When the crown had landed in her hands, after so many setbacks and wrenches in her carefully crafted plans, she had felt downright giddy with the heady mixture of excitement, vindication, and victory. Everything she had ever desired would be hers—the power in the Element of Magic would make it all possible, and everything that should have been hers from the beginning would be. She would make sure of it.

It was with those feelings that Sunset had eagerly placed the crown of Magic on her head, anticipating the familiar surge of energy like that in the body of her birth and for a single, barest breadth of a moment, that was what she perceived: Energy and power building in the gem set in brilliant gold, starting to funnel into her…and that's when it changed. This wasn’t the warm tingle of magic in her veins like it had been back in her homeland. This was agony, more power than the hairless, bipedal primate body had ever been meant to channel, and it was searing through her, looking for pathways to traverse that simply didn’t exist…so it made do with what it found and burned new ones where it had to. Her hands went back for the crown then, desperate to pull it off, to make the pain stop as tears welled in her startled eyes…but it wouldn’t come off. No matter how she pulled, the stolen Element would not budge.

In a handful of seconds that may as well have been millennia, she felt the power like a million tiny white hot hooks burrowing into her flesh and peeling her apart, digging through her body to her very soul, searching for something, leaving every part of her feeling raw and exposed and mangled, even as something rose like bile in her throat, a dark, choking lump of something that was being forced to the surface as she was blinded by a column of light and dark, her body borne into the air by the energies crackling around her. In that moment, all she could do was weep and a desperate whimpered thought echoed from the corner of her shredded psyche: This isn’t what I wanted…

Are you certain of that? Something commented in a dry tone, coming from everywhere and nowhere.

And while she would have given anything to disagree, even in her own thoughts, memories leapt to the fore in her mind, memories that at once filled her with anger and determination…but also guilt and shame. Hurling the tome of forbidden knowledge at Princess Celestia’s face, demanding to be made a princess….the taunting faces of the foals of the Canterlot aristocracy turning to shock and dismay and more than a little fear when she didn’t just out perform them, but in doing so ruined their own projects…her rage at learning Celestia had replaced her with a book loving shut in….and that that same replacement had managed to find the Elements of Harmony….long hours spent planning her revenge….

It seems this is exactly what you wanted, Sunset Shimmer, the dry voice pointed out.

And with each memory, that slimy feeling of something nasty grew, until she felt cocooned in it, suffocating and drowning in hate and fear and frustration and utter resentment. The tears on her face evaporated as fast as they fell, her body too hot and boiling until something within finally burst free, laughing wickedly…

…she was laughing…

Wings made of leathery skin and short furred hide flapped lazily, magic keeping her aloft, as the demon who was Sunset Shimmer adjusted to the sudden lack of suffering being sent to her pain receptors by every nerve in her body. That screaming voice within was little more than a whimper now, eclipsed by the rush of victory and raw power thrumming in her veins, and the burning anger bubbling beneath it that so many had tried to inhibit her destiny. A breath, and she opened her eyes, taking in herself and cackling with glee at how powerful, how dangerous, how much better she felt like this, though one taloned hand paused when she reached to touch the crown that still rested on her skull amidst hair that was more living flame than organic fiber.

She could…feel?…the minds around her. No…that wasn’t entirely right. Something about all those present brushed up against her awareness, registering as points of emotion and feeling. The strongest pull near her was twin points of envy and want, and sharp eyes were drawn downward, towards the two near brainless stooges who had served her willingly for the last few years. Magic, dark and warped, gathered in her palms. This was, after all, a desire that she could grant, and that part seemed to resonate within her, and she felt stronger as she let the magic fly, warping and altering their shapes until the two underlings stood as demons themselves, the envy and desire flickering to something else as they advanced on the girls who had defied her will.

Smug satisfaction tweaked at her lips, and she focused on the other feelings roiling around her…anger…determination…and so much fear it was nauseating. The heavy knot of fear behind her came from the terrified students huddled just beyond the glass and stone of the entrance, so powerful in so many bodies that it seemed to run together as one indistinct mass in her mind. Turning on them, she landed lightly, watching them recoil from her figure, their eyes looking upon her with terror and horror…and…disgust?

