Chapters Chapter 2 - Escape And Shelter
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. Chapter 3 - Staying For The Night
Applejack got Sunset to her house quickly, and her family saw her with a limping Sunset. Applebloom stood back as Granny Smith and Big Mac tried to get her to lay down on the sofa, but Sunset waved them off to hold a moment and pointed at her stomach.
What they saw terrified them as Sunset pointed to a small metal pike sticking out of her. Their terrified looks became one of shock when Sunset grabbed hold of it. Big Mac tried to stop her but ended up too late as she quickly yanked it out of her like it was nothing.
Sunset just grunts from doing that, for sure she was very used to such levels of pain over the recent years, like a tough girl she is. She looks at the piece before tossing it away pike away before she sat herself down on the sofa while holding her wound.
"What the hay, Sunset?!" Applejack asked in a mix of mad and worried. "Ya' just going to make yourself bleed faster!"
Sunset only grinned and snorted at her reaction, still seeing her RIG is already turned red. "What, this? Compared all to what's happened to me, I've had worse."
"What's worse than that?" Big Mac asked curiously and worried.
"Survived from a fall from orbit," Sunset retorted, seriously. "How does that sound?"
They were speechless to her answer. "That's...... bizarre...." was all Big Mac can say.
"And what are ya' wearing actually?" Applebloom asked, fascinated by the design of the of her suit.
"It's a space suit, a military soldier suit that I customized myself," Sunset then huffed to herself. "That's a bit ironic though."
"Huh?" Applejack didn't understand what she meant. "What do ya' mean?"
"I'm actually a ship systems engineer," Sunset replied, which surprised the Apples. "When I left, Isaac out there found me right where I appeared, and he helped me getting an apprenticeship under him to be a ship engineer, worked for a mining company called Concordance Extraction Corporation. CEC for short for a while."
Kind of odd for Applejack to know that Sunset is an engineer now for a mining company. Applejack herself could do some engineering stuff too, but she didn't think it was on the same level as the job Sunset had now and was likely would not suit her well for it. But now because she just became an engineer, well fuck that. Applejack and the Apples then reminded about her wound again before she's going to bleed out.
"Sunset, could you open the suit?" Granny Smith asked. "So we can try to heal the wound."
"Sure thing, but first," Sunset answered, and lifted her left hand up and a floating blue light emerges from her hand. The Apples were taken back at the sudden floating screen. It reminded them of a TV as they watched Sunset used her finger to swipe some images around and watch her become annoyed with her voice confirming it when she spoke next. "Crap, only one med pack and it's a small one too, damn should have asked Isaac and Carver for some before leaving. Oh well, it'll due." Sunset said before pressing a few more commands and visibly sighed in relief as the cyan gel began to fill her body, stabilizing her condition and healed some of the smaller wounds. Also to Applejack's wonder the light on her back went from red to an orange color.
Applejack was about to ask what she did when sunset got off the couch and proceed to take off her suit....... on site.
"Woah there!" Applejack said quickly, worrying her sister would see something she should not see. "You should-"
"I'm also wearing clothes underneath this suit," Sunset replied quickly, cutting off her sentence. "Don't worry about it." She assured with a small smile. Applejack sighed in relief as well as the other two older Apples much to the confusion of the younger Apple before it hit her.
"Hey, I've seen girls naked before!" Proclaimed the Applebloom. Only to cover her mouth in shock realization of what she blurted out in front of her family. Making everyone look at the young Apple with different stages of embarrassment.
Then the Apple's heard a crackle, looking at the source they saw Sunset was looking at them with an honest smile before realizing what she did and looked away, "Sorry, it's just, nevermind..."
Sunset then proceeded to unclamp her soldier suit. The first thing she did was re-engaged her helmet. The Applejack may have seen it before but even seeing it the second time she was still in awe of the technology in front of her. The other Apples were also in awe at the display with Applebloom forgetting her earlier embarrassment and looked on in wonder. She reached out to her side her hands under her chin and around the sides of her neck and pulled on a pair of clips. Undoing the seals and releasing the headpiece from her. She'd set it down on the coffee table in front of her before reaching to her side and pulled out the futurist weapon Applejack saw earlier and sat it down on the table.
From there Applejack got a better view of it, it reminded her of the Star Wars movies the way most of it looked but also looked like two weapons in one. "What is that, Sunset? Saw you had that earlier and I know a weapon when I see it." Applejack asked. Making the other Apples take a step back with multiple questions that they kept to themselves in wonder why she had that. Sunset paused her actions and gave the farmer her answer.
"That right there is actually two weapons," Sunset said casually further shocking the Apples while the bacon hair women explained. "This is my primary weapon for most of what I had to face to survive were I came from. The top one is a "Pulse Rifle," think of it an assault rifle like you see in a video game." Getting a nod of understanding in the room. "The bottom one is called a "Contact Beam," an easy way to describe it is a small cannon that one shot's anything I point it at with a huge kinetic discharge. I called these combined weapons as The Thunder Strike" She explained before pulling out another weapon, "And this little baby is my custom plasma cutter, worked on it myself and works similar to what you used a pistol in close quarters situations."
Sunset placed both weapons next to her helmet while ignoring everyone's looks and pulled out something else that no one was expecting. A brown book with a red and yellow sun symbol which struck a cord within Applejack, reminding her of her dreams.
Sunset then proceeds on with taking off her soldier suit, reaching to her side she pressed down and un-dew the clamps and let the chest portion of the suit hung loosely. The rest begins to slip off in one big one-piece.
Hanging it limply in her hands, Sunset took a look at her suit on some of the scratches that were in some places as memories of close encounters cloud her mind for a moment. She then puts her suit lays it down next to the sofa before flopping down on the couch, exhausted from the recent battles she'd fought.
Applejack saw the clothing Sunset wore underneath her suit, It was her signature black leather jacket she'd wore back in school, but it has been modified a little with some sort of the device on the back of her jacket like her soldier suit has, and underneath her jacket was her dark grey shirt, and she has brown pants.
Then, suddenly a nurse and a doctor came in the thought the front door and looked to where Sunset was sitting. It was Nurse Redheart and Doctor Whooves and to were by Sunsets side looking over her for injuries. After a few seconds of the Doctor looking her over, he noticed something. "I was told you had something sticking out of you, where is it?"
"It's right there," Sunset said to the Doctor as she pointed at the small metal pike on the table. "It wasn't that deep in me, maybe around an inch or so it didn't damage anything important."
The nurse and Doctor looked at Sunset like she was out of her mind. "Are you crazy?!" Shouted Redheart.
"Jury is still out on that one, I'll call yea when they come back with the decision." She responded.
This made the Doctors hand slap his face in frustration while the nurse just shook her head at the girl's stupidity before they took out a roll of bandages. Nurse Redheart asked Sunset to show them the puncture wound from where the pike struck her. Getting up to do so, the Doctor and Nurse saw that the bleeding had been stopped and looked at the redhead. "The bleeding had stopped, you should still be gushing out blood. What did you do to stop it? I don't see any packing in it."
"It's from a medical kit I used if I had more of it the wound would be healed up and your services would be needed elsewhere."
Seeing both annoyed that their services were no longer required and intrigued by the method of medicine Sunset used without their knowledge. So instead they took some disinfected wipes to clean up the blood that covered Sunset's skin and wrapped her bandages.
It was a quick one for Sunset, to be honest, and she was glad they bandage it due to her lack of medical packs. Sunset slowly sat back down on the sofa while she held her bandaged wound again before letting it go without worries. Her health RIG was already in yellow color, which means she's is in a better condition then she was when she came in. But her RIG made the doctor curious about it. "What is that device attached to your back?" Doctor Whooves asked.
"It's called a RIG," Sunset replied. "Or Resource Integration Gear. It's a multi-tool for use in dangerous environments. It's got an integrated health management and strength augmentation system that assists users in their jobs. RIG's varied depending on what you do for a living."
"Oh, really?" Dr. Whooves said as he and Redheart both looked at the glowing spine on her back. "What are the other variants you mentioned?"
"Most people have basic RIG mounts where monitors the life signs of an individual and wrist-mounted holographic projectors attached to clothing that is capable of two-way audio and visual communication like a cell phone. The spine-mounted display serves to indicate's my general state of health as a glowing segmented bar which depletes as the user takes damage. When a person dies, it emits a "flat-line" sound similar to an EKG, which is loud enough to alert others within earshot of the RIG wearer's demise and can display whatever they might need to see" Sunset explain.
Both interested in the device from the future technology. "Do you mind if we could get something like that?"
"Hmm, I don't mind, but I doubt we have some of those lying around," Sunset answered limply. "And I'm not sure how other people will react to you having technology from the future."
"I see your point," Redheart said sincerely. "Well, that's fine. By the way, what's that next to the health management, the small half circle shape one?"
"That would be another variant of a RIG, I worked as a ship engineer, my RIG possesses a Kinesis and Stasis modules to aid in my profession," Sunset answered, as she looked over her wound for making sure it's not bleeding. "The blue meter is the stasis charge for my Stasis module. Useful for temporarily slow down objects or a person, and it's useful to avoid any incoming dangers."
"Really? Can you show us," Dr. Whooves said in disbelieve. Sunset stood up the sofa and looked on her surroundings.
There was a metal pot intentionally left on a cabinet on the right front side of the sofa and a ball on the table for Applejack's dog pet, Winona. She took the ball and looked straight towards the metal pot. Grabbing the pot in her right hand, she lightly tossed it up and unleashed a blast of stasis from the module towards the pot. When the blue blast hit the pot, the whole pot was coated in a light blue aura and seemed to float in the air.
The Apples, doctor, and nurse were surprised with the color change and dumbfounded by the floating pot. Sunset then grabs the ball off the table and throws the ball at the floating pot. The ball hits the pot, and the pot slowly falls in a different direction to the ground like a lazy walking turtle than it should be. After a moment later when the pot nearly reached the ground, the Stasis effect fades away, and the pot resumes its normal speed upon touching the ground and makes a normal metal banging sound.
"So?" Sunset asked enjoying everyone's reactions. "Any more questions?"
"Alright then," Applejack answered at last. "That was weird..."
"You get used to it," Sunset then went back to the sofa and sat back down back.
"Alright, well since we're not needed here we'll go out to sort out our supplies in the ambulance. Be ready for any more craziness that'll happen," Dr. Whooves said as he packed up his medical supplies. "Hope you don't mind."
"Don't worry, Doctor Whooves," Granny Smith added with a smile and a waved hand at them. "Someone else out there probably needs your help than us."
"Alright, we'll be off, holler if you need us" Dr. Whooves added before they both left the house, leaving the Apples and Sunset in the house.
"Applejack, how long I've been missing?"
"You've been missing for almost a year," Applejack answered, which kind of triggered Sunset by widening her eyes and left her jaw hanging.
"Are you shitting me?" Sunset retorted, which the Apples were slightly frightened by her swearing and Applebloom became a little upset and agitated by her outburst.
"Whoa, no we're not," Applejack said quickly trying to calm her down. "Can ya' try and not cuss in front of my sister we're still high schoolers you know."
Sunset was silent for a moment as she looked at her old 'Friend.' "Applejack, how old you think I am?"
"Well, you should be around 17 years old now!" Applejack answered back.
"Nope, I'm 22 years old now," Sunset calmly answered, but the Apples did not believe what she said.
"What do ya' mean ya' 22 years old?" Applejack asked back. "You've only been gone for a year, Sunset!"
"Blame the time travel for that," Sunset snorted as she shook her head. "When I tried to get away from all of you by returning to Equestria but the portal there wouldn't open with my magic something, and it jumped me nearly five hundred years into the future and been stuck there for over five years."
Applejack suddenly stopped talking after hearing that word, 'magic.' "Hang on, did you said magic?"
"Yeah, AJ," Sunset answered. "I had to use all my magic reserves to open the portal at that statue in CHS. Well, it haft worked I guess. In sted of crossing dimensions, I traveled through time. At least Twilight soon found out I'm alive and well. Ha, she'd loved to hear how I pulled that off."
"Wait, she knows you?" Applebloom asked, which seems to be a stupid question to Sunset.
"What do you mean she knows me? She knows all of us." Sunset asked back. "She's a princess."
"Hang on, Princess?" Applejack asked this was pretty suspicious of her because from what Sunset said it was something she heard from her dream. "Twilight is a student in CHS."
"Wait, what do you mean Twilight is a student in CHS?" Sunset asked, sounding confused as to why an Alicorn princess is attending the high school.
"She'd transferred from Crystal Prep to CHS after the Friendship Games a couple months after you disappeared." Applejack noticed the worried look ushering from Sunset's face at Applejacks words. And believed she was actually telling the truth.
"Hang on a minute," Sunset thinks as questions made up in her head. One being did they already found the counterpart of Princess Twilight. But was for another conversation. "What do you remember about me?"
"Well, at first you were the bully in CHS," Applejack remembered. "Then we became friends with you because you wanted to be friends with us, but then you betrayed us again because you became the Anon-A-Miss who posted everyone's secrets and went back to your old ways."
Sunset stood up from the sofa and approached Applejack as Big Mac, Granny Smith, and Applebloom stepped back from them both. "Do you remember that Princess Twilight defeated me because I transformed into Demon Sunset during the fall formal dance and gave me a second chance to fix everything?"
"No, Ah' don't," Applejack can feel it that what she said matches her dreams.
"What?! How could you all forget about that? The six of you literally blasted me into the ground and made a huge creator in front of the school. Principal Celestia was still sore about the cost to fill it up when I left. What about that time we defeat the Sirens from manipulating everyone by using their magic, and we put a stop to them and save CHS at the Battle Of The Bands?"
"Ah' don't remember that either."
"Do you don't even remember anything that I had tried to fix with everything I've done before The Battle Of The Bands and Anon-A-Miss?"
"No, Ah' only remember that you were a bully to everyone in the school and made enemies to everyone in the school. You are the Anon-A-Miss of the CHS, and then you just vanished into thin air. Most of the school was glad that you're gone."
Sunset paused, and her tears were starting to pouring out from her eyes. "All of them don't remember anything besides that?"
Applejack became kind of afraid to answer her, she was sad, she was angry, she was...... very broke to of own personality. "Yes, they are....."
Sunset only stood frozen and stared at Applejack in sorrow. Sunset slowly backed up to the sofa and weakly sat down. Applejack then sat down next to her as the rest the Apple family decided to leave the two of them alone for some privacy. Sunset reminded herself of everything that she'd been through again, and reminded something that was supposed to be to happen. Something that made Applejacks blood run cold with fear and regret at the next sentence Sunset spoke.
Isaac and Carver have led a group consisting of four members of the SWAT, along with Sergeant Kurt, and Deputy Copper. The SWAT were armed with their M4s with flashlight mounts, while Kurt had his Mossberg 950 shotgun, and Copper used her Glock. While Isaac and Carver still had their weapons, they used throughout the previous events evolving Necromorphs and had their Plasma Cutter's out because they know that most of the monsters in the Terra Nova are dead so there should be no need for immense power from their heavier weapons. A Plasma Cutter was enough to cut the limbs of any Necromorphs since it can cut through metals and rocks alike with ease.
While Carver and Isaac were the ones who lead the way, the police forces found it uncomfortable while they traveled around in the close dark halls of a dead ship. Especially when both of their guides had their helmets up with their visors making creepy light-shape figures of weird shapes in the dark, at least they helped out a little on seeing anything ahead. They have currently checked the forward section of the ship and looked at places that Isaac and Carver missed during their first two trips through the ship and when escaping Tau Volantis orbit. They were continually being held up by doors that had no power running them and been airtight sealed for a while. Unlike the officers, Isaac and Carver knew that some of the doors wouldn't be functioning due to lack of maintenance over the last two hundred years it was sitting in orbit filled with the undead. Luckily they had an engineer in their group that can easily open all the doors in the old ship, with or without power.
"Couldn't we try using explosives on that door?" one of the SWAT members asked.
"You'd be wasting it," Carver said as he chuckled. "Even without power, these old doors can still be open with those crack system.
Isaac used his Kinesis Module to turn the clockwork hydraulic cranking system. The law enforcement officer watched in awed at the marvelous piece of technology used in front of them like it was magic.
"That's a cool tool," Kurt complimented, jealous getting that tool.
"It's nothing for sure," Isaac added casually. "Let's go, Carver."
They then entered the next room, and they walked on along the dark halls of the Terra Nova, and Isaac switched to using his rifle without realizing it. Isaac and Carver did remember these halls they just entered. The ones where those Unitologist cultists attached dead Necromorph bodies on the walls. And there were some of the dead Necromorphs fell off the wall and some still attached to the wall and some hanged standing in the middle of the hall blocking their way. And they were creeping the hell out of the officers after seeing the Necromorphs they saw, all the dead slashers.
(Note: The rifle he is actually wearing is AL9 Clearcutter, not the chaingun in the image)
"A-a-are tho-those.....?" Copper asked as she shivers and shakes uncomfortably as the other officers only gave a fear expression amongst the dead slashers. "The Necromorphs are you talking about?"
"Yeah, we called these things Slashers," Isaac checked each of the Necromorphs to double sure it's dead. "At least they're dead."
"Huh," Kurt kicked a little at a corpse that lied down on the floor. "So, just like zombies?"
"Reanimated human corpses to be precise as to what Isaac said," Carver said, humorously. "Unlike zombies in the movies, they don't go down after shooting their heads, cop."
"Oh really?" a SWAT Officer asked. "How you kill them?"
When Isaac about to answer them, Carver nudged him and told him there's a corpse ahead looked suspicious. Isaac and the rest looked at the Slasher ahead that was laid down on the floor near the crates. It didn't look suspicious for the officers, for them both it is. They all still stood silent while staring at the Slasher.
"What's with that?" Copper asked confusedly. "It's dead, right?
As if Isaac can predict something going bad to happen, he just shot the suspicious dead Necromorph with his Plasma Cutter and began shooting each of its limbs off. Officers were surprised by the engineer as he shot at the corpse. They were shocked to found out that Isaac just cut off the limbs of the dead Slasher before Isaac looked over at them. "Rule number two: Cut off their limbs, it's the only way to kill them."
Isaac and Carver just moved on like nothing happened, while the officers were left behind and stood frozen. "What?" Kurt asked himself.
They moved up along while checking one by one to make sure each Necromorphs they came across are dead by dismembering them. Even if they were all already dead due to the lack of any active markers nearby, they still didn't give fate any chances. And also the officers remind themselves to shoot off their limbs if they saw one alive. When they were about to pass by a Slasher that lay down next to Carver, he just stomped the Slasher brutally which surprisingly is actually alive. After Carver finished stomping the Slasher into a pulp, he and Isaac looked over to the officers again who were in disgust by Carver's act. "Do you really had to do that?" A female SWAT member asked. "That was brutal."
"Rule number three: When in doubt, stomp everything," Carver said until the officers managed to understand the third rule they meant.
As they kept moving on, silence atmosphere filled the air as they move on. They were inspecting the next dark hallways ahead, and they discovered something that made them beyond disgusts. Besides the candles lighten up around the hall, they found a lot of stacks of mutilated hands and arms around the halls. The sort of how those Unitologists stacked their hands and arms were piled upwards, for the offerings for the Necromorphs and The Moons.
"Jesus..." Kurt felt he's going to have a nightmare tonight as the rest of the officers closed their mouths to avoid getting puke. "That's a lot..... why are they willing to do that?"
"They all went insane like hell," Carver said carefully looked at those mutilated limbs. "They were worshiping the Necromorphs. Talking about a church, not made from rock and mortar, but from flesh and blood. I wonder how the hell they're going to do that."
Suddenly, both of Isaac's and Carver's RIG comms went online, they were receiving a sound of a man whimpering in pain. Isaac and Carver hoped that what they were really hearing wasn't another hallucination. But then the sound changed from a whimper to groan in pain. They then moved up following the source of the sound, via locator tag of someone's RIG.
"Know where it coming from?" Copper asked as Isaac looked towards the locator lines that pointed towards the source of the sound.
"That was a life signs tag. It seems we're not alone here and it's coming from the cargo bay," Isaac answered. "Let's go."
As they traversed through the halls and had to use the elevator that is conveniently still running due to its own reserve power, they reached the cargo bay. The room has a large window screen that displays the half-mid side of the ship and the environment where the ship has landed and there two ladders, each one on the left side of the wall and right side of the wall. And there was a spacious floor in the middle of the room below, and there was some sort of controls underneath the where the group stood, while at the window there was a console for the cranes located in the rib-like portion of the ship. When they went downstairs separately, they were shocked to found someone was indeed alive near the controls underneath the second floor.
He was sitting down alone against the controls on the floor, more than that to the shock of Isaac and Carver, the guy was one of the Unitologist survivors that were getting converted into a madman by the new Unitologist Cult group, he was wearing his Unitologist snowsuit with the Markers symbol on the armor. What to everyone's horror, they saw he had lost both hands, fortunately for him, he wasn't bleeding.
"Fucking hell, he's still alive?" Kurt asked in horror.
"Wait a minute," Isaac said as he and Carver approached the traumatized man who lost his hands whilst opening their helmets at the same time. "Hey, hey. You're okay?"
"Marker Killer?" the Unitologist asked. "Isaac..... is that you?"
"Yes, it's me," Isaac replied as he tried to heal him with the medpack he had as the Unitologist's RIG turned from red to yellow. "The Cult Leader did this to you right?"
"Yeah,...... it's-its..... God," the Unitologist stammered catatonically. "Unitology was all a lie. Why did I join them in the first place?"
Isaac and Carver were both were felt a bit of pity for the guy and was glad about this, as some of the police officers tried to apply another bandage on his bloody bandaged-limbs. "You can blame Altman for that. He took the whole thing in a whole new wrong direction with that, and that Cult Leader sure didn't help anyone. What's your name?"
"Carr," the handless Unitologist replied. "Randall Carr." Which surprised Isaac and Carver.
"Wait, you're the one who tried to get the Shockpoint Drive back online?" Isaac asked quickly. "We thought you were dead!"
"I was lucky," Randall chuckled in sorrow. "There was another surviving Unitologist saved me after that crazy prophet after he cut my hands off. He was smart or lucky to use explosive Stasis cans to froze those madmen for a moment before they could gouge out my eyes and brought me here. After that, he just left me after he bandaged my handless limbs and went off to get the Shockpoint Drive from them. That was the last I saw of him, guess he didn't make it. Shit....."
"Easy there, let me patch you up," A SWAT officer said, while another SWAT officer, a female one contacted the Police Command. "TOC, this is Gold Team. We found another survivor in the ship, I repeat we found another survivor in the ship. We are going to get him out now. Be advised, the paramedics' team is needed. Both of the survivor's hands are cut off with some sorta saw."
"Damn, Roger that Gold Team. Get him out there, the paramedics have been alerted and will be sending him the nearby farmhouse before transferring him to the hospital."
"Roger that, we're moving out."
"So we're on earth?" Randall asked.
"Yes, we are," Isaac answered. "But... it's not the earth we know."
"What do you mean?" Randall confused with his statement.
"To make it short, we able to return to earth by overloading the shock point drive," Carver said firmly. "Alright? But we're too late to return back in time. The Moons were already there and attacked earth. We had to escape again by overloading the Shockpoint Drive and which turned out to be a bad idea and literally jumped through time and landed on earth. We're stuck in the past, it's 2016 now."
"Hang on," Randall tried to understand it. "You're telling me that we travel through time to escape The Moons and landed back on earth in the past?!"
"Yes, that's what we're trying to tell you," Isaac said as he nods.
"Shit..... that almost sounds worse," Randall complained. "At least we don't have to worry about those Necromorphs anymore... Do we?"
"Actually, for now, we still to worry about it," Carver said to him. "Do you know where the Markers gonna be so we can fucking shoot it?"
"Hmm, I heard all of them are inside the cargo hold in the ship's AFT section," Randall said. "Worth to checking out I guess."
"Thanks for that which puts a lot of worry to rest," Isaac then help him get up by giving his arm around his left shoulder. "Can you walk?"
"My ankle still twisted a little, but I think I can. Why do you say that?" Randall said with a little doubt in his mind
"When we landed we found the entire AFT section, which includes the shuttle repair bay, cargo hold, and engineering to disappear," Isaac explained which shocked the former Unitologist.
"How did that happened?!"
"We don't know, all we could tell is that when the ship traveled back either the entrance vector or our exit point wasn't calculated in proper. I don't know I wasn't the one piloting this heap of junk. Will talk later on theories, now let's get you some help."
"Carver, Donald, Porty, Ferrell get him out of this ship will ya? While me, Kurt, Copper, and Zinnia will continue on with our search of the ship," Isaac ordered.
"Alright, you heard him! Let's go!" Carver ordered as they all walked on to their objectives.
5 minutes later. Forward Cargo hold.
Isaac, Kurt, Copper and SWAT female officer Zinnia reached the cargo hold and open up every each of the crates available in the forward sections cargo hold, either opening it by crowbar, destroying the crate with Plasma Cutter, or in Isaac's case, stomp every crates on sight whether it's big or small. Some of the crates were coffins from when the ship was carrying corpses away.
Isaac wasn't going to give these things a chance and ordered the officers to destroy them, of course after telling them that the Markers was an alien artifact that made people insane and transforms them into Necromorphs by the signal alone, they had no problem following that order. After dealing with those, they opened the rest of the crates that contains useful scraps and tools. Then they were going for the big one crate, a very big one. Located in the middle of the cargo hold, it was made from solid metal and looked vulnerable to be damaged by explosives.
"Zinnia, you have that breaching charges, right?" Isaac asked.
"Yes sir," she replied. "Wanna open up that with a charge?"
"Yeah, I do. Set them up. "
Zinnia placed two of her breaching charges and plant them on the crate. Then they backed off from the crate and out of the blast range before Zinnia clicked the detonator.
*BAM*
The explosives made a nice hole on the huge metal crate, which can fit two people each when entering it. And when they entered the crate, it was like both a treasury and armory for Isaac. Which Issac smiled happily at the sight.
"So what's all of these?" Copper asked Isaac, which he grinned at her before looking back to their findings.
"Looks like we got what we need."
Applejack had just told Sunset how school was going without her around, after a few moments of silence and after the rest of the Apples left to give them privacy. And what experience she had to tell to Sunset, but not most of it. Sunset felt broken-heart about Applejacks explanation. Someone had erased all their memories of the good time she had with everyone and somehow leaving only and knowing she was this Anon-A-Miss was still around until now but not yet posted anything in particular after she left. Applejack did wonder what did she meant by 'why didn't she die back there.' Instead of telling her, Sunset reached into her rig and pulled out a device. She pressed some of the holographic controls and gave Applejack a tablet-like device.
"This is a video log," Sunset explained with an empty voice "With engineers like me, I can record all my finding on video to look again if I want to. Press play to get a taste of what I've been through and a piece of what's hell is like..." Sunset did show Applejack on how to use it.
Applejack was about to turn on the video log, but stopped by Sunset, telling her to watch it when everyone went to bed. Which wouldn't be long as it was only nine PM and still not yet their time. The video log that Sunset gave to Applejack was actually the moments where the alien machine was turned off, and she was with Isaac and Carver had fought and flown their way to turn the Machine back on and their final fight with The Brethren Moon over the planet, Tau Volantis.
Another why she wouldn't say with her to watch it after everyone's sleeping is because she doesn't want anyone to call her up to watch what the hell AJ was watching, she had enough facing those bastards for a lifetime.
After a moment, someone else came inside AJ's house, and Sunset was shocked to found out who entered the house. Dr. Whooves and Nurse Redheart had escorted a wounded Unitologist into the house. But Sunset stopped herself from taking up her weapon to shoot him after seeing that his hands were cut off and didn't have the knives at the end. Sunset saw that he still had his eyes new that this guy right here, was a nearly-converted victim of the Cult Leader. Applejack just stood next to Sunset in horror seeing he was handless. The Unitologist looked up and saw the two girls in the living room. When they landed their eyes on Sunset, he gasped in surprise at her sight.
"Holy shit," the Unitologist said. "You're Sunset Shimmer? The other Marker Killer?"
"Whoa hold on a sec, he knows you?" Dr. Whooves asked as he, the nurse, and Applejack looked surprised when he said Sunset's name.
"Yes, indirectly," Sunset answered with a nod as she kept a close eye on the wounded Unitologist soldier. "I assume you've just met Isaac and Carver. What's your name?"
"Randall Carr," he replied, which surprised Sunset for his survival.
"Wait, you're the one who tried to get the Tera Nova's Shockpoint Drive online?" Sunset stated. "I thought that Cult Leader already turned you into one of them."
"I got myself saved by another ex-unitologist and hid me in the cargo bay," Randall replied. "But he didn't make it."
Sunset only stood silent for a moment, before replying. "Sorry to hear that."
"Come on, let's put you down on the sofa," Nurse Redheart said as she and the doctor slowly put him down on the sofa, with the assistance of Applejack and Sunset.
"What happened to your hands?" Applejack asked worriedly.
"His hands got cut off by a madman with a bone saw," Sunset answered, which surprised the three of them to know that Sunset saw that part. "It's good to see you alive, already realized the Unitology religion is all fake, ain't you?"
"Yeah," Randall answered. "Glad to be alive for sure."
"We'll take it from here, Sunset," Dr. Whooves said before he turned to Applejack."He's going to stay here for a bit to stabilize his condition first before we take him to the hospital to get these adequately treated."
"Alright, Doctor," Applejack said, stepping away from them along with Sunset.
"So... ya' think he'll be fine?" Applejack asked, concerned about the stranger's condition.
"Don't worry, if he lasted this long, then he'll live."
Suddenly, Sunset's RIG blinked as a video link of Isaac displayed itself with the image of Isaac along with the others and showing the content inside the metal crate. "Hey, Shimmer. Good news, we just hit a gold mine."
"What do you mean?" Sunset asked as Applejack were curious about the display of the video link.
"Guess what? We got ourselves found a lot of military supplies in this huge crate, an armory's worth by the looks of it. Probably was for the soldier down on the planet before they went and scrubbed the whole thing." Isaac said as he looked back at the inside of the crate. "Got a lot of ammo universal ammo we could convert for all for our weapons. As well as a few racks of pulse rifles here that the police forces could use. Well, we got all those schematics for making them too, right?" Sunset nodded silently. "I also got emergency power to the forward section of the ship and got a BENCH and a Suit Kiosk working, and they also have the schematics for all the suits we found back in Tau Volantis. And we can also put in the schematics we found when we were back on The Sprawl too, so that's good news."
"Whoa, that's great," Sunset replied, but she was not being high spirits yet. "Alright, I'll gear back up and help you guys out on that."
"No, don't Sunset," Isaac said somehow in worried. "You better take a rest."
"Isaac, look," Sunset insisted. "I'm alright, just let me help you sort some-."
"Sunset, get a rest, please," Isaac begged. "You haven't gotten much sleep since we escape The Sprawl and its gotten worse before we took the trip to Tau Volantis. More than that, I doubt you have any energy to work on something especially after you got stabbed by a metal pike and the battle fatigue we fought not too long ago. Just get some rest, me and Carver will take care of this alright?"
"He's right, Sunset," Applejack agreed. "Looking at how you are ya' doing right now, ya' are in no good shape."
Sunset was actually eager to help him, but he was right about what he said. She had barely slept for last few months only to avoid any nightmares that have haunted her along the way. She sometimes gets some sleep by purchasing sleep medication to give her dreamless sleep but get running out of those and didn't have any with her now. Plus, she used all of her energy from all the fighting she did. She was of course out of shape to do more heavy jobs for it.
"Alright you've made your point, I'll get some rest," Sunset said sincerely at last.
"Thank you, Sunset," Isaac said with a smile. "Alright, see you morning, Sunset."
"See you tomorrow, Isaac," Sunset then closed the video link, but then looked down at the ground and sigh.
"I'm fine, it's just..." Sunset paused a moment before she sniffed herself and wrinckled at it. "... need a bath. *cough* Wow, ok yea a bath would be great, where is it? I smell worse than Rainbow Dash from when she refused to take a shower for those two weeks during soccer practice."
Applejack shivered at that memory, "Follow me," Applejack as she leads Sunset to the upstairs to go to the bathroom.
Applejack told Sunset to hold on for a moment so she could grab some proper clothes so she could get the ones she was wearing cleaned. Sunset Thanked her for that and stripped her clothes and removed the RIG from her jacket before handing them off. Applejack comes back with a set of clothes and hands them off to her before starting up the tub. After the filled up with water, Sunset took a step in and felt like six years of stress melt away. When Sunset entered the bathroom and began to take a bath as Applejack only wait outside the door. Applebloom did happen to pass by her sister and asked why she was waiting at the door.
"Why are ya' waiting at the door?"
"Sunset's taking a bath," Applejack answered. "Ah' just want to keep an eye on her to make sure she's alright. Why don't ya go back to your room? Ah' think she needs me for now."
"Sure, sis," Applebloom replied, she doesn't mind about that. After all, Sunset looked like she's in bad shape, Applebloom continues walking back to her room.
Meanwhile in the bathroom Sunset was feeling bliss. In the future, all she had to use was cold showers or wet wipes to get herself clean. Hot water was a commodity, and a luxury item on significant settlements and larger ships and bathtubs were like no existent. After a minute of soaking, she grabbed a loofa and some soap and scrubbed her. As she scrubbed, she saw just how much she needed this from the dirt and grime as she watched her skin starts to shine. Switching on the shower portion of the bath she undid her hair ban and let her hair fall freely.
After a few minutes later, Sunset finished taking her bath and wears the clothes that Applejack gave her. She felt relaxed and was actually kinda glad that Issac talked her into taking a break. She hadn't felt this great in years! The clothes she was given were a set of pajamas with red apples that probably Applejack's.
Sunset had cloths shed been wearing them since the Unitologist soldiers came after her Issac on New Horizon moon colony. Coming out the room with her hands filled with her usual clothes. "Let me take those, we will clean it in the morning," Applejack then took her dirty clothes and left her to put them somewhere before returned back to her. "These can get cleaned in the morning' let's sleep in ma'h bedroom," Applejack asked.
