Sunset blocked a right hook from an ODST within her palm. She burnt away most of the fibers on the surface, causing him to roar in pain. Using her second of defenselessness, she grabbed his hand, then forcibly snapped his wrist.

C-C-C-Craaacccckkk.

Sunset backhanded the ODST with her other hand and huffed angrily. Flames licked up off of her body, she seemingly unharmed. The VDFMC Corporal walked past the corpse and grabbed the handle of the large, thick, steel door and pulled it right open...

` She wasn't satisfied with the results to say the least.

Equestria, Past.

Sunset looked into the mirror before she jumped. For a split second, she saw a bipedal creature, wearing thin white armor over a black suit, one of her arms and legs missing. The eyes are what made Sunset hesitate... That's because they were hers, and they were broken. She saw in those eyes something vicious. She saw pure, unbridled rage... and sadness, and fear, and so many other emotions...

Sunset turned to face Celestia one last time, a few tears in her eyes. This would be the last time she saw Celestia. Her teacher. Her mentor... In a way, her surrogate mother. She wanted to make Celestia proud... but she let her ego get the best of her, once a-bucking-gain. Now, she was exiled. to some strange world she knew near nothing about...

Sweet bucking Celestia, what was she doing? Sunset wanted the power. She was going to get the power... but really, is that what she wanted? What about a fresh slate? Perhaps she could just go through, starting anew... Sunset let out a sigh, her emotions fueling her actions.

"Goodbye, princess..." She made sure Celestia hadn't a second to respond, and thrust herself into the portal.

***

Sunset groaned. Her muscles burned, her head hurt... she felt miserable... and younger, too. She looked down.

Her body was that of a mere child, wearing rags at that. Sunset wanted to move, but couldn't. Every bone and muscle in her new body throbbed with pain. She was on the ground, in a patch of grass. Sunset tried turning onto her back, going as far as her side, and was met with the face of a boy, her age, in a thick metal bodysuit. His hair was darkish, a shade of blue, that went lighter toward the base.

"W-Where-Who-Wha—" the boy placed one of his fingers to her lips, then helped her into a sitting position.

"Are you hungry?" Sunset waited and thought about it a moment. She was hungry. She shook her head.

"I-I'll be fine..." she whispered. Oh Celestia, what was she doing? Sunset looked at the black brick in the boy's lap.

"W-What's that?" she asked, pointing to the brick. He picked it up with relative ease and hefted it.

"A Model-Seven-SOCOM Sub-machine Gun. I just call it the Suppressed SMG." he replied. Sunset shook her head again.

"What is it?" she asked. The boy furrowed his brow.

"A gun. A fully-automatic gun, to be precise..." he replied, anger plaguing his voice. Sunset nodded wearily and curled up into a ball.

"Get your rest... it's gonna be a long few hours... I'm Flash, by the way."

"I'm Sunset."

Eighty Minutes Prior, Current Day.

Sunset charged into the main complex of the old communications center. Empty. She looked around the room.

The room itself was large, with a plentiful amount of computers, tables, and other sorts of tech in the bottom section, whilst two staircases flanked either side of the room, leading up to a large balcony, where an AIE-486H Heavy Machine Gun was stationed, along with sandbag and metal blockades. She felt the floor beneath her begin to scorch, and moved on.

Sunset moved to the left, climbing up the flight of stairs. They, like everything else, was made of concrete and metal. She reached the top and saw a few corpses of UNSC soldiers. Inexplicable rage fueling through her... She tried shaking her head of the thought, it taking a few minutes for her to even rid the thoughts from her mind. Sunset was finding it seemingly harder to think. Coherent, Cognitive thoughts. All she saw was red, and all she wanted to do was kill. Sunset wanted to save Twilight. Not cripple the UNSC's force here... mayhaps it was the... thing that was plaguing her mind... that was likely.

"You don't give me enough credit, Sunset... I'm a lot more than just a thing..." Sunset spun on her heel, and saw static fill her vision. She pulled her helmet off.

Standing before her, was a creature with a blue-purple color scheme, with large, feathered wings sprouting out of her back, a glowing horn made of pure light upon her forehead, two forms of cyan magic creating 'Glasses' over her eyes. She snaked over to Sunset, looking down at her.

"What the fuck even are you...?" Sunset made sure she was always facing this thing. She was not going to be stabbed in the back. Literally.

"I am just a figment of your imagination..." she picked up a corpse by the throat, gently. She tightened her hand into a fist around their neck and the body exploded. Blood splashed onto Sunset, it taking a lot of strength to keep herself from throwing up.

"... Or am I?" the... humanoid creature laughed maniacally, before disintegrating into dust.

"I'll be seeing you in your dreams, Sunny..." Sunset shook her head and blinked several times. The bodies were all accounted for on the floor. There was not a drop of blood upon her body. Only scars, burns and wounds. Like always.

Sunset turned to the left and pushed through a pair of double doors. She grabbed each of the UNSC marines guarding the door from that side, and quickly snapped each of their necks, then threw their bodies to the floor.

She quickly ducked down and ran forward, weaving through a torrent of gunfire that came at her downrange. The bullets seemed to slow, SPARTAN time taking effect. She ran along the wall, her shields taking the brunt of the gunfire, then dropped down, kicking the gunner's head into the wall. His visor and helmet shattered, a splatter of blood running along the wall, chunks of brain and skull joining in.

Sunset ripped the M7 from the sling on his body, and sent a sea of five-millimeter rounds downrange, turning anything in her sight to ribbons.