Hateful anger surged, a sudden swell that would have surprised her ten minutes prior, but as she was now, only the tiny voice in the corner of her mind seemed taken aback. She just rode on the rush of the red fury, enraged and snarling at them with words that she would only vaguely remember later. It was a rant of the moment, an outpouring of frustration and upset that had been boiling for longer than even she knew. “I’ve had to jump through so many hoops tonight, JUST to get my hands on this crown…” And not just that night, but for years, decades even, to get what she had deserved. What she had worked so hard for. “…and it really should have been mine all along!” After all, she had been Celestia’s protege first, the prodigy unicorn who was years ahead of her peers even before she’d earned her Cutie Mark. She was surpassing every test, breaking every record, before this upstart Twilight Sparkle was able to even levitate a crayon. A low, nasty growl escaped her, one that echoed through her own ears like an angry Timberwolf.

In that moment, the fear disgusted her. It was sour and stale, an unpleasant sensation and taste to her senses, and she had no desire to continue feeling it. More than that, an idea she had pondered over once came back to her, and she knew how she would make her grand re-entrance to the world of her origins: as the ruler at the head of an army of monsters right out of ancient pony legends. That twisted smile came back to her face; it seems she would have a use for these savage, ugly, half grown, hairless, psychotic, bloodthirsty primates after all. “But let’s let bygones be bygones…I am your Princess now!” Power built in the Element again, flowing around her so she could harness it, and letting her reach out with the barest of thoughts and motion of one hand. Stone crunched, glass shattered, and rebar screamed as she crushed and tore away the front entrance, already moving to advance. “And you WILL be loyal to ME.”

Flapping wings propelled her into the gaping wound at the front of the building, teenage humans scattering in every direction, buffeting her awareness with stark, animal terror. Swinging her head from side to side, she felt like a predator looking at prey, like she often had in her power games to control the school…but instead of picking a single target, she placed her claws on her temples and reached out for the scurrying points of fear rushing around her. It was a new sensation, forcibly taking control of minds like that, pushing down their active thoughts and personalities to replace it with pure obedience and a crippling desire to follow her every command. She watched them all go slack jawed and still, even as her power raced down the halls, chasing more distant minds. Each one was a different struggle, some easier than others, but in the end, they all succumbed. She turned and focused on her original servants, their minds still intact. “Round them up and bring them to the portal,” she ordered, before walking towards the outside once more.

Her exodus halted when she felt fury that was directed at her, fury that felt no fear, and…determination and defiance….and disappointment? Eyes focused on Princess Twilight Sparkle and her motley band of annoyances, and she felt the intense need to twist the proverbial knife over her victory. “Spoiler alert,” she sneered. “I was bluffing when I said that I was going to destroy the portal. I don’t want to ‘rule’ this pathetic little high school.” Malice colored her voice. “I want Equestria. And with my own little teenage army behind me…I’m going to get it!”

Pain colored the presence of the Princess, but it was soon overridden by that stubborn defiance and determination. “No,” the alicorn, who could barely manage to walk in the body she currently owned, stated. It was a word that carried far more weight and power than it should have, given the circumstances, and Sunset felt…something…thrum from that corner of her mind that seemed at odds with the rest of her. “You’re not,” Twilight continued, her voice growing stronger.

Derision colored the demon’s response. “Oh please…” she snarked, hovering before the princess, more than twice her height and filled with more magic than she’d ever known. “What exactly do you think you’re going to do to stop me? I have magic, and you have NONE!” Her own fury surged forward—why couldn’t this obnoxious excuse for a princess just admit defeat already?

Lightning lanced through her awareness as someone else answered for the Princess. “She has us!” declared the raspy voice, and Sunset resisted the urge to cringe as it raked across her very essence, as if the voice itself held magic of its own, magic that hurt, magic that somehow reminded her of every broken promise and every lonely night in two worlds. Hatred boiled in her breast and she responded with one of those animalistic growls, using the hurt and suffering brought up to fuel her anger and hate.

