The small red ethereal filly trapped in the dark depths of Sunset’s mind had barely started its new life as a ghost of a living being and was already about to suffer a mental breakdown.

She was confused, scared, desperate, heartbroken and overwhelmed with grief.

In just a matter of hours she had been responsible of the burning of her hometown, witnessed the death of her father, committed a second, this time voluntary, mass murder, and the pony that she regarded as the pinnacle of kindness had apparently trapped her inside this dark space that seemed to never end.

And she also didn’t understand why she was glowing red and was almost see-through.

“Am I a ghost? Did the princess kill me because of what I did? Is this the afterlife? Is this a punishment for what I did? Is that why I can’t cry?”

That last question resonated in her mind more than the others.

She couldn’t understand it.
It was such a little thing, but felt it felt fundamentally wrong, not being able to shed tears. Not being able to do even that much filled her with desperation.

She remained floating in place, trying to cry, waiting for somepony or something to come for her.

But nothing happened.

There was nothing in this place with her.

She was completely alone.

And it terrified her more than the idea of a monster coming from the darkness to eat her.

Eventually, she decided to move and look for something, anything, in the endless dark plane she was trapped in.

She found out she could float around at will, without even needing to move her legs.

Any filly would be ecstatic to suddenly be able to fly, but she couldn’t find joy in it right now.

Also, floating like this was giving her another big problem; there was no way of telling which way was up or down.

She couldn’t feel any gravity pulling at her, and there wasn’t any light to guide her.

“How long have I been here? Is anypony looking for me? Did they… forget about me? Did they leave me here because of what I did?”

“I’m sorry!” She screamed to the void around her. “I couldn’t control myself! I won’t do it again! You can take my magic away! Just… don’t leave me alone… please…”

Once again, she tried to cry, but no tears came to her eyes.

“Why can’t I do it? I just want to cry!”

The filly started rubbing her eyes with her hooves, trying to force herself to shed a tear, but it wasn’t working.

She did it harder, and harder, until something was ripped off.

The filly screamed in pain, but then felt something hot in her eyes, and suddenly the pain was gone.

She slowly opened them, and they worked fine, like nothing had happened.

“Did it work?” she wondered, but her attention was diverted when she saw the small piece of herself that she had torn off falling deeper into the abyss before fading away.

“That means…” the filly looked up and started flying in the opposite direction of the falling piece.

As she progressed, she started going faster and faster, desperate to escape the darkness that suffocated her.

Then the filly saw a light in front of her, and her eyes filled with joy.

But that joy was short lived, as she found out that the light was coming from a large golden barrier that seemed to extend to the infinite corners of whatever this place was.

The filly tentatively touched the golden surface and felt that it was solid.

She pushed against it, and was suddenly pushed back by a brutal force.

She screamed as she felt a shock of pain run through her legs. Once again, she felt an intense heat spread through her, and then the pain was gone.

Once she recovered from the shock, she checked her eyes, and found that they still had no tears.

“Is somepony out there?!” she shouted at the barrier, hoping that somepony would hear her.

“I don’t want to be here! Can you open this wall?!”

There was no response.

“I know I did a bad thing… but I won’t do it again! Please… I will do anything!”

Silence was the only answer.

There was nothing else.

She started to get truly desperate. She felt distraught and on the verge of an anxiety attack.

Yet still, no tears could be shed.

“Can I at least see my mom?! Is she and Craby okay?!”

The absolute, unrelenting silence was shattering the filly.

She didn’t want to be trapped, but more than anything, she didn’t want to be alone.

“There has to be somepony out there. They can’t just abandon me here. There has to be…”

The filly looked at the barrier, trying to find some sign that it wasn’t just a flat surface.

Suddenly, she felt something pulling all her senses beyond the barrier, leaving her body behind, and next thing she knew, she was seeing the inside of the castle again.

She looked around, and saw herself sitting at a desk, drawing with crayons on some papers.

Except it wasn’t her.

She looked like an exact copy, but half of her hair had a golden color, and so did her cutie mark.