She quickly spun around and used the barrel of the weapon to block a slash from a large sword.

Standing before her, was a SPARTAN-II. His armor was either Mark IV or V, with an EOD helmet atop his head, a katana clasped in his hands. He had 005 in bold font on his left breastplate, the white paint missing in a few places.

"You're dead..." she said, pushing him off, getting into combat stance. The SPARTAN shook his head and smirked behind his helmet.

"Negative... I ain't dead yet." He sprinted forward and pulled off a series of punches and kicks, Sunset poorly either blocking or countering. While the VDF gave their soldiers the training and augmentation, the SPARTANs were always superior. Their minds were more honed. Stronger. They were always stronger.

Sunset took a blow to the helmet visor, and it shattered, along with her energy shields. She swore under her breath and stumbled back. SPARTAN-005 thrust his knife into Sunset's shoulder, right under her left arm, where the internal control was set up, taking away her advantage.

"C'mon, fucker. If you're gonna kill me, FUCKING DO IT! Don't pussy out!" Sunset watched him pull out his pistol, so she grabbed the barrel and placed it to her own forehead.

"C'MON! PULL THE FUCKING TRIGGER!" Sunset all-but-screamed. The SPARTAN smirked, then stopped as he heard a rifle click behind him. He spun around, then was sent staggering back by a blast from an M90, and through a window. Sunset got up, holding her limp arm. The cloaked figure that'd shot 005 was long gone, the only evidence a used Eight-Gauge Soellkraft shell.

Sunset looked out the window. SPARTAN-005 was gone... for now, at least. Sunset removed his knife from her shoulder. The flames were gone. She had officially calmed down enough.

Sunset twirled the knife, then moved on. She passed through a large, open corridor the UNSC force had been using as storage. She hurdled a crate and slid down the railing of a spiral staircase. She readied her stolen M7 as she was about to reach the bottom, and ground to a halt, firing sporadically at the UNSC personnel on the bottom floor. She ducked behind a crate for cover, poking out only to fire, when she heard a whistle, and saw a grenade land on the ground beside her. Instead of throwing it back, she climbed out of cover and rushed forward, blade drawn.

She saw Twilight pounding on a metal door behind a very bulky ODST wielding knives. She went back into unbridled rage. Sunset lunged forward, knife clashing with knives, over and over for hours, until it became the ultimate stalemate. Who would falter first, was the real question. Sunset specialized in combat with blades and CQC generally. She had a special liking for shotguns. Whenever she was in the inside of a ship on full-combat status, a shotgun in her grasp, she got antsy. That was what she called fun.

Sunset changed into a backward grip with her knife, slicing at the Helljumper's abdomen. He roared angrily and thrust a knife into Sunset's bad shoulder. She growled and pushed off of him, spun, used her thrusters and propelled herself off of a wall, and down onto the Helljumper. She plunged her knife into his temple, ending all brain activity. His muscles relaxed, and he went limp. Sunset ripped off his helmet, looking away from his eyes. She shut them out of respect.

"Good girl... Never look the dead in the eyes..." Sunset ignored her and walked over to the door. She heard quick footsteps, and saw another Helljumper running up to her with a piece of rebar.

Sunset backhanded the ODST with her other hand and huffed angrily. Flames licked up off of her body, she seemingly unharmed. The VDFMC Corporal walked past the corpse and grabbed the handle of the large, thick, steel door and pulled it right open.

Twilight was lying on the floor, hands bound to her back, legs bound as well. She had a bloody lip, black eye, and many other bruises, possibly a broken leg. Sunset scooped Twilight up into a bridal carry and looked around for her dog. He was lying in a cage off to the left. Sunset walked over.

"This might hurt... get back..." She didn't know why, or hell, even how he heard her, but he did, and she kicked then cage door, causing it to break. The dog squeezed through the small hole and hopped up onto Twilight's lap. Sunset carried them, barely able to find any use with her left arm beside.

Sunset laid Twilight down, who'd recently regained consciousness, whining at the sight of dead bodies, vomiting twice. Sunset saw Flash, then quickly sprinted over, whispering "no" over and over, and over, and over again...

Blood was pooling around him, and his skin was pale.

"Shit, Flash..." she knelt down beside him, trying to rouse him, checking his vitals. He was barely alive. Sunset felt tears in her eyes, but ignored it, trying to wake her friend.

"Flash! Wake the fuck up! C'mon, we need to go... C'mon..." Flash's eyelids cracked apart, his pale blue eyes looking up into Sunset's. He coughed up blood and leaned his head back.

"I'm... I'm not going anywhere, Sunset... T-This... This is... it..." He coughed up more blood, and Sunset was on the brink of sobbing. She held it back, trying to get Flash onto his feet. She got as far to pulling him up, only for him to collapse onto his back. Flash grabbed Sunset's hand. He pulled out a small data pad and weakly placed it to Sunset's.

Ding!

"Verification successful."

Sunset shook her head.

"N-No, you can't do this to me, Flash Sentry... you're gonna get your ass up, and we're going to get you help, you understand?!" Sunset was crying at this point, unable to hold back her emotions. Flash pulled Sunset down and kissed her on the cheek.

"You've been good to me, Sunny... make sure..." Flash never finished his sentence as the light soon faded from his eyes, and his hand went limp. Sunset just knelt beside him and cried for hours...

He was gone. Truly gone...

And Sunset was alone again.

Author's Note

Oh no, he's dead... whatever shall I do...

A/N: These last two chapters were split up into two, that's why they were shorter than normal.

Hope you all enjoyed.