Sunset awoke in an old, marble castle. The place was in ruins, mostly destroyed. She got up and walked around. She was confused. Before it had felt like she was leaving, but she was still here in Equestria.

The castle ruins were huge and covered in darkened, somewhat burned marble. There were torn tapestries everywhere. The tapestries were covered in too many burns to tell what the symbols were on them.

As she walked through the castle, she began to feel a familiarity about the place. The castle looked and felt very familiar. She couldn’t place where she had seen it before. She didn’t know why. All she knew was that she had been here before, so many years ago. The place was in ruins now, yet she had almost felt that she knew what it looked like when there were no ruins. She couldn’t figure it out.

She continued to walk until she came upon several sets of armor that were laid across the ground with ashes in them. She walked closer to them and found that the ashes had a strange smell to them. The armor sets were almost completely clean, the only thing on them was dust. She reached inside the armor and grabbed the ashes. Upon pulling some out, she took a better smell.

Her eyes widened as it smelled like flesh. She jumped from the armor, wiping away some of the dust the armor had on it. “What is going on here?” she questioned as she threw the ashes to the side, “That is ash, yet it smells like flesh. It’s not burnt, so what is this?”

Her eyes widened more as she saw a symbol on the armor that had been revealed by her movement. She walked back to the armor, hoping what she was seeing was a trick of the eye. Getting close, she wiped off more dust, and her fears became reality. This was an armor of the solar guard. Now she knew why this place had seemed familiar. This was Celestia’s castle.

On pure instinct, she got up and ran. Using her old memories she quickly found the stairs. She had to know. Her mind was racing faster than her legs could take her up the stairs. She hoped with all her life that her fears were for not.

Once she reached the top of the long staircase, she looked around quickly. Her memories had worked well. She had made it to Celestia’s room. She came upon Celestia’s door. Reaching for it, she felt hesitation in herself. She didn’t want to know the possibility, but she had to know. Forcing herself to grab the doorknob, she opened it and stepped into the room.

The room was torn apart on the inside. The place had suffered more damage than the rest of the castle. Yet none of that mattered, for what Sunset saw lying at the balcony flooded her eyes with tears. She ran over to the balcony, completely ignoring strange-looking chains that laid across the floor. She arrived and found the decapitated body of Celestia.

Seeing it, she picked up the old, decayed corpse and let loose the tears in a torrent of emotions. “What happened here? How did everything change so much?”

As she let loose more tears, the strange-looking chains began to rise like serpents ready to strike. Without warning, Sunset was ripped from the body and pulled into the air as the strange-looking chains wrapped tightly around her body. She could barely breathe, she could barely see.

Soon somepony walked into the room. “You want to know what happened here? Where have you been? Hiding in some hole in the ground?” a mare laughed aloud. Sunset couldn’t see the mare as her eyes were being forced shut by the strange-looking chains.

“What do you mean?” Sunset struggled to say, “What happened here?”

The mare smiled wickedly, “Celestia is dead, Luna is dead, Cadence is dead, Shining Armor is barely hanging on. And poor, poor little Twilight. She suffered the most.” Suddenly her eyes widened upon seeing the right half gem necklace as it hanged out of the wrapping. “I see what is going on here.” She sent out a strong shock wave of dark magic. Once she confirmed her suspicions, she flew up to Sunset.

Sunset still couldn’t see her, but she could feel the mare's breath on her neck as the mare began to smell her. “What are you doing?” Sunset questioned.

“Oh, you stink of light magic. There's so much covering you. Which means that you aren’t really here.” The mare snapped her fingers and the strange-looking chains transformed into chain blades.

Sunset screamed in agony as they began to slowly tear through her flesh. Sunset in complete agony. Blood was pouring from her small cuts at a fast rate.

“You are from the future,” The mare purposed as she waved her hand, and the chain blades started moving ever so slowly across Sunset’s body causing her to scream more, “It's letting you look into the past.”

Sunset was confused. What was this mare talking about? Sunset was in too much pain to realize what the mare was really talking about. She barely could keep herself awake from all the pain she was feeling.