She looked at her own cutie mark, and found that it was still the red sun she had earned that night.

The ethereal filly felt suddenly revolted at the mark. It was a reminder of her actions, and it would haunt her forever.

Tears still refused to come out of her eyes.

Her attention drifted back to her doppelganger, and moved closer to her.
She saw the drawings. They had the same style she used. The same colors. And some of them were copies of drawings she had made before.

“Is she a copy of me? Did they replace me with her?”

“Why make the copy different? Why is this happening?”

Suddenly, the filly felt a surge of a new emotion she had only recently discovered.

It made her grit her teeth, knit her brow, tense her muscles, and she suddenly had a savage need for for violence.

She felt wrath.

The filly noticed her clone write a name on the paper, referring to herself as Sunset.

“Sunset? What? They changed my name? Why? Why make a copy if they are going to make it look different and give it a new name? Is mom okay with this? Where is she?”

Sunset stood up from the desk and ran out of the room, holding three of her drawings in her magic.

The insubstantial filly was pulled along with her, like an invisible chain had anchored her to her double.

“Wait, why is her magic cyan? Mine is red! They didn’t even get that right?!”

Since she couldn’t express her sorrow, the red filly’s anger started to rise even more.
This, at least, was a feeling she could express. So, she let it grow inside of her.

But she was unaware of the consequences.

Sunset opened a door, poking her head inside.

“Can I come in?”

“Of course Sunset,” a voice responded. One that filled the red filly with dread.

Her clone walked inside, and presented her drawings to the white alicorn.

“I wanted to show you some drawings I made!”

“What is going on? Why are you here? Why are you happy to see her?”

The dread the red filly felt was quickly consumed by the growing anger welling inside her.

She was snapped out of her thoughts by a chuckle.

The chuckle of one who had once been her biggest role-model.

“Is that fake funny to you?” she said through gritted teeth.

The red filly moved over to Celestia, looking at the third drawing.

In the picture, her clone and Celestia hugged each other. And four words were written above them.

“I love you… MOM?!”

The imprisoned filly gritted her teeth, feeling the fire of anger growing exponentially.

Just as suddenly as when she traveled through the barrier, she was once again inside the darkness. And that made the wrathful feeling escalate even more.

Until she couldn’t hold it in any longer.

With a powerful scream, fire came out of her body in a devastating explosion, even bigger than the one caused by her puny excuse of a sun back in her town.

The darkness seemed to run away in fear of her fury, and the barrier strained under the pressure of her intense release of emotions.

The wrathful ghost felt her vocal cords rupture, making her stop, but once again that heat healed them in seconds.

She closed her mouth and felt it… different.

She moved her tongue over her teeth, and realized they had changed. The round molars had turned into razor-sharp fangs.

She looked at her body, and noticed that it too had changed.

Her limbs had gotten longer, a few inches each, and there were some strange protrusions poking out of her hooves, like small worms.

She tried to bite them off with her new teeth, struggling through the pain, but every time she took one off, fire spurted out of the wound and it regenerated.

Confused and worried, she started to tremble.

“What is happening to me? What am I turning into? Am I a… monster?”

“Why are you crying? You don’t like it?” she heard the other filly say with her voice. And when the ghost looked up, sending her senses back out, she saw Celestia crying.

“No Sunset. I think it’s beautiful. I… I don’t deserve such a beautiful gift.”

The red filly’s worries died as she heard those words.

The wrath reignited, overriding any other feeling. Consuming her completely, and fueling her transformation even more.

“You’re right Celestia…. You don’t even deserve that second-rate copy of me.”

She slammed her newly formed hands against the barrier, which pushed back like before. However her body had gained a new strength that overpowered it, keeping her firmly in place.

“I get it now… you wanted a better version of me. And named it after your precious sun.”

“You left me a ghost of my former self, locked up in darkness, and you even stole my tears.”

The filly’s eyes changed, turning pitch black except for her cyan irises.

“But you won’t keep me hidden forever.”

“The monster is coming for you.”

“The other side of your false clone…”

“…Dawn”

It has been seventeen years. At least, outside of here.

