Author's Note

Sorry this is coming so late. A lot has been going on and I'm starting to think I'm practically burned out for this year and maybe I should wait to recharge for 2018. But I wanted to get something out before the year ends so I hope this makes up for the long wait.

Crazy Bitch

???

Three weeks. If Starlight’s calculations were correct, she had been trapped in her prison, wherever that was, for about three weeks now. She should’ve been dead by now and admittedly, she wished her body would just give out on her but part of her was too determined (or stubborn) to give up. Chrysalis was certain that her plan would succeed, and Starlight was more than willing to wait and see it blow up in her face.

When she first woke up in her current prison, which she guessed was somewhere underground but couldn’t pinpoint where exactly, she found her limbs and horn were encased in the same material that the queen’s former throne consisted of. Guess the queen had some left over, she had thought bitterly. Her magic was canceled out and she couldn’t move her front or hind legs at all.

And of course it was at that point that Chrysalis showed herself, grinning maniacally and enjoying the scene before her before bragging about her “greatest plan” had come to fruition. She had felt no need to keep anything concealed as she explained about her human counterpart who managed to blend in without any incident. The situation was dire and anyone else would have given up and accepted their fate, but Starlight wasn’t going to give up on her friends. Eventually someone was going to figure things out and she was putting money on Sunset since she had the ability to read people’s thoughts (even if her counterpart knew that fact, avoiding Sunset’s touch would raise suspicions as well).

As Starlight soon found out, Chrysalis wasn’t the only rogue changeling. She didn’t go into details, but Starlight suspected there had to be another hive somewhere in Equestria and since these changelings weren’t affected by the power of giving love, they were still loyal to her every word. Now she was their source of food. In a sick twisted way that would’ve impressed the old Starlight, she was fed things that most ponies would’ve died for (how the changelings managed to steal all this food Starlight had no idea) and would ultimately be drained of her love. Again, she could’ve refused to eat and eventually would die of starvation but she wasn’t going to give Chrysalis the pleasure of doing that and, despite everything, she wasn’t willing to see these changelings starve.

Today would be like any other day. Eventually a guard would bring her food and practically spoon feed it to her. After a short while, a group of them would come and “feast” on her, leaving her mostly drained until being fed about six hours. The constant cycle of eating and being drained was wearing her down more than she would’ve liked and she could only imagine Chrysalis was enjoying every moment of it.

Much to her surprise, the former queen was the first to greet her this morning. Compared to when Starlight last saw her, Chrysalis looked more her regal self. No doubt consuming Starlight’s love had been enough to restore her strength and apparently some of her sanity. “Good morning,” she said quite happily. “Did we sleep well?”

“Oh yes,” Starlight scoffed. “A wonderful two hours…”

“Only two? Hmm, if that keeps up, that will affect my subjects’ future meals,” Chrysalis said with slight amusement. “I suppose if worst comes to worst I can just knock you out with a simple sleeping spell.”

“Alright Chrysalis, I’ve been patient up to this point but I need to know, how is this going to end?” Starlight asked. “You’re just going to keep me here and use me as a food bank?”

“Ah, so that’s what you think this is?” Chrysalis hissed in delight. “Well, you’re not wrong, you’ve been a valuable resource for us but your contributions aren’t being wasted. I already have plans, plans that involve your friends of course.”

“Gee, don’t tell me it’s kidnapping,” Starlight said, rolling her eyes. “That worked out so well the last time.”

“I will ignore that jab, considering your lack of sleep, but no it’s much more than that. In fact, your friends will be the ones doing most of the work, getting rid of those princesses once and for all.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’ll have to excuse my absence of late; I’ve been running a few errands. Your friends seem to be in good spirit I must say.”

Starlight felt her heart jump. “What did you-!?”

“Oh don’t worry, I didn’t lay a hoof on them…actually that’s a lie I did but I assure they’re quite fine…for now at least. Tell me Starlight, you’re an expert on dark magic right?” Starlight turning her head was enough of an answer for her. “I must say, knowing how to remove one’s cutie mark is very advanced magic. But I have no wish to strip ponies of what makes them happy, so I’ve come up with a better idea, one that I admit your counterpart inspired me with.”

