Equestria Girls HATRED Special

by EquineAvenger

Rating: mature
Tags: Tragedy, Crossover, Sunset Shimmer, Main 6, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Human, Sad, Other
Length: 38736

Hatred. It is a truly terrible thing. Of all the most horrible things in the world, hatred can be one of the worst.

(Equestria Girls + Hatred crossover)
Warning, contains: murder and language
When everyone, including her friends, is convinced Sunset Shimmer is the secret-posting Anon-a-Miss, she believes that there is no hope in anyone believing she is innocent. So, instead of taking Twilight Sparkle's advice, she decides to run away and never return. When Twilight finally convinces the Humane Five and the entire school of their terrible mistake, they setout to look for their missing friend. However, Sunset comes face-to-face with a dark stranger, will this mysterious man become her new friend or is there something evil about him?

Published 2015-09-01 19:10:03 UTC
Last updated 2017-10-22 18:34:55 UTC

Chapter 1

Note: I have skipped most of the events in the Equestria Girls Holiday Special because nothing has changed until this point. If you want to know what happened before this read the comic, or you can watch it on this: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-MMfsFt2NE). Just watch from 0:00 to 4:15, after that this is where my version of the story starts. Enjoy.

Sunset Shimmer ran out of the school and sat by the huge horse statue, which was also the portal back to her homeland of origin, Equestria. The outside was snowy and cold. She buried her face into her arms and started sobbing. She had just escaped an angry mob of students who had ganged up on her to hatefully yell and rant at her. Over the past week, a mysterious blogger going by the name “Anon-a-Miss” has been posting embarrassing secrets of people at Canterlot High all over the internet. Soon everyone at the school, including her five best friends, started believing she was the one responsible and shunned her. Despite her desperate pleas of innocence not a single person would listen and scorned her for going back to the cruel, manipulative bully she used to be. The only one who truly believed Sunset was innocent was her friend and one-time rival, Princess Twilight Sparkle. But she was too busy back in Equestria with her duties to come and help, so Twilight wrote to her in her magical journal “Sometimes, all you can do is stay strong. Stay yourself. And find your family.” But at this point Sunset began to lose faith and decided that there was only one option left.

After hours of crying, Sunset got out her journal and a pen and then began writing a new entry:

Dear Princess Twilight,

Forgive me, but I’m afraid that I have failed. I’ve tried to do what you have asked but it’s no use. There is absolutely no one who is willing to believe I’m innocent, or have changed at all from the person I used to be for that matter. I could save everyone a hundred times and still they would never see as anything but a monster. Whoever my family is they are not here. I’d ask if I could return to Equestria but I doubt anypony will want me there either. So the best thing I think I could do is leave this town. I’m sure everybody will be better off without me, they probably won’t care that I’m gone. Please try not to worry about me; you have more important things to worry about. So with this last entry, I want to thank you and the others for showing me how good it is to have friends, it was fun while it lasted.

Your Best Friend,

Sunset Shimmer

With that, Sunset closed the journal and placed it on top of the portal. It was now night time and the air had become more cold and windy. Sunset realized that she had left her winter jacket back in her locker, but she was too afraid to go get it and risk running into more hateful students. So she decided to forget it and, with only the clothes she was wearing, started walking out into the cold, dark night. However, she failed to notice that her journal started glowing and vibrating as she was walking away.

Back in Equestria, Twilight had just received Sunset’s last entry and was shocked and worried. She immediately began writing a response in her own journal hoping to reach Sunset before she did anything she would soon regret;

Dear Sunset Shimmer,

I urge you to rethink your opinions. I know it may seem like everything is lost but you can’t give up hope. You’re right; friendship is a good thing, that’s why you have to trust that it can never really be gone. Please, what you’re planning to do is not the right answer. You can’t give up.

Your Dear Friend,

Twilight Sparkle

Twilight waited a few minutes for any sort of response. But when she didn’t receive one, she began to fear the worst.

“Spike! Get the portal ready, it’s an emergency!” She called to her number one dragon assistant.

Chapter 2

Twilight Sparkle emerged from portal in her human form along with Spike in his dog form.

“I hope we’re not too late, Spike.” She said to her assistant.

“Twilight, look!” Spike pointed his paw up to the glowing, vibrating book on top of the portal.

Twilight gasped when she saw what Spike had found. She grabbed Sunset Shimmer’s journal from where she left it and stared at with visible fear in her face. She knew she had to find Sunset and fast. With that she dashed through the entrance doors of the school and headed straight down one of the hallways with Spike in toe. If she was going to find Sunset now she would need help and who better to help her than the other five she befriended when she first came to this world. But she would also have to try and convince them that Sunset was innocent.

“Hey it’s Twilight! How’s it goin’ Twilight? Twilight?” one of the students in the hall called to Twilight when he saw her. But she had no time for polite formalities and continued rushing down the hallways.

“Sunse- Oof!” Twilight started to call but then bumped into someone and fell on her back. To her surprise the person she had just collided into was Flash Sentry, a boy she secretly had a crush on.

“Twilight! We really gotta stop bumping into each other like this. Are you okay?” Flash asked as he helped Twilight to her feet.

Twilight got right to the point, “Flash, I need help. Sunset Shimmer’s gone missing. Do you know where the other five girls are?”

Flash could see the great concern on Twilight’s face. He was among the people who believed Sunset Shimmer was Anon-a-Miss, but now he was starting to doubt his beliefs. “Last I heard they were having lunch at Sugarcube Café. They should be returning back to the school now.”

“Thank you, Flash.” Twilight expressed her gratitude and raced back down the hall toward the main entrance. Flash watched her leave with a worried expression on his face. Behind a corner, three certain young girls had watched the two talk with each other and they too looked extremely worried.

Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie had come through the main entrance of the school, all of them looking very glum. Their deepest secrets had been posted on the internet and their Christmas ruined, and they still believed that it was their former friend, Sunset Shimmer. Fluttershy pulled a small wrapped gift out of her pocket, it was labeled 'To Sunset Shimmer'. She glared at it and threw it into a nearby trash can. Little did they know that things were about to get much worse, and they would find a new person to blame for all this. Just then, they saw their other dimension friend, Twilight Sparkle, running down the hall toward them. None of them expected to see her so soon.

“Twilight?! What are you doin’ here?” Applejack was the first one to ask.

“I know about what’s been happening here.” Twilight got right to it. “What have you done?!”

“What do you mean ‘what have we done’? Sunset’s the one responsible for all this!” Rainbow Dash retorted.

“You’re wrong! Sunset’s been writing to me about all her problems.” Twilight handed them Sunset’s journal which Fluttershy took and began reading through. “Please ask yourselves: Why the Sunset Shimmer you know, the REAL Sunset Shimmer, do something like this?”

As the five looked through the pages of the book, they read all of the sad entries Sunset had written to Twilight. Now they were starting to doubt themselves for thinking Sunset Shimmer was the one responsible for all this. However, Rainbow Dash was border lining on a state between terrible realization and denial. “Well if it wasn’t her, then who was it?”

“It was us.” A voice came from behind Twilight. The six turned to see the three certain young girls; who happened to be Apple Bloom, Applejack’s younger sister, Sweetie Belle, Rarity’s younger sister, and Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash’s biggest fan. All three of them looked extremely guilty.

“WHAT?!” all five friends gasped when they heard this. “Apple Bloom, how could you?!” AJ cried.

“We never wanted anythin’ like this to happen.” Apple Bloom said nervously.

“Well what did you want?” Twilight asked in a serious tone.

“Well ya see, ever since ya’ll became friends with Sunset, we’ve been seein’ our sisters less and less. Ah was jealous, so ah created Anon-a-Miss, posted that story about Applejack, and made it look like Sunset Shimmer did it.”

“Apple Bloom told me about it and I felt the same way.” Sweetie Belle confessed. “At Rarity’s, while you all were asleep, I downloaded the pictures on Sunset’s phone and posted them on the internet.”

“Things got out of hand. People started sending other secrets to her, we posted everything.” Scootaloo explained while tears started forming in Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle’s eyes.

“Why didn’t you just talk to your sisters about how you felt?” Twilight asked.

The three girls tried anxiously to think of a reason why they didn’t do that, but Apple Bloom truthfully and tearfully said “Ah… ah don’t know. Ah guess we thought they wouldn’t listen to us.”

“Well now Sunset Shimmer is gone.” Twilight sadly told them. “Her last message to me said that she had lost hope and decided to run away. I came here in hopes that you all could help me find her before something really bad happened to her.”

Hearing this, intense horror and regret swept over the eight girls, particularly the five. They were all completely wrong about Sunset Shimmer. She was innocent.

“Sunset was telling the truth!” Fluttershy said visibly horrified. She ran back over to the trash can she threw Sunset's present in and started frantically fishing around in it. She was starting to panic, but then she finally found the gift, held it to her chest for a moment, put it in her pocket, and rejoined the others.

“WHAT HAVE WE DONE?!” Pinkie Pie cried and immediately whipped out her cellphone and dialed Sunset’s number. “Please answer, please answer, please ANSWER!” But Sunset Shimmer had just noticed that the batteries in her phone had died so she couldn’t receive Pinkie’s desperate call. “Something’s wrong! I can’t get through!”

“It’s not working with mine either!” said a scared Rarity who had tried to call Sunset on her phone as well.

“We have to find her, Twi! And fast!” a worried AJ told her friend while the three younger girls started crying.

“It’s not going to be easy in this weather at this time of day. We need more help!” Twilight said as she looked out at the cold, dark winter night that blanketed the outside world.

“And we know just where to get it!” announced Apple Bloom who had regained enough composer to stop sobbing for a moment.

Meanwhile, a train was passing through a dark, snowy forest. The train operator was happily listening to the music on his headphones, completely oblivious to the menacing looking man who had just entered the engine room and was now standing right behind him. The man grabbed the operator’s headphones and stabbed him in the throat with a knife. The operator gagged as blood spurted from the wound in his neck. The killer retracted his knife and let go of the operator who fell face first on the train controls causing the locomotive to come to a sudden stop. The killer hopped off the train and looked at his surroundings. He was satisfied where he was. While he had stowed away on the train, he found out that the next stop was near a nuclear power plant and he saw this as a ‘good opportunity for heavy casualties among this pathetic population.’

“It’s snowing.” He thought to himself, “Almost forgot it was the holiday season. Well, I’m afraid this won’t be a very Merry Christmas for anyone this year. The Grinch has come to town and he’s bringing death!” And with that, he readied his rifle and disappeared into the forest in search of his next victims.

Chapter 3

The school auditorium was filled with students all chanting with one another and wondering why Principal Celestia called for a meeting there. Finally the principal got up on stage with her sister, Vice Principal Luna, at her side and everyone quieted down and gave them their full attention.

“I know a lot of you are wondering why I have called a meeting here.” Principal Celestia began, “It’s because a few students have something important they wish to share with us.” Both Celestia and Luna stared coldly toward the three girls waiting behind them. The principal gestured them over to the microphone signaling it was their time to speak. The three girls walked slowly and nervously over to the mike. They knew they had to tell everyone what they had done and they would not be happy, not one bit. Twilight and the other five watched from the far right side of the stage, they were just as nervous as the youngsters. Apple Bloom took the mike in her hand, held it to her mouth, and began to speak.

“Now, ah know some of you have had your deepest, darkest secrets posted on the internet by Anon-a-Miss. A lot of you have come to believe that Sunset Shimmer is the one responsible and have been so angry at her.” She paused and then continued, “Well, the truth is it’s not her it’s us!”

Everyone stared at them for a moment, and then a few started to chuckle and laugh.

“Yeah right, I doubt you dorks could pull this off!” Diamond Tiara said smugly.

Sweetie Belle took out her phone, held it up so she could get the other two in the picture as well, took the picture, pressed a few buttons, and then put her phone away. The audience started checking their phones and to their shock, they found the newest blog of Anon-a-Miss. It was the very picture Sweetie Belle had taken of herself and her friends and under the picture was a message that read: “The True Faces of Anon-a-Miss!”

“So you’re the little troublemakers who have been causing all this!” one of the angry students shouted at them.

“You little-! How could you do this to us?!” yelled another angry student.

"Wait, if they're Anon-a-Miss, then that means-" Derpy said with nervous realization.

“Sunset Shimmer was innocent all along!” Lyra Heartstrings said to her friend, Bon Bon.

“Oh my god! I feel so terrible right now!” One of the drama boys said.

"I told her to go crawl into a hole and die!" Octavia said with great regret.

Then Twilight stepped up to the front of the stage to say what she had to say:

“So now you know. I just want to say that this isn’t all their fault. You all have some fault for this. Some of you thought this was fun and sent secrets to Anon-a-Miss wanting them to be posted, and then you ruthlessly blamed Sunset Shimmer for the entire thing. A girl who apologized for her past crimes against your happiness, who has been working so hard to atone for them, and a girl who even saved the entire school from enslavement by the Dazzlings. There are many things that can corrupt people’s hearts but hatred is one of the worst things.”

The whole audience was touched by Twilight’s speech, including the Humane Five. Who would’ve thought a large group of people could feel like the lowest scum of the world.

“Well, I believe each and every one of you owes Sunset Shimmer an apology!” Vice Principal Luna sternly told the crowd.

“Yeah, about that…” Fluttershy timidly stepped forward. “She kinda…”

“SHE’S RUN AWAY!” Pinkie Pie interrupted loudly causing the entire student body to gasp.

“WHAT?!” said Principal Celestia.

“At night, in this weather, is she CRAZY?!” one of the techie girls said.

“We can’t find her all on our own but if we work together, as friends, then we have a better chance of saving her from a horrible fate. So who’s with us?” Twilight asked the crowd with the Humane Five at her side.

“I’ll go!” Flash Sentry was the first to volunteer. “Twilight’s right. Sunset Shimmer is one of us now and she needs our help!”

Vinyl Scratch gave a thumbs up indicating she was also volunteering.

Both Lyra and Sweetie looked at one another with determined faces and both shouted “We’ll go!”

“Count me in, dudes!” said one of the eco boys.

“YEAH!” yelled Bulk Biceps.

Pretty soon all the students agreed to help in the search for Sunset Shimmer.

“Then let’s waste no time. Split into groups and start searching different parts the area together.” Instructed Principal Celestia and students started leaving the auditorium, heading straight to their lockers to grab coats, flashlights, and anything else they might need. Principal Celestia headed to her office to get her own winter gear, she too had decided to aid in the search as well.

Twilight, the Humane Five, and the three Crusaders walked out of the school entrance dressed in winter clothes to begin the search. Twilight turned to Spike.

“Spike, I know this is asking a lot of you, but we need you to try to use your dog senses to help us find Sunset Shimmer.” She said as she kneeled down and held Sunset’s journal in front of him.

Spike stared nervously at the book then back at Twilight. “I don’t know if I can do it, Twilight. I’m not even a real dog.”

“You have to try. You’re our and Sunset’s best hope.”

Everyone stared at Spike with desperate, pleading eyes.

“You can do it, Spikey-Wikey.” Rarity said in an attempt to boost his confidence, and it worked. Spike took a deep breath, sniffed the book, and then sniffed the air.

“I think I got something! Follow me!” Spike said and started running off with the other following right behind. This was it, this was their chance to find Sunset Shimmer and make things right.

Meanwhile, a most horrible tragedy had occurred at a truck station near a set of train tracks passing through the woods. The entire station was completely destroyed. Refueling pumps were on fire, windows were shattered, and dozens of people lay dead all over the place, save for three SWAT officers who were standing near their armored van and firing their guns at the assailant responsible for this carnage.

“KEEP FIRING!” one of the officers yelled to his partners. “DON’T LET THIS SON OF A BITCH ESCAPE!”

Soon the assailant returned fire, shooting two SWAT officers dead and mortally wounding one. The dark shooter emerged from the smoke emitting from the burning debris of the station and walked toward the SWAT van. The wounded officer tried desperately to crawl away only for the assailant to aim his rifle and finish him off with a bullet to the head. Now that he cleared the station of ‘worthless maggots’, the dark crusader hopped into the van and started the engine.

“Now, down the railway!” He thought to himself as drove away from the burning truck station. “Something’s telling me at the next station there’s a nice bloodbath. I mean there will be! Here comes the bloodshed! Time for an iron doom, with a high caliber machine gun! They’re going to bleed for me, profusely!”

Chapter 4

“SUNSET! SUNSET SHIMMER!” A student called out in an alleyway. Several groups of CHS students were searching all over the town in every alley, homeless shelter, store, etc.

“Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!” a Salvation Army Santa standing on the sidewalk said to two teenage girls who had approached him. The girls happened to be Lyra Heartstrings and Bon Bon, and neither of them looked very happy.

“Excuse us sir, but could you help us?” Lyra asked.

“Have you seen this girl by any chance?” Bon Bon held up her phone with a picture of Sunset Shimmer on the screen.

The Santa stopped ringing his bell and took a look at the picture. “Sorry, I’m afraid I haven’t.” he said with an apologetic face.

“Thanks anyway. Come on Bon Bon, let’s try someone else.”

Elsewhere, Snips and Snails somehow got the impression that it was a good idea to look for Sunset in trash cans and dumpsters.

“Sunset, are you in there?” Snails yelled into a trash can.

“Hey I think I found her.” Snips called to his friend when he heard a rustling coming from a dumpster, he opened the lid to see what was inside. “SUNSET, is that you?”

“MMMMEEEEOOOOWWWW!” unfortunately, instead of Sunset Shimmer, it was an angry cat that jumped out and latched itself onto Snips’ face.

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!” Snips cried to his friend for help as he tried to pry the cat off his face.

Panicking, Snails tries to get the cat off by bashing it with his flashlight. However, it would only make it worse or sometimes he would accidently hit Snips in the head.

Trixie and her two friends (her fellow bandmates from Rainbow Rocks) had been looking almost everywhere for Sunset with no luck. They now starting to get cold, one of them looked as if her eyelashes were frozen. They soon met up with Photo Finish and her friends.

“Vell, any sign of her?” Photo Finish asked Trixie’s group with her Austrian accent.

“The Great and Powerful Trrrixie hasn’t found as much as a strand of hair.” Trixie answered in usual third person manner. “It’s freezing out here. Why don’t we just report this to the police and go home, let them handle this?”

“Fine, give up!” Photo Finish said disgusted with Trixie’s request, “But some of us are schtill going to keep looking, even if it takes till next Christmas! Now, I go!” and with that Photo Finish’s group was off.

Trixie let out an annoyed groan. She really wanted to get home and out of the cold, but her conscience got the best of her. “Come on, let’s look over there!” She led her two shivering friends to another area to search.

For some strange reason, the Diamond Dog Boys thought it would be a smart idea to search underground for Sunset. They had dug a huge hole through the snow and into the ground. Apparently they had dug so much that they each popped their heads out of the ground a couple yards away from the hole they dug.

“She’s gotta be around here somewhere. Let’s keep digging.” Rover, the leader of the trio, commanded and lowered his head back into the ground.

Fido, the biggest one, followed shortly. Then Spot, the shortest one, was the last to retreat back into the ground. However, Spot’s winter hat had slipped off his head and was covering the hole that he poked his head out of. In a moment, Spot shot his arm out of the hole, grabbed his hat, and pulled it back in.

“SUNSET! SUNSET SHIMMER! SUNSET SHIMMER WHERE ARE YOU?” Flash Sentry was standing on a bridge and calling out desperately into the icy canal. Out of the students searching for Sunset Shimmer, he; besides Twilight, the Humane Five, and the Crusaders; was the most committed and most anxious to find her. His two bandmates caught on to this and they concluded that, despite the way Sunset used him in the past, a part of him still cared greatly for his ex-girlfriend.

“Don’t worry Flash. I’m sure she’s still okay.” One of them said trying to comfort their leader.

“Thanks, but I won’t be satisfied until we find Sunset Shimmer safe and sound!” Flash said with determination and let his group across the bridge to continue their search.

Principal Celestia had been keeping tabs on the progress of some of the search parties and she could see that many of them were trying really hard and felt so guilty for the parts they played that led to this.

“Oh Sunset, if only you could see how worried everyone is for you.” Celestia sadly said to herself. “I’m partly to blame for this as well.” She thought, “I’m the principal of the school, I should’ve done something to help her. But instead I turned out to be just as useless as I was during the Battle of the Bands.” All Celestia could do right now was look for Sunset as much as she could and pray that she was alright.

Meanwhile, there was chaos going down at a train station. The station was nearly torn up with heavy casualties including police, army soldiers, and civilians. Five surviving soldiers were firing at a maniac armed with a mounted machine gun on a hijacked SWAT van. Four of the troops went down in a few seconds.

“REQUEST BACKUP! WE NEED- Aagh!” but before the last trooper could finish his call on his communicator, he was shot dead with a barrage of bullets to the chest.

The killer got out of the armed van and took a good long look at the damage he had done.

“Aah! They’re beginning to weaken.” He thought satisfied with his progress, “Sending an army to fight me!” He chuckled sinisterly. “Good, more corpses! Time to head downtown. Soil is hungry, and soil is also *thirsty!”*** He decided to take a shortcut toward the downtown area through the woods, wondering what he might encounter along the way.

Chapter 5

Sunset Shimmer had been walking through the windy air and snowy ground for hours and it was freezing. “So cold, it’s so very cold!” she thought to herself as she found that she was between the edge of a dark forest and a frozen lake. With not a single sign of human life anywhere, she began to lose all hope. “Why didn’t I listen to Princess Celestia?” Sunset asked herself sadly. “I could’ve had what Twilight had, but instead I let my own selfish desires control me. And now I have nothing because of the person I used to be. I’m a complete and utter failure.” She looked out at frozen lake and started singing.

“Power. Was all I desired. But all that grew inside me. Was a darkness I acquired.”

Sunset remembered the Fall Formal, when she turned into she-demon and tried to destroy and enslave the entire school, and when Twilight and the Humane Five defeated her and first offered her a chance at friendship.

“When I began to fall. And I lost the path ahead. That’s when your friendship found me. And it lifted me instead.”

