I did not fear Lord Tirek — never had. I could actually mock him to his face. It was true I was really not the best for Tirek… at least when I knew he was not be watching me. In all truth, Lord Tirek wasn’t even close to being good in any way. Which explained why he was the King of Tartarus; why he was what many of those creatures in the world above called ‘Satan’ or sometimes ‘Devil’. He liked to shout at his guards and soldiers, whether he was happy or angry. And when he was angry… well, no-one wants to see that.

But I was grateful to have been called upon by Tirek. He can be angry and swears a lot, he only cares about himself, and he really doesn’t smell so good, but Tirek is still my Lord, so I had no choice but to go and see him. I needed to respect him — after all, loyalty was essential to keeping my butt safe from being kicked out. I had a good life there because of him. After being a watcher for some years I was finally promoted to the role of soldier.

Still, being me — Sunset Shimmer — is not as easy as one may think. Being a raging she-demon might not exactly be what everybody wants out of life, but after dying you realize that you’ve gotten better after doing ‘bad stuff’.

I died in a fire. Pretty predictable, huh? I was a typical sixteen year old girl. I liked Nirvana. My grades at school were pretty average. I was reasonably happy with my situation. I had met a fine girl — I’ve forgotten her name after so much time burning in Tartarus — but we started dating. I wonder how she reacted once I was gone… it must have destroyed her.

Like I said, I was a typical teenager and part of my life was also making mistakes — big ones. It wasn’t about going to parties, liking girls, liking rock or something. It was about getting drunk and smoking cigarettes and getting into real big trouble in school. Yes, everyone could see I wasn’t exactly the teacher’s pet. But what can I do? That’s what fate chose for me. Well… what Queen Faust and Lord Tirek did actually. They are the ones who count your sins and decide if you go up or down.

Some end up being normal looking humans — the only thing’s that a scar of the cause of your dead will stay on your body forever. Others, like me, will be chosen to become demons. Demons aren’t ugly like you think. Okay my skin is red and my eyes are cat-like; I have pointy bat-like wings, sharp fangs, and claws; and I do love to give people a shit-eating grin. But I’m still awesome looking, I bet. I have some good looking clothes: my lucky leather jacket is still with me and I normally have it with me, wearing it with my usual yellow low-necked dress and my old short boots that came with me after dying.

And Tartarus is actually pretty nice. It’s like a really big city with all kinds of people, there’s the city and then the bridge to Tirek’s Lair, putting his lair a little away from people. Pretty much like New York. It doesn’t have cars — you have to walk to everywhere. But as a lot of people have wings, like me, that makes things easier. Everyone has their houses — some people that are from the same family live together and others choose to live together. It’s pretty normal. People talk to each other, they go for a walk, they fall in love — still we’re incapable of having children, after all you can’t put a innocent being in Tartarus — we even have a cinema… it has pretty old movies, but at least it’s something, right? Also we have a pasta restaurant that’s run by an Italian she-demon. Isn’t it amazing? Well at least my house is comfy and good for living.

I didn’t really think Heaven would suit me, even if I was good enough. Those angels wings… it just seems so… boring up there. At least here we have fire and spicy food… which I’ve gotten used to with time. But Lord Tirek eats food that he gets from the upworld through a portal, that lucky bastard…

Even if he was a bastard I was there to see him, in his lair. It was a castle — looked like one at least — a black big castle with a lot of windows. You had to go through a bridge to get there, passing the lava lake where Tirek’s Skeleton Dragon lived. Sans, the dragon, always hated me. Maybe because I sometimes used to throw rocks at him, chipping his bones, but

he’s tough enough to take almost anything and his bones regenerated pretty quickly.

But today was different. I decided to not get into trouble — I was probably in enough already. Lord Tirek had only called me here two times before: when I’d first arrived, and when my role had gone up for killing a Chupacabra — a very rare mythical animal that has high magic levels, which Tirek loves to feed off. That’s how I got to be a soldier, helping to keep harmony in Tartarus and only sometimes going up to see if any supernatural creature needs to be killed. But even with my ‘important’ role, my life in Tartarus was going to shit.

Tartarus is pretty simple: do shit and you’ll be punished. The thing is, I always manage to charm Tirek or his guards not to do it. My last bad action was for having a really bad fight with Trixie, an annoying and arrogant ex-‘magician’, just a little older than me. But I couldn’t handle myself: no one tells lies about Sunset Shimmer, not on my watch.

The other time I’d narrowly escaped punishment was for accidentally feeding the mail-man to Cerberus, the dog that guards Hell’s Silver Gate. And it wasn’t really my fault: I accidentally pushed him and he let a heavy delivery box fall onto Cerberus’ paw, and the got kinda mad… I think any fool could guess what happened next.

Well there were a plenty more — after all I’ve been here for five whole years. And Lord Tirek already said that I’m on the verge of getting kicked out. I would rather get killed again than let that happen. When it’s done, Tirek sucks your powers and immortality and releases you into the upworld without any chance of running from humans, changing your demon appearance… in other words: you will get killed by humans that are scared about you or die in some weeks without a place to stay and live. And what happens if you die and you’re already dead? You go to the land of forgotten and stay in nothingness. Forever, until the world ends.

