestia." One of the princesses voiced, Sunset wasn't familiar with this one. "What do you plead?"
Sunset looked up at the navy coloured Princess who glared down at her, and stuttered in fear and guilt. "I-I-," Sunset stopped her stuttering and choked back a sob. "Guilty."
The Princess's glare did not waver. "The crimes you have commited have a high price to pay, Sunset Shimmer." The navy-colored mare spoke. "I Princess Luna of the Moon and Night, Diarch of Equestria sentence thou to be punished by death"
Ponies in the crowd began to mutter, shocked expressions on all of their faces. But the face Sunset wore was one of fear, guilt and shame. Her head snapped up and looked at the Princesses, almost begging for them to choose a different punishment. All of them looked down, but she met one lavender alicorn's gaze.
Twilight's eyes widened when she saw Sunset's face.
"Wait!"
Gasps resonated through the courtroom. All heads turned their attention from Sunset Shimmer, to Twilight Sparkle. Sunset looked up as well in shock at the Princess of Friendship. She was wide-eyed and stared at Sunset before turning to face the rest of her fellow rulers.
"Can we discuss this in private?" Twilight said in a low whisper.
The other Princesses looked at one another and nodded, walking out of the courtroom through a pair of curtains. Minutes passed before conversation arose again, some ponies pointed hooves at Sunset while she sobbed quietly to herself. All she wanted to do was collapse.
"Princesses, I know what Sunset has done is bad, but she doesn't deserve to die! I'm alive, I am alright, it's wrong to put somepony to death." Twilight yelled, her wings flaring out in anger.
Shining Armor moved by his sister's side, trying to calm her down. "Twily, that mare almost killed you! You and your friends."
Her head snapped towards her brother. "I know that Shiny but I didn't bring her to Equestria just to kill her!" Twilight fumed.
Princess Cadance moved beside Shining Armor and wrapped a wing around him. "I agree with Twily, Shiny. I grew up with Sunset, and even though she was a brat—and a jerk, she would never kill somepony." She pointed out, and looked in Princess Celestia's direction, who had not spoken a word yet. "Even ask Auntie Celestia!"
They all turned their heads to look at the Princess of the Sun, who's strong gaze wavered for a second at the mention of her former student. "No, she wouldn't do anything like that." she muttered, her voice barely audible.
Luna wasn't buying it. "She still needs to be punished, and if it isn't going to be death then it will be the next step down from it."
Twilight gave her a confused look. "Which is?"
"Tartarus."
The whisper and murmurs gnawed at Sunset's mind. She couldn't take it anymore, but she didn't want to die. The death penalty was given to the worst of the worst of ponies and creatures. Sunset would do anything else but be the first ponies in centuries to be sentenced to death. She was so deep in thought that she did not even notice the four princesses come back into the courtroom.
"Order, please." A calm but commanding voice ordered. Sunset snapped out of her thoughts and looked at the Princesses, eyes red.
Princess Luna stepped forward and looked at Sunset Shimmer, scowling. "After discussing Sunset Shimmer's crimes, the princesses and I decided to...adjust her punishment." Whispers spread among the nobles once more. "Silence! We have decided, instead of the death penalty, to have Sunset Shimmer, exiled to Tartarus...for a lifetime."
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WOW Luna a utter Hypocrite! Did she not try to kill Twilight, her Friends and the entire world as Nightmare Moon!!
BITCH! Hope that thrown in her face hundreds of times!
10034499
That may or may not play a role in the story
10034538
It BETTER.
But, who's going to stop the Dazzlings, if not Sunset and Twilight?
10034607
Hmmm, you'll see.
Personally I have a hard time believing any of the princesses would sentence someone to Death to begin with, other's have done worse and gotten off with less.
Given what happened to Cozy Glow, I can't exactly say they're not prone to harsh punishments, but it still kind of feels like Luna's going kinda wild here for no obvious reason and everyone else is just letting her, especially Celestia.
Showing remorse is basically a get out of jail free card in the show, so that's kind of tainting my perception.
10034538
Should add the only REason Luna was executed was due to being Celestia;'s little bitty sister.
This be twice celestia failed Sunset, failing to be the reacher she needed and mother figure ad failing her again when Luna sentenced her!
Hope this haunts them for a long time.
10035026
10035173
It really plays a huge factor in the story, and remember, this is an alternative universe. Like I said on my notes, the beginning was a bit Rocky but I'm hoping to smooth it out while I write the story.