Sunset started sprinting in the snow while she was singing and then reached her hand up to the sky as a shooting star passed by.

“Like a phoenix burning bright. In the sky. I’ll show there’s another side to me. You can’t deny. I may not know what the future holds. But hear me when I say. That my past does not define me. ‘Cause my past is not today.”

Little did Sunset know that she wasn’t alone out there. Her singing was beginning to attract the attention of a mysterious stranger with murderous intent.

“Ambition. Is what I believed. Would be the only way to set me free.”

Sunset remembered when the entire school had rejected her for her past. But she also remembered the good times she had with her friends before the Anon-a-Miss incident.

“But when it disappeared. And I found myself alone. That’s when you came and got me. And it felt like I was home.”

Sunset started sprinting again and then threw both her arms up to the sky.

“Like a phoenix burning bright. In the sky. I’ll show there’s another side to me. You can’t deny.”

Unbeknownst to Sunset, the dark stranger had found her. Not wanting to waste any of his ammo on one girl, he pulled his combat knife out of his coat and started walking toward her from behind. However, he stopped in his tracks as he watched her body surging with light and then started to levitate in air.

“I may not know what the future holds. But hear me when I say. That my past does not define me. ‘Cause my past is not today.”

For her grand finale, Sunset’s body emitted an extremely bright light, similar to that of the sun, causing the stranger to shield his eyes from the blinding light. Sunset then descended back down to the ground and the bright aura that surrounded her disappeared. But the cold air had finally caught up to her and she collapsed in the snow. The strange man approached the unconscious girl and stared at her wide-eyed, not knowing what to do now. She was not like any of his victims before, she was different, there was something about her that wasn’t human. He knelt down beside her, putting his hand on her head while still holding the knife in the other. After a moment of thinking, the man came up with an idea and put on a smile that promised evil.

“She should to be useful in making this a lot more fun.” He thought to himself as he put his knife away and lifted Sunset’s body onto his back. He started carrying her toward a freeway that he saw earlier on the way. Once they were there, the grim-looking man stuck out his thumb and made it look like he was hitchhiking. Pretty soon a car noticed them and pulled over next to them. He set Sunset’s body on the ground as the driver of the car got out and walked over to them.

“You guys lost? Hey, is she okay?” the driver asked noticing the unconscious girl.

The man’s response was drawing his knife and slashing the driver’s throat. He kicked the body off into the trees and set Sunset Shimmer in the backseat of the car. He then hopped into the driver’s seat and drove off while chuckling wickedly at what he had planned for this girl.

Chapter 6

Twilight, the Humane Five, and the Crusaders had been following Spike as he tried his best not to lose Sunset’s scent. It eventually led them to an area between a frozen lake and a dark forest.

“You sure you know where you’re going?” Rainbow Dash asked the little dog.

“Sunset’s scent is here and I can also sense traces of magic in the air, I’m sure of it.” Spike answered confidently as he sniffed the ground and the atmosphere. Spike took a whiff of the air and instinctively took a few steps back. Twilight looked at her number one assistant; he had a strange look of fear on his face.

“What is it, Spike?” Twilight asked.

“I’ve picked up another scent and it’s with Sunset’s. It doesn’t smell right.”

“You mean like a stinky smell?” Pinkie asked holding her nose.

“No, it’s a kind of smell that gives you a bad feeling.”

“What do you mean? What does it feel like?” asked a confused Applejack.

“It feels like… like… evil!”

This sent a chill up all the girls’ spines. It was bad enough that their friend was missing but now there was something evil out there somewhere in the darkness of the night.

“What are you talking about… evil?” Fluttershy asked obviously frightened.

“I think you’re just overreacting. The cold air is getting to your nose.” Rainbow Dash denied the dog’s claim, although she didn’t look so sure herself.

“No, I know what I smell, and it smells like pure evil!” Spike sternly confirmed. The more he insisted, the more scared the girls became.

“What do you make of this, Twilight?” Rarity asked hoping her friend could shed some light on this dark situation.

“Well, while Sunset was writing to me about what she was going through, she suspected that windigos were causing all the chaos at the school.” Twilight answered.

“Could it be possible that any of these windigo creatures could’ve somehow come to this world?” Pinkie wondered.

“I’ve encountered some pretty scary things, but I don’t think anything from Equestria could feel so horrible!” Spike said still spooked.

“What are windigos?” asked Fluttershy.

“Windigos are evil spirits that feed off fighting and hatred which cause the winter snow to get colder. But I doubt there are any in this world. I believe anyone is capable of spreading hatred so easily without magic.” Twilight explained.

“You’re right.” AJ sadly agreed. These words caused her and the other girls to remember the last time they talked to Sunset Shimmer. They had started to believe she was Anon-a-Miss and denounced her as their friend. Now all they could feel was utter shame and regret

“Spike, we need to continue. Sunset Shimmer still needs our help.”

“Okay, I’ll try. But it’ll be hard to stay on her scent with this new scent mixed with it. The more I follow it, the more my instincts tell me to head in the opposite direction.” Spike said uneasily.

The eight girls followed the dog through the trees and to a freeway. Spike sniffed around the edge of the road and then sighed in disappointment.

“What’s wrong, Spikey-Wikey?” a concerned Rarity asked.

“I’ve lost them. Both Sunset’s scent and the other one end here! I’m sorry.” Spike said visibly upset.

“Don’t worry Spike. You did your best. We’ll figure out a way to find Sunset.” Twilight reassured her loyal assistant.

Twilight and the Humane Five huddled up to formulate a plan while the three Crusaders sat near the side of the road to try and think of a plan of their own and to think about the terrible decisions they made that led to this situation. Meanwhile, Spike picked up another scent and followed it to a nearby bush. Once he was in a position where he could see behind the bush he saw something that made him freeze where he stood, drop his jaw, and stare wide-eyed in horror. The three Crusaders noticed him and curiously walked over to see what he was looking at.

“What is it Spike? Did you find somethin-?” Before Scootaloo could finish her sentence, all three of them saw what the petrified dog had found.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Sweetie Belle let out a bloodcurdling scream which attracted the attention of the six older girls.

“What’s wrong Sweetie darlin-?” Rarity asked rushing over to her frightened sister, but all six girls gasped in horror at the cause of the commotion. Behind the bush was the body of a dead man, he was laying on side with his back against a tree, blood was dripping from his neck, and his lifeless eyes were wide open and looked as if he were staring right at them.

"Oh god! I think I’m gonna PUKE!” Rainbow Dash said covering her mouth, then turned around to hurl. All the others just stood where they were trembling. None of them had ever seen a real corpse before.

“Was he hit by a car or something?” an utterly terrified Fluttershy asked.

“No, it looks like his throat was slit.” Applejack answered while holding her terrified sister.

“Who or what could have done this?” a freaked out Rarity asked holding her sister who was sobbing on her shoulder.

“Do you think the other scent I found belonged to whatever did this, Twilight?” Spike asked nervously.

“What if it has Sunset Shimmer? What if this mysterious, murderous thing has her?!” Pinkie Pie was barely keeping it together.

“Sunset’s stronger than you think, she should be okay.” Twilight said trying to calm everyone down. However, she herself was starting to fear things were about to get much worse. “Sunset, where are you?”

Chapter 7

Sunset Shimmer woke up and found herself on a soft bed in an unfamiliar bedroom. But how? Last time she checked she was outside in the middle of nowhere freezing cold. She got out of the bed and cautiously walked out of the room, down the hallway, and eventually found herself in the dining room. She found that the table was set for two with two candles lit. She walked around the table staring at the plates and silverware in confusion. Her back was now turned toward the kitchen, but she continued to stare at the table unaware of a huge, shadowy figure approaching her from behind. When the figure set foot on the dining room floor it made a board creak which caused Sunset to spin around to see what made the sound. She gasped when she saw the dark, grim-looking stranger. He looked as if he was Bulk Biceps’ height, as he dwarfed her in size. He wore a long black leather coat. His skin was pale, almost as white as the snow. He had long black hair that almost covered most of his face, however, she could make out his eyes which stared down at her as if a predator had caught its prey. Sunset was afraid at this man’s appearance, so much that she couldn’t move, and just continued staring up at him wondering what he wanted.

“I see you’ve finally awoken.” The man said in what sounded like a gruff, but friendly tone of voice. Her fear started to die down. “You must be hungry. What would you like?”

“Do you have any salad? I’m a vegetarian.” Sunset asked sheepishly.

Soon enough, the strange man had whipped up two salads for both of them. As they sat at the table and ate their food, Sunset was beginning to wonder if this was the person who saved her from the cold.

“Did you like it?” the man asked.

“Yes, it was delicious. Thank you.” Sunset said with a smile. Her plate was cleared.

“Good.” The man then got up from his seat, took their plates and utensils, and headed toward the kitchen to clean them.

“Wait, are you the one who brought me here?” Sunset asked following him into the kitchen.

“Yes, you were out cold and nearly frozen when I found you. You didn’t even have a winter coat on.”

“Uh, thank you.” Sunset said softly.

“Rest here for the night. There are extra blankets in the hallway closet. Tomorrow morning, you can take one of the coats in the front door closet and be on your away if you need to go somewhere.” The man put the dishes in sink. But then he turned to the girl with a confused expression. “What were you doing out there all alone anyway, were you lost?”

“I was looking for my family.”

“Who are they?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?” the man asked astonished.

“It’s a long story. Some of it might be hard to believe.”

“Try me.”

And so Sunset told the stranger about how she used to be a tyrannical bully at Canterlot High until the girls she would soon call her friends opened her eyes to the magic of friendship. She also told him about the Battle of the Bands, the Dazzlings, and how she had been working to make amends with the people she wronged only to be shunned and ostracized. And then came Anon-a-Miss, where everything went wrong. She explained how someone started posting everyone’s secrets on the internet and how everyone began to believe she was the one to blame, including her friends. It was this part where Sunset began to shed tears as she continued her tale. She told of how she came to believe there was no hope of convincing anyone of her innocence and therefore there was no place for her there. So she decided to run away and see if she could find someone out there willing to accept her.

“Surely there must’ve been someone there who cared for you. Someone who wouldn’t turn their back completely on a fellow human being.” The man said as if trying to comfort the sobbing girl, but in reality, he was trying to get her to reveal something about herself she wasn’t telling him.

“Well that’s it, I’m not human.” Sunset admitted.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“Perhaps it’s best that I show you.” Sunset walked to a wide open area of the kitchen and began to sing Silent Night, a song that she had heard quiet often during the holiday season. As she sang, her body started to surge with magic, a small aura of light appeared around her body, and she levitated a few inches off the floor. The man watched and pretended to look like he had never seen it before; he had already seen her power when he found her. Soon, Sunset stopped singing and returned to normal.

“Amazing!” the man said with fake surprise. Then he put on what looked like a face of sadness. “I now fully understand your situation. It would appear fate brought us together tonight. You see, we may have more in common than you think, young lady.”

Hearing this, Sunset’s interest in this strange man sparked even more, and she listened intently as he continued.

“I, myself, have had my share of misery. The world is a cruel and hateful place and I've had my share of unrelenting hatred in my life. The truth is we are both individuals that everyone has some problem with. When people look at me, they don’t see me as a human being. I live alone, isolating myself from the rest of the world. Because no matter what I do they will never see me as anything but a nobody, a freak, a monster.”

Sunset felt like she was looking in a mirror when she looked at him. She saw another outcast like herself. “You saved my life, you’re not a monster. You’ve shown me that you’re a good person, and you can see I’m a good person as well. We’re not bad people, we’re just misunderstood. I’m sure if we do something great, people will start to see how special and good we are.” Sunset said sympathetically.

"You really believe that?"

"A good friend once taught me that: when things look bad, 'sometimes all you can do is stay strong, remember who you are, and find your family.' And I've been following those all night because I believe there is truth in them."

The man smiled. “What’s your name?”

“It’s Sunset Shimmer.”

“Well Sunset Shimmer, I think you just found your family. If it’s okay with you?”

Sunset felt tears of joy streaming from her eyes. “YES! It is!” she said with pure happiness. She thought she had done exactly what Twilight told her to do; she had found where she belonged. She couldn’t contain herself anymore and ran over to her new friend and gave him a big, tight hug. He gently hugged her back.

Soon enough, they both realized it was getting late, the clock read 11:56 pm.

“Well, we’d better get to bed.” The man told Sunset. He led her down the hallway to her room. “Good night Sunset, sweet dreams.”

“Wait, you never told me your name.”

“Well, I’ve been isolated from mankind for so long, I always thought it was not important. You may call me whatever you like.”

“Well good night, Mr. Not Important.” Sunset said teasingly. “It’s a start; I’ll find a better one eventually.”

Not Important smiled at her as he slowly closed the door. Alone in her new room, Sunset felt she had final earned the happy ending she had wanted for herself for so long. But now, it was starting to feel more like a happy new beginning. For the first time in a whole week, she would sleep well.

Not Important walked down the hallway and entered a doorway leading to the basement. Once he closed the door behind him, his seemingly friendly face turned to one of pure malice. He walked down the basement stairs, past the bloody bodies of the couple who were the true owners of the house, and over to a table with all his weapons laid on it. New additions to his arsenal were a shotgun, an smg, a flamethrower, flash bombs, Molotov cocktails, and a bulletproof vest he got from the police station in his hometown.

“This is all working out perfectly!” he thought to himself. As he thought about how he was going to use his new ‘friend’ for his plans, he began to laugh. It wasn’t natural laughter; it was laughter that sounded like it was coming from the devil himself. Sunset Shimmer was unable to hear it because she was already happily, fast asleep.

Chapter 8

Twilight Sparkle and the others had followed the road which led them to downtown. However, they were all still edgy after their encounter with a corpse. Sweetie Belle was still clinging tightly to Rarity’s coat. They came across a bakery labeled Donut Joe’s, and decided to pop in to rest and for something to eat. The six teenagers sat down at one table together while the three younger girls sat down at another. They had ordered some pastries but none of them were eating very much. Pretty soon, two other groups of teenagers entered the bakery. Flash Sentry, Trixie, Bulk Biceps Snips, Snails, and Derpy were among them.

“Flash!” Twilight called to him, she was very happy to see him.

“Twilight!” Flash called back and walked over to her table.

“Any luck finding her?”

“Sorry, I’m afraid not.” Flash sadly admitted. Twilight didn’t like this news at all and Flash could see that. “Don’t worry, none of us will give up until we find Sunset.”

“Flash, I’m afraid things are about to take a turn for the worst.”

“What do you mean?”

Twilight knew this wasn’t going to be easy to say. “While we were searching through the woods, we came across a freeway.” She stopped for a moment, starting to feel uneasy about what she was going to say next.

“What happened?”

“We found a- a- a-.” Twilight was struggling to speak.

Finally, Pinkie couldn’t contain herself any longer, and just blurted “We found a body on the side of the road!” Realizing what she had just said, she covered her mouth to prevent herself from saying anything more but it was too late. Everyone had heard what she said and gasped.

“You don’t think Sunset-?” Derpy was about to ask.

“No, it wasn’t Sunset. It was no one we know.” Applejack assured her.

“Hit by a car?” Trixie asked concerned.

“No, throat slashed.” Rainbow Dash corrected her. But that only caused everyone to gasp even more.

“You mean murder?!” an eco-boy named Sandalwood asked nervously.

“On the way here, we stopped by the police station to report it and about our missing friend. They said they would do whatever they could.” Rarity said.

“Hey guys, take a look at this!” a techie boy named Micro Chips called everyone over to his table. He was on his laptop at recent news articles, some dating a day or two back to before the trouble with Anon-a-Miss started. The articles that he had dug up were extremely horrific and disturbing.

“My god, a guy just one day decides to slaughter everyone in his neighborhood?!” Flash was horrified when he read the oldest article.

“And when he escaped through the sewers, several teams of SWAT officers went in after him and none of them came back out!”

“Dudes, he massacred pretty much everyone at a marina!” Sandalwood read another article.

        "This has been going on for about a week. How come we haven't heard or seen any of this on the news?" Flash asked.

        "Because we haven't been paying any attention to the news. We've been so focused on Anon-a-Miss and thinking Sunset was her." Fluttershy answered remorsefully.

“It says here the authorities found a train and all the passengers on it dead!” AJ pointed to one of the recent articles.

“That was tonight!” Rainbow Dash said as she noticed the date on the article.

“It says here that a truck station was completely destroyed and there was a massacre at the train station. Both were near where they found the train!” Micro Chips said pulling up the newest news articles.

“This is unbelievable!” Trixie said aghast.

“What even causes someone to commit such horrible acts?” Fluttershy asked utterly horrified.

“Wait a minute, I know that train station. It’s near the place where we lost Sunset’s trail!” Rainbow Dash pointed out when she saw a picture of the ruined station. Now everyone was truly filled with terror.

“What do you think about this, Twilight?” Spike turned to Twilight hoping she could say something that would help ease this newly found tension.

“I- I don’t know what to say, Spike. I’ve never heard of anything so evil in my life!” Twilight replied with pure horror in her eyes. She was starting to believe Spike was onto something when he smelled something evil. Murders were nothing new back in Equestria, but on such a huge scale, that was unthinkable to her. Flash noticed how terrified she looked and put his arms around her in an attempt to calm her.

“Something must’ve done this. I mean, how can anyone do something so inhuman, and around this time of the year?” Pinkie asked hoping that someone might suggest that whatever was responsible was something not of this world. She was the kind of person that believed there was goodness in everyone and she hated the thought of a fellow human being committing such an unforgivable crime.

“The scoundrel that did this probably is human, Pinkie.” AJ uncomfortably told her. She then turned to Twilight because she also needed to hear what she had to say next. “Twi, you’ve made a lot of friends here in our world. Now ah don’t know a lot about the people of your world, but ah must tell that not everyone in our world is good and friendly. Some humans are capable and willing to commit some of the most unspeakable, and unforgivable acts of wickedness imaginable. Some of us know this because we’ve taken quite a few history classes and you’d be surprised and shocked to learn of the horrors caused by bad people.”

Twilight understood Applejack’s words, but they made her sad. This new world and its inhabitants that she had come to like were capable of providing some of the most interesting friends she could ever meet, but also some of the worst enemies she could ever face. The Crusaders were also affected by AJ’s words, it caused them to remember all the damage their Anon-a-Miss scheme had caused, and they felt like they deserved a spot among the bad people AJ was talking about.

“Well, you kids better find a place to rest for the night.” Joe, the owner of the bakery, had been listening sympathetically to their conversation. He pointed to a clock on the wall that read 8:30 pm. “A curfew is going into effect tonight at 9 o’clock so you all should find a safe place to sleep.”

“But what about Sunset?” Scootaloo didn’t want to give up on looking for their lost friend, especially with a dangerous killer on the loose.

“I’m afraid there’s nothing more we can do tonight.” Twilight felt the same way, but she had to face the facts, it was now too dangerous to keep looking anymore tonight. “Sunset Shimmer is stronger than she seems. This time you have to trust that she’ll do the right thing.”

“I saw a motel a couple blocks back. We can rest there for the night.” Rarity announced. And so everyone left the bakery to find a place to recuperate at the motel. None of them liked the idea of putting their search for Sunset on hold, but it seemed like there was no choice. None of them would be any use in the search if something bad happened to them.

Chapter 9

“Attention citizens! A curfew is in order! Everyone please go home and lock your doors immediately!” a police officer said through a megaphone while driving through the street in his cop car.

Everyone arrived at the motel and checked in. Most of the available rooms had only two beds so they worked out who would be roommates. Applejack, Apple Bloom, Twilight and Spike shared a room; Rarity with Sweetie Belle; Scootaloo bunked with Rainbow Dash; and Pinkie Pie shared a room with Fluttershy. Twilight asked the five human versions of her friends to meet her in the room she was sharing with AJ and Apple Bloom. She also asked Apple Bloom to go to one of the rooms with her friends; she wanted to have a talk with the older girls alone. The five noticed that Twilight was not having a good night. She was still thinking about Sunset Shimmer, the fact that she was still out there, and the fact that a deranged killer was on the loose didn’t make them feel any better. But the worst part was there was nothing they could anymore tonight, and that was the most frustrating. Twilight sat on her bed holding her head in one hand.

“Don’t worry, Twilight. We’ll find her tomorrow. I’m sure.” Fluttershy said trying to comfort her friend. Unfortunately, it did little to calm her nerves.

“I just can’t believe this happened. Poor Sunset.” Twilight said, obviously upset.

“I know how you feel, but please darling, Sweetie Belle and the others do feel bad about what they did and just want to make things right. So try not to be too hard on them.” Rarity said with sympathy.

“It’s not them I’m upset at, it’s you.” Twilight declared.

All five of them were shocked. They couldn’t believe what their friend had just said. “How could you do this Sunset Shimmer? Just turn your backs on her like that when she needed your support?”

“Now sugarcube, please let us explain. All the evidence was pointed at her; there was no way of knowin’ it was someone else.” Applejack tried to defend everyone.

“Yeah, you remember what she was like. You know what she was capable of doing.” Rainbow Dash interjected.

“That’s all in the past. Sunset Shimmer’s a different person now. She apologized for all the wrong she did.” Twilight argued.

“Well, how was she able to convince you she was innocent?” Rainbow Dash asked, she was getting annoyed with this conversation.

Twilight was dumbstruck; she couldn’t believe her friends needed to ask her that. “Sunset Shimmer has been working really hard to make up for her misdeeds to not only you, but also to me. She’s my friend. That’s all the information I need to tell she’s a good person. Why wasn’t that enough for you?”

This time, none of them could think of an excuse. Twilight had them beat. No one said anything; they just lowered their heads in shame. However, Twilight continued.

“What about all the good times you’ve all had, didn’t that mean anything?”

Nothing.

“Remember the Battle of the Bands and the Sirens? In the end, Sunset was the one ultimately responsible for saving everyone. Didn’t that matter at all?”

Still nothing.

“Remember if it weren’t for Sunset, I would’ve never met any of you and we never would’ve become friends.”

They still didn’t say anything, but they looked like they were on the verge of crying. Twilight had one last thing to say.

“I asked you to watch over her and teach her the magic of friendship. So when you turn your backs on Sunset, you also turned your backs on me.”

That was it. That was the breaking point. Fluttershy was the first to breakdown into tears, followed by Pinkie Pie. Rarity sat down on the other bed in the room and sobbed with her face buried in her hands. Applejack and Rainbow Dash just stood where they were staring at the floor with tears streaming down their cheeks. Twilight stared at her bawling friends and started regretting being so harsh. Spike poked his head out from under Twilight’s bed. He could only watch as the five girls cried their eyes out. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo had snuck into the neighboring room where Rarity and Sweetie Belle were to sleep that night. All three of them had eavesdropped on the whole conversation and could hear the older girls crying. They began to wish that they had never come up with Anon-a-Miss in the first place.

"You're right sugarcude, we've been horrible friends." a broken AJ tearfully admitted.

"We should've known better." Fluttershy sobbed.

Rarity finally regained enough of her composer to stop crying. Her eye makeup was ruined. “Twilight darling, we know now that what we did was wrong. But we promise we’re not going to give up until we find Sunset Shimmer and set things right.”

“I know we will.” Twilight said with a warm smile.

“And as long as we have each other, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish.” Rainbow declared proudly.

Twilight let out a sigh of relief. “All right, time for bed. We’ve got a big day tomorrow.” And with that everyone adjured to their own rooms to get some sleep.

Twilight lay on her bed with Spike nestled at her feet. Applejack and Apple Bloom shared the same bed and were snoring happily while hugging each other. Although it had been a bad night, Twilight felt newfound hope that they would be able to find Sunset Shimmer safe and sound.

Chapter 10

The Humane 5 were walking down a hallway of Canterlot High. None of them looked very happy. Then they saw someone standing in a dark corner of the hall with her back turned to them. After a moment, they recognized it as Sunset Shimmer and their spirits were lifted. Huge smiles started forming on their faces.

“Sunset! Sunset, you’re back!” Pinkie Pie ran happily over to her friend with open arms. But she was cut short when Sunset turned around to face them. She didn’t have a warm and welcoming face of a friend. Instead her eyes were glowing red, she had a couple of blood veins on her forehead that looked like they were going to burst, and her teeth were clenching really hard, any harder and they might break. It was a face of pure rage. Everyone went from happy and excited to utterly terrified.

“S-Sunset, what’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked nervously.

“I tried to be nice!” Sunset said angrily as she walked toward the Five who proceeded to take a few steps back. “I tried to be your friend! I even saved this entire school one time! And THIS is how you all repay me?!”

“Sunset please let us explain ourselves.” Rarity tried to calm the angry red and yellow haired girl down but to no avail.

“No matter what I do, everyone will only see me as a horrible monster!”

“But Sunset-.” Pinkie tried to explain but the furious Sunset just ignored her.

“Well if it’s a monster you want?” Sunset pulled something out of her jacket that made everyone’s eyes grow wide with terror: Twilight’s crown (like the one she stole in the first movie). “Then it’s a MONSTER YOU’LL GET!”

“SUNSET NO!” Applejack screamed, but it was too late.

Sunset placed the crown upon her head and began to transform. After a moment, the magic and dust had cleared, and to everyone’s horror, Sunset Shimmer had once again turned into the terrible she-demon like she did during the Fall Formal. The newly transformed demon girl cackled as she inspected her form. Then without another word, she used her magic to levitated several rows of lockers out of their places and hurl them at the five girls. The girls instinctively ran for it and all of them barely managed to dodge the flying lockers by darting left into another hallway. The noise made by the flying lockers drew the attention of several students and teachers in the hall. Suddenly, the demonic Sunset flew into the hall that the Humane Five had just entered and everyone started running and screaming. Demon Sunset used her magic to enchant backpacks, lockers, and even custodian equipment into attacking the panicking people, all the while laughing. The three young Crusaders cowered in a corner as Demon Sunset approached them. She took out her phone, aimed it at the frightened girls, and took their picture. Once the flash from the phone’s camera had died down, the Crusaders were gone. Demon Sunset looked at her phone’s screen and laughed at the sight of the three little girls she had trapped in Anon-a-Miss’s newest blog.

The girls ran out of the school to where the school statue and portal were located. Screams could be heard from inside and classrooms looked like they being set on fire. The Humane Five suddenly spotted Twilight Sparkle who was about to enter the portal back to Equestria, for some reason she didn’t look fazed by the obvious chaos that was going on behind her.

“TWILIGHT!” Rainbow shouted trying to get her attention but she didn’t respond, so all five of them ran toward her.

“Twilight, where are you going? We need your help!” Pinkie called to her.

Twilight turned to face them with an emotionless expression on her face. “I’m going home. What’s it look like?” She said indifferently.

“But you can’t go yet! Sunset Shimmer has turned into that she-demon again, and-“.

“That’s no longer my concern.”

The five girls were shocked to the core when they heard this.

“What do you mean this is NOT your concern?!” Rainbow said angrily, “Of course it is! Sunset’s gone mad again and is destroying everything, you have to help-“.

“Last time Sunset was doing horrible things to innocent people, she had to be stopped then.” Twilight retorted, “This one you all brought upon yourselves!”

“So yer just gonna leave us?!” AJ asked visibly horrified.

“Sorry, but this is your problem now.”

“But why? I thought we were friends?” Fluttershy asked with tears in her eyes.

“So did I.” Were the last words Twilight said before she disappeared into the portal.

“No, no, no, no, NO, NO, NO!” Rainbow cried as she pounded her fist against the statue wall for the portal to open, but it was too late, it was gone and Twilight with it.

Suddenly, Demon Sunset crashed through the front doors of the school and was hovering in the air. She spotted the Humane Five cowering in front of the school statue.

“So long, my dear FRIENDS!” She yelled as she raised her hands above her head and created a giant fireball, all the while laughing. Then with all her might, she hurled the ball of fire right at the five frightened girls who braced themselves for the end.

“AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!” Raindow cried as she nearly jumped out of her bed. She calmed down and took a moment to catch her breath. She looked around and found that she was not at Canterlot High, but back in the motel room. It was all a nightmare.

“Rainbow, are you alright?” Scootaloo asked concerned. Her scream had woken the younger girl up.

“Yeah, just a bad dream.” Rainbow said trying to regain her composure. “Let’s get back to sleep.”

Scootaloo, still worried, did as her big sister figure said and lay back down in her bed. However, Rainbow was having a hard time going back to sleep. She could feel in her gut that something bad was coming and it somehow would involve Sunset Shimmer. She knew tomorrow they would have to find their lost friend and fast.

Chapter 11

Not Important rose from his bed, yawned, and stretched out his arms. It was morning. He walked down the hall and into the dining room. There was already a breakfast platter made. It consisted of eggs, toast, hash browns, and orange juice. Then he noticed Sunset Shimmer coming out of the kitchen.

“Good morning.” Sunset politely greeted him.

"Good morning." he greeted back, then he eyed the breakfast platter. "What's all this about?"

"I thought I'd make a little breakfast for the both of us this morning. My way of saying thank you for saving me."

"That's so sweet, thank you."

After they had eaten breakfast, Sunset took the dishes into the kitchen to be cleaned while Not Important went down into the basement. He came back carrying some bags over his shoulder and heading for the door.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

“Oh sorry, I forgot to tell you last night, I have to go into town today. There are a few things I need to pick up.” He noticed Sunset’s mood was starting to decrease into sadness. “I have a lot of people I have to meet today, but I’ll be back soon. I have some special plans for us both today.”

“Are they going to be fun?” Sunset started getting her hopes up.

“They’re to die for.”

“Then have a good time, I’ll be waiting for you.” And with that, Sunset gave him a warm hug before he stepped out to pack his things in the car.

Sunset decided to watch some TV. So she sat on the couch, picked up the remote, and pressed the power button. Strangely, all the screen showed was static. She tried changing channels but kept getting the same result.

“There must be something wrong with the antenna.” She thought for a moment. “He seems real busy. We’ll talk about it later.”

Meanwhile, outside, Not Important had just finished stuffing something into one of the trash bins. That something just happened to be the TV antenna.

“Can’t have that girl recognizing me on public television. Where I’m going there’s bound to be news reporters with cameras, and if she finds out my little secret it could mess everything up. When I said I had a lot of people to meet, I meant I have a lot of people to *kill!”***

He entered his car and placed the bags he had been carrying on the passenger’s seat next to him. A few items spilled out of one of the bags, gun ammunition and grenades. Then he started his car and started driving up the hill let led from their house to a road heading toward downtown. The house they were live in was practically in the middle of nowhere, there were no neighboring houses, just the one located at the bottom of the hill surrounded by snow and trees.

In downtown, Twilight, Spike, the Humane Five, and the Crusaders were continuing their search for Sunset Shimmer. Rainbow Dash clearly looked like she had a rough night. She had bags under her eyes. They soon met up with Trixie’s group.

“Anything?” Twilight asked.

“We’ve searched high and low and still no sign of Sunset Shimmer.” Trixie reported.

“She’s gotta be around here somewhere. We can’t give up.” Apple Bloom spoke.

“Well, well, well, the little troublemakers are all concerned.” Trixie spoke harshly to the three young girls. “You three have a lot of guts being out here looking for Sunset when you were the ones who caused this mess!”

“We’re just trying to fix things. We’re sorry.” Sweetie Belle responded almost on the verge of tears.

“Save it for Sunset Shimmer!” Trixie shouted back causing the three girls to weep.

“Hey Trixie, if I remember correctly you also owe Sunset an apology as well!” Rainbow said coming to the Crusaders’ aid.

“Trixie knows she’s did some wrong things, but what about you?” Trixie smugly retorted. “You know, none of CHS truly thought Sunset Shimmer could’ve been Anon-a-Miss until you five turned on her. So why do we have to apologize for your screw-ups, Rainbow Trash?!”

Rainbow could feel angry filling up inside her. She and Trixie never really got along that well, but now she was pushing it. Rainbow clenched her fist, preparing to punch Trixie right in the face.

“Enough, both of you!” Twilight shouted coming between them to prevent a fight. This was no time for petty quarrels. “Everyone has done something they shouldn’t had but the important thing is finding Sunset Shimmer and making sure she’s okay.”

Rainbow Dash calmed herself down, “Twilight’s right. We’d better keep searching.”

After walking for about a block, the two groups came across a gathering in the middle of one of the streets. There were a lot of people gathered together to see and hear a man on a red, white, and blue stage give speeches.

“Well, looks like we’ve come across an election rally.” Applejack said uninterested. “Ma uncle, Crab Apple, tried runnin’ for mayor once. It ended in disaster. Never could keep that attitude of his in check.”

“Do you think Sunset might be in there?” Fluttershy asked referring to the huge crowd.

“Doubt it. She’s never been one for politics, darling.” Rarity answered her.

With that, the two groups continued their search away from the rally. But unbeknownst to anyone, a dark figure was watching the political rally from the shadows of a nearby alley.

“Great, an election rally today.” Not Important thought to himself as he observed the people at the rally with a big flamethrower in hand. “I fucking hate politics. But more than that, I *hate** politicians and all the scum so easily fed by their lies!”* He readied his weapon. “But what a lovely crowd of *soon-to-be-corpses!*” Then he ran out of the alley toward the crowd and started blasting his flamethrower.

Chapter 12

Warning: This chapter contains some violence so be prepared.

Twilight, Spike, the Humane Five, the Crusaders, and Trixie’s group were walking down a sidewalk in the opposite direction of the political rally. They passed by multiple department stores advertising the holiday season. A lot of them were beginning to lose hope in finding Sunset. Just then, Spike stopped and took a whiff of the air.

“What is it, Spike?” Twilight asked.

“Guys, I’m getting that scent again!” Spike said nervously.

“You’ve picked up Sunset’s scent again?” Rainbow asked.

“No, it’s that other scent!”

“You mean the one that smells like evil?” Fluttershy asked nervously.

“Yes, that one!”

Suddenly, there was a huge explosion followed by several screams coming from where they saw the election rally. Seconds later, several screaming people came running in their direction, some of them were caught on fire. Twilight and the others quickly got close to the wall of a nearby building to avoid getting trampled by the panicking citizens. Starting to get scared themselves, they turned their heads to see what it was everyone was running from. And to their horror, they saw a tall, dark man with a flamethrower chasing everyone and setting aflame to anyone who near him.

“RUN EVERYONE!” Twilight yelled and they all started running the fleeing crowd to get as far away from this mysterious psycho as possible.

Not Important was blazing his flamethrower left and right trying to scorch as many people as he could. Watching tons of defenseless citizens running, rolling on the ground, and screaming in fear and agony made him feel like a kid at a carnival. Because of his hatred for mankind, it was extremely easy for him to massacre tons of people without any remorse in these last few days. But he still wanted to take more and more lives before it would finally be his time.

“HELP ME! HELP ME PLEASE!” A woman who had tripped called desperately to anyone. She tried to crawl away, but Not Important set her ablaze and watched as she screamed and struggled as the flames engulfed her body.

Twilight and the others were running as fast as they could. Terror was coursing through each and every one of them. Then Twilight saw an alley with two huge dumpsters on both sides, they could use those to take shelter.

“Quick everyone, in here!” She commanded and Spike, the Humane Five, the Crusaders, and Trixie’s group follow suit. They all hid behind the two dumpsters as the sounds of screaming citizens were rushing past them.

“NO! NO! PLEASE DON-!” They heard a man yell and then turn to agonizing screams and the sound of burning clothes and flesh.

Apple Bloom poked her head out slightly to see what was going on and saw the dark assailant standing over the burning remains of his recent victim. She quickly pulled her head back behind the dumpster to avoid being spotted. Obvious terror was visible in her eyes. The pyro maniacal assailant turned his attention to the alley where the girls were all hiding. Something was telling him there was something hiding in there. Twilight and the others could feel that he was staring in their direction but couldn’t quite see them. They all held their breaths hoping he would move on and not come into the alley. The murderer took a step into the alley. Everyone could feel his presence getting closer; they braced themselves for what they thought was the end for them. Suddenly, sounds of police sirens could be heard, and the killer decided to forget about what he thought was in the alley and focus on the defenders whom he affectionately referred to as ‘human shields’. Twilight and the others heard his footsteps heading back the way they came with the sound of a police car in pursuit. When she believed he was gone, she told everyone to follow her and find a safe place to take shelter. “Come on everyone, let’s move!”

Meanwhile, Not Important had stopped fleeing the pursuing police car. The vehicle had come to a screeching halt, and then another pulled up alongside that one. Two officers stepped out of both cars with their guns aimed at him.

“Freeze! Hands in the air!” One of the cops yelled. But Not Important, with extremely quick reflexes, pulled a grenade out of his coat and threw it right between the two cop cars while dodging all their bullets. The grenade detonated causing both law enforcement vehicles to explode killing three officers and mortally wounding one. The surviving cop pleaded Not Important to spare him, but the cold killer ignored him and with the last ounces of fuel in his flamethrower, turned the defenseless police officer into a burning pile of ash.

“Pathetic!” Not Important said to himself as he watched the ‘human shield’ burn. Then he turned his head and saw a building with the name ‘Weapons Gallery’ on it. Then he got an idea. “Time to do a little Christmas shopping!” he said as he discarded his empty flamethrower and pulled out a smg and started walking toward the building. Inside there people looking over tables with all sorts of guns spread all over them and talking to the merchants at each table. Suddenly, Not Important burst through the glass doors and wasted no time gunning down many people in the room. Some people and merchants grabbed some firearms and began to fight back, but Not Important was too good a marksman for them, and pretty soon they all went down. Not Important then decided to help himself to as many weapons he could carry.

Twilight and the others were still trying to get as far away from the violence that was going on. As they were running, they spotted several military Humvees heading in the direction of the carnage.

“The Army?! Who is this guy?” Rarity said as she watched the military vehicles pass by.

While Not Important was collecting more ammo, he heard the sound of military vehicles and soldiers approaching the building. “So they’ve finally come. Good thing I’m in the right place!” he thought as he prepared to defend his temporary base with all the firepower around him. Soldiers started shooting through the glass and windows into the building, but Not Important fired back bringing a great number of them down. Eventually, some soldiers started coming into the building in an attempt to get a clear shot at their target. But their attempts proved futile as Not Important quickly gunned them down. One soldier was still alive and stared fearfully as his enemy aimed his weapon at him.

“No, please! Let me live! I have a teenage daughter, please let me go!” the soldier pleaded. Not Important took a good, long look at the wounded soldier and realized he looked a little like him. Then he got an idea. He lowered his gun. For a moment, the soldier let out a sigh of relief. But then Not Important grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and bashed him in the head with his weapon killing him instantly. Not Important then dragged the dead soldier’s body behind a cashier counter. Some soldiers were still firing into the building. After a minute of two, Not Important emerged from behind the cashier counter while stuffing the soldier’s uniform in his coat. Then he grabbed an assault rifle from one of the tables and began firing at all the soldiers outside the windows. Realizing they’re losing the few surviving soldiers tried to retreat, but before any of them could get into their Humvees; Not Important ran out of the building and shot each and every one of them dead.

“One nation under death!” Not Important thought as he looked down at one of the dead soldiers. “I am genocide! But enough fun. I must get to the power plant. First, I need some high explosives. There is an army base nearby. Time to pay them a painful visit. But first I must get back to Sunset Shimmer; I’m going to need her for this one!” And he started walking away from the horrible massacre he had just caused.

It was now becoming evening and Twilight, Spike, the Humane Five, the Crusaders, and Trixie’s group had stopped to catch their breaths, they had been running nonstop. Each Crusader was holding on to her respective older sister crying while their elders tried to comfort them. Twilight stared distraughtly in the direction of the massacre; she could see smoke and hear sirens in the distance. She couldn’t understand how someone in this world could be capable of and willing to cause so much damage, and without magic. The well-being of her friend, Sunset Shimmer, was still ever hanging in her mind.

“What kind of man would pull something like this?! And during the holidays no less?!” asked one of Trixie’s friends.

“That was no man!” Fluttershy said with cryptic fear in her voice. "And Sunset Shimmer is still out there. What if-!"

“Don’t talk like that, ah’m sure Sunset’s okay.” Applejack said to Fluttershy while attempting to keep Twilight calm.

Rainbow Dash however, was on her knees sobbing in hysterics. A shell of her once proud self. All she wanted at this moment was to find her lost friend, apologize for what she had done, and be through with this holiday that had all gone horribly wrong. However, things were looking pretty bleak at this moment. Out of ideas, Rainbow did something she never thought she would have to do; she looked up to the sky for a moment, closed her eyes, put her hands together, and started to speak; "Oh Lord in Heaven, please hear my voice now."

Rainbow was starting to attract the attention of the others. "What's she doing?" Twilight asked curiously.

"Twi, remember when ya said that in your world Celestia is a wise and immortal princess and everyone looks to for answers?" AJ asked. Twilight nodded her head yes and then AJ continued. "Well in our world, Celestia is just the principle of our school. And while we do sometimes go to her for some guidance, when people are desperate they look to someone else for help. We can't explain who this person is because most of us never really seen him. We grow up hearing about how he loves every single one of us, and that if you truly have faith he will show you the way."

Twilight's interest was perked, the religion of this world was something she would have to learn about another time. Soon everyone joined in Rainbow's prayer, Twilight herself included, in hopes that it would make it stronger.

"I know many of us have done some terrible and inexcusable things, we probably don't deserve your forgiveness. But all we ask for is a chance to try and make things right. Somewhere out there a good person, a friend, is in need of love and warmth. but if we don't find her soon, we fear the worse could happen. If we deserve any sort of punishment let it come, but please don't let it be the loss of an innocent girl's life. Please just give us some sort of sign. Amen."

Everyone waited for a moment, then suddenly a bright light appeared in the sky. They all looked up and saw a single star shining brighter than all the others. Was this their sign in response to their desperate prayer?

"Girls, I think our prayer has been answered." Twilight said confidently. "I believe what we have to do is go in the direction of that star."

“Then that’s where we’re going!” Rainbow Dash declared with confidence. “Trixie, we’re going to need your van.”

“Fine, but don’t scratch it.” Trixie said as she led them to where she parked her car.

Soon they were all on the road heading in the direction where the star was guiding them. At long last they would finally be reunited with their friend.

Chapter 13

Twilight Sparkle, Spike, the Humane Five, the Crusaders, and Trixie had had followed the shining star to a very strange location. They were practically in the middle of nowhere; the only house in the area was at the bottom of a hill, surrounded by trees. But that was convenient, that had to be where Sunset Shimmer was staying.

“Here we are!” Pinkie Pie said excitedly, and then she pointed to the house. “There, that’s got to be where Sunset is.”

“One way to find out.” Rainbow Dash said with determination.

Twilight, Spike, the Humane Five, and the Crusaders disembarked from Trixie’s car.

“If you don’t mind, Trixie, would like to get back to the others and see if she can get some help searching these woods incase Sunset's not in that house if that’s okay?” Trixie asked politely. In truth, there was something about this place that gave her the creeps. After the horrific event she witnessed recently, she felt it was a good idea to follow her instincts from now on.

“Okay, you know where to find us.” Pinkie said in her usual happy tone.

“Just don’t be late.” Rarity said demandingly. “I can’t imagine why Sunset Shimmer would want to live in a place like this.”

Fluttershy put her hand to her pocket, the one containing the present she almost threw away, “Let’s hope we can make things right.”

Sunset Shimmer was in the living room, sitting in a chair, and reading a book. Since she couldn’t get the TV to work she decided to read something and it was proving to be more entertaining than watching television. Then she heard a knocking at the front door. She closed the book, set it down on a coffee table, got up and started walking toward the door. “I wonder if he’s back yet.” She thought hoping the knocking was Not Important returning from his ‘errands.’ But when she answered it, she was surprised to see a group of people she thought she would never see again. When they saw her, huge smiles formed on all of their faces.

“Sunset!” Twilight was the first to say with joy, and gave her friend an unexpected hug.

“Twilight?” Sunset was still surprised and confused. “What are you doing here?”

They all stepped inside and sat in the living room, there Twilight explained, “When I received your last journal entry I knew you were in serious trouble and I couldn’t let this go on any longer, I knew I had to do something. But by the time I got here, you were already gone. Luckily, I was able to find you with some help.” And she turned her head toward the Humane Five who were looking a little nervous now.

“You helped look for me?” Sunset asked the Humane Five, “But you said-.”

“Yeah, Twilight was finally able to talk some sense into us.” Rainbow Dash said with some regret in her voice.

“And the real Anon-a-Miss confessed.” Pinkie Pie added.

“Was it those three?” Sunset asked turning to the three guilty-looking little girls.

“How did you know that?” Rarity asked surprised.

“I’ve been thinking. Applejack, you said you’ve never told anyone about your ‘Piggly Wiggly’ story but us right?”

“Yeah.” Applejack answered.

“I’m pretty sure there were a few other people who knew about it before us.”

“Well, the only other people who knew were mah fam- mah family!” Applejack suddenly realized what Sunset was trying to say. “Why didn’t ah think of that before?!”

“And Dash, Anon-a-miss posted a science paper you wrote, right?”

“Uh, yeah?” Rainbow Dash answered but was having a hard time trying to follow.

“Did you have soccer practice the day you got that paper back?”

“Soccer practice? Um, yeah.”

“And the junior team was practicing too, right?”

“Well sure, they usually do. But I don’t see what that has to do with-.” Rainbow stopped for a moment and it all finally came together. “Oh my god, of course!”

Then Sweetie Belle stood up. She decided to confess rather than let Sunset unmask her. “And while you all were sleeping at Rarity’s, I swiped Sunset’s phone and downloaded the pictures she took to the internet.”

“Oh Sweetie Belle.” Rarity said with a little disappointment.

“But what I can’t quite figure out is ‘why?’ I know I wasn’t the nicest person in the past, but what did I do that was so terrible that you would want to do this to me? Even after I’ve changed.” Sunset asked the Crusaders who were all looking extremely guilty.

Apple Bloom got up and spoke, “It wasn’t anything you did. It was just you.”

Sunset was confused.

“They were jealous that their sisters were spending more time with you than with them.” Twilight told her.

“We never wanted it to go this far, honestly.” Apple Bloom insisted with tears welling up in her eyes.

“We’re so sorry and ashamed of what we did.” Sweetie Belle tearfully said giving Sunset a hug.

“We’ll do anything to make it up to you, anything.” Scootaloo pleaded with tears streaming down her cheeks.

Rarity gently pulled Sweetie Belle out of her hug with Sunset. She had something to say. “Sunset, we owe you an apology as well.”

“We’re so super-duper sorry for not believing you and driving you away.” Pinkie said regretfully.

“We shoulda thought twice before puttin’ the blame on you.” Applejack said sadly.

“I can't believe I acted like such a jerk. Some friend I am.” Rainbow Dash said glumly.

Fluttershy gave a very regretful and apologetic look. “You know, we aren’t the only ones looking for you.”

“When everyone at CHS found out that you weren’t Anon-a-Miss, they felt so terrible; we made search parties and have been looking all over for you. We walked through blistering winds and tons of freezing snow in the cold, cold night. We even survived a terrorist attack downtown today, barely!” Pinkie said.

"A What!" Sunset exclaimed with shock and concern. She had heard about these kinds of horrific incidences before during her time in this world. "Is anyone hurt?"

"We're fine but quite a lot of people got killed. It was awful!" Fluttershy cringed at the memory of the incident. The fact that there was a dangerous killer out there frightened her.

"Ever since that, we've been so worried about you. We hoped that you'd be somewhere safe." Rarity said with concern.

“And now that we’ve found you, safe and sound, we can all go home and spend the rest of the season as true friends.” Applejack said warmly and put her hand on Sunset’s shoulder. "That is, if you can find it in your heart to forgive us."

Sunset was surprised to hear this; she didn’t think anyone would go searching for her or care if she was in any sort of danger, much less put themselves in danger for her. She looked at everyone in the room; they all had warm and apologetic smiles on their faces as if saying ‘please come back with us.’ Sunset’s surprise expression slowly turned to one of sadness. She slowly pulled away from Applejack and sat back in her chair with her head down. Everyone looked confused and concerned at this.

“Sunset, are you okay?” Twilight asked.

“Do you forgive us?” Apple Bloom asked next.

Sunset didn’t look at them or change her expression. “Yes, I do.” She said with no happiness.

“Great!” Pinkie said not noticing the glumness in Sunset’s voice, “Then we all go home.”

“No Pinkie, I can’t.”

Everyone was shocked to hear this. Sunset said she forgave them but refused to return with them.

“What do you mean?” Pinkie asked confused.

“A huge mistake was made, a mistake of trust, and it has caused a lot of damage. Damage that cannot be completely fixed. What good is friendship if you can’t trust your friends?” Sunset said.

“You mean you can’t come back because we didn’t trust you enough as we should have?” Rainbow asked.

“Actually, it’s because I trusted you too much. I may not have been Anon-a-Miss, but I do feel that I’m still partially responsible for this. After the Battle of the Bands, I thought my bad reputation had decreased dramatically and that our friendship had become stronger than it ever was before. That was a big mistake. As soon as Anon-a-Miss came, all fingers were pointed at me, even yours. No matter how hard I pleaded and cried, not a single person would give me the benefit of the doubt. It was like they thought the old me had returned. I should’ve known my past couldn’t be swept under the rug that easily.”

The girls were starting to understand what Sunset was saying. “But Sunset, everyone knows you’re innocent now.” Rarity said trying to comfort her.

“But for how much longer? Eventually another disaster is going to happen and I’m pretty sure I’ll be suspect number one.”

“But Sunset, we’ll have your back this time. You can trust us, can’t ya?” Applejack asked.

For a moment, Sunset just stared at them. Then hung her head sadly. “I did once.”

Now everyone was starting to get worried. Sunset couldn’t trust them. Therefore, she couldn’t be their friend.

“But Sunset, we know better now. And we’re not gonna turn our backs on you again. We Pinkie-Promise! Please don’t leave us! Please, please, please!” Pinkie pleaded in hysterics.

“Darling, you can’t possibly be thinking of spending the rest of your life all alone out here? Especially with a homicidal maniac about?” Rarity asked hoping to talk some sense into her.

“Do you really think I got here all on my own?” Sunset asked. Then she proceeded to explain what happened to her last night. “Last night, I was walking through the cold, snowy land of the county, the freezing wind biting at my face, alone, not knowing where I was.” As Sunset was explaining her situation, the Humane Five and the Crusaders were looking extremely disturbed. They had nearly condemned Sunset to such a horrible fate, one she didn’t deserve it. “Finally, my body couldn’t take it anymore and I collapsed in the snow.” Sunset was starting to shed tears as she continued which made everyone else feel sympathetic to her. “I thought this was it. That it was over. Before I lost consciousness, I hoped that if there was anyone in this cold world that had any care for my well-being would find me. Then I woke up and found myself in this house. The man who lives here was the one who found me. He was the one who took me in and accepted me. And the best part is: he’s outcast just like me. I could see it in his eyes; the same loneliness. And now we both have a chance to be happy if I stay. I know he will take care of me and will never turn me away. I trust him and he trusts me.” Sunset wiped away her tears and summed up as much strength as she could to tell the girls one last thing. But what she was about to say wasn’t going to be easy to handle. “Sorry girls. When you turned your backs on me, it broke my heart. I can’t go through that again. I can’t go back to Canterlot High, and I can’t be your friend. Just go home. From what you've told me, it's not safe out here at the moment. Don't worry about me, I'm fine." Sunset believed her new friend would be able to protect her, but she wanted the others as far away as possible. Not only for their own safety, but because the horrible memories of the Anon-a-Miss incident were taking their toll. "Please, just go.” Sunset hung her in sadness. She wasn’t proud of what she had just said, but she couldn’t allow herself to become that vulnerable again.

Twilight, the Humane Five, and the Crusaders were not happy to hear this at all. They all had looks of heartbreak and despair on their faces. Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Sweetie Belle looked like they were about to break down in tears. Pinkie’s once poofy hair suddenly deflated and hung straight looking very similar to her sister, Maud.

“We must have been very lousy friends for it to come to this. I’m so sorry, Sunset.” Fluttershy tearfully said and gave her now former friend a hug. Sunset didn’t return the hug. She just stood there taking it, looking like she was struggling not to breakdown either. Fluttershy then took the little gift she had in her pocket and placed it on the coffee table. “Happy Holidays.” She said softly and sadly.

“Let’s go everyone.” Applejack said sadly.

“But what about Sunset?” Apple Bloom asked unable to accept the fact that their friendship with Sunset Shimmer was over.

“She’s not coming with us.”

“But we searched so hard to find her, to make things right!” Scootaloo said on the verge of bawling her eyes out.

“Sorry, squirt.” Rainbow said trying to comfort her little sister figure. However, she too looked like she was about to lose it as well. “There are some things you just can’t fix.”

“Goodbye, Sunset.” Applejack said.

“Goodbye, darling. Do take good care of yourself.” Rarity said next.

“Goodbye, Sunset. You were one of the coolest friends I’ve ever had. I just wish I’d been 20 percent better friend than I should’ve been.” Rainbow Dash was the next to say.

“Goodbye, Sunset. I wish you lots of happiness and smiles.” Pinkie Pie said.

Fluttershy was so sad; she couldn’t bring herself to say anything. She just gave Sunset one last tearful, miserable, apologetic look.

Soon the Humane Five and the Crusaders walked sadly out the door into the snow. Twilight and Spike were the only ones who stayed. Sunset noticed Twilight had something to say. “Are you going to tell me that I’m making a bad decision?”

“No, Sunset.” Twilight said. “I’m not here to take sides. I just want to make sure you’re safe and happy, whatever you decide.” Then she pulled Sunset’s journal out of her backpack. “But please keep this. So that we can still communicate with each other and keep our friendship strong.” And she handed it to Sunset, who warmly accepted it. Then Twilight turned to follow the others out the door. “Come on, Spike.” She called to her assistant. Spike was sniffing the floor of the living room. There was something about the smell of this place that he didn’t like. But he responded to his mistress’s call loyally.

“Twilight!” Sunset called stopping Twilight in her tracks for a moment. “Thank you for everything.”

After that, Twilight wiped away a single tear that had manifested in her right eye. "Be safe." was the last thing she said before she sadly proceeded out the door to join the rest of her friends. Now alone once again in the house, Sunset sat on the couch and stared at the gift Fluttershy had left on the coffee table. After a moment, she buried her face in her hands. She thought about how sad the others were feeling and wondered if she had made the right decision.

Chapter 14

Twilight Sparkle, Spike, the Humane Five, and the Crusaders stood outside of the house, and they were all extremely unhappy. After all their searching, and surviving a massacre downtown, they felt that it was all in vain. Sure Sunset Shimmer forgave them for their cruel and wrongful treatment of her during the Anon-a-Miss incident, but they had lost her trust and, in the process, their friendship with her.

“Come on, girls. Let’s go home.” Twilight said.

“Goodbye, Sunset.” Fluttershy said softly to the house Sunset was living in and wiping a couple tears from her eyes.

“Wait, can we at least take up the garbage for her?” Pinkie Pie suggested pointing to two trash bins.

“I guess so. It’s the least we can do now after all we’ve put her through.” Rainbow Dash glumly agreed.

And so they all started heading sadly up the hill, with Rainbow, Applejack, and Pinkie pulling the two trash bins with them. Unbeknownst to them, a car was parked behind a tree and a couple bushes a few feet from the front of the house. Inside it sat a dark and scary-looking man. He had arrived a few minutes before the girls had exited the house. When he saw some of them through one of the windows of the living room he quickly and quietly positioned his car in a place where they wouldn’t notice him. After they had left, he pulled out of his hiding place and parked in the driveway of the house. He got out of his vehicle, grabbed a couple bags and walked up to the front door, and knocked on it.

Sunset Shimmer was inside the living room holding the gift from Fluttershy in her hands. But before she could open it, she heard a knocking at the door. She put the gift in her pocket and walked over to the door to answer it. When she opened it, she was delighted to see that the man she had been waiting hours to return from his errands had finally come home.

“You’re back!” Sunset exclaimed giving him a warm, welcoming hug.

“Yes I am.” Not Important said returning the hug. Then they both walked back inside.

“Where have you been?” Sunset asked eyeing the bags Not Important had brought.

“I was doing a little shopping and I had to pick up a few things from the tailors.” Not Important lied as he pulled out the army outfit he had stolen from the soldier he had murdered downtown.

“Whoa! You were in the military?” Sunset asked staring at the uniform.

“Yes, been serving the country for six years.”

“That sounds great.”

“Yeah well guess what. I’m supposed to report to the base where my squad is staying and I thought I’d bring you along too.”

“Really? Why?” Sunset asked surprised.

“There are a lot of people in the world who need help during this time of year. Soldiers who risk their lives for everything they believe in need it more than anyone.”

Sunset nodded in agreement.

“I’ve heard your beautiful singing voice and I thought it would be nice if some of my old war buddies could have their holiday spirits lifted a little. What do you think?”

Sunset put on a big smile. “That sounds great. I’d love to help lift their spirits. Anything to help people in need.”

“That’s my girl.” Not Important said putting his hand on her shoulder and giving her a warm smile. “We’ll be leaving in a few minutes so we’d better get ready.”

“On it.” Sunset confirmed as she walked to her room and started packing some things in a bag she thought she might need. She packed a couple books, including her journal that Twilight returned. She went through the closet and found a winter coat just her size. The thought of helping people and making the Anon-a-Miss incident inapplicable excited her. Perhaps this was going to be a wonderful holiday after all.

Meanwhile, Twilight and the others were still walking up the hill toward the road. It was a little hard to move fast because the trash bins they were carrying were very heavy. Also, the Humane Five and the Crusaders were cursing themselves for the decisions they made that led to this.

“This is all our fault.” Scootaloo said bitterly with tears in her eyes. “We should’ve come clean when we had the chance. Then Sunset would still be with us.”

“Calm down, squirt.” Rainbow Dash said gently putting her hand on the younger girl’s shoulder. “This is mostly our fault actually.”

“But we were the ones who made Anon-a-Miss.” Apple Bloom disagreed. “We were the ones who tricked all of you into turning on Sunset Shimmer.”

“No Apple Bloom.” Applejack told her sister. “We chose to believe it was Sunset Shimmer because, after all this time, we never truly knew what we had until we lost it. Ya see, Sunset did a lot of terrible things in the past, making herself seem superior to everyone. But when Twilight gave us the task of teaching her about friendship, we all got the idea that we were all better than her now.”

“Oh boy, were we wrong.” Pinkie Pie glumly added.

“We now realize that we are all just as capable of causing pain and misery just as much as she did.” Rarity said sadly.

“Perhaps even worse than she ever did.” Fluttershy tearfully added.

“And now we’ve lost our friend forever and it’s our fault.” Applejack started shedding some tears. Then she turned to Twilight. “Twi, I’m sorry. You tasked us with teaching Sunset the magic of friendship and we failed miserably.”

“We don’t deserve to be Sunset’s friends. And to that extent, we don’t deserve to be yours either.” Fluttershy said hanging her head in shame.

“Girls, I am disappointed in what you’ve all done.” Twilight said. “But you all have to stop beating yourselves up about this, that’s not going to make things better. You made some terrible mistakes that have cost you a very valuable friendship. But instead of feeling sorry for yourselves, learn from this experience. Let this teach you a valuable lesson about friendship and perhaps you can make sure that what happened to Sunset Shimmer will never happen again.”

The others took in Twilight’s words. It was starting to make them feel a little better now.

“You’re right, sugarcube.” AJ said wiping away some tears. “We have ta be strong now. For Sunset Shimmer.” The others nodded in agreement. Then they realized that they had finally made it to the top of the hill.

“Hey, Twilight.” Spike said trying to get his mistress’s attention.

“What is it, Spike?” Twilight asked.

“While we were there, there was something that didn’t smell right about the house Sunset was living in.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it smelled like-.”

CRASH!

“Oh man!” Rainbow exclaimed with annoyance. The trash bin she had been pulling had just tipped over and spilled a couple big bags and a TV antenna onto the ground. “Great, now I have to put all this back in the bin!”

“Why would anyone throw away a perfectly good TV antenna?” Pinkie asked suspiciously examining the antenna.

“I don’t care. Just help me-.” Rainbow said angrily as she grabbed one of the bags, but then she stopped midsentence when she realized she had stained her right hand with something wet after touching the bag. “Oh great! Now my hand is-!” She started again but stopped when she took a good look at what was on her hand. It was an extremely red liquid.

“Is that…blood?” Fluttershy asked nervously.

Rainbow grabbed the bag and ripped it open. And to everyone’s horror, it revealed the pale, open-eyed, lifeless face of a man staring up at them. All of them started sweating with fear; the Crusaders struggled to keep themselves from screaming in fright.

“What the-! How could-?!” Rainbow was at a loss for words.

“Who did Sunset say she was living with again?” Spike asked.

Then it all came to them. The possibility that Sunset was living with a murderer.

“Oh no! Sunset!” Twilight exclaimed in horror, and was the first one to bolt right back down the hill toward the house with the others right behind her.

Back in the house, Sunset was finishing packing her bag while Not Important had gotten into his new uniform and finished packing his bag. He was now waiting in the living room for Sunset to be done.

“Almost done, I’ll be out in a minute.” She called to him.

“Okay.” Not Important called back. Suddenly, he heard a loud banging at the front door that caused him to jump to his feet.

“SUNSET!” “SUNSET GET OUT OF THERE!” “YOU’RE IN DANGER!” was what he heard coming from the outside.

“What’s that?” Not Important heard Sunset call and heard her coming down the hallway. He pulled out a gun and quickly hid behind the left corner of the hallway entrance, and as soon as Sunset came through, he bashed the girl from behind right in the head knocking her unconscious. But before he could do anything else he heard that whoever was at the door was banging so hard it sounded like it was going to breakdown. So he left Sunset were she was and ran to another corner of the room. Soon enough the door broke off its hinges and Twilight, Spike, the Humane Five, and the Crusaders ran in and to their horror, found their former friend lying on the floor.

“Sunset! Sunset!” Twilight ran over to her unconscious friend with the others in tow.

“She’s unconscious!” Fluttershy examined her.

“But how could-?” Rarity tried to ask but was interrupted.

“Hello.” said a voice that filled everyone with fear. They all turned around and saw a tall, long dark-haired man dressed in an army uniform and holding a gun that was aimed right at them. He had an intimidating look on his face that didn’t feel natural. Everyone stared in terror at this dark and terrifying figure that had them all at gunpoint. The three Crusaders clung to their respective sisters shaking with fear. “Let me introduce myself; I’m a man of hatred and disgust.”

Chapter 15

Twilight Sparkle, Spike, the Humane Five, and the Crusaders had found themselves in a very frightening situation. Sunset Shimmer was lying out cold on the floor and there was a tall scary-looking man in a military uniform pointing a gun at them. Each Crusader clung to her respective big sister shivering with fear.

“Twilight, that evil scent, I smell it now. It’s very strong. And that guy reeks of it!” Spike said hiding behind Twilight’s leg and staring fearfully at the intimidating stranger.

“First a singing magic girl and now a talking dog! Things around here just keep getting stranger.” The dark man said noticing Spike had just spoken.

“Wait, you know about Sunset Shimmer’s magic?” Applejack asked surprised.

“Yes, she told me herself. Poor girl was pretty messed up when I found her.” Not Important said with false empathy.

That brought everyone’s attention back to Sunset who was still lying on the floor.

“What did you do to her?!” Rainbow Dash asked in an angry and demanding tone.

“Don’t worry, she’s just unconscious. I’ve saved her the trouble of seeing what I’m about to do to you.” Not Important answered giving them a sinister look which caused a scared Fluttershy to step behind Rainbow a little. For a moment, Not Important wondered who these girls were, how they too know about Sunset’s magic, and why they were here. Then it suddenly hit him. “You must be the friends she’s told me about. The ones who drove her out into the cold, dark world.”

“You know about us?” Fluttershy fearfully asked from behind Rainbow.

“Yes, the so-called friends who accused her of being the horrible, secret-posting Anon-a-Miss, when in reality she was just an innocent victim who ran away because she couldn’t take the unrelenting hatred and freezing loneliness anymore.” He mockingly told them. This caused the Humane Five to bow their heads in shame. Not Important noticed this and he liked it and wanted to further make them feel terrible. “Now that is cold, even for a guy like me.”

Apple Bloom stared at this mysterious and evil man for a while; there was something familiar about him. Suddenly, the image of the lone terrorist from downtown torching someone while she hid in the alleyway came to her mind. “You! It’s you!” she announced “You’re the guy from downtown! The one who attacked all those people!” All the others gasped at hearing this.

“So you were there.” Not Important said with surprise. “Looks like I missed a few insects.”

“You’re the guy the authorities are looking for! All mass murders that have been going on around here, you’re the one responsible for them!” Rarity declared remembering the mass killings reports Micro Chips showed them on his laptop.

“Why?” Twilight asked in a demanding tone. “Why are you doing this?”

“I’ll tell you why. This world has been falling apart year after year, always getting worse and never better. The cause of all of this is the fucking humans who foolishly go about their pathetic, fucking lives, ignoring everything that’s going on around them. Just like you with your Anon-a-Miss shit and needing someone to take the fall. I hate every single one of you! For too long people have wasted their lives miserably on meaningless things, but now I’m going to end that!”

“And you think killing innocent people is the answer?!” Twilight asked angrily, never in her life had she met something so wicked and so disgusting. “What about Sunset Shimmer, does she know about this?”

“No. Well, at least not yet.”

“If you hate everyone so much, then why did you save her life and take her in as a friend?” Pinkie Pie asked, she was both scared and confused.

“What makes you think we’re friends? I have a few plans for tonight and she is unwittingly going to help me. But don’t worry, once the time comes, I won’t need her anymore and we’ll be ‘honest’ with each other!” Not Important said with a wicked chuckle, one could see the unholy sadism in his eyes.

Everyone was horrified and disgusted with what they had just heard. A poor girl who had just been through enough hell was about to go through even more, odds were more people were going to die, and there wasn’t even a hint of sympathy in the voice of the man who had just said it. This ‘thing’ that they were all talking to; every word, the sight of him, everything about this guy was making them sick to their stomachs.

“You- you’re a MONSTER!” Applejack yelled furiously at Not Important, but it seemed to flatter than insult him.

“Actually, the real monster is you!” Not Important said trying to break the girls even more. “You and the rest of the human trash ruining everything!”

“I’ll have you know, Sunset and I aren’t human.” Twilight spoke, she wondered if there was even a remote chance of changing this man’s insane ideology. “We came to this world, and yes it wasn’t in the best condition, but we brought friendship. The magic that Sunset and I carry is the magic of friendship, and it has done wonders for everyone who has experienced it. I don’t know what plans you have for Sunset’s magic but without friendship it cannot work. It can only be used to bring happiness and harmony.”

“Well, from what I’ve seen it seems to be working fine, and it will soon be used to bring chaos and death!” Not Important responded unmoved. “I think our time is over. Sunset will be waking up soon and we have an appointment that we can’t be late for. I could gun all of you down right here, but since you’re all acquainted with my ‘little friend’, I have something special in mind for you.”

Twilight and the others started looking really nervous. What did this villain have in mind for them now?

“All of you into the basement, now!” Not Important commanded in a tone that didn’t sound like he was kidding around. Twilight picked up Spike, and she, the Humane Five, and the Crusaders all started walking down the hallway Not Important was forcing them into. He had a gun so no one dared try anything foolish. “In there!” he commanded next pointing to a door that was in front of them. They opened the door and all walked down the stairs into the basement, Not Important didn’t follow them through the door and stayed at the top of the staircase staring down at them with his gun ready.

“You can’t keep us here forever!” Rainbow yelled at the fiend. “When we get out of here, you’re in big trouble!”

“Oh, I’m afraid none of you will be leaving here.” Not Important replied menacingly to Rainbow’s threat. “But don’t worry, I’ll make sure the house is nice and warm for you while I’m gone!” And with that, he slammed the door and locked it.

“HEY! GET BACK HERE!” Rainbow yelled running up the stairs and bagging on the door. But it use no use, it wouldn’t budge.

While Rainbow Dash was bagging and yelling at the door, Not Important quickly took the unconscious Sunset outside, placed her in the front passenger seat of the car, and tightened her seatbelt. Then he opened the trunk of the car and pulled out a tank of gasoline.

“LET US OUT YOU LONG-HAIRED ASSHOLE!” Rarity yelled, she had joined Rainbow in her attempt to bang the door down, but then they both stopped, they were smelling something strange.

“Do you smell that?” Rarity asked her friend.

“Yeah, but what is it?” Rainbow asked in response.

Applejack ran up to figure out what it was they were smelling. “Smells like gas.”

Not Important was emptying the tank of gas through the hall and all over the living room. Once it was empty, he ran outside the front door, lit a match, and threw it inside. Instantly, everything started catching fire. Moving quickly, Not Important ran to the car, started the engine, and drove quickly up the hill and onto the road, all the while laughing maniacly.

Noticing that a fire had been started, Rainbow, Rarity, and AJ ran back down the stairs and joined with the others who were all huddled up in a corner of the basement to avoid the flames and smoke that were starting to seep in. Things looked bad; they were trapped in the basement of a burning house and the only exit was the way they came in, and Sunset was with a deranged psychopath.

“AJ I’m scared!” Apple Bloom hugged her sister tightly with tears of fear streaming from her eyes.

“Don’t worry Apple Bloom, we’ll figure a way out of this!” Applejack said trying to calm her sister down. Unfortunately, by the looks of it, the only thing that could save them now was a miracle.

Chapter 16

A van and a car were heading down a road with tons of trees going as far as the eye can see on both sides of the road. In the van was Trixie at the wheel, Derpy, Snips, and Snails. The car was being driven by Flash Sentry; his passengers were Lyra Heartstrings, Bon-Bon, and Bulk Biceps. After Trixie dropped off Twilight Sparkle, the Humane Five, and the Crusaders at the place where they thought Sunset Shimmer was at, she decided to let Flash and a few others know and head there together to see if they might be needed.

“Are you sure this is the way?” Snips asked.

“The ‘Great and Powerful Trrrixie’ is positive.” Trixie answered in her usual, exaggerated third person tone.

“Still can’t reach any of her friends, the signal is weak here.” Lyra complained as she tried to call one of the Humane Five on her cellphone.

Suddenly, they all saw a car zoom out from behind some trees about twenty feet in front of them, and head down the road in the direction away from them.

“What the heck was that?” Lyra asked.

“Wait, is something burning? Where is that smoke coming from?” Bon-Bon asked pointing to the clouds of smoke rising from behind the trees.

“It looks like it’s coming from where that car came out of.” Lyra said. Indeed the smoke did look like it was emerging from where they saw the strange car pull out of.

“That’s where Twilight and the others are!” Trixie said in horrific realization.

“Oh no, Twilight!” Flash instantly realized what was going on. He slammed his foot down on the gas pedal and made a sharp turn from the road and headed straight down the hill to where the source of the smoke was. To everyone’s horror, they saw a house that was almost completely on fire.

Flash immediately stopped his car in the middle of cul-de-sac and jumped out the vehicle. He ran around the house doing his best not to get too close to the flames all the while calling for Twilight and the other girls. “TWILIGHT! RAINBOW DASH! FLUTTERSHY! ANYBODY!”

Inside the basement of the burning house, Twilight, Spike, the Humane Five, and the Crusaders were all huddled together in a corner trying to avoid getting burned. Suddenly Twilight heard a voice calling for her from the outside. She saw a tiny closed window on the opposite wall from the stairs and the door. She climbed on top of some boxes that she had found to help her reach the window. Twilight looked out the window and saw Flash standing outside anxiously staring at the burning house calling to her.

“FLASH!” Twilight called to him.

“Twilight!” Flash noticed her in the tiny window. He ran up to it to see if there was a way he could help her get out but the window was too small for anyone to get through. “It’s too small, what are we going to do?”

“Flash, we’ve been locked in the basement, get us out of here!”

“I’m coming!” Wasting no time, Flash darted back to the front of the house. He ran up to the front door, which was already broken open, but he stopped for a moment because of the intense heat coming from the inside. Twilight and the other girls needed his help, so he covered his mouth and nose with his scarf, and forced himself through the entrance. Everything inside was on fire, Flash moved as quickly and as carefully as he could while trying to avoid getting burned. Finally, he made it to the door leading to the basement, but it was locked. He pulled, banged, and kicked it as hard as he could but it wouldn’t budge. Then Flash felt a hand on his shoulder, it was Bulk Biceps who tilted his head in a gesture that said ‘stand aside’. Flash did so, then the bigger man grabbed the door on both sides, tore it off its hinges, and through it aside. Now the girls were no longer trapped. Twilight picked up Spike and one by one they started making their way up the stairs, Flash immediately came to Twilight’s side and started leading her, Applejack, Apple Bloom, Rainbow Dash, and Scootaloo through the burning rooms toward the exit while Bulk, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Sweetie Belle followed. It took a few minutes, but all of them finally made it out of the fiery death trap safely. They all collapsed on their knees to catch their breathes after walking through so much smoke. Trixie, Lyra, Bon-Bon, Derpy, Snips, and Snails were standing outside waiting for them with worried expressions on their faces.

“Are you alright?” Lyra asked.

“Yeah we’re fine.” Applejack said holding her coughing and crying sister.

“Thanks Flash.” Twilight said giving the boy a big, warm, grateful hug. He blushed for a moment, but this was no time for anything romantic.

“What happened?” He asked.

“For starters, we found Sunset, but then-.”

Before Twilight could finish, Pinkie interrupted and hysterically finished for her. “We found out she was living with a deranged, homicidal lunatic, you know the one who attacked downtown today and is responsible for all the mass killings that have going on around here. Well, he knocked out Sunset, locked us in the basement, set the house on fire, and took Sunset with him and who knows what he’s going to do to her!” After she had finished, Pinkie stopped to catch her breath again.

“Oh my god!” Lyra exclaimed.

“How could Sunset possibly think that freak would be a better friend than us?” Rainbow asked baffled.

“She must be so emotionally hurt that she can’t judge characters very good.” Twilight answered. All the others hung their heads in a moment of shame for they knew that part was their fault.

“We saw a car drive out of here and head down that way not too long ago.” Flash informed them and pointed in the direction the car went.

“Sunset’s in danger, we have to save her!” Fluttershy said in a panicked tone.

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Rainbow said with determination.

“You all can ride in my van.” Trixie offered.

“Thanks. Flash, we’re going after Sunset. We need you to take our sisters someplace safe.” Applejack instructed Flash.

“But AJ, we wanna help Sunset too.” Apple Bloom argued.

“Ah know but it’s too dangerous, it’d be better if y’all leave the rest ta us.”

“Listen to Applejack.” Rarity ordered.

“But- but we-!” Sweetie Belle tried to complain.

“Girls! I know you’re worried about Sunset and want to atone for what you did, but getting yourselves killed won’t help anyone at all.” Twilight spoke sternly to the Crusaders. “Please do this one thing for us.”

The three Crusaders thought for a moment. Although they wanted to make sure Sunset was okay Twilight made a very valid point. So they reluctantly nodded their heads in agreement.

“Thank you. Don’t worry; we’ll make sure nothing will happen to Sunset.”

“Come on you three.” Flash lead the three youngsters to his car.

Twilight, Spike, the Humane Five, Bulk, Snips, and Snails all hopped into Trixie’s van.

“Step on it, Trixie!” Rainbow ordered, her face was etched with determination and anger. “I swear if he does anything to her, I’ll kill him!”

Trixie drove her van up the hill and on the road heading in the direction she saw the car head down while Flash drove his car; carrying the Crusaders, Lyra, and Bon-Bon; in the opposite direction.

“Where do you think they’re going?” Trixie asked her passengers.

“Well, when we met him, he was wearing a military uniform.” Rarity answered. “They must be heading to some sort of military base.”

“But what for?” Fluttershy asked curiously.

“Maybe if we hurry, we won’t need to find out.” Rainbow said. Right now, the only thing that was on her mind was saving Sunset and paying back the bastard that tried to have them all roasted.

“Trixie might have an idea of where they might be heading.” Trixie announced and increased the speed of her van. She knew the location of the closest military base. Hopefully they would find them before it was too late.

Sunset Shimmer groaned and rubbed her head as she came to. When she had regained full consciousness, she found herself sitting in the front passenger seat of the car with Not Important driving and dressed in his new uniform.

“Are you alright?” he asked looking concerned.

“What happened?” Sunset asked back. “Last thing I remember after you came back, there was a knocking at the door, and that nothing.” Then Sunset remembered what her friends had told her about the terrorist who attacked downtown. She started to look nervous. “I heard there was a terrorist attack downtown. Could it have been-?”

“No.” Not Important interrupted. “Just a couple of thieves trying to do some ‘Christmas shopping’ at our house. But don’t worry; the military prepared me to handle situations like that. My only regret was that I failed to prevent them from knocking you out. But at least you’re okay, right?”

Sunset smiled. His lie had fooled her. “Yes, yes I’m fine. Thank you.”

“Who told you know about a downtown terrorist attack anyway?”

Sunset then put a sad frown on her face. “Before you came back, my old friends from Canterlot High came to the house. They told me that the real Anon-a-Miss confessed.”

“Well that’s good, that means they now know you were innocent.”

“Yeah, they said they were sorry and offered a chance to return to my old life. But I turned it down.”

“Why did you turn them down? You can’t forgive them?”

“No, I forgive them, it’s just ever since the Fall Formal incident people have had nothing but suspicion for me. Even after my moment during the Battle of the Bands things really didn’t change that much. I’m getting tired of living a life where no matter how hard you try to do things right people only see you as a bad person. That and I couldn’t just leave my new friend all alone.”

“You really consider me a friend that much?”

“Of course I do. You took me in when no one else did, and you didn’t even know me. In all my life, I’ve never met someone as kind and unselfish as you. You’re more than just me best friend, you’re my family.”

"Well Sunset Shimmer, it's only been a couple days, but in that short of time I've come to appreciate having someone like you in my life. Someone that I won't make me feel so lonesome anymore. Someone I'd be happy to call my daughter."

These words lit a warm fire in Sunset's heart. For the first time in many years, she felt like she was truly home. She shed a tear of happiness and smiled warmly at her new 'dad.'

Not Important smiled warmly at her. “We’re almost there, shouldn’t be too long now.” He told her. Sunset was getting excited; soon they would show people that outcasts like them are capable of bringing holiday cheer.

Not Important really was surprised that this innocent girl really saw his as her friend, a father figure. No one ever saw him as a friend or family. But he didn’t care; this girl was nothing more than a means to an end. “I almost feel sorry for this kid.” He thought to himself. “Almost!” Then he and Sunset saw what appeared to be the entrance to the army base they were going to.

“I see it, we’re here!” Sunset said excitedly.

“Yes, good.” Not Important said with satisfaction. “Let’s see if those ‘human shields’ are able to protect themselves on their own ground!” He thought maliciously as they were getting closer and closer to the base’s entrance.

Chapter 17

Sunset Shimmer and Not Important approached the gate entrance of the army base. A long rectangular sign stood above the entrance, it read ‘Fort OConnor West Gate.’ A long flagpole stood on the right side of the entrance with an American flag waving in the wind. Two guards stood at the entrance, one in the booth and one standing outside. Not Important stopped the car at the booth.

“May I see some identification please?” he asked Not Important.

Not Important pulled out the identification card of the soldier he’d killed downtown and showed it to the guard in the booth.

“Welcome back to base, Drake.” The guard greeted him after reading the ID card. Then he noticed Sunset sitting in the front passenger seat. “Hey, is that your kid? You’ve talked about her so many times.”

Not Important glanced over at Sunset and smiled. “Yeah, that’s my girl.” He answered. Then he leaned closer to the guard’s ear to say something he didn’t want Sunset to hear. “By the way, try not to mention what happened downtown to her.” He whispered. “She’s been having a rough time this year and she doesn’t need any more stress. Okay?”

The guard thought for a moment, then nodded his head in agreement. “Just go to Barracks 12, your platoon is located there. Merry Christmas, miss.” He greeted Sunset warmly, and then waved his hand to let them enter.

After going through the gate, Not Important turned right into the parking lot and parked the car. Sunset and Not Important dismounted from the car and started looking for Barracks 12.

“This is exciting, I get meet all your fellow comrades in the army.” Sunset said.

“Yeah, that sounds great.” Not Important replied in an uneasy and nervous tone.

Sunset noticed this. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“It’s nothing.” He replied. There was a possibility that this might not work, and if it didn’t, Sunset would find out the truth about him and his plans would fall apart.

Sunset assumed he was worried he might not make a good impression. “Don’t worry, if we show them the wonderful things we can do, then they will like us and come to accept us. We won’t be outcasts anymore.” She told confidently and smiled.

Not Important smiled back. For now this girl didn’t suspect a thing. If the soldiers could be just as easily fooled as her then this might be a little too easy.

Finally, they found the barracks. Not Important knocked on the door which was answered by one of the soldiers inside. For a moment he took a long look at the two and then greeted them. “Drake, welcome back. I see you brought someone else too. Well come in or you’ll catch your death of cold.” And he led them both inside. The inside of the barracks was filled with soldiers sitting on their beds drinking beers or standing against the walls or corners chanting with one another about their family lives. There was a little Christmas tree sitting in one of the corners.

“It’s good to have you back, Drake.” Said another soldier, then he noticed Sunset. “Who’s this? Don’t you need the colonel’s permission to bring a date to the base?” he asked jokingly.

This was good, none of the soldiers suspected a thing. Not Important motioned a couple of them to talk to in private, away from Sunset. “Any of you guys remember when I told you about my daughter?” he asked them quietly.

“Yeah, you’ve mentioned her before.” One of them answered.

“I forget, did I ever tell you her name or show you a picture of her?”

“No, not really.” Another one answered.

“Perfect!” Not Important thought for a moment. “Well boys, I’d like to introduce you to my little girl, Sunset Shimmer.” He introduced them to Sunset.

“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” One soldier shook Sunset’s hand.

“Nice to meet you too.” Sunset replied a little shyly. Pretty soon all the other soldiers were coming over to make her acquaintance.

After about a half hour of introduction, Not Important decided it was time the girl fulfilled the purpose she was brought here to do. “Attention, everyone.” He announced gaining the attention of everyone in the barracks. “Did I ever tell you that Sunset here is a very talented singer?” He waited for a response, when he didn’t get one he preceded. “Well, I thought it would be a good idea to have her sing a few holiday songs for us all this year. If that’s okay with you, Sunset?”

Sunset saw that everyone in the room was all staring at her waiting for an answer. She could see that they all wanted her to show them her special singing talent. For some reason, something inside her was telling her not to sing. But what harm could a little singing do? They were here to bring the holiday spirit to these brave men and women who put their lives on the line for their country right? “Alright, I know a few good ones.” After hear this, everyone cheered in happiness and excitement. Sunset stood with her back against a wall so everyone could watch her and started singing Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Everyone watched and listened with enjoyment, the girl indeed had a good singing voice. It wasn’t long before the magic inside her started reacting to her singing, and soon she sprouted her ponytail and ears from her hair and her body started levitating and emitting a warm, glowing aura. Everyone’s attention was completely fixated on this.

“What is she, some sort of magician?” one soldier asked Not Important. “The boys have got to see this. Keep going kid, we’re just gonna get the other guys about this.” And so Sunset continued to sing and show off her magic power to the surprised and excited soldiers while a couple soldiers and Not Important stepped out to other nearby soldiers in the base to come see the spectacle that was going on in Barracks 12.

Not Important separated from the others and started looking for the ammunition bunker instead. He couldn’t believe how well this had all worked out. “And these are the warriors meant to protect our country?! Fucking idiots!” He finally found the ammunition bunker, but there was a guard standing watch over the entrance. Luckily, there was no one else around. He approached the bunker, but was stopped by the guard.

“If you want to enter, I’ll need to see some identification.” He told Not Important.

“Right, let’s see…” Not Important started searching around in his uniform. Then with swift movement, drew his combat knife, and slashed the guard’s throat before he could even scream. “There’s my identification.” He said to the lifeless body lying at his feet. He put his knife away, and entered the bunker. Inside, he came across a room that contained all sorts of ammo, guns, grenades, rocket launchers, and heavy artillery. He kicked open a crate that was sitting in the middle of the floor. Inside were the things he needed in order to complete his crusade, C4. “Two charges should be enough to blow up those fucking parasites.” He thought as he picked out two explosives. “Time to change into something more comfortable.” He then disregarded the army jacket he was wearing and put on the dark, long coat he had started this crusade with. He stuffed the explosives in his coat, picked out a couple guns and a rocket launcher. “Now let’s go back.”

Back at Barracks 12, more soldiers from other nearby barracks had gathered there to watch the strange magical singing girl. Once Sunset was finished with her song, her ponytail and ears disappeared, her feet were planted back on the ground, and the glowing aura around her vanished. Everyone stared at her for a moment, and then erupted in thunderous applause and cheers. Sunset felt so pleased with herself. For the first time in over a week, she received positive attention and no hostilities from other people.

“Fantastic kid!” yelled one soldier.

“Awesome!” cheered another.

“This must be one of those holiday miracles everyone talks about, don’t you think?” a soldier said to his comrade.

“Hey, where’s Drake?” another soldier asked noticing that Not Important was not in the room. Soon Sunset and the other soldiers noticed too and started looking around.

“I hate to break it to you, but I’m afraid your fellow brother-in-arms, Drake, died earlier today.” Not Important announced in a rather ominous tone of voice as he entered the barracks and caught everyone’s attention. He had both arms hidden behind his back. Instantly, Sunset realized something wasn’t right. For starters, Not Important was wearing his long black coat instead of his uniform. Also, he didn’t seem like the kind and compassionate lonely man that had saved and taken her in, now he seemed like something much more sinister. “But I’ve come to deliver some gifts to his friends.” Not Important spoke again and pulled both arms from behind his back and revealed two grenades, one in each hand. Everyone gasped in terror as he pulled out both pins with his thumbs and threw the grenades at the crowd.

KABOOM!

Almost the entire barracks was blown to bits. Sunset regained her senses and found that she was pinned against the floor with a fallen beam on top of her legs. She looked around and saw in horror that inside what was left of the barracks was filled with the charred and dead remains of all the soldiers that she’d entertained and made acquaintances with. Then she noticed that one badly burned soldier was still alive and was trying crawl away while crying for help. But then Not Important emerged from the smoky ruins, without a scratch, and walked right up to the wounded and desperate soldier. Sunset could only watch in horror as Not Important raised his foot and stomped the poor, helpless soldier’s head flat. She couldn’t believe what was happening, the man that she had come to see as her only true friend and father figure had suddenly turned into an emotionless, remorseless killer.

Pretty soon the rest of the base was on high alert and all the guards and troops were grabbing their firearms and rushing to combat the lone attacker. “SHOOT HIM!” yelled a soldier to his comrade and they opened fire on Not Important. “EAT THIS!” yelled another soldier as he fired his weapon. But the resourceful killer was already prepared, he held up a new assault rifle he got from the ammunition bunker and quickly gunned down everyone in his path.

Not Important was soon met with fire from some soldiers who had taken refuge behind a couple walls of sandbags making it hard for him to gun them down with his guns. However, he had a little surprise; he reached behind a bush and grabbed a rocket launcher that he took from the ammo bunker and put there before going back to Barracks 12. With the rocket launcher, he blew away the sandbag walls and the soldiers behind them.

Finally, a Humvee arrived and out came four soldiers. “DIE YOU FUCKING PSYCHO!” yelled one of the troops as he fired his rifle. His comrades soon joined him in sending a barrage of bullets at their target. But Not Important was able to avoid getting hit in any major arteries and soon returned their bullet barrage with his own. In almost ten seconds, all four troops went down. One was still alive and tried to crawl away, but Not Important walked right up to him and grabbed him by the collar of his bloody uniform. “I’ll see you in Hell!” the soldier spat in Not Important’s face. Then the ruthless crusader took out his pistol, shoved the end of the barrel into the soldier’s mouth, and blew the back of his head out.

Not Important took a moment and looked around at the damage he had caused. The entire base now looked devoid of life, just the way he planned it to be. “One man conquering an army base!” he thought proudly to himself. “Nothing compares to this feeling. Absolutely nothing!” Then he turned his attention in the direction of the nuclear power plant which was about a mile away. “The power plant nearby. Built for their comfort and prosperity.” He gave a sinister chuckle. “Now it will become their doom! A much better use of it.” And with that, he started walking toward the Humvee the troops had arrived in.

“Why?” Not Important heard in a small horrified voice. He turned around to see Sunset Shimmer, who had managed to finally get free of the wreckage of Barracks 12, standing a few feet from him, staring with eyes filled with tears, shock, and horror. “Why would you do this? You said we were here to make things here better for everyone!”

Not Important didn’t look bothered at all by how upset the distraught teenager was. “This is a better place now. Devoid of those worthless parasites!” he said in an unfeeling tone.

“These people didn’t do anything to you!” Sunset cried. “How could you be so cruel? How could you lie to me?”

“You had already heard about the things I’ve done but never suspected me for an instant.” Not important replied.

Then it all came clear to Sunset, what her friends had told her about the terrorist attack downtown and the mass killings. “The downtown massacre and the murders, it was you all along!” she said in horrific realization.

“You’re finally figuring it out, but now it’s too late.”

“You’ve killed so many people! So why did you save my life?”

“When I first saw your magic power when I found you, I knew that you weren’t human.” Not Important explained. “I thought it could be useful in helping my crusade. So I brought to a nice home and learned about your miserable life and how your magic worked. After that, it was easy to convince you that, out of all the people in this entire fucking world, I was the only one who could be your friend.” He gave a sadistic chuckle.

Sunset couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The one person who had taken her in when no one else did, the one person who had given her a purpose to live, the one person who had given her hope was just using her all along. She felt like she had been punched real hard in the stomach. “Please don’t do this.” She pleaded. “I know you how you feel. Like it’s better to be alone, better to be feared than loved, better to hate your fellow humans than have them as friends. Trust me, I’ve felt those same feelings and they only bring you nothing but misery. But we all have a choice, just because someone treats you like an outcast or a monster, it doesn’t mean you are one. You are who you chose to be. I know you’ve destroyed tons of lives, but you can still save some by giving up this path of hatred. There may still be a chance of salvation for both of us. A wise friend once told me to stay strong, be yourself, and find your family. Now I give you that offer. Not Important, or whatever your real name is, will you accept my friendship?”

This girl was full of surprises, after everything he’s done and the way he used her, she still thought he had a chance at redemption and wanted to be his friend. “Sunset.” Not Important said in a surprised and gentle tone as he gently put a hand on Sunset’s shoulder and gave her a warm smile. Sunset’s face lit up; perhaps there was hope after all. Suddenly, Not Important pulled her closer and kneed her hard in the gut. Sunset let out a gasp of pain as she felt the wind knocked out of her. She collapsed on the ground clutching her stomach and shedding tears of pain. Not Important laughed sadistically as he pinned her head to ground with his foot. “Not too bright are you girl? You’re an even bigger idiot than your bitchy friends, and that’s saying a lot.” He took his foot off of Sunset’s head and knelt down to whisper something in her ear. “You know, I also lied about the thieves that broke into our house. It was actually your ‘friends’ who found out about my true plans and tried to warn you. So I had to knock you out and burn down the house with them inside it.”

Sunset’s eyes went wide with horror. She lifted her head up to look him dead in the eye to see if he was lying. “You…killed…my…friends?” she stuttered with tears streaming down her cheeks as she saw the truth in the man’s cold, wicked eyes.

“Now that we’ve taken care of this military base, I have some a couple gifts to deliver at the power plant. I’m sure they’ll have a bang with them.” He chuckled maliciously. “I won’t need you for this one; you’ve served your purpose. You know, I was going to kill you as soon as we had ‘spread our holiday magic’ here, but I’ve changed my mind. Don’t worry; I’ll be sure to let the people there know that you helped me pick out these gifts for them.” He said as he held out one of the C4 for a moment. Sunset saw the explosive and lowered her head in shame. “Merry Christmas. Enjoy it while it lasts.” Not Important said unsympathetically as he hopped into the Humvee and drove off into the direction of the power plant, leaving Sunset alone to think about what he’d just told her.

After the Fall Formal and Anon-a-Miss, Sunset felt like she finally hit rock bottom. In her attempt to find a happy ending to her sad story, she had unwittingly helped a deceitful madman bring death and destruction to everyone. She let out a loud, tearful scream of despair that echoed through the night.

Not Important heard Sunset’s scream as he drove on his way to the power plant. All he gave was a smile of cruel satisfaction.

Chapter 18

Not Important drove toward the entrance of the power plant in his newly acquired Humvee. As he got closer, he saw that a large group of soldiers had gathered at the entrance. They were all armed and had a few sandbag walls set up, it was like they were waiting for him; perhaps they heard what had happened to Fort OConnor. “Aah, the welcome committee…” Not Important thought to himself. “Time to die!” Then he stopped the Humvee just a hundred feet from the entrance, climbed from the driver’s seat into the machine gun turret mounted on the hood of the vehicle, and started mowing down everyone in his sight.

Twilight Sparkle, Spike, the Humane Five, Bulk Biceps, Snips and Snails were being driven by Trixie in the direction of the nearest military base, hopefully Sunset Shimmer and that misanthropic madman were in that direction. Each and every one of them were nervous, they were hoping they would find them before something really bad happened. Rainbow Dash was twitchy and ready for action and Fluttershy was extremely shaky.

“How much longer?” Rainbow asked Trixie impatiently.

“We’re almost there.” Trixie replied.

They all looked through the driver’s window, there was something coming up in the distance. It was a gate entrance but there were no guards posted, the sign above read ‘Fort OConnor.’ They drove through the entrance and were now inside the base. The place looked like it had been attacked: there were damaged and burning structures and corpses of soldiers lying everywhere. Everyone got out of the van and looked over all of the carnage with expressions of horror and sadness. What kind of person would commit such an atrocity? But the biggest question on their minds was: ‘Where is Sunset Shimmer?’ Suddenly two cars came through the base entrance; one of them looked like Flash Sentry’s car. Out of one car came Flash, Lyra, Bon-Bon, and Sandalwood. Out of the other car emerged Micro Chips, Photo Finish, Vinyl Scratch, and Principal Celestia. When they exited their vehicles they put on the same disturbed expressions as the others when they saw the ruin of the base.

“Flash, Principal Celestia, what are you doing here?” Twilight asked surprised to see them.

“We dropped the Crusaders off with another student search party to look after and gathered a few others to come and see if we could help.” Flash answered.

“I could no longer bear just waiting so I decided I would make some use of myself. After all, it is my job as principal to make sure that all my students are okay.” Celestia said warmly, but then turned her attention back to the horror that was all around them. “But what in God’s name happened here?”

“I bet it’s the work of that psychopathic freak!” Rainbow Dash said angrily.

“Have you heard about the murders that have been going on for the past few days?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yes, I’ve been informed of that.” Celestia answered looking over to Micro Chips with disturbed eyes.

“Well, we recently found out that Sunset’s been hanging around with that creep.” Rarity explained. “And that he had some sort of plan for her.”

“Oh God!” Celestia exclaimed with absolute worry on her face.

“Spike, can you pick up Sunset’s scent?” Twilight asked her assistant.

“I’m trying.” Spike responded. “But there are two other scents getting in the way. One scent I’ve never smelled. I think that’s death smells like and the other scent is his scent!” Twilight could see that these smells were making Spike sick, she felt bad for asking too much of him. “But I can smell a little bit of Sunset in there. I’ll try to follow it as best I can.” And the little purple pup started following his nose while his human companions stayed in toe. After a while of following Spike, Pinkie Pie suddenly stopped everyone in their tracks.

“Hold on everyone, I hear something.” Pinkie said putting her hand to her ear. Soon everyone else started hearing what she was hearing too. It was faint but it sounded like someone was weeping.

“It sounds like it’s coming from over there.” Fluttershy said pointing toward a damaged Humvee. They all crept quietly over to the vehicle. When they looked behind it they were surprised to find the person they’ve all been searching long and hard for, Sunset Shimmer, on her knees with her face buried in her hands and a small puddle of tears sit right in front of her.

“Sunset?!” Fluttershy said softly as not to startle the crying girl.

Sunset looked up for a moment, there were streams of tears running down her cheeks and her eyes were red from crying so much. Her eyes suddenly went wide with surprise; all of her friends: Twilight, Rainbow, Pinkie, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy were all standing right in front of her alive and with concerned and sympathetic expressions on their faces. “Fluttershy? Twilight?” Sunset said softly as both Twilight and Fluttershy knelt down to comfort her. “I thought you were… he said… you were all dead.”

“We would’ve been if they hadn’t come in time.” Rainbow said pointing to Flash, Bulk Biceps, and the others.

“Sunset darling, what happened?” Rarity asked.

Sunset’s eyes started welling up again as she started to speak. “He… he lied to me. He said he was my friend. But instead, he used me to cause all of this.” She said as she looked around at the carnage surrounding them. “Why? What did I do to deserve to be put through this?” Sunset then buried her face in her hands once again and began to weep. Everyone around her started feeling horrible inside, particularly the Humane Five and the other CH students.

“Sunset, no one blames for anything this time.” Twilight said gently wrapping her arms around her crying friend. “You’re a good person. You’re my friend.”

“Sunset, you’ve done nothing wrong since the Fall Formal.” Fluttershy said in a gentle and sympathetic voice. “You’re not the person you once were. I’m sorry Sunset. I’m so very sorry.” Fluttershy joined in the hug shedding tears herself.

“Oh, Sunset.” Rarity said tearing up. “I know your life has been hard. You didn’t deserve any of this. I want to take back all the horrid things I said and apologize. But can you ever find it in your heart to forgive any of us?” and Rarity joined in the group hug.

“All you’ve wanted was to make everyone you hurt happy.” Pinkie spoke with tears in her eyes. “We were supposed to give you the best holiday season you’ve ever had. It was going to be a way of showing our appreciation for being a good friend. But a terrible mistake turned everything into a hellish nightmare. I’m so super sorry, Sunset!” and the bawling Pinkie embraced her bawling friend.

“Sunset.” Applejack was next to speak. “No amount of words can express how sorry ah am for the part ah played.” The cowgirl buried her face in her hands. “Ah just wish ah could’ve been a better person and a better friend.” And the sad cowgirl joined in the embracement.

“Sunset.” Rainbow Dash said looking at her friend with apologetic and sympathetic eyes. “None of this is your fault. It was his and ours. Some loyal friend I am. I don’t deserve a good friend like you.” And with that, all seven girl were joined in this heartwarming embrace to comfort this emotionally devastated innocent girl.

The other students watching this spectacle were also shedding tears. In the past some of them would’ve leapt at the chance of seeing the girl who tormented them crying in pain. But seeing her like this now was unbearable.

“Twilight’s right.” Flash said to the other students. “Things at Canterlot High have to change.”

As the girls were trying to calm Sunset down, Rainbow broke away from the group hug and started looking around. Her eyes were filled with rage; she looked like she was going to kill someone. It became obvious when she was hoping to spot.

“Rainbow, you alright?” Fluttershy asked her friend.

Suddenly, after looking around for a whole minute, the rainbow-haired girl snapped. “WHERE IS HE?!” she shouted in spine-tingling fury. Applejack and Flash rushed to restrain their furious companion before she could run off somewhere and get herself hurt of worse. “WHEN I FIND HIM I’LL KILL HIM! I’LL FUCKING KILL HIM!” Rainbow continued to scream as her two companions struggled to keep restrained.

“Rainbow, calm down!” AJ ordered sternly.

“But that bastard hurt our friend! I can’t let him get away with this!”

“Ah know. But runnin’ off and gettin’ yourself killed is not going to Sunset or anyone!” what AJ said seemed to calm Rainbow down a bit. Flash let go of her and began to catch his breath, he’d almost forgotten how strong that girl was.

“Sunset, where is Not Important?” Twilight asked Sunset who seemed to have calmed down now.

“He took two things, I think they were bombs, and said he was going to take them to some power plant. Then he headed that way.” Sunset pointed in the direction Not Important had driven off. “I think he’s going to kill the people down there.”

For a moment, everyone stared in the direction Sunset had pointed. Some of them knew there was a nuclear power plant located in that direction and that there was a maniacal killer with a couple of explosives down that way too. What could it mean? Suddenly Micro Chips put it all together. “He’s not just going to kill the people down that way! If he has some real heavy duty explosives he could cause a big enough explosion that could wipe out the entire county and kill everyone!” Micro Chips declared with a horrified expression on his face. Everyone shared the exact same expression after hearing this.

“That’s insane!” said Lyra.

“How could anyone be that evil?” said Bon-Bon

Twilight was shocked. She was thinking the same thing Bon-Bon was thinking. However, she already met Not Important and had a good idea of what kind of monster he was. A look of determination spread across her face, she knew what she and her friends had to do. “Girls, we have to find that power plant and stop him.”

“Then what are we waitin’ for? Let’s go!” Applejack said in agreement. Pretty soon all the other members of the Humane Five looked ready to help Twilight in this mission.

“Are you crazy?!” Principal Celestia wasn’t comfortable with this at all. “This man has already killed many people. Not even the army could stop him. I will not allow any of my students to put themselves in that kind of danger!”

“I thank you for your concern, Celestia.” Twilight said. “But you forget, we have the magic of friendship on our side.”

“But… But I-!”

“Don’t worry about us. We’ve been in dangerous situations before, I’m sure we can handle this.” Rainbow said confidently.

“Just make sure the others are safe. It is your duty as principal of Canterlot High.” Fluttershy said hoping to boost their principal’s confidence in them.

Celestia smiled proudly at the six teens. They had grown so much. “Very well, but all of you better return or there will be detention for all of you.” She said in a teasing and faithful tone.

“Flash, take Sunset as far away from this place as you can.” Twilight said to Flash.

“What?!” Sunset couldn’t what she’d just heard. “But why?”

“It’s too dangerous, Sunset. Please go with Flash and the others, they’ll keep you safe.”

“But you have to let me help! I was the one who helped Not Important get this far, you have to let me help you stop him!”

“Not this time, Sunset. I think it would be better if you sit this one out.”

“But I-!”

“Sunset please!” Fluttershy grabbed Sunset’s shoulders and looked her in the eyes with tears dripping from her own. “It’s not that you don’t want your help, it’s that you can’t bear to see you get hurt again!” Sunset calmed down and saw the desperation in Fluttershy’s regretful eyes. “There’s already too much that we regret!”

“Fluttershy.” Sunset said in calm and understanding tone.

“You’ve already been through enough, Sunset.” Rainbow said agreeing with Fluttershy.

“We’ll take care of things now. Just wait for us. We pinkie promise we’ll make it up to you when this is all over.” Pinkie Pie promised.

Sunset really didn’t want to leave her friends to combat this threat on their own. But they all made a good point. So she reluctantly allowed Flash, Celestia, and the others to gently escort her to their vehicles so they could leave.

Meanwhile, Twilight, Spike, and the Humane Five had found an undamaged Humvee. After Pinkie hot-wired the vehicle, Rainbow hopped into the driver’s seat. After everyone had found a place to sit, Rainbow hit the accelerator, and they were driving down the road to the power plant to put an end to Not Important’s genocide crusade once and for all.

Chapter 19

Twilight Sparkle, Spike, and the Humane Five had arrived at the entrance of the nuclear power plant in their acquired Humvee. Upon dismounting the vehicle, they were greeted with a horrific sight: ranging from the parking lot to the lobby of the building, the whole area was decorated with countless bloody corpses of soldiers, security guards, and employees. They walked through the parking lot and through the damaged entrance of the lobby, all the while staring at the carnage that lay all around them.

“All of this death, and for what?!” Fluttershy spoke in an unhappy tone.

“Come on girls, we have to find him.” Twilight informed her friends.

“He has two explosives, so ah’m bettin’ he’ll be somewhere in the core of the plant.” Applejack suggested.

“Then that’s where we’re going.” Rainbow Dash agreed. Then they all rushed through a damaged security door and into the plant.

Not Important had already planted the first C4 explosive at one of the two main reactors of the power plant and now he was on his way to the second one. He had butchered and gunned down many people in his path to get this far and now he was nearing the end of his ‘mission.’

“No, PLEASE NO!” cried a wounded worker lying on the floor of the control room leading to the second reactor. But the cold crusader ignored the poor man’s pleas for mercy and stabbed him in the face with his knife.

“Your family won’t cry for you. They won’t survive that long.” Not Important thought as he slew his victim and activated the controls to open the doors leading to the reactor chamber. He entered a room and on the other side was the door to the reactor chamber, but it didn’t open right away. The door behind him closed and a sterilization gas filled the room. It was procedure to be clean before and after someone enters a nuclear reactor chamber. Not Important waited patiently for the gas to clear then the door finally opened. He walked up to four metal barrels positioned right next to the reactor and planted the C4 on top of them. “I wonder if it will work.” He thought as he armed the explosive. “Alright, in case it doesn’t I’ll have to try to overload these cores from the control room.” Not Important then started heading back the way he came. While waiting for the sterilization room to be done, he thought he saw three small numbers scratched in a corner of the room: 666.

Twilight and the others had finally made their way to the center of the plant. It was obvious that the best way to find their enemy was to follow the trail of death in his wake. They were standing on a platform that went around a huge metal room with flashing lights, alarm sounds, bodies of soldiers and workers lay across the platform, and below the platform they were standing on were lower platforms and pipes of all sizes running as far as the eye could see. Just as Not Important came through the door from the second reactor he spotted the girls standing at the entrance doors of the center room. “So they survived my fiery death trap.” He thought to himself surprised that they were alive. “No matter, there’s still some time for a little more fun.” He smiled wickedly and crept away trying not to be noticed.

“This looks like the center of the plant, he must be here somewhere.” Applejack told the others.

“I hope we’re not too late.” Fluttershy said nervously as she eyed the corpses on the platform. Suddenly, everyone started hearing something echoing through the giant room that sent shivers down their spines:

“You’d better watch out, you’d better not cry.”

“What’s that?” Twilight asked about the ominous singing.

“You’d better not pout I’m telling you why, Santa Claus is coming to town.”

“It’s him. SHOW YOURSELF!” Rainbow Dash shouted eager to give this guy what he had coming to him. The singing continued and sounded like it was getting closer.

“He’s making a list, checking it twice, gonna find out who’s naughty and nice, Santa Claus is coming to town.”

Then the six friends and pup turned to their left and there he was. Standing twenty feet from them with an assault rifle in his hands aimed at them and a look of cold, ruthless malice on his face. “Well, looks like you dropped by just in time to see the finale.” Not Important chuckled sinisterly as the six girls gave him expressions of pure disgust and loathing.

“You! Do you have any idea what you’ve done?!” Rarity said angrily to her foe.

“How could you do this?! To all these innocent people?! To Sunset?!” Pinkie Pie asked in a very serious tone unlike someone of her character.

“Oh please, whatever damage you think I inflicted on that girl was already done thanks to you.” Not Important replied still trying to find pleasure in making them suffer by bringing up their greatest mistake.

“SHUT UP! Don’t you dare talk about Sunset anymore!” Rainbow yelled furiously at him.

“You think you’re all better than me?! Well you’re fucking not! Admit it, when you believed she was Anon-a-Miss you felt hatred for her, didn’t you? Friends aren’t supposed to hate each other right? Even after she changed her ways none of you really wanted anything to do with her. She told me how none of you asked if she would’ve liked to be a member of your band. Why? Because you still felt resentment towards her past. When Anon-a-Miss appeared that was the perfect opportunity to cast out her out once and for all. And it felt good, didn’t it?”

“No, it’s not like that!” Fluttershy said trying to hold back her tears but the fiendish man continued.

“Don’t deny it! You’ve experienced the addictive taste of hatred, and now you’re all slowly becoming like me!”

The Humane Five stared horrified at the dark crusader for a moment, but that moment to them felt like an eternity. Each one of the girls hallucinated and saw herself standing in his place while the bodies around him looked like Sunset Shimmer. Rainbow felt like she was going to throw up. Could it be possible that if they didn’t let go of their hatred for Sunset’s past that they would eventually become like him? This demon of a man? No, it couldn’t be true!

“No, we won’t be tricked again!” Applejack said regaining her senses; the other four girls did the same.

“We’re not animals like you!” Rarity said scornfully.

“We know what you’re planning to do and we’re here to stop you!” Rainbow declared.

“And how do plan to do that? I’m the one with all the weapons.” Not Important reminded her.

“Why are you doing this? Won’t you be killed too?” Fluttershy asked hoping to get him to give up on his plan somehow.

“I believe he already knows that, Fluttershy.” Twilight answered her friend. “He hates this world. He hates his people. He can’t stand to live here another day. All the murders and destruction he has caused have been leading up to this moment. This has all a big suicide mission; he came here for the sole purpose of bringing about his own demise.”

“Well he wanted to die so badly then he should’ve taken one of those guns and blew out his brains, jumped in front of a car, hung himself, jumped off a building, took a bath with a toaster, poison himself, or maybe just learn to enjoy life! Either way, he should’ve left the rest of us out of this!” Pinkie exclaimed angrily, she couldn’t understand why a guy seeking to commit suicide would bother to slay so many innocent.

“It’s not that simple, little girl; don’t try to make sense of something you don’t understand!” Not Important told her. “Look at these people.” He gestured his firearm to the corpses lying all around them. “Do you think all of them truly enjoyed the lives they were living? Do you think all of them thought ‘Hey I’m so happy I’m me and not some fucking playboy billionaire who works half as hard as these people, with the body of a god and a built-in hot chick magnet’?! No! Odds are some of these pathetic souls weren’t here because they liked this work; it was the only other option to make enough to put bread on the table. So in a way, liberating them from their worthless existence is a kindness. However, no one is eager to die; some of us would like to do something memorable before we leave this world. Unfortunately, some people just waste their opportunities to make something of themselves.”

“So you just make this decision for them?!” Applejack said utterly disgusted by what she just heard. “What are you trying to make of yourself?”

“Humanity has ignored and denied the pain of their existence for too long, and my genocide crusade will get that message across!”

“What gives you the right to decide who lives and who dies?” Fluttershy asked demandingly.

“The same thing that gives you the right to decide who’s innocent and who’s not!”

“That’s it, I’ve heard enough!” Rainbow declared. She had had enough of being reminded of her terrible mistake and this psycho’s insane philosophy. “You’re going down!”

“In due time, but first I have to fix a little problem about failing to kill six annoying teenage girls and a talking dog. I believe our time is over, good-bye.” Not Important said as he raised his rifle ready to open fire on the unarmed girls. Just then, Applejack grabbed a metal barrel nearby and chucked it with all her might at the dark killer knocking him off balance. Seeing the opportunity, the girls and the pup made a run down the platform in the opposite direction of their opponent, who managed to get back on his feet and open fire barely missing them by inches. He angrily gave chase; he wasn’t going to let a group of unarmed high school teenagers beat when he was this close to completing his ‘crusade.’

Chapter 20 (Edited 02/23/18)

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.”

Chapter 21

At a gas station, three CHS students had parked their car and were inside the gas station store looking for food. Inside the car were three extremely guilty-looking young girls, the Crusaders. Flash Sentry had dropped them off with another group of students to look after while he and his group went back to help Twilight and her friends. After awhile, the three older students; a rocker named Brawly Beats, an eco-kid named Captain Planet, and an athlete named Cloudy Kicks; came out of the store with bags of food. Suddenly, Cloudy Kicks felt her cellphone ring.

“Hello?” Cloudy Kicks answered her phone. “Oh hi Flash. Is everything alright? Wait, what?! You found Sunset Shimmer and then she ran off to help take on the guy responsible for the recent mass killings?!”

The Crusaders overheard the entire conversation from the car and their faces filled with worry. Instantly, an idea entered all three girls at the same time. This idea wasn’t going to be easy, but the three young girls felt they needed to do something immediately.

“Alright, we’ll drop the kids off somewhere safe and mmeet you-.” But before Cloudy Kicks could finish all three older students heard a loud roaring sound like an engine and looked to see their car suddenly drive off without them.

“HEY! GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE BRATS!” Brawly Beats yelled as the three gave chase after the vehicle on foot, but they eventually lost sight of it.

Inside the runaway car, the Crusaders had found a spare key and managed to take control of the vehicle. Apple Bloom was working the speering wheel, Scootaloo was working the peddles, and Sweetie Belle was looking at a map of the county and giving directions.

“We’re going to be in so much trouble now!” Scootaloo said nervously.

“Focus, we need ta find Sunset! What is the quickest way to the power plant?” Apple Bloom asked Sweetie Belle.

“Okay, there’s a shortcut this way, take a right.” Sweetie Belle said and Apple Bloom did as she was instructed.

Meanwhile, back at the power plant, things were looking bad for the girls. Rainbow Dash had been badly injured from the explosion she had saved Rarity and Pinkie Pie from. While the two girls were checking for any serious injuries their fallen friend might have gotten, Not Important was wondering who would try to take him on next.

“Is this the best your Magic of Friendship can do?! What a joke!” Not Important mocked the girls and laughed at the state Rainbow was in. Suddenly, he felt a great deal of pressure in his left cheek that sent him flying a couple feet to the right and land with a thud on the platform. He got to his feet and saw a yellow-skinned and pink-haired girl glaring at him with fury in her eyes. Fluttershy had just jumped down from the platform above them and kicked Not Important in the face, and she was very angry at what he had just pulled on her friends.

“You… hateful,… sadistic,… callous,… MOTHERFUCKER!!!” Fluttershy yelled with all of her fury. This man had murdered countless innocent people in just a few days, broke Sunset’s already damaged heart, and was now trying to kill the rest of her friends while mocking their efforts to stop him from destroying the entire county. Something had really set her off.

Before he knew it, Fluttershy landed a hard blow to Not Important’s chest. He could’ve sworn he might’ve heard a rib break from the blow. Then Fluttershy swung her right leg up and hit him right between the legs. Not Important blanked out for a moment from the intense pain, but then was met with a hard punch in the nose. The force knocked him on his back, he clenched his nose and felt some blood leaking from his nostrils. But then Fluttershy got on top of him and started giving him a barrage of endless fists to the face.

Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, and Spike stared in disbelief. They had never seen Fluttershy like this; she was giving their enemy a more brutal beatdown than Rainbow. How could that be the same sweet girl they knew before?!

Elsewhere, Sunset was running through the deep snow and strong winds as fast as she could. She was determined to make it to the power plant and help her friends. She came across a road and stopped to catch her breath before crossing. But before she could cross, she saw a car in the distance approaching rapidly so she decided to stay where she was and wait for it to pass. However, the car seemed to be slowing down as it got closer, and soon enough, the vehicle came to a complete stop right in front of Sunset. The window rolled down to reveal the crusaders in the driver’s seat.

“Sunset, is that you?” Apple Bloom asked.

“What are you three doing here?” Sunset asked surprised.

“We heard you ran away from Flash and the others.” Sweetie Belle answered.

“We thought you might be heading to the power plant and wanted to make sure you were safe.” Scootaloo said.

“I am heading to the power plant.” Sunset said.

“But you can’t.” Apple Bloom said. “Our sisters would be devastated if anythin’ happened to ya. We can’t bear ta see them in anymore pain. We have ta get ya ta safety.”

“I understand. But right now, I know my friends need me and I have to get them fast. That man is ruthless; he won’t hesitate to give them a horrible death.”

“You really like our sisters do you?” Sweetie Belle asked seeing the desparation in her eyes.

“You know, I sometimes envied you three because you where related to three of the most wonderful girls I ever had the honor of befriending. Back in my world, I was never very close to my family. Your sisters are the closest thing I’ve ever had to a family. I can’t bear to lose them again.”

The three younger girls were touched by Sunset’s words and at the same time felt even more remorse for their actions as Anon-a-Miss. They had promised themselves that they would make it up to Sunset, perhaps this was their time.

“Ah guess there’s no changin’ yer mind.” Apple Bloom said with a warm, understanding smile to which Sunset returned with a smile of graditute. “Where can we take ya?”

“To the nuclear power plant. But you’d better let someone else drive. I think you three have gotten into enough trouble tonight.” Sunset said entering the driver’s seat and taking the wheel.

“Be careful, this isn’t our car.” Scootaloo warned her.

“Understand.” Sunset replied and then drove off down the road.

Back at the power plant, Twilight, AJ, and Spike watched as Fluttershy had stopped punching Not Important and had her hands clenched around his neck trying to strangle him. Not Important’s face was bloody and bruised. Fluttershy’s eyes were bloodshot from the rage over her opponent’s atrocities and tearing up because she knew she was about to take someone’s life. The thought of killing any living thing horrified her more than anything, but because Not Important was such a sickening excuse of a human being, she felt she had no other option in order to bring his genocide crusade to an end.

Not Important felt like he was about to lose consiousness from the lack of oxygen, this girl was a lot tougher than she looked. Then he reached into his coat, grabbed his combat knife, and whipped it out slashing the girl’s left side causing her to let go of his neck, get off him, and clasp her hands around her wound. Fluttershy moaned and clenched her face in pain as she held her bloody injury.

“Not so tough anymore.” Not Important chuckled wickedly as he got to his feet. Then while she was in agony, he kicked her right in the face knocking her on her back. Then he stepped on her neck pinning her down and slowly started crushing the life out of her. “Any last words?”

“Go fuck yourself!” Fluttershy weakly spat at him.

This just made Not Important’s sinister grin grow even more. This girl still had some spunk and he was going to enjoy squeezing it out of her. As he continued trying to crush her throat with his foot, a lasso suddenly wrapped around his torso and he was pulled back off his victim. With her foe’s boot off her neck, Fluttershy took a moment to catch her breath. Not Important regained his footing and looked back to see what had lassoed him. Applejack, with help from Twilight, had lassoed their opponent and were pulling him away from Fluttershy. However, he was stronger than they thought and they were struggling in what was now a tug-of-war between them.

Outside the plant, Sunset and the Crusaders had just arrived in the driveway. Sunset immediately hopped out of the car.

“Okay, the three of you stay here and out of sight.” She instructed the Crusaders.

“But what if you need help?” Sweetie Belle asked concerned.

“It’s too dangerous. While I am grateful that you got me here quicker, it’s bad that you’re here too. So please just stay here where it’s safe. I have work to do.” And with that, Sunset went straight into the lobby. She was too much in a hurry to mind all the corpses scattered around the area. She had to find her friends quickly. Then she spotted a map of the plant on a wall and walked over to study it.

“These must be the two main reactors.” She said to herself as she studied the map. “He had two explosives with him. Two reactors, two explosives.” She took a moment to try and figure out what Not Important’s plan was.

Meanwhile, Twilight and Applejack were still having their tug-of-war with Not Important. But then Not Important grabbed the rope, and with great strength, pulled it hard toward himself. Twilight and AJ felt themselves lunge forward and land flat on their stomaches on the platform and at the same time they had lost their grip on the lasso. Not Important quickly freed himself from the lasso and started walking toward the two girls as they got back on their feet.

“Did you really think lassoing me like cattle would work?” He asked mockingly to the cowgirl. “What a pitiful move! Sunset said you’re supposed to be the honest friend, right?” He asked AJ with a sadistic grin, he was up to something. “Tell me, how did it feel to break your dear friend’s heart for absolutely no reason at all? I enjoyed mine, did you feel the same way about yours?”

Applejack knew he was accusing her of feeling the same sadistic pleasure he felt when he betrayed Sunset, and it was infuriating her. She was sick and tired of having her worst mistake constantly being thrown back in her face. Then she lunged at her enemy screaming in a rage. However, before she could throw a punch she was met with a fist in her gut. The blow knocked the wind out of her.

“Come on, you can do better than that!” the vicious killer said as he backhanded her hard in the back of the head knocking her on her stomach. Then he stomped his foot down on her back causing her to scream in pain. All of this he did with a sadistic smile on his face. Then he turned to see Twilight running at him with a piece of metal in her hands. But as she swung her weapon to strike, he caught it with his left hand stopping her in her tracks. Then with his right hand, he grabbed the purple-colored girl by the neck and lifted her off her feet, causing her to drop the piece of metal. Twilight gasped for air as she struggled to get free of his grip, but he was too strong. Not Important watched her face clench in fear and pain and laughed at her desparate efforts. “I love the way you people struggle fruitlessly for your lives!”

“STOP!” came a voice that echoed throughout the area. Not Important knew the source of the voice was behind. He slowly turned around to find a certain yellow-skinned, red and yellow-haired girl wearing a black leather jacket standing more than twenty feet behind him with a serious look on her face.

Chapter 22

Outside the power plant, the Crusaders sat nervously in the car. It had been some time since Sunset went into the building. They growing increasingly worried for her and their big sisters.

“What if something terrible has happened?” Sweetie Belle asked the other two nervously.

“We should do something.” Scootaloo suggested.

“But what? It’s too dangerous in there.” Apple Bloom argued.

Then they saw some bright lights heading toward their location and ducked to stay out of sight. Apple Bloom peeked her head up a little and noticed a couple cars had just arrived in the parking lot.

Meanwhile, Sunset Shimmer had finally arrived and was facing Not Important with a serious expression on her face. Not Important’s expression was a mix of surprise and unamused. He still held Twilight’s throat in his hand.

“Let her go.” Sunset firmly demanded.

“Well, if it isn’t my little friend, Sunset Shimmer, come to join the party.” Not Important said with a sinister chuckle. He released Twilight who fell to the floor clenching her throat and coughing. “I thought you would still be somewhere pathetically crying out your last moments.”

“I’m done crying.” Sunset announced. “I’m here to stop you from hurting my friends and killing anymore people.”

“Tough talk from such a weak little girl.”

“Let me ask you something. I don’t know about your past, but do you really think killing hundreds of innocent lives is going make anything better?” Sunset asked hoping she would be able to find some shred of humanity in her foe. “I know I’ve done some terrible things in my past. But what could possibly have caused you to go down such a path as this?”

“I just got sick and tired of looking at the same old fucking people going about their same old fucking lives every fucking day in this fucking world.” Not Important replied unfeelingly. “Despite what others may tell you, humans never really change who they are. I’m sure you have realized that by now. All your silly attempts to do good for the people around you will never amount to anything. The only option is to rid the world of all their scum.”

“What makes you think you can accomplish all that tonight, in this place?”

“Everyone in the county is going to burn until there is nothing but ash. My actions tonight will inspire others to inheriate my beliefs and continue my work on the rest of the world. You see, hatred is inevitable. It can’t be stopped.”

“Please, it doesn’t have to be this way. You don’t have to do this. Friendship can help us all. Surely there was at least one moment in your life where you were a good person.”

“No, never. Noone is really good or evil. After all, we’re human.”

Sunset bowed her head in disappointment as she realized there was nothing she could do to convince the dark man to change his ways. “If you want to take anymore lives, you’ll have to take mine first.”

“Alright.” Not Important said casually and aimed his pistol at the girl. Sunset had a fearful expression on her face but it slowly changed to one of defiance as she stood up straight facing her armed opponent who was slowly walking toward her. Pretty soon Not Important was only a few feet from Sunset aiming his pistol at her head ready to shoot her point blank. “Your bravery never ceases to amaze me.” He said lowering his weapon surprising Sunset. Suddenly, without warning, Not Important uppercutted Sunset right in the gut knocking the wind out of her. Then while she was dazed, he kicked her hard in the chest sending her flying twenty feet back. “You should’ve stayed where I left you.” Not Important chuckled as he walked toward the girl who was lying on the floor clutching herself painfully with tears streaming from her eyes and a little bit of blood dripping from her mouth. Not Important walked up to Sunset and stared down at her as she writhed in pain, all the while laughing sadistically. With his right foot, he nudged the girl till her back was facing upwards then he brought his foot down hard on her spine. Sunset’s head shot up and her mouth let out a terrible scream of pure agony that echoed throughout the entire area. Twilight and the other injured girls watched in horror as the monsterous man repeatedly stomped on their poor friend’s back causing her to let out more agonizing screams.

“LEAVE HER ALONE!” An enraged Rarity yelled blindly charging at Not Important. But the towering terror delivered a hard blow to the girl’s face sending her flying ten feet backwards. Rarity lay on the floor with a swollen cheek and a bleeding nose. Pinkie left the injured Rainbow Dash’s side for a moment to tend to Rarity.

“STOP IT!” Twilight yelled managing to get back on her feet, still weak from almost being strangled. Spike joined her side and growled viciously at their opponent.

“A miserable creature is about to meet a miserable end.” Not Important heartlessly commented as he stared down at his victim with his soulless eyes. Then he lifted the front end of his foot and shook it from side to side digging the end of his boot heel into Sunset’s spine causing her even more pain. “Take note that your last days as friends was one of pain and suffering, especially for her. She’ll die first, then the rest of you. It’s a shame you all will never be able to fully reconcile for your mistakes!” He gleefully stated and burst into cruel and insane laughter at the thought of how these teenagers had stupidly wasted their last moments with one another being angry at one of their own for no reason. Twilight and the other girls desperately wanted to do something to stop him, but the damage they had sustained had weakened them greatly. They all hoped for a miracle to happen.

“HEY!” came a voice from behind Not Important. He took his attention off the suffering Sunset and turned his head to find a woman with white skin and long rainbow hair standing behind him wearing a long winter coat, holding an umbrella, and had a very angry look on her face. Before he could react, the woman swung her umbrella and smashed right across the face. “Leave my students alone, you SON OF A BITCH!”

“PRINCIPAL CELESTIA?!” Twilight, Spike, and the Humane Five exclaimed at once.

Not Important regained his stance and swung his right fist at the motherly school principal who blocked it with her umbrella. The impact snapped the umbrella in two but Celestia took a step back to avoid getting hit.

“LEAVE THEM ALONE!” yelled an angry orange-skinned, blue-haired teenage boy holding a long metal rod who suddenly jumped out from behind the principal and whacked Not Important across his left cheek causing some drops of blood to fly from his mouth.

Quickly recovering and growing increasingly angery, Not Important aimed his gun at the two newcomers. But before he could shoot them, a huge metal barrel came flying through the air and made contact with him sending him flying thirty feet backwards into some other metal barrels.

“YEAH!” yelled a voice which was revealed to be Bulk Biceps raising his muscular arms triumphantly. Acompaning him were Lyra Heartstrings, Bon-Bon, Micro Chips, Sandalwood, and Trixie.

“Direct hit!” Micro Chips complimented Bulk.

“Merry Chistmas, motherfucker!” Flash Sentry said contemptly to the man who was now lying on the floor buried under a few metal barrels.

“Sunset, are you alright?” Celestia asked concerned as she gently helped her student sit up. Sunset groaned painfully as the principal held her.

While everyone was tending to the injured girls, Not Important regained conciousness and struggled to get out from under the barrels that had him pinned down. Then he saw the C4 detonator sitting on the floor a few feet from him. It must’ve fallen out of his coat when he crashed into the barrels. He started reaching for the device but before he could touch it was quickly grabbed by a trio of three young determined-looking girls.

“Apple Bloom, what are you doing here?!” Applejack yelled to her sister when she saw her.

“How did they get in here?” Micro Chips asked when he noticed the Crusaders.

“Sweetie Belle, get away from him!” Rarity called to her sister.

“Give me that detonator!” Not Important angrily demanded.

“Never!” Apple Bloom defiantly replied, then she and her two friends ran toward a stairway leading to a lower level.

Now extremely furious, Not Important summed up all his strength and in one move knocked off all the barrels that were holding him down. He took out his smg and fired at the three fleeing girls who ran down the stairs barely avoiding the bullets. The infuriated madman gave chase, he was determined to retrieve his detonator and nothing was going to stand in his way.

“No!” Sunset yelled as she watched Not Important chase after the Crusaders. Forgetting her injuries, she stood up and ran after them.

“No, Sunset, it’s too dangerous!” Celestia called after her but it was too late, she was already gone.

Chapter 23

“GET BACK HERE!” Not Important yelled furiously. His voice echoed throughout the area. He had chased the Crusaders who had taken the C4 detonator to one of the lower levels of the deeper section of the power plant. The three little girls hid trembling with fear behind some barrels while the misanthropic madman continued his relentless search with murder in his eyes. “No matter where you hide, I WILL FIND YOU! Your human shields couldn’t stop me! What makes you think a bunch of stupid high school kids will?!”

The Crusaders all clenched their eyes shut, utterly terrified to look at the risk of him finding them. A moment had passed and everything went silent. Apple Bloom peeked behind the barrel and saw that their pursuer wasn’t there anymore. She signaled the other two that the cost was clear and it was time to move. The three girls began to make a break for it, when all of a sudden, a big black thing jumped down from above landed right in front of them. Sweetie Belle let out a frightened squeal when she recognized the thing as their murderous pursuer.

“Found you!” Not Important said sinisterly and with his right arm, backhanded Apple Bloom so hard she went flying and slammed into the wall.

“Apple Bloom!” Both Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo yelled and rushed to their friend’s aid.

“Give me the detonator, now!” Not Important angrily demanded pointing his pistol at the three girls.

“No way!” Scootaloo defiantly yelled.

“We won’t let you hurt anymore innocent people!” Sweetie Belle retorted.

Not Important let out a hysterical laugh at their responces. “Oh really?! And what about you? Sunset told me you were the ones responsible for Anon-a-Miss. All of that because you wanted your sisters’ attention. It’d be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic.” The girls continued to glare at him, which only made him laugh at them even more. “You really think you can redeem what you’ve done after all the damage you’ve caused?! Another thing I hate about humanity; some of them can be self-rightous hypocrites who do more harm than good. By the time you’ve finally realized what you already had, you’ve already thrown it away. I’m done politely asking you to give me back my detonator. It’ll be more satisfying to pry it from your cold, dead fingers.”

Not Important pointed his gun at the three trembling girls who hugged each other tightly in an attempt to shield one another. The murderous maniac put on a satified smile as he watched the three kids shed tears and prepare for the end. But before he could pull the trigger, a teenage girl with red and yellow hair and wearing a black leather jacket suddenly appeared and tackled the dark killer making him miss the girls. The Crusaders looked to see Sunset Shimmer attempting to wrestle the gun out of Not Important’s hands.

“You just don’t know when to quit! Do you?!” Not Important yelled at Sunset as they struggled.

“I told you I’m going to stop you from hurting anymore of my friends and killing anymore people!” Sunset snapped.

Then Not Important, with his left hand, grabbed Sunset tightly around the neck and lifted her off her feet. Sunset was forced to let go of the gun and with her right arm she struggled to pry her opponent’s hand off her throat while she used her left arm to try and claw at her opponent’s evil grinning face. Apple Bloom quickly crawled over to Not important’s legs and bit him hard in his left calf. The murderous man yelled in pain and threw Sunset to the ground. He turned and grabbed the smaller girl by her hair and lifted her off the floor. Apple Bloom wailed in pain as she felt her hair being pulled and kicked around as she dangled in the air. With his free hand, Not Important reached into her coat and pulled out the detonator. Before he could do anything else, Sunset quickly got up and put him in a full nelson, which caused him to let go of Apple Bloom. With all of her strength, Sunset hurled herself and Not Important at the guard rail of the platform they were on. They both flipped and fell over the side of the railing. Luckly, Sunset managed to grab hold of the railing while Not Important plummeted down into the foggy abyss of the plant, taking the detonator with him. The Crusaders quickly helped Sunset back onto the platform.

“Sunset, are you alright?” Apple Bloom asked concernedly.

“Yes, I’m fine, Apple Bloom.” Sunset calmly assured her.

“You were awesome!” Scootaloo exclaimed.

“You saved us!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed both happy and surprised.

“Of course, why wouldn’t I?” Sunset asked.

“But after everything we did to you!” Apple Bloom said bewildered.

“We framed you for our crime!” Scootaloo added.

“We turned your friends and all of CHS against you!” Sweetie Belle also added.

“How can you be so forgiving to us?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Because you’re my sisters too.” Sunset said. This answered rendered all three girls silent. “Did you really think your sisters and their friends were the only people I cared about? Ever since I started hanging out with them, your sisters and Fluttershy and Pinkie have been like family to me. But I’ve also met and spent some time with their family members as well. Granny Smith, Maud, Big Mac, and you three have all been like family to me. And a family looks out for one another. All of you have given me a purpose, and a place to finally call home, and I am very grateful for that.”

Sunset’s words made the Crusaders think back on the times they’ve spent with her. From the aftermath of the Fall Formal to the Anon-a-Miss affair. At first they had their doubts about Sunset in the past, but this new revelation shocked each of them to their cores. The once mean-spirited and dictatoral girl was truly no more, and this practically angelic creature had taken her place.

“I’M SO SORRY!” Sweetie Belle broke down into uncontrollable tears, hugged Sunset tightly, and cryed on her shoulder. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were also leaking an enormous amout of tears from their eyes as well. Sunset smiled warmly and gently hugged Sweetie Belle back and stroked her head. She then reached out a hand to Apple Bloom and Scootaloo to come and join in this heartwarming display of affection, which they didn’t hesitate to do.

Back at the upper level of the power plant, Principal Celestia and the other students who arrived were tending to Twilight Sparkle and the Humane Five. All six girls had been pretty badly injured from their fight with Not Important.

“Apple Bloom! Sunset!” Applejack said struggling to get up. “Ah’ve gotta find them!”

“Take it easy. You’re still in pretty bad shape.” Lyra Heartstrings said.

“Careful, not so fast.” Micro Chips said to Rainbow Dash as he and Sandalwood helped her on her feet.

“You okay?” Flash asked Twilight with concern.

“I’m fine.” Twilight warmly assured.

“Look, it’s them!” Trixie yelled pointing to a stairway leading to the lower level and coming right up to the platform they were on was Sunset Shimmer and the Crusaders all walking happily together.

“Sweetie Belle and Sunset! They’re all okay!” Rarity exclaimed overjoyed with tears welling up in her eyes.

“Scoots! Sunset!” Rainbow exclaimed shedding tears of joy.

“They’re alive!” Pinkie Pie yelled extremely happy.

“They made it!” Fluttershy said barely able to hold back her joyful tears.

“I knew they would.” Twilight said beginning to develop tears of her own.

All the other students who were there started cheering joyously and sighing in relief at seeing Sunset and the Crusaders alive and well.

“Everyone!” Sweetie Belle called to get them to quiet down for a moment.

“We would like all of you to meet our newest big sister.” Scootaloo announced.

“Sunset Shimmer!” Apple Bloom finished looking warmly up at Sunset who returned the same look.

Everyone awwed and clapped their hands at the heartwarming statement, some even wiped tears out of their eyes.

“I knew you could do it, Sunset.” Twilight thought to herself as she proudly watched Sunset and the Crusaders embrace one another.

Both Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo took each of Sunset’s hands and with Apple Bloom in front led her toward the Twilight, Spike, the Humane Five, Principal Celestia, and the other students who were waiting with open arms.

“When we get back, I’m gonna throw the biggest apology and forgiveness party we’ve ever seen.” Pinkie said to herself as she felt her happiness and her hair start to rise again.

THWACK!

Suddenly, Sunset stopped in her tracks. The once warm and happy expression on her face had turned to one of shock and pain. The Crusaders and the others looked worriedly at Sunset wondering what was the matter. Then blood started to drip from her mouth. Sunset released Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo’s hands and dropped on her knees. After a moment, Sunset fell forward on her front, and to everyone’s horror, embedded in her back was a combat knife. Standing less than twenty feet behind Sunset and the Crusaders was Not Important. There was a little blood dripping from his forehead, but he was alive. He had his right arm stretched out in a form that looked like he had just thrown something, and he had a very cruel and satisfied look on his face.

“No. No!” Sweetie Belle said with horror in her voice and tears welling in her eyes as she stared down at her stabbed friend. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

“Sorry, but I hate happy endings to sappy stories.” Not Important said remorselessly.

“SUNSET!” everyone yelled in horror and rushed to her.

“No!” a horrified Twilight exclaimed.

“Sunset, no! Please!” Fluttershy yelled tearfully.

Applejack instinctfully pulled the knife out of Sunset’s back. This move caused Sunset to yell in pain and more blood to spill from the wound. “Please sugarcude, hang in there!”

Rarity quickly took off her scarf and gave to AJ who wrapped it around Sunset’s waist to cover the wound. “Sunset, please tell us you’re okay!” Sunset’s only response was to cough up some blood.

“Sunset! Oh god, please no!” Pinkie exclaimed practically in hysterics, her hair deflated once again.

“Somebody please call an ambulance!” Rainbow yelled in tearful desperation.

“Don’t bother! She’s done for like the rest of you!” Not Important yelled. He laughed as the Crusaders and the Humane Five turned to him with eyes filled with tears and pure hatred. “How does it feel to have searched far and wide for the chance to redeem yourselves to an innocent girl you’ve wronged only for that chance to be taken away? Out of all the people I’ve killed, that one will hold a special place where my heart should be.”

Suddenly, the room started to shake as if there was an earthquake. The only person who didn’t seem to notice the shaking was Twilight who was trembling and staring down at her wounded and half dead friend.

“You… heartless… hateful… BASTARD!!!” Twilight yelled at the top of her lungs that made the room shake even more. Then her body started floating in the air and her body became engulfed by a dark purple aura. The others watched in shock and fear as a new kind of magic consumed the pony princess. After a moment, the shaking stopped and to everyone’s shock, Twilight was floating in the air, glowing dark purple, and facing toward Not Important. Her eyes were glowing bright green with a purple haze flowing from them, and she looked painfully furious.

Chapter 24

Everyone stared in shock as Twilight Sparkle’s body gave a powerful and bone-chilling dark purple aura of painful fury. The mass murdering Not Important had crossed her for the last time. He had killed hundreds of innocent people in the name of his selfish misanthropic philosophy, threatened the lives of her and her friends, and manipulated and betrayed Sunset Shimmer, whom he now had mortally wounded out of pure spite. Twilight had never been one to support the death sentence, but this thing was going to pay the ultimate price for what he did to her friend.

“All of you, get Sunset out of here,” Twilight commanded the others.

“Twi, what are ya doin’?” Applejack nervously asked.

“I’m dealing with him by myself,” Twilight angrily replied.

“Are you crazy?!” Rainbow Dash asked. “There’s no way we’re going to let you fight him on your own!”

“Sunset is badly hurt!” Twilight reminded everyone. “She needs to be taken to a hospital. If she dies then all of this was for nothing. So please, this time do what’s right for her!”

Everyone stared for a moment to take in Twilight’s words. They all believed she had a very good point. Sunset was bleeding heavily from her wound and there was no time to argue. And from the dark look in Twilight’s eyes, she had become a force not to be reckoned with.

Bulk Biceps gently scooped Sunset’s small slender body in his huge muscular arms. Then everyone started heading for the exit.

“Hang in there, Sunset,” a concerned Celestia said to her wounded student. “Everything will be okay.”

“Don’t worry,” Fluttershy nervously spoke to her friend. “We won’t abandon you. Not this time!”

“Be careful, Twi,” Applejack said to Twilight before leaving with the others.

“And don’t you dare lose!” Rainbow Dash furiously said before joining AJ.

Once they were gone, it was just Twilight and Spike facing Not Important. Spike felt very nervous and uncomfortable seeing his mistress like this. The dark magic emitting from her body and the murder in her eyes made his spine tingle. He was almost unable to even recognize her.

“Spike,” Twilight said to her assistant.

“Yes, Twilight,” Spike answered nervously.

“This is the first time I’ve ever sentenced anyone to death,” she said with great disappointment in her voice. Then she spoke directly to her opponent. “You have forced me to do something I really never wanted to do as the Princess of Friendship!”

Suddenly, at tremendous speed, she zoomed toward Not Important and slugged him hard in the face. The blow sent a few of his teeth flying out of his mouth. She moved so fast that he didn’t even have any time to prepare for the attack. Not Important attempted to throw a punch at the girl, but Twilight dodged his fist and did an uppercut right into the psycho’s gut. The blow was so powerful, it made him cough up some blood. After a moment, Not Important quickly reached into his coat, pulled out a pistol, and aimed it at Twilight. But before he could pull the trigger, she grabbed his hand and twisted it a little over 90 degrees causing him to yell in pain and drop the pistol. She then followed that up with a hard kick to his chest. The force of the kick was so powerful, it smashed a few of his ribs and sent him flying twenty feet backward.

Spike watched the brutal brawl with great anxiety in his eyes. He could tell that not only was Twilight fighting hard to defeat this monster, but she was also fighting hard to hold onto who she was. All he could do was hope that the battle would be over quickly before Twilight completely loses herself.

Not Important began to get back on his feet clutching his ribs with his right arm, but then Twilight zoomed across the platform and slugged him right in the face. Then she followed up with a strong uppercut to his diaphragm. Not Important let out a gasp as he felt the wind knocked out of him. The blow was so hard, it caused him to spit up some blood. Then Twilight began furiously and continuously punching his face with both her fists at a very fast pace. Her eyes glowed with intense fury.

Meanwhile, the Humane Five, the Crusaders, Principal Celestia, Flash, Bulk Biceps, Trixie, Lyra, Bon-Bon, Micro Chips, and Sandalwood were all heading through corridors of the facility to the exit with Bulk carrying a wounded Sunset in his arms.

“Okay,” Rainbow spoke. “We find the exit, get into our cars, and drive as far away from this place as we possibly can.”

“It’ll never be far enough,” Micro Chips said. “That guy plans to blow this entire place to kingdom come. The blast will take out everyone in the county!”

“Then what we going to do?!” Trixie asked panicking.

Then Sunset started coughing which caught everyone’s attention.

“Sunset!” Flash said greatly concerned and rushed over to her.

“Darling, are you alright?” Rarity asked with great concern on her face.

“I… I’m sorry everyone,” Sunset said weakly. “This… this is all my fault. I helped make this nightmare happen.” They could all tell she was struggling to talk.

“No sugarcube, this is all our fault,” Applejack emotionally assured her. “We all shoulda known it wasn’t you.”

“After everything we’ve been through,” Fluttershy said tearfully. “we should’ve known you would never go back to the way you used to be.”

“Even now you still want to help us,” Rainbow said with tears streaming down her cheeks.

“You’re the bestest friend anybody could ever ask for,” Pinkie said warmly and emotionally.

Celestia, the Crusaders, and other students there gave her warm and tearful smiles that showed they agreed with the Humane Five. Sunset couldn’t help but smile back and shed a single tear. After all the hell she’d been through, she finally felt that she’d found were she truly belonged. However, the tender moment was interrupted by a sudden pain in her stab wound. Sunset let out a few painful groans.

“Sunset, please take it easy,” Fluttershy comforted her friend who was in great pain. “We’ll get you help.”

“The explosives,” Sunset forced herself to say. “The reactors.”

“The reactors?” Trixie asked confused.

Suddenly Micro Chips gasped in horrific realization. “He’s put the explosives in both reactor chambers! If those things blow we’ll all be history!”

“Then we need to find the reactor chambers, find the explosives, and get them out of here!” Celestia concluded.

“What are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Rainbow said with determination.

Everyone else yelled in agreement.

“Leave me,” Sunset pleaded weakly. Everyone stared at her confused.

“Sunset?” AJ asked.

“Sunset, you’re hurt,” Apple Bloom said.

“We can’t leave you all by yourself,” Flash added.

“I’ll only slow everyone down,” Sunset argued in a sad and pleading tone. “Just leave me here. You can come back for me later.”

Unable to convince the injured girl to change her mind, everyone reluctantly and silently came to an agreement. Bulk gently set Sunset down against a wall sitting her upright. She groaned in pain a little from her wound but silently assured the muscular young man that it was okay. As much as they didn’t want to leave Sunset there all alone in her condition, they had to put their trust in Sunset this time.

“Alright, but we’re coming back for you. Pinkie Promise.” Pinkie promised Sunset.

“Alright, half of us go to the west reactor and half of us go to the east reactor,” Micro Chips instructed everyone. “Now let’s hurry!”

Celestia, Trixie, Bulk, Lyra, Bon-Bon, Sandalwood, and Micro Chips headed for the east reactor while the Humane Five, the Crusaders, and Flash headed for the west reactor. Sunset sat by herself breathing heavily. She could feel that her wound was taking its toll on the rest of her body. Any minute she would lose consciousness. She knew she needed to do something quickly while she still had the strength. She looked over to a trash bin that was fifteen feet from where she was sitting. Sunset painfully forced herself onto her feet and slowly started walking toward the trash bin.

Back at the fight, Twilight was still continuing her furious barrage of powerful punches on Not Important, who was now backed up against a wall. She had been punching him so much and so hard that her knuckles were beginning to get covered in his blood.

“NO… ONE… HURTS… SUNSET!!!” Twilight roared as she slowly stopped her relentless fury of fists to catch her breath.

Not Important looked extremely bruised up. The magical girl from another dimension really did a number on him. His left eye was now blackened and there was blood dripping from his forehead, right nostril, and mouth. But he let out a weak chuckle and had a disturbing grin of satisfaction on his face.

“What I don’t understand is,” the psychopath spoke. “your so-called friends were the ones who broke her heart and made her leave. Not to mention you, the so-called 'Princess of Friendship', didn’t jump in to do anything to help until it was too late. You knew how much your friend was suffering, but you didn’t do anything to help her. Just gave her some fucking suggestions and left her to fend for herself while you sat around on your ass. I’ve seen enough of humanity’s disgusting side to last a lifetime, and yours and Sunset’s so-called friends are new additions to that list. I’m not a monster, I’m a force of nature doing what needs to be done.”

Twilight just glared at the dark, bloody, insane-talking, irredeemable wretch with so much fury in her eyes. She felt like this guy’s nonsense was making her ears bleed. “You don’t deserve the air you breath!” she retorted and raised her right fist into the air. Soon her fist was enveloped in a powerful dark purple aura. She readied her fist for the final blow on her weakened opponent.

“Go ahead, give into hatred!” Not Important said unfazed. “DO IT!”

Twilight hesitated for a moment. She was extremely tempted to finish him off once and for all. After all the destruction and suffering he’s caused, all the lives he’s destroyed, all the graveyards he’s filled, he deserved the brutal and merciless death possible. However, a part of her was desperately telling her that this wasn’t the way to end this. If she did what she was thinking of doing right now, she would descend into a dark part of herself and will likely never come out of it. After a moment of thinking, Twilight finally made up her mind. She lunged her magic empowered fist right at Not Important’s face.

SMASH!

The mass murderer braced himself, expecting to have his face smashed in. But he realized that the furious magic girl had drove her fist into the wall half an inch to the right narrowly missing his face. Twilight retracted her fist leaving a huge dent in the wall. Twilight took a moment to calm herself down and the dark aura that had surrounded her body disappeared and her eyes turned back to their normal violet color. But she still glared angrily at her beaten foe.

“No, I’m not like you!” she said. “As much as I want to make you pay for everything you’ve done, this is exactly what you want, and you don’t deserve such kindness. I’ll leave your fate to your own people.”

Spike smiled proudly that his beloved mistress had held on to who she was and not let hatred consume her.

Not Important stared at the girl for a moment with an expression of surprise and confusion. Then his expression turned to one of disappointment. Then he closed his eyes and lowered his head. He let out a weak chuckle which confused Twilight.

“You hero types are so predictable,” he said. Then he suddenly pulled a flash bang out of his coat and tossed up in between him and Twilight. The blast of light from the grenade blinded Twilight and Spike. After a moment of regaining their visual senses, they were surprised to see that Not Important was gone. Then they looked over to their right and saw the genocidal madman fleeing through a big open metal door.

Not Important ran through the open metal doors and into a room filled with several computing machines. A worker was standing at one of the machines and attempted to flee when he saw a threatening-looking man holding a gun. Not Important wasted no time in gunning the poor man down and quickly proceeded to the end of the room. He entered through a door located at the end of the room, then proceeded down a backwards ‘C’ shaped hallway. He found another door at the end of that hallway and immediately went through it. He found himself in a small room with huge computers on the opposite wall, dozens of keyboards on two desks in front of the screens, and a single worker operating them. He had done it. He had finally found the control room for the reactors. His crusade was near its end!

“How do I overload the reactors?!” he asked the worker pointing his gun at him.

“What? No, never!” the worker fearfully protested. “It will cause a massive explosion! Are you insane?!”

“That’s what I want and you will tell me,” Not Important dropped his gun and pulled out an extra knife. Then he grabbed the worker by the throat and pinned him against the left wall. “Or I’ll make you die very fucking slowly…” Then he started driving the tip of the knife into the left side of the worker’s head causing him to yell in pain.

“ALIGHT, PLEASE STOP!” the worker pleaded. “I will do this! I WILL DO THIS!”

Not Important released the worker from his grip and watched as he frantically started typing on some of the keyboards. Eventually a login box asking for a three digit password appeared on one of the screens.

“No. I won’t do that.” The worker stopped as he realized what this would lead to. I can’t be responsible for this. Kill me if you-”

Before he could finish, Not Important drove his knife into the right side of his head and pushed his body aside.

“Useless piece of shit,” Not Important remarked then turned his attention to the computer screen. “What is this fucking code?”

Not Important stared at the computer screen for a moment trying to think what the three digit code could be. Then he remembered the numbers he saw scratched into one of the walls of the power plant. He dialed the numbers: 666 on the keyboard. Then just as he was about to press the ‘Enter’ key to enter the code, a pair of pointy teeth suddenly sank into his right arm. The madman yelled in pain and saw that Spike had found him and was now biting his arm.

As Not Important struggled to get the pup off his arm, he failed to notice Twilight had entered the room, hurried over to the computer, and was now frantically typing on the keyboard. The ruthless killer finally managed to get the little dog off his arm and throw him at a wall. The impact knocked the puppy unconscious. He then turned his attention back to the computer screens just in time to see that Twilight had cancelled the login for the overloading of the reactors.

“NOOOO!” Not Important yelled angrily to stop her, but he was too late. Then he grabbed the teenage girl by the throat and lifted her off the floor. “Do you have any idea what you’ve just fucking done?!”

“Y-yes,” Twilight defiantly struggled to speak. “I just stopped a madman from killing thousands of innocent lives!”

“Thanks to you, I now must rely on the detonators in order to complete my crusade! Shame you couldn’t kill me when you had the chance.”

“I said I’d ‘leave your fate to your own people’!”

“He’s here!” came a voice from behind Not Important. The crusader turned around to find four armed soldiers had entered the room.

“Put down the girl!” one of the soldiers demanded.

Not Important smiled sinisterly and threw Twilight aside. Then he pulled the detonator for the explosives out of his coat. “So… The time has come.” He thought to himself as he faced the soldiers. This was it, the violent death he was waiting for. He dropped to his knees and let out a loud laugh filled with pure evil. Twilight watched in shock as the soldiers opened fire on the deranged psychopath that had caused so much suffering. Blood spurted everywhere as he was pelted with countless bullets. After what felt like an eternity of being gunned down, Not Important finally collapsed on the floor. However, despite being pumped full of deadly lead projectiles he still had a little bit of strength left in him as he held the detonator in his hand. Twilight was surprised that he could still be alive after taking a shooting like that. Then her eyes went wide with horror as she saw the detonator.

“I only wonder if those explosives will work.” Not Important thought as he moved his thumb over the detonator’s red button.

“NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” Twilight screamed as she lunged forward to stop him. But she was too late, his thumb collapsed on the button.

Chapter 25

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Prologue

Note: This first scene takes place at the same time the first scenes in the holiday special comic take place.

Inside a dark house, a dark man was preparing for a dark purpose. The living room was poorly lit, just a few lamps were turned on to light up a few parts of the room. The dark man had long black hair that covered most of his face, his skin was deathly pale, he was a physically fit-looking man, and he wore dark army pants, boots, and a long black leather coat. He had a grim and unnatural look on his face, a chilling look, a look of pure Hatred. He was standing at a table with a beer bottle, an ashtray with a recently lit cigarette in it, a combat knife, two grenades, three assault rifle magazines, and an assault rifle spread all over it.

“My name is not important.” The man thought to himself, “What is important is what I’m going to do.”

“I just fucking hate this world, and the human worms feasting on its carcass!” He thought as he loaded his rifle with one of the magazines on the table and clocked it.

He then started stuffing the rest of the weapons in his coat. “My whole life is just cold, bitter *hatred*, and I always wanted to die violently. This is the time of vengeance, and no life is worth saving.”

Once he was done stuffing his coat he headed toward his front door. “And I will put in the grave as many as I can.” He stepped outside into the night and beyond his front yard was a group of people waiting at a bus stop; and beyond them and the neighborhood houses across the street, miles away was the brightly lit city.

“It’s time for me to kill and it’s time for me to die!” As he walked down his front yard he raised his rifle, aimed it at the people waiting at the bus stop, and fired. “My genocide crusade begins here!”