Starlight felt her blood run cold. “No…you can’t…that’s a spell that even I would not have dared use!”

“And why not, worried that you would be replaced?” Chrysalis sneered. “But imagine, the Elements of Harmony bowing to my will. A force that none of the princesses could possibly be able to stand up to.”

“Even if you did manage to create clones of them, they won’t have the power of the Elements,” Starlight said.

“Oh, I will find a way around that, don’t you worry,” Chrysalis said. “I’m in no rush; I’m quite enjoying all this, despite the circumstances. I’m afraid we’ll have to cut this short still so much to do.”

“Chrysalis, don’t do this. Dark magic like that is unpredictable! You could end up destroying everything!” But Chrysalis was already gone and Starlight was left there with dread slowly filling her thoughts.

Outside Canterlot

Beyond Canterlot spanned miles and miles of flat highway and not much else between Canterlot and Manehattan. A 2005 Acura NSX was currently speeding close to a hundred miles an hour, despite the speed limit sign specifically saying sixty-five but the driver either didn’t see the sign or didn’t care. For Sunset Shimmer, it was usually the latter.

There was hardly ever anyone on this road since the freeway was a quicker way to get into the city but she didn’t feel like dealing with traffic. A lot was on her mind and nothing soothed her better than cruising down an open road in her car. Sunset took a quick puff of her lit cigarette as she glanced out the window through her thick sunglasses while the radio blasted music.

It had been a long time since she last stepped in Canterlot. She had thought that she had been forgotten after all this time, but apparently that wasn’t the case now. Sunset knew she didn’t have any siblings, especially a twin sister. But she saw her exact self in that picture and no one, no one, could look exactly like her, not even with plastic surgery or the like.

Sunset had to ease her foot off the gas slightly as the thought was making her now go over a hundred. The stress was getting to her, especially since she had already gone through half a carton of cigarettes in one morning. Guess I’ll have to make a pit stop.

She wasn’t always like this. Years ago, Sunset was the perfect model of a successful student and part of a wealthy family. Everything was perfect back then, at least until the night of the accident. Sunset was fifteen and in the backseat of the family’s luxury sedan as they were coming back from a movie. It was in the middle of winter, meaning darkness fell earlier in the night and one always had to keep an eye on the roads even if there wasn’t snow on the ground.

It was right at the turn that the accident happened. Another car was speeding and presumably lost traction on the road and slammed right into the front of their sedan. The windshield smashed completely; Sunset could still recall being showered with glass. The sounds could be recalled as well: glass smashing, metal crunching and even her own screaming.

The last thing she could recall was the ringing sound in her ears from her head hitting the back of her seat hard due to whiplash before she blacked out. When she finally came to, she was being pulled out of the car by paramedics. The ringing was still in her ears but she was able to hear herself as she asked where her parents were. Their silence was enough of an answer and it was at that moment when she went into shock. Everything had changed that day…

Sunset took another puff from her cigarette before tossing the butt outside the window. The innocent girl she was died that day. Depression set in and so at a young age she turned to drugs and alcohol. She knew her mother would’ve been both heartbroken and disgusted to see how she turned out now but it was, at least to her, a coping mechanism for her, even if it was going to kill her one of these days.

Sunset didn’t have any immediate family that could take her in (Sunset knew there were but none of them apparently wanted anything to do with her; her parents were the only decent people in her family it seemed) and suddenly she went from the rich girl to the foster child. Technically, she had money to her name but she wouldn’t be able to access it until she turned eighteen. Money wasn’t an issue with her but attachments were. She went through three different foster families and she was returned to the system each time and eventually once she turned eighteen she managed to get a hold of the money in her name and left the system completely.

It wasn’t easy to live on her own: she managed to afford a decent apartment in the middle of Canterlot of all places for awhile but eventually the costs caught up to her. It wasn’t long before she had to give up her lease and save what little money she had left. That was when ‘Ol’ Dusty’ came in.

Dusty wasn’t a name most regular folk knew, but the criminal underworld and almost all law enforcement certainly did. Dusty had his own little empire but it wasn’t through a corporation, through drugs or even weapons. No, Dusty’s organization consisted of people who were the best of the best at what they did and the occupations varied from hacking into bank accounts to what Sunset did best, which was running the table in major card games.