The mare reached over and grabbed the right half gem necklace as hanged in the air. It’s glow began to dim. “Returning back to your own time, or other world are you?” Her smile became gigantic as her fangs showed.

Without warning, Sunset was sent into a screaming fit as the mare pulled Sunset’s head and dug her fangs deep into Sunset’s neck. After a few minutes of Sunset’s screaming and the mare’s drinking, the mare pulled back her fangs, taking in deep breaths. She could take hearing those tears no more. “Well, fine, if you want to be such a meany about it. That was quite an enjoyable meal.” She looked upon Sunset’s dazed face. “Oh don’t give me that look. If I was a stallion you would be in a much worse predicament.”

Sunset could barely hear her words as her mind was slowly coming back to the world. The chain blades had fallen some during the moment. She began to vaguely see what the mare looked like as her eyes were still blurry. She could make out that the mare was licking her lips of blood, most likely Sunset’s. Soon the blur began to clear more. She still couldn't make out all the features of the face, only that the mare's coat was dark lavender in color. “Who are you?” Sunset struggled.

“That’s not going to matter, you're vanishing. Heading back to your time,” The mare leaned in and placed one final lick on her neck, “And since you gave me quite the meal, I will let you have something in return.” She grabbed the gem once more and filled it with dark magic.

Sunset began to feel very different. Something was very wrong. The fading felt very different. “What are you doing?”

“You have been looking into the past so much, how about you look into the future? Take this as a gift. I set the time coordinates for you. I hope you enjoy what you see.”

The mare's voice began to grow quieter as Sunset began to leave there. Where was she going now? Anywhere that was far from that sadistic mare would be good right now.

*******

Sunset crashed to the ground back in the other world. She grabbed her head as she rose. She dusted herself off and noticed all of her wounds were gone. In fact, she felt perfectly fine, like the event never happened. Yet, the memories of that horrible event were still fresh in her head. Little did she know there was worse to come.

She looked around and found herself out in the woods. Looking up, she could see that it was night time. Decorations hung from the trees. It looked like a party was about to begin or had already ended. She couldn't see much else as it was a very dark night.

She continued to walk. She couldn’t see which way to go, yet everything inside her was telling her to go this direction. She didn’t know what this feeling was, just that she had to follow it.

Without warning, she tripped over something. As she hit the ground, she felt her hand get covered in some sort of warm liquid. It felt very familiar. Yet, it was too dark to see what it was. She soon felt it covering her legs. The same liquid.

Suddenly, an explosion could be heard from above her. Several explosions in fact. However, Sunset’s head and eyes stayed in place as she stared outward in shock to the area around her as the explosions shine light on all. Indeed, it was a forest covered in decorations…… and body parts.

Humans laid ripped apart. Their remains were strewn across the place. The liquid that covered her legs was blood, it flooded the muddy ground. It looked almost like the scene she had seen in the Ponyville vision.

Instantly, she jumped upon hearing a gunshot, in fact, several gunshots. Running to it, she hoped to find help, but as she turned toward the gunshots, everything started going black as she fell through the ground. The last thing she saw was a wooden house.

She fell over and over, through a dark tunnel. As she fell, she could hear the cries of a familiar voice. She heard the voice scream, “JUST LEAVE US YOU DAMN PONY!!”

Soon, she crashed onto the hard ground. No, it was like metal. Her head was throbbing now. She got up once more, but things were very different this time. Everything was fuzzy-like. It was like looking into a very old TV with very little signal. It was so fuzzy, she could barely make out her own hands.

She looked around, from what she could barely see, she was in a laboratory. She looked to the wall and could barely make out the symbol for Nox Corp. She began walking forward. She could see what looked like a fireplace up ahead. It looked like there were three people over there. Two standing up and one on their knees.

She tried getting closer, yet something was stopping her at a few meters from them. She heard one of the ones standing upspeak, “You can’t do this, Twilight.” It was her voice, Sunset’s own voice as clear as day, “She said this would happen one day. Now stop, please.”

