Sunset Shimmer's perspective - Thursday

Sitting in the loneliness of my study room isn't a fun way to be spending my lunch hour, but I guess it's how I'm spending mine. I refuse to go out into that torment again, from everyone, even my so-called friends, I don't want to have to face them, all of the people calling me evil, and a monster, blaming me for things I didn't do. It's horrible out there, I barely manage to get to my private study room I was awarded by Principal Celestia without being insulted.

I saw my phone light up again, I didn't even want to pick it up, I didn't want to look at the lit up screen with my "friends" on it. I just wanted to sit in the study room and ignore everyone. Crying.

It started a week ago, a harmless text, or so I thought, it just said, 'sorry' and the name that came with it was 3qkn0 a seemingly random set of characters, but I know now, that random set of letters, it can ruin someone, I feel like shit now, nothing they said was particularly bad, but what they know, and what they do, that's the problem, every time something happened, everyone knew, and I got a text telling me that people didn't like me, and over the week, I've been starting to believe it, with all of the lies going around, even my friends are starting to stop talking to me, and everything's going to absolute hell. Nothing about this is fun, every day, I'm losing sanity, losing respect, I'm going to quit, I have nowhere else to go, but I'm not staying here.

The bell rang signifying the end of the school day, and I'm still here, still feeling weak, light off, the dark slightly damp room barely enough for me to sit in, filled otherwise with brooms and mops. It was hell, and I'm going to do something about it. Maybe it's not the right thing, to leave like a coward, but I don't want to be here, so I'm going to leave, I pull myself up and wipe my eyes, opening the door of my study room just wide enough to see out, and seeing that the halls are as empty as ever, I quickly drop out of the room and start walking towards the principals office, it's one of Celestia's mentoring days, so I know only Luna will be in the office.

Walking along I have to pass the several other rooms, and I decide to check my phone, pressing the button on the side, the screen lights up, and it says, right in the center of my screen, 'don't say a thing' apparently, whoever was in the other end of this conversation knew who I was, and what my plans were, as I went to put my phone into my pocket again, another message, 'I know you see this, turn around now' now they were starting to scare me, whoever they were, they now know exactly what I'm doing, and they might try to ruin me more if I don't turn around, no, no, I have to be strong, I gotta just get passed this corridor filled with lockers, then I'm at the office, passing by lockers of all colours, much more customised than they were before the friendship games, it had become a tradition that students would decorate their own lockers, I could look at most lockers and know who they belonged to, looking at the ones on my right, there was a magician's hat, and stars all over the blue painted locker, Trixie's one, then there were two, in harmony yet contrast, one covered in slower sheet music, the other covered sporadically with notes, and a large vinyl record attached to it, Octavia and Vinyls lockers, across the top it said Melody & Scratch, running between the two, linking both musicians together. And continuing along, a locker with a door of clear plastic, on the other side there is a picture of me, and not a demeaning picture, one of my favourites, actually, with a small heart drawn in a corner, that one is Flash's locker, he thinks his crush on me is subtle, he's the only one who has been still talking to me. Continuing down the corridor, there were the lockers of Fluttershy, Lyra, and then they stopped, just before the office of the two sisters. I am worried, I don't know if she'll help me or not, the door is wooden, and unlocked, yet covered, so I push on it and push the handle down, it slides open easily, revealing Luna sitting back with a stack of untouched work on her desk, maybe she wouldn't be that helpful after all.

"Sunset Shimmer," she said, pushing herself up into her seat, "I've been hearing rumours about you all over, I assume this is about those?"

So she did know, maybe she could help then if she was on my side. "Yes, I've been getting avoided more and more as time goes on, and every time I go somewhere someone will pick on me, I've spent several days avoiding classes as much as possible... But I've been keeping up on my studies," I didn't want her to think I wasn't still trying because that gives her a reason to exclude me if she believes everyone else.