She was very good at reading people, noticing every little tick that occurred when one had a good hand or a bad hand. In poker, it was common to raise bets significantly to scare other players into folding while the bluffer slowly earned more and more money. Sunset could notice a bluff a mile away and had challenged in plenty of rounds, always coming out victorious.

But she wasn’t stupid. Winning games repeatedly drew a lot of attention from the staff so she would purposely lose a certain amount of money to reassure them it was just a stroke of luck. Once she got to the target amount, she’d leave and cash in her chips for the day.

It was this that caught Dusty’s attention. The two ended up meeting face to face one night after Sunset had another big night. He was very polite and while Sunset was on edge, she decided to hear the man out. He’d been paying very close attention to her the past couple days and he wanted her as part of his crew. Naturally, Sunset was suspicious and told the man she was fine as is. Dusty in return warned her that she was getting a lot of attention from other groups, including the many casinos she had attended and that put a target on her back. However, no one messed with Dusty so in a way he could grant her immunity. That and he could offer up much better living spaces than what she had now.

Thinking back on it, she realized how naïve she had been. It was too good of a deal to refuse but she should’ve done exactly that. Maybe he would’ve left her alone after that, maybe not. Now she was number one on his shit list.

The majority of the money that came in went to Dusty himself. He didn’t actually use much of it but said it was “insurance” in case of emergencies. However, a certain percentage was given to everyone to use as they liked; after all, they were getting free room and board so it wasn’t a bad tradeoff. Unfortunately, Sunset got greedy.

Instead of putting the money asked into Dusty’s account, Sunset kept her winnings for herself. The amount she had won guaranteed a luxury lifestyle for a number of years. Not only that, but she was getting tired of being someone’s worker. What Sunset didn’t realize was that once you got into Dusty’s business, you don’t get out.

Sunset knew she’d have company at The Golden Apple and she knew what happened then guaranteed how fucked she was. Of course, this just happened to coincide with the revelation that someone was impersonating her. She still wasn’t sure why.

Her stomach started to growl and as she looked down she saw she was starting to run low on fuel. Luckily, there was a gas station in about five miles and she finally eased down to the speed limit since she knew she was approaching the city limits.

She soon pulled up to the empty station and started filling up as she went inside the small store. She picked up a bottle of juice as well as a sandwich and a honey bun as she heard a small ding that signaled someone had just come in. The cashier up front looked like he wanted to be elsewhere but at least smiled when she came up to the front.

“That everything?” he asked as he scanned her items.

“Yeah.”

“Whoa, is that your ride outside?” Sunset glanced at the tall man who apparently just came inside. “That must’ve cost you a penny or two. Very good condition too. How much did you pay?”

“How about none of your damn business?” Sunset replied sweetly.

“Easy girl, just curious,” the man shrugged. “But I have to admit, the car says a lot about you, a lot of things I like.”

Sunset knew where this was going but decided to play along even as she rolled her eyes. “That I have a better taste in cars than you do?”

“Yow, so feisty…I do like to see that in women.” He went up to her slowly and reached out his hand. Sunset suddenly grabbed his wrist and pulled him forward, only to send him onto his butt with a hard fist to his face. The man cried out in pain as blood leaked from his nose as he covered his face in agony.

“You know, you really need to work on your pick up lines,” Sunset said as she took out her wallet. She then looked to the cashier. “How much is all this?”

The cashier gulped slightly. “Um…$8.47.”

She then pulled out a ten. “Keep the change, I’m sure you put up with this shit everyday.” She grabbed the small bag and went towards the door, only to stop as she heard the man continuing to groan. She then walked back over and pulled out a twenty and threw it at his feet. “You’re probably gonna need that for the doctor.”

“You crazy bitch!” the man suddenly snapped as she went towards the door. “You’re fucking crazy!”

She paused again as the automatic doors opened for her. “Yeah…I get that a lot.” She then got back into her car and opened the bottle of juice, downing it all in a matter of seconds. She then took a bite of her sandwich as she started the engine and roared out of the station back onto the highway.