Roll fell to the ground, missing the shot. He looked down at what made him trip and saw Norman holding one of his feet - the boy's right arm was missing, but that didn't stop him since he was ambidextrous. Roll tried kicking him off, but Norman had a strong grip and an equally strong determination.

"Let me go, you loser." Roll pointed his Rifle at his face, but Pearl stomped on his forearm before he could pull the triggers. The pain made the purple-haired boy let go of it, so Pearl picked it up and took a few steps back before pointing it at him.

"S-S-Stop this nonsense right now!" she commanded.

Roll scowled. "Don't you understand? This fight is pointless. We should all be going after the blue-haired nobody and be done with this."

"He's a human who haven't done nothing wrong. We are heroes, not murderers."

"'Heroes', she says. What a load of bullshit!" he rolled his eyes. "We're here because some fucked up billionaire from God-knows-where had just too much money to throw away. Remember that factory? We are not heroes, we are just disposable characters in a fucking game!"

Distracted by Roll's speech, she didn't notice Adagio and Midna approaching from behind; they lost their weapons a while ago and were now engaged in a fist fight. Midna bumped on Pearl, and both were distracted by this, giving Adagio and Roll a chance to act. Since Norman had lowered his guard due to the fact that Pearl had the upper hand in the situation, he loosened his grip on Roll's leg, who jumped at the chance to break free; he kicked him in the face, got up and sprinted toward the distracted Pearl. She tried shooting at him, but missed due to the fact that she wasn't used to this type of weapon. The boy headbutted her chest and retrieved his weapon.

At the same time, Adagio's fist successfully connected with Midna's chin. The blow was so strong that she could feel the violet-haired girl's jaw rupturing.

"Don't you ever point a gun at me again." she said while rubbing her sore fist.

Finally realizing that they were face to face with an enemy, Roll pointed his Gib Rifle at Adagio, who immediately ducked, wrapped her arms around both his legs and pulled them, making him lose balance, fall and hit his head, making him dizzy. She wanted to finish him off right then and there, but she finally realized something: Shimmer was missing since this fighting broke out.

"That bitch." she muttered, then looked at Hope, who was holding a Gib Gun with shaky hands and had her back pressed against a wall. "Hey, pipsqueak! You make sure these assholes don't leave the area, ok?"

Hope didn't like fighting aliens, but she did it anyway because she thought she was helping not only her friends, but all of the world, but seeing her friends fight each other made the girl so nervous that she could barely stand on her own. She knew she wasn't up to the task, but she nodded anyway because she didn't want to disappoint anyone.

"Great!" she picked up two Gib Guns lying on the floor and ran. She cursed under her breath, irritated with the fact that she didn't bring a Controller. Adagio decided to follow the main road - the Black Ball did mention that Flash liked cars - which proved to be the best option, since a black Camaro with lightning streaks painted on the sides and a blue shield with a lightning streak painted on the hood parked a few meters ahead of her. She approached it, but once she got too close the passenger door opened up and Sunset stepped outside, pointing her Gib Gun at her.

"Drop them!" she ordered.

Adagio rolled her eyes, raised her hands and dropped both Gib Guns to the ground. "Seriously? That's how you treat someone who is only trying to help?"

Given that Adagio did as she was told, Sunset also lowered her weapon.

"S-Sorry. I just don't know who to trust here."

"Well, I have a list of people you can't trust, but most of them are already out of comission. Treble is knocked out, Roll is under watch and I'm pretty sure I broke Midna's jaw. The problem is that Shimmer girl. I lost sight of her a while ago, so she could be anywhere right now."

"Huh? Isn't that...? What is she doing here?" Flash asked.

"Stay in the car, Flash, it's not safe out here." Sunset ordered, then turned back to Adagio. "What about the others?"

"I left the pipsqueak taking care of them. The boys have serious injuries, but I think they can make it until time runs out."

"But... Why?"

"They are stronger than they look, I know--"

"No, I mean... Why are you helping me? Helping us? Don't get me wrong, I'm really grateful for it, but... I thought you hated me!"

Adagio seemed lost in thought, but then just shrugged. "No particular reason. The other you just pissed me off with that Alpha Bitch attitude, that's all."

"Well, if that's--"

Adagio saw something out of the corner of her eye and rushed to the car, immediately closing the passenger door with a loud Thud!, which exploded just a moment later. Sunset noticed Shimmer hiding behind a tree next to a house with a Gib Rifle in hands and immediately jumped on the roof of the car.

"Drive, drive, drive!" she yelled. Without thinking twice, Flash stepped on the accelerator and peeled out of there. Adagio reached for the Gib Guns she dropped, but both her arms were blown to pieces before she could take hold of them. Shimmer running past her was the last thing she saw before passing out.

~ ~ ~

Flash did his best to avoid all of Shimmer's shots, who managed to keep up with him thanks to the strength enhancers of her suit, and while he did a good job so far, his rear bumper and trunk lid were gone and his rear windshield had shattered. At some point Sunset jumped back inside the car through the broken windshield and was now shooting at Shimmer from the rear seat, and while she did manage to not miss a few shots, she still needed a few more to finally break her suit. Unfortunately Flash Sentry couldn't dodge her shots forever; one of the tires got blown up and he crashed his car into a lamppost.

Sunset got out of the car and helped the injuried driver get out as well. "Run as far as you can, I'll hold her back."

Flash nodded as he limped down an alley, leaning against a wall so he wouldn't lose balance and fall. He had hit his face against the steering wheel and now feared that his dizziness would make him lose consciousness.

"Move." Shimmer ordered.

"You are not going to kill my friend, give up."

"If we don't kill him, we all suffer the consequences. Can't you just pull your head out of your ass and think about this for a moment? What about you? What about your friends? What about that little girl? If they die, it's all your fault for not letting me pass."

"I... I know, but... We-We were all supposed to be dead, anyway! Flash Sentry is not dead, he still has a whole life ahead of him. If that's the way it's supposed to be, then so be it."

"You're an hypocritical idiot."

"And you're a cold-blooded murderer."

"I do what I have to do to survive. Unlike you, I am grateful for the second chance BB gave me, so if he says I have to kill a person in order to keep my life, you bet your sweet ass I'll kill the hell out of that person."

"But that's not right!"

"You think I give a shit about what's right or what's wrong?" she charged at Sunset with Katana in hands. The younger girl grabbed the blade, successfully stopping it, but Shimmer kicked her in the stomach, sending her flying. 'I'm a walking corpse, for fuck's sake!" she extended her sword and attacked again. This last blow would have sliced Sunset in half, but since her suit still worked, she survived. "Now stand still and be quiet, it will be over soon."

Sunset was lying on the ground, panting, while a puddle of blue gel leaking out of her broken suit appeared underneath her. She wanted to get up and help Flash Sentry. She was willing to die in order to save him, but she couldn't move.

"S... Sorry, P-Princess Twilight..." she said while tears streamed down her face and mixed with the blue gel. "I... I failed you..." she covered her face with one arm and kept crying.

Flash Sentry was in so much pain that he couldn't walk anymore, so sat between two dumpsters, hoping that no one would find him there. Unfortunately for him, Shimmer had a Controller with a map that gave away his location.

"Nothing personal." she said as she raised her Katana. "Just following orders."

Flash nodded closed his eyes. He still had so many things he wanted to do and so many questions that he wanted answers to, but the end had arrived for him so he simply decided to accept it.

* * *

Miraculously, none of the Hunters died after that mission and were all transferred back to the room. Norman got up and looked around.

"We won?" he asked.

"N-N-No..." Sunset, who was sitting on the floor, muttered while wiping away the tears with the sleeve of her jacket.

KILLER QUEEN
50 PTS / TOTAL 50 PTS
ONLY 50 MORE AND YOU'RE DONE

The room was silent. Hope approached Sunset and placed her small hand on her friend's back.

"L... Let's go home, Hope." the little girl nodded as she helped her up. As they walked toward the corridor, she turned her head around and looked at Shimmer. "Are you coming?"

"Really?" Adagio asked. "After all this, you're just going to take her home like a stray dog? How stupid are you, Sunset Shimmer?" the look in Sunset's eyes made her shut her mouth immediately. She wasn't angry or sad, she just looked empty. Sunset, Hope and Shimmer wore their normal clothes over their black suits then left the room and walked back to Sunset's apartment - not a single word was uttered on their walk back home. When they stood in front of the locked door as Sunset reached for the keys in her pocket, Shimmer finally broke the silence:

"Why?" she asked. "Why are you being so nice to me after I killed your friend? Yell at me, kick me out of your house, do something!"

Sunset did something: she wrapped her arms around Shimmer and cried on her chest. Unsure of how to react, Shimmer just patted her counterpart's back.

"This is so unfair!" she said between sobs. "It's all that stupid ball's fault. Why bring us back to life if it's only going to make us wish we were dead?"

"It's just the way it is, kiddo." Shimmer said as she grabbed the key and passed it to Hope, who unlocked the door for them, then guided Sunset to the bedroom. She placed the pony girl on her bed, who immediately curled up in a ball, still sobbing uncontrollably. Shimmer covered her with a blanket and squeezed her shoulder. "Rest now. You'll feel better in the morning, trust me." she said before leaving the room and closing the door.

"I can never face Princess Twilight ever again..." she whispered moments before falling asleep.

* * *

Missing posters of Flash Sentry were all over town. Many people suspected that his disappearance was somehow related to that fact that his father was a competent police officer very well-known in Canterlot Town. This was the original hypothesis, but the lack of thugs demanding a ransom made the case even more complicated. His car was located and the forensic scientists were doing their best to figure out what could have caused the damages it suffered. Several students from CHS were interrogated by detectives, but priority was given to people closer to him, like his band members, his friends, and even his ex-girlfriend. Sunset wanted to tell them the truth, reveal everything she knew, but that wouldn't accomplish a thing, so she hid the truth just like she hid her tears. She had to be strong.

Sunset never forgave Shimmer for what she did, but she at least understood why she did it. Deciding that being angry at her would result in absolutely nothing, Sunset decided not to ostracize her from their group - at first her teammates questioned her judgement, but decided to respect her decision.

Roll and Pearl stopped showing up to their weekly meetings at Sunset's but, once the brown-haired girl was informed that he too had abandoned the group, she soon returned. They used those meetings to hone their skills with the weapons, Katanas and suits, but they spent most of the time working on strategies and battle formations. One day, Shimmer showed up late to their meeting at an abandoned warehouse looking at her recently-bought phone and cursing:

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck FUUUUUCK!" she yelled.

"Someone's grumpy!" Norman joked.

"Not the time, jackass." she said. "Something bad is going down!" they all dropped what they were doing and approached Shimmer to better understand the situation. "My contacts from the country are dying. No, scratch that, they are getting slaughtered by them."

"Them?" Nolan asked. "Stop playing the fucking pronoun game and just say it."

"They are a gang of people wearing black suits."

"You mean black suits like ours?" Sunset asked.

"No, black suits like formal clothes. Pants, shoes, suits, ties, shirts, the whole package."

"You seem to know them. Who are they?" Adagio asked.

"I don't know if they still call them that, and most of the people who survived the encounter and reported their appearance never encountered them before, but back in my day we used to call them 'Vampires'."

Norman burst into laughter. "Vampires? You're kidding me, right?"

"Do I look like a clown to you? I fought them before, they only move at night and they drink blood, so we call them Vampires. If you have a better name, share it with nobody and go fuck yourself."

"Shit, this is serious business." Nolan said. "What do we do?"

"Nobody knows where they hide and they are good at hiding their tracks, so we can't hunt them down." Shimmer said. "For now, let's lay low and not draw attention to ourselves. If someone wearing black formal clothes approaches you, either get the fuck out of there or rip their fucking heads off. Those bastards are sneaky!" Shimmer cracked her joints. "Alright, change of plans! Today you'll be learning how to fight Vampires. The first thing you need to know is that those motherfuckers are weak to UV rays. Which means that sunlight is not the only thing that can hurt them, if you have the right type of light bulb you can turn them into a pile of dead shit. I recommend changing the ones you have at your houses, just to be safe. I'll give you a list of best brands later.

"Second, don't underestimate them. Not only are they super fast and really strong, but they can catch you off guard with their weapons. They have guns and swords, but you won't see them carrying them around, because they hide their stuff inside their bodies. I don't know how it works, but it's what they do, so keep those eyes peeled if you have to fight them."

"Third, don't lower your guard even if it's still light outside; some of them can handle sunlight, and they will go after you if they know your face. I don't know how they do that either, but those ones are a rare breed."

"And fourth, they can see us. I shit you not, if they know where a mission is taking place, they will show up there and try to fuck with us. From what I heard, they have special glasses or contact lens or some shit like that. If they appear, fuck with them before they can fuck with you! And no matter what happens, don't let them get behind you. Seriously, don't! They know how to deactivate the suit so, even if your suit is at full capacity, they will break it.

"Got all that?" they all nodded. "Good. You better memorize everything, otherwise you're as good as dead. And from now on, I want you all to wear your suits all the time - when going to school, when staying at home and, if it's not too uncomfortable to you, leave it on even when you're sleeping. We never know when we might be ambushed!"

Author's Note

And to make things clear, Sunset & Shimmer live in a motel. Nothing too fancy, but nothing cheap either. I may have messed this up at some point, saying it was something else, but no. Just a motel. Sorry about that!