The next chapter will really take your side on this one
Didn’t expect a new story from you!! Interested to see where this goes. Will Sunset and Chrysalis meet? Even Tierk and Cozy Glow?
10035448
Guess you'll have to wait and find out
10035026
It's also kinda weird that Luna is the one that decided this too, especially since the show has traditionally showed Celestia making all the major decisions like in Twilight's Kingdom and Twilight's Seven in particular.
Still I have been waiting for a more medieval take on these characters reformations since School Raze so this should be interesting regardless.
10037250
It will play a big part in the story, I'm looking forward to showing it to you guys!
Vaguely hypocritical Luna. Barring Nightmare Moon being demonic possession.
"She still needs to be punished, and if it isn't going to be death then it will be the next step down from it."
Nightmare Moon is cleansed by the Elements and restored to Princess Luna. She is forgiven.
Demon Sunset is cleansed by the Elements and restores to Sunset Shimmer. Luna wants to kill her. Luna is talked down and "merely" exiles Sunset to Tartarus. ... Geez Luna. Hypocrite much.
Well ain't Luna a Hypothetical bitch
*looks at the comments*
I see the Nightmare Moon contradiction has been pointed out, but I'm willing to overlook it for the purposes of setting up the story, which needs Sunset in pony jail.
It's an interesting premise to work with, and it would be difficult to set up quickly without somepony acting out of character. Sorry, Luna, you have been sacrificed for the setup. I blame Celestia.
More jarring, however, was Shining Armor (assuming that was Shining Armor
).
Gruff, cold, maybe even a little mean? Sure, those behaviors fit based on the circumstances. However, Shining is a bit too professional to make an angry death threat against a maimed and obviously helpless captive. He was the Captain of the Royal Guard, not a mad attack dog.
However, this is why you never judge shows based on the pilot episode. Most of it is spent in setup and most of the characters haven't settled into their roles. I look forward to seeing where this goes.
I'll let all of this slide but I will say there were four punishments death, Tartarus, imprisonment in stone,and one which I think you didn't think of for something that sunset could live through banishment without her magic most likely for her to survive because she has lived without her magic in the human world for a while. Also a life sentence she is a mortal and what about equestria's need for second chances. (Even if she gets one later in this story because she was useful to the plot not because she was redeemable in their eyes but because that's all they could turn to help them.) Also twilight didn't know she was the princess of friendship yet. She had no castle at this time so no title. She has said and I quote (not fully because I don't remember it fully) "Am I only the princess of smiling and waving?" So this is what I ask did you just turn luna ooc for the plot and confuse which season we were in the series or did you just forget? I won't be mad and judge but please just tell me I am interested in this story but this first chapter just makes my blood boil and I know I have a temper and you did say you rushed it to get on with the story but please just tell me.
P.s. I'm not judging the death penalty the crystal empire would have it or not because cadence probably changed the law. Luna would still believe it is in effect because of her old way of thinking and luna would probably not know much about sunset and be angry about someone trying to kill her savior so I'm not against you on the ooc. Also only one element was used even if it is the hidden one among the elements that was used. (Magic yay) So luna probably didn't think it had the same effect as it did when all the elements were used. So I gave an excuse for her ooc working in your favor.
Oh, so they are executing ponies now, nice. It's feels really stupid now that the government had to let the criminal loose to capture even worse criminals. I am hoping for Sunset to murder that bitch Luna, or something.
Listen, I don’t know if mints exist, but I suggest they be invented, because you’re not gonna get in my face without one.
Damn, she don’t waste no time.
No the f*ck it ain’t. Sometimes it’s necessary to kill.
But, she did try. So what does that say?
You haven’t seen her in years. So you don’t know what she would do.
Wait, is there a difference?
10760072
Sunset never killed anyone???
10433281
I wouldn’t say murder or anything. Just extremely hurt her and show her it was a wrong choice sending her to Tartarus. So basically kill her
10034607
No one. I want them to win
10431268
come on! it's just a starter premise, a connection between cannon and the FUN.
*bursts into the courtroom and killed all the guards with my laser before cutting Luna's head off with my light saber, before giving Sunset a great amount of dark magic, she uses it to destroy the walls and the ceiling begin to crumble, I quickly rushed Sunset away as the ceiling collapsed onto the ground, crushing Celestia, Twilight, Shining Armor and Cadance to death*
Sounds like an interesting premise. I can't wait to read more!