"Do not worry Sunset," she said, walking past me, "I believe you, but let's not stay here, follow me," she continued, leading me out the door, she started walking to the right out from her office, "I do not know whether any of these rumours are true or not, however, my job is to find the bottom of them, of course, in the mind of fairness I do not bias based on my personal belief, so I may assist others too, but I am going to say, I have heard a lot of rumours, mostly overheard, with some anonymous reports of what another student has heard," she went on, leading me to the end of the corridor and turning left, towards the front of the school.

"I get it, but all of the rumours I have heard were lies, I would never burst Pinkie's balloons or break her party cannon, she loves those things, I mean, old me might have, but that's not me anymore," I said, being stopped before I could continue by Luna.

"I understand this," she said, stopping me mid sentence, "and I agree that you would never do these things, or so I believe, but someone has been doing this, and we don't know who did it, so for now, it's unknown, but people are blaming it on you, alongside a whole load of other things," she continued, leading me to the front of the school, passed the large front entranceway, "so while I don't think you did we have to take into account the amount of things being pitted against you," she said, turning and walking towards the car park, "what we do know, is that someone is connected to the school security systems, and that they're quite likely a student, with a low degree in computer sciences, similar to that which you have," she said, "another reason it's pointed towards you, unfortunately, yet another thing we can avoid to get ahead," she said, by this point we were barely a few steps away from her car, "want to go talk at your house, or would you prefer somewhere else?"

I'm not entirely sure, do I want my house, because if this is one person, as Luna says, she will likely have access to my webcam, and other things in my house, would explain the sudden blackout during my shower yester- oh god, did they, oh. Oh, they would have, shit. "Can we go to yours, I think I may have a big problem."

"Uhm, alright then, let's go I guess, not exactly supposed to have students round, but I'll make an exception," she said jumping into the small dark blue car, starting the engine. I get into the car beside her and immediately we're off. "Sorry, not one for going slow," she said, putting her foot down, the little car screaming at being pushed so hard, before flying off down the straight street, directly towards Luna's house.

Well, 'house' in very inverted commas, I've never seen a house as big as this for two people before, because apparently, the principals' share a massive house, some parts were dark blackish colours, others a pale yellow or white. But overall it complimented itself really well, it looks like it had a lot of planning put into it. Even the door is birch and spruce wood, in an intricate pattern, resembling that of the two sisters back in Canterlot. "Wow, that's massive, just you and your sister live here, you said?" I asked, looking up towards the slightly shorter of the two principals.

"Yeah, just the two of us, it's a bit oversized, but it's got loads of spare rooms and stuff, so there's plenty of room for any of our interests," she said, drawing the key from her pocket and unlocking the door, "please, make yourself at home," she said, pushing the door open,"feel free to go get yourself a drink or something to eat and we can discuss the issue shortly," she said, walking up the central staircase.

"Okay, I'm gonna get a drink then I'll be in a lounge or something," I replied, or course, that would require finding a lounge first, wouldn't it. I turned to the right, walking along the carpet, I approached the main room, and quickly slipped my shoes off, not wanting to be disrespectful, entering, I pushed the light wood door, and it opened with little force, less than I anticipated, and it swung round and hit off of the door stop with a bit too much force, "wow I need to work on not breaking the doors I guess," I said to myself, pulling the door closed gently, I turned around into the room, seeing a giant TV against the far wall, and a kitchen area nearby, there was a giant red rug laid across the floor, with a three-person pale sofa facing towards the TV, I walked towards the kitchen, grabbing one of the random knives from the rack and spinning it a bit, as had became an odd habit of mine, I opened the fridge, still spinning the knife, and reached in and grabbed a canned drink of some sort, summer fruits, fair enough, and I started walking back towards the sofa, still spinning the knife for some reason and sitting down on the sofa.

After about 5 minutes I heard Luna's voice behind me, "you know, you really shouldn't spin a knife, you could seriously hurt yourself."

"Sorry," I replied, placing the knife on the sofa side table, before turning to look towards Luna, who was wearing a much more casual set of clothes, jeans and a crop top, it seemed she didn't care to wear her more formal school wear, "force of habit."

"Fair enough, well, anyway, these rumours about you, any idea who's spreading them?"