"I'm not sure if you-"
"Ah' don't mind," Applejack quickly said back, interrupting her. "Let's go."
"You know, I just don't want to sleep," Sunset replied.
"Why ya' don't want to sleep?" AJ asked again. Sunset was silence for a moment as she shook her head and bit her lips.
"Nightmares..."
"Don't worry, Ah'm right here," Applejack said to her. "Ah' don't you to stay awake the whole night either."
"Ok," Sunset then laid down on the bed started to feel a bit uncomfortable being in the same bed with a former friend. "You're sure about this AJ?"
"Sure Ah' am," Applejack replied as they both covered themselves with a blanket. "After seeing ya' like this, Ah'm starting to believe that you're not the Anon-A-Miss."
"Really?" Sunset asked as she looked at her with a shocked face.
"Yeah," Applejack said. "Maybe Ah' don't remember anything more about you, but lately Ah' been having these dreams about all that you're saying back there."
Sunset could conclude that Applejack may be having 'memory-dreaming.' "I see, we'll deal with this tomorrow. Good night Applejack." Sunset then turned her body away from Applejack, and in seconds she fell to sleep as her body caught up with her from all the recent excitement. Applejack glares at Sunset in silent, before she replied to her and closed her eyes. "Good night... Sunset."
2508, Four Months after Sunset left CHS, USG Kellion on route to Aegis VII
"How many times have you watched that thing?" Said Kendra. "Guess you really miss her, don't worry you'll be able to look her up once we're on board it sounds like you two have a lot of catching up to do."
"Yea, I can't wait to meet the girl that has this killjoy in the mud wrapped around her finger." Sunset snarked from where she was sitting.
"Oh haha," Isaac mocked back. "Just remember who's the one that controls your paycheck, Miss Shimmer."
"Burn, haha!" Laughed Corporal Chen.
"Shut up Chen, or you'll give me the idea of putting itching powder on your underwear." Sunset threatened. Before Chen could reply, he was cut off by the chief of security.
"Miss Shimmer I would be greatly appreciative that you do not distract one of my pilots while the ship is about to exit shock space." Chief Hammond instructed.
Sunset backed off not wanting to get on the black bald men bad side. "Sure thing chief," she said with her hands razed. Before anyone else could speak the Kellion exited shock space and floated adrift in view of space rock and debris.
"Alright everyone we're here, sinking our orbit in now." Chief Hammond said as he looked out over the planet. Sunset walked bast where Isaac was sitting and stood behind Kendra as everyone looked out the main window.
"All this trouble over a chunk of rock," commented Kendra to which Chief Hammond replies.
"Deep space mining is a lucrative business miss Daniels, Aegis VII is a gold mine according to prospectors reports," Hammond explained. "Cobalt, silicon, osmium. Now, where is she, there she is we have visual contact."
The crew looked up as the ship past by some debris and saw their objective. The planet cracker class ship USG Ishimura.
Sunset's eyes widen with awe as she gassed at the enormous ship that could tear apart a planet. "Whoa..." Sunset said in awe.
"First time seeing a planet cracker Sunset? Thought you seen one before when you're on the shipping lanes." Kendra said to her.
"I'm a planetside kid remember, I've never even been to space until four months ago, and the only time I've seen them is in pictures or on video if they come by," Sunset responded.
"So... That's the Ishimura," Kendra said as she too looked up at the ship. "Impressive."
"The USG Ishimura," Chief Hammond corrected, "biggest planet cracker in her class and it looks like they already pop the cork."
Sunset looked at said "cork," and saw it was the thousands of metric tones of rock floating underneath the Ishimura. A shiver ran up Sunset's spine of the power to pull off a chunk of rock the size of a continent to space with ease was slightly scary.
Kendra leaned closer to the viewport as if she was getting a better look, "Why is it all dark I don't see any running lights." she said sternly.
"Corporal Chen take us in and hail them," Chief Hammond instructed. "And stay away from that debris field, we're here to fix their ship not the other way around."
Johnson nodded as he worked the controls as he set communications with the Ishimura, "USG Ishimura, this is the emergency maintenance team of the USG Kellion responding to your distress call come in Ishimura."
We all waited a few seconds for them to respond but nothing came back as our hail went unanswered. "You're going to need to boost the signal if the powers low," Kendra instructed the pilot.
"Yes, we know that," Hammond said with a hint of annoyance before he turned to the two pilots. "Boost the signal. More."
As they drifted closer to the Ishimura, Sunset and Isaac felt something off about the whole situation. For Isaac, it was his concern for his girlfriend Nicole. For Sunset it was how dead the ship seem to look.
"I've never heard of a total communications blackout on one of these things," Kendra stated, to which Isaac and Hammond silently agreed. Ship-wide blackouts on ships of the Ishimura's size was almost unheard of, "You'd think with a thousand people on board, someone would pick up the phone..."
Everyone's attention was soon drawn to the ships com's unit when some unintelligible noises were sounding over the Kellion's speakers. Everyone tried to listen to it, but no one could make out to what it was saying. Putting Sunset more on edge that the ship was giving off ghostly communications."What is that?" She asked.
"It's a busted array like we thought," Kendra answered. "Sounds like they're having problems with their encoder. You get us down there, and Isaac and I can fix it. Forty-eight hours max." She explained to Hammond, who then looked slightly pleased with her answered as he ordered Chen and Johnson to move in.
"Alright, you heard the lady. Take us in. Let's see what needs fixing."
"Gravity tethers engaged," Johnston said, while at the same time he and Chen were pressing a few buttons that caused a light purple aura from the ships gravity tethers to surround the Kellion. Though at the same time Sunset prepared herself for their arrival by sitting down in a chair adjacent to where Issac was sitting, "Automatic docking procedure is a go."
At first, everything went smoothly as the gravity tethers locked on the more massive ship. Suddenly disaster struck as a space rock collided with the ship throwing them off their course for a smooth ride in.
"What the hell?" Chen shouted. Having been caught off guard by the sudden impact.
"Sir! The autodock..." Johnston started to say but was more focused on the growing problem in front of them.
"What is it?" Hammond snapped at him.
"We're off track!" Chen stated. "We're going to hit the hull!"
"Hit the blast shields!" Hammond ordered the pilots as the Kellon. "Their guidance tether must be damaged! Switch to manual. NOW!"
"Inside the magnetic field?" Kendra said in surprise. "Are you insane?! Abort!" she yelled at the pilots.
"NO! We can make it inside!" Hammond snapped at the women as he looked at the pilots. "Corporal, I gave you an order!"
Chen and Johnston gripped the lever that rested above where they sat the majority of the journey through hyperspace and pulled it, to which a blast shield unfolded from wherever it was hiding and connected in front of the cockpit while a screen appeared in front for the two pilots to see out.
"Argh, the field's too strong!" Chen stated, though at the same time the screen started going into a static state.
At this point where Sunset closed her eyes and started to feel regrets for things, she will never get to do in her life. Like making amends to her former teacher and asking for her forgiveness. Now she was about entered the Eylesam Fields where her parents and ancestors awaited her arrival.
The crew felt the Kellion hit a couple of things as they collided with the Ishimura hanger deck and slid until they waited for the ship to come to a complete stop.
Everyone was groaning from where they ended up. Isaac, Sunset, Chen, and Johnston were the least hurt as they were safely seated in their flight chairs. Kendra and Hammon were worst off as they slowly got off the floor. The blast shield soon retracted itself back into the hull while at the same time revealed that they had landed in the docking area of the Ishimura.
"Is everyone okay?" Hammond asked everyone as he looked over Chen and Johnson before looking at Issac and Sunset. Both of which gave him a thumbs up to show they were alive, thou Sunsets was a little shaken by the experience.
"What...? What the hell were you thinking?!" Kendra shouted at Hammond. "Were you trying to get us killed?!"
"I just saved our asses, Ms. Daniels!" Hammond snapped back. "If we had aborted at that speed and distance, we would have smashed right into the side of the Ishimura. Now settle down, and let's get to work. Corporal, report!"
"I'm not getting any readings from the port booster, and we've lost both comms and the autopilot," Chen reported to Hammond. Sunset was already not liking the sound of the situation. Because more then likely from her experience with computers there was definitely more damage than what it was telling them. "It'll take some time to fix," Chen said to the security chief.
"Sunset," Isaac said getting the girls attention. "Put your helmet on." He instructed his apprentice as he already had his mark three engineer suit on. Sunset did the same as she entered the control for her helmet to fold in over her head and sealing her engineer suit.
"All right, let's get some extra hands from the flight deck to help out," Hammond said. Even sounding a bit pleased that they were all alive with only a few bumps. Sunset noticed Kendra walking up to Isaac and her as she was typing on a little handheld a computer.
"Isaac, Sunset, hold still for a few seconds... I'm syncing everyone's RIGs with the ship." Kendra stated, to which she pressed a few keys more on her portable panel, and everyone's RIG's turned on, showing everyone the life support status of everyone's health on their backs. "Okay, we're done. A clean bill of health for everyone."
"All right," Hammond said as he was pleased to hear that news. "We've still got a job to do. We're moving out."
Hammond, followed by Chen, Johnson, and Kendra moved past Issac and Sunset to the airlock and exited the ship. Sunset was about to follow to when Isaac held out a hand to stop her, "Hey you alright?" He asked his little charge.
"Yea, yea. A little shaken from the forced entry there but I'll walk it off. Does that happened often out?" Sunset asked to which Issac shook his head.
"No, it's not. When a shuttle goes into auto docking, it always the hangar computer that takes control. What just happened now was due to debris flying in our flight path to which is almost always fatal. We got lucky this time, now come on before the others forget about us." He waved for Sunset to follow.
The engineer pair walked down the ramp of the Kellion and onto the Ishimura, Sunset got the grand sense of how big the ship is just by looking around the hanger bay. Sunset's eyes then drifted to the Kellion and realized that a good portion of the vessel was damaged and it actually looked like they lost a section of the ship as well. Sunset wasn't the only one looking over the ship. Kendra was looking it over to and didn't look happy either. "You didn't lose power to the port booster. You 'lost' the port booster! Unbelievable..."
Sunset felt like that was going to be a considerable workload for later when work started for them. But continued on and followed after Isaac and the rest of the crew. Sunset spared a glace up at the welcome ad that played above the entrance to what she believed to be the flight lounge to the ship. Walking through the first pair of doors Sunset saw that Hammond, Chen, and Johnson were caring weapons. One of the Sunset never gone around to do was look at firearms, she never was interested in them but could recognize them if need be. Why they need them Sunset didn't know and wasn't her place to question their judgment, and she was only here as an apprentice engineer, so she had no authority over others. She figured it was probably a security officer thing is all.
Reaching the second door, they find it locked for some reason. "Guess the power's down everywhere," Hammond commented on the situation. "Isaac, get over here and hack the door pad."
Sunset watched as Issac walked up to the door and extended his hand out pressed down on the blue light. Moments later the light, and the door opened. Hammond, Chen, and Johnston walked past Issac and entered the area first to be sure that everything was okay. Sunset, Isaac, and Kendra followed behind and saw how messy the place is. Bags, suitcases, and sorts of lugged covered the area. "Seems like everyone was trying to pack in a hurry," Kendra commented as she looked around the room.
"There should be a security detail here," Hammond commented, though as everyone spread out, he glanced around the lounge looking for something that wasn't there. Making him on edge about this and knew that something was wrong here.
"Yeah? Well, there's not. There's nobody here. I can't pick up any broadcasts." Kendra replied as she typed away on her computer.
"That security console is still active. Isaac, get over there and see what you can find. Sunset go with him you are his assistant after all, and you're here to learn the ropes. Kendra, get that elevator back online." He instructed the two. As the pair walked through the security office door, Kendra walked up to where the elevator was at and typed a few commands on the screen only to get frustrated at it. "Power's dead! I can't!"
"Then re-route the damn power!" Hammond snapped at the hacker, causing everyone to stop in their tracks and look at the two. All wondering if they were about to fight once more, before Hammond sighed and regained himself, "Look, if we all cooperate, we can figure this out a lot sooner. Let's get that computer display up, Isaac."
Isaac nodded before opening the door to the security checkpoint with Sunset right next to him. As he pressed a few buttons, he brought the entire screen to expanded and showed a representation of the Ishimura so that the others can see, with several areas highlighted in flashing red. Johnston approached the screen from his side of the glass and gave it a look over.
"Huh. That doesn't look good. She's taken a lot of damage." He commented on what he looked at the screen.
"The tram system's offline," Hammond remarked. "Getting around is going to be difficult." Suddenly the air vents started humming and air circulated through the room. "The air seems to be flowing again. That's a start."
All of a sudden the alarms began to blare out of nowhere, the room losing all lights except for the orange warning lights spinning overhead. Everyone tensed up, and the security officers brought their weapons up, igniting their flashlights eliminating the darkness slightly.
"What the hell was that?" Kendra asked, sounding worried and somewhat scared while Chen and Johnston prepared themselves for whatever was going to happen. Hammond decided to be the voice of reason and answer her in a calm voice.
"Automatic quarantine must have tripped when the filtration system restarted. Everybody relax..." He assured everyone. Then the sound of something crawling around overhead reached their ears. Isaac fidgeted nervously while Sunset darted her eyes around in a small panic.
"What was that? Did you hear that?" Kendra asked, now even more fearful than before.
"I'm not sure..." Hammond began as he brought up his weapon at the tension growing in the room. Then a crash of a vent breaking overhead reached their ears. Isaac tried to determine the location of the noise. Trying to see anything was hard in the darkness; he could barely make out the silhouettes of Johnston and Chen, and he knew Kendra and Hammond were over by the door. Sunset was also looking around but spotted something rising behind Johnson and began screaming at him.
"Johnson behind you!" But it was too late. Before Johnson could turn around to see his attacker he was dead in moments as the monsters scythe-like appendages bore down on the man, piercing through his body and organs ending his life as his rig went to red in moments.
"Jesus Christ! Open fire!" Hammond shouted to Chen as they opened fire on the creature as they pumped it full of wholes. Isaac and Sunset watched as the creature still stood as it was still standing as they continued to fire. "Kendra, power now!" Hammond shouted as he kept firing.
After he said that another air vent busted out and a second creature jumped down onto Chen and started tearing him apart, killing him in the process, "Kendra.....!"
"Come on... come on... I've got it! Go!" Kendra shouted before breaking into a sprint. With Hammond not far behind her.
"Isaac, Sunset, get the hell out of there!" Hammond called out to them, though that was followed by the door closing, leaving the two of them to their fate as the door near them opened to them. When Sunset reached the door another one of those creatures broke through the air vent to the security office, all Sunset could see from the creature was that it deformed, pale and covered in blood. Before Sunset could take in more detail of the thing, Isaac grabbed hold of her and pushed her through the door.
When the two of them reached the door, another creature fell through the vet above them but didn't look back as they ran around the first corner and around in a u-shape hallway till Sunset caught sight of the elevator up ahead. Sunset for a moment was threaded for a moment of safety from those things if the hall didn't keep stretching out in front of them.
Sunsets panted in her helmet as she ran faster and fast as the hall seemed to grow at an absurd length than before. A flash of red light appeared behind her but did not dare look behind her as the shadow of a Slasher chased her down growing bigger the faster she ran. When the Elevator got closer, her hope skyrocketed as she made a hard dash to live. The sound of two more vets breaking reached their ears as more of them appeared.
Suddenly the Elevator got to close as Sunset and Isaac charged right into the doors with Isaac hitting the open mechanism. "In here! Go!" Isaac shouted.
Isaac punched the console to the elevator, the creatures failing to catch them in time before the doors closed. Both of them were hyperventilating, the shock and terror of death still controlling their bodies.
Before the elevator could get moving, however, Without warning, a pair of blades pried the elevator doors open. Sunset screamed in terror at the apparition before her. She now had a better look at the thing, it looked like the decaying body of a human, with black, glossy, soulless eyes staring hungrily at them, and with its arms raised high in the air with wicked, sharp, bloodied blades ready to tare them apart. It emitted a guttural roar from its jawless mouth, with bile raining out of the exposed throat, before pouncing at them with a deafening roar.
Sunset woke up screaming from the memory of her first encounter with Necromorphs.
After a moment of panic, she'd remembered the elevator doors slamming hard on that particular Slasher. And Sunset, Isaac, and Carver had killed hundreds if not thousands of them single-handedly. But that memory of Johnson and Chen dying as they did by those Slasher's still put the fear of death whenever that memory came back. She woke up from the bed, and in a panic took some air to calm her down. She was already wet herself in cold sweat.
After a moment of calming herself down, someone touched her and Sunset quickly reflex at that. After grabbed the person's hand in an instant, Sunset looked over to her left. Sunset was a little surprised that the one who touched her was Applejack, she had a worried look about what happened to Sunset. Sunset lets go her hand and then she sits on the edge of the bed, looking away from Applejack. And Sunset just realized the it was still in the middle of the night, it was 3 AM in the morning.
"Ya' okay?" Applejack asked worriedly.
"I'm fine," Sunset replied with a low voice. "Just a nightmare."
They both silent for a moment, before Applejack, talked to her. "I watched the video, Sunset. I did what you asked, ah' can't believe you have to fight those monsters and...... that monster moon above a planet to get here alive. Ah'm sorry you had to go through with that."
Sunset only silences for a while, before she got off the bed and headed for the door. "I'm going downstairs, I just don't want to bother you for sleeping."
Applejack quickly gets off the bed after and runs over to her. "Hey, Ah'm not let you go downstairs because for that."
"I'm just wanted to be alone for awhile, alright?" Sunset said in insist and upset. "Just get back to sleep, I'll be fine."
Sunset left the room, leaving Applejack stood by the door feeling sad and pity for her. But seeing how Sunset is doing now, Applejack decided to better leave her alone for now. She just sighs and slowly made her way back to her bed again. Applejack then slowly lays down on the bed and looked towards the ceiling. She began wondering to herself, why didn't she try to find out earlier about Sunset before she came here with a damn crashed-landed ship from the future?
"Ah' hope you'll be alright, Sunset."
Chapter 4 - A Business And A Visit
Author's Note
Well, here we go. Going to have a trip to Equestria later.
Chapter 4 - A Business And A Visit
It was already 07:30 AM in the morning as Sunset sat alone in the dining room down staring with half lidded eyes at the table. Not even looking up to notice of Isaac and Carver walking in.
Isaac had his Hacker suit on mines the mask, while Carver had the same thing as Isaac but his jacket was black with the Earthgov USM Eudora logo on the left side of the of his shoulder, and underneath it, he wore a dark red shirt with a large symbol on the front Earth Government Colonial Alliance. They sat down at the table where Sunset was sitting at and greeted her, but receive no reply from her as she still in a haft lidded frozen state, like she was staring out into the void. The three only waited there for breakfast until Isaac tried to get her back to consciousness.
"Hey, Sunset," Isaac called. "Sunset?" Isaac then waved his hand in front of her face, but she didn't react to it. "Sunset you're okay?"
"She's trapped in her own mind again?" Carver asked with a little worry.
"Looks that way," Isaac replied as he looked on her emotionless face. "Since we know what she's been through with us, she's been haunted by those memories for a long time."
Carver paused for a moment and looked at the bacon-haired girl. "Wonder what she had in mind now."
2508 Four months after Sunset left CHS, USM Valor
"They just keep coming!" Sunset yelled she fired her Pulse rifle at the incoming Twitchers, Slasher, Leapers, and Exploders.
"Just keep shooting!" Isaac shouted back as he reloaded his Plasma Cutter before firing at a Leaper.
Sunset switched targets to shoot at a Stalker that positioned itself high on the wall above them.
Sunset and Isaac were currently fighting their way through the USM Valor for last fifteen minutes. What they found was a much recent picture of what happened to the Ishimura. The ship had been infected and crashed into the side of the Ishimura, and now they were on board to salvage its singularity power core so they could use it to power the shuttle that's in the crew quarters. But so far all they found was death.
Now they were what looked like the ship's barracks in the middle of a sudden lockdown, fighting what must have been the whole ship's crew. "Isaac, I'm running low on rounds!" Sunset said as she dismembered a Stalker. She reloaded her Pulse Rifle and fired at another Slasher that came through the air vent.
"Make every shot count Sunset! We can get through t-WATCH OUT!" Isaac shouted in fear as a Leaper leaped through the air. Sunset barely saw it in time to raise her hands to block its incoming attack as it tackles Sunset to the ground.
Sunset screamed as the Leaper thrashed over her. It's large jaw trying to take a bite out of her head.
"Sunset! Hold on I'm coming!" He said as he raised his weapon to shoot the Leaper off Sunset only to get blindsided by a Twitcher. While Sunset was doing her best at pushing the Leaper off, ever slowly, she'd just about to kick the thing off before it gave one last lunge at her. Too late to move, it's long fangs pierced her helmet, breaching it the process and dug into her skin.
Pain and fear filled Sunset's body as she desperately tried to get this Leaper off her. She suddenly felt the Leaper being pulled off from her, followed by a discharge of a Plasma Cutter and her head was free to move again.
Only to realize that the leaper's head was still attached to her face. Seeing that Sunset freaked out, taking hold of the severed head she tried to pull it off only for her hands to keep slipping.
"Sunset. Sunset, calm down!" Sunset heard Isaac say to her while trying to help his friend. Sunset just had it with this and pulled on the emergency clamps on her helmet and pulled the whole thing off and threw it to the ground.
Sunset leaned up against the wall and tried to calm her racing heart. Soon Issac was by her side with what remand of her Mark one engineering helmet in hand. "The thing punctured right through it, you won't be using that for any vacuum sealed rooms or spacewalks. Christ, you ok?" He asked as he looked at his friend.
Sunset waved him off, "Yeah, that was to close though."
"Way to close by the way that thing did to your face, damn that must hurt" Isaac replied as he tossed her helmet to the side before opening a nearby locker and retrieving a towel from inside. He lifted Sunsets chin up and began wiping the blood off her face."How bad?" She asked.
"Not life threatening but it will scar," Isaac replied.
"Where at? Feels like my whole face feels hurt."
"Looks like the right cheek right underneath your right eye and just above your left eyebrow," He said as he moved Sunsets head around to inspect it further." It went all the way down too."
"So much for my good looks, at least it didn't take my head."
"Always a good thing, now come on, the engine room isn't far from here," Isaac said after he finished cleaning the blood of Sunset's face. Sunset nodded and got off the wall and picked up her discarded Pulse Rifle. Together they made their way past the rows of chubby holes that the crew would sleep into the other side of the bay. There they found a Store kiosk to replace Sunset's helmet. Sunset went to the store first while Isaac took watch while she made her purchases. Isaac heard Sunset go "Mmmm..." and decided to ask her problem. "Something the matter Sunset?"
"Sorry, it's just I've got options now with this store."
'Options?" Isaac asked in confusion.
"Yea, since this is a military ship and not a mining vessel like the Ishimura. I got more thing to look at besides mining suits and gear and thinking of getting a suit, and I've got the funds to do so plus a little extra." She explained as the store opened up to her. Taking a step inside, Sunset felt the Stores restraints kick in and as the suit changing sequence started once more. A new helmet formed on top of her head and several plates formed around her body, before she knew it the Stores doors opened and released her.
"Woah, nice look, Sunset," Isaac commented as he took in Sunset's new RIG. She was wearing what the dead soldiers they've seen were wearing. The assembly is composed primarily of dark grey, vacuum-rated fatigues bearing many utility pockets, and white body armor plates, including armored boots, a cuirass, spaulders, rerebraces, vambraces, and a head-enclosing skeletal combat helmet. "How do you feel?"
"I feel a little-weighted down from the extra patting and plates, but overall I can't complain." After buying a few Med packs and ammo for her weapon, she switched with Isaac to resupply. After they finished with the store, they moved on to the nearest door. They then walked through the corridor that was in front of them and turned to the left when they had no choice due to a clasped section. From there, they made their way towards the door that pointed them in the direction of where Engineering was in and walked through it before approaching a large door, which revealed the mechanical parts of the engine. A few seconds later they stepped onto the elevator platform that was in front of them and rode it up to the level that was above them.
Isaac whistled at the extent of the damage the damage. Fire spewed out of its engines into Engineering and blocked their intended path. "Isaac, what do we do?" Sunset asked over the roar of the ship's engines. Isaac pointed over to the hanging metal plates.
"Use the spare parts as for cover and use our Kinesis to move forward. The core is just over there, but we need to run and get off the Valor when we remove it." Isaac explained his plan.
"Why do we need to run?"
"With ship still running like it is along with the damage, it's sustained from the crash. The Valor won't be able to hold together and would rip its self apart from the inside, so we got to move." He explained further before motioning Sunset to stand behind him. "While we're moving, destroy those power tubes. Doing so can force an engine shut down, and I can safely remove the core!"
The power tubes Isaac mentioned were resting on the left side of where they were standing. Giving Sunset a clear line of sight to shoot them. Once they were all destroyed, they pulled back and did the same with the other side. Now the engine went silent with the last tube destroyed. They approached the end of the engine room to the odd triangular shaped object that happened to be resting in front of them, large enough to fit into their hands.
"Ok, Sunset. Once I pull this, all hell is going to break loose so get ready to run," Isaac said before carefully removed the singularity core and stored it inside his RIG's inventory. Suddenly the engine ruptured and started to fall apart like Issac predicted, indicating that the two of them should get moving immediately.
"Is that it?" Kendra asked them through their RIG's, though at the same time Isaac and Sunset entered the nearby passage in front of them and exited the area going below engineering, but continued moving since it appeared that the engine's behind them were getting ready to self-destruct and tear itself apart, "You got it? Oh my god, you got it! That's the piece we need. Get to the Crew deck!"
Isaac and Sunset followed the path in front of them and found themselves inside the mechanical part of the engine room, which they had seen when they walked through the door earlier, but as they walked into the area, one section of the machinery exploded, indicating that something terrible was coming. Though as they approached the glass on the other side of the room, which Sunset and Isaac were planning on shattering it with their weapons when the door opened and saw Hammond running into the chamber on the other side of the glass, though he was focusing on something else.
"Hammond!" Isaac said, causing the Security Chief to turn towards them for a moment, where all three of them were happy to see each other again, though at the same time Isaac and Sunset heard the familiar sound of a brute roaring, indicating that one was nearby.
"Isaac! Sunset!" Hammond replied, though instead of sounding happy he sounded terrified, which made sense considering what was nearby, though he kept his eyes on the door behind him, which hadn't closed for some reason, "I've been trying to reach you two for some time now, but I think my comm was damaged after our last communication. I see you guys got the singularity core... that's our ticket out of..."
That was before a blackened brute, meaning that it was much stronger than the ones Isaac and Sunset had fought so far, walked into the area behind Hammond, causing the Hammond to brace his weapon as he prepared to give out one last fight.
"Isaac, Sunset don't wait for... oh fuck me..." Hammond gave out a war cry while he opened fired on the brute and used every bullet that he had left in his Pulse Rifle, though at the same time the Necromorph quietly stood there and took it, which only made it angrier. It rushed forward and bashed it's arm into Hammond, knocking him into the glass wall that was behind him. Before Hammond had a chance to regain himself, however, the brute stared down at him before pressing it's massive right arm against his chest and gripped Hammond's left leg with its left hand. Hammond screamed in pain as the brute ripped off his leg, though before Isaac and Sunset could do anything. The Brute raised it's arms into the air as Hammond went into shock over losing his leg, before the brute slammed it's fists into Hammond's body three times in a row, breaking bones and crushing organs as blood erupted from his mouth and his missing leg. That was before the brute lifted Hammond up by his head, who was nearly dead at this point and slammed him into the glass wall that separated the two, shattering it into a thousand pieces just as Hammond's RIG flatlined.
"HAMMOND!" Sunset screamed, face full of fear before turning into one of anger. "IM GOING TO KILL YOU!" She declared to the Brute as an orange and red aura engulfed her.
Isaac was in shock at the way Hammond had been killed. Now he was seeing Sunset doing something he'd never seen before. Sure Sunset told him about Equestrian magic, but he wasn't told what it could do. Isaac, who had never seen or heard this sort of anger and hate from Sunset, was showing a brand new side to him. Before Isaac could do anything, both the Brute and Sunset charged at each other.
Sunset drew back a fist full of red magic with sickly black spotted flames connected against the Brutes face. The magic backlashed and it sent the Brute flying back and smacked against the wall. Sunset stood there for a moment before falling flat at on her hands and knees out of breath while the magic left her body.
Isaac stood back gobsmacked at what the sixteen-year little girl just pulled off. He then focused on the Brute that was slowly picking itself up, acting fast, he zeroed in on its back legs and unleashed everything he had on it. Severing its limbs, making it cry out in pain before falling over and died. Looking over to where Sunset was, he saw her on one knee as she was trying to get up. Feeling more explosion going on inside the ship. He grabbed Sunset and together they raced on of the ship while also ignoring Kendra when she called them. He'd ask Sunset what happened later when they were semi-safe aboard the Ishimura.
"Hey!" Carver called her many times with soft voice, this time he flicked his fingers in front of her. "Sunset!"
"Huh?" Sunset snapped herself out after he flicked his fingers. "Oh, sorry. Didn't notice you both were there."
"It's alright," Isaac replied with a chuckle. "Bad night, eh?"
"Yeah," Sunset then put her index finger on the table and dragged it around the table. "Bad night..."
"What were you thinking about just now?" Carver asked as he grabbed and took a sip of good coffee on the table.
"Hammond," Sunset replied with a frown.
Isaac frowned at the name she mentioned. "Oh, the Ishimura. I... I know."
Sunset took a quite long sigh and paused for a moment, before looking over to Isaac. "Where did you two sleep last night? I don't suppose the crew quarters on the ship were very comfy."
"That one guy, Big Mac I think his name is, offered us the guest bedroom for the night after we got done with the ship," Isaac replied.
"So, got everything sorted out yesterday?" Sunset asked.
"Yeah, but we got some problems in our hands," Carver answered, which made Sunset frowned and agitated. "We managed to hide that most of the ship inside the forest behind this house in a distance, don't ask how we did that. Leaving only the MID section exposed. But thankfully due to its color, it blends in rather well to the mountains in the back. The only way people will notice it is with orbital imaging and if you're actually looking at it. We also managed to deal with the dead bodies of those Necromorphs by burning them. We also were able to deal with the media by censoring our appearance after the ship crashed but for sure everything will go wild on the internet after knowing the ship landed at someone's farm. Plus, we had some 'issues' with some military personals because they found out about this."
"Are they considered us hostiles?" Sunset asked worriedly, doesn't like that this situation goes from un-fucked to fuck with a brethren moon without a tube of lube.
"Gladly they're not," Isaac replied, which Sunset sighed in relief. "They seem to be curious with us around. And knowing you're the missing girl from town and listed in the police's missing person board they considered us to be good guys, I guess. After the ship crashed, they wanted to find out what we know. I and Carver will be going to the Canterlot Police Station to explain the situation and give them any information about this."
"Good grief," Sunset said as she leaned back against the chair. "We'll have hope on this. Just make sure they don't plan something bad after they knew any information we have."
"They're not like Earthgov, right?" Carver asked, receive a respond from Sunset with a nod. "Then we'll be fine."
"After that, we'll visit Randall to see how's he doing for awhile," Isaac added. "And I'll try to make prosthetic hands for him after he got out from the hospital."
"Good to hear," Sunset said in relieved.
"Breakfast ready!" Granny Smith shouted, as she and Applejack brought in the food and set them all on the table.
"Wow, smells great," Isaac said as they enjoyed the smell of the food while the rest of the Apple family came down from upstairs and sat down at the dining table.
"What are these?" Carver asked the excellent smell alone was enough to make his stomach felt burping.
"Apple Pancakes, breakfast sandwiches, and fruit salads," Applebloom answered. "Made from our own food materials we had in this house."
"May I have some pancake please?" Sunset asked as Granny Smith gives her a plate of it and also gave one to Isaac, while Carver goes for a breakfast sandwich.
Isaac looked at the spoonful of pancake in front of him with his full attention of the smell or the looks, before he took a bite of it and his eyes were widened. "Christ, this is without a doubt the best breakfast like this in my life!"
"I agree with ya, Isaac," Carver said as he took a big bite on his sandwich. "This is the first time we got such a meal like this with food this good, comparing what food we had to eat in the future this blows it all away."
"It's not my first time my first time eating this, but I did miss this," Sunset added in consent as she quickly took a couple of bites of her pancake.
"Ah' guess you never eat something like this?" Big Mac asked.
"Never had food as great as this, to be honest," Isaac replied as he took another bite of his pancake with a joy. "Better than the 25th century."
Applejack then was curious when Isaac has mentioned the year 2500's. "So.... how does the 25th century looks like?"
"I would say it was fun," Sunset answered with a shrug. "There was a lot of great stuff out there."
"Yeah, like the reaction to form when you realize that my apartment was on the moon," Isaac added, which halted the Apples to eat for a moment.
"Excuse me?" Applebloom asked in disbelieve. "But did you say your apartment was on the moon?"
"Yeah," Isaac nodded as Carver only stay silent whilst eating. "A colony called New Horizons, Luna was first colonized and established on the moon in 2045, and that's where Sunset and I live for a time."
"Really?" Applejack asked. "How were ya holding up there?"
"Nothing was hard there," Sunset answered. "Since I worked as an engineer and are alway's a demand for them. Well, yeah..." Sunset then looked over to Carver, who is in frozen while looking outside the window as he ate his sandwich.
"Why are you looking out the window like that, dear?" Granny Smith asked Carver, as he immediately snapped himself out from the sight.
"Nothing, Granny," Carver replied hastily. "It's just the first time I got a chance to seen the outside looking over the trees. Never seen a real tree before..."
The Apple's eyes widened at the facts he just said. "Hold up, you're saying that because there were really no trees in the future?" Applejack asked.
"Yeah, AJ," Sunset replied with a nod. "There weren't really any trees left that time. Even animals like horses became rare after that."