“Gee,” she found herself mocking them with a laugh as five humans came to stand beside the princess in a line of defiance and challenge. “The gang really is all back together again.” It helped to mask the reason for the tear that managed to form, to drown out the renewed thrashing from the part of herself she was trying to ignore that had started to grow louder and more ill at ease with the events unfolding. The tear was flicked away in a show of sarcastic amusement, and she focused on Twilight Sparkle, the cause for all this…sudden camaraderie and defiance of her will. Hate and hurt and anger channeled into her palms. “Now step aside,” she snarled, feeling the heat crackling to life in the space between her hands, the energy twisting and turning back in on itself as it ignited the very air molecules and grew rapidly into a hellish ball of fire and heat and plasma the likes of which she had never before cast. “Twilight has interfered with my plans one too many times already! She needs to be dealt with!” Her hands reared back and moved to hurl the ball of fire towards her rival, her nemesis, intent on spreading her charred viscera across the pavement…

In that moment, several things happened. The ball of molten death streaked towards its target, who had frozen in shock. The five humans cried out in both horror and defiance, and in an act that was both seemingly alien for the race of murderous apes and yet was the core of one of their most treasured values, dove not away from their deaths but towards it, intent on shielding the Princess with their own bodies if need be. It was an act that came with a storm of emotions, many of which bombarded her senses like a battering ram. But perhaps…most importantly, was the scream that echoed from the deepest depths of Sunset’s own soul, from that part of her so buried and broken that it had all but been destroyed.

NO! I don’t want to be a monster!

Time seemed to slow as that voice came back. And yet….you are a monster, it pointed out as she watched the ball of fire inch towards the girls huddled together on the concrete. A monster of your own making, and one you have been for far longer than these past few minutes.

A whimper. No….no I’m not a monster! I’m better than they are!

Are you really? What makes you better than a monster who hurts others because they can? Every dark word, every twisted thought…every time you hurt someone on purpose, you took a step that led to what you are right now. You caused suffering and pain to those who had done nothing to you. You tormented the weak, instilled fear, and manipulated all around you into obeying your whims. Even what moments you had that were moments of virtue are cast in shadow by your other choices. Choices that were made without the influence of other beings. Without the shadow of your mother over you. You are what you have made yourself. You have been given exactly what you wanted, what you desired…and now you claim it isn’t what you truly wanted?

Hesitance, uncertainty, shame…they bloomed painfully in her and she fought it, tried to stamp it down and will time to move at normal speed once more, so that Twilight would be gone from existence and this annoying corner of her mind would stop whining!

Not like this! Not as a murderer! I just—!

It is too late to stop what has begun, the voice echoed again.

The ball of flame slammed into six bodies, and she could feel the magic surge as the light of the explosion blinded her, and that whining voice gave one last wordless sob before falling silent. She grinned again as she waited for the smoke and dust to clear so she could enjoy the fruits of her labor, the sight of mangled corpses that used to be her enemies making a pretty pattern on the ground, not unlike abstract art. Maybe she’d name it, call it ‘A Study of Defiance.’ She always did appreciate sarcasm. Laughter burst from her again—but then died with an intake of breath as she stared upon the impossible. Her heart lurched, and something like fear crawled up her spine, all the way from the tip of her tail and not stopping until it had caused her neck to prickle.

Instead of corpses, six figures huddled together, magic exuding from their very bodies in a thin yet powerful aura of purple-pink that shimmered with an undercurrent of all the colors of the rainbow. No longer could she feel them as individual points of emotion on her senses—the magic was emotion, and it rippled like an aurora of agony to her awareness. The human-born teens seemed confused but relieved, pulling back to form a circle around the pony Princess, who finally snapped out of her cower to gaze around in momentary bewilderment before she burned with excitement and joy, turning on Sunset once more.

“The Magic contained in my Element was able to unite with those that helped create it,” she declared, hand outstretched as if signaling the crown still resting on Sunset’s head. The demon reached clawed hands up for the crown, and felt her fingers burn at began to glow with a brilliant light, magenta power pouring from it at Twilight’s beckoning call, enveloping the girls and morphing as it touched each one, power even greater than what she had felt when she put the crown on barely seeming to affect the humans as it poured into them. Where she had burned and wept, they endured with beautific smiles, their own transformations so much less severe, and much more equine than her own, as ears lengthened and traveled up the sides of their heads, tousled human hair extending in such a way that evoked both the manes and tails of ponies, and wings shimmered into being on the backs of three of them.

“Honesty.” Applejack, pony ears splayed slightly to compensate for the hat that never left her head, staring at her with eyes that seemed to strip away all the lies and walls that concealed the deepest secrets of her soul.