Sunset’s mind works in strange ways. Time being one of them.

Whenever she sleeps, time just skips to when she wakes up. And if that didn’t make it hard enough to keep track of hours and days, time also seems to expand and compress with her thoughts.

Five-minute conversations could feel like an entire week had passed once they ended.

I stopped being a ghost a few years back. My body looks and feels physical, but inside I seem to be made of fire.
I've a physical outer layer, but if you pierce my skin, you won't find flesh or bone. Red flames will spurt out, and you will only see a raging fire inside.

And that’s not the weirdest thing.

I am no longer a pony.

I don’t know exactly what I am. I lost my horn, my hooves, and all my pony features.
My mane is shorter, but my tail is longer.
My ears are pointed, just like my new teeth and the claws protruding from my fingers.

I recognize them from the biology books Sunset had trouble understanding.

Oh yeah, about that.

Turns out, Sunset is kind of an idiot.

I guess I can’t blame her, she’s just a bad copy of me, but still, I’ve to help her constantly.

She is skilled in magic, but nothing else.

Any other thing that Celestia tried to teach her; biology, history, poetry, sex ed, geography,and so on, she almost didn’t listen or straight up skipped them, preferring to concentrate on more magical studies.

Lucky for her, anything I learn she can also learn, if I let her.

As the saying goes; “Two heads are better than one.”

On the positive side of things, Sunset’s and Celestia’s relationship seems to be falling apart.

It was imperceptible at first, but it gets a bit more obvious each year.

Sunset’s obsession with magic had made them clash on several occasions. They haven’t reached the point of shouting at each other, but I can see it coming. Celestia’s patience will run out eventually.

Maybe I will have an ally when I get out of here.

If I don’t kill Sunset in the process.

I may have called her an idiot, but she truly is talented with magic. Which has helped me prepare for when I finally escape.

I created two weapons, made from pieces of my own soul. Or what’s left of it.

It hurt like Tartarus, but they are worth it.

I’ve used them against Celestia’s barrier so much they harmonized with her magic.

This is the strongest defensive spell one can create, and I’m able to dent it. No other spell from her will be able to stop these weapons.

And on top of it, I added something special… just for her.

Just thinking about it brings a smile to my face. But normally, I just feel hatred.

I won’t lie, one stubborn part of me wanted to make peace with her.

“She must have had her reasons.” it told me. “Maybe she regrets it.”

But no. She doesn’t.

She took the place of my real mother, whose face I can’t even remember.

If at least one time, even for a moment, she showed a touch of remorse to Sunset, I may have considered it.

But no. She just keeps smiling and pretending everything is fine.

Soon… I will show her how wrong she is.

“Look into this mirror and tell me what you see,” I heard the false goddess say to Sunset, showing her a mirror.

Interestingly, it seemed to be a magical mirror of sorts. I believe it was Star Swirl’s.

The image on the mirror morphed as Sunset looked into it, but since she wasn’t taking it seriously, it just showed her reflection.

“I see a beautiful pony full of power and potential.”

“Care to try again, this time with some of the boring humility we talked about?” the alicorn insisted, and when Sunset looked again… it surprised me.

She was sitting on the floor, crying.

“I guess she has a chance of ruining her own dreams. Or maybe… will it be me?” I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. “What am I saying? Of course it will be me.”

Sunset took another glance at the mirror, and I saw her sitting on the throne as an alicorn, with Celestia’s crown on her head.

“You’re not getting that crown,” I growled, but suddenly, the reflection shifted again, and…

“What is that?!”

“No…”

Time shifted, and in a second, I was back in Sunset’s room, the mare sitting against the wooden door.

“Was that… will she also turn… or maybe I will turn her into…”

I grabbed my head, as the questions flooded my mind.

“Why am I questioning this? Why should I care about what happens to this clone? She’s just a bad copy made by that wannabe god.”

Slowly, I calmed myself, and just in case, I drifted down towards the darkness.

I needed to disconnect for a while.

And think.

