Sunset Shimmer: Path of the Damned

by Blackdrag-rose

Interlude: Time Passes

Sunset found that while she could think about the situation and what she'd do when she was freed, massacring those who either wronged her or the Lich King, there wasn't much else to do and felt that the silence would be maddening to others, but she wasn't like the other prisoners that happened to be trapped in this prison. Her reasoning was because before she had come to this world she had been the best and brightest unicorn in Canterlot, and second in terms of magic, due to the fact that the first was Celestia herself, and she had ways of making sure she didn't go insane while she tried to figure out how to get out of here. There were all sorts of meditation techniques and a number of metal exercises she could perform to pass the time, allowing her to consider her situation in greater detail than before, going over the scenarios where she could try to escape by doing different things, using the knowledge she had gathered since waking up in this place. It was a great way for her to kill some time and not go mad from being stuck in her cell, but other than that it didn't do much else for her, especially when she found that every scenario ended in her defeat and either imprisonment or total death, where the latter would definitely free her in the worst way possible.

Of course it annoyed her a tiny bit, that there didn't seem to be anything she could do to break out of the cell that she had been stuffed into, at least from this side of it, but she was able to stave off the madness and that seemed to be the best she could do for the time being.

She also found that Darion came to visit her a few times over the weeks, something she was able to determine by simply counting the time between each of his rather short visits, where he first informed her that the Knights of the Ebon Blade were joining both the Alliance and the Horde in their fight against the Lich King. Apparently that was what he and the rest of the traitorous death knights, those who had fought beside her during the assault on Light's Hope Chapel, went by these days and they had seized Acherus, giving them a fortress to take Naxxramas down. In addition to that the heroes who had been raised into this life, and had regained what they had lost thanks to Tirion taking the Ashbringer, had returned to their former factions and, with some assistance from Tirion, took up arms in the name of either the Alliance or the Lich King, as if nothing had happened to them. Such a thing sickened Sunset when she heard it, as none of her former allies seemed to care about the fact that they had betrayed the one who gave them a second chance at life, three if one counted the couple of forsaken that had been raised again, and that they were all too eager to call him a monster that needed to die, hence why they were joining the expeditions to Northrend.

While Darion talked Sunset found that he had replaced his missing weapon with a pair of runeblades, blades that needed only a single hand to wield, where she imagined the barrier falling and her seizing one to take him down before beginning the siege on the area near her prison, before he eventually departed to lend the living his aid.

After her former mentor left she found a number of mages, often watched over by Khadgar and sometimes by another mage, one who radiated power and importance as well, who came to the prison to look over the prisoners, studying each of them for the future. Many of them were shocked and surprised by her existence, since she was one of the oddest in the prison, at least according to many of the apprentices, though as the others studied the prisoners she often found Khadgar staring at her, no doubt trying to silent coax her into telling them something important. She didn't have anything to share with him or the living, about herself or the Lich King's plans, but she did consider the fact that she had been abandoned to her fact, it was a possibility she couldn't ignore, not since she'd been here for at least a week. While she was the chosen champion of the Lich King, destined for greatness against the world of the living, it wasn't hard for one to imagine why it was so quite here, why her master didn't march on the city or prison to break her out and put her to work again.

As time went by, however, Sunset found herself wondering if she had actually been abandoned, which was common when death knights were captured by the enemy, despite the fact that she was the Lich King's champion, causing her to lean back in her cell as she watched all of the mages come and go, showing them nothing new as she thought about what she was going to do next. While she considered that the days slowly turned into weeks, where she found that she felt nothing, not a bit of hunger, not the desire to rest, nor even anything else that the living needed to do to survive, leaving her to her thoughts, which was dangerous given what happened in the past. When the weeks turned into months, however, she did feel the location of her prison move from one point to another, a surge of magic washed over everything around her and it felt like she was being dragged along, thanks to the cell and bindings, before the sensation disappeared. All that told her was that someone, or a group of someones, had moved the prison to another location, meaning there was a chance that an invasion force might have been close to freeing them and Khadgar got them out of the area, much to her annoyance as she stared at the wall for some time.

As Sunset did that, however, part of her found herself thinking back to the world she had left behind, idly wondering what sort of mess she had left behind in the mirror world, but decided that such a thing was irrelevant to her right now, even if it did help her pass the time as she waited for something to happen.

---

Twilight stood in front of the door that separated her from Princess Celestia's room, an area that was off limits to visitors, and forced herself to calm down, as she knew that this was about what happened in the mirror world, when she went in to retrieve the Element of Magic. Such a thing instantly worried her once more, because of what she had witnessed after taking the crown back and using the harmonic magic to defeat the demon that Sunset Shimmer had become, or at least that was what she had assumed had happened. It had been hard to explain the empty crater, with no signs of Sunset in it, just like it had been hard to tell the human versions of her friends what they had done to the person who bullied them for so long, even if some of the students believed Sunset deserved whatever her fate ended up being. In fact, with the portal between worlds closing, she hadn't been able to do anything before forcing both herself and Spike through the magical portal in the statue that was outside the school, meaning she left the girls alone in their time of need.