“Kindness.” Fluttershy, the bleeding heart of a doormat, who never tried to defend herself, whose presence seemed like both the burn of pity and a soothing balm of compassion against the battered, flayed soul threatening to tear itself in two.

“Laughter.” Pinkie Pie who grinned broadly, a smile that wasn’t one of cruelty or schadenfreude, but of true joy, caused a flicker of something like hope in the part of her that had been screaming.

“Generosity.” Rarity, accepting the transformation with grace, already starting to build with a magic and power that was painful and blinding, as if she already knew what she was going to do next—and how calm and serene her expression was caused the demon to tremble in fear.

“Loyalty.” Rainbow Dash, whose grinning face and judging eyes sent lightning against her awareness again, reminding her of betrayals and loneliness so strong it made her want to be violently ill.

“Magic.” Twilight’s expression was knowing, as if great wisdom had been imparted to her and her alone, and power rippled under her skin, a demigoddess contained in a human shell never meant to house divinity.

“Together with the crown, they create a power beyond anything you could imagine—but it is a power you don’t have the ability to control,” the Princess declared, and while the voice never raised in volume, it held the same power and authority Sunset remembered from the Goddess of the Sun.

The burning was back as the crown on her head connected to the magic surrounding the Princess and her friends, and she could feel the shockwaves of it washing over her, stripping bits and pieces of her away, her rage and resentment and hate crumbling and helpless to this tide. She let out a shriek that never should have come from a human or even pony throat, thrashing in the air as the blinding white light shifted, becoming a rainbow pillar.

“The crown may be upon your head, Sunset Shimmer,” the youthful demigoddess intoned as a declaration of fact more than a challenge, “but you cannot wield it, because you do not possess the most powerful Magic of all.”

“The Magic of Friendship.”

Power flared and she writhed as legends came to life before startled eyes, a Rainbow of Light arcing up and then twisting around itself to swirl around her in a vortex that carried her even higher into the air. “What…is…happening…” she rasped in agony as everything turned white.

And so it begins...

I know the Sunset redemption story is basically "beating a dead horse" at this point, but this was one of those story ideas that sprang from a lot of random conversations about world building and trying to make a large, complex, cohesive picture out of what gets shown and what doesn't. It grew inadvertently into a monster project, and it'd still be kicking around in my skull if I hadn't been prodded by a few friends to write it down--and a few more to post it.

Bastards. They're lucky I love them.

So yeah. I've got a long term game planned, intermixing the slice of life and character growth with magic and mayhem. It's one part character psychology study, one part magical girl show, and a smattering of other things thrown in for good measure. It should be noted that the Mature rating is there for a reason in the long term, and that with few exceptions, I don't bother with pre-warning the audience about the content in a chapter.

As is right, proper, and good, of course, consider this the Standard Fan-fiction Disclaimer: "I do not own the characters borrowed from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, any of the trademarked/licensed/copyrighted brands, titles, or objects mentioned within. Those things are the property of their respective owners, all of whom have a great deal more money than me. This story exists for entertainment purposes only and nets its writer no monetary gain, so please don't sue. All you'd get are my college debts and a collection of well loved toys from the late 80s. And a possessed iPod."

Also, special credit and thanks to my wonderful editor/beta-reader/sounding board/brainstorming partner in this endeavor, for being instrumental in making this whole thing come together and work. She's an absolute treasure for an author to have, and this story would not have gotten where it is without her!

For now, the plan is a weekly update schedule--I've got the first arc on paper and mostly edited, and the second arc is in the works, but a weekly schedule gives me a buffer and time to shape things as the story progresses.

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(Author's Note Edits, May 2022)

So yeah, figured I'd tack on to this after its been a few years and the project has become so much more.

Welcome new readers, or those re-reading. A little side amusement has become one epic tale that our team here is proud of--now consisting of me and two other primary creative minds who serve as sounding boards, editors, suggestion boxes, and of course the minds behind the characters who I struggle to write for. *cough*Pinkie*cough*

I hope you enjoy ride, and at least stick with it for a handful of chapters to get a feel for it, and if you stick with us for the long haul, we're so glad to have you! Comments, ratings, messages, questions, all are welcome and appreciated! You guys rock!