I didn’t want that — no one did. So I was hoping that I hadn’t been called to his lair about this… because if that was the reason, I was going to scream. Why couldn’t I stop being bad even after going to what everyone called ‘Hell’? I don’t know why — it’s just something inside me, I guess. And I don’t believe anyone could change what I am…

I sighed as I entered through the two big silver doors to the castle, receiving suspicious looks from both guards standing in the door and another one from Sans. The dragon was poking his head out of the lava a bit, looking at me with his big empty eyes which creeped me out.

The castle was as giant on the inside as it was on outside. The walls were, surprisingly, white on the inside, with some windows here and there. There were paintings of Lord Tirek and King Sombra, his co-worker and old friend for eons, who helped when Tirek needed to go out into the upworld. The pictures always captured them with a very serious expression. They each had golden frames with intricate details, and they always had a red or black background. There was an enormous candle chandelier made of crystals and gems hanging from the ceiling, illuminating the room — a luxury that could be seen from all around the castle to illuminate it. Even though Tirek preferred the dark, Sombra decided to add it — probably only because he loved gems so much.

I walked into the hall and gulped, feeling like I was watching by those paintings. And then I faced the big golden door that led to Tirek’s throne room. I swear I prayed to Tirek himself, to Queen Faust, Miss Death, everyone you could imagine. I didn’t wanted to go, not now. “Alright Sun, keep it cool,” I murmured to myself and I pushed open the big doors. Okay, so maybe you can tell… I might have bent the truth a little at the start: I am afraid of Lord Tirek. Everyone should be.

“Finally! I was starting to think you were afraid to come!” Tirek shuffled on his big silver throne that had three fire rubies spiked into the backboard. Sombra was reading something, seated on the smaller throne at his side, his face a picture of boredom. “Be welcome and feel home Sunset Shimmer, I’m very… happy to see you here.” He flashed a grin that gave me shivers. “Sombra, please leave. Sunny here and I need to talk alone.” Tirek’s yellow eyes glowed. Sombra just got up and left.

Anyone would be surprised if I told them that everyone but him was a human or demon. Tirek was nothing more, and nothing less than a centaur. A really big one. That’s why this castle must have had such big doors and stuff — at least his stuff is big. Why was he was like that? Some people say that he was cursed to stay like that, and that once Tirek had been a human, but he’d done something so bad that Gaia, the creator of everything and mother of Faust, decided to curse him and make him King of Tartarus. So he was staying there forever, doing his duties.

“Uh… what do need me here for exactly?” I began with fear, beating my wings a bit.

“Mmm…” Tirek scratched his white beard. “I don’t know. You can tell me actually. Why would I call you, Sunny, here?” he grunted.

I quivered. I wasn’t really going to say what I was thinking. “Eh… maybe to tell be what a great soldier I am?”

“Oh, of course!” Tirek exclaimed in a sarcastic tone, filling the room with echoes. “How could I be such a fool?” He rolled his eyes. “Well… let me guess… you don’t know the rules or something? Sunset Shimmer, I’ve had it up to here with you!” He gestured with his hands up to above his horns. “You had a fight with another soldier, you killed my mail man and Sombra complained for weeks about how he didn’t get his mail from the upworld with those comics of crystal people or gem or something. You bad-mouthed Commander Starlight Glimmer and you’re constantly mocking me!” he shouted beating his fist against the throne’s arm. I could smell his bad halitosis — it smelled like dead fish, ugh. “And I don’t smell that bad! Because of you now I have this,” Tirek leaned on a little table next to his throne fetching a perfume and applying it. “Now am I good enough?!” he said, almost throwing the little scent bottle, but in the end put back on its place.

“Well… sorry?” I shrugged. What else could I say? Lord Tirek didn’t like my mocking tone. “I mean that: I’m truly sorry, I never meant those things! I-I can’t be thrown away if that’s the idea that you have in mind!” I exclaimed, crossing my arms and pouting.

“Looks like you guessed what I’m thinking of doing, Miss Shimmer. I’m tired of giving you second chances, third chances… maybe even twelfth chances…” he said between his teeth and scratched his beard for a moment. “But you are a good soldier.” He got up, making me feel small. “I can’t just throw you away like that.”

“Yeah, I have my charm.” I pretended to be proud of myself, puffing out my chest with pride and giving Tirek a shit-eating smirk.

Tirek frowned. “It looks like you really wanna have a walk in the upworld, huh?” he threatened me, and I shut up for my own good. “Well, well, well… I have a deal for you.” He smirked, with glowing eyes.

“Stop doing that thing, please. It’s creepy,” I responded.

He murmured a curse and grunted.

“So what’s this deal of yours? Does it involve me not getting my butt kicked out of Tartarus? Because I’m all in for that.” I blinked.

“Great,” Tirek sat back on his throne with a big thud in the red cushion. He snapped his fingers, making a fancy cushioned chair appear. “Sit back. We’re gonna talk.” And so I did. Tirek coughed. “I have one option for you, but first some rather bad news: Starlight Glimmer was banned. She showed disloyalty towards me and so I had no other option.”

“Meh, didn’t really like her anyways.” I shrugged with my arms crossed and rolled my eyes. Starlight was very arrogant woman who always wanted everything to be exactly how she wanted it. “But who’s gonna be in the Commander role now for the Tartarus Army? Things are hostile between us and the Vampires — what if we have a war?” I frowned.

“That’s where you come in,” he said. My eyes shined.

The Commander of Tirek’s Army lived in luxury in a big mansion in the end of the city, next to the bridge. That explained why it was so empty there. But I could have everything I needed in there! Even upworld food from Tirek, since he always gave Starlight some. There’s even a TV with all the channels you could wish for — not like the five channels the rest of us were stuck with, three in white and black, and another two just plain boring. Ah, Starlight’s amazing life could be mine!

I grinned in my seat, imagining everything I could get from it. But Tirek snapped his fingers, grabbing my attention again. “You think I’ll just put you there? You know exactly what you gotta do to get there. Carry out a mission, be successful on it for a period of at least… three months and prove me you did it. And that will prove to me you’re loyal enough to stay. I’ll forgive all your mistakes in here and make you my new Commander,” Tirek explained playing with his fingers and giving me a little grin.

“And what’s that mission? C’mon give me your worst,” I smirked. I truly would do anything to stay and even more to be a Commander!

“Kill a human,” he said simply.

“For no reason?” I asked, curious. Why I would do such thing without any reasons?

“Not so much. She made a weird magic-sucking device that’s affecting my watchers that live in and sneak around her town.” Tirek let out a big tired sigh. “The worst thing is: a watcher discovered that this human girl has no idea how to close it, and no idea how to destroy that magic-sucking collar. It’s way too powerful for a human to control.” He crossed his arms with a raised eyebrow. “You think you can do better than those stupid watchers? Perhaps I should have sent you the first day I was warned about that girl — after all, you have more power than watchers — any demon soldier does. So what do you say? Wanna stay or wanna go?”

I quivered for a moment, wondering if I could do it. “Well… who’s this girl you’re talking about?”

Tirek smiled and leaned back against the backboard again. “Twilight Sparkle. She’s at CC, Canterlot College. She’s studying science and isn’t so old — just nineteen.” Tirek laughed in a sarcastic tone. “I really don’t know how and why such naive girl would make that device.”

“Maybe she’s just curious? Must be a huge nerd,” I suggested.

“Curiosity killed the cat, that’s what they say, huh?” He laughed at his own joke. I just sat quietly and rolled my eyes. Tirek coughed. “Everything is settled then: you will be her roommate. Don’t worry — it’s the beginning of the year and I signed you up to study the theory of music or something like that. I know you love that music stuff. You disguise yourself as a human, go there, don’t let your magic be sucked, happily kill Twilight Sparkle, destroy the device, and bring me the pieces to prove you did it. So do we have a deal?” His eyes glowed as he held out his hand to me.

I didn’t have to even think about it — I was going to do it, for my own good. I shook his hand. “It can’t be that hard, can it?” I mocked.

Tirek nodded softly. “Good work. You’re a wise demon Sunset, I can tell.” He got up and snapped his fingers making me fall back onto the ground and get up muttering curses. “Come back in three months, no more, no less. I’ll give you the reward. Also… bring the device. I wanna have a look at it,” he said and I nodded. “Hell’s Gate is open for you. Disguise yourself and go. At Canterlot College, you will find everything you need.”

“Heh. I seriously doubt I’m going to need all that time, but if you insist,” I said, proud of myself. I turned around, ready to go, but Tirek called me and I stopped turning back to face him.

“If you betray me in any way while you’re there… don’t even think about coming back. Do you hear me?” Tirek said in a threatening tone.

I just nodded and walked out of there, saying nothing more.

I walked out the castle and took flight to the Hell’s Gate, at the front of the city, where the wisest people and demons lived since they were from eras that were so far back in time that they weren’t even remembered anymore.

Cerberus had probably been given a message from Lord Tirek, so he let me pass. I petted Cerberus for a while. He was actually a good dog, despise the fact he looked like a monster — a three headed dog-like monster.

I left him and walked to a portal to the human world. There were various different portals, each one to a place only people with the correct authorization can go. Good life here we come. This is going to be so easy, I thought with a smile before I jumped.

Yeah, I said that to myself because I didn’t know Twilight Sparkle yet. I didn’t know what I was jumping into. I guess being Sunset Shimmer isn’t as easy as you might think, right? Goddamn right.

Author's Note:

And so it begins

Demons! You know I love them :3 I have big plans with this and I can't wait to continue it, I mean... Sunset is too good to write and I love her af

Hope you all like this! Thanks Articuno, VitalSpark and Exterminate for editing it Next two chapters is when things get really good :3 Can't wait to show the ships I got to this one