Chapter 20

Two cars and one van were on the road heading away from the demolished military base. Sunset Shimmer rode in Flash Sentry’s car along with Lyra Heartstrings, Bon-Bon, and Micro Chips. Sunset sat in the middle back seat with her hands in her lap and her head down, Lyra on her right and Bon-Bon on her left. She had not said a single thing since her friends told her to go someplace safe with the others while they went after Not Important, she just sat in her seat not moving a muscle and not talking to anyone.

“You okay, Sunset?” Lyra asked concerned but she received no answer.

“Don’t worry, Sunny. I’m sure they’ll be okay.” Bon-Bon said trying to lighten the mood. “They’ve been through tough things before, like-.” But before she could finish, Lyra gently tapped the back of her and made a motion that said ‘don’t say anything that might offend her.’ “Listen Sunset, we know we haven’t been as nice to you as we should have.”

“Things have been hard for all of us, but that’s no reason to take it out on an innocent person.” Lyra added.

“I would like to say that I am so sorry for falsely accusing you.” Micro Chips joined in the conversation.

“When all of this is over, the entire school will rally together to make it all up to you.” Flash said in a friendly and reassuring tone. “As one of your now closest friends, I promise.”

However, Sunset still didn’t make any kind of response. Flash sighed in disappointment; it was going to take a lot to patch things up with her. Sunset let out a silent exhale, then realized there was something in her pocket. She reached in and pulled out the small present Fluttershy had left back at the house. She stared at the gift for a moment wondering what was inside. Thinking that she might not get another chance, Sunset decided to open the gift. She was shocked to find out what Fluttershy had given her. It was a small golden, heart-shaped locket with a thin necklace. She opened the locket and found a small picture of her and the Humane Five in the right part of the locket and a message that read ‘Not Just Friends, Family’ in the left part. Sunset started shedding tears as she stared at her gift. It was then she fully realized just how much her friends truly cared for her. She finally felt that she could truly forgive them for what they did. And now she knew what she had to do next.

“Flash, stop the car. I have to go.” Sunset suddenly spoke in a determined tone of voice almost startling everyone.

Flash had a good idea what Sunset was saying. “Sorry Sunset, but I can’t do that. Twilight and the others told me to take you someplace safe and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

Sunset had a feeling that would be his response, so she got an idea. “No Flash, I mean I need to go really bad.” She said in a slightly embarrassed tone and made a sheepish looking face and forced her cheeks to blush.

Flash stared for a moment, and then he finally got it. “Oh! Yeah, of course.” He said feeling a little embarrassed.

“That tree is perfect.” Sunset said spotting a big tree on the left side of the road through the car windows. “It’ll only take a minute.”

“Sure, let me pullover first.”

Meanwhile, back at the power plant, Twilight Sparkle, Spike, and the other girls had split up. Twilight, Spike, and Applejack had taken cover behind a sandbag wall left by the plant’s security forces while Not Important kept them pinned down with rapid fire from his assault rifle. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had found a way to make it up to the second platform and were trying to get directly above Not Important without being noticed in order to perform a surprise attack. Rarity and Pinkie Pie had managed to make it to the control tower in the middle of the room, they watched through the shattered windows as the ruthless gunman had their friends pinned down trying to think of a way they could help.

“Stupid bitches, can’t you understand it’s over?” Not Important yelled. “Do any of you have any idea of what you’re dealing with? The local police forces couldn’t stop. The military couldn’t stop me. Whatever magic tricks you have up your sleeves is no match for my hatred! Compared to you, I’m an unstoppable force of nature!”

“Hey, asshole!” came a voice from above. Not Important looked up found himself knocked on his back by a dropkick from a rainbow-haired girl. “Alright girls. Let’s show this creep just how powerful our magic really is.”

“Hey, hey, hey, hey!” the other girls started chanting.

“Awesome as I wanna be!” Rainbow Dash yelled in singing tone. As the others kept chanting, a bright aura started forming around her. Then before her opponent’s eyes, she grew a long ponytail from the back of her hair, and blue feathery wings from her back. “Awesome as I wanna be!”

“First you see me riding on a sonic boom!” She sang as she delivered an uppercut to Not Important’s chin. “I got my guitar shredding up my latest tune!” She leaped into the air and performed a bicycle kick on her opponent.

“There is nothing you can do to beat me!” Rainbow sang mockingly to Not Important who looked like he was getting really angry. “I’m so good that you can’t defeat me!” then Rainbow launched herself at the mass murderer to give him a beatdown she had long waited to give.

“I’m awesome!” she sang as she delivered a hard punch to Not Important’s chest. “Take caution!” she kicked him in the face. “Watch out for me, I’m awesome as I wanna be!” she threw a number of hard punches to her enemy’s face. “I’m awesome, take caution, watch out for me, I’m awesome as I wanna be!” She sang as she fought to bring out her magic and give her more power, it was the only way she knew how to.

The other girls kept chanting to help Rainbow stay in her magical musical state. Rainbow felt proud, with her magic making her stronger and quicker, she clearly had the upper hand. Not Important got back on his feet and wiped some blood from his mouth while glaring at his opponent. Rainbow did a mocking ‘come at me’ gesture with her hand. Not Important knew he was outmatched by this girl’s magical power. Then he spotted Rarity and Pinkie in the control tower chanting for their friend. He gave Rainbow a wicked grin indicating he had an idea. At first Rainbow was confused, but then she became horrified as her opponent pulled a grenade out of his coat, pulled out the pin, and threw it at her friends in the control tower. Rainbow jumped off the platform she was standing on and with all the speed she could muster, flew through the broken windows of the tower, grabbed her two friends and flew out the open door behind them. The grenade entered the tower through the shattered window and exploded right as Rainbow, Rarity, and Pinkie had just flew through the door sending them flying against the wall in front of them. Rarity and Pinkie looked okay but Rainbow had injured herself badly in her attempt to save her friends; her ponytail, wings, and aura vanished as she lay on the platform while the other two checked to see if she was alright.

Not Important chuckled with satisfaction, he had used his opponent’s love for her friends to beat her. Twilight, Applejack, and Fluttershy glared at him. How could someone do something so low and dishonorable? Despite their foe not having any magic of his own he made up for it by being unbelievably heartless and willing to do anything it took to destroy his enemies. How could they beat that?

Meanwhile, Flash, Micro Chips, Bon-Bon, and Lyra all waited patiently in the car for Sunset to be done with her business behind the large tree they had parked by. Unfortunately, it was taking longer than they expected.

“What’s taking her so long?” Micro Chips asked losing his patience.

“Why don’t you get out and check to see if she’s okay?” Flash suggested.

“Are you crazy?! I’m not going to check on her while she’s… you know!” Micro Chips protested.

“Well, neither am I! What do you take me for?!”

Both Lyra and Bon-Bon had annoyed expressions as they watched them argue. “Boys.” they both said to each other with disgust. Then Lyra got out of the car and walked over to the tree.

“Um, Sunset, it’s been ten minutes now. Are you okay?” she asked not looking behind the tree. When she didn’t receive an answer she decided to take a peek. Then her eyes went wide with fear. “SHE’S GONE!” she yelled to the others in the car.

“What?!” Flash said as he got out of the car to look behind the tree. To his horror, Sunset wasn’t there; instead there was a trail of footprints heading in the direction of the power plant. “Oh no!”

Far away, Sunset was running as fast as she could through the snowy ground and the blistering wind. She was determined to get where she felt she need be. “Sorry Flash, but my friends need me, and now I know what I have to do.”