That was why she was already coming up with a new way to open the portal between worlds, because now that the crown was back with the other Elements, and nothing major seemed to be happening, she had some time to do such a thing and wanted to head back, just to comfort the girls and hopefully resolve everything.

"Ah, Twilight, I'm sorry I kept you waiting... court lasted longer than I would have liked." a voice said, where Twilight found the radiant form of Princess Celestia, an alicorn who stood taller than most ponies, including her own sister, walking over to the door, where her magic opened the door and allowed them to ended the room in question, or at least the area she entertained guests in, since the bed was behind another door.

Twilight and Spike, who had come along since he had passed through the mirror world with her, followed her inside the room, where Celestia closed the door before using her magic to put her regalia where it usually rested when she went to bed, and since it was night out Twilight knew she and Luna must have raised and lowered their celestial objects before she caught up with them.

"So, how is Sunset doing?" Celestia asked, as that was why they were here, she knew that Twilight and Spike had met her previous student, one she had failed utterly and completely and couldn't help since Sunset was out of reach for so long, so while she had gotten the official report, as in Twilight informing her that she reclaimed the crown, she wanted to listen to Twilight and learn about what happened to Sunset.

"Um... about that..." Twilight said, because this was what she was dreading, having to tell Celestia that her former student was likely dead, utterly destroyed by the crown's wild power, as that was the only explanation she could come up with to explain what she and Spike had witnessed, "She's... well..."

"Dead... at least, that's what the girls on the other side of the mirror said." Spike stated, though while him butting in was a common occurrence, and usually a bad one at that, this time around he wasn't cheerful and seemed depressed, especially after the final battle he had witnessed with Sunset Shimmer.

Twilight told Celestia everything she knew, knowing that her mentor would be devastated by the news she had to share, about how Sunset had been twisted by the crown into a demon, about how she was planning on dominating everything to gain an army, and her plan to take over this world. She went on to explain what she had done to defend herself and the girls she had befriended to liberate the school from Sunset's dark hold, how it had awakened some magic in them so they, with her guidance, could wield some form of harmonic magic to defend themselves and attack Sunset. Of course she had thought that the power would liberate Sunset, like what happened when she and her friends faced Nightmare Moon, even if that had been Celestia's plan from the start, and yet all they got was a crater with nothing inside it. Twilight then went on to explain that she had detected no teleportation spells, no other magic than what her group and Sunset happened to be using at the time, and while she knew that the Elements couldn't kill their enemies, either due to magical safeguards or it being the will of their wielders, even she couldn't explain what they had seen.

As Twilight talked, however, she noticed the cracks forming in her mentor's mask, which she showed to nearly every pony she encountered during the day, and since she was far more experienced in the power of the Elements it was clear that her mentor was hoping, praying no doubt, that Sunset had been banished to another world.

"I... I see. Thanks for telling me, Twilight." Celestia said, where it was far too easy for Twilight and Spike to see that there were more cracks in the mask by the time the tale was over, showing them that she was far too worried about Sunset and that this had likely caused her more harm than good, "I... need time to think about this... we'll talk again tomorrow."

As Twilight and Spike departed, so they could get some sleep and get ready for tomorrow, Celestia held herself together before collapsing on her bed and cried, as she had lost Sunset again, possibly for good this time since they had no idea what had happened to her, and all it did was cause her to worry, as the Elements didn't kill, they couldn't, meaning all she could do was worry about what happened to Sunset this time as she stared at the stars.

---

Sunset continued to use her methods to pass the time, just to make sure she didn't go mad, but eventually she stopped keeping track of time, as it was useless when she thought about it, plus there were no more guests for her to worry about, so she was stuck in silence for who knew how long. The time away from the Lich King allowed her to notice something else in due time, the part of her that had been repressed, as in her desire to dominate and rule over everything she saw, or felt that belonged to her, had returned, meaning she had been modified more than she thought. Of course she wasn't even a tiny bit annoyed by that discovery, in fact Sunset silently admitted that it made sense, it allowed her master to make sure she didn't betray him when his back was turned and he was distracted by whatever their enemies were doing, but after all her time in this cell, cut off from him, she had rediscovered it. Such a thing meant that part of her time was spent thinking of new ways to dominate this world and enforce her will over everything and everyone who called it home, even though it meant facing the Lich King at some point.

She found that, despite her former desire to call the Lich King her master, the idea of facing him in some manner, even taking his position and weapon from him, excited her, though it was a nice thought to have as she waited in prison, which was the most boring thing she had ever experienced.

"You seem bored." a voice remarked, where Sunset found someone standing in front of her prison cell, an elf with golden hair, unlike what she was familiar with when she looked upon the blood elves and night elves who had been her brothers and sisters during their battle with the Scarlet Crusade, who wore a light gray robe with silvery and golden bits.

"I've been in this prison for months, without being able to fulfill my master's will... of course I'd seem bored." Sunset said, though instead of being annoyed with the figure she studied him in greater detail, as something about him screamed that he was stronger than one would assume, like he was some ancient force in disguise and this was the form he had picked out a long time ago, while maintaining the illusion that the Lich King was still her master.

"You've been in here for four months, thirteen days, seven hours, forty-seven minutes, and ten seconds." the elf stated, a fact that caused Sunset to pause, as there was no way he knew the exact amount of time that she had been imprisoned in this place, unless he knew when she had first entered this place and had been watching her for some time, where he let a smile appear on his face for a moment, "I have been watching you for a long time, Sunset Shimmer, since the day the Lich King raised you as his champion, and I must say he was right, the power you possess is staggering... it could, if used right, change the course of history entirely."

"Who are you? Why are you so interested in me and my power?" Sunset asked, because she was interested in discovering who she was talking to, especially since he had confirmed that he had been watching over her for some time, meaning he knew things that she couldn't possibly know right now, before noticing that the guards and inmates hadn't noticed him or his sudden arrival, "You aren't really here, are you? I must have finally gone mad."

"No, you are quite sane, despite being a soulless killing machine of the Scourge. I am here, but also not." the figure said, yet another fact that interested Sunset as she stood up and stretched, showing the guards that she had gotten tired of just sitting on the ground during her stay in their fair prison, an illusion that nothing was out of the ordinary, and she could see that the elf agreed with her actions, "I am, shall we say, messing with time to speak with you, using some magic to make it so the guards don't see me while we converse, as it would be... inconvenient... if someone discovered that I was here, in Dalaran's prison, talking with you. As for who I am, well, I am the bronze dragon Kairozdormu, or 'Kairoz' if you prefer, and I have a specific reason for being interested in you."

Sunset couldn't believe her luck, a time dragon, as that was what this particular dragonflight was known as, was interested in her and her power, meaning the door to achieve her goals had appeared before her, but, at the same time, this meant that Kairoz had a deal he wanted to offer her, otherwise he wouldn't be risking himself in this manner.

"Meaning you want to break me out so I can overturn some sort of historic event you disagree with." Sunset remarked, as it was easy to see why Kairoz, a dragon who was supposed to watch over time, would be seeking someone like her, since he didn't want to show himself until he completed whatever task he was currently working towards, which only made her wonder which event he wanted her to mess with, "So, what's the deal you have for me?"

"I wish to change the future of Azeroth for the better, to prepare us for the arrival or awakening of our enemies, and to do that my allies and I need to change certain events... like stopping Arthas from becoming the Lich King." Kairoz answered, to which he raised his hand for a moment as Sunset heard his statement, as he knew this would enrage her and right now he didn't want to alert the guards, something that she realized a few seconds later and acted like nothing happened, "Tell me, have you ever wondered if there might be someone more worthy of wielding Frostmourne? Someone who could wield the true power of the infamous runeblade and lead the Scourge without a shred of remorse?"

Part of Sunset, the part loyal to the Lich King, wanted to say no, that she didn't think there was anyone who could replace her master, though the other part of her, the side of her that was hungry for more power, which had caused her to head to the mirror world in the first place, eventually won over her own dark loyalty.

"You must know, Kairoz, that if I'm to stand a chance against my master, before he became the Lich King, I need a blade to face the might of Frostmourne." Sunset stated, because her old runeblade was gone, smashed to pieces and likely claimed by one of the Knights of the Ebon Blade so it could be turned into a weapon for another death knight, another traitor who deserved to die for betraying the Lich King, though one could accuse her of the same thing if they knew what she and the dragon were talking about.

"Of course. Would a blade of titansteel suffice?" Kairoz inquired, something that caused Sunset to pause again, because the metal in question was, supposedly, the strongest in all of Northrend, far more than saronite, what her armor and most of the weapons in the Scourge's was made of, and she knew, thanks to her added memories, that it was made by a smith combining titanium with the eternal energies of fire, earth, and shadow.

"Ensure that I can engrave my runes on it and make it look like a true runeblade... not Frostmourne, but take inspiration from it... and I'll consider the offer." Sunset replied, though her own statement informed him of her desires, she needed a weapon to do the job and he likely knew someone who could make it to her specifications, otherwise he wouldn't have offered her such a thing, meaning Kairoz knew that if she was freed she'd fulfill her own dark desires.

"Excellent. I'll ensure that the blade is crafted before your arrival." Kairoz said, informing her that there was somewhere he and his allies gathered in, likely free from the people he was trying to avoid at the moment, to which he turned for a few seconds, like he was going to leave, before pausing as he glanced back at her, "In three days some blue dragons will attack the prison and attempt to use the prisoners to burn Dalaran to the ground, and during the prison break one of my allies, a rebellious blue dragon, will break your bonds and open your portal to freedom... once your out, well, we can discuss what needs to be done."

Sunset said nothing as Kairoz departed from the prison, his magic breaking apart while leaving nothing for the guards or anyone else to detect, before she returning to her sitting position and slipped her helmet on, as all she had to do now was wait for her new ally to arrive and she could set her dark plans into motion.

Comments

[midnight arrow]

Great chapter

[Xpparda]

Great chapter, i hope to see more scenes about twilight and Celestia

[zachary12]

nice work