The other person, Twilight held tightly to a weapon in her hand. “He took him from me,” Her voice raised in anger. She turned towards the one on the ground and lifted her weapon upwards, “HE KILLED--”

Sunset could hear no more as the vision began to clear. Unbeknownst to her, the dark magic that the mare had fed into the gem began faded.

******

Sunset woke back up in the other world. She found herself in a hospital hooked up to IVs. She could barely remember what happened. All she knew was what she had seen in the visions, it was truly terrifying. She couldn't take the possibilities anymore. She pulled out the IVs and grabbed her clothes. Quickly putting them on, she noticed the door was wide open. Looking outside, she noticed the hospital seemed way too quiet. Once her clothes were on, she grabbed the stuff she had in her pockets, placing them back in the pockets. She quickly ran out of the hospital. She ran out so fast that she never noticed that the gem necklace had never left her neck.

Sure the glowing had stopped, but there was still danger about. From just a few doors down from her room was a hallway filled with blood. A lone assassin in a tall, gray top hat walked. It was Cult Race. He was doing what he did best, killing. He had been sent to search for something, but what?

Soon, he came upon the room Sunset had been in. He walked over to the IV. He picked it up and took in a deep whiff. “Hmm, she was just here.”

Quickly, he ran towards the window. He looked out the window and spotted Sunset. He looked and even from here, he could see the necklace as well as the Red Biker just a block away from Sunset. It seemed that the Red Biker was still keeping up with the bargain she had made with his current employer. Suddenly his pager went off. He pulled it out and looked at the message. “Well, it seems this target can wait.”

He sent back a message just before leaving. “New mission accepted.” Once he was done giving an answer, he looked to all the bodies that were around him. He decided to send a message to the Fine Gentleman. “Hey, it looks like I’ve got a small hit to take on. While I’m doing that, send a harvest crew to the hospital on Murphy Street. I’ve got a few more bodies to add to your little collection.”

******

Outside, Sunset was dialing a number on her cellphone. A number she knew all too well. She placed the cellphone by her ear and spoke. “Hey, Principle Celestia could you keep the school grounds open for a few more hours later than normal?”

“Of course. Any reason for this?”

“I need to do something I should have done a long time ago.”

******

Sunset arrived at Canterlot High School. It was near night. She looked to see the principal waiting in the front for her. Sunset got out of the taxi and paid the driver. Once that was done, she walked over to Celestia.

“Are you sure about this Sunset?” Celestia questioned as she opened the gate.

“Yes, I need to know something, and I need to talk to Twilight in person-- er pony.” Sunset walked through the gate.

Though Celestia had not been told of the visions, she knew Sunset had not been to Equestria since she arrived at this school so many years ago. Sunset never once asked for such a thing. Originally, it was because she was ashamed of going back to Equestria, even for a visit, but nowadays, it came to simply her having a somewhat of a perfect life here in this world. What had changed?

Sunset arrived upon the stone that was connected to the mirror. Celestia had had a wall built around it, so students didn’t get tempted to get too close to it. She walked over to the other gate, and Celestia opened it for her.

Sunset took a deep breath as she saw the stone in full view. It had indeed been a long time since she had seen it. Sweat beaded down her cheek as fear crept over her. Would the visions turn out to be true? Would they turn out to be false? But most of all, she was concerned on how everypony would greet her back in Equestria. Would Princess Celestia be there? Would her family be there? Unlikely either of those things would be there since she would be appearing unannounced, but still, the concern within her was great.

Finally, she snapped herself out of it and walked over to the stone. She placed her hand on the stone. The surface began to ripple. The doorway was still open. She took one more deep breath and walked through.

******

Author's Notes:

So she going back to Equestria, what will she see there? Great discoveries are still yet to be revealed. All the explosively shocking Chapter 7: Deceitful Idols.

Now there will some time before I post this one. As you know in two weeks it will be March and I will be postponing most of my stories until the end of March, this is because the sequel to Endless Time, Or Forever End begins March 1st. So Chapter 7 will not be posted until April 6th.