The Apples went silent for a moment after that, not sure how to respond to such facts of the future. "That sounds awful, how did you people from the future able to survive with such things like that?" Applebloom asked.
"When the resources started to dry up and what factories there were was pumping enough substances for the rapidly growing population. We built something that could, the big Planetcracker-class ship called the USG Ishimura saved our day that time," Isaac answered, he then took a couple of spoonful pancakes before continued the explanation. "A ship that was so big and powerful it can pull a huge chunk of rocks from the planet's surface to space with its powerful gravity tethers so it can be harvested within the ship. If you ask how big the hole that ship can make on a planet, let's say it's big as a crater made by a meteor."
His explanation sends shivers down on the Apples' spines to know that. "And they just harvest that big chunk of planet's rock after that?" Applebloom asked.
"Yeah," Sunset added with a nod. "That ship was the earth's savior and ended the Resource Wars."
After several moments later, they all finished their breakfast and went off the table as Granny Smith and Applejack cleaned the plates from the table. Carver and Isaac went off to the police station to deal with the problems they had with the police and the military officials. Big Mac, Applebloom, and Granny Smith were outside the house taking care of the animals in the barn. While Applejack was with Sunset sat in the living room, reason why Applejack wasn't with her family? Granny already had enough people to deal with the barn, so Applejack was needed to keep an eye on Sunset for the time being.
Sunset was sitting next to Applejack on the same sofa where the doctors had Randall lied down on yesterday before they transferred him to the hospital to get looked over. Sunset had left her journal she used to use to contact Princess Twilight on the table yesterday when she stripped off her armor, which was still laid out to the side. So she took up her old journal and did a quick inspection of her book. She looked straight at the journal cover, the cover with the sign of her cutie mark and just stared it down with a sad sigh. Applejack observed that Sunset wanted to open her journal.
When Sunset reached for it, only barely touching the edge of the journal, the journal suddenly glowed in orange color. It surprised both Sunset and Applejack, Sunset proceeds to open her book and looked at the latest entry from the journal. During her stay in the future, the magic in her journal felt dormant, and whenever she tried writing in it, she received no reply from the other side.
Sunset opened the journal and was very shocked to found out that there was a lot of entries from Princess Twilight when Sunset was missing for a year. A lot of these entries were from Twilight pleading to Sunset to respond back and to come home. Sunset cupped her hand over her mouth as fresh tears leaked from her eyes. While Applejack looked her gaze on the journal, amazed to know that her dreams were true after all.
Sunset then looked up on the last entry that was sent just now to her. And there it was, by the look of the words it was showing the expression of sadness and regret. They both red the last entry in the journal.
"Sunset, I'm sorry. I should've taken you back to Equestria, but you went vanish to thin air for a year. I don't know if you're reading this or not, but please..... respond..... I beg you,,,,,, I'm sorry......."
Both Sunset and Applejack could only stare, frozen on the new entry they received. If the journal could still be able to receive new messages, then it means that Princess Twilight hasn't destroyed the portal to Equestria. Which means Sunset has a chance to be able to meet her fellow Equestrian again. All she needs to do is to reply back.
"AJ, get me something to write will you?" Sunset asked her.
"Yea, one moment," Applejack then get off the sofa and went to her room to get a writing tool.
After a moment Sunset waiting for Applejack to get something for her to write, she returned to her and gave it to her. "Here's a marker."
"Tha- wait, what?" Sunset asked in sudden worry and alert as she jumped off the sofa and looked over to her. "What do you mean 'here's a Marker?'"
Applejack quickly confused on what Sunset said. "That's a marker, a.... you know a writing tool," She said as she pointed at the marker that Sunset is holding.
Equestria, Ponyville, Castle Of Friendship, 08:49 AM
Twilight was doing her regular duties as a Royal Princess of Equestria, assisted by the other five elements and Starlight to deal with her job. She had a lot of duties in her castle, especially on working on the documents sent from Canterlot concerning magic and teaching ponies about Friendship.
Twilight, however, was currently feeling down while she performed her duties. See, while she was working on the documents in the library, her mind kept wandering back to Sunset's disappearance a year ago. She had realized that there was still no word from the red and yellow former unicorn and fellow ex-student. Her sad thoughts turned to anger when she met those human versions of her fellow elements on how quickly they turned on Sunset. How could let them do such things to Sunset so severely and so suddenly? And most of all, why they didn't give Sunset another chance to speak or just listen to her when things got worse.
Twilight sat the journal aside after she recently wrote in to message through the magic journal that's connected to Sunsets. And even then, she still had the portal to the human realm. She'd left it active for the ability to travel to and from the human world because it was the only magic source in their world and two for the off chance that Sunset makes her way back to Equestria. She know's Sunset is still out there somewhere to her journal, its what Twilight uses to keep portal open in the first place.
Despite the fact that Sunset has disappeared with her journal, the portal could still be activated by Twilight's journal on Equestria's end, hence because it's the magic source for the portal. Twilight always wanted to go out and find Sunset on her own, but she doesn't know where to start to look for her, and there are so little clues to go off of on how did she disappeared.
Twilight couldn't believe that's what happened to her. But she just won't give up on her either. If she could just see her again...
"Hey, Twilight," Starlight called as she grabbed Twilight by her shoulder, as the other five Elements Of Harmony followed up behind them. "You're okay?" Twilight let out a sad sigh before answering.
"No, I'm not Starlight, it's just," Twilight paused for a moment. "Sunset..."
"She's gone, Twily," Pinkie stated. "Don't you think she...?"
"No, that won't happen," Twilight replied. "If I could just hear that she's alright and responded to my message in the journal I'll be fine. But she's lost out there somewhere, and I am responsible for not getting to here sooner as a friend should." Twilight looked down at the journal again with sad, filled eyes. "I just wish she'd come back, just tell her how sorry I am for failing her."
As if her wish was granted, they witness the same journal glowed brightly with and rang a tingling noise. Twilight could only stare a spark of renewed hope as what she was seeing was true. Her journal on the table was glowing in purple magic.
"Oh my gosh!" Fluttershy gasped as her both front hooves went over to her cheeks. "Was that-?
"Ah can't believe it!" Applejack shouted.
"Do you think what I'm thinking?" Rainbow asked.
"Let me take a look," Twilight said as she and the rest walked over towards the journal that was glowing.
She opened her journal straight to her latest message to her, to their shock it has a reply for it. "Hey, Twilight. It's Sunset. Sorry if I have gone missing for.... a year right? I should have waited for you to open the portal but I just couldn't wait to get away at the time from what was happening to me, I used my magic to force the portal open and stepped through. Only to know the portal was malfunctioned and time traveled towards the future."
"Oh my GOSH!" Rarity shouted in shock as the rest acted the same. "She's alive!"
"She time traveled!?" Starlight asked with a shout.
"Wow, that's a crazy way to disappear, Sunset!" Twilight quickly took a quill telekinetically by magic and wrote it down on the journal. "Sunset, where have you been!!?? I missed you so much!"
"Long story," Sunset message responded. "I had some help along the way and by accident, managed to jump back to the exact time we're in. By the way, I'm coming to Equestria tonight. Is the portal working now?"
"Yes, the portal still works. I'm going to open the portal for you tonight," Twilight said as she wrote it down and tears came down from her eyes. "I was very worried about you, okay? After I heard what they did to you. I'm sorry..."
"It's alright" Sunset responded. "I'm sorry too if I was so reckless to open the portal by myself."
"It's okay," Twilight replied on the journal. "Just come back to Equestria please!"
"Okay, okay," Sunset responded. "By the way, I need to warn you about something. I'll be coming to Equestria with three other humans with me because we need your help to figure out a problem. Somethings going on in CHS and I think its magic related."
"But what about what they did to you?" Twilight asked back whilst writing it down. "You're coming here with three of them from CHS?"
"Just one, which is Applejack, the human," Sunset replied on the journal. The other two I hold very dear to me, and they time traveled with me back to the past. Together we went through a lot of bad situations together and I consider them to be family. Their names are Isaac Clarke and John Carver."
"Huh?" Twilight paused for a moment before writing it down. "Your family?"
"Like I said, it's a long story and I don't think I have the pages to fill to write everything," Sunset responded. "Just keep in mind on one thing, please don't freak out when we arrived. Because I'm sure, you're going to freak out if you see something else coming out from the portal other than us."
"Oh, okay....." Twilight responded awkwardly. "Okay, we'll keep that in mind. See you in the night then."
"See you soon," Sunset responded at last before Twilight closed the journal and smiled of Sunset's condition.
"What did she mean by don't freak out when they arrived?" Starlight asked.
"Yeah, what she meant by that?" Rainbow asked.
"I don't know," Twilight said in unsure. "But if she asked us to don't freak out, then we do that when they arrived."
Twilight then got up an headed for the portal to get it set up. Time for someone to somepony to come home.
Sweet Apple Acres, Human world.
"Everything's set," Sunset said as she closed her journal and put it on the table. "We're heading through the portal tonight and stay overnight there to figure out this trouble."
"Ya'h sure about this?" Applejack asked in doubt. "Ah' don't think Princess Twilight will like that Ah' coming with ya after knowing what we did to you, blaming you for the Anon-A-Miss posts. Even if our memories had been erased."
"The only person you need to worry about that right now for the only person they need to worry about is me, alright?" Sunset said firmly and seriously as hell. "Because I'll be angry as fuck when I found out who started all this. Understand?"
Knowing that Sunset was a dangerous person in her house made Applejack gulped in reflex a little at this. "Alright..."
Sunset then looked away from Applejack and stared down at the table. But then something dawned in her mind. Something that she's going to need.
"Applejack, has my old apartment been sold to someone else?"
Sunset's apartment, Applejack remembered that. "Not yet, but it was sealed off by the police since you've disappeared until you showed up yesterday. Ya want to check it out?"
"Yeah, it's been a long time for me and want to see it," Sunset said at last, before they both get off from the sofa and changed their clothes to head out the house.
Applejack changed her clothes with a white t-shirt that has an apple drawing on the front, and the short sleeves were colored green and skirt made from jeans that had pockets in them and white lining on the front.
While Sunset was wearing the same clothes, she wore from yesterday, except that the jacket she was wearing was replaced with a black hoodie jacket-attached with RIG attached to it. When Applejack asked where she got it from she said it was in her suits storage for clothing emergencies. She also had a comunicator on her left forearm and a holo-projector in between the zips of the jacket. Which allowed Sunset to hide her face from the public, but not the exposed RIG on her back. Applejack asked why she's going to wear that and was replied back saying it would make her tasks easier for wearing it, which was actually a bad idea in Applejacks view. But then Sunset gave a reply to her, something that Isaac would say.
Applejack just stayed silent about that and instead, told Granny Smith that they were going out for a bit. After that, the two walked out the house and down the side street towards the city. Many things Sunset saw whilst hiding her head with the hood of her jacket made smile at the sights. Children were playing around the sidewalk, cars passing by at the light traffics, people walked pass by them and chattered happily. Not sure how long they were walking, but none of the people around them seems to be noticing the RIG that Sunset has been wearing, which Applejack found it odd for the people in the city.
They walked for a quite a time on the road. Stopping for a short time to buy food at a hot dog stand for food and cold fruit juices. They both reached the old place where Sunset lived. Her good ol' apartment in the city. Still looks good from the outside of the second-floor red apartment.
Sunset's old apartment was sealed up with yellow police tape that was left alone in a lousy condition. The front door was sealed with a police sticker on the front door to ward off intruders. The from the stained windows of the apartment they could see it was deserted as the dark colors of the red were infecting the walls with signs of water damage. Sunset took a moment of silence as she gazed at what was left of her old apartment. Applejack can tell that she was sad about the condition of her old apartment was in.
"I'm fine," Sunset replied. "I just didn't expect my apartment to be in such a condition. I didn't think the water damage alone is a surprise. "
"Ah'm sure the police will sort this one out," Applejack added.
"I hope so," Sunset replied, then turned her look at Applejack. "Let's take a little trip around the town."
Both AJ and Sunset took a good trip around the town. Sunset was happy with the condition of the town as it was still the same as when she left it, reminding her of how the condition of Lunar Colony was before it was razed to the ground by those Unitologist bastards. Sunset sighed in relieve as she took a good look at the park while they walking ahead. They both went into a bookstore because Sunset wanted to buy a novel. After they exited the store, Sunset opened up the inventory hologram in front of her and put it in her inventory slot. Applejack felt it uneasy to know that Sunset brought her Plasma Cutter and a bunch of ammo to go with it.
After they took a pleasant trip around the city until it was around noon. They then returned to Applejack's house peacefully without being stopped by anyone. As they walked through the front door, they both became surprised that Isaac and Carver were sitting with Randall on the sofa along with Dr. Whooves and Nurse Redheart, the latter two sitting in front of Randall taking care of Randall. Dr. Whooves was helping Isaac on attaching the robotic prosthetic hands to Randall. The robotic hands looked like the real hands that people had except that the hands had fingerless gloves on them. Although they seemed to be a darker colored than his skin tone.
Randall tested out his new hands and was happy with the good result of his hands. Sunset and Applejack can see how his face looks like. His hair was black and cut in short sides with medium length on top as the front side of the hair made a curvy-spike shape to the sky. His eyes were purple and had an oval-shaped face. He is old as a young adult from what Sunset guessed. He was still inside his snowsuit with all of the Marker symbols on it, at least he's not wearing his mask.
"I didn't know you are already in good shape," Sunset commented, surprising everyone inside for their return. "Good to see you have new hands, Randall."
"Sure as hell, the one who saved me used a bunch of med packs to stop the bleeding and nerve damage in my wrists," Randall replied as he gripped his both hands softly. "Happy to be out from the hospital."
"You got your medication, right?" the nurse asked, which Randall nodded. "Just don't forget to drink them."
"Don't worry, he'll remember," Carver added.
"Alright, we'll be off now," Dr. Whooves said as he and the nurse collected their equipment before looking back at everyone. "Have a good day, everyone."
They both went off from the house, not before they gave a greet-like nod to AJ and Sunset. Applejack then sat down on one of the chairs in the living room while Sunset only leaned against the wall next to the sofa. Sunset gave a cheeky smile to Isaac to not know something.
"You already made those by yesterday?" Sunset asked.
"The Terra Nova's medical wing is in the MID section in the Connie Towers, The parts were all there I just assembled them properly. Even if they are nearly two hundred years old they're still good," Isaac replied as he patted Randall's shoulder.
"By the way here's the situation," Carver said to change the topic. "We'll be alright here as long as we try to cooperate with the police and military about all the information we give them. And they will also give us warnings to not do anything stupid from our information. They also said they might want the gear we have right now for 'emergency use.' And right now, we might get some jobs with the police while we're staying. Don't know about you two but I can work with being a police officer."
"Sounds good to me," Sunset added with consent. "We'll talk more about that later, right now I want to tell you something about Princess Twilight."
"That princess of Equestria?" Isaac asked.
"Yeah, the good news is we can meet her tonight," Sunset answered. "She's going to open the portal for us tonight, Isaac, Carver, AJ and me will be going to meet her."
"Equestria?" Randall asked. "What kind of place is that?"
"My old homeworld in a parallel dimension," Sunset answered. "You want to come with us as well?"
"For real?... You know what, sure. I could use a new place of scenery." Randall said. No longer caring at this point. He just wanted to be useful for a good cause.
"Well I won't spoil the fun for you then," Sunset chuckled, wanting to keep it a surprise as Isaac and Carver would want to keep that way. "Now, we're just playing the waiting game."
The group decided to waste the hours away by watching TV. All rotating between channels. Issac and Sunset liked what was on the history channel. Some new show that Sunset never saw before she left about blacksmiths making knives and historic weapons. While Carver and Randall were liking this Seal Team Six show that showed after.
After hours of waiting and watching TV the night came, it was nearing night time. Randall, Isaac, Carver, and Sunset went back to the Terra Nova to changed their clothes while Applejack just went to her room to change before going out to where the portal was. Applejack was wearing a plain t-shirt, jeans, boots and her usual hat for the trip. Applejack and Big Mac wanted by the family truck for the other four to come when they shocked the pair of them.
Randall was wearing Hostile Environment suit which has the Marker symbols on it, Isaac wore his golden yellow Elite Engineering Suit, Carver had his black Special Forces Suit, and Sunset in her dark digital camo soldier suit.
The four individuals in the suits didn't feel comfortable not bringing their suits with them all the time, so they just use them. Sunset told them that they will meet Princess Twilight and stay with her overnight to figure everything out before returning tomorrow.
Big Mac drove them five from the house with the old truck, Applejack was sitting in the middle seat in between her brother and Sunset. Applejack kept looking over at Sunset every few minutes, she had her helmet as she looked outside. The low blue light of her mask give her the creeps with the way Sunset's helmet looked around. The other three sat in the back of the truck with their helmets on, all laid down enough to hide their whole body from the public. It was around fifteen minutes later as they drove, they finally reached their destination. There were no people around the site which means they're safe from detection. What made all of them surprised everyone except Isaac and Sunset, of where the place where the portal was opened at, Canterlot High School.
"The portal is at our school?" Applejack asked in confusion as she grabbed her bag from the truck.
"I was hoping for something better than the portal showing up at school," Carver added in annoyed.
"This school....." Isaac remembered this, knowing he had visited the place back in the future. "I think, yea I know where the portal you mentioned is at."
They all followed Isaac and Sunset towards where's the portal is, except for Big Mac who was told to go back home because he was not needed to meet the Princess. They all followed them until they reached the iconic statue of the of a pony with wings and a horn. Located at the front side of the school, the iconic statue of a colt horse standing on top of its pedestal. They all just stood there for a moment in silence, if not for Carver interrupted the silence.
"So!?" Carver shouted. "Where's the portal?"
Sunset paused for a moment before she looked towards the base of the statue that was as a high as an average person's height. "Right here."
Sunset put her hands on the wall of the pedestal. Instead, her hand was stick to the wall, her hand goes through the wall as purple magic was glowing on the edges of her hand. Carver, Randall, Isaac, and Applejack were in awe seeing her hand got through the wall. They have found the portal that Sunset mentioned.
"So, all we need to do just go through it," Isaac said, continued by Randall. "You sure it is safe?"
"I'm sure," Sunset replied as she looked back at him. "If she activated the portal from the other side it means we're fine."
They all looked at each other, preparing to see what will they see on the other side. Those who used their suits wore their helmet from the holo projector automatically. Applejack only gulped and readied herself to enter the portal. After a moment of preparing themselves, Sunset gives the order.
"Let's go people."
All six of the Elements Of Harmony was waiting in the library as the Crystal Mirror was activated to open the portal between the human and pony universes. They're alongside them stood the other rulers of Equestria, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, along with Princess Cadence and Shining Armor, of the Crystal Empire. Starlight and some of the Royal Guards Celestia brought stood by the door were all waiting for their arrival. Twilight was smiling for a long time waiting for Sunset's arrival along with the other humans with her.
"When are they coming?" Princess Celestia asked.
"Should be in a moment now," Twilight replied. "I'm sure she will be coming."
Like what Twilight predicted, the Crystal Mirror reacted by itself meaning that Sunset has entered the portal. Waiting for a moment as the portal made a loud clanking sound and it was glowing brightly, somethings resembling ponies in shape came out from the portal, and all landed hard on the floor.
After the ponies that were looking away from the mirror because of brightness, all looked towards what came out from the mirror. Some became a little terrified on who or what just came out from the mirror.
Besides what must have been the human Applejack, who was looked the exact as the Pony Applejack, were the four others looked like wearing some strange metallic armors that they have never seen before, more futuristic for them as their helmets showing their intimidating visors at them.
One pony was wearing a black suit and golden yellow rib-like armor on them while the helmet really shaped exactly as a colt's head with 3 blue visors on it. The appendages on his side weaved around like wings showing him off as a pegasus. Another pony was wearing an armor that was looked recommended to use for winter season, but it was full of strange symbols that they never have seen before from head to stomach, his helmet has 3 white visors on it and some sort of cloth mask underneath the visors, and he was a unicorn pony because he had his horn above his head and was sealed under his helmet. The other pony was the same as the snowsuit one but seems to be wearing an olive-green suit and black while the armor plating had black and dark-grey pixels color, while the helmet had two blue visors and a horn on top of the head which stating the pony was an unicorn.
The last one was much more scary, instead of a pony, he was a griffon. And to all the ponies there he was the most frightening griffon they'd ever seen. The griffon had sold black armor around him and wore an underlayer red suit, while the helmet matching the same as the griffon's head, its shape as the skeletal griffon helmet and had emits a glow red color from the viewport of the helmet.
The newcomers were all looked stunned after they got through the portal, especially human AJ who had a little headache and comfort it with her hooves, only to realize what she is now. They all tried to stand up on two legs and were a little freaked out about to know that they were ponies... and a griffon apparently. All except the olive green one as it just stood up on all fours like it was natural.
The rest eventually were able to stand up on four legs and stared straight towards the other ponies who waited for somepony's arrival from the human world. Two of them, the pony in rib-like armor and the griffin nearly took their weapons out from their inventory slots as the Royal Guards, and the Princesses readied their weapons and magic's at them until they were stopped by a pony in soldier suit by voice.
"Stand down," she said. "I know them."
After they stand down, the griffon took notice on what he is now. "It's just me or I'm not a pony?"
The newcomers looked toward the griffon in black and red armor, and they were surprised with his appearance. "Carver, you're a griffon," the pony in the soldier suit said.
"Ain't that great," Carver added in annoyed.
"Who are you?" Princess Luna asked with a shout. "We know that's Applejack with you, but who are you?"
The pony in soldier suit looked back at the three in armor and gave them a nod to open their helmets. The first one was the one in rib-like armor, his fur was light brown, but his mane was black and dark grey with sporting shaggy hair and stubble to show his old age. The second was Carver, the griffon, his whole fur of his head was colored in white while the top hair of his head shaped into a bald, and most noticeably the large scar on his left side of his face. The third was the pony in his snowsuit, His mane was black and cut in short sides with medium length on top as the front side of the hair made a curvy-spike shape to the sky. His eyes were purple, and his face was the exact as Shining's except his fur was purple like Twilight. The last one was the pony in her soldier suit, they all were smiled at who are they looking at.
"SUNSET?!"
Chapter 5 - Trip In Equestria
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. Chapter 6 - The Memory Stone
Author's Note
Welp, I think this is the part where things get ridiculous.
Original song by Linkin Park. RIP Chester Bennington, a great man as he is in our life.
Chapter 6 - The Memory Stone
Sunset and the rest of her group decided to take the long walk back to the castle. Mainly for three reasons. One, for Sunset, was trying to calm herself down. Two, so the others can see the city. Three, Isaac, Carver, and Randall could avoid getting teleportation sickness for. And Moondancer and Coco Pummel were still with them because they were heading for Canterlot castle for some business.
They can say, Moondancer and Coco both were amazed by the technology that Sunset's team had, especially the individual armor each of them wore.
Especially the high tech and intimidating armor Carver was wearing. With his griffon physic, his appearance really suited him well in his Spec Forces suit. More than that, they had some conversation on the way on to the castle. However, Twilight was talking with AJ and with her group, while Coco and Moondancer were talking with Sunset's group.
"Why are you both want to head to the castle?" Sunset asked to Coco and Moondancer.
"Well, some of the Princesses staff wanted Coco to make some new uniform dresses for them, and I come along to help her with that," Moondancer answered.
"Huh, figures.." Sunset commented.
"You sounded like you don't like dresses," Coco said with a sad tone.
"Kind of hard too after working and got her skills to be an expert engineer like me," Isaac added.
"Expert engineer?" Moondancer asked in surprise. "So you can fix everything?"
"Well yeah," Sunset replied. " Seeing how advanced this place is, everything here looks easy for us compared to what we have."
"Amen to that," Isaac added.
"That griffon over there, is he a soldier for the Griffon Kingdom, right?" Coco asked in nervous.
"It's Carver, and no I'm not," Carver answered with a flat tone. "I'm a soldier for Earth Defense Force."
"Sounds like you were protecting a planet," Moondancer commented, which received the glares of Sunset's team. "What?"
"Well that's what he does before that time Sunset and Isaac helped him with that," Randall said.
"Yeah..." Sunset then popped out her inventory slot screen hologram in front of everyone, which surprised Coco and Moondancer. "Well, at least my Plasma Cutter is with me."
The other three quickly reminded of their weapons and quickly popped out the hologram screens in front of them, the residence in the Canterlot city recoiled in surprise either. "Well, looks like we all only brought our Plasma Cutters here, including Randall," Isaac said.
"At least we got something for self-defense," Carver said.
"And for fixing and cutting," Sunset added.
"Damn right," Randall said in agreement.
After they turned off their screens, they looked around them again to see that the residents were amazed by what they just did. They only kept moving along despite the residence still glaring at them in amazement.
"What... was that?" Moondancer asked in stunned.
"Inventory Screen, hologram," Sunset answered as they closed their inventory screen. "It's not something you see every day or here in this day of age really because it's not magic, and besides our tech is much more advanced than anything Equestria has now."
"Oooh..." Coco was amazed. "Sounds cool."
"Yeah, I know." Sunset smiling at their childlike wonder.
They kept on walking until reaching the edge side of the town, meaning they just finished their quick tour around the Canterlot. Isaac, Carver, and Randall felt better afterward from the tour because of how the buildings in the town looked like and feel like they are in the year of Medieval.
While they glanced around them, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna horns silently glowed and charged up the teleportation spell. Then in a quick blink of an eye, Sunset's and the princesses group were all teleported to the great hall inside Canterlot Castle. The hall that has stairs with the windows of Celestia's and Luna's sun and moon colored-drawing after the first stairs, two ways stairs were heading left and right. More than that, the hall had a checkered floor with red carpets laid out to the stairs that stretched in four directions, while on the stairs stretched into 3. Sunset's team, besides Sunset and the rest of the natural born ponies, felt disoriented from the sudden teleport until they had a better look at their current. They then realized that the princesses teleported them.
"Goddammit, Princess! Could you at least warn us you go teleporting us like that?!" Carver asked in annoyed as he felt dizzy.
"If I did, you all will going flying off like you did earlier," Celestia replied wisely.
"Sounds fair," Isaac commented, which is really right about that.
"So, this is where we went on our own ways," Moondancer said to Sunset. "See ya later, Sunset."
"Later," Sunset replied with a nod before Coco and Moondancer went off to the other section of the castle to finished up their errands.
Eventually, the Princesses and Sunset's team separate themselves from Twilight and her friends as they returned to Sunset's guest room. They all entered the guest room and closed the door. They all were standing in the middle of the room, having a conversation about something. Something about what they were going to do when they return back to the human world during and after they deal with the problems at CHS.
"Well, Carver's going to be a cop back there," Sunset said. "Isaac, Randall, what are you gonna working as?"
"You know?" Isaac replied. "I better off as a freelancer engineer for now."
"I think I'll go stick with Carver," Randall said. "But I'll probably be working with mechanics and engineering stuff too because I was also an engineer long before joining the Unitologists."
"Goddamn, you amaze me," Carver commented as Isaac and Sunset smiled to found out they now had another old-timer engineer with them.
"Mr, Clark. Mr, Char. If thou art is looking for work we could hire the for any jobs we may have for the in the foreseeable future?" Luna offered. "We art very interested in thy skills if you can aid our ponies into our stares ." Luna herself had little stares herself twinkling in her eye at the hope at the possibilities the two could bring.
Isaac and Randall looked at each other before glancing over at Sunset. She shrugs her shoulders while she lifted her hoof and tilting it side to side. Translation: "Not sure about it, sounds like a bad idea."
"Will come back to that after everything has calmed down and were settled in one place," Isaac answered to which Randall nodded in agreement.
Princess Luna started to squeal like a foul before realizing what she did and blushed in embellishment. Much to her sister's amusement.
"And in the meantime, you'll be living in ma'h house for awhile," AJ stated.
"Yep, until we made a few credits to get ourselves an apartment," Isaac said.
"I still got my own old apartment in the city," Sunset said. "But it's still sealed off by the police, not sure about you guys."
"You know, there's also another apartment next to yours, Sunset," AJ said. "Ah' heard the owner of that apartment already moved away to another city."
"Huh, looks like we just found our own apartment," Isaac said as he glanced at them. "That's convenient."
"Well, after we pay for the apartment," Randall said, then he showed two of his prosthetic fingers to them and open-closed while saying. "We're going to do some 'renovations' in our apartment."
"Yeah, pays to be prepared," Sunset commented in agreement.
"Are yall telling me that you're going to adding an armory into your apartment?!" AJ asked in amazement.
"Eeyup," Isaac, Carver, Sunset, and Randall said in unison.
"By the way, about that CHS stuffs," Isaac said to change the topic. "Are you sure you want to go back to that school?"
"Yep," Sunset replied.
"Despite that your former friends at CHS hate you?" Carver asked. "This is not going to work you know. Why can't you let it go away?"
"They may be my former friends, yes," Sunset said. "But I want to find out who did this to them and will make sure they realize that what they have done and pay for it with what they have done to me."
Sunset then looked over to AJ with a sharp eye. "Including you."
AJ gulped again at this, but then Isaac defended her. "Hey! Calm down, let's just focus on this problem alright?"
Sunset only sighed. "Alright, ok."
"Look, maybe we can be friends again and put all this behind us?" AJ asked nervously.
Sunset only silent for a moment on that. Though that reminded them of their friends, who fought to helped them and died along the way. Either by their own hands or the monsters. They were all dead because of them. The only thing that left for Sunset is only her family and her former friends.
"I hope so," Sunset replied with a frown and sorrow as she looked away from AJ. "The only thing that's left for me is only my former friends...... and my family. No one else than that. Everyone else we know is all dead."
Isaac did hear that and felt sadness and grief from it. Isaac then put his hoof on Sunsets shoulder. "We're going to be alright. You're going to be alright, ok?"
Sunset was silent in content, but she replied. "Okay, Isaac."
"You still have us," Carver added. "Don't worry about it."
"Okay, Carver," Sunset replied with a nod.
"I hope you haven't forgotten about me, Sunset." Said Princess Celestia.
"Celestia?" Sunset said in confusion already forgetting that Celestia and Luna were still with them.
"For as long as I can remember I've always seen Equestria as my home and welcomed all who live within its borders. As for all my students, both after and before your time. I've treated them like an extension of my family. Like I do for all the ponies of Equestria, I see them as my fouls, and I do care for them" Celestia said as she walked up and hugged her former student.
"Including the ones that are rebellious." She whispered into Sunset's ear. Making her crack a smile before parting, with Sunset feeling a little lighter the sentiment.
"By the way, what are you going to do for work when we get back, Sunset?" Randall asked.
"Freelancer engineer," Sunset said as she shrugged. "Nothing more than that, for now."
"Alright then," Randall said at last.
They all paused for a moment before Isaac asked something to Sunset. "Sunset, you said this place full of magic right?"
"Yeah," Sunset replied.
"Does that includes the age reversing spell?" Isaac asked again, which got her up on that.
"Yes it does, but the only ones who can do that around here is only Celestia. I was actually thinking about asking you about that." She said over to Celestia.
"You're thinking that Sunset should be back to school again?!" Carver asked. "She's already grown up!"
"Really, like she said before she did not officially finish high school," Isaac said. "Before she was working under me to be an Engineer for the CEC, I gave her the offer to work alongside me in CEC, and they just accepted it. I didn't even have to put her in school before all this shit on the Ishimura happened."
"Wait, what?" Randall asked in surprise. "That was reckless but smart your part?"
"Can't believe it," Sunset added. "Worked as an engineer only to face several Necromorph outbreaks."
Isaac and Randall felt the same about it, isn't it the soldiers who were supposed to be prepared for that? "Gonna agree on that," Isaac said.
"So Princess, would you like to do the reverse age spell?" AJ asked.
"I would not be against it but would need to gather up some of my strength for it. It is not an easy spell just to do at moments noticed. Meet us over in the throne room in a few minutes, I'll be ready for you then." Celestia instructed before she and her sister left their room.
After they left the two princesses left, Sunsets group continued on talking about their plans for the future. What they were thinking about adding to the apartment. What to do with the remains of the Terra Nova, that sort of thing.
"So are we ready to go?" Sunset asked everyone.
"Sure, why not?" Carver answered before they went out of the room and went looking for the throne room, but not before Sunset used the mapping system because it's been a long while since she lived here in the castle that she doesn't remember.
As they kept walking, Isaac and Sunset suddenly both felt dizzy. They both realized that they were still suffering the effects from the Markers. Their dementia was striking their heads again as they started to stagger while they walked. It made AJ quickly worried about what was happening to them. Sunset and Isaac both kept hearing these words.
"Make Us Whole... Make Us Whole... Make Us Whole... Make Us Whole..."
"Get the fuck out from my head!" Sunset blurted in pain as the chant continues.
"Are the memories coming back to you? They are coming back to me..... the good ones...... oh ooh....... the bad one..... and the more I remember, the more my head hurts..... I can see the symbols...... can you see the symbols to Isaac, Sunset?"
"Just stop it...." Isaac said as they both holding their heads in pain.
"YOU MADE ME DIE!"
"Hey, you're okay?!" Carver asked quickly as he and Randall patted their backs and wake them back to reality.
"Car-Carver..." Sunset said as she trailed off and looked at him. "I-I'm fine."
"Yeah, me too," Isaac said as he and Sunset lower down their hooves from their heads.
"What happened?" AJ asked worriedly as she had watched them suffer.
"It's their dementia," Randall said. "They'll be fine."
They traversed the path, following the direction of the Locator. Luckily, they found Celestia right where she said she be in the throne room. Celestia was with Luna and was talking with Twilight and Starlight. When they entered the room, the attention of the alicorns and the unicorn were directed toward Sunset and her approaching group. They came closer to them and started up their conversation.
"Princess Celestia," Sunset greeted. "I'm ready whenever you are."
"Ready for what exactly?" Twilight asked. Sunset figuring that She and Starlight haven't been updated on the situation.
"Sunset has asked Celestia to use the age reversing spell," Isaac explained.