After the mirror, the few weeks that had passed have been very short.
Sunset has been so obsessed with the mirror her mind is just skipping most of the recent days.

She has been pestering Celestia about it constantly. Their fights were getting more intense, and other ponies were starting to notice too.

And during all this time, I’ve been… thinking.

Is it fair to hold my clone responsible for Celestia’s acts? She’s unaware of what happened, and if she knew… she and I would have a lot in common.

And that… reminds me of something…

Even after planning my revenge for so long, there was always something that is missing in it.

What do I do afterwards?

Say I kill Celestia. Take the throne. Rule in her place. What then?

It won’t make me a princess, just a usurper.

Even If I could prove her crimes, the world would defend her to death. I won’t be able to rule over them as a demon.

Even Nightmare Moon already had followers to back her claim to the throne. And she was an alicorn.

I will be alone.

Just like in this darkness.

Another prison with a sun in the sky.

Unless…

“Canterlot Castle: a History! This should give me something.”

I looked up, watching Sunset taking a book from the forbidden section of the library.

She was about to commit treason. Take a gamble to reach success much faster than with Celestia’s guidance.

If she lost that gamble… She and Celestia would be done.

The princess wouldn’t let her leave freely, she would have to imprison her. Sunset would hate Celestia forever.

I could come in and give her the power that she’s missing. Together, we could defeat Celestia. Both would have our vengeance.

But…

Sunset would have her dreams crushed…

…Just like mine.

“Wait!” I shouted without thinking. “Is this really worth the risk?!”

Sunset stopped.

Did she actually hear me?

“No, I have to know if what I saw was real! If I really have a chance to become Equestria’s next ruler, I need to know how I did it.”

“And if you fail and turn into… that thing?!”

I waited in silence for a few seconds, while Sunset debated her decision.

She turned back and returned the book to the bookshelf.

“I will reach that point eventually; I just need to keep getting stronger. Celestia will teach me about the mirror once I show her just how capable I am.”

“I hope she will Sunset…”

I clenched my fists.

“For her own good.”

Sunset stopped being an idiot after that day.
Instead of leeching off my knowledge, she used it to expand her own. She was one hundred percent dedicated to being the best student a pony could be.

And I helped her as much as I could.

As Sunset forgot about the questions of the mirror, I also started to forget about my vengeance.

Even if I won, it would be a hollow victory. But if I helped Sunset reach my dreams… maybe… I could feel something other than anger.

Maybe… I could shed a tear, if it’s out of happiness.

Celestia had been playing difficult, but I hope that she will eventually get that stick out of her ass. Even if I hate it, Sunset is her chosen one. She built an entire school just for her.

I don’t know what she wanted Sunset for, but she clearly has value to that poor excuse of a monarch.

She can’t just replace Sunset.

“I was wrong.”

“Celestia Aurora Stella.”

“In the name of mine and Sunset’s dreams.”

“You will die.”

Author's Notes:

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[Achivement Unlocked: Truth Or Lie] (Discover your past)

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Finally I can talk to you through this box again.

These last three chapters have been incredibly difficult to write. Not because I didn't know how to write them, but I simply couldn't concentrate (Also had to solve the last pains of the moving, but everything is set)

So, due to this, I want to take a small break from the story to do some drawing and write some other short story (Maybe a small side story that shows Spoiled's recovery after the curse, and the consequences of her actions with Diamond if you guys are interested)

It won't be long, I assure you, its just to come back fresh.

Take the time to prepare, because big changes are coming in:

Chapter 37: “…I won’t come back.”

Seven chapters left!

Oh, and more thing.

After seeing how beings like Nightmare and Dawn are created, What name would you give to their "species"?

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I want to mention all the theorists that had some right theory about Sunset's past and other small things:

[Fireeaters] Chapter 21

I'm thinking that part of sunset's mind was cut off, and that good parts were taken with the "bad".

[Mpony1] Chapter 25

Sunshine is no doubt holds Sunsets second half of her full power that was sealed away behind the barrier Celestia sealed her in, Sunshine also must hold all the memories Celestia erase witch is why she hold so much anger towards Celestia because Tia must of done something really horrible to Sunset.

Why Sunset can't connect with anypony let alone herself (she herself is incomplete, she needs to be truly whole)

I agree, it seemed that sunshine wanted to become good when she tried to connect with Sunset earlier and let go of her hate and rage, but Nightmare got in the way and stop that from happening by destroying the string before it reach Sunset. Thus Sunshine remains evil cause she never got a chance to connect with Sunset and through her learn and experience the magic of friendship.

I come to believe that Sunset and Sunshine are SISTERS two minds, two souls sharing the same body.

Sunshine wasn't created she was always there since Sunsets birth.

[Shimmeringsun] Chapter 26

Why do I feel like Chrysalis could be holding something against Celestia? Like a past secret or something. She's going to cause mayhem for sure.

[Mpony1] Chapter 26

Celestia wanted to erase that terrible tragedy from Sunset mind but the spell cause Sunset to forget everything that even remotely connects with the incident, and if she ever trys to think about it the spell will instantly erase the thought from her mind.

And who knows, Celestia could of erase other ponies memories of the incident or force them to keep it secret

I been thinking that in a future chapter, will the CMC go around learning how the main 6 got their cutiemarks witch will lead them into asking Sunset how she got hers, but Sunset won't be able to answer cause of memory spell preventing her from remembering and every time she tries to Nightmare will be able to find the erase memories and start working on how free them or just look through them and learn about Sunsets past.

[Shimmeringsun] Chapter 29

Why do I have a feeling Celestia might’ve erased some of Sunset’s memories from her younger years/her birth mother?

[RolkFlameraven] Chapter 31

Sunshine = Tyche
Sunset = Tymora
Dawn = Beshaba

[Teraunce] Chapter 31

Sunshine became Sunset and Dawn!

[Secundum] Chapter 31

Hmm...Guessing that Sunshine was the original, and that Celestia accidentally or on purpose split her into Dawn and Sunset while trying to erase her memories. Essentially 'killing' the original.

[redsopine] Chapter 31

Dawn is sunsets original personality who was sealed away by celestia when she went on a rampage

And finally, the one who put every piece together.

[Mpony1] Chapter 31

By the sound of things it looks like thier never existed a pony named Sunset Shimmer 30 years ago, but instead thier was a pony named Sunshine (Sunshine Shimmer)

Or we could say that Celestia mind erasing spell somehow split them apart but I don't think thats the case.

And as for Dawn; I believe she was a child just like Sunset was at the time when Celestia sealed her away, wanting to set free, screaming to be let out, wanting to cry at her predictiment but can't. Dawn could only watch as Sunset get to live a life and she can't, but Dawn doesn't hate Sunset, she doesn't blame her anything, only Celestia, just Celestia for locking her away, and any hate Sunset feels Dawn feels.

I think Sunsets real name is Sunshine, Sunset was the name Celestia gave her after eraseing not only memories of the tragedy but her past as well.

In other words it's like the 3 year old Sunshine was given amnesia, she could'nt recall anything of her life before meeting Celestia including her real name. Her past before the incident was completely wipe from her memory which in turn gave birth to Dawn.

Dawn was born from Sunsets erase memories which she herself now holds all of it, She's not Sunshine cause like Nightmare she haves her own name, but Celestia calls her Sunshine because she doesn't know dawn real name but she does know that she have all of the original Sunshine memories, so she calls her Sunshine who was the name of the young filly she met all those years ago.

And because Dawn holds all Sunshine memories she also holds all her dreams, goals, and ambitions in other like Sunset she to desires to become a princess and was angry when she saw it taken away from her.

When Dawn told Nightmare that Sunset was her sister to because both Dawn and Nightmare were born from Celestia choices, The pony now known as Sunset Shimmer was born from Celestia choice to wipe away all who she was and start fresh under a new name.

And when Dawn said Sunshine died 30 years ago she meant that Celestia erase all memories of herself and replace Sunshine with Sunset.

Little does Celestia know her spell really broke Sunset being making her unbalance, unstable and able to connect with anyone.