I should tell her about the texts, but knowing what they might have if they hacked into anything in my house, I really don't think I could use that getting out, "not really, I just know that everyone is believing them," I said, knowing it was wrong, but I can't risk this sort of breakout.

"Alright, well, what sort of rumours are they, which ones do you think are worst? That way we can start finding out who spread those ones and help to get everyone else to stop believing those ones first."

"I really, really hate all the rumours saying that I'm ruining my friend's projects, like, there are rumours that I destroyed Fluttershy's bird house and Rainbow Dash's strategies for her teams. I didn't even know Dash made written strategies."

Luna looked out the window quickly before returning her glance to me, "well we have no CCTV footage that shows it wasn't you, nor any showing that it was, obviously, so we will have to try to figure that out."

It's been a few hours, Luna and I have worked out plans to try and clear my name, and I'm feeling much better, "thank you for this, for all of this," I said, "I feel confident that we can stop these rumours now, where ever their coming from."

"Of course, anytime, so, do you want a lift home?" the older woman asked.

"Please yeah, that'd be great," I said, some time since I had come in the weather had gone from sunny to stormy and rainy, the vice principal quickly grabbed a jacket and threw it on.

"Right then, let's go, here, catch," she said, throwing a jacket behind her, I caught it and put it on, it was a little too big, but it was definitely better than that rain. "Chucking down a storm today, isn't it," Luna said, walking to get the car, "the weather said it'd be calm earlier, I suppose it was just wrong, but this is chaotic, even for these cooler months."

She wasn't wrong, the rain was going sideways, the wind nearly blew me off my feet when I walked out of the door. "Wow, this is obscene, I've heard of raining cats and dogs but this is insane, this is like raining ponies," I giggled at my own joke as I pulled the door to principal Luna's car shut behind me, I physically had to struggle to close the door behind me. "Alright, this just is not normal, when I get home I'm going to message Twilight immediately and see if there's any explanation for this."

"Which Twilight?" the principal asked, confused.

"Both," I replied bluntly, at this point magic or science, I don't even know if either can explain this. Then, as it to mock me, as soon as the engine started, the rain turned to hail and was blowing harder.

"Right, hold on, we're just gonna rush this," Luna said, putting her foot down, the car screeching down the road, "better," she said, the car basically flying down the road, no, wait, it is literally flying, not high, but this isn't on the road.

"Are you sure we're meant to be off the ground?" I asked concerned.

"Sure we are, it was an uphill, after all," she smirked, "although this is a bit long to be in the air for me, whatever," she said, slamming her foot down as far as it could go, the car now tyres spinning, we finally came back down, and I felt myself being thrown into the back of the seat, a quick slam to the left, and we were on my street, just next to my apartment block.

"Well, I suppose that is one way of getting here, thanks for the lift," I said, stepping out of the car, "I'll be in school tomorrow, hopefully, we can find out and stop these rumours."

"I sure hope so," she replied, waving me off as I walked to the front door of my apartment building, and used my key card to open the door. I walked in, and started over towards the elevator, "evening Mr Greg," I said, walking past into the elevator, Mr Greg was the doorman at my apartment complex, apparently solid gold "bits" are worth quite a lot here, who woulda guessed. I've been trying to limit my spending a bit, but I can't resist having a good place to live.

"Good evening Miss Shimmer, to your floor correct?" the medium height older male asked, he wasn't one for looks but he was certainly most polite, he had never said anything bad about her, and he had asked her about the rumours, but didn't believe them. He always seemed to wear this same black waistcoat and black trousers. He also always called her Miss Shimmer the first time he greeted her.

"Yes, please, any post or visitors today?" I asked.

"Not today Sunset, expecting any?" he said, getting his notepad out and quickly glancing across the page detailing today visitors, double checking nobody had come.

"Not really, just hoping one of my so called friends will come round or at least leave me a letter."

"That would be good, alright, here we are then, floor 13, want help with your bag?"

"No thanks, I got it, thanks, though.'

"Of course, have a good evening."

"You too," I said, walking out of the elevator, I got my phone out of my pocket and saw a new message, it read 'unlucky thirteen, I see, well I tell you this, you should have listened when I said don't tell her...' this one wasn't from the usual 3qkn0, but from a different name, 'Info Broken', looking back, that text from earlier was a from him too. I walked up to my door, and reaching for the key from my pocket, pulled the door handle down to check, and it remained closed, good sign, nobody had entered and left it unlocked, inserting my key, I hope that nobody is inside, and twisting the key, everything seems normal, until I push the door open, "oh wow," are the only words I can make out, the sight in front of me, absolutely destroyed, food from my cupboards thrown everywhere, tv shattered, red sofa torn, the cushions in parts, it looked like someone had set loose a pack of dogs in here.

It was that Info Broken, it has to have been. No one else would have known. Alright, alright, I gotta calm down, I can't jump to conclusions, maybe Mr Greg knows what happened, I'll ask him, as I'm about to leave, I see a single thing left in its place, well, relatively, the glass table or was once sitting on was shattered, but it looked ignored, it was the book, the one link to the other world, why would that be left? I grab the book and put it into my backpack, emptying most of the other crap in it onto the floor, and turn out of the door, locking it behind me. I start storming down the corridor, much more speed that usual, until I soon approach that same elevator and press the call button, I see the LED display above showing which floor it's on, and it lowers down, 16, I start to think about what I'm going to say, 15, about who I'm going to blame, 14, about why someone would do this, 13, the doors slowly open, Mr Greg is standing there, as per usual, and I step into the elevator.

Cornering the older male I start to demand answers, "Alright! You told me nobody else had visited me!" I yelled at him.

"Miss Shimmer, whatever seems to be the problem?" he asks back, politely as ever.

"I'll tell you what the problem is, my room is absolutely trashed and you told me nobody else visited, so explain who did this!" I yelled, knowing that the other people who lived on my floor were Lyra Heartstrings and one of Pinkies older sisters, Limestone Pie I believe, as well as an old lady, who was very kind and we all respected, nobody on this floor would have dared damage another's property, as it would become quickly obvious which one did.

"Uhm, my apologies, I wouldn't let people out onto a floor where they are looking for someone who is out, so they must have asked for someone else, let me check," he said, checking his notepad for everyone who had visited floor 13. His eyes scanned the page, checking each entry and exit, and where they came from, checking and double checking, "I am very sorry Miss Shimmer, but nobody else has visited floor 13 today, actually, nobody has visited who didn't live here except for a small group who came in with one of the residents on floor 22."

"Alright," I said, starting to calm down, "it's ok, it's fine, I'll just go back to my room and see what I can salvage, because it's not like I've anywhere else to go," I continued, "thank you anyway," I said, becoming aware of the third person in the elevator, he was a blue haired male.

"Sunset, want me to help you?" he said.

"Flash," I said, realising who it was, "please, that'd be great, maybe we can figure out who did this too," I continued a little happier. "Sorry Mr Greg, I shouldn't have been so angry," I said, looking down, regretting what I had done, he is such a nice guy, I shouldn't have yelled at him.

"Oh that is quite alright Sunset, I assume this means you are leaving, Flash," he replied, looking towards my ex. Who just nodded in response, "alright, well I end my shift soon so it'll be Bulk Biceps taking the night shift tonight, as usual on Thursday." he continued, "I shall take a look at the floor 13 security and see if anyone noteworthy walked past."

"Thank you, well, we'll be on our way then," I said, stepping out of the elevator. I started to walk back down that same corridor, tears swelling in my eyes, replacing the anger the first time I saw what had happened in there, we got to my door in what seemed like seconds, and I quickly unlocked and opened it, pushing it open, "here it is," I said to Flash, his eyes widened as he looked into the wrecked apartment.

"Holy crap, it is bad," he said in reaction, "alright, well, let's see if there's anything in here, I'll search around down here, you go look upstairs."

"Yeah good idea, still, I wonder how someone could have gotten in," I said, walking upstairs, I walked into that familiar corridor to be greeted with destroyed photos of my once friends, of my family, of Twilight and me, the Equestrian one, and... There was one photo, that remained untouched, hanging on the wall, untouched, it was a photo of me and Celestia, back when I lived in Equestria, it was one of my few links back to that place, to being a pony. God am I glad it was left alone, I grabbed it and placed it carefully in my bag, before walking along the rest of my corridor, my first check was my bedroom, maybe the room would still be alright, maybe they had left it, I pushed the door, hoping again, that something would be okay, but as it opened my hope sunk away, seeing my normally perfect white bed covered in cuts and slices, and there was a horrible stench in the air, that of out of date milk, so this was a failure.

Looking around the room, my bedside tables were all upturned and had their legs kicked in, the doors on my closet were bashed and dented, and opening it, it seems like all of my clothes were wrecked, nothing was wearable in there, I'm going to need to visit some clothes store in the morning. Hopefully, something is still wearable, looking at it, though, everything was torn, opening my drawers, shirts were torn, shorts cut and bra clips destroyed, well, there's priority number one in the morning.

Leaving the room I saw all my photos smashed again, and entering the bathroom, the mirror shattered, written across it in red pen, 'I thought I told you before, don't talk to anyone,' you know what, no, they won't control me, I'll find a way to take them down, looking past the shower curtain, in much smaller red pen, was written, 'yes, we saw,' which shook my memory, and I rushed next door, checking my laundry room, there was a laptop in there, for simple reasons of I already have a PC downstairs, and I never close it, it has control over my house, so that means, when I thought there was a power cut, and jumped out of my shower to come fix it, they could see me, when I came through to turn the power on and grab a torch, and the lights flashed on, they must have taken a picture with my webcam, how much did they see, they would've seen everything, right?

Emotions flying through my head, sadness, anger, hatred, sadness again, and my eyes started to water up again. I started crying, tears flowing from my eyes, I didn't have much before, I have nothing now, they have this on me, I can't afford to not do as they say. I walked to my top step and started to cry like a baby, sobbing loudly. I failed to notice Flash walking up the stairs and unfeeling down in front of me.

"Hey, Sunset," he said in a slow soothing voice, "Sunset, there's no need to cry, they can't do anything, we will catch them, maybe we even already have."

"It's not what they can do, it's what they already did, they have things on me, pictures of me, straight after a shower. I hate them, I'm ruined now."

"Sunset, trust me if they can take photos we'll take them back, how did they get photos of you?" he asked, starting to smile slowly.

"On my laptop, they used my home control system, I think, they hacked in, and they took photos."

"They hacked in, well, let's go see just what my computing course has taught me," he said, slightly excited now, standing up in front of me, he lowered a hand to me, and I accepted it, letting him pull me back up, standing equal with him, I grabbed him into a big hug, and he stood there and just allowed me to hold myself around him.

"Thank you for believing me," I said, letting him go, "now, let's go catch whoever did this," I continued, walking towards the room which contained my laptop. We arrived at the door and Flash pushed it open, entering he turned on the laptop, and it's screen flashed into life, quickly he grabbed one of my crop top shirts from the pile next to the PC and placed it over the webcam.

"Can never be too safe," he said, logging in, windows would open and close every so often, but mostly it was just him typing into a black box, he was quietly talking about what he was doing, more to keep himself on track than anything else, but after about 30 seconds of me looking at the screen over his shoulder, he hit one last key and some numbers popped up in a box, he gave them a quick read then pushed back. "Well, they want to play a game it seems," he said.

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"Not literally, but they're using multiple computers to get from one end to the other undetected, what they seem to have forgotten is how easy this makes it to trace them back, I mean it's time consuming, but we can trace them, is it possible I could borrow this laptop and trace them back?" he asked, looking at me.

"Sure, go for it, just be careful in case they try to hack it again," I said wearily.

"Don't worry, if they do, my job becomes so much easier."

"Alright, well, I think we've looked at everything, I've left some things that were still in one piece downstairs on the kitchen desk, go figure out what you want and I'll go call the elevator," he said, walking out of the room with the laptop, and turning towards the stairs, I took a deep breath of relief, knowing Flash would find out what happened, and realized just how bad my house actually smelled, I couldn't even sleep here if I wanted to. Alright, well, at least Flash seems to be ok with me staying at his tonight, at least I hope so, maybe not, I'll have to find somewhere else if not. Walking up to the desk in the kitchen, I saw a few things, some money, apartment keys, and a picture of myself, my favourite picture, I am glad that's still intact. Alright, money, keys, picture in my bag, let's go, I think to myself, walking out the front door of my apartment, I'm going to need that room fully remade, ugh, that's gonna cost me hundreds... At least if I really need to I can jump back to Equestria, although Princess Twilight wouldn't be too happy with it.

Walking up to the elevator, I see Flash and Lyra both standing there. "Hey, Lyra."

"Hey, Sunset," she said happily, "I'm going to see Bonbon, you got any plans?" she asked, obliviously.

"My room got absolutely trashed, like, almost everything was ruined," I said, I was still aware Lyra didn't like me, but she wasn't going out of her way to include me in anything, or avoid me.

"Oh my gosh, who trashed it, come on, let's go trash them," she said, I was a little more happy to hear that, I guess she wasn't as against me as I thought, although she could've been just caring about her own property.

"I don't know, that's what Flash was going to work out."

"Oh, him," she said, looking towards him with a disapproving look, he just smiled back.

"Always nice to see you to Lyra..." he replied, as the doors to the elevator opened, Bulk Biceps was standing there, wearing his full suit. He was smiling as usual, although, I didn't see him too often, "hey Biceps," Flash said, stepping into the elevator and standing in a corner.

"Hey," I said to the behemoth of a person, he easily stood above me by at least a foot, "just take me to the ground floor, I guess," I said walking in, "I'm gonna get some food before I decide where to go."

"Same here, and good evening Biceps," Lyra said, stepping into the elevator, easily standing a good 10 feet away from Flash in the opposite corner, the elevator was massive, some of the much higher floors could technically get a car to their floor and back with little trouble, assuming they had permission.

"Yeah, food." Bulk said, he wasn't exactly a soft looking person, or sounding, but if he is anything it's a soft kind guy inside, while initially some of the people in the building were scared of him, they all soon came to know him, and really like him now. "So, how's is everyone?" he said, noticing the tension so starting some conversation.

"I'm good," I said, "room, however, not so much, I'm probably going to go see Mr Greg and tell him that my room needs a complete remake."

"Oh, you know, people seem to be thinking bad of you, and I don't hold opinions of others very heavily unless you hurt me or my family, so whether the rumors are true or not, I couldn't care," he said, that was one of the few times I've heard him talk for that long continuously, he isn't really a talker. "Anyway," he said, as the doors opened, "here we are, ground floor, see you later," he said.

"Thanks, and enjoy your night, as best you can, bye," I said, waving as I walked away from the elevator, to both Flash and Biceps, Lyra walked next to before turning off towards the front door. Alright, now to the staff room. I walked to the staff room and knocked on the door before rolling back and forth on my feet, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, and reached in to grab it, it was from that Info Broken guy, it read 'so, it's about time I tell you who I am, after all, it's been 12 hours since my job was done. I am Info, at least to you I am, I gather rumours and the likes, find out what is true, and sell it on, I also sell on other things, such as things that could be used for blackmail, and items which could be useful. Of course, as they do, so may you use my services, for a sum, and you may deny a service if someone tries to use it one you, by increasing the price.' Okay, so now not only do I have some guy who raided my apartment and spread rumours, but I have this guy asking for money in return for help, brilliant. The door in front of me opened finally, and Mr Greg was standing there.

"Hello Ms Shimmer, what brings you here at this time?" he asked.

"Just a message today, could you tell whoever it concerns that my apartment was trashed so hard I can't live there and that I can pay for any costs necessary, and will find my own accommodation until required."

"Certainly, is that all?" he asked.

"Yep, thank you, actually, no, no, that's everything," I said debating whether I should tell him about the hack, but deciding against it as I know little to nothing about it.

"Alright, well, hopefully, you can find a way to have a good night, and if not, I'm sure we can find an empty room for now."

"Thanks, but I'm going to just walk around to Principal Luna's, I'm sure she won't mind too much."

"Oh no, you're not, I will not let you walk in this weather, come with me," he said, leading me to the staff door out through the staff room to the back of the building.

"Staff Only Greg," one of them said as we passed.

"Her room got trashed while she was out and she needs to go somewhere and it's raining. Tell me again that it's staff only." Mr Greg said, standing up for me, in my position of weakness.

"Fine, but don't make it a habit." the other man said, to which Mr Greg replied only by walking through silently, and I followed suit. He pushed open the door to the back of the building so we were looking out over a small courtyard I didn't even know existed, it was surrounded by hedges, and presumably the staff's cars. Looking at them, there were sports cars, big cars, small cars, and a van, knowing Mr Greg, the van was his. He started to walk away, towards the van. So he does own the van, nice, it's a nice looking van and all.

"Come on, we'll be there quickly," he said, getting into the large van, it was mostly a very pale blue, with white and yellow designs on it. It looked old, and very much used, yet still in a good condition in the interior, it looked pristine in fact. Everything about it was top condition, from the leather seats, to the wooden dashboard, to the red silk steering wheel.

"How did you afford this thing, it looks expensive s anything," I said, still amazed by the comfort of this worn looking van.

"This van has been with me for many a long year, trust me when I say this has memories." he said, starting the engine, "not all good, but they are memories... Let's go then," he said, pressing his foot down, the van going at a more moderate pace compared to Luna's sports car. It was much calmer too, I could actually sit back, and not be thrown back. "This thing used to have writing on it, I was thinking about getting it repainted, probably not with the same thing, but with something."

"Oh, what did it used to say?" I asked, partially trying to pass the time, partially interested.

"Oh, it was something stupid like 'I am the ruler, but you can call me Greg.' I believe, was years ago, though."

I giggled a bit at that response, both because it was stupid, and because I couldn't see Mr Greg having that written on a van, "that's brilliant, I love it," I replied. "Stupid, but brilliant."

"Thanks, I dunno, I liked it and all, but I wouldn't get it again now," he said, smiling. "Those were good days, though."

I looked out the window remembering the days I spent back in Canterlot, in Equestria, "I know the feeling," and I wasn't lying, often I wished I could go back there, but this is my home now.

"Huh, well, no point looking back on something and wishing to change the past, the past was good but this life is mine now, and I enjoy it," and to that, I agree, nodding in agreement, "well, anyway, here we are, I'll look over that security footage when I get back, so come see me in the morning, I'll be in the staff room until 8, then I'm off, so I'll leave any findings on my desk after that," he said, Friday was his one day off, so it was nice he was willing to come in in the first place, usually I wouldn't see him on Fridays.

"Alright, thank you very much," I replied, pushing the door open, "I'll see you later then, bye," getting out of the van, I waved to him while walking down the front yard of the principal's massive house, presumably, Celestia would still be out. I rang the doorbell on the front, and it sounded a short jingle through the house. I heard someone walking through the house opening all of the doors, and then I saw Luna through the glass on the door. She opened the door, and immediately stepped back, "hey," I said, as Mr Greg drove off behind me.

"Hello Sunset, I wasn't expecting to see you back here so soon," the principal said, "actually I wasn't expecting to see you until tomorrow."

"I know, I wasn't planning to come back here, but I went back to my apartment and it was trashed, to the point that I couldn't sleep in it if I tried, so I was wondering if I could stay here for a night or two? Just until I find somewhere else to stay or my room is cleaned." I asked, knowing that would be unlikely, but expecting in part Luna to help me.

"Sure, you can stay here a day or two, but you'll have to sleep on the sofa," she said, being surprisingly open to the idea, "in you come, it's chucking it down out there, come on," she said. I stepped just inside the door and she quickly closed it behind me, the house was much warmer than outside, and I'd only walked a short few feet from the van to the door, but already I was soaked right through, and I didn't have anything to wear either, since all of my clothed were wrecked. "Right, let me get you a towel and a blanket and pillow for whenever you choose to turn in," she said, disappearing upstairs, I quickly opened my bag and grabbed my book, it was completely dry still, somehow, and surprisingly enough, so were my other things, despite how heavily it was raining out there and how destroyed all of my school things got last time it rained that badly. I pulled my bag off and tossed it into the corner of the entryway, against the nearest radiator.

"Alright, here you go," the principal said, tossing me a towel, "dry yourself off and follow me," she said, still holding a thick dark blue blanket and a pillow of matching colour in her arms. She stepped through the door, I started rubbing my hair as dry as I could with a towel and followed shortly after her. "Here, you can sleep in here, I won't come in again after now, so you can get changed into a different set of clothes or whatever," she continued, opening the door to the living room, with its TV and massive sofa.

"Alright, thank you, I'll probably just put these clothes on a radiator and sleep in my underwear I guess, so that's good to know," I said, sitting on the sofa, turning on the TV and flicking through the channels.

"Alright, well, make yourself at home, and I'll see you in the morning I guess, make sure you're up in time for school and I can give you a lift if you want. Good night."

"Thanks, Luna, for letting me stay and for talking with me earlier, it really helped," I said, noticing my phone screen light up.

"No problem at all Sunset," she said, closing the door as she left. I quickly grabbed my phone and checked the message, it was from that info guy, right, what's this about.

'Hello, Sunset, so, as I said, I sell information, as well as many, many other items or services, of course, I can also offer a counter to them, for a price, but my client's names are never revealed.'

Huh, well, might as well see what this guy is up too. 'alright, so it's you who has been messing with me?' I replied.

'Me? Ha, I don't care to attack people, I simply get paid to help people with things, I do something, they pay me, I forget about it.'

'So what sort of things can you do? What are your limits?' I sent back.

'Well, I do hacking, photo editing and stalking commonly, as well as selling physical things on school grounds. I also can lockpick and pickpocket, but both are a bit personal for my liking. Anyway, as for why I contacted you now. Someone else, another of my clients, is paying me a large sum of money to do something to you, and since this payment was not privatised, and is so large, you now know they tried this. Therefore, if you wish to block this hit, just out pay their $54.'

'$55, block it' I replied.

'Please confirm, you wish to pay $55 to me, and in the case that your block is not out paid again, it will be deducted from your account.'

'Correct, block it.' I replied. Knowing those fifty-five dollars were approximately a tenth of a bit.

'Done, the other client has been notified of your block.'

I was alright with this. Hopefully, it was something big. He messaged me again, 'The other person did not go higher, your $55 has been removed, and you have just blocked a 1 patch phone camera hack, which is estimated to have lasted 3 weeks if it was allowed in.'

This makes it feel worth it, having stopped them from getting into my phone camera, I decided it was time to turn in and I'd deal with him in the morning. I quickly took off my soaked outdoor clothing, stripping down to just my underwear and tossed I it on the radiator, before lying down and placing my phone on the side, it is nice to know my phone isn't hacked, but I still wonder about the laptop. Aww well, I suppose I will deal with it in the future.

Another message, from that other person, 3qkn0. 'Block all you want. This is only the beginning.' Maybe it is, but for now, I'm one step ahead.

I lay back, drifting quickly off to sleep, barely worrying about anything, I find myself sleeping within seconds.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading this, assuming you made it this far, you probably at least like it as a concept, any constructive criticism would be much appreciated, as would a like if you liked it. This is the first chapter in my first story, so I am completely planning on learning and improving my writing skills as this fic develops.

Also if you don't mind, help me out here, spot an error that I missed and let me know in the comments or with a DM please, I'll correct it as soon as possible. I do pre-read, then Grammarly scan, then re-read, but I still seem to miss obvious things.

Anyway, I'll leave you with a quick question, who's problems do you want to see next? Because all of the Humane 7 are having some sort of problems.