"Oh, we actually wanted to talk to you about it," Starlight added in surprise.
"Well, what about it?" Carver asked.
"I am ready to cast the reverse aging spell for you," Celestia said. "But I must warn you that this aging spell will be permanent."
"Any other side effects on it besides that?" Sunset asked. "Can it affect someone's personality or intelligence?"
"It won't affect personality or even intelligence," Twilight answered. "The only side effect of this spell is that after this spell is given to you, we can't reverse the spell again to go back to your original age until we wait for a year. But if after a year passed, we can't revert the spell back to your original age, and it will be permanent."
"Well, that's great," Randall commented.
"We can use the spell right now if you are ready Sunset," Celestia said."But are you absolutely sure?"
Sunset felt so much doubt about it. She's physically twenty-two years old with a mental maturity of a nineteen-year-old, while Isaac is nearly in his fifties and Carver is in his late thirties. You know, Sunset wanted that but not sure if she wanted to. What about Isaac and Carver? Won't they be on board this? Fully grown up Sunset goes back to school because she's not officially passed her school days, won't they object to that?
Sunset kept thinking about the proposal after she announced it earlier and decided that she kept Isaac, AJ, Randall, and Carver waiting long enough for her decision. Isaac could see her doubts in Sunsets eyes. For as long as Isaac has known her, things have not been very well for the last six years. The only thing she got out of that time was only bad memories, including some of the things they were doing while in hiding for 3 years after escaping Titan Station. Isaac just wanted to see Sunset was happy with her life.
"Wha-?" Sunset asked in surprise. "I wasn't sure you were with me on this?"
"Look, the only last thing I want is for you to be happy living your life," Isaac replied. "After all we did together to survive, I can't bear to see you suffer because you missed all of this. Your still the only family I had, and I'm not moving away because of this. Where ever home is, either in this world or in OUR world, is home for us."
Sunset still not convinced about this, but then Carver helped Isaac on that. "I already lost my family, alright? But I'm still not losing you or Isaac or Randall here. You're like a daughter to me, I wish Dylan were here to play with you. We won't get in your way because of this. It's your choice."
Sunset only remained silent for a moment, she has made her choice. "Alright then, Celestia, do it."
"Alright, you said you're physically twenty-two years old," Celestia stated. "Let me reversed the age to seventeen."
Celestia then glowed her horn and engulfed her magic around Sunset and was covered with very bright light which made everyone in the room looked away. After a moment of glowing magic, the bright magic fade away from Sunset and everyone looked over to her. For sure she was still in the same condition, but she felt a little younger again in her seventeen years. Though there was something odd for Isaac and Carver. They both felt like they were in their early thirty years old younger. Which Isaac asked Celestia immediately.
"Wait? Did you just used the age spell on me as well?" Isaac asked, which surprised Sunset and AJ.
"Well, yes, quietly," Luna replied shyly. "We thought if Isaac and Carver also got the age spell back into their 30's it made things much better."
That's a maybe, Isaac however still felt weary and haggard as before though, as for Carver, however. "Someone get me a mirror will quick."
Twilight did so by summoning one for the griffon. Carver looked over himself and saw that he had more feathers going over his bald head. "I don't know if this is good for a griffon, but I think I look good," he smiled at himself. Isaac walked and to looked over himself.
"All pepper and no salt? Wow, thirty never looked so good."
"Hey, why Randall didn't get one?" AJ asked.
"If their plan was setting my age to 30 then you're out of luck," Randall replied. "I'm 31 years old."
"Huh, okay," Twilight added. "So, when you all return to the human world?"
"Tonight," Randall answered. "We'll be sleeping over at AJ's house again and before heading to that school. Except me, because I want to tour around that city. You know see what the past was like without all the flying car's and check out that apartment that AJ was talking about."
"I'll come with you," Twilight said. "Since this is a magic problem, I'm the only one who may be able to help you with any problems that may show up."
"Okay, Twilight," Carver said as he gave a thumbs up at her with his claw. "Just don't screw shit up anymore then it already is, alright?"
"Okay," Twilight answered awkwardly to his profanities.
"What the time is now?" Isaac asked.
"Currently 4:30 PM in the evening," Luna answered. "You want to go to Twilight's castle where the mirror is?"
"Yeah, but first," Sunset paused. "I want to see Ponyville again. its been a while from my standpoint and like to see as much as I can before leaving. "
"Sounds like a town," Randall stated, which is true.
"Well, kind of," Sunset added.
"Alright then," Starlight paused. "Let's go to Ponyville."
One train ride Later
Sunset's group, along with the princesses and Starlight were having a tour at Ponyville. Besides the sights of the town, the pony residence were surprised by the new ponies, one of them some residents recognized as Sunset Shimmer has returned and greeted her kindly. Though the shocking one for them, however, was the presence of the badass griffon in scary black armor.
Carver in his Spec Forces suit was doing his best at ignoring the looks he was getting. Sunset and Celestia had told them to calm down because Carver the griffon was actually on their side, which they all sighed in relieve. Much more than that, they were greeted by the rest of the Elements Of Harmony. What was scary to them was, Pinkie came out from nowhere and shoot out a cannon of confetti to them and shouted the 'welcome-back party' to them. Isaac had already pulled out his rifle and nearly pulled the trigger on Pinkie if Randall had not managed to hold him off with his kinesis magic.
"Can you at least tell her to stop popping up from nowhere like that?!" Isaac shouted in fear and worry. "I nearly made someone killed here!"
"Pinkie, you hear that?" Twilight asked Pinkie. "Stop freaking them out like that."
"Oh oh... OK."
"Pinkie is just being Pinkie," Sunset reminded herself as did AJ.
As they kept walking on, they reached Sugarcube Corner where Pinkie worked in. They all decided to go in and ordered some food. As they wait for the snacks, they looked around the sugary cafe they're in. Cakes, muffins, cupcakes were everywhere to them, and the room was very well decorated. More than that, the ponies inside the cafe were amazed by the presence of Sunset's group with their futuristic armor on, especially Octavia and Lyra who just asking questions to Sunset on what she and her group were wearing.
Once they got their hooves on the snacks and cakes, Isaac, Carver, and Randall didn't want to stop eating. It had been many years since any of them had eaten a cake in their life, and also it tasted very, very good and had many good things to say about it.
"All other food is ruined for now because of this," Isaac said as he munched on the pink frosted strawberry cake in orgasmic bliss.
"Its like there is a battle going on about in my mouth," Carver said in awe from the chocolate cupcake in his claw.
"I CAN SEE THE HOLY LAND!" Shouted the wide eye Randall, as he and Celestia scarfed as much the extra caffeinated coffee cake down in their mouths as fast as they can. Much to Sunset's and Luna's amusement as they sipped their milkshakes.
Pinkie could suck in as much pride and happiness as she could from the comments she'd received. Now she can put a stamp her goods saying their 'other world approved' on her treats.
After that, along with a stomach pump and a detox later thanks to Pinkie. They went out of the cafe and continued to tour around the town. After they finished their tour, they headed to Twilight's Castle of Harmony and the whole Sunset's group were surprised by the structure of her castle.
"Is that castle made of crystals?" Randall asked in impression.
"Yeah," Starlight answered.
"Man wished I had churches like that where we came from," Randall commented, which he received the glares of Sunset's group about it. "Hey! This is better than what that crazy cult said to build the church."
"Well," Isaac paused. "How I cannot agree on that?"
They proceeded to head into the castle and waited for night to dawn on them. Isaac, Carver, and Randall already realized that nearly the whole castle was made of crystals for sure. The five spent their time reading the books in the library or were having a chat with each other. Sunset was with AJ, Carver, and Twilight having said chat.
"You sure you want on board on this Carver?" Sunset asked.
"Why not kid?" Carver asked back with a shrug. "You have problems back in that school, and I'm gonna help you with that."
"Yeah, but are you sure about that?" Sunset asked again.
Carver only chuckled at this and made a grin on his beak, he just rubbed Sunset's mane with his claw. "You already sounds like my boy again."
"You did tell us what happened to your family, Carver?" Twilight asked as she leaned forward on the table.
Carver suddenly felt sensitive on what she asked, but then he shared about what happened to his family. "The Unitologist killed them before I able to save them."
AJ and Twilight felt bad for what happened to his family. "Ah'm sorry to hear that," AJ said in sad.
Carver only chuckled at her statement and shook his head. "Try harder."
They were not sure on what Carver meant by that, except Sunset, though she wasn't going to say what is it. "You one hard soldier, Carver."
"Tell that to the government who tried to kill you," Carver shot back while pointing his index finger of his claw at her, which he laughed at that.
Sunset smiled a little on the joke. "Hilarious."
"By the way," Twilight interrupted. "Is there anything I need to know before I'm going back to the human world?"
"First of all, there is a human counterpart of you in CHS," AJ answered. "The difference between you and her I could tell is she wears eyeglasses and dose her hair up in a bun."
"Wow, can't wait to see you in glasses, Twilight. What's next?" Sunset asked in sarcasm but yet not smiling.
"I'm not sure if ya' all familiar with the Dazzlings," AJ said in doubt. "But they are the students of CHS as well, and we are friends of them."
"They're still around?" Sunset said in surprised.
"Yeah, and now that I think about it with the memory loss thing. I remember asking Aria about where they came from, and she just looked lost. When I asked again about it she said her sisters couldn't remember where they came from and asked me to tell our friends about it."
"Which add more to the pile to why we need to stop this. Anything else than that?" Carver asked.
"Got another best friend named Juniper Montage," AJ replied. "A movie enthusiast. Nothing else than that, except for Sunset's presence, when she shows up the whole school gone hostile."
"I'm sure I can handle that," Sunset said with confidence. "Been through three outbreaks each and came out on top. A school full of angry high school teenagers? A cakewalk."
When night fell upon the castle, around ten PM, Sunset's team and Twilight were getting ready to return to the human world. Twilight brought her bag with her and was bringing some useful stuff for her journey to the human world. AJ checked everything she had in her bag and was making sure not lose her phone because she'd was going to call Big Mac to pick them up when needed. Sunset was preparing at the activated mirror portal.
The rest of the princesses and the Elements Of Harmony watched them preparing for their departure. Sunset's team and Twilight looked back at them and waved at them.
"Goodbye, everyone," Sunset said as she waved her hoof at them.
"Be careful out there, Sunset," Celestia replied back before the group activated their helmets (except AJ and Twilight) and entered the portal and reach the human world.
Canterlot High School, 10:15 PM.
Sunset was the first to pop out the bright portal before the rest came out as well and piled up on one spot. They piled off and managed to get back on their two feet and looked around the area. The good thing was the area they're in are dark and safe. AJ quickly pulled out her phone and called Big Mac for a pick up with the family truck. As they waited for a few moments, hiding by the bushes on the front side of the school looking out for any signs of trouble until Big Mac arrived.
Twilight took a seat between Applejack and her brother while Sunset and the rest took their seats on the back of the truck, hiding their whole bodies from the public. It was a quick ten-minute drive thanks to the quiet traffic as they reached Applejack's house with any fuss. They got off the truck and collapsed their helmets and proceeds to enter the hose and was greeted by Granny Smith and Applebloom.
Twilight, Isaac, and Carver went off to the guest room to rest for tomorrow while Randall decided to sleep on the sofa in the living room again. Sunset decided that she wanted to be the lookout for the night instead of sleeping. But after awhile Sunset's vision started to blur and everything around her were starting to get funky before she started hearing voices.
"Why did you come looking for me if you knew I was dead, Sunset? Did you think I would forgive you?"
"Shut up!" Sunset whispered to herself.
"Don't let it take me! Please! Help me!"
"No, she's dead."
"Tell her I didn't mean to do it! See her! Tell her!"
"Shut up!" Sunset shouted. When they were gone, she realized everything was coming back to normal and that she had another dose of dementia hit her.
In silent, Sunset sat back down in her chair and looked at herself. Earlier she changed into her hacker suit and had placed her Plasma Cutter on the table next to her. Sunset then looked out the window to see the view while she resisted her sleep. Though as the night moves on, Sunset was startled by someone when she heard her name be called. Turning her head around, she that it was Randall that snapped her out of her watch.
"You're not sleeping yet?" Randall asked.
"No," Sunset replied, "I just don't want to sleep."
Randall stayed silent for a moment before speaking again. "What's with the shouting earlier about? Dementia?"
Sunset stares at him in silence but replied to his question with a nod.
"Hey, at least we're safe from those monsters," Randall added.
Sunset just in doubt. "I don't feel so."
"Why?" Randall asked.
"It's just..." Sunset paused for a moment. "I felt that we didn't escape our fate yet. I felt that those things still following us around."
"I understand what you mean," Randall said. "What I'm trying to tell you now is take a break, Sunset. You've been fighting for your life for a long time. now get some rest will ya?"
Sunset didn't reply. Instead, she just looked out the window again to watch the view.
"Alright, good night, Sunset," Randall said before he turned his back and slept.
"Good night," Sunset replied without looking at him.
Sunset took her watch for mere minutes until her eyes were felt sleepy. Without moment noticed, she slowly closed her eyes and drifted into sleep. Not going so sure whether this time will be a nightmare or not.
The Sprawl, 2511
Isaac was lending his shoulder to Sunset from their latest encounter with the pack and a Tripod. She wasn't thrilled with the development of babies turning into killing machines and even less so of kids being slaughtered for the same purpose. And with Nicole tormenting them both to the point of death via hallucinations stabbing them in the eye. They had to rely on each other when she started coming around. With the encounters of blots of madness, they've been receiving were getting worse by one after the other. Climbing into the elevator, Isaac goes and hits the lift controls sending them upward towards the top levels of the church and hopefully near Diana's position. With that done he opened a com channel with Diana,
"Diana, you still with us? We're almost at the top of the Church."
"You're almost there, " Diana replied. "I'll be waiting near the shuttle." When the call ended, a Slasher burst through the ceiling and landed between them, "Shit!" Sunset cursed.
Isaac reacted quick and threw a right hook in the Slasher's maul. It stumbled back, giving Sunset time to line up a shot with her plasma cutter and sending multiple shots into its chest shoulders and head. When the elevator stopped, Sunset walked out and used her hands to whipped the blood off her. "This is the last time I'm ever riding an elevator in a church."
The two walked down the path in front of them passed a set of windows looking out at the Sprawl. They paused for a few seconds to stare out at the station that had been their prison for the last three years. "It almost looks peaceful doesn't it, Isaac?" Sunset said.
"Yeah, it was a beautiful place once. Now it's a shadow of its former self." Isaac replied.
"Do you think it was expensive to live here?" Asked Sunset.
"If it was then it's not now. Figure the outbreak is going to be the downfall of the real-estate market on this station. Going to be hell to sell, right?" Isaac replied jokingly. Sunset merely deadpan through her helmet at Isaac.
"Isaac from now on, I make the jokes."
"What? Oh come on," Isaac whined.
"No, that joke was bad, and you should feel bad for using it," Sunset said sternly.
"I would say the "you're not my mother" joke, but then you'd probably do a better job than she did."
"You're damn right I would, I would have taught you better jokes and try to set you up with the neighbor's daughter while pestering you to give me grand fouls to spoil," Sunset replied, falling back to her Equestrian vocabulary before entering a nearby lounge by the looks of it. After looking the room over, she glanced over the paperback books that sat on a bookshelf. Reading over the names on the books, she saw there were only about various things about Unitology. Disappointed about the books, she made her way back to Isaac.
Walking down the corridor, their RIG locators blinked showing that they made it to their destination. Isaac hit the open switch while they disengage their helmets seeing the woman known as Diana ahead with her back turned away from them. Suddenly two men grabbed Isaac by each of his arms while a third grabbed Sunset by her collar area forward and put her in a chokehold.
"Diana... You're a Unitologist." Isaac glared at the women.
"Why am I not surprised," Sunset grunted around the man's arm.
"Why did we trust you?" Isaac asked while he struggled against the two men.
"Well you two didn't have a choice, I said there was a cure you two came running," Diana explained while she still had her back turned to us.
"Why are you doing this? Why can't everyone just leave us alone?" Isaac inquired.
"Yeah, whats in it for you? Fame? Money?!" Sunset said while she tried to wiggle out of her captors grasp.
"You two are a pair of dangerous secrets, Isaac, Sunset," Diana answered as she turned around and faced them. "EarthGov won't leave you alone because they're afraid that you'll find and destroy their Marker... After all, you guys did build it." Diana said with a smile.
"What?" Sunset/Isaac said together. "What are you talking about?"
Diana smile became a little bit bigger at the question. "That's why we went through all the effort to bring you here, to build Markers for us, to spread glorious Convergence throughout the entire galaxy!"
Isaac and Sunsets eyes were wide at what Diana just said. Like she didn't care if the Markers were the case for all the deaths that's been happening on the Sprawl. Isaac was the first one break from the news, "You people are unbelievable!"
"Forget that Isaac, they're completely insane, I doubt they even have a cure, to begin with, did yea?!" Sunset called out on the women.
"Oh we don't want to cure you, we need those precious little heads of yours just the way they are." Diana then looked at the thugs that held us. "Now will you escort Isaac and Sunset to the shuttle and put them in stasis. The last thing we want is for them to die."
Before the goons could move them over, the Unitologists ship blew up and cracked the glass that protected them from the vacuum of space as Tiedemann's gunship came into view. Diana yelled at the thing before the gunship tore her apart in a hail of gunfire before her body was sucked out into space. The shooting also killed one of the goons holding Isaac as his body flew out into the void as well. Isaac and Sunset locked in their mag boots to the floor while they wrestle out away from the other thugs.
Sunset remembered a few judo moves from when Rainbow Dash demonstrated a few movements to get someone away from you. Like Fluttershy's perverted brother, or the guy that held Sunset with a chokehold. Using the depressure of space to her advantage, Sunset engaged her helmet while crouching over and lifted the man on her back before throwing him over her shoulder and letting the air suck him out the window. While that happened, Isaac brought the other guy in front of him while engaging his helmet, and spartan kicked him off him as the thug screamed for his life out into space. But doing so left him unbalanced as he fell on his back. His boot disengaged themselves as Isaac tried to grab on to something.
Sunset tried to reach for Isaac only to lose balance herself and grabbing hold of the nearest thing she could hold onto, that being an emergency hatch that was on the floor. Pulling the cover off, Sunset looked back to see Isaac on a guardrail and was struggling to pull himself up. Reaching out with her hand, Sunset focused with all her might to unleash her magic again to grab hold of him. Feeling the strong emotions growing in her, Sunsets had an aura of red energy surround both her hand and Isaac's back. Relieving some of the pressure off him as he pulled himself up and jumped on to Sunset and sending the two down the passage and felling towards the bottom.
The pair tumbled down till they fell flat on the metal platform. The two groaned in discomfort as they got to their feet and tried to catch a break. That break was short lived as the two engineers looked up and paled of a giant Necromorph staring down at them. It then released an ear-shattering scream and started collapsing the area they inhabited.
Sunset and Isaac ran for their lives under the thing in an attempt to get away. But as pipes fell and other things, blocked their path they were forced to turn around and open fire on the yellow weakness that was the things arm. The combined attack blew off part of its arm covering and made it attack them again, causing more pipes to fall. Force the two to move back again and were now getting their backs to the wall as they shot off another part of its defense at its arm. The thing then grabbed Isaac with its other arm and hauled him into the air, where it attempted to eat him. Sunset raised her plasma cutter and shot the rest of the arm's defense plating to pieces. It roared again as it slammed Isaac to the ground before Sunset finished it off by severing its arm off and throwing Isaac down the hall.
Sunset rushed to Isaac's side, putting him back on his feet and started running again. The door ahead of them needed a Kinesis Module to move it, though with a large Necromorph coming up from behind they needed to work fast. Isaac used a Stasis charge to slow it down, buying them a few seconds, while Sunset used her Kinesis tool to open the door. When the door slid open, they ran ahead of the thing and came to another glass filled room and spotted the gunship waiting for them as it fired. As they got down to grip onto the floor beneath them, the thing that they were running away from, charged into the room, knocked everything around and the pushed the two of them out into space it with it.
From there they all collided with the side of the gunship. Isaac grabbed hold of Sunset and used their thrusters to pushed off the Gunship. The monster Necromorph grabbed unto Sunset while she was in flight causing Isaac to jerk back and saw what was going on. Upon a reaching a sudden decision, he fired at an explosive canister that was attached to the gunship's bottom.
The force of the explosion sent them flying through a nearby window in a different location from where one they left through, but as soon the breaching seal was in place, and both gravity and oxygen were restored. The two sighed in both relief and annoyance from being back at square one.
Sunset quickly woke up from her slumber and quickly found out she had her Plasma Cutter in her hand. Then she realized that was a dream, that time with that dead bitch Diana back in The Sprawl. Noticing what the time it was from the clock on the wall, Sunset sat down her tool on the table and leaned back in her chair. Without warning, someone grabbed her shoulder, and she quickly got up and took her Plasma Cutter whilst turning around and aiming her gun at the person. Turns out, that was Applejack who grabbed her shoulder, and she was in fear.
"Sunset?" Applejack asked, her voice laced with fear. "Will you....?
Sunset then lower down her Cutter and put it on the table again, before she sat down whilst Applejack was left standing next to her. "You shouldn't have sneaked up on me like that," Sunset said.
"Sorry, Ah' didn't mean to," Applejack replied. "You're okay?"
"Just nightmares," Sunset replied solidly. "Nothing else."
AJ stay silent for a while until she said something to her. "We'll be heading to school soon. So Ah' think it's better if Ah' go and talk to the others about you first before ya' showed up."
"Then I just need to prepare for it," Sunset added. "Hang on, I want to give you something for communication."
"What is it?" AJ asked curiously.
Sunset stood up and pulled out something from her inventory slot. It was a small metal object that applied to use to the wrist. She gave it to AJ, and she just stared at it.
"I made it myself back in Equestria," Sunset said. "It's like a part of a RIG, this is the device which only displays audio hologram when I contact you. You just need to attach it to your wrist of your jacket, and we're good to go. No need for an earpiece if you want to talk to me or Isaac and the rest."
"Oh?" AJ quickly understanding how to use the device as she just kept it in the pocket of her pajama pants. "Alright."
Applejack then looked around them again, noticing it was just after five in the in the morning. "Want some breakfast?"
"Yeah, sure."
Canterlot High School, 09:00 AM
Applejack went out to the school first because Sunset and the rest of the team and along with Twilight apparently had some errands with the local authorities about what had happened three days ago. Applejack, of course, did not forget to put on the small communication device around her wrist with her brown workmen's jacket while she wore her blue jeans. It was still cold out after all. The plan was for her to talk with her friends about Sunset's return before introducing her to them, though already she knew it was not going to go down well. But what worries her worst was Sunset's mentions of her dementia and how it seems to be getting worse. Nevertheless, she needed to talk to the others first.
AJ traveled through the halls of the school lockers after entering through the school's main entrance. Along the way, she was greeted with her other friends in the CHS, but AJ didn't greet them back which made them felt concerned about what was going on. But then again they didn't mind about it and continue on to their activities. After a minute of traveling the halls, she found her friends, The Rainbooms, The Dazzlings, Juniper, and Wallflower. Applejack came over to them, and she was greeted by them.
"Hey," Applejack called. "How'sare ya' doing?"
"Well doing well, darling," Rarity replied like a noble lady. "It was a nice vacation, such a bad thing you didn't come as well."
"Ya' know how things go," Applejack stated. "Your family needs you, and you have to help them."
"It's nice to hear that," Adagio said. "Your family doing alright?"
"Yeah," Applejack replied. "Financial problem is also done as well. Just hope those Flim Flam Brothers didn't bother me anymore."
"They're still annoying you?" Human Twilight or Sci-Twi asked.
"Hhmm," Applejack scoffed. "They never stop doing that."
"Hey, we maybe can help you on that," Juniper added to support her.
"No need, Sugarcube," Applejack replied sincerely. "It's my own problem anyway."
"You sure?" Rainbow asked in doubt.
"Nah, I'm fine," Applejack replied.
"Do you know what we had to do when we're on vacation?!" Pinkie asked cheerily. "We were camping, swimming, sailing, touring, climbing, mfmmfmffmmff!!!!" not gonna finish up telling that if not for Wallflower closed her mouth with her hand.
"The point of what she's saying is we all had a very good time on the vacation," Wallflower concluded.
"Ah' know," Applejack then decided to change the topic. "Ya' know, there's something Ah' need to tell you and it important that enough that I need all of ya's attention. "
When Applejack said that, they all looked at her in content and upset. "It's about the Anon-A-Miss isn't?" Fluttershy asked an upset.
"Yeah, but..." Applejack then got cut off by Rainbow
"Damn it Applejack!" Rainbow said angrily. "Look, we agreed to not talk about this!"
"Ah' know, but-" Applejack then got interrupted by a hologram that just appeared in front of her.
The sudden appearance of the hologram surprised all of them including AJ.
Applejack then realized it was the audio link of her communicating device on her wrist. They were amazed by the appearance of the hologram including the students around them as well... But then the audio hologram speaks, loud enough for them to hear.
"AJ, you there?" the sound was bloody familiar for them.
Applejack paused for a moment before replying in nervous as she lifted her wrist comm in front of her face. "Ah'm here."
"Well.... kind of..." Applejack replied, which made every student in the school surprised.
"Roger," the hologram replied. "I'm already at school and heading to you now."
"Ok," Applejack replied lastly before the audio-link was cut off.
"Yeah, it's her."
Then they heard the steps, it was odd because the sound of the steps was like metal stepping on the ceramic material. They all looked over towards the source of the sound, and there she was. Slowly appearing from the other end side of the hall where some students, was a girl in her black jacket with the hoodie hiding her face walking towards them.
Everyone watched as the girl walked towards them before stopping right in front of the Rainbooms and Dazzlings, hatred began to boil in every student's minds. Both bands including Juniper and Wallflower except Applejack stepped back from her in hatred.
"Sunset Shimmer," Rainbow called out. "After a year you already have your gut to return to CHS."
Sunset only chuckled at Rainbow's statement. "Try harder."
"Applejack, what's going on?" Juniper called slowly. "After everything, you and the others said about her, and you're on her side?"
Applejack can say nothing but remain silent. "AJ, you're a traitor..." Fluttershy said angrily.
"It's not like what you think..." Applejack replied back.
"Then what is she doing here?!" Sci-Twi asked. Trying to understand her friend's reason.
"You must be Twilight Sparkle," Sunset stated, which surprise everyone except AJ for her knowledge of her name.
"Wait, you know her?" Juniper asked in surprise.
"How did you know my name?" Sci-Twi asked.
"Applejack told me about you," Sunset replied.
"Why are you telling her about Twilight?!" Pinkie asked angrily. "You betrayed us!"
"Ah'm not betraying ya', alright?!" Applejack stated. "Ah' don't have any plans with her to betray you."
"Then will you go tell Sunset to fuck off from this school right now?" Demanded Wallflower.
"I'm not going anywhere, Wallflower Bush," Sunset said, which surprised them all from that. "I'm coming back here to deal with some problems in CHS."
"Hang on a minute," Sonata said, notice of her clothes. "What are you wearing?"
They all just quickly realized of her clothes she was wearing right now. Applejack already knew what Sunset was wearing. Sunset was wearing her metallic boots that cover the feet and the calf of her body, RIG-modified black hoodie jacket, the Holo Projector on her chest and pouches on her belt. It was so bizarre that Rainbow could swear she was wearing something cool. They then looked back at Sunset's hidden face again and continued the conversation.
"I don't know what you're wearing right now," Adagio stated. "But for sure you have to get out from here."
"I'm not going anywhere," Sunset replied sternly.
"Get the fuck off from here!" Rainbow shouted.
"Not going out of here," Sunset replied calmly and slowly.
"Oh, you want to fight, eh?" Rainbow asked as every student around Sunset came closer to her, wanting to beat her down. "You're only alone here with Applejack, and you don't have to stand a chance against all of us. Now, Fuck..... OFF!"
"Not going to happen," Sunset replied again slowly.
Rainbow clenched her fist, wanting to punch her face. "I'm going to beat you."
Sunset only stood there calmly. "Don't do it...... I'm warning you."
Rainbow only laughed at that, and quickly swing her fist towards her face. But before her fist reached her face, someone grabbed her fist and made her stop. Rainbow looked up and found out that, someone else already grabbed her fist. A man, large scar on his face and his head was buzzed in a military style. He was strong, too strong for Rainbow to fight. He then forced Rainbow to turn around whilst shifting her fist and locked it on her back, before he threw her away towards her friends. His sudden appearance surprised everyone in the school.
"You're late, Carver," Sunset said.
"And you're early," Carver replied as he looked at her.
"Where's Isaac?" Sunset asked to Carver.
"Right here," Isaac called out as both Sunset and Carver looked behind them to look at him coming over to them.
"So, this is all your former friends?" Carver asked with a flat tone.
"Yeah, Carver," Sunset replied.
"What the-?" Rarity surprised of the appearance of other two men with Sunset. "Who are they? Your bodyguards?"
"My family," Sunset answered.
"Your family?" Juniper asked when then she realized their clothing. "Wait, they-"
When they noticed on what Juniper meant by their clothes, nearly the same as Sunset's wearing, they were amazed on that. "That looks cool," Rainbow whispered to herself.
That was when the Principal and Vice principal showed up from behind the Rainbooms and Dazzlings and saw what was going on. When Principal Celestia and VP Luna noticed the girl who showed up at the school was Sunset, their moods were shifted to either angry or glad that she has returned after a year of disappearance which the students assume she moved to another city instead of vanishing into thin air. But they felt something odd after knowing that Sunset was with two strange men she didn't know either of them as they wore strange and futuristic clothes.
"Sunset Shimmer," Celestia called out. "I don't know what's going on with you. But you have made a lot of trouble in the past you know?"
"I know, Principal Celestia," Sunset replied. "I just want to talk to all of you."
"By setting off a trouble first?" Luna asked in disbelieve.
"She didn't start this, ma'am," Isaac said. "They started the trouble first."
"Who are you?" Celestia asked.
"Her family," Carver answered, which surprised both of the principals. "Hang on, where's Twilight?"
"Wait you know her?!" The Rainbooms and Dazzlings asked in shock except for Sci-Twi.
"Umm... I'm right here?" Sci-Twi said in confusion.
"Not you," Isaac replied, but then someone else just popped up from behind Isaac. "Oh, there you are."
The Students and staff all became quite shocked when the appearance of another Twilight appearing in the school. To know the difference, Sci-Twi was using eyeglasses and had her hair in a bun while Twilight had her hair down and didn't wear glasses. Sci-Twi felt so awkward until she felt that was her twin sister, Twilight however already prepared for this and gave a flat emotion about this.
"Something's wrong, Twilight?" Sunset asked to Sci-Twi who was in shock.
"Did I just got cloned?" Sci-Twi asked in worried and shock.
"No, you didn't," Carver replied. "Ma'am, we should continue this discussion in your office along these girls, including with all those that are here at this time."
"Very well, let's go to my office then," VP Luna hesitantly replied. Seeing the situation was not something to have in the halls, and all followed VP Luna to her office. The rest of the students that weren't involved with the discussion decided to get back on what are they doing.
As the group kept walking down the halls and followed the principals to Luna's office for further discussion. Sunset suddenly tripped a little on something, before Isaac also got tripped. When asking them what's wrong, they replied that they felt the headaches again. And Sunset heard that again as she holds her head with her hand.
"We're all gonna burn for what we did to you."
"Shut up..." Sunset mumbled to herself in annoyance and pain.
"I thought she could help me, I just had to make her see."
"Get out from my head," Sunset mumbled again to herself as she grabbed her in pain.
"You will make us whole."
"Fuck off."
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FUCKING FAULT!! SHE DOESN'T LOVE YOU!!"
"Just shut up!" Sunset shouted, which surprised everyone that was with her and made Isaac came over to her in worry.
"We didn't say anything to you!" Juniper blurted at Sunset.
"Hey, you okay?" Isaac asked Sunset as he lifted her face and looked at her.
"I'm-I'm fine," Sunset replied in stammered. "I just keep hearing those words again."
"Okay then," Isaac said as he removes his hands from her face and patted her shoulders.
"What happened to her?" Celestia asked.
"She's suffering dementia," Isaac replied, which they were quickly concerned of her conditioned.
"How did she got that?" Sci-Twi asked.
"Long story," Isaac replied sincerely.
"Can you open up your hoodie?" Fluttershy asked. "There's no need to be afraid of us."
"I'm not afraid of you," Sunset replied coldly. "I just don't want you to see my face."
They kept walking on, and they reached Luna's office. Sunset, Twilight, Isaac, and Carver stood in the middle of the room. Luna sat down on her chair while Celestia stood next to her. The Dazzlings and The Rainbooms, including Juniper and Wallflower, stood in a circle around Sunset's group whilst giving their suspicious face at them. Applejack only stood in between Sunset's group and the band's group in worry.
And about the room... it was spacious enough to fill the 17 people inside. One window in the room and a table with the moon sickle drawing on the front. Cabinets and board at the wall and a picture of a view of a full moon hung on the wall. Documents were on Luna's table and were left unconditioned.
"Before we talk," Celestia said. "May we know who are you, gentlemen?"
"My name is Isaac Clarke," Isaac introduced. "I was a Ship Systems Engineer for the CEC."
"What's this CEC?" Luna asked curiously.
"Concordance Extraction Corporation," Isaac replied. "A mining company."
"Sergeant John Carver," Carver replied, which surprised everyone in the room that he was a soldier. "EDF."
"EDF?" Fluttershy asked.
"Sorry, kid," Carver said nonchalantly. "Classified."
"And you're...." Celestia paused in perplexed as she points at her. "Twilight Sparkle?"
"Princess Twilight Sparkle," Twilight corrected. "And I came from another universe to deal with a problem that is here."
"From another universe?" Juniper asked in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"There's a two way portal between this world and hers," Sunset answered.
"It's right at the base of the statue in front of the school. Her world is Equestria and is a world of magic where she's pony along with the residences of multiple species while there she is actually the counterpart this Twilight's world."
"Ponies? Magic?" Rarity laughed. "There's no such thing as that!"
That was when Twilight lifted her hand used her magic to telekinetically lifted Sci-Twi's eyeglasses, they all were amazed as they left their jaws hanging. "Believe it now?"
Sci-Twi quickly took back her glasses, and the rest felt disbelieve on what they saw. "O-Okay now, but- why are you here?"
"We're here because something has happened to you," Twilight replied formally. "To all of you."
"What do you mean?" Aria asked quickly as she leaned her back against a wall. "There's nothing happened to us all."
"Then we want to ask you something," Sunset said, she then looked over to each of them. "Do you remember anything from the Fall Formal Party until The Battle Of The Bands about me?"
"You're only a bad person in the whole school," Pinkie said. "When in the Fall Formal, all you did was bullying and hurt everyone in the school. You didn't do anything but bring chaos when we let you join our band, though we managed to defeat the Dazzlings that time without you. And after that? You betrayed us by sharing secrets to anyone in the school via Anon-A-Miss! How's that?!"
Sunset's team were all silent for a while until Sunset broke the silence. "Don't you feel anything odd about that?"
"No, we're not," Sonata answered confidently. "Ain't that right, AJ?"
Applejack didn't immediately reply, though she felt scared to answer. "Actually.... yes. Ah' don't feel right about it."
They were surprised Applejack answered it like that.
"What do you mean you don't feel right about it? That's all we can remember," Luna asked in confusion.
"What Sunset and Twilight are trying to tell you," Isaac concluded to them as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Is that all of your memories of Sunset and Princess Twilight along with all the magic you know about was erased."
They felt disbelieved on what are they hearing, including the Dazzlings. "Is that....... why we can't remember where we came from before coming here?" Adagio asked in realization.
"Hang on, what do you mean?" Rarity asked in confusion as she leaned her head forward at Adagio.
"The only things you remember must be when you and your sister first ended school last year, right?" Twilight asked. "And you didn't discuss with your friends about it?"
"That true," Sonata added, which made everyone in the room starting to believe at Sunset. "But who would do this?"
Isaac, Carver, Sunset, and Twilight slowly looked over to the only person who didn't speak a single thing in the room. "Wallflower Blush, you seem to be worried about something."
They all quickly looked over to Wallflower, who was seems to be sweating a little on her forehead. "No, I'm not worried."
Applejack then sensed something in her tone. "Wallflower, you're lying."
Their suspicions about Wallflower were starting to raise up after hearing everything about what Sunset and Twilight said and what AJ just said.
"What are you hiding, Wallflower?" Celestia asked in a little mad as her eyes sharpen at her.
"Nothing," Wallflower replied as she shook her head quickly.
"If Applejack sensed you're lying," Fluttershy added whilst shrinking her eyes. "We know you're lying."
Wallflower can say nothing for the least of the situation, but then insincerely told them. "Alright, you won."
She then grabbed her bag off her back and open it as her hand went in to grab something. She then pulled it out from her bag, Isaac, and Carver was right about it. It was the Memory Stone she was holding.
"The Memory Stone...." Twilight recalled slowly as everyone widened their eyes upon the stone.
Sunset raised her hand towards the Memory Stone. "Give it to me, Wallflower."
Wallflower was about to give it to Sunset, but that was a trick. "No!"
Wallflower quickly triggered the Memory Stone and set off a green beam of magic from the stone randomly into the room. Everyone managed to duck down in time, save one, Fluttershy was then hit by the magic beam. Fluttershy shook a few times before nearly falling after getting hit by the beam as she holds her head in pain. Everyone in the room quickly stood up after that attack looked around the room while Wallflower was preparing her Memory Stone.
"Everyone alright?" Isaac shouted in worried as he looked at each of them.
"Hang on," Fluttershy said after recovering from her headache. "Why I'm in Vice-Principal Luna's office? What are you doing here?!" Fluttershy shouted in surprise as she spots Sunset.
"Wallflower attacked us with that magic rock thing!" Rainbow replied quickly as she looked at her.
"Wait, what do you mean Wallflower attacked us with a magic rock?" Fluttershy asked, which shocked them all that Wallflower had just erased her memory of what happened today.
"Wallflower, don't do it!" Celestia shouted.
"What the hell are you doing, Wallflower?!" Sci-Twi shouted in panic as they stay away from Wallflower except for Sunset, Isaac, and Carver.
"Stop this, Wallflower!" Sunset shouted angrily. "You don't have to do this!"
"Oh really?" Wallflower asked. "After what you have done and what you tried to change in the school. Your friends think of each other as you think of me, which is not at all!"
Wallflower was quickly going to set off another beam of magic from the stone. Sunset, on instinct, tried to stop her by running at her head on to get hold of the stone with both hands while Wallflower still holding her stone. Instead of the stone setting off a beam of magic, the green magic caged Sunset in front of Wallflower as Sunset stood still as she kept her hold on the stone. Sunset then started to scream in pain while the green glowing magic around her, torturing her in front of the others.
"Sunset!" Isaac shouted as both he and Carver quickly run at Sunset and Wallflower and held Sunset by her shoulders, which quickly affected them as well they became covered by the green magic as well.
While this occurs, Wallflower proudly thought that Sunset and her family's memories will be taken away by the magic of the Memory Stone. But instead of that happening, the magic was backfired and produced a loud explosion-like sound and a very bright white light to blind the whole room.
After all of that happened, Wallflower fell back from the explosion of magic and recovered herself as she took the stone on the ground while the rest of the people in the room slowly recovered themselves from the very bright light explosion. They all then looked over to the three victims who have sacrificed themselves to the magic of the Memory Stone.
Instead of seeing them recovered from the event and we're going to ask what had happened, the three of them looked like they were suffering some sort of seizure. The three were shaking violently, breathing hard, and most of all screaming in pain whilst holding their bowed down heads in agony. They all were confused why they weren't having the after effects like Fluttershy had, especially Wallflower.
Rarity was so scared and confused about what's going on with Sunset and her family. "What's wrong with them?"
The trio Necromorph survivors were stood still on their feet while recovering from the pain of what The Memory Stone did to them. After recovering, they looked around them to see if everyone's alright. Instead of that, all they saw was the sky, and whole empty space were colored in dark-bloody red. The only ground that exists in that place is only the single platform of rock they were on. There were lit-candles along the edges of the rocky-floating platform. And the only light in that place was only the bright orange light on the north side of their position.
"What the-?" Carver asked in shock as he looked around them wildly. "Did we-?!"
"Shit!" Isaac swore as he nods. "This is not good!"
"How do we get out here?!" Sunset asked with a shout.
"How the fucking hell should I know?!" Carver replied angrily. "How did that stone managed to put us here instead of getting our memories erased?!"
"I don't know about that either!" Sunset shouted back angrily at his face. "Let's us focus on getting out of here!"
"Marker Killers..."
They had gone quite and immediately recognized that voice. The mad prophet bastard of the Moons. That bastard was the Cult Leader of the Unitologist. His sinister laughs and voice boiled up the hate the trio had to the Unitologist fanatics. He must be taken down.
The trio turned around slowly at the bastard and with their anger and hatred face on to the bastard. They pulled out their trustworthy Plasma Cutters and aimed at him. The Cult Leader was standing meters away from them ahead. After a few moments of waiting for someone to act, the Cult Leader made his move. Move slowly towards the trio Marker Killers as they prepared to pull the triggers.
"The sky would part, and you would draw them up, and they would be devoured, and we would become one with them... Complete the Church... Make Us Whole...."
They're starting to shoot the bastard as hard as they can while the prophet kept marching towards them calmly as he slowly absorbs the shots of Plasma Cutters.
"The world will have the rebirth and the evolution like we wanted to be..... Join us..... and be whole with us."
"Oh-Fuck-You!!" Sunset swore loudly at him as she shot him. "Just die!"
"The space would tear itself into a new world where we all can be united, and you'll be united with it..... Make Us Whole....."
"You didn't us break before!" Isaac shouted as they fire fiercely at him. "You WON'T break us now!"
As they kept shooting the monstrosity human ahead of them. The Cult Leader let himself be exploded after the shots of Plasma Energies and gave out a very bright light to every direction. Blinding the trio Necromorph survivors into consciousness.
The trio who had suffered the agony of hard dementia and headache slowly came back to consciousness and slowly lower down their hands into their sides. They were still shaking a little as they three lifted their heads and looked around them. Everyone except Wallflower looked worried about what had happened to them, they were suffering different effects than what Fluttershy had done. Sunset then slowly looked up towards Wallflower as her whole body was still shaking after the Memory Stone backfired. Sunset was silent for a moment, still in massive shock but then asked.
"Wallflower...... what the fuck have you done...?"
They all were amazed and shock to found out that the Memory Stone didn't erase her memories like what Wallflower did to Fluttershy. Sunset, Isaac, and Carver slowly made themselves stood straight and fixed their stares at Wallflower, even though both Isaac and Sunset somehow both looked weary from their body postures. They were prepared for Wallflower if she did anything like that again. But they were confused on what happened.
"Why didn't our memories didn't get erased?" Isaac asked as he rubbed his face to drive away the mountain headache.
"The.... magic must have backfired..." Twilight paused, then came up with a conclusion. "It must be your dementia. Its what made the magic backfired on you. It's shielding you from the magic!"
"WHAT!?" everyone except Wallflower, Sunset, Isaac, and Carver shouted in unison and disbelieve.
"No, no!" Wallflower insisted try to use the Memory Stone on them again. "I'm not going to let you-"
Suddenly, the Memory Stone was flying away from her hands unexpectedly and fast. Then the Memory Stone stopped and floating in the air next to Sunset. They were wide eyes with awe that Isaac was using the ability to do telekinesis on the Memory Stone with his hand raised forward at the Memory Stone. Unlike with Twilight's power, his telekinesis doesn't have glowing magic. They don't know what the hell they've achieved.
"I though Twilight was the only one who had magic," Juniper added in disbelieve.
"It is," Isaac answered. "It's my Kinesis Module. Made by science girl."
Sci-Twi and Twilight quickly got what he meant by that and wanted to ask more, but failed after Sunset asked Isaac. "Give the stone to me."
Sunset quickly takes the stone as Isaac turns off his Kinesis Module and lowered his hand into his side. "How do I destroy it?" Sunset asked quickly and cold.
"I-I don't know," Twilight answered nervously as she shrugged and raised her both hands in the air. "Clover The Clever didn't mention anything on destroying the stone.
"Then I do it in my own way," Sunset replied as she took a look on the stone for the last time.
Wallflower could do nothing but to watch Sunset was about to destroy the stone, sealing her defeat. Sunset quickly threw the stone to the ground in front of her and, in their disbelieve of her strength, stomped the stone in one shot with the metal shoes of hers broke the stone. Just one stomp to the stone, the Memory Stone had been cracked in haft, destroying whatever magic held inside. And with the magic within the stone gone bright in green light magically upon the impact and everyone in the room except Wallflower, Juniper, Twilight, Sci-Twi and Sunset's group were starting to have some sort of headaches as they held their heads for the little pain they had. They were starting to remember everything they did.
"Oh my God..." Applejack said as she recovers from her headache. "Sunset...."
"Noooooo!" Wallflower shouted in defeat. "No.... not the stone... why...?"
"I remember, I remember everything," Rarity said as she looked over to Sunset. "You...... changed after that Fall Formal. Then helped us defeat the Dazzlings. You were a good person. But now, I'm not sure about this..... Anon-A-Miss now. We started to believe a little that it wasn't you..."
Sunset kept her eyes on Wallflower with a fixed stare, filled with nothing but the cold and anger while her face is still hiding underneath her hood. "With this done, I want to ask you one thing. Why did you do it?"
Wallflower kept staring in defeat at the shards of rock that used to be the Memory Stone, but then looked up answered her with anger. "Why did I do this? You and all of you ignored me because I'm just invisible to all of you! And about you, I watch you at that time you were being evil and manipulate to everyone in this school. And after 'your' friends stopped you from doing so, you became friends with them and even then still ignored me like other careless people you are. Picking your own friends despite what was wrong with anyone else, which is me! When that Battle Of The Bands happened, you screwed somethings up, yes! But you still managed to maintain that friendship until your damn Anon-A-Miss profile shows up and betrayed all of us, for you going back to your old ways. I HATE YOU, AND I WISH YOU WERE DEAD!!"
Wallflower quickly realized what had she just said to Sunset and quickly closed her mouth in fear and awkward. The students and the principals in the room were shocked and taken back as they gasped at what she said. Twilight, Isaac, and Carver only opened their mouth in disbelieve of what Wallflower said to Sunset. Sunset herself, however, oddly gave a different reaction than she should be.
Sunset frowned in sadness instead of angry. The reason why she wasn't angry, was the last word that Wallflower said to her. Sunset quickly looked down to her left and was left silent in doubt and agitation. That word reminded of someone that she regretted on, for failing to save someone Isaac knows.
"Nicole..."
They all heard the name Sunset mentioned, and were confused on what she meant. Isaac, on the other hand, knew that, reminding himself again of who died in USG Ishimura. Twilight of course also remembered that name, from that dream Princess Luna, had shown her, she felt sad again reminded of how she died by killing herself before she turned into one of those things. Sunset then looked up again towards Wallflower in silent. Then Sunset reached up with her hands and pulled her hood back, revealing her face.
Wallflower was aghast and taken back by what had happened to Sunset's face. Noticing the small scars over her eyes of the face and large scars on her forehead, she felt regret about what she had just said when she looked at her and that stare, it was so cold that she could feel it down to her blood. What happened to Sunset?
"You know?" Sunset paused with a sorrowful sigh as she looked down and closed her eyes, before looking up to her. "I wished I died as well back there. But...... when that day was supposed to happen to me. It didn't.... I don't know if I'm alive or dead anymore..."
Wallflower didn't expect if Sunset's answer to be that, she regretted saying that to her. Sunset then looked behind her and showed herself to each of her former friends and principals in the room before turning to those she called family. They were also taken aback to see the scars she had on her face. But then, something else was showing on her face.
"Sunset...." Applejack called. "You're bleeding..."
Sunset, Isaac, and Carver immediately touch their bottom of their nose. And there was blood pouring from their nose, must be because of the backfired-magic of the stone. Carver and Isaac only wiped away the blood on their nose while Sunset did the same but also checked for blood underneath her eye.
"My eye not bleeding too, is it?" she asked, which terrified them all a little on what she asked.
"N-no?" Adagio replied in doubt.
Sunset only nodded at her, before she turned around again towards the door and went out. Sunset was heading for the nearby restroom to calm her mental state down and to check for any other body condition. Everyone else in the room only started towards Wallflower for the actions of erasing everyone's memories of the time Sunset was good. For sure this was not going well.
"Wallflower Blush," Celestia started. "I will decide what is your punishment will be because of your bad actions at a later date, for now, you'll have tell everyone the truth about it before you will report back to me when it's done. Is that clear?"
"Yes... Principal Celestia..." Wallflower replied as she sighed in defeat.
"Isaac," Luna called. "Who's Ni-?"
"Shut up," Isaac replied harshly, which made everyone upset to his reaction.
"Hey!" Pinkie shouted. "She's just asking who is Ni-!"
"Just shut up!" Isaac shouted angrily as he turned towards Pinkie. "Don't say her name, am I clear!?" They immediately learned that he must've been haunted by that name, they only decided to kept it silent.
"I'm going to look for Sunset," Isaac replied as he left the room, leaving only Carver with them.
"Are they going to be alright?" Aria asked in worried.
"Hey, kid," Carver called out. "To be honest, none of us will ever be alright."
Chapter 7 - New Class, Same Bullshit
Sunset quickly entered the woman's restroom and stopped right in front of a sink and mirror on the wall. She rested both her hands on the edge of the sink and looked up towards the mirror to see her own face. She felt so pale when she faced that mirror. Seeing her own scars again reminding her of what happened to her back in Ishimura and Tau Volantis, how that leaper nearly tried to take her head off only to scratch her face instead and again from a few days ago when her head got hurt when they went at the Brethren Moon.
Ellie... no.. not her... Even she tried to finish up the problems she had in CHS, Sunset can't let her guilt go away like Isaac can. Everything around her was so fucked, and she can't even forgive herself about it.
As she was staring at the mirror, she saw something changed on the mirror. Fucking hell..... It's that Franco guy, standing of right in front of her where her reflection should be. He tried to cut loose Sunset before Isaac that time. When he tried to cut loose Isaac, she remembered what he said to them.
Before his stomach got tore open from behind him by an implement of Infector's blade before stabbing his head with its proboscis. Turning him into a slasher and screamed at Sunset. Sunset leaned back slowly from the slasher in front of her in terrified, before she heard an opening door. Sunset quickly turned her head at the door, and it was revealed that there was Isaac entered the woman's restroom, which is ironic. Sunset only stared at him for a moment with her pale face.
"You're okay?" Isaac asked worriedly, receiving a questionable nod at her, as Sunset didn't verbally reply back, she only turned her head back at the mirror in front of her where she saw the slasher-turned Franco, which was already gone. "What's wrong?" Isaac asked again as he steps closer to her.
"Nothing," Sunset replied wearily as she shook at the mirror with her both hands on the sink. "Just.... my head felt hurts of those memories."
"Good," Isaac said in relieved as he blinked his eyes. "Just make sure you alright. Because what just happened back there."
"Also, do you know this is the girl's restroom you're in?" Sunset asked, which made Isaac recoiled in surprise.
"What, oh?" Isaac stammered as he realized where the hell he's in. "Yeah, I better get out of here. You sure you'll be alright?"
"Yeah," Sunset replied with a nod without looking at him. "I'll be fine."
"Okay," Isaac then looked away from her and proceed to the door.
Cloudy and Trixie looked back at each other with evil smiles before they looked over at the amber-haired girl. Sunset just stood silently while staring at the mirror; she figured out that Trixie and Cloudy were looking at her from the backside of her head. More than that, they both didn't look in the mirror to see how's her face was. Sunset kept silent to herself and let them speak to her.
"Well, well, look who's back after a year of hiding," Trixie said evilly as she stares at Sunset. "You finally decided to show up to our school."
"So why come to school?" Cloudy asked angrily and mocking her. "Going to try to fuck us up over for a little revenge trip of what we did to you? Anon-A-Miss?"
Sunset still kept silent to herself despite that, trying to be patient. "Come on you moron, why don't you speak something to Trixie?" Trixie asked mockingly with a happy grin.
"Yeah, why you came back eh?" Cloudy asked as she nudged her hard. "You bitch betrayed us, and now you want to hurt us more."
"You know? Wallflower told us what she had to do with us and apologized to us," Trixie added as she checked her nails. "But then again, she was supposedly right to erase the good memories of you because you being back into an alpha bitch."
"More than that," Cloudy added. "You just wearing these clothes because you wanted to show off to us."
Sunset still not answering back to them, she only looked towards the mirror. "Come on you, Sunset Shitter. Answer me!" Cloudy mocked her, as she was swinging her palm to Sunset's back.
After her palm hit Sunset's back, Sunset quickly used her reflex by hitting away Cloudy's arm while striking her chin with her left hand and disorient her against the sink. Trixie promptly stepped away in fright after Sunset made her move. Sunset then used her both hands to choke Cloudy on the sink. Trixie quickly tries to help her by attacking Sunset but failed after Sunset raises her leg and delivers a sidekick to Trixie's stomach. Sunset then looked at Cloudy again with cold eyes.
Cloudy couldn't believe what she saw the scars and the look in the eyes on Sunset's face. She quickly knew that those scars weren't made by someone from CHS, she wasn't sure who else would, and that her look was like one of the veterans who just came back from war along with those noticeable bag eyes implying lack of sleep. Cloudy was gasping for air as her hands trying to break free from Sunset's choke attack. She was nearly out of breath, until Sunset changed her facial expression into a feeling of sorrow, leaving her mouth open a little. Sunset let Cloudy go as she fell down to the ground on knees and grabbed and rubs her own throat after finally getting some air. Trixie couldn't believe that Sunset just choked Cloudy that fast, Cloudy wasn't a bit easy to take down that's for sure.
Sunset looked at Cloudy's pathetic state, before looking back towards the mirror in front of her again. Cloudy slowly got up with the help of Trixie at her side as they kept their eyes on Sunset if she planned to do something else. Trixie was very angry at this and wanted to hit her.
"How dare you!" Trixie shouted at Sunset. "Trixie is going to pay you for that!"
Sunset quickly turned around at the two students in irritation. "Then kill me for fuck's sake."
Trixie then quickly taken back of what she just said and the scars on her face. "What did you just said?" Trixie asked, doubt if she heard it wrong.
"Then.... kill me...... right now....." Sunset said again with a threat tone and with sharp eyes. "I mean it...."
Cloudy was a little shocked on what she just said, despite the fact that she was the Anon-A-Miss. "She's not joking, Trixie. I don't think she's bluffing, she means it."
When Trixie was about to say something, Sunset's video link came online and popped right in front of her, startling both Cloudy and Trixie of that. The video hologram in front of Sunset was displaying the face of Carver, who is actually still in the Vice-Principal Luna's office alongside Isaac and anyone else in the room with the exception of Wallflower who was out apologizing to every single student in the school about erasing their memory. Sunset noticed Carver's expression was showing a little sympathy, not sure to Sunset, Isaac or both. While Cloudy and Trixie were amazed by the tech that Sunset has.
"Sunset, it's Carver," Carver said quickly. "You better get here right now, the principals want to talk to you, about yourself and what you have been doing when living with Isaac.
Sunset paused for a moment about this but then replied. "Alright, I'll be right over," Sunset then cut off the video link after that.
"What was that, Sunset?" Trixie asked curiously. "I'm sure that kind of technology doesn't exist in this year."
"That's my video link function to my RIG," Sunset replied, but then hastily headed for the door.
"When did you learn to fight?" Cloudy asked as Sunset nearly got through the door and looked back.
"When a government and a cult tried to take my fucking head off," Sunset replied coldly before she gets through the door and headed for VP Luna's office.
Trixie and Cloudy weren't sure if that's true or not. "Is she joking about that?" Trixie asked her friend.
"Not sure," Cloudy replied. "But I've seen that look before, and I've never seen scars like that before, also how does she talks. But from that, I don't even know anymore if she's Anon-A-Miss or not."
Vice-Principal Luna's office.
"She's coming here?" Luna asked.
"Yeah, she's coming," Isaac replied quickly as he looked at her. "After she's here we're going to tell you about ourselves."
"Whoa, what?" Sci-Twi asked in surprised and excitement a little. "You're going to tell us about..... what are you wearing and....?"
"Yeah," Carver answered with a nod to her.
It was then Sunset walked in and glanced over at the Dazzlings, the Rainbooms and Juniper, Twilight and her team and the principals. "I'm here."
"Good then let us start with us ask questions," Celestia said as Sunset closed the door. "Where have-"
Before Celestia could finish what she was asking, someone else opened that door and entered. When the said person entered the room, they all were shocked to see that a person in snowsuit with strange symbols armor came walking into the room with his intimidating look helmet on. Except for Sunset, Isaac, Carver, AJ, and Twilight because they already know who this was.
"I thought you'll be back in the afternoon, Randall," Sunset commented with a smile.
To their amazement, Randall helmet collapsed into his holoprojector automatically without even touching it. "Hah, got things sorted a little quicker than I thought so I just decided to see how are you guys doing."
"Are you aware of the students that will react around here if they see you?" Juniper asked in disbelieve.
"Oh, I just see it," Randall replied back with a grin.
But then someone else entered the office, which was more surprising to everyone including Sunset was Cloudy and Trixie who opened the door. "Um, forgive us, but we wanted to know what's up with Sunset," Cloudy excused while forcing themselves to smile at the principals.
Everyone was silent in content, but the principals made their call. "Alright, you may enter, word will eventually spread on what happened with Sunset, so the quicker this mess gets cleaned up, the better," Celestia replied.
"Erm, may we know who these men with you, Sunset?" Trixie asked shyly.
"Despite that, you just mocked me and insulted me back in the restroom?" Sunset asked back angrily as she looked at them while the rest of them only glared at the duo, principals had the angriest glare. "Alright, you may know their names."
The trio of men in the room then speaks out their names one by one.
"Isaac Clarke."
"John Carver."
"Randall Carr."
"O-okay," Trixie said nervously, but then confident. "It's good to meet you all."
"Try harder," Carver added, which receive a couple of confused stares from Cloudy and Trixie.
Luna closed the door, and it was safe for them to talk. "We're good now, sister."
"Alright," Celestia then starts her Q&A session. "First off, how did you vanished? The only ones who knew of your disappearance at that time were only my sister and me that it reported to the police. We didn't tell the students here on how you disappeared, instead they all though you moved to another town." Which made every student in the room shocked to know why the principals didn't say she disappeared a year ago.
"Well, to a long story short I time-traveled," Sunset replied, which makes them taken back on what she just said.
"What do you mean by time-traveled, dear?" Rarity asked for useful details.
"Remember that portal between the human world and Equestria?" Twilight asked. Only Sci-Twi and Juniper who don't know about that. "The portal was closed that time because the device I made to open it whenever I want was inactive. Sunset here forced the portal open with all her magic in her body and made a portal herself. The portal was open, but once she entered, the portal malfunctioned, and it sent her to the future instead."
"Interesting," Celestia commented as their curiosity grows. "What year exactly?"
"She was sent into the year of 2508," Isaac answered, which shocked them all about it.
"To the 26th century?!" Adagio asked as she leaned her head at Iaasc. "That's impossible!"
"When you're time-traveling," Carver added as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Everything is possible."
"Where were you living, Sunset?" Luna asked as she wrote down what they said in the document. "You know when you were with Isaac."
"Earthrise Apartments," Isaac answered as he puts his both hands on the hip. "It's in New Horizons Lunar Colony on earth's moon."
They all glared at them in disbelieve of living in the moon, Luna, however, was a little bit happy about it. "Wait, you people can live on the moon?!" Luna asked as she stops writing and looked at them.
"Yeah, surprised me too at first," Sunset replied with a little shrug. "The colony was established in 2045, and it contains high mining resources for the earth."
"That sounds awesome!" Luna shouted while she clapped once. "Is it even breathable there?"
"Because they build the colony there," Isaac said as he tilted his head at Luna. "Yeah, eventually in a dome."
The rest of the students and Celestia can see on how excited Luna was because of her obsession to the moon, but then Celestia continued her Q&A session. "Alright, what were you working as when you're living with Isaac?"
"I worked at under Isaac in an apprenticeship position for being Ship systems Engineer," Sunset answered flatly, which gave them the odd feeling about it. "I later became an expert as Isaac."
"We were thinking you were not fit for a job a year ago," Rarity commented as her hand was putted underneath her chin. "But then again, because you're already an engineer I can't say anything more about that."
"Damn straight," Randall agreed with a nod.
"What are you wearing right now?" Celestia asked as they stared at the devices attached to the four individuals. "Those things attached to your chest and your back, and your boots?"
"The device on our chests are actually out holo-projectors to display holograms," Sunset explained while the others stood still listening to her.
"The boots we're wearing right now are our magnetic boots or zero-G boots, they've got thrusters to make someone fly and is useful to stick on some metal in space, not sure in gravity area. The devices on our backs are called a RIG or Resource Integration Gear which also helps the use of our holo-projector. It features health management, holographic displays, and navigation systems to make the job easy for the wearer. The RIG, the users, wear depends on what profession they're in."
"Okay," Celestia said, understanding some of what Sunset said but decided to put it off for later. "Tell us how did you manage to time-traveled back to this year?" She asked as Luna wrote down everything they said.
"Sunset overcharged the shock-point drive of the ship we were on with her magic when to try and escape from danger," Carver answered as he straightened his back. "The ShockPoint Drive was a device humanity uses for doing interstellar travel in space, let's say like it looks like a nuclear core. She overcharged it with magic and made us entered Shockspace while also unintendedly time-traveling us back here."
"You mentioned 'escape from danger,'" Cloudy added curiously. "What's that mean?"
Isaac, Carver, and Randall only stood there and looked at her in silent, Sunset then looked at her and had denial to answer in her eyes. "Sorry, I can't tell you..."
"What is it, Sunset?" Sonata asked as she tilted her head at her. "Just tell us."
Sunset doesn't want to answer it, but Isaac assisted her on answering it. "Everyone is dead..... because of us..."
What did he say to them just stunned them in their minds, what did he mean by that? "What do you mean everyone is dead because of you?" Trixie asked confusedly as her hands were gripping each other on her chest.
"Sunset and Isaac are both the catalysts of causing major outbreaks in the future at that time," Randall answered, which Sunset just jumped a bit to hear that. "Not by choice either."
"Outbreaks?" Pinkie asked, then put her both hands on her hips. "Wait, what are you talking about?"
"I don't want to talk to you about it," Sunset shot back slowly with a tone of threat. "That's out of the question."
Seeing Isaac, Carver and Randall were also agreed on what Sunset said, Celestia decided to move along. "Alright, you.... didn't have any weapon with you right, Sunset?"
The four individual quickly got up by that, and they looked toward Sunset, yes Sunset, for an unknown reason, has a weapon in her inventory. "Actually, I do."
Sunset then pulled out her modified rifle-contact beam from her inventory slot and showed it to them. They all except Sunset's team gulped on what piece of weapon contraption they have seen right now. A rifle that looked like has 3 holes on the firing end and shaped in a cylinder while the bottom of the gun was looked like what Sci-Twi can so some sort of laser gun, which is actually the contact beam. The colors of the rifle were in blue while the colors of the secondary weapon were in grey.
"I called this The Thunderstrike. The top gun is called Pulse Rifle which is a triple-barreled assault rifle with a rapid rate of fire and large magazine ammunition capacity," Sunset explained. "While the bottom gun is called Contact Beam which is a heavy-duty energy pulse device, the Contact Beam is used for commercial destruction where a powerful but focused explosive force is needed, and it's a heavy engineering tool designed to pound and soften hard, raw minerals into smaller pieces."
Sunset then unloaded the ammo from the pulse rifle by opened the barrel to the left side and the ammo dropped from inside of it. The shape of the name was also unique hence because the shape was much more like Russian/German grenades from WWII, it was colored grey and has some straight blue lights on the broader part of the ammo. Sunset then unloads the ammo from the contact beam by lifting the firing end of the weapon to the ceiling while the butt stock of the firearm was underneath her right arm. She then pulled the bolt on the left side of the contact beam and looked away from the gun because there were steams came out from it which slightly surprised everyone in the room. After the ammo are unloaded from the weapon, she gave the dropped ammo to Luna on her table. Before giving away her Thunderstrike to her.
"Just keep it safe will you?" Sunset told her as she gave away her hand from her weapon.
"Is there anything else you bring to school?" Luna asked. Concerned about any more future weapons Sunset may have on school grounds.
"Just some of my engineering tools," Sunset answered. "You know for fixing jobs and the like if you have any."
"Sounds great!" Sci-Twi said with a smile. "Maybe you can help me with those tools of yours?"
"Maybe," Sunset added with some doubt.
"Alright, because you have disappeared for a year," Celestia stated. "You missed one year of your previous class. The good thing is, seeing you in the same age as the rest of the girls in here, you can join up with the next grade with these girls in your class. If you want of course."
"That's my plan, Principal Celestia," Sunset replied quickly. "I want to go back to my class again and finish up everything here."
"Well then, welcome back," Luna said as she finished up anything she wrote. "But I warn you because everyone in the school thinks you're still the Anon-A-Miss there's a chance that they try to harm you."
"Yeah, we were planning to find out who was behind that," Isaac commented with a grin.
"Well let's call it a day, for now, Isaac," Sunset said as she turned at Carver. "I'll handle it from here. You handle with the authority."
"Alright," Carver nodded in agreement.
"Hang on," Fluttershy halted them. "You have a problem with the police?"
"Yeah, they have found out about this," Randall answered with a sigh. "You better stay out of this, it's our problem now, you don't want to know."
They all hung in silence, but then Rarity spoke out. "Okay then, Randall."
"Randall, what's with your hand?" Pinkie asked as she popped out from beside Randall quickly and grabbed his hands "It feels cold when I touch it."
"That's his prosthetic hands," Sunset answered as she looked back at Pinkie in annoyance of her 'Pinkie magic.' "A psychopath cut off his hands with a bone saw."
Everyone quickly scooted away on that and Pinkie was looking like she was about to nearly throw-up on him. "Oh, I-I'm sorry to hear that!" Pinkie said quickly in pity.
"It's alright, I'm dealing with it," Randall replied as he patted her shoulder.
"Hey, Randall," Aria called out looking at him. "What's with those weird symbols on your suit?"
"Oh, it's the symbol of my former religion," Randall replied, waved his arms on his sides. "It's my lucky charm."
"Huh, your religion?" Twilight asked. "Hang on. You mean Unitology?"
"Yeah, Unitology," Isaac responded. "A blind religion."
"Why it was called a blind religion?" Luna asked.
"Doing rituals that involve death," Randall replied, which terrified them as they imagined about it.
"O-okay," Celestia responded awkwardly as sweat came down from her head after hearing what Randall said.
Then someone came into the office, and it was Wallflower Blush. "So how your progress going?" Celestia asked sternly.
"Still working on it and I have told a lot of them about what I did," Wallflower responded in fear as she playing with her nails to calm down.
"Good, now Sunset," Celestia called, want to know something. "Since the class already began the study, do you have books for class?"
"No, but I have text logs with me if I want to write something," Sunset showed them the text log she meant about and showing them how to use it.
"But I would use it if I have no books on me."
"I see," Celestia made her decision to where to put her. "Girls, I will put Sunset in your class." Which they all got up on that, knowing that the Rainbooms, the Dazzlings, Juniper, Wallflower, Cloudy, and Trixie are one class in their grade.
"Are you sure, Principal Celestia?" Trixie asked worriedly. "The classes were in are full with those who hate Sunset."
"Don't worry about it," Sunset responded coldly as she turned her head at Trixie. "I'll be fine."
"Are you sure?" Twilight asked as she walked over to her. "They can-"
"It's fine, Twilight," Sunset replied as she holds her shoulder. "I can handle it." Sunset then let's go her shoulder after that.
"Come on, Sunset," Celestia said as she comes over to her. "Let's us escort you to your class."
Celestia along with the girls then leave the office and headed to the specific class that Celestia mentioned, leaving Carver, Isaac, Randall, Twilight and VP Luna inside. "Well, we got this sorted out. Why don't you leave now?" Luna asked.
Isaac sighed as he looked at Carver, Randall, and Twilight before looking back Luna. "There's also a secret about Sunset that Principal Celestia should know about it. It concerns her age."
"She's 17, right?" Luna asked, which received a head shake from Isaac. "How old is she?"
"She's physically 22 years old," Isaac replied, Luna was felt shocked and froze of her age. "When she traveled to the future she has spent six years with me. She's mentally 19 due to cryo-like coma she went through after an incident we both went through. Princess Celestia of Equestria used an age reverse spell on her along with me and Carver so she can look young again for school."
"Hang on, how old are you?" Luna asked Isaac.
"I'm 49 years old," Isaac responded, which Luna felt disbelieve on that.
"Why she's back then?" Luna asked, wanting the details.
"When she was living with me, it wasn't always easy," Isaac answered with a sorrowful voice. "We've been through a hellhole so we can survive and Sunset has never been happy for a long time after what we've through. I just want to see her happy again."
"Okay...." Luna said in pity. "Anything else about her?"
"You might want her to be put on suicide watch, Vice-Principal Luna," Twilight recommended with pity. "Isaac told me that when she was living with him, she's been suffering a form of dementia from an incident, and for 3 years Sunset has tried to commit suicide if not for Isaac stopped her from doing so for 20 times."
Luna became eye-widen to hear this information, she really needs to talk to Celestia about it. "This is bad."
Celestia and the rest of the girls escorted Sunset to her classroom where the girls were in. Along the way through the hall, Sonata and Juniper managed to give some writing books for Sunset to write. The girls and the principal were talking to each other neutrally on the way, Sunset, however, kept silent to herself and hid her face underneath her hood again. They stopped for a moment in the middle of the hall because the principal was talking to Ms. Cherilee.
As they wait for the principal to finish talking with Ms. Cherilee, AJ and Wallflower noticed Sunset was looking at her right. When Wallflower called her, she didn't respond and only kept staring to her right. Not sure what's with her, AJ called up the others to look on what's with Sunset. Honestly, the way she was staring was like she was seeing a ghost.
Sunset was looking at her right seeing someone was standing in the right hall from where she is standing. He was standing there, arms crossing in front of his chest, his body shook slightly, and he breathes staggeringly as he was looked like he was cold or traumatized. Overall than that, his clothes were that of a USG officer suit, the only difference being he was covered in blood from head to toe. She then noticed that his left leg was replaced with a metal peg leg and his right arm was gone. When she looked on his face, he was brown/negro skin, bald, his brown eyes, his face. The near-death Hammond was standing right there, and he slowly turned his head looking straight towards her like a haunting ghost he is.
"Do you think....." Hammond said with an injured voice. "....Losing my leg and arm was enough to kill me, Sunset?"
Her eyes went wide and sharper, and her mouth opened a little as she kept staring at the crippled Hammond on her right. But then she was interrupted by Celestia calling her name a little aloud. Sunset quickly turned her head towards the principal and the girls with her. Celestia, Wallflower, Sci-Twi, Rarity, and Aria confused on what was going on with her. But the rest of them were kind of worried what's with her.
"Is everything alright, Sunset?" Celestia asked firmly trying to get what was going on as she looked over at her face.
Instead of replying, however, Sunset turned her head again towards where she did saw Hammond. But then only to found out he wasn't there anymore, the semi-empty hallway filled with some students she recognized of. Was her dementia getting worse?
"Are you okay, Sunset?" Applejack asked as she comes close to her. "Ya' looks like you've been seeing a ghost,"
Sunset kept silent to herself for a moment as she stares at where did she saw the ghost of Hammond. "I did, AJ."
Sunset then turned around and walked on forward, leaving the rest nearly behind her if not for them to catch up with her. Sunset was taking the lead of the group instead of the principal because Sunset doesn't know which class she's in. But then when she's just using the locator to find the specific classroom. They just felt disbelieve that the locator escorted them to the correct classroom where Sunset will be studying. "We just forgot that you have a navigation system," Sci-Twi commented awkwardly.
Celestia knocked on the door before entering the class before the girls minus Sunset followed up from behind the principal. The girls went to their respective seats while Celestia stood next to the teacher Mr. Cranky Doodle. Celestia prepped up her announcement of Sunset's return back to class. Though she does know, they won't like it, but Sunset was pretty confidence can handle that, and she would be kept an eye on her.
"May I have your attention, students?" Celestia asked, and the class of students including the teacher focusing their attention on her. "I know most of you does not feel so comfortable with the presence of the Anon-A-Miss right now, which all of you know her as Sunset. But after she has agreed on our conditions, we have let her join back in our school. Sunset if you please?"
Sunset then entered the class and stood next to the principal. It was clear they show their hating face towards Sunset who was still hiding her face underneath her hood. Sunset then looked down to her holo-projector, wanted to check something first. Then Celestia continued her words.
"What if she-?!" a student asked, which is Ringo.
"I guarantee to make sure she does not do her thing as the Anon-A-Miss for sure," Celestia replied quickly. "Sunset, your seat is between Fluttershy and Watermelody."
Sunset only nodded to the principal and slowly made her way to her seat. Sunset gave a good look around her class, walking passed her angry peers before sat down and comforting herself on her chair. Putting her writing books on her table and pencil and pen beside it. Sunset only looked straightforward at the principal.
"Alright, now I will leave to you-" Celestia then got interrupted by the PA systems being active.
"Principal Celestia, please come to Vice-Principal Luna's office," the PA systems said. "It's important."
"Oh, if you excuse me," Celestia said with a nod. "I need to go to my sister's office."
After receiving a nod from the teacher, she quickly leaves the class. But then, all angry eyes including the teacher's eyes and except those who just came back from the office were staring at her as sharp as they can. Sunset reminded herself that those eyes were like those stalkers who try to stab her back. With their claws and heads. Sunset only kept her cool for this.
"We'll be watching you, Sunset," Watermelody threatened from beside Sunset, gave a 'keep an eye on you' gesture. "Don't do something stupid."
Sunset only sighed sincerely at the threat. "I'll be watching myself about it."
But then someone opened the classroom door again, and it was Celestia again for God's sake what did she want now. From the looks of it, she forgot to tell them something. Something that might have benefited the principal or the students around Sunset.
"By the way, during her time away, Sunset has been specializing in an engineering background of sorts and is consider by some to be an expert in engineering," Celestia shouted out, which they happen to they give disbelieve glares to Sunset. "So if you have something that needs fixing you can ask her about it. That's all people. And erm, Mr. Cranky? Those... things attached to her chest and back are her pieces of equipment, not accessories," Celestia then exits the class again, literally heading for Luna's office.
"I hope you're right about being an engineer," Mr. Cranky stated. "If you're lying..."
"If I did, I shouldn't be here right now," Sunset added, they were surprised by her response.
"Right..." Mr. Cranky then quickly changed the topic. "Now, back to the maths."
They then continue on their study, alongside the hatred feeling with the presence of Sunset among them. While most of the students were kind of bored to study maths, Sunset was the one who was being sharp on reviewing it. It was after a few minutes later, the teacher gave them all a task to finish up the math questions given by the teacher. Some of the students having a hard time to answer them, some of them felt like gave up on working it, Sunset, however, was kind of enjoying to finish the math questions in 15 minutes flat.
After she finished working the math in her writing book, she closed the book and put her pen next to it and leaned her back against the chair. Sunset sighed in relieve as she casually looked around her, watching the other students still working on their math task, seeing some of the students were staring at her, and seeing Mr. Cranky checked his phone before changed his sight to the students and Sunset. Sunset then looked to her left, noticed that Watermelody was working on the math while at the same time looked at Sunset with anger and suspicion. Sunset remained cold to herself as she turned her head forward, looking down in front of the table.
But then, she had on odd feeling there. She slowly leaned forward and turned her head a little to her left with a blank stare. There was someone else in the presence around her, a ghostly presence. Sunset became worried because she felt that ghostly person was right next to her, her mouth was open showing her teeth and her eyes widen in fear. Sunset then slowly as ever turned her head to her right to see who was standing next to her. But then her fear vanished, and she lets out a breath of relieve to know there was no one right next to her except Fluttershy who was still working on the math in her seat. Fluttershy noticed a weird and looked at Sunset, who was staring at her.
"What?" Fluttershy asked as she halted to writing.
"Erm, nothing," Sunset then turned her head forward, avoiding eye contact with Fluttershy as she mumbled to herself. "Nothing."
Knowing there was still a lot of time waiting for everyone in the class to finish their maths, Sunset only kept silent to herself in her seat. But then, because her lack of sleep for several weeks back in the future, she felt tired again in her seat. She tried to resist sleep, but then she let her eyes closed and leaned her head against her chair because she was feeling weary than usual. Drifted again into sleep while in the class.
As Sunset searched for any more Necromorphs along the walkways that surrounded them. Isaac was busy putting a replacement battery in a slot for the door that led deeper into the mines. Stross was around here somewhere having lost his mind, and she was going to give him a piece of her one. The comm video of Stross sticking a screwdriver in Ellie's eye was still fresh in their heads, and they were going to get answers out of him one way or the other.
With the battery replaced they made their way to the door only to pause to shoot at a pair of Crawlers before leaving without a second glance. Being too focused on trying to find Ellie rather than deal with small fry.
They walked into the tunnel that was in front of them while hearing a message over the intercom about survival chambers being the only hope for survival should a cave-in occur. As they headed towards the door on the other end of the tunnel, they took little note of a passage to the left that was sealed off by a gate. That was until Stross came out from the other side surprising them.
Then she saw it, and if Sunsets face weren't hidden under her mask, her skin tone would have dropped a few shades at what he held in his hand. A screwdriver with Ellie's eye attached to it
"There you are!" Stross said as he looked at Sunset with crazy eye's while he focused solely on her and forgot about Isaac. "We've been waiting for you... now it's your turn! Step Three, then you'll..."
Whatever he was going to say next was cut off as Ellie appeared from behind him with a pipe in her hands as she swings it through the air and striking Stross in the back, knocking him away from the fence looking with the intent to kill with her one eye before she turned to the two behind the fence.
"Ellie?!" The two engineers said in surprise, seeing their friend was still alive.
'You owe me an eye you bastards!" Ellie demanded.
Ellie then went on the defensive when Stross got up and started attacking again.
Sunset stared at the wall for a few seconds, hearing Stross shout that the 'patient was not cooperating' and that she 'needed another session,' where she believed that he had devolved into a more insane version of the scientists that had been experimenting on the three of them.
They knew that Ellie could handle herself and that they couldn't help her at this time.
"Come on Isaac we got to stop them from killing each other," Sunset said before rushing down the hall.
"Sunset wait!" Isaac said to gain the young women's attention.
Turning around to look back she first became unaware of the tentacle bursting out of the wall above her and wrapped around her legs. She barely got off a scream before the tentacle dragged her through the hole in the wall. She felt herself get bashed by several rock walls before she heard her suit seal itself shut as she went into her personal oxygen supplies.
When Sunset felt the tentacle release her, she realized she was in space, outside the area she and Isaac had been. She then watches the tentacle craw into another hole in the wall.
"I'm starting to regret that time when Pinkie and Fluttershy showed me their hentai tentacle porn fetish."
"Sunset you alright!" Isaac said, his voice laced with worry over her comm channel.
"Yea, but that thing dragged me outside. Got to find a way back in."
"Ellie lied!"
Isaac was then caught off from any reply he was going to say next when Stross's voice came over her speakers. "She won't help... but you two will. You'll see her after Step Three!"
"Isaac, he ran off, deeper into the mines," Ellie said, sounding tired over the call. Which was understandable considering that her eye had been torn from her body, but also brought relief to sunset knowing she was still alive.
"We got problems on our end too, get somewhere safe will come to you,"Isaac replied.
"I'll try."
"Sunset, find a way back inside. We will link up and meet back with Ellie."
"Got it, shouldn't be too hard," Sunset replied before turning her comm off.
Sunset looked around her area and saw the place had about a dozen active lasers floating around her. She then sees a mining tub leading back inside the mines blocked by a pair of mining lasers. Sunset frowned at that. Why were the lasers blocking the way back inside? Was it some attempt to contain the infection or something she probably never know. Looking around she saw a booster placement station. They were the same modules Isaac used to bring the elevator up to use when they needed to go to the solar array.
Grabbing one with her kineses module she dutifully connected it to one of the two lasers that she needed to change the directions. Floating back a few meters she fired at it and watch the ignited booster push the active laser away. Another minute went by, and she did the same with the other one. With her path clear, Sunset flew down into the tonal only to stop at the danger posed in front of her.
Cysts
Sunset hated these things, they were always in a place where it inhibited her and Isaac's progress. If it wasn't for the unusual sound, they made it probably have been the death of either of them on the few encounters they've had.
Looking around she sees the dead body of a long-dead miner floating against the wall. Saying a small apology to the dead man, she grabbed his body with her kinesis module and shot it at the Cysts blocking her way. After they were cleared, she made her way to the airlock at the end and exited the vacuum. Now that she was back inside she called Isaac.
"Isaac, I'm back inside," Sunset reported while she looked around to what looked like an operations room and there, Sunset found a shiny new toy.
"Good, I'm sending you my location. Ellie are you alright, any sign of Stross?" Isaac inquired.
"I'm safe for now, but Stross has lost it!" Ellie replied. "I think he's coming for you and Sunset... but I've found something that you're going to want to see. Here's my location. Just hurry up and get here, I'm not in any shape to be fighting."
"We'll get to you as soon as we can," Sunset replied before cutting her comm off.
That's when Sunset finally took notice of her situation. She was actually alone for the first time. When she and Isaac first encounter the Necromorphs on board the Ishimura, she stuck by Isaac's side like glue. Now she had to navigate through dark undead infested mines to make it back to her friends. Shaking her head of any fears she had of fighting by her self she reached and picked up her new weapon from the counter. A Contact Beam cannon. She'd remember seeing the schematics for one back on the Ishimura and has haded herself for not buying it.
Now Sunset readied her new Contact Beam with ammo and was now ready for anything that may come her way. Whatever lied in front of her she can take it down whether it be the Undead, Tiedmann or Stross.
Looking around again, she spotted a med back on the counter as well as some Plasma Cutter ammo. Grabbing the two, she set off to a small elevator on the other side of the room. Pressing the lift controls brought her up to the next level onto a catwalk.
Walking down the path, she spots a lone black slasher dropping down at the far end of the catwalk. Before she can raise her weapon to fire she heard some screeches coming from below. Looking down she saw a pair of Lurkers pop out. Seeing a few polls off to the side she grabbed it with her Kinesis and impaled the Slasher the rock face. Focusing her Contact Beam downward she charged a pair of contact energy blasts at the two. With the three threats down she moved along the catwalk till a Puker jumped down from above. It only took two seconds for Sunset to react to bringing it down. Walking around a stone support beam, two more Slashers dropped from the vents from above. Her next shot collided with the first one's chest sending it back and falling off the catwalk. When she was about to shoot the next one, her weapon died out. Looking down at it she saw that the weapon counter read zero. Cursing herself of the rookie mistake. Seeing no time to reaload, she switch to her Pulse Rifle and began firing at the second Slashers legs and bringing it down as well. Satisfied with the outcome, she reached down to pick up the fallen weapon.
That was when Sunset heard a shuffling behind her, turning back a third Slasher. She had just managed to put her Pulse rifle between them as its bone sword arms came down on top of her. It didn't help that the thing's head was trying to get to rip out her throat. Not wanting to drag this on, she lifted her leg and smashed down on the Necromorphs knee cap, hard.
It stumbled back a way to the point where it gave Sunset just enough room to bring her Pulse rifle about and unleashed a storm of pulse rounds into Slashers shoulders and head, forcing the thing back even more. When it neared the edge of the catwalk, she ceased fire and reared up again and delivered a side kick into the things chest making it tumble over and fall into the dark caverns below.
She was then safe to pick up her discarded Contact Beam reload it with a new beam clip. Satisfied by the action, she moved on, only around the next corner of the catwalk as another Slasher AND a Puker fell from above.
'Man, am I popular right now, why is that?" Sunset said in annoyance as she dispatched the two with a trio of shots. One going to the Slasher while it took two to down the Puker.
Finally reaching the door at the catwalk. Sunset reached out to tap the open holo only to hear a roar from behind. Doing a quick 180, she hip fired the Contact Beam. Her shot landed right where the victim's collarbone would be. The Slasher made one step back before hitting the ground with a thud.
Hit the door controls Sunset entered the next area with no opposition. On the other side of the door, she found that the path on her left, which had to be the correct way to go and was blocked by three mine traps that had lasers revealing where she shouldn't walk, though instead of messing with that she walked over to a secure storage room.
That also had three dead miners looking like they were trying to claw their way in before whatever got them. Reaching to the door, she used a spare Power Node she picked up earlier on the door to give her access.
Inside was a number of supplies and utilities. Bunkbeds, food, medpacks, stasis packs, wall lockers and a toilet. All the necessity for when something like a cave in should accrue. To bad most of it would go to waste.
Walking over to the supplies first she saw a box of protein bars. Seeing that made her stomach gurgle a little. Seeing that her spot was secured, Sunset clasped her helmet and scarf three of the bars and pocketed the rest for later. With her stomach satisfied, she picked up a large medpack and a stasis pack. Looking over at the bunks she saw something peaking on the lower bed. Walking over she saw it was a schematic for an elite military Suit.
That both made her confused and very happy. Confused as to why this was down here in a shelter inside a mine and happy that she can put on a better piece of badass armor. Sorting that in her RIG for later till the next time she was at a suit kiosk. Seeing nothing else of interest, she moved out of the room and past the dead bodies. She tossed one of the bodies on the laser mines, tripping them so she can move on.
From there Sunset opened the door in front of her and found another passage that had cysts on the walls around her. Taking a nearby supply crate she launching it out, forcing the cysts to fire their charges at the walls opposite of where they were resting and die without hurting anyone.
With those taken care of the Sunset made her way towards the door at the end. Pulling the panel off of the terminal she looked it over before she began her hack, have never done something like this before but had seen Isaac do it nearly a dozen times already.
Reaching in Sunset started grabbing hold of some wires and started to moved around.
She had no idea what she was doing.
After about a minute of trying to figure the door controls out, she got shocked by the thing making her jerk back with a yelp. "Son of a...how does Isaac make this so easy?" After fiddling with it some more, she got down the first sequence. Redoing another pattern but in the same style got the second sequence in. Before Sunset could start the third sequence, she was interrupted when the door opened, and Stross came charging at her.
"There you are!" Stross said, to which he raised his hand and grabbed onto Sunset as he pushed himself into the tunnel that she just came from.
"Whoa, Stross what are you doing?!" Sunset said as she tried to push the crazed man away.
"You have to face her for me!" Stross shouted, to which he drove the screwdriver into the side of Sunsets helmet causing it to suddenly broke apart like she hit the command to disassemble. Right before he tried to drive the screwdriver into Sunset's eye, "Tell her I didn't mean to do it!"
"Stross it's me!" Sunset called out while she struggled against Stross over the control of the screwdriver.
"See her!"
"Stross!"
"Tell her!"
"STOP!" Sunset yelled at the madman as the screwdriver got closer to her face.
"Step three! STEP THREE!"
"SUNSET!"
Sunset quickly woke up with cold sweat and irregular breathing after dreaming of her past. As she tried to control her breathing, she looked around and noticed that everyone in the class had finished their math task. And noticed everyone, including Mr. Cranky, were staring at her because of her action of sleeping in the class. She can see Watermelody was giving an evil grin at her.
"Ms. Shimmer," Mr. Cranky called out. "You finished your paper? Because I don't like it seeing someone sleep while doing so."
"I-I'm done, sir," Sunset then opened her book to see her own work. "It's-"
"What' wrong, Miss. Shimmer?" Mr. Cranky asked sternly. "You didn't finish, right?"
"I'm finished, but someone destroyed my math task with writings and drawings," Sunset replied coldly and in annoyance. "Who did this?"
"Sunset," Applejack called out from behind her, she was sitting behind Sunset. "It was Watermelody."
Sunset and Mr. Cranky then stared down at Watermelody who has destroyed Sunset's work. Mr. Cranky and Sunset were obviously mad to what Watermelody did. Before Mr. Cranky asked her, Sunset was the first who asked Watermelody.
"What was that for?" Sunset asked with a flat and cold tone.
"That's for what secret you spill out from me long ago, Anon-A-Miss!" Watermelody shot back in anger as she points her finger at her. "You just can't stop, can't you?"
"That's enough, Watermelody!" Mr. Cranky shouted from the front of the class. "I know she's the Anon-A-Miss, but I do not tolerate with student messing with others work like this! So don't disturb her and do your own work or I'll have you repeat the entire lesson!"
Watermelody then recoiled in fear as she nervously looked away from Sunset and looked at the teacher as she comforts herself in her seat. "So sorry, sir!"
Sunset slowly looked away from Watermelody and only froze with her arms on her table. "Now apologized to Sunset," Mr. Cranky ordered, but Watermelody shows her protest.
"What?!" Watermelody asked furiously as she leaned her head forward. "I don't want to apologize to her!"
Before Mr. Cranky gave the order again, Sunset speaks out. "She's right, Mr. Cranky. I don't need her to apologize."
Mr. Cranky, Watermelody, and the rest except AJ were surprised when she said that. But now, Sunset was kind of pissed. Sunset puts her elbows on the table and put her forehead on top of her hands that gripped to each other. Without expectation and in sudden, Sunset just bashed her own table with her own goddamned fist, loud enough to make everyone in the class jumped and loud enough to be heard to the other classes near she's in. And there was one more thing that they didn't expect to hear from Sunset.
"FUCK!"
Everyone including the teacher in the class was taken back on what she just said in the class loudly. Sunset, after screamed, she bowed her head and rubbed her face in irritation and upset. And she just froze on that pose while everyone was staring at her. Fluttershy felt terrible on Sunset's math work was ruined. Fluttershy had decided, to give her work to Sunset.
"Why are you giving me your book?" Sunset asked softly.
Fluttershy silent for a moment before answering. "I don't want to see you like this because someone destroyed your work."
Sunset felt content on that for a moment, before decided to sincerely take the book from Fluttershy and going to work back again on the math quiz.
"Your welcome."
A couple of hours after studying in the class, the school day was over, and Sunset alongside AJ came out from the class first. They both were stood next to their wanted to talk something about the school. But then, the rest of the students in the class came out and headed to their lockers. And much annoyingly, Watermelody came over to Sunset and Applejack because her problem with the girl she thinks was the 'Anon-A-Miss' was not over yet.
"Hey, you!" Watermelody called out, looked a little angry at her. "We're not done yet!"
Sunset just sighed in irritation in front of AJ, before looking over at Watermelody. "What now, Watermelody?"
"Do you think I just let you get away like that, Anon-A-Miss?" Watermelody asked, stared her down in the eyes. "I know you're trying to continue to hurt us like long ago."
If not Sunset felt annoyed of this Anon-A-Miss bullshit, Sunset was annoyed that it felt like got some talk with Tiedmann back in the Sprawl. "And how do you know that?"
"That's what you do, Sunset!" Watermelody said as Sunset listens to her with a patient heart, Applejack only watched them. "I'm going to deal with you if you have a plan to get something out of us, you hear me?"
Sunset sighed and then shook her head. "I assure you, I've got no such plans on that."
"Oh really?" Watermelody joked, not believing her. "You know, it's nice to hear you don't need any apologies from me. You have realized your actions, eh?"
"I know what I'm doing, Watermelody," Sunset shot back with an angry tone, then she poked her chest with her index finger. "And I've just had enough of your goddamn shit about the Anon-A-Miss!" Sunset then looked away from her by turning her head to her right, "and I don't need your goddamn apology because of-"
Sunset somehow halted on what she's saying because she was staring on something that both Applejack and Watermelody don't know of. They both looked over to where Sunset was staring, all they saw only students getting and putting their stuff in their locker. They both looked back at Sunset again; she was still staring to her right. Watermelody was about to shout at her on what she's starting to her right, but then she noticed that Sunset somehow looked worried by looking the gesture of her mouth and her eyes under the hood. Watermelody looked over at Applejack in confusion, before looking back at Sunset.
"Sunset?" Watermelody called with a pat to her shoulder, which Sunset was startled by that and quickly looked at her. "What's wrong with you?"
Sunset then looked over to her right again, noticing something that she just saw a few seconds ago was gone. "Did I-?"
"Honestly, I've never seen you be that worried as the Anon-A-Miss," Watermelody stated in confusion. "Did you see something else out of the ordinary?"
"I thought I saw Stross right there-, nevermind," Sunset answered as she pointed her finger to the direction of where sees him, but then realizing who she was talking to. "Sorry, I just-."
"Who's Stross?" Watermelody asked, she never heard that name either in CHS or in the city.
"Your loss or something? And be honest with me."
Sunset was feeling doubt in silence to answer her, but she instead answers her with regret and honest.
"Nolan Stross. I- *sigh* someone who tried to help us with something important. But I had to kill him because he was turning into a psycho and attacked me." Watermelody and Applejack became eye-widen on what she just said.
"You what?" Watermeoldy asked in shock. It's the first time to hear Sunset ever killed someone.
Their conversation then interrupted by the announcement of the PA systems. "Sunset Shimmer, please come to Vice-Principal Luna's office. Mayor Mare waiting for you in Vice-Principals Luna's Office. Sunset Shimmer, Please come to Vice-Principal's office."
Everyone in that hall including Watermelody herself was surprised by what the PA systems said. "What? Mayor Mare wants to talk to you? That's impossible!" Watermelody stated in disbelieve.
"When you got through a fucking hellhole," Sunset replied coldly. "It's possible, let's go, AJ."
Sunset and Applejack left for heading to VP Luna's office, leaving Watermelody standing there as she watched them leave. Soon, Sonata, Wallflower, Rarity, and Adagio came over to her and stood next to and besides her. They all watched them leave, wondering why Mayor Mare wanted to talk with Sunset. It's their first time hearing about that.
"Mayor Mare wanted to talk with Sunset?" Rarity asked in disbelieve. "I can't believe it!"
"Something's up with her," Wallflower stated nervously. "Did she had trouble with her?"
"Not sure," Adagio replied hastily. "But I think she can handle it."
"Sunset," Watermelody halted, then continue. "Sunset said she killed someone. She killed someone named Stross."
The four then looked at Watermelody in shock for what did they just heard from her. "She killed who?" Rarity asked.
"Stross," Watermelody said again. "She had killed him because he was becoming a psycho."
They all then looked forward again toward where Sunset and Applejack take their leave. "What else is she hiding?" Adagio wondered to herself.
Both Sunset and Applejack reached the office. Sunset knocked on the door before entering the office. They saw the mayor was talking with the principals and Twilight upon entering. The mayor and the principals looked at who entered the office and greeted them.
"Hello, Sunset, Applejack."
"Hi, Mayor," Sunset replied while AJ only gave a greeting nod to her. "You wanted to see me?"
"Yes, I want to talk about your apartment, Ms. Shimmer," Mayor Mare speak out. "Since your disappearance, we have sealed off until you have been founded until now."
"We already saw it, Mayor," Applejack said, remembered looks like now. "It was left in bad condition."
"I know," Mayor replied in understood. "After you're back, we have taking care of your apartment, Ms. Shimmer. To make it as clean as it originally looked like. Today you have your own apartment to live when you go back to see it."
Sunset only smiled with this announcement. "Thanks for the apartment. But what of Isaac, Carver, and Randall?"
"We have also given them an apartment, the one next door to yours," Mayor Mare added. "More than that, free of tax and fees."
"It's good to hear that," Sunset answered with a smile. "Thank you, Mayor Mare."
"Your welcome, Miss. Shimmer."
Chapter 8 - Jobs And Houses
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. Author's Note
New update, Next chapter available!!
If you spot word mistakes, let me know about it.
Chapter 9 - A Bad Night
07.00 PM
Applejack didn't say it, but she had to stay with Sunset for a few reasons.
First being curious on what was up with Sunset, though at the same time worried about her condition worsening because of her dementia, her brother did come by to drop off some clothes for school tomorrow. Looking around, Applejack watched as Twilight sat down next to Sunset on the couch in front of the TV while she was looking around at the computers section under the bed. Sunset only kept silent to herself, waiting for one of the guys came back from their jobs. Other than that, her mind felt like it was locked up with the thoughts of how many have died by her hands and how much guilt she had to suffer with.
Twilight kept trying to start a conversation with Sunset in any way she had, but Sunset didn't respond to anything Twilight said because she was stuck in her own mind. While that happened, Applejack looked around again and discovered some tools and weapons that Sunset mentioned. Besides the Thunderstrike and Plasma Cutter that she recognized. There was another tool that looks like a pistol, but the pistol butt looked like a blue tube of some kind, and the magazine was in dark orange color instead of similar color to the rest of the tool's metal, with the firing end that contains what is look like a nail, which Sunset called it a Rivet Gun.
And then there's this other tool that looked like a what lumberjacks use. If was tilted to its side with the circular saw blade sticking out at the end of it, Just looking at it gave Applejack the creeps along with the thoughts on how Sunset was going to use that thing. Plus, Sunset called it a "Ripper." Just from the way it looked, the name was appropriate.
Applejack then walked over to where Sunset and Twilight were sitting at and sat down beside Sunset. She then looked over to Sunset's face to see how was she doing, and frankly, it scared her.
Applejack could see that Sunset was still cold to her on this situation but appeared indifferent about her. Probably was split among their friends and Wallflower.
Sunset only looked back to Applejack, quickly showing her hatred for the apple girl from what she had done to her. But then her hatred vanished again with the look of remembrance as she reminded herself of the guilts she had gone through a lot with Isaac. Sunset then looked forward again in silents, while Twilight slightly looked at Applejack in doubt before looking over to Sunset.
"You doing alright, Sunset?" Applejack asked.
It was only a few moments of silence before Sunset sighed before replying. "It's been...... rough...."
"I know you shouldn't have deserved that," Twilight added as she rubs her back.
"I deserve it," Sunset replied as she looked down, Twilight became more upset. "It's all my fault."
"Sunset!" Twilight said sternly as she learned at her. "Don't blame yourself about it! It wasn't your fault."
"You sure?" Sunset asked back as she looked at her and straighten her back. "I destroyed everything that I know, and..... I don't belong anywhere... Not in the future. Not in Equestria... the only place that I belong is only in this apartment. Now the only thing I have is the family I made with Isaac and Carver and you, Twilight, can't think any more than that."
Sunset paused for a moment, then sigh. "Just..... leave me alone...."
It was painfully evident to Twilight that Sunset was stressed out about this and was starting to doubt her plan of going back to CHS to be the wrong step for her. But what else she can think about? That Anon-A-Miss fucker is torturing her and Sunset gotten much worse than the Anon-A-Miss, at least this Necromorph bullshit has gone away for now. Though she just needed some time for herself again.
When Sunset reached for a pair of round red headphones, the kind that covers her whole ear she'd slipped them on and started playing her music to distract herself. Applejack and Twilight decided to leave Sunset to her music and got off the couch, and they both walked to the door that is going to the ground floor before entering the kitchen. They both stopped there and looked at each other before they both started a conversation.
"I'm worried Twilight, is Sunset going to be alright?" Applejack asked worriedly. Twilight looked back at the teen with a stern look.
"How could you ask that?" Twilight asked back in anger. "After all you are one of the ones that put her in this position?"
"Ah' I want to fix this, alright?" Applejack replied back. "I know I've been wrong all along, ok? Ah' beg ya,' to give me a chance for this."
"Alright, but if you do something to her it's on you, alright?" Twilight threatened.
"Ah' get it," Applejack replied quickly.
"Okay, well...." Twilight then looked over to Sunset from a distance. "Sunset.... is still feeling devastated on what she'd been through. More than that, I did have some time to diagnose her condition, and the results were.... severe. Heavy mental trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder alongside the case of dementia she told you about. Especially when she failed to save someone."
"Nicole?" Applejack asked as Twilight looked over to her.
"Isaac told me a little about what happened then, and I pieced it along with the dream Luna shared with Celestia and me that Isaac was trying to save her and Sunset tried her best to help," Twilight said. "But after they found out Nicole was dead before they even arrived. Isaac was devastated to know he was already too late and Sunset felt like she failed him as a friend, again..." This made Applejack cringed.
"Now she can't seem too let it go..."
Applejack then slowly looked over to Sunset in concern, before looking back at the princess. "And you might want to be careful what you say around her with the condition because she's in. With how much insanity she went through is not healthy for someone like her and could hurt someone if someone said something that might have triggered her."
"Okay," Applejack nodded in understanding. "Ah' can't imagine all the things she'd been through."
"Me either," Twilight added in agreement. "I'm glad she's still alive after the point where the Anon-A-Miss passed her limits."
"I don't reckon we've seen the last of whoever they are. If the whole school knows that Sunset is back, so do they. And with how hard Sunset has become when they are facing her, I pity anyone that stands in front of that girl.
"That we can agree on..." Twilight nodded before rolling her eyes to Sunset.
"Makes you wonder how much toll she had to take."
Then the door where Twilight and Applejack were standing at opened and Isaac was entering the room. "Hey, there girls," Isaac greeted the two.
"Mr. Isaac," Twilight replied back with a smile. "We are doing just fine. How are you?"
"Just did some fancy heavy duty server fixing back at the police station, which was easy for me," Isaac replied. "More than that, I'm doing alright. How's Sunset doing?"
Applejack and Twilight then looked back again Sunset, still wearing her headphones blaring music, before looking back to Isaac. "Not well..." Applejack said slowly in doubt.
Isaac looked at Sunset, the sight of her frowned face did upset him. Seems she felt a little hard after returning to her original home and needed a distraction. He can see she was still feeling the guilt right now, such a hard girl she was. Like how she was doing back in Earthrise Apartments, nearly died by committing suicide now this? Isaac can't say anything more than that, besides the trauma they had with The Markers.
Isaac then slowly walked over to Sunset and sat down next to her. Then Isaac turned his head to her and patted her shoulder, which made Sunset look at Isaac. Isaac looked at her with a surprised look with her scarred eyes but noticed the sorrow look she had before. Sunset didn't tell what, but it must be something about in this town. Sunset only smiled as she looked at Isaac, before looking away and staring at the TV.
"Isaac.," Sunset called flatly.
"Sunset..." Isaac called back, then paused. "How are you feeling?"
"Nothing that I couldn't handle," Isaac replied with a grin. "But they couldn't handle me. So haven't found a job yet, huh?"
"Yeah," Sunset with a doubtful shrug. "Looks like you'll be handling my money problems for now."
"Yep, sucks for you. You could go back to Equestria and work for the princess? I believe Luna wanted a chance to visit the stars." Isaac replied to which Sunset laughed.
"You kidding? I'd be overworked and discredited by the countries magic board and be labeled a danger to others." Sunset replied before going silent.
"I know, I can handle them," Sunset said, sounded in a silent tone.
When Isaac noticed the look on the girls face he didn't believe her. "Are you sure, Sunset?"
"I'm fine," Sunset insisted. "There's nothing to worry about."
"Sunset," Isaac called as he stares her. "Just tell me what's wrong."
"It's nothing, I'm fine," Sunset replied insistently.
"Hey, I'm much worried about you right now!" Isaac retorted as he looked at her. "You look troubled and haven't slept properly in months. I know you can't handle it."
"Isaac, I can deal with my problems, alright?" Sunset replied a little aloud, gaining the attention of the girls in the room. "Just don't worry about it!"
"Bullshit!" Isaac quickly stood up angrily from the couch, leaving Sunset to sit there and watched Isaac turned around towards her. "Every time you say that to me or anyone else, bad things start fucking happening!"
"Goddammit, Isaac!" Sunset retorted quickly, as the two girls at the door watch the conflict. "I'm already grown up, and I can handle this! You don't have to help me with it!"
"You sure about it?!" Isaac asked angrily, he waved his hand to his left side quickly. "Because the last time I let you do that, you fucking tried to kill yourself!"
"That's because I was hallucinating!" Sunset stood up with a shout.
"Just hallucinating!?" Isaac asked loudly as he tilted his head. "You tried to fucking kill yourself with your own damn self-conscious, apart from that, just because you had enough with your life!"
"Hey! Didn't you also had enough of your fucking life!?" Sunset shot back as she pointed at him. "After when Ellie left us!?"
"I gave up on humanity, but not Ellie, and so do you!" Isaac shouted back. "And you had fucking left her back on earth because we didn't get the chance to help her but we still have time to do that, it's your goddamn choice!"
"We don't have other options, Isaac!" Sunset shouted back as she widens her hands to her sides quickly. "I couldn't let us die with those fucking Brethren Moons around! How the fuck were we going to save her!? How where we going to fight a living planet and find Ellie in a two-hundred-year-old cargo frigate that didn't have any weapons?!"
"I don't know! There would be another way to save her!" Isaac shouted back. "I know it!"
"We don't have a choice to save her, and you know it!" Sunset shouted back with a nod.
"Maybe because you didn't care enough and was willing to let her die out there!" Isaac retorted as he pointed at her.
"Hey! You're the one who got me into all of this shit!" Sunset shouted again quickly, pointed quickly at him before throwing her finger down at the last sentence. "I shouldn't have entered that damned portal when I had the goddamn chance! So I won't meet you along with Carver and Ellie, and I won't give a damn about you or anyone else even if you're going to die except myself!"
Suddenly, both Isaac's and Sunset's facial expressions of outburst quickly turned into a frown and shocked expression after Sunset has realized what she just said to Isaac in a moment of silence. "D-did I.....?"
"Sunset...." Isaac slowly stepped forward to her with his hands in the air in front of to tell her to calm down.
"I...I.." Sunset limply lets herself dropped onto her sofa and bowed her head as she starts to cry. "Isaac, I didn't...."
"Sunset, calm down," Isaac then sat next to her, and Sunset let her head fell onto Isaac's shoulder as she cried with her eyes closed. "Shsss, it's alright, its ok."
"Isaac, I-I didn't mean it!" Sunset pleaded to him with a shook. Still, her eyes closed. "I-I'm sorry, Isaac. I'm so sorry....."
Isaac paused a moment before replying softly to her. "Me too, Sunset. I'm sorry, I also didn't mean it too."
They both paused in silence for a moment, redeeming their actions. "How many times have we've been fighting like this?" Sunset asked with a low voice to Isaac as she put her legs on the sofa and hugged them as she cried.
"Too many."
Isaac and Sunset both cuddled each other in sorrow after they both were fighting. Times had been hard for them back in Luna Colony, especially when Ellie left them. They both have been fighting for many times over the aftermath on fighting their way through the Necromorphs, since because it's still haunting them both. Isaac and Sunset have questioned themselves if this life is worth the price they had right now. These troubles, they can't let it go.
Twilight and Applejack were standing at the door when the two engineers started talking. They now stood in the middle of the room nearly underneath the floor bed where the computers sat. They felt very sad, shocked, and broken-hearted to have witnessed them the conflict between the two. They also felt sorry to see them fight over the things that they had no control of. Applejack regretted the treatment she inflicted on Sunset a year ago. She should have known better, heard Sunset out like a friend should instead of inflicting the pain that produced the moment in front of her. Sunset didn't deserve this, no one should have to live through the hell she went through. AJ let a tear out from her eye about this. She felt a hand on her shoulder from the princess, looking at her, she motions for her to follow her back to the kitchen. Seeing Isaac and Sunset been like this it was best to give them privacy and headed over in silents.
As they both entered, they felt an uneasiness about the situation as they kept thinking especially what Sunset had gone through besides some part of the story they knew from Sunset. Twilight knew about those Markers and Necromorphs, Applejack knew about some stuff, like the Brethren Moons that tried to kill Sunset, Isaac, and Carver. But she didn't know about the Necromorphs and Markers. Applejack took her place by leaning herself against a wall while Princess Twilight found a chair and sat down in front of Applejack. They both then looked at each other in doubt, still primarily thinking about Sunset. Twilight then decided to let that off the topic first.
"Okay AJ, after witnessing that, how are you doing right now?" Twilight asked as she rested her head against the chair.
"Ah' don't know," AJ replied with a doubtful shook. "I feel lost."
"Can we...." Twilight said but then trailed off for a moment. "Can we get our minds off this first? Talk about something to get our heads on straight."
AJ did show her agreement with a nod, but she couldn't shake off her feeling. "If this can get ma'h mind off this, Twilight. Ah, 'm fine with that."
"Ok, how's your family doing?" Twilight asked politely.
"Doing fine, to be honest," Applejack replied with a shrug. "After Sunset disappeared and the Anon-A-Miss stopped posts stopped after knowing she's gone, of course."
"I see," Twilight replied with a nod. "Principal Celestia and Luna?"
"They were still handling the school after the Anon-A-Miss," AJ replied. "Now the situation in the school was getting better because Celestia managed to get a handle on the problem within the school."
"How about Flash Sentry?" Twilight asked, knowing that she still had a small crush on the rocker at that time. "Is he with.... that another Twilight?"
"Nah, he isn't," AJ replied with a shook, then lean forward to get her back off the wall and took a chair and sat next to her. "That Twilight was trying to get with a boy named Timber Spruce. He a homeschooled kid that works as a camp co-counselor. I think it's getting serious about how often they talk to each other. Other then that, I think Flash still misses you if he remembers you after we took out the Memory Stone."
"Really?" Twilight gasped, but then reminded of Sunset which made her frowned. "He didn't do anything bad to Sunset, didn't he?"
"He was probably the only one that didn't truly believe that Sunset wasn't behind the posts. He was still hurt but not as bad as everyone else." Applejack stated as she crossed her arms and leaned her back to the chair. "The only thing he did to Sunset was confronting her about it and said how disappointed he was at her and avoid her."
Twilight paused a moment, slightly relieved. Flash didn't do much worse than that. "That's good to hear. So, who was that hurt Sunset the most?"
Applejack opened her mouth, but no sound came out of her then she closed her mouth and blinked. Applejack was pretty worried and doubt if she had to answer it. Twilight was waiting for her answer, but when she immediately noticed Applejack's expression. She feared the worst from AJ.
"Applejack...... you.....?"
Applejack silent in fear, but at last she said. "Ah'..........was the first one to hurt Sunset when the posts started. All because they were about me, Ah' did more than what Sunset said to you Twilight. I'm sorry."
Twilight frowned very sadly as she bowed her head down. "Oh Applejack..."
"Ah' know," Applejack added in regret. "This is won't end well at all."
They sat in silence for a moment of sorrow. This whole ordeal right now is really breaking Twilights heart right now. What were those girls thinking? Twilight thought to herself about that, this is very bad. With Sunset suffering the mental trauma she had, Twilight wasn't sure if this whole trouble can be fixed. But then, the silence broke by a sound of a knocking door which made them looked toward the door.
Applejack got off from her seat and opened the door. Twilight and Applejack were smiling on who was knocking on the door, Carver, and Randall. They came in and greeted them respectably. Carver and Randall asked them if Sunset was here, and Twilight answers that she was upstairs with Isaac. They all decided to check the upstairs, besides the fact that they need some privacy. They entered the room of the second floor and looked around, they somewhat looked confused that they didn't see Isaac or Sunset in there.
"Sunset! Isaac!" Carver called as they looked around. "Where are you?"
"Up here," Isaac replied from above them which where was Sunset's bed was, they all looked up to him.
"Where's Sunset?" Randall asked.
Isaac looked behind him, before looking back at them and replied. "She's sleeping."
"Really?" Twilight asked in surprised. "That's fast?"
"Yeah, I'm coming down," Isaac said before he goes down the stairs to meet them.
"How's she doing?" Applejack asked as Isaac reached them.
"She's pretty tired," Isaac replied. "You can check on her if you want."
"All right, we'll go check on her," Twilight replied quickly, then both AJ and Twilight goes up to Sunset's bed while Isaac stayed back talking with Carver and Randall.
When the girls reached Sunset's bed, they both could see Sunset was already curled up on her bed. Sunset's expression didn't leave her face after had a fight with Isaac, what a poor girl. At least, she found comfort for her rest tonight and looked a little bit cute.
"Ah' hope she'll be alright," Applejack said to Twilight as they both stare at Sunset.
"Me too," Twilight added in agreement. "I hope everything didn't go downhill."
"Twilight..." AJ and Twilight then looked at each other, Applejack clearly seems to be doubt about something. "How am I going to fix the damage I helped caused?" It is hard for Applejack to act in this situation, Twilight doesn't have a solution for it.
"Sorry, I have no idea what you should do with this."
Applejack went upset to hear that, Applejack was actually scared of Sunset. "I see, let's hope for the best."
"Yeah, let's hope for the best."
As two engineers flew through in zero-G, avoiding machinery that was still working, and others that fired electricity from one side to the other, while at the same time taking out another birds nest that happened to be built in the area. Behind the nest rested the other terminal that controlled the gravity in the area, where they carefully landed near it, Isaac turned the gravity back on and together headed through the circular door in front of them, where two suffered from another bout of Marker influence for a few seconds before he calmed down.
It didn't last long, only long enough for them to hear Nicole tell them that they needed to let go. Shaking their heads from the "dementia," they continued on through the next door.
Through the door in front of them and turned down the path on their left, where they had to pass through yet another door and forced them to walk down the hallway until they arrived at an area that had a Store and a Bench for them to use. Isaac ignored the two machines since was already ready for what was ahead of him. Sunset stopped at the Bench to set a few nodes in her Contact Beam. Putting its ammo capacity up to the max. With that done she joined Isaac at the door. As she got close to him, the two got another message from Nicole informing the two of them that Convergence was almost there and that they were supposed to meet her at the base of the Marker.
Shaking their heads from the mind message they Isaac looked over at Sunset. "Final stretch, you ready?"
"Ready to be done with this? Fuck yeah, I'm ready." Sunset said with confidence as she readied her Pulse Rifle.
On the other side of the door, they found that the path forward meant that they had to go through some of the lower areas that surrounded the base of the Marker. The walkway in front of them dipped left that led to a weaving line of trench-like walkways filled with all kinds of Necromorphs.
Isaac and Sunset opened fire on the walking dead that blocked their path and continued moving forward at the same time. It wasn't long after making so much noise that the Ubermorph appeared again. The thing was as determined to kill them as the Hunter was back on the Ishimura. Sunset switched to her Contact Beam and blasted the thing back before launching a Stasis blast, giving them breathing room for the moment as they ran past it. More Undead quickly popped up, mainly Lurkers and Leapers clinging to the walls launching barbs down on them.
Isaac made short work of them but didn't check to finish them off as the Ubermorph was back up and chasing them again as they entered the next structure. Of course, as they entered the structure, some slashers burst through the vents and tried to attack them like it was going out of style.
They mowed their way through their foes and headed out of the structure they were in. From there they continued onward, where they fired at the Necromorphs that were trying to attack them and made sure to stall the Ubermorph when it appeared behind them again. They ignored it and instead flee to the interior of the next structure that was along the path they were following. That contained another group of slashers that waited for them.
"Don't you all have something better to do?!" Sunset shouted at them as she and Isaac dismembered them as they ran. The rounded a corner up to an elevator that led up to the walkway above them where they need to be, Hit the elevator controls the two took a moment to catch their breath. When the lift came to a stop, they turned towards the left and headed towards the door that was in front of them. As they entered Sunset spotted the Ubermorph above Isaac ready to pounce on him. Sunset acted quickly as she pushed Isaac out of harm but was to slow as she felt the Ubermorph's bone blade slash down on her back making her cry out in pain. Issac swung wildly as he bashed the Ubermorph back before grabbing Sunset and pulling her away from the unbeatable Necromorph.
The Ubermorph growled in annoyance as it marches up behind them with a predatory grin. Isaac unleashed another Stasis charge on it, to which they headed towards the door with a power tube blocking the way. Isaac smashed what was keeping the door sealed before he and Sunset stumbled through. On the other side was another tube that controlled the door on this side. Smashing that as well cased the room they had just left sealed shut, effectively trapping the Ubermorph within. "That should keep it contained," Isaac said as he pulled one of Sunsets arms over his shoulder. "Are you alright Sunset?"
'I'm... okay." Sunset weakly replied. "Let's just, get this over with." She leaned onto Isaac to help support her.
"Are you ready for this?" Isaac asked because he could see the light of Nicole off in the distance.
"Ready for the end of the world? Ha. Why not, I'm game." Sunset said with a laugh.
Isaac and Sunset waited for a few seconds before they braced themselves and headed over the walkway that was in front of them, where the base of the Titan Marker was located and knew that Nicole's path had come to an end. Sunset felt so tired as if all the fighting was now catching up to her. As the two of them stepped onto the area in front of the base of the Marker, however, they both noticed that the light coming from Nicole happened to be hiding someone else from their vision, as the moment the two of them reached their destination a javelin shot flew through the air and pierced Sunset left shoulder, flinging her away from Isaac's grasp as she screamed in pain before falling to the ground.
"Sunset!" Isaac was shocked to see her go down before he looked up to see who shot his friend.
"The research in that Marker is worth every life we just lost!" a familiar voice said, to which Tiedemann appeared in front of them, though the right half of his body appeared to be burned and charred like he was in some sort of fire. Though at the same time he reloaded the Javelin Gun that he happened to be carrying, "I won't let either of you throw this all away!" He fired another to which Isaac lifted his hand up in time to catch the Javelin as it went through his palm making him cry out in a short shout of pain.
Isaac yanked the Javelin spear out just as Tiedemann raised his Javelin Gun to finish Isaac off. Just before he fired to finish Isaac off, Isaac twisted to the side and grabbing hold of Tiedemann and disarmed him before taking his gun, turning it against him and shooting him in the man's throat.
As Tiedmann fell to his knees, clinging to the spear in his neck. Isaac walked around behind him. He then lifted the Tiedmann's Javelin Gun and fired a single spear into the man's head that came apart like a dropped melon. Isaac looked over the dead body of the fallen director before looking over at the still form of Sunset. His heart started to break at the sight, the one that stood beside him through everything together. Now it was only just him.
"Isaac..." He looked over at Nichols floating form with a hand raised to him. He went and hugged her feeling all his worry and pain float away. It was then that Sunset raised her head and saw them embracing each other. Her eye widen when she saw a red glow appear in Nicole's eyes. "Thank you, Isaac. Now...time to die."
"What?" Isaac said before a beam of a sickly yellow and green light flew from Nicole's face and hit directly into Isaac's head.
Sunset watched in horror as this went on and knew that Isaac needed her help if they were going to fight this. Nicole lied to them; the bitch was going to die.
Reaching up and grabbing hold, she used what mental fortitude she could bring out and pulled the Javelin Spear out of her body. She cried out in pain as she tucked at the thing. It felt like hours had gone by as she tugged before slipped free from her body. Looking over at Isaac his body was twitch all over from where he stood. Sunset got up on shaky legs before she started to wobble over to her friend. When she was almost in arms reach of Isaac, he stopped twitching. Thinking he was alright, that thought was smashed as she watched Isaac rase the Javelin Gun up to his head. The Marker was winning!
Acting quickly, Sunset rushed forward with whatever strength she had and knocked the gun away before he could fire it. Sunsets helmet folded back into her chest and felt a familiar power run through her. Her magic!
She'd felt in the past during times of drama or when her friends were in danger. This was one of those times. "Alright bitch, here I come!"
Sunset grabbed hold of Isaac's head then everything went dark.
Form the look of her surroundings she must have been inside Isaac's head. "Huh, you know for a such a smart guy like Isaac you think they'll be more in here besides floating rocks."
"Sunset?"
Looking to where the voice was she saw Isaac kneeling and hunched over. "Isaac! You alright?"
"How did you get here?" He asked as sunset lifted him to his feet.
"Magic."
Even though Isaac's mask was hiding his face, Sunset could tell he was giving a deadpan look. Their attention was soon brought away as a scream filled their air as Nicole stood there in a shadowy form.
"We must be reborn."
"Goddammit, we trusted you!" Isaac replied angrily as they both looked towards Nicole in hatred.
"FUCK YOU!! AND FUCK YOUR MARKER!!" Sunset and Isaac shouted as she and Isaac lifted their Plasma Cutters and started firing with a war cry. As their first rounds hit, Nicole flashed in a bright light.
Sunset wakes up with a shout as she with her Plasma Cutter she had from underneath her pillow and started to shooting wildly around her with a cry. The shots of plasma rang the room the hell out as those shots gone through walls. After a few seconds of that, she stopped firing and screaming and looked around her bed while keeping her aim in front of her eyes. Then she slowly and gently lower down her Plasma Cutter down to he bed after took notice that she was still safe and sound inside her apartment. Looking at her alarm clock on the night table next to her, the time was nearly three in the morning, and when she looked at herself, she just knew she was having an irregular breathing and having a cold sweat. She then calmed herself down by controlling her breath as she put down the Plasma Cutter and put her right hand on her chest.
Then she just sits up straight on her bed there in silence, the only thing she can do right now for an eternity. She only stares blankly forward, looking throughout the window. She locked to herself again, only this time she was lost, her mind was empty. Then, she heard fast moving footsteps coming up to her third-floor bed, and she looked to her left to the stairs down to the second floor. Two figures were coming up to her, turns out that was Applejack and Twilight who had slept on the floor beneath her. They were shocked, afraid and worried to found out Sunset was the one who shoots her Plasma Cutter wildly.
"Sunset, what happened?!" Twilight asked quickly as they both came over to Sunset.
Sunset didn't say anything for the moment they came to her, but then able to reply in shock. "I...... It's nothing. It's just......... a nightmare......"
Applejack looked at the walls that Sunset shot, it was quite eerie to see how much damage the walls are. "Were you the one shooting?"
Sunset paused as she looked at Applejack then at the damage she did. With the lights on, she saw there were now several new holes in her room along the wall and one into her TV. "I did, I..... fuck....." Sunset then holds her forehead, knowing she's getting some headache.
"Sunset, look at me," Twilight said gaining girls attention. "Are you alright?" Sunset looks around but wasn't feeling all that willing to answer but reached out to slowly stand up.
"I'm....fine," Sunset replied as she staggered. "I..... better go to the bathroom."
"Ya' you do that, but first," Applejack said as she slowly reached and grabs Sunset Plasma cutter. "I think you should leave that here don't you think. Don't want you turning the bathroom into shooting gallery. We'll be waitin' down there for ya'. Check on the damage and make sure you didn't hit anything of importance."
"Ok," Sunset then slowly got off her bed and Twilight along with Applejack accompanied her to the bathroom.
As they go went down the stairs, they took notice Sunset was pretty weary right now unlike how Applejack and Twilight didn't felt weary about it. Can be seen by how limp she walk down the stair, Sunset nearly tripped on one because she missed a step. They can hear Sunset was somehow breathing heavily for a moment, her breathing was either like she just runs from something for miles or like she was struggling to breathe after she got stab hard or like she just past a near-death experience and suffered heavy trauma. She was pretty haggard for the moment because she didn't get a proper sleep, which she needs to lend a shoulder to Applejack. Once they reached the bathroom, Sunset told them that she can do it from here and entered the bathroom with the door closed.
Twilight and Applejack then headed for the couch and sat there. Still sleepy from the sudden wake-up. It was pretty discomfort for them to know Sunset has been like this every time she sleeps. At least now, Sunset got someone to keep an eye on her for the sake of her own mental safety. They both were wondering how many bad nights she had similar like this. Remembering that fight yesterday, they felt bad for it.
Twilight then looked over to Applejack who seemed to be still tired from that sudden awakening. "Well, I sure wasn't expecting to wake up like that, am I right?"
"To be honest?" Applejack asked with a little disagreement. "Ah've haven't been sleeping well myself since Sunset came back. Nor forget that ah'm still reeling from the Anon-A-Miss."
"About that Piggly-wiggly stuff?" Twilight asked with her left brow raised, then chuckled. "I don't know what to say about that."
Applejack then looked at the Princess with a surprised look. "You were in another reality when all this happen. Was Sunset telling you everything in details of everything that happened to her?"
"Will figure it out as we go along, AJ," Twilight added in agreement. "At least we dealt the Memory Stone."
"And now we need to keep the school from hurting her," Applejack added, but then they both felt the doubt. "But then again, it might be the other way around. Sunset sure seems she can fight."
"The fight earlier at Sugarcube Corner?" Twilight asked with a shook. "I didn't really see that coming."
"I don't think anyone did, sugarcube," Applejack added, she then looked at her. "At least that student deserves it for sticking her fingers in our business."
Twilight quickly recoiled in surprise with a quick straighten back to she said that. "Her name was Fleur, right? What do you mean she deserves it?"
"Actually, they all should deserve it," Applejack corrected then sighed. "We have a bad history with them. Cristal Prep, I mean."
"What kind of history?" Twilight asked curiously.
"We had a bit of a competition with those students from Crystal Prep Academy," Applejack explained as she leaned her back to the couch. "We called those competitions, Friendship Games. Well, honestly they ain't friendly enough from the inside. Crystal Prep tends to beat us to the ground because they go and won every each sport, and mocks everyone at CHS. The worst of it was when they decorate the statue in front of the school with a bunch of insults. This last Friendship Games was the first time of our school managed to beat the Crystal Prep. And that was when we met our Twilight Sparkle or Sci-Twi as the Crystal Prep students called her. The name stuck with her and has no feeling towards them, but when they lost they came down hard with the bullying and couldn't take it and the Dean, she moved her to CHS because she got hurt a lot in there."
"That's really rough for both CHS and my counterpart," Twilight commented as she thinks of it with a degree of worry. And thinking of a small plan to help her other self.
"Worse than that, neither school can't seem to develop a friendship to each other because we hate each other," Applejack then frowned upon saying it.
Twilight suddenly worried about this one. "Do you think they'll start going after Sunset?"
"Perhaps, but them seeing Sunset standing against a crowd of students like that," Applejack then thought for a moment. "Maybe Ah' don't know, do ya' think she can handle it?"
"Isaac told me that the two of them had to fight a lot of people, Unitologist and what not," Twilight replied, she then rolled her eyes with a frown face. "She can, I guess."
'Whether they would be still alive after I don't know,' Twilight thought to herself.
Twilight went upset to hear AJ asked that and made her perplexed, Twilight sighed before answering. "He had a family once, they were killed by Unitologist. Wouldn't say any more than that."
Applejack frowned at her answer, she bowed down her head. "Poor guy."
"I know," Twilight added which achieve a glance from the farmer girl, but then she reminded on something. "Sunset's been in the bathroom for a while now hasn't she?"
That statement got 'em up real quick from the couch and quickly glanced at the bathroom door. The two then went up to, and Twilight knocked it. Instead to hear Sunset replied, it was still silent. Applejack then knocked on the door again, but Sunset didn't reply from inside.
"Sunset, you okay there?" Twilight shouted through the door, but Sunset didn't reply.
"Sunset?" Applejack called out but didn't get a reply but did hear sounds of stuff falling to the floor.
"This is not normal," Twilight stated in concern as her hand was going for the doorknob. "Sunset, we're coming in."
After Twilight opens the bathroom door pretty wide, they saw Sunset inside. But what they saw were much more beyond than their expectations. Both are worried and terrified. They were very shocked to see that...
Sunset was going to stab her own eye with a needle.
Applejack and Twilight quickly ran over to her and grabbed her arms that were armed with a needle and with force to keep the needle away from her eye. As they try to intervene, Sunset was looked like she was struggling with herself. She was resisting the needle that was going for her in her eye, with the of Applejack and Twilight it made the needle going away from her eye. But it wasn't enough after Sunset gave a push for the needle to stab to her eye.
"Sunset!" Twilight shouted as they try to pull the needle-armed hands away from her eye. "Wake up for Celestia sakes!!"
"Sunset! Stop it!" Applejack shouted with a beg as she tried to stop as strong as she can.
After a moment of struggling, they felt her hands and arms starting to grow suddenly limp. They glance over to Sunset's face, who was then suddenly given a shocked look. Sunset slowly opened her hands as they held her arms and drops the needle. They let Sunset go as she lets herself slowly slumps to the floor into a sitting position. Sunset is then realized what happened becomes terrified, retracting her legs up to her chest and hugs them, the others could hear she was breathing quickly and irregularly again.
"Step 3... Step 3....... Step 3....." they heard Sunset said, which confused them.
"Step 3?" Applejack asked with her eyebrows raised. "What does she mean?"
"I don't know," Twilight then raised Sunset's head by her chin and looked at her. "Sweet Celestia, are you okay?"
"Step 3... too many sessions..." Sunset kept saying like a broken record, stares blankly at Twilight. "I kept seeing her... I kept seeing Nicole... Too much death..... Step 3...."
They only starred in silent disbelief as Sunset was only kept saying that as she froze there. Applejack just..... couldn't believe what the hell she was saying. 'Sessions?' Who could possibly hurt anyone to the point where they would hallucinate by sticking needles in their own eye.
For Twilight, however, very much concern of her safety after seeing that she just had a post-hallucinations attack again. They don't know what to do for a moment about this.
"Applejack, I’m going to stay up and look after Sunset. You should get back to bed and catch up on some some sleep. I feel like your going to need it pretty soon at school." Twilight said as she looked at AJ.
"Ya' sure you can make sure she's okay?" Applejack asked in concern.
"Don't worry I can handle her," Twilight replied with a firm tone.
"Alright, I'll be resting in the next room. Come and get me if you need help."
With a second glance back at her friend, Applejack proceeded to head to the other room where they were sleeping before. She gently lay herself down on the couch and comforted her head as her eyes looked into the ceiling. She only sighed in broken-heart and then she closed her eyes. Getting some rest for the next day's event.
*THUD*
Applejack opened her eyes quickly after she heard a hard thumping sound coming from somewhere in the apartment. She got up from her sleeping bag and looked around the room. She went to upstairs to Sunset's bed but found out she wasn't there along with Twilight after she inspects much closer around the room. Twilight's sleeping bag was right there on the floor, and with no trace of where they went.
"Sunset? Twilight?" Applejack called around the room. "Where are you?"
*THUD*
Hence then she heard the sound again, this time it was coming from behind the door. Applejacks eyes suddenly went wide when she heard it. Feeling there was someone or..... something behind the door, made her fear growing in her chest. But decided to push on and talk through the door.
"Is anyone there?"
Even it was loud enough to hear through the door, she didn't get a reply. She slowly holds the doorknob and with a deep gulp, slowly open the door that is leading her downstairs with a peek. When she glanced inside before opening it for a more clearer view, she felt relieved that there was nothing behind the door.
*THUD*
She heard it again and was nearly startled by it. Looking down the stairs and felt something really wrong there. Applejack then stepped down the stairs, slowly and step by step. Fear was becoming on her every time she got closer to the ground floor. With more and more as things weren't sitting right in this place, she knew it.
Applejack kept slowly walking down the stairs, and she can tell she wasn't quite ready about what is she going to face. Maybe she was a strong farmer girl, but she had her own fears, and this one is really creeping the fuck out of her. Applejack reached the ground floor and entered the living room on the ground floor. Applejack felt her fear growing more after noticing the whole room was in the dark, nearly see a thing in that room thanks to the only window on the far end of the opposite wall that was illuminated with moonlight from outside. And that's when she heard it was starting to rain outside.
As she stepped forward twice, she noticed the floor has been in a mess with small furniture, makeup tools, and anything else except drinks and food scattered on the floor. The sofas in that room were scattered around, at least none of them were upside down. A table was flipped upside down next to Applejack, and the radio was found broken on her left. As the rain is getting heavy, thunder strikes the night on the outside. But after the thunder, the low bright light shine the room for a moment, and Applejack was frightened on what she saw. There was a dark figure in the room with her, with the same height as her.
Applejack couldn't even dare to run, because for sure if she did that the figure would follow her. The only thing Applejack could do was only stood there frozen as she stares down the dark figure. The only thing she was scared about was what if the dark figure came closer to her and did something to her. After a moment, Applejack was surprised that the dark figure... only stood still in its spot instead of coming closer to her.
She could not dare to move or ask the figure for the moment. She would only pray that whoever this figure was is not coming to get her. But then, there was a light coming from the figure. The figure was showing reddish-orange light on the hip of the dark figure. Applejack quickly realized what the hell was that.
It was the glowing light of a RIG.
Applejack took an unconscious step back as she was surprised by what she saw. She quickly looked around the room to find the switch of the room. She found it on the wall on her left and quickly hit the switch on. The room then got shine in bright light which gave a clear look in the room. Applejack was shocked to found out that Sunset was standing right there, her back facing at Applejack. Applejack return to her original position, before stepping forward once. Then noticed something off from Sunset.
Besides the RIG and the usual Hacker Suit she was wearing, there was some sort of blindfold on her head, and much to her shock to see that there was blood on the sofas. She then fixed her gaze at Sunset in worried, what the hell she did? Applejack then gulped again and took a step forward carefully. She was silent for a moment, but then called her.
"Sunset?"
She didn't reply nor was she moving.
"Sunset, you okay?"
Sunset moved her body, by turning around at her, Applejack was very shocked as she left her jaw hanging and eyes went wide to see that…
Her blindfold covered her eyes and were drenched in blood, which terrified AJ to know that she had poked her eyes out and replaced it with a blindfold. She then, somehow, looking towards Applejack with a sharp look. A look of hate, a look sorrow, a look of anger, a look of begging for mercy.... a look..... of a madwoman. Applejack gasped at the dark grotesque in front of her. Sunset opened her mouth and say out her word.
"Applejack...... you all gonna burn for what you did to me...."
Sunset quickly pulled out her Plasma Cutter and quickly aimed it at her own head. Applejack watched in horror at what Sunset was about to do and went forward to stop her.
"SUNSET!"
*PLUSH*
"Hmmm?!" Applejack quickly opened her eyes and looked around from her place on the couch, it was a nightmare after all.
Applejack then got up into a sit and then massage her forehead in dizziness and fear for the nightmare she had experience. "Jesus Christ, what the hay was I just dreaming? God, what the hay?"
"Morning, AJ," a voice greeted, AJ startled a bit but felt glad to see Twilight was right next to her, sitting on the couch.
"Morning, Twilight," Applejack greeted back with a nod but faint smile. "Where's Sunset?"
"She's in the kitchen downstairs," Twilight replied.
"What time is it?" Applejack asked again as she stood up slowly from the couch while scratching her back of the neck.
"It's almost six," Twilight replied as she looked at the clock. "You should take a shower."
"Ah'-Ah' will," Applejack then got up took her clothes from her bag before heading to the shower.
After Applejack took a shower and Twilight pack her stuff up, they both went down to the kitchen and found Sunset was cooking breakfast for them. Sunset was making some bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich, minus the bacon for Twilight, for them to enjoy. AJ and Twilight waiting for her at the table to finish the cook and Sunset immediately came to them with the food on her hands to them. Sunset sat down with them and started to enjoy their breakfast. Honestly, Sunset didn't lose her touch to make great breakfast after six years dealing with the Necromorphs bullshit and eating flavorless nutrition bars.
As they ate in joy, Sunset noticed Applejack was somewhat frowned. Sunset stopped eating and stares directly at AJ, then Twilight followed up to stop eating. Applejack then stopped eating after seeing them stopped. But their glance to Applejack that she can't shake it off.
"Uh, why are ya' staring at me like that?" Applejack asked awkwardly.
"Ah' just didn't sleep pretty well," Applejack replied.
Sunset paused for a moment as Twilight and Applejack stare at her. "I see, don't mind about it then."
"So, are you coming with us too, Twilight?" Applejack asked as she took a bite of her sandwich.
"Sure, I guess the principal could use my help," Twilight replied with a nod.
"The three of us head to school for one thing," Applejack replied. "other than that, nothing more than that for me."
"Me either," Twilight added. "What about you?"
"Well, first I want to replace my old locker in the school with the one we found on the ship," Sunset replied, the work locker she found was just a little bigger than the schools and would slip in easily in place. This one would also fair better than her previous locker due to the reinforced metal in the framework. Plus no one will be able to open it without a RIG to access it. Making it the perfect place for her things. "Second, I'm going to be 'decorating' my apartment with Isaac and Randall."
"I see," Twilight added with a couple of raised brows.
"Hopefully I can get a work from someone because I need money if I'm going to be staying," Sunset added as she eats a bite of her sandwich.
"Alright then," Applejack said in agreement. "Let's finish up our breakfast."
Chapter 10 - Jobs And Breaking Point
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. Chapter 11 - Something Sensible
Author's Note
Well, I post this chapter as soon as I can.
I guess you're waiting for me quite a lot.
And a song for you.https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=in+hell+i%27ll+be+in+good+company
Chapter 11 - Something Sensible
14:00 PM, Canterlot Police Station
"Get out from my head, Damara!"Don't you want to be with me, with Dylan? "Be whole with us, Carver ."
"Hey, Carver!" a voice shouted next to him and made him wake up quickly. "Are you alright?"
Carver quickly turned his head to his left to find Copper who looking at him. "I-I... I'm alright,"
Carver was sitting in Copper’s SUV police cruiser with Randall, Kurt, and Copper who was driving the SUV. All four of them are heading back to the station for a little debrief and break. They just finished a petrol shift and done answering a couple of calls to duty.
One was traffic control for a overturned tractor trailer, another had them performing a drug bust which Carver had fun scaring the pants off the dealers with his helmet. The only thing they need to do now is only drive in the car and report back to station and writing documents. Carver was at the front seat with Copper while Randall and Kurt was in the passenger seat.
Carver was sleeping at first after the jobs before he got a hallucination attack. Carver was having nightmares about his long-dead family back in Uxor, after Jacob killed them and they were turned into Necromorphs. Carver just felt uncomfortable about it, uncomfortable to forget it if even he moved on. But then again he was in the past, not 2514, so he just calmed down about it.
"Anything new?" Carver asked to everyone as his eyes looked forward.
"Nothing new," Kurt replied with a small shrug. "Except we got a case of missing person/possible kidnapping."
"Sorry?" Randall asked, he lost trail on what was the last words he said. "A case of what?"
"Missing person/possible kidnapping," Copper added slowly. "It happened in Whitetail Woods this morning."
"What time?" Carver asked for accurate detail.
"Oddly, they disappeared at 7 AM this morning," Kurt replied, making himself earned the glares of the future individuals. "Way too early and way too fast for them to disappeared."
"Any leads?" Carver asked.
"Nothing but a trail of leaves leading to the crime scene a peck of blood on the tree," Copper replied as she turned the driving wheel to the right. "Had to send K-9 dispatches to the woods."
"What's the status of the case now?" Carver asked as he looked at the deputy.
"Still not found anything yet until now," the deputy girl replied. "The only thing we have in mind right now is that they probably dragging themselves into the forest after the the woods, or the kidnappers dragged them to the forest. Nothing else about that."
"Hmm, can you represent about what happened in the woods?" Randall asked to Kurt with a lifted nod to him.
"I don't know," Kurt replied back in doubt. "The only thing I can describe is between these two, one is that the kidnapper knocked out a man with a stone to the head before knocking out another one via chloroform. Or they got chase down by a wild animal, one of them hit the tree hard with his head before kept running deep into the forest, but I don't think that is what happened there."
"You need help on that, bro?" Randall asked, stretching his arms behind his head for stiffness. "We could find something about it."
"No, thanks," Kurt replied outright. "We got this covered, you both better find another job for that."
"You sure?" Carver asked, doubting the Sergeant Officer's opinion.
"Yeah, I'm sure," Kurt replied with a cheery tone. "Besides, we’re able to solve this kind of case many times."
"If ya say so, Sarge," Carver added as he corrected his back on his seat to comfort himself.imagined ' the paper was the text logs. Then Carver had decided to head over to the gym with Kurt for a little workout, Carver had been feeling pretty sore after all the shit he had do with the Necromorphs. The gym workout should do good to him.
Heh, what he can say about it? All he did when he was in the Necromorphs was to shoot, punch, stomp and rip the Necros apart. Oddly enough was he didn't feel any sore whenever he does all of that, he just felt the sore just now. Carver and Kurt were heading to their locker and get changed to their police t-shirt and headed to the gym. He and Kurt go ahead and did a rep of 50 push-up before going to the next one, the bench press.
He hasn’t use one of these for a long while even before the fighting off Necromorph attack. The lack of gym back at Uxor was a bit of a disappointment for him, at least he able to use one in this new place. He laying down on the flat-horizontal chair and reaches his hands to the barbell over his face and lift it in the air in front of him. He felt great to feel his muscles tense up again.
From Kurt's perspective, seeing Carver lifting those dumbbells with his very strong muscles along with the prominent large scar on his face, he didn’t dare say he was looked like a badass. But then remembered Carver's statement earlier yesterday about how his life broke apart because of himself, he wouldn't say he's an asshole, he was just tried being one. He pumps iron for a moment before he received a call by his captain, wanting to talk with him.
Kurt couldn’t help but wondering why the captain was calling him, maybe it was because of the recent case back in Whitetail Woods. But then again he thought that the captain calling him must be about something else. Kurt let that thought away from his mind for now and kept walking to the office. Moments later, he reached the office and knocked on the door.
"Come in," the captain shouted from inside his office, motioning Kurt to come inside the office.
As Kurt took his seat, the captain does the same thing he did. "What going on, Cap'?" Kurt asked with a cracked neck.
"How's your day been, Sarge?" the captain asked. "Had a good day on the job?"
"Everything is the same thing, sir," Kurt replied as he leaned his back against the chair.
"How's the two recruits doing, Carver and Randall?" the captain asked, which made Kurt raised his eyebrows.
"I wouldn't say they are recruits, sir," Kurt added in half disagreement. "They both really capable of anything, well for their first jobs they are doing it really fine..."
"But?" the captain asked, got the feeling that what Kurt said is not just that.
"Good to hear that," the captain then quickly changed the topic. "Alright, to the reason I called you here is because about that case in Whitetail Woods.”
"What about it, you found something?" Kurt asked as he was surprised about that case was mentioned to him.
"Unfortunately, no," the captain replied with a shook. "And I'm afraid it will gone cold very soon."
"Gone cold? But it’s barely been a day why so soon?" Kurt asked as he winced his eyes. "What does that suppose to mean?"
"The only clues we got is only the ones you found and the tracks in the woods," the captain replied. "After we sent dispatches to the site from Whitetail until the forest beyond, we found nothing, not even tracks, mud trails, blood, or anything else, even the K-9’s can't track down where the missing persons went. They just vanished. Like someone just lifted them off the ground and into the air."
Kurt clumped his mouth in silent, before said to him. "We need to keep looking, sir."
"I know, I would like your help in this part along with Randall and Carver," the captain offered with a nod. "Are you in?"
"Yeah, we're in," Kurt answered as he nods twice. "Where should I start looking?"
Sunset was heading home along with Twilight and Applejack, in real bloody piss poor mood after what happened back at the school. It was a good thing for her to have such a very harsh experience in pain tolerance with the Necromorphs and the Unitologist. Especially about getting slammed, stabbed, hit, thrown, shot, everything else that had to do with fucking up someone's body into mush meet. It wasn't the first time Sunset got crashed by something very hard, because she was already use to it for the least. Heh, what a funtastic good fucking day for her.
Sunset was walking ahead of Applejack and Twilight, still pissed off of what happened back there between the soccer team and her. She was walking a little bit faster and her metal boots made a stomping sound on the ground that made the pedestrians around her surprised by the noise. Those people were also wondering about why the hell Sunset was wearing the metal boots, some of the people though it was a protection for her feet. Sunset ignored the people and only kept walking forward.
"Hey, you okay?" Twilight asked nervously.
"Am I okay?" Sunset asked back angrily as she stopped walking. "What the hell do you think?"
"Whoa, Sugarcube," Applejack said as she tried to calm her down. "Take it easy, Sunset."
"Take it easy?!" Sunset retorted as she leaned her head to Applejack. "Do you know how many fucking times I’ve gotten hit like that?!!"
"Umm.... no?" Twilight replied as she was wondering how many times she has gotten into something like this.
"Heh, a lot, and it ain't that fucking great," Sunset replied with a normal tone and calmed down a little. "At least I'm not dead yet."
"How did ya' even survived that crash?" AJ asked, confused of Sunset's survival capabilities. "That car was running fast..."
"Let's just say I’ve been slammed many times onto walls made tougher then that car very hard," Sunset said, they then continued walking on.
"Umm...out of 1-10, how hurt is it for getting slammed?" Twilight asked, which was obvious for Sunset.
"11 out of 10," Sunset replied. "How's that?"
"Ouch, Ah' can't even imagine how hurt is that," Applejack cringed as she tried to not imagine it.
"You don't want to know," Sunset replied with a sigh. "Believe me."
"And I imagine living here is very different than that apartment on the moon," Twilight stated.
"That's for sure, Twilight," Sunset agreed with a nod. "Thou I wish I had some stuff to fix it up my place, something like back in my days in the mining company."
As they walked on, they met someone from a distance ahead of them. To Sunset's inconvenience, it was the CHS soccer team again. This time, Rainbow Dash wasn't with them. The last time Applejack talked to Dash, she implied she doesn't want to be involved with this trouble and decided to keep a distance from Sunset for awhile in case Sunset went mad again. If Sunset wanted to beat them then let it be, sooner or later Sunset was going crack and possibly kill them if she was past the limit. Or worst, unnecessarily cut off their arms.
They three stopped right in front of them, Sunset's eyes were glancing between the players with a small fire in her eyes. Though, as she looks at them, they had showing a vary different expression than before. Instead of the expression of hatred or with evil grin towards Sunset, they showed faces of regret and agitations when they walked up to Sunset. Mainly Spitfire, the one who pushed Sunset into her accident, looked quiet to scared just because she wanted to talk to her.
Sunset stopped right in front of Spitfire and sighed. "What the hell do you want, Spitfire?"
"I....." Spitfire paused, she felt quiet scared just to talk to her after what she did back at school. "I’d... just want to apologize."
Sunset paused, quite in disappointment. "You damn fuck.... now you wanted to apologize."
Both groups then fell into silent after what Sunset said, before Twilight break up the silence. "Are you telling us that you don't believe Sunset is the Anon-A-Miss?"
"Well..... yeah..." Fleetfoot replied staggeringly. "We just don't believe that, just now."
"And how can you tell that I'm not the Anon-A-Miss?" Sunset asked in a moderate tone, but still hiding her grudge in her heart.
"Your reaction earlier..." Spitfire answered, then paused for a moment to think. "And you sounded different than the Sunset we knew before."
"Anything more than that?" Sunset asked again, quiet sure it's not just that.
"We were thinking about what Twilight said earlier to us...." Spitfire answered as her tone was trailing off. "She was right about it, There’s no way you could go back to your old ways. We should have listened to you a year ago. We're... I'm sorry..."
Sunset along with her group paused for a moment about it. At last this girl able to think the situation over again about the Anon-A-Miss bullshit. Sunset would be glad to say that there are a few people were slowly to listen and believe to Sunset. Despite the harsh feelings Sunset has shown to them, she just accepts them. But, she does know that she needs to find whoever the real Anon-A-Miss before things repeat itself and get worse, even if she had Isaac, Carver, or even Randall at her back call.
But Sunset felt she still can't forgive Spitfire, until Spitfire herself begged for it. "Forgive me, please..."
Sunset paused after she heard that, and sighed with eyes closed. "Alright, I'll forgive you. But don't think I won't remember about what you did to me back there and a year ago."
"I know," Spitfire replied with a nod. "I understand that."
"Uhm, Sugarcube?" Applejack asked, as she approached Sunset from behind along with Twilight. "Should we get some food first? You didn't anything back in school."
"I'm just not in the mood, AJ," Sunset replied, shook her head in denial of eating. "I thought you both already ate something back at school."
"We both didn't actually," Twilight replied. "We were spending our time discussing and reading at the library."
"....Right," Sunset added, kind of annoy her. "Fine, let's get something for ourselves to eat. You're coming, Spitfire?"
"Su-sure," Spitfire replied nervously. "Let's go."
With nothing else to do but to fill up their bloody empty stomach, they along with the soccer team headed out and looked for the nearest restaurant they can find. And who's gonna pay the food was, hilariously, Sunset herself. They could say nothing about it, but smiled at that. Sunset only kept silence and seriousness to herself as she was eating with them.
Twilight and Applejack spent their time either studying and talking in Sunsets apartment, but Sunset herself was alternating between her BENCH station and the Suit Kiosk in her apartment building or modifying her gear. Isaac had came by to help Sunset with setting everything up. If Twilight was correct, it only took them for only six hours to build those things in Sunsets apartment. It was quite a short time for two engineers to build those in the apartment. But then again because they were from the future, she could guess they were made to make their jobs done faster because of that.
And even though, they were quite impressed of what they were building. They could eager want to use them, IF Sunset allows them. But then again, Sunset only allowed them when they ask her to build something in case they really need it.
The BENCH was all colored in grey-white. And what makes this BENCH quite unique. Sunset said it was modeled after the ones from someplace called, Titan Station. The BENCH looked like a folded work table, and if one started using it, the BENCH will fold open and then fold close when the person is done using it. Sunset said it can be used to make weapons, tools, equipments, and upgrade for those tools and weapons.
Then there was the Suit Kiosk. It's all colored in a metallic dark brown, then later colored again with light grey and yellow on the edges of the Suit Kiosk. It was in the shape of a cylinder with the inside which is looked like an available slot for person inside. There were some sort of 3 tubes of tools on the ceiling along with the single light with the middle of it. And a floating hologram on the front saying 'SUIT KIOSK'. Both AJ and Twilight were really confused on why the machine would be like this if this was the Suit Kiosk.
And it was that time that Sunset was going to check out the Suit Kiosk.
"Hey, Sunset," Isaac called. "Now that we're done with this Kiosk, don't you want to try it out?"
"Sure, why not?" Sunset replied, lifting her arms to her sides. "I want to try retrieving my Forged Engineering Suit first."
"Umm.... I don't understand how's that thing working," Applejack added, confusion was mixing up in her head. "And what's with that slot?"
"You'll see," Sunset replied, which she then walks over to the Suit Kiosk.
Sunset pressed a few commands on the Kiosk, before the hologram disappeared and the Kiosk was ready. Sunset walks in the Kiosk and turning around at the person-sized slot. She fixed her arms and legs so it can be fitted to the slot, before suddenly the machines quickly locked her arms and legs in place and the Kiosk closed its doors to contained Sunset inside. The girls were startled and though the machine was killing Sunset, while Isaac put a grin on his face after he sees the girls frightened.
Then there is something else happening to the Kiosk. There was a bright yellow light was moving from the top until to the bottom of the Kiosk right on the lining of the closed doors. Seeing that made AJ thinks that Sunset was turning herself into a robot. After that, the Suit Kiosk open its doors and reveal Sunset. They were very amazed on what Sunset was wearing.
She steps out the Suit Kiosk and looked over to herself. They could see that Sunset was smiling on her favorite suit. She held the rib-like metal skeletons and moved her body around so she can get used to the suit. This is very great for her.
"Goodie, now I got the suit for the job at the car factory tomorrow," Sunset added, which surprised Isaac on that.
"Wait, since when?" Isaac asked as he leaned his head forward to Sunset.
"Since school day," Applejack replied, Isaac turned his head to her. "Principal Celestia came by our class said that to Sunset personally."
Isaac gave a happy cringe face to Sunset. "Hm, not bad."
"I know, got another way to make money now," Sunset replied with a shrug. "How's the payment with the Mayor?"
"Very great, high payment," Isaac replied, which made Sunset grinned on that.
"Damn good of you, Isaac," Sunset commented with a sigh. "At least you can pay your apartment with it."
"Yeah," Isaac then looked at the time on his watch he had on his left wrist. "I've got to go, I have some important business to do elsewhere.
Isaac then headed down the stairs as he waved his hand to Sunset. "See you tomorrow, Sunset."
"See ya, Isaac," Sunset replied with a wave of her hand to Isaac along with the other two girls as he left the house.
"So, is this the Engineering Suit?" AJ asked
"And working in the car factory?" Twilight stated in disbelieve. "Looks like you're going to have a fun day."
"Yeah, that's for sure," Sunset replied, but then she looked at the time. "It's getting late. I'll.... try to get some sleep.."
"Alright, but please don't scare us," Twilight asked, worried if the same shit happened again.
"Ready when you are Norton," Isaac said as the two of them stepped into the cage. Going through the intestines of a giant Necromorph had not been fun. "Norton!"
A few seconds later the opening they had walked through closed, and the cage shook, where the engineering duo watched as they started to rise out of the Nexus, to which they disengaged their helmets and smiled because what they had just done had likely given them the location of the Machine to end this nightmare finally.
"Santos, how do we have a fix on where the Machine is located?" Sunset asked as they rose up. Santos had said their part of the operation had been a success, though what 'success' meant in this situation was still unknown to her, as they have to find this Machine physically.
"Yes! There are thousands of signals; all concentrated far below the planet's surface." Santos told them in an excited tone. This made Sunset cock her head to the side in as she weren't sure what that was supposed to mean but kept her mouth shut as Santos kept talking. "That has to be it! There's an entrance further up the mountain beneath a second dig site."
"Further up the mountain?" Norton asked as he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "They're sheer cliffs!"
To Sunset she couldn't care at this point. All she wanted it to get out of this damn Necromoprph.
"I saw some climbing gear stored outside the warehouse," Ellie spoke up, revealing that there was a way up the cliffs that Norton had a problem with.
"Santos and I will start setting it up at the base of the cliff. Norton, can you make sure that Isaac, Sunset, and Carver get out of the Nexus safely?"
"Yeah... sure," Norton said, his tone revealing that he honestly couldn't care about any of this. But Sunset had a feeling for a while now that something was up with the Captain. "I'll take care of them."
Isaac, Sunset, and Carver watched as their section of the cage rose out of the Nexus and reconnected to the part of the container that Norton was waiting in, though as the two parts of the cage connected once more Norton touched another command, and they headed back towards the area Santos had been. Though when they arrived at the area in front of the booth, Norton then turned away from the controls without touching the command that would open the door for them to leave as well.
"Norton, open the cage," Isaac said as if Norton turned his back on them like he appeared to be doing. "Norton!"
"No," Norton replied merely replied. He stopped in front of the opening that they would have been able to walk through if the command box had opened the gate in front of them before he stared at the three of them, where Sunset felt an aura of hate and jealousy that was directed at them, specifically at Isaac.
"Excuse me?" Sunset inquired.
"Look, it's clear that the three of you want to die, so be my guests and do so." Norton snapped at them, showing that any point of reasoning has now lost. "I'm taking back control of this mission again... and saving Ellie from your stupidity."
"Are you that desperate to get laid?!" Norton ignored Sunset jab as he backed away from them. "Hey ya ain't goin' nowhere." She said raising her gun.
"Hey!? Where you going!?" Isaac yelled slamming the cage's bars.
"Saving Ellie." He said before opening the elevator. Giving a mock-salute, he closed the doors and disappeared.
"Norton. Norton! Norton!" Isaac yelled slamming the bars again.
"I'm killing him," Sunset said in a statement of fact.
"Not if I kill him first," Isaac said. He then reached out with his TK module and pulled the lever on the door controls to them out.
When the doors opened, the three went in an all-out sprint after their traitorous Captain. When they entered the elevator, they hit the down button and descended. They saw Norton ahead, already halfway to the doors. When he caught sight of us, he quickly sped up and reached them as the elevator door opened. They met the doors ahead faster than Norton and quickly got it. They entered the furnace room; Isaac quickly stopped to look around to where Norton had got. Sunset looked and saw a security door that was locked before was now opened to them.
"Isaac, this way!" She yelled going through the door.
The moment the door opened, however, a group of Unitologists soldiers surprised them by smacking them in the face with the butt of their guns, stunning them for a few moments as they were all forced onto their hands and knees in front of the security door.
"You wouldn't believe the trouble you saved me."
Sunset, coughing from the blow, looked up at the smiling face of Danik. Of course, as the Unitologists gathered around them, with an air of victory surrounding them, Danik revealed himself and walked over to where the group was kneeling, while his soldiers made sure to have their weapons at the ready in case one of them tried anything funny.
Danik gabbed Norton by the hair and looked at him momentarily. "Nice work."
"What?" Isaac said looking at Norton.
"Well, here they are: the Marker Killers, Isaac Clarke, and Sunset Shimmer And here we are, on the 'Marker homeworld'... you know, to tell the truth, I almost didn't believe a place like this existed. But thanks to your friend Norton, I finally found it... and the two of you as well."
"That's how they followed us through shock space," Carver said looking at Isaac.
"Oh! Oh, he is a bright one." Danik said looking down at Carver mockingly.
"No, no," Norton said leaning towards Carver. "All... All he wants is Isaac and Sunset. Carver, the rest of us can go home!"
"You deluded son of a bitch..." Carver said lunging at Norton.
He was quickly pulled back and hit across the back with his guard's gun.
"Hey! You've already got us. Let them go!" Sunset said.
"It's a very difficult thing you know, undoing the damage man has done. Everything we touch, we contaminate, corrupt. The Markers have a plan for us, but we took what should have been a magnificent gift... And perverted it." Danik said.
"Now, isn't that the biggest load of manure I've ever had the displeasure of hearing."
"Oh, you would, heretic! I've spent an entire lifetime undoing the damage that man has done. Fighting EarthGov's ongoing research. Liberating the Markers from those profane testing facilities, and now...I just have one problem left to purge. All of you!" Dank waved his hand to all of us.
For some reason, this didn't surprise Sunset in the least and kept a level head. She wondered if she acted something like this back when she was the queen bee at CHS. Norton on the other had started to panic badly.
"No. No. No!! No! You promised me a ship. Danik! We had a deal!" Danik was then handed an SMG from the trooper behind Carver.
"Yes, I'm sorry about that. But I can't afford to leave one of you left alive. Apologies for misleading you, captain." He leveled the gun up to Norton's head.
It was than Isaac rushed forward and tackled Danik into the snow. When this happened, Carver reached behind him and grabbed the trooper behind him and started wailing on him. Norton was doing the same with the guard behind him. Sunset reached with her TK module and seized the guns out of the Troopers hands that were behind her before shooting the man with their weapons. Looking back I watched Carver shooting another soldier that was trying to sneak up behind Isaac. Isaac then reached out, plucked a fallen grenade off the soldier and threw it at a retreating Danick. The mad man just nearly got away and ran into a nearby dropship just before taking off.
"Here!" Turning to Carver he through Isaac his Plasma Cutter and Sunset her Thunder Strike. It was then another dropship landed and out came a number of Unitologist Soldiers. We all readied our guns and started poured gunfire at them.
"What the hell?!" Isaac shouted. It was then the earth shook.
"Shit! What's going on?!" Carver said. We all looked behind us at the warehouse wall shook for a few seconds, causing everyone to pause... before the Nexus, fully awakened from it's ancient slumber, burst through the wall and stopped at the edge of the area they were on, where it glared at them for a few moments as it roared at them.
"Come on! Are you fucking kidding me? Move Norton! Move!" Isaac shouted as he pushed the traitor down behind an Ice Block, while at the same time mowing down the Unitologists that were stunned by the Nexus' arrival. It then opened its mouth and gave a huge vacuum-like effect as it sucked in everything from the snow to the Unitologist Soldiers that flew up into it's awaiting mouth. But Isaac and Sunset was still too exposed and were sucked in right when the Nexus' mouth closed dropping them in the middle of the field. They screamed as one of the Nexus' tentacles came down on them.
"Oh, Fuuuuuuck!!!"
"Eghhhhhh!"
Sunset quickly launched her upper body off her bed and quickly looked around as she took her Plasma Cutter from the night table next to her and aimed it around her. And calmed down after finding out there's nothing out there trying to kill her. She lowers her Plasma Cutter down and put it back on the night table. She then turned her whole body around and sat at the edge of her bed.
“Tentacles. Why is always tentacles?” Sunset asked herself as she wiped the sweat off her brow. .
Sunset bowed her head as she felt a dizzy sensation build up in her head. Holding her head up with her left hand and massage it. well, these damn nightmare’s were fucking with her again. She is always wondering when this shit had to stopped. Looks like that thought is for another day again.
Sunset through her legs out off her bed and looked at her alarm clock. Fucking hell, it was middle of the damn night. From not sleeping to weeks has become sleep improperly.
Sunset sighed in annoyance as she go downstairs to her main room underneath that floor. She then headed for the bathroom and washed her face to refresh herself. She put both hands on the sink as her head bowed down. Lifted her head up to the mirror in front of her. She looked over to her scars that ran down her face, some old some new, remembering again how she received those scars badly. Remembering again on how much hell she had to get through to stay alive. But in the end, it doesn't matter anymore for now, there's nothing else going to kill her.
Pushing herself off the sink and headed out the bedroom, looking over to Twilight who is in her sleeping bag and to Applejack who is sleeping on the couch. It was quite fortunate that Sunset didn't wake them up, otherwise they will be scared to their arses to hear Sunset screams and shoots stuff again. All she did right now, is only sat down on the floor at the wall near the staircase that leads to her bed upstairs. She took a deep breath, and sighed with her eyes closed. Looking up she noticed an audio file that wasn’t there before
Taking hold of the audio file, along with a small comm tool at the table in front of the couch before Sunset sat down at the wall before.
As Sunset leaned her back against the wall, she put her comm in the ear and held her audio file. She presses a few command on the audio file, and it played. It was another message from Isaac again.
"Hey, Sunset. I left this message to make sure.... Well, you know. You're doing fine for now. Don't tell me about what's up in the school because the principals told me about how are you doing back there. Honestly, sounds not good. If you need any help or just need someone to talk to just call me... alright? Be fine, Sunset."
When the audio log finished. She puts it down on the floor next to her softly. Oh, Isaac, does he have to worry about Sunset everyday? Well, she guessed he's right about it since she along with Isaac, Carver and Randall were having hallucinations season. Hff, what would be much worse than that? Now, she only sits there, lost in her thoughts and waiting for the morning to come. Only darkness and silence that comforted her.
They three started their good morning a stretch of their bodies and a yawn from their mouths (and her hood hiding her face). They heard the chirping birds in the air as some of the birds flew in front of them in such graceful manners. They looked up to the sky, and cloud gaze the sky for a moment to find unique shapes of the clouds. They then looked forward to the sidewalk as they kept walking.
Before they started their way to the school, however. Sunset put down her scavenger bot again somewhere near her house. She checked the result of the bot's scavenging progress from yesterday, and it was quite perfect. The bot found a lot amounts of materials she needed for engineering job. Though, there was something that didn't look like a material for her, whatever that is. Starting to hope that the bot didn't stole it.
They kept walking on as they (except Sunset) greeted the people they know on the road. Sunset only looked for sour for now, they're not sure why she looked like that. Though, they weren't to disturb her for the moment. Sunset did say that she still awake in the middle of the night until the morning. It's a good thing for them however, Sunset a good breakfast again for the three of themselves.
They soon arrived at the school after that walk. For now the school was quiet lonely because they three decided to go to the school early, because Sunset was hoping to not be 'disturbed' by other students on the road. They then headed for the entrance of the school.
However, they suddenly heard some shouts at the front side of the school. Hearing those shouts, Twilight, AJ and Sunset quickly looked at each other in suspicion and nodded at each other in understood. When they walked past the statue, they saw a fight going on there. There were Spitfire who still had her still-healing bruises on her face along with her soccer team, and there were the students of the Crystal Prep. Applejack recognized them as the Shadowbolts from Crystal Prep.
They three stood from afar to see what was going on. The three girls from the soccer team were having a talk fight with the girls of the Shadowbolts. From the looks of it, the Shadowbolts were the one who started the problem. As they watch the fight was getting intense, they saw one of the Shadowbolts, Sunny Flare was her name, slapped High Winds after she insults her and High angrily talk back. This was no problem for Sunset. However, AJ looked like had a grudge on them while Twilight only remain neutral at this.
But when Sunset noticed the grudge that AJ had on her face. She had decided to help AJ out despite of what she had done to Sunset a year ago, soon Applejack will got her pain after she found who's the Anon-A-Miss is. Sunset then looked over to Twilight, who had known what is Sunset up to. Sunset was about to approached them, until Applejack stopped her.
"Sunset? What do you think you're doing?!" AJ asked quickly.
"Helping them out, why?" Sunset asked back, giving her neutral expression.
"Do you know who are those people Spitfire is facing?" Applejack asked back worriedly.
"The Shadowbolts, I know," Sunset replied with a nod. "I'll handle this one, you should stay back for awhile."
"Sunset, are you sure about this?" Twilight asked in doubt. "What if...?"
"Is getting myself crashed by a car is not enough to convince you?" Sunset asked back making Twilight paused, but then Twilight nodded in understood. "Thank you. Let me handle it."
Sunset then approached them calmly. As she walks toward them, their fight was still going on. And the heat of it was getting increased the longer they stay like that.
"Hey, bitch!" The dark blue haired girl name Indigo Zap taunted. "What's with your face, huh?!"
"Hey!" High Winds shouted, but then interrupted by them.
"You looked a whore on the streets!" A lime haired girl named Lemon Zest taunted. "You know that?"
"No I'm not," Spitfire defended herself. "You goddamn pricks!"
"Why can't you just leave us alone?!" Fleetfoot asked in fear.
"You all soon gonna pay for your victory in that competition!" Sugarcoat shouted angrily with an evil grin. "We're not going to stop until all of- hang on, who is that?"
That was the time when the soccer team turned around and saw Sunset was walking towards them, from behind the soccer team to the front. Sunset was standing in front of the soccer team against the Shadowbolts right now. Despite her odd appearance against the Shadowbolts, they don't care anyway as long as they able to deal with her. They see Sunset as nothing but a stupid obstacle for them.
"Who the hell are you?!" Sunny asked harshly to the hooded girl. "And are you from that stupid CHS, huh?"
"First, yeah, I'm from CHS," Sunset replied with sarcasm. "Second, it's Sunset Shimmer, bitch."
When they heard what was her name, they quickly got up and surprised. "Wait, aren't you the Anon-A-Miss?! The bitch who spill the secrets from our school?!" Lemon asked suspiciously.
"That's what you heard actually," Sunset replied neutrally with her arms crossed and her hood still hiding her face. "And I'm still sticking to this school."
"Huh, shame," Sour Sweet replied bitterly. "Why don't you just go away and get out here, huh? This place is ain't for you."
"And this place is ain't for you either," Sunset replied, Spitfire and the other two girls were quiet worried on what Sunset is doing. "You better get out from here before I have to deal with you."
"Oh really, what are you going to do to us?" Indigo taunted back, disbelieve of her threat.
"Hey, bitch!" Lemon called, she then aimed her fist to Sunset's face. "Take this!"
Sunset only sighed and shook her head in disappointment. "I have dealt with people that are worlds' worse than you. And it's not as quite pretty."
As she still held her fist, Sunset quickly hits Lemon's face hard making her stunned. Sunset then kicked left knee by right round-kick to behind her knee, forcing Lemon to kneel to her right as her fist was still locked in Sunset's right hand. Sunset then proceeded to kick her left side of her face by her left foot pushed forward to her head, sending her thrown away to the Shadowbolts grasp. The Shadowbolts were stunned for a moment when Sunset's counter-attack happened, but then quickly picked Lemon from the ground after Sunset beat her up.
After they picked Lemon up, they all looked back to Sunset who was hostile at them, while the soccer team feared of Sunset's brutality. "I'm warning you, get the fuck off from here."
The Shadowbolts looked at each other, before they nodded to each other. "Let's get her!"
*WHIRRR-DUUAAM*
After Sunset pulled the trigger on her force gun, it send the three Shadowbolts flying in the air backwards up nearly three feet in the air and a few meters away from Sunset. The Shadowbolts then landed on the ground hard on their back. If Sugarcoat had to admit, the strength of the cannon Sunset was having was something equal to the Force in the Star Wars movie. They slowly stood up at their positions, and then turned around to looked at Sunset in fear.
Whatever the prototype Spitfire was looking at, she won't dare to mess around Sunset anymore. Since her true claims as an engineer and how well she fought back that time. For Twilight and Applejack who watched from afar near the statue, they feared if such monstrosity that Sunset would killed anyone in that scene. But then their thoughts were quickly calmed down after knowing the force gun Sunset was having was a non-lethal one.
"What the hell is that thing?!" Indigo shouted panickedly, wanted to hurt her but can't get around on the freak cannon she was having.
"A goddamn weapon that love to send people flying in the air!" Sunset shouted angrily as she steps forward to them with her force gun at ready. "GET THE FUCK OFF FROM HERE BEFORE I'M GOING TO SHOOT YOU AGAIN!"
*WHIIIRRRRR*
That was the time when they knew, they fucked up. The Shadowbolts quickly turned around and run for their lives. Sunset is going to release the trigger of her cannon soon enough. "RUN, LET'S GET OUT FROM HERE!" Sunny shouted in panic as they run away from Sunset.
*DUUAAAAMM*
Sunset shot out another round of kinetic shockwave. Luckily for the Shadowbolts, Sunset's shot was a near miss. But they have to run out from there as quickly as they can. They shouted to each other in horror after Sunset sent the shockwave to them.
It took them for a few seconds to completely disappear from the school. Sunset felt quite satisfied to see them gone and bