It was a quiet Saturday afternoon around Canterlot High School. The students would be gone for the next two and a half to three months for their summer break, though the teachers and staff would return on Monday to slowly prepare for the following year of students. Construction workers had been called in to repair the Wondercolt statue that had been resting before the doors to the school, the horse having been destroyed in the third magical event the school had seen in the last year of studies. It was all because of some stolen magic and some peer pressure that forced a young girl to use something that she didn't understand and, well, the rest was history.

It would have remained a quiet afternoon had Sunset Shimmer and her friends stayed away from the school, but that was impossible as the base of the Wondercolt statue served as a magical portal between two very different worlds. Sunset's home world, the place where she had been born, laid on the other side of the portal, which was now opened almost all the time thanks to her friend Princess Twilight. The alicorn had, upon hearing of Sunset's distress at the Siren's arrival in the school some months ago, fashioned a device that allowed the portal to remain open, instead of having to wait nearly three years for it to open on its own. Sunset had resisted the temptation to return home for quite some time, choosing to remain with her new friends and finish her final years as a student of Canterlot High School before she even considered returning home.

Now, however, summer break had arrived and the girls were all talking about their plans, but Sunset had decided that it was time for her to return home, even briefly, and finally speak with her former mentor, Princess Celestia, once more.

"Are you sure you want to do this darling?" the purple haired girl, Rarity, asked her friend, who was standing beside the statue as they started saying their goodbyes to each other, "We can still go to the beach and have a relaxing summer, all while having the boys stare at us."

"I'm sure of it Rarity," the flame haired girl, Sunset, replied, patting her friend's shoulder, "I need to do this sooner or later, or I'll never be able to truly move on. I haven't seen Princess Celestia in three years, and I think its time that we finally close up our wounds. Besides, Princess Twilight will be there and I hear she's dying to know more about her human self... though its a shame that Twilight couldn't be here today."

The girls knew that Princess Twilight came from a place called Equestria, but Sunset never bothered to explain to them that Equestria was just one of the lands that existed across the whole world of Equus. There were multiple lands and kingdoms that existed across the entirety of Equus, like the Griffin territories, the Dragon territories, and even the Badlands, where she was sure that the Changelings had their base of operations. And then there was Tartarus, the land that acted as a prison for some of the most vile of creatures across Equus, such as the monstrous centaur known as Tirek.

Sunset shivered as she recalled how Princess Twilight had explained her battle with the demonic creature, where she had wielded the four of four alicorn princesses to combat Tirek, breaking the ground around them until she and her friends had turned the tables on him. She never fully explained how they had managed that feat, but there was never enough time for them to truly finish the tale, as more problems continued to pop up in Sunset's new world. She resolved to finish the tale when she arrived in the castle that Princess Twilight had been awarded for the defeat of the demonic creature, something that she wanted to see from the moment she had been told about it.

"We'll have a party when you return!' the pink haired girl, Pinkie Pie, exclaimed, blowing up a balloon before twisting it into the form of a sword, "Maybe a warrior party or something!"

"Um, Pinkie, I don't think we'll be needing such a party," Applejack said, tipping her hat up while glancing over at the party girl, "but we can plan something for when summer ends."

"Ooh, like a 'Going back to School Party'?" Pinkie exclaimed, excitement filling her eyes, "Oh, I have so many ideas that I can use that I can't wait for summer to end. But wait, if I want summer to end than I wont be able to party as much as I had planned for..."

Sunset had to resist the urge to laugh, because Pinkie was always being true to her random self and made no sense some times, which was fine with her. She glanced over at Futtershy, who was standing behind Applejack at the moment, and sent a smile her way, trying to calm her down before she left. And Rainbow Dash was fiddling with her guitar, clearly waiting to see Sunset left so she could get on with the practice session that the girls had planned. Sunset would have stayed to practice as well, but she needed to head into the portal so she could visit Princess Twilight and Princess Celestia.

"Look girls, I'll be gone for three months," Sunset reminded them, diverting the attention back to her for a moment, "Fluttershy has the book that I use to converse with Princess Twilight, so you'll have a way to contact me once I'm back in Equestria. And Pinkie, I really don't want to see a entry from you until tomorrow, so I have time to settle before replying."

Pinkie nodded and Sunset turned towards the portal, bracing herself as she stepped into the magic, letting it take her from this world and take her back to her home world. As she felt the magic around her she noticed something odd, almost as if winter had somehow gotten inside the portal's magic and her body distorted. She glanced back at the opening that lead to Canterlot High and noticed Pinkie freaking out, her body bringing about one of those tremors that she called her 'Pinkie Sense'. Sunset closed her eyes and wonder why it couldn't have come sooner, to warn her that something was wrong.

Though as that thought entered her mind she blacked out, letting the magic take her wherever it was dragging her.

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The next thing Sunset remembered was landing on the ground, but instead of finding the crystal ground that Princess Twilight had promised her she found snow all around her. There were dozens of trees and a worn out dirt path near her location, but she began to wonder exactly where she was if she hadn't gone home to Equus. She looked down at herself and found that she was looking the exact same as when she had left Canterlot High, which meant that the portal must have malfunctioned for something like this to have happened. Her hand reached for her forehead, though she wasn't expecting her hand to bump into something, which caused her to look up and find her unicorn horn attached to her once more.

She may not be in Equus or Earth anymore, but wherever she was had magic and had allowed her to have some access to her magical abilities, something she missed while attending Canterlot High.

She moaned and pulled herself off the ground, dusting the snow off of her body before looking around the immediate area to figure out where she was located. Based on what she could see around her landing point there wasn't much to go on in terms of landmarks, so she sighed and got on the dirt path. She figured that if she followed it long enough she would eventually be led someplace where she could get a map and figure out where she actually was. She silently hoped that the natives of this world had a school for magic, so she could figure out a way to open a temporary link to the connection between Equus and Earth and return home.

She followed the road for about thirty minutes, taking in the sights around her, before she came to a crossroads, with one direction heading to the west while the second was pointed to the east. There was a sigh post that had the names of various locations, such as someplace called 'Riften', 'Windhelm', and 'Whiterun', but none of them meant anything to her. Before she could decide which direction to take she heard the sound of marching and turned to her left, finding a small unit of soldiers coming her way. They were all dressed up in blue chainmail armor, while some of them carried what appeared to be large swords, axes, and what she assumed were warhammers.

Their leader was dressed differently than they were, as he was dressed up in a fur suit that seemed almost out of place among all the armor clad soldiers. Even from her distance she could feel that he had the air of authority around him, something that she was somewhat familiar with when she trained under Princess Celestia.

Then she heard the sound of another unit of soldiers coming from her right, causing her to turn and find a group of soldiers wearing what appeared to be steel suits of armor while some wore just leather armor. Unlike the other soldiers this unit was equipped in the same manner as their allies, as they each were carrying what appeared to be a single steel sword and shield. It was painfully clear that the second force was a well trained and well organized military force, though Sunset realized that if the two forces attacked each other she was caught between the two of them.

She considered walking back the way she came and finding another path to a town, but before she truly could decide on a course of action the chainmail wearing soldiers drew their weapons the moment they spotted the other force, who pulled their weapons out in return. Arrows flew between the two forces as she quickly backed up the road, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire as the two armies began to clash in front of her. Several soldiers dropped to the ground, their allies not even bothering to check on them at all, for a few minutes until a third unit of soldiers, armed like the organized group, flanked the chainmail soldiers.

The man glared at the soldiers around his own, apparently considering his options with his smaller force, before he opened his mouth to command his soldiers.

"ENOUGH!" the man shouted, stalling all the soldiers around him, even his enemies, "We are outnumbered. Let there be no more bloodshed today."

Sunset watched as the organized soldiers disarmed the chainmail wearing soldiers and bound their wrists, apparently taking them into custody , while the commander had his mouth bound shut as well. She would have turned around and done the other direction, back the way she came so she could figure out a new plan of attack for this strange world, until she turned up the road and found a few soldiers standing in front of her. She tried to leap back and get them out of her face, but one of them grabbed onto her arm and prevented her from going anywhere, which was seconds before she found her own hands bound.

The minute she began to protest that she was never a part of the madness she had seen she found the base of one soldier's sword smashed into her face, knocking her to the ground and forcing her to black out.

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"Ugh...where am I?"

That was what Sunset asked the moment reality finally returned to her, though when she looked around her immediate area she found she was in a jail cell. The leather bindings that had been placed around her wrists earlier, which was the last thing she remembered, had been replaced by iron bracers that kept her chained to her side of the cell. When she looked down at herself she found that whoever had captured her, against her will she mentally added, had removed her clothes and replaced it with worn out rags. Plus there was the matter of her cellmate, some poor soul that was also chained up to the opposite wall, but was somehow still dressed in a black robe.

"You are in Fort Neugrad, prisoner," the nearby guard replied, having heard her question and turned to look at her, "I don't know what you did to earn your place in this prison, Breton, but you and your cellmate will be heading to Helgen first thing tomorrow morning with the Stormcloaks that were brought in with you. I hope you enjoyed your trip to Skyrim, because its about to come to an end."

As the guard went about his rounds Sunset was stunned, not only was she in a completely foreign land, for the second time in her life it seemed, but she was also on death row. She had to wonder for a moment if karma was getting back at her for all the times she was rude and mean to the students of Canterlot High School, but decided that it couldn't be that simple. She had paid for her crimes against the school and even saved them from the Sirens, though none of that seemed to matter at this point. The guard had given her a valuable piece of information though, but she wondered how long it would remain relevant to her current situation.

"I'm definitely not in Equus anymore," Sunset said to herself, sighing before returning to her side of the cell.

"Equus...now that's a name I haven't heard in a while," her cellmate suddenly said, though Sunset was more surprised by how his voice sounded disturbing and evil at the same time, rather than being caught off guard that he could speak.

Sunset's body seemed to go cold as she recalled her mentor mentioning, in passing at the time, about an encounter she and her sister had with a certain demonic creature. Princess Celestia had mentioned how uncaring the creature had been towards the citizens of Equus and was obsessed by his desire to rule everything. A creature whose own brother had turned on him, so that the Princesses could devise a plan and imprison him in Tartarus, until he escaped to rain havoc on Equus once more, only to be stopped by Princess Twilight and her friends. She knew exactly who she was sharing a cell with, but all that thought did was fill her with absolute dread.

"Hello..." Tirek said, turning his eyes upon her, "...Equestrian..."