(For those who doesn’t understand this part later in this chapter it’s recommended that you read the edits in the previous chapter)

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Celestia gazed as the sky changed from light blue to a warm orange-purple to a star-spotted indigo within her tower. Her chains had locked her facing away from the setting sun, (which Luna or a group of High Level unicorns would take care in her absence), so the change in colors felt as if the sky was altering its own appearance.

Such a sight reminded her of both Sunset and Twilight.  Both were students who had a lust for power and knowledge…

“…they also didn’t really care for friendship in beginning…so did I mess up?” Celestia wonder.

However, Sunset wasn’t as modest or noble as Twilight was.  Had Twilight been the one caught in the dark magic library wing, she would’ve got down on her hind legs and cried for mercy in front of Celestia.

Celestia wondered if she had given Sunset Shimmer too much slack in the past which eventually led to her becoming power-hungry.

“Well….I did let her raze the school with an enormous plant.”

Then the Princess of the Sun shook her snout. “Oh Celestia, stop blaming yourself for everything that goes wrong…You’re not the best teacher or princess, but that wouldn’t have made Sunset a better candidate. She didn’t want to see that reality and ran away – so it was her choice…And now….I wished that I could have hurled Shimmer back though the portal…”

When they first met, Celestia didn’t want to believe the clueless Shimmer was just like Sunset.  Had she taken care of her studies more or maybe she had-

“Wait a minute….how the heck was the portal opened?!” Celestia shouted, only to remember Flash describing to her how Shimmer opened the portal.

“Ah…dark magic…” Celestia frowned, glancing at her chains, the elastic metal around her wings, and the crystals sprinkled on her horn.

“I wish I remembered the type of spells….then maybe I could free myself” Celestia said.  Since Nightmare Moon’s banishment, she seen to it had burned every text that contained dark magic.  Though some spells have escaped the scroll-burning as Celestia turned her attention to other matters than dark magic.

“If I ever get out of this…I’m going to…to…” Celestia began angrily and then stopped, calmly resuming “I’ll just send Shimmer back into the portal and lock the mirror in some bunker in the San Palomino Desert…surrounded by Twenty  hundred guards….”

“You can forget about Shimmer, sister – she’s dead.”

Celestia lifted her head and glanced all around her seeing Luna, as a filly, flying through a hole in the castle.

“Luna! What are you doing here?” Celestia wondered, “Who is keeping the Crystal Empire safe? Where is-”

As soon as Luna hit the floor, the sound of gear turning could be heard. Then it gave away, causing her to fly upwards.

“Careful – some of the traps in this castle are still active.” Her sister advised.

“Does art thou remember which ones?” Luna asked, causally.

Celestia shook her head. “None that remember off the top of my crown or horn.  But why are you here?”

“Shimmer has fallen.  I had seen it done with my own eyes.” Luna explained. “As for the Crystal Empire…”

“Are you really certain that-?” Celestia urged, leaning over her ‘little’ sister

“She’s dead!” Luna bellowed “Tia, we must free you now-”

“Nay sister – this is dark magic have been bound by, not high level unicorn magic.” Celestia shot back.

“Then I must try!” Luna shouted back, closing her eyes and causing mist to seep from her eyes and her horn to glow in purple and green.

But before the spell could take full effect, Celestia leaned in and swung her crystal-sprinkled horn at Luna’s tiny horn.

“Ow!” Luna screamed “Thou ask why thy did that!”

Celestia leaned in “Luna….we swore not to use dark magic for the better when you returned. And even with my horn disabled…I’m sensing trace of dark magic on your horn before you came to rescue me.”

Filly Luna frowned and then trembled.

“Luna…did you used dark magic on Shimmer?”

Luna was silent for a while before repeating “Shimmer is dead; what difference does it make?”

“Luna!” Celestia roared upsettingly “Dark magic does not cease evil – it advances it and corrupts the user beyond redemption! Have you not learned anything from Nightmare Moon?!”

“Pfft.” Luna replied, irritated “I saved Equestria and vanquished a menace.  Besides, I used dark magic on a cloud….not myself.”

“Shimmer could be further corrupted! Remember Sombra? When we came to Equestria we sought out to save the crystal empire first – instead we unutilized dark magic and Sombra was able to exile it! We. Messed. Up. Because of Dark Magic!” Celestia yelled, furious. “I made it clear when I wanted dark magic to be cleansed from Equestria.  Using it to kill Shimmer is no excuse.”

Luna wanted to point out that because of dark magic, Shimmer hadn’t been able to best her and imprison her (unlike Celestia), but the indigo filly scrunched her mouth and grumbled “Fine…I’ll just get you out since I’m here anyway.”

Luna started up her dark magic spell, with Celestia giving a disappointing look back. Then again if Twilight was here, she would want to use dark magic too, unless she could use the Elements of Harmony.

“Luna…when you said Shimmer fell…how did she fall?” Celestia asked as Luna was hard at work on removing the dark crystal’s on Celestia’s horn.

Luna paused and then said “From a height.”

“I mean…will she get back up?” Celestia said.

“Nay. I am certain.” Luna repeated, finishing the last of the crystals on Celestia’s horn.

“Luna…Aggression does not cease a dark presence….it increases it. Only the magic of friendship can cease it.” Celestia lectured softly.

“We couldn’t use against Shimmer when she is the bearer of an Element.” Luna stated working on the Eleatic metal wrapped around Celestia’s wings.

“No…I hoped we could though….” Celestia sighed

“Princess Crepusculara Shimmer!”

Just as the heard Shimmer’s voice in the crystal tower, the royal sisters could hear Shimmer’s voice shake though the castle wall and freeze then in their places for a while.

Luna’s heart dropped while Celestia gazed out into the horizon, though a window towards the source of voice, within the unicorn range in the dance

“Luna…hurry up…” Celestia whispered. “Shimmer is alive.”

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Shimmer’s hate of this world grew with her throbbing wounded body, free of her rock prison that had apparently disintegrated and melted around her before contact with the ground. After the humiliation, the acid rain, and the fall within a rock prison, she was weakened to the point where she could only lie beneath a thick layer of chilling snow of the unicorn range, mumbling curses at Luna as the blizzard within the mountains began top pile more snow on top of her.

The demonic alicorn was close to freezing to death, yet the will to get revenge on Luna and this world of horses kept alive.

With every ounce of hate she was throwing at herself and her enemies, she could feel her strength being restored.  So she kept at it, her anger helping her rise up from the chilling snow and the biting blizzard above it.

Shimmer briefly considered going back home, back to the human world.  Maybe she wasn’t meant to rule this world….maybe she was meant to be at home as a fearless student who was ready to prove her worth…

“No….No…” Crepusculara angrily hissed to herself.  “I have only been underestimated!”

She didn’t see herself as worthless, nor as a one who would give up easily.  She could only imagine herself at the top of everything – she had gone too far as person dedicated to power to throw away her progress and go back.”

“I...am…” mist formed around Shimmer’s eyes as if they were tears… when she opened them, the black and green irises were replaced with a glowing emerald glow…

“Princess Crepusculara Shimmer!” she shouted. Then a blinding light exploded from her eyes and her horn, sent snow flying in every direction, creating a huge crater within the mountain.

Once the snow cleared, Crepusculara was revealed to be no more an alicorn.  In the place of the alicorn stood a tall humanoid figure, her skin in chilling blue tone.  Her once fiery mane was now hung like a patch of vines running down from her hair in the colors acid-green and shadowy purple.

Crepusculara Shimmer’s dagger-like eyes opened up and gazed upon her new body.  It was completely anthropological, partially covered up by a tattered skirt and separate upper-garment revealing her belly, her back and her limbs. She opened and closed her clawed hands, for she hand never had hands in a long time.  Her legs seemed human, yet from the knee down they were furred, muscular, and ended in powerful hoofs.   Behind her Crepusculara saw bat-like wings spanning outwards and a tail below them.

In addition to that, Crepusculara felt a tingle coming from her forehead.  Her claws went up to it and she found out she was touching her horn.

“This is an interesting development…” Crepusculara hissed before taking flight though the blizzard with her bat wings.

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Shining tore through his books, furious that he couldn’t find anyway spells on changing his out of place appearance.  He couldn’t revert to high level unicorn spells because those did nothing on Shimmer’s age-changing spell.

“Um…Shining.” Squeaked Cadence from behind him.

“Not now…” Shining replied.  His eyes had dark circles under then his mane was mess, and he was surrounded by several books.

“You look like…”

“Yes I look like a really cute pony that needs sleep, dear.” Shining replied not taking his eyes off the book.

“I was going to say you look like Twilight.” Cadence giggled.

Shining grunted, yet a smile broke out on his face. Then he could see Luna, still an alicorn filly, and Celestia stride into the library wing.

“I have to agree with Cadence - apparently I though your sister had returned from this seeing whole mess.” Teased Celestia.

Shining rushed over to Celestia a bowed before her.

“You majesty…” Said Shining “Please can you turn me back into my former self? I’m a laughing stock among the guards here!”

“That is unfortunate news Shining but I fear that I cannot turn you back to what you once were with tapping into Dark Magic to undo Crepusculara’s Spells.”

“Crepusculara?” Shining wondered.

“It’s Shimmer’s new title.” Luna explained.

“Auntie Celestia.” Candace asked “What about the ponies in the Crystal Empire?”

“I cannot be sure of their status, though I know that Shimmer would want to only conquer them, not destroy them.”

“And Twilight?” Shining asked.

“I’m sorry…but I don’t know where I teleported that mirror. I don’t even know if she has returned or succeed in getting the other Sunset Shimmer.” Celestia admitted. “And with Shimmer recovering it’s too dangerous to head out into the night. At least no civilians other than the Crystal ponies seem to be involved.”

At the mention of that Luna mumbled “Well…actually…”

“Yes Luna?” Celestia asked a look of worry on her face.

“Remember what you said about needing to use dark magic to turn Shining Armor and Princess Cadence back into their old selves…” Luna said, trying to avoid eye-contact with her sister.

“Yes…go on.” Celestia urged

“Sister, easily today a pony that was at the wrath of being…consumed…by Shimmer…and I saved her…”

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As soon Shimmer took to the sky she practiced using dark magic on the nearby clouds.  She was pleased to see them rain a gallon of acid into the snow bellow. Then she started to create weapons such as swords and maces from rocks using her horn (She was disappointed she couldn’t make a Barrette Colt .25 Sniper Rifle).  She swooped down to the forest at the base of the mountains, slicing trees in half with the edges of her wings and her new found claws.

However, her experimenting was short lived as she could see figure in the rushing straight towards her.

At first she though it was Celestia, judging by its alicorn body. But as the figure drew closer, she could see a milky, golden streak trailing behind its head and flank. The figure was in a shade of grey and approaching Shimmer had high speeds.

Before Shimmer could fly off, the alicorn rammed into her and pinned her to forest floor.

“Shim…mar…” hissed the alicorn in a low, droopy voice.  Shimmer’s hear heart dropped when she gazed into the eyes of the alicorn – they were golden and cross eyed, as if they were a reptile that suffered dizziness.  In addition to that, the cutie mark was of bubbles in a form of a muffin-shaped constellation and Shimmer could only remember one specific pony with bubbles from earlier that day.

“You! You’re that Blondie-messenger-pony!” Crepuscularsa cried.

“No! I am not Blondie…I am Bad Dream Ditzy Doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”  Growled the alicorn, displaying its fangs

“More like dreamy Dim-witted Derpy Poo.” Murmured Crepusculara.

In anger, Ditzy reeled her hooves back. Crepusculara teleported as they stuck the ground where she once was.

Crepusculara reappeared next to Ditzy’s side and gave her a powerful kick to her snout.

Ditzy snarled in fury and pointed her horn at Crepusculara. Out came a gold bolt than Crepusculara evaded.  The bolt struck a tree and melted the tree into a bubbling soapy pit. It even smelled like soap.

“Two can play at that game.” Hissed Crepusculara, running with hoof-like legs around the forest with Ditsy in pursuit.

Eventually she came across a medium size rock. Crepusculara pick it up and transformer it into a glowing spear.

When Ditzy was close enough, Crepusculara threw the spear straight into Ditzy, where it went half way into the center of her chest.

Crying out a hurt neigh, Ditzy struggled to keep her massive alicorn body in balance.  Crepusculara picked up two twigs with her claws, transforming it into maces and dealt a blow to Ditzy’s

Ditzy went flying into the air, and upon her decent she skidded a long ways away to a stop, violently knocking down trees and throwing dirt, wood, and plats up into air roughly a mile away from Crepusculara.

Crepusculara followed the clearing that Ditzy had caused to her resting point.  Lying down in the dirt, The alicorn breathed weakly as it lifted its hurt head and blindly shot a magic blot at Shimmer

The bolt stuck one of Shimmer’s maces. It fell out of her claw and dissolved into sweet smelling and steamy bits of mouthwatering muffin bits

With her claw freed, Crepusculara clutched Ditzy by the mane. She held her free mace ready to shatter the alicorn’s skull –

Then Crepusculara stopped, felling an odd, yet familiar tingle in her body.

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Celestia felt it too in her throne room.

Without bothering to tell her guards she galloped to the balcony and looked out into the distance.

“The mirror,” She gasped.  Her trances of magic were still connected to the mirror hours after she blindly teleported it.  And the fact that she would come to sense such trace of magic now could mean one possible thing; the mirror was used.

But if she could sense it then so could Crepusculara Shimmer.

Celestia closed her eyes and began to concentrate on its exact location. After that she noted to alert the guard to secure ponies from that location.

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The first thing that Sunset noticed that when she walked out from the portal was that ether the gravity was inverted or she was upside down.

She crashed horn first into grass. Twilight rushed over and helped her up, also placing Sunset’s element of harmony back into her backpack.

Sunset gasped at where they were. To their left was a huge roaring river leading into a waterfall. To their right was a huge clearing leading into a dark forest.

“Neighagra Falls.” Flash said, coming up from behind Sunset with Spike. “They always said it was a beauty at night.”

“Yeah…” Sunset agree trotting close to the roaring white-and-blue river. Combined with the constellations above, it had a mystical feel in its nature.

“Pretty nice welcoming, huh?” Spike said.

Sunset smiled yet faded.  “To now think that I was going to rule this land once with an iron fist…was once…impossible…”

Sunset took a seat by the rushing water as Spike walked up to her. Meanwhile Twilight and Flash chatted to themselves.

“So…it’s…weird…that you were once demon but now…I feel safer around you.” Spike stated.

“What did I do?” Sunset questioned.

“Actually it what you are going to do; You’re take down Shimmer.”

“I don’t wanna talk about this…” Sunset said

“You don’t?” Spiked wondered

“No – Shimmer meant nothing to me before this and I don’t want her to mean something after this.”

“Okay…so what are you planning to do after this?” Spiked asked.

Sunset paused for a while, glancing at her hooves and her tail. She hadn’t realized she had no trouble feeling like a pony again. “Maybe I’ll be writer, since I hate math and computers.”

“Me too…but what’s a computer?”

“It’s something you’ll love, only if has internet or a game.”

“Ah…it’s a human thing right?”

Sunset looked into the sky, tracing invisible constellations with her eyes “I can’t decide if I’m a human or a pony thing. I feel like I’m always explaining one of them to other. I look almost like an always an alien, even after all what I had done.”

“Well, you’re a pony now.” Spike stated flicking a stone into the rushing river.

Twilight and Flash came up to Sunset’s side. “We should get going and start making our way back to Canterlot. Princess Luna ought to be there. ”

“Can’t we teleport back?” Sunset asked.

“I’m too far away to do that…and I didn’t bring a map.” Twilight looked around. “Whatever Celestia did, she sure put it in the least populated place.”

“So…we can’t even get help?” Sunset asked.

“Nope – we’ll be walking to the nearest place that has chariot stand...though…where would that be?” Flash said.

“Either the Crystal Empire or the Hollow Shades village.” Spike stated, trying to remember the map of Equestria as best as he could.

“To Hollow Shades it is!” Twilight declared and they began to trot to the forest.

Just then something caught Shimmer’s eye in the night sky.  Though it was moving towards them, she couldn’t tell its exact shape.

As it got closer she could see glowing emerald eyes, bat like-wings and claws reaching out.  There appeared to be hair flowing behind it and there was tiny horn stuck jutting out of its hair.

“Incoming!” Sunset shouted. Twilight, Flash and Spike saw the incoming create head toward them.

Before one of them could say anything else the creature hulled what appeared to be spiked ball at them.

Twilight saw it and telelported herself and her three friends a meter away as the ball impacted the ground where they once stood and exploded. The creature snarled and flew back into the night sky.

“What the heck was that?” Spike bellowed

As he said that the creature made a shape U-turn in the sky and was flying back toward them, this time launching multiple glowing disks from her claws.

“Run!” Flash shouted and the ponies started to gallop in the opposite direction, dodging explosions on either side of them.

“Cower you want you pathetic tiny horses!” Chortled the creature in a demonic tone“Or face the fury of Crepusculara Shimmer!”

“That’s the other me!?” Shouted Sunset.

“Beats me - if she is, she definitely got a new name.” Twilight called back, barley dodging a disk that cut few hairs from her mane.

“And a new body!” Flash added.

“And a new magic!” Spike shriek, almost tripping as a disk exploding in the ground in front of him.

As they continued to run away from Shimmer as fast as they could, Sunset could hear a fait hum emitting from her saddlebag.  Glancing at it she could see a burly outline of the crown glowing inside it.

“Oh, not again!” Sunset groaned

“What again?” Twilight asked.

Crepusculara saw the glowing outline of the crown as well. She cast a magical disk and aimed it at Sunset’s side.

Sunset gave a shriek as the disk cut through her saddlebag and her skin. She tripped and collapsed on her side, staring at the clean cut red cut running from her cutie mark to her neck.  As it was starting to bleed, Sunset remembered the crown.

She could see it a few feet away from her in the grass.  And she could see that Crepusculara Shimmer was already hovering over it.

“No!” Sunset screamed.  

She teleported to the crown and desperately grabbed on one end of it with her teeth.

Crepusculara’s claws yanked the other end, causing the pony and the monster to engage in a tug of war. And as they did the element glowed brighter and brighter.

Crepusculara summoned a mace from one of her claws.  She swung it at Sunset, causing her to lose her grip on the crown.

Sunset painful fell to grown, feeling her skull almost ready to crack and a tooth missing.  But it wasn’t over as Crepusculara kicked Sunset onto her to back and forced her powerful hoof-tip leg on to Sunset neck’s, adding pressure to it with each second.

“And when I’m done with you, I’m going rob every element from each of their bearers. And then I’ll go back home…with a real army!” Crepusculara announced levitating the crown in her hand.

Sunset gasped, losing air quickly. “A...a...act…”

“I can’t hear yoooooooou….” Chimed Crepusculara.

“Action….speaks...louder…” Sunset wheezed. Then she fired an intently bright beam into Crepusculara’s face.

Crepusculara growled and stumbled back bit, her eyes cooked by the intense beam of light Shimmer had projected.  She lifted her leg off of Sunset and dropped the glowing crown.

Meanwhile, Flash socked Crepusculara right in the face with his forehoof, and then bucked her in the belly. The Crepusculara fell to her knees, allowing Flash to dash back to Sunset, who carried the glowing crown in her mouth.

“No takedown is complete without a ‘Flashbang’…” Grinned Flash. “Can you walk?”

“I’ll try…” stated Sunset limping towards Flash.

“That’s not good enough.” Flash replied, allowing Sunset to throw herself on his back as he galloped towards a nearby forest.

“Just hang on – Twilight and Spike are just up ahead in a forest.” Flash assured, but all he got a response was groaned of pain from Sunset.

“Sweet Celestia, help her…” Flash prayed.

Behind him, Crepusculara had recovered and was flying toward them, claws opened and ready to snatch the crown and slice the two ponies into red ribbons of flesh and fur.  She was close to yanking Flash by the tail when…

“SHIMMER!”

Crepusculara look up I the sky above her, finding none other than ‘Bad-Dream Ditzy’ Zipping through the star and dashing right for her.

“Oh, that mother of a-” Crepusculara hissed, before being rammed into the ground by Ditzy, sending up a wave of dirt in all directions.

The two ferociously clashed, with Shimmer slashing at Ditzy with her claws, and Ditzy pounding Shimmer and biting her with razor Sharp teeth.

As the two abominations fought their own bloody battle, Flash galloped, still carrying Sunset and the crown, into the forest as the moon rose higher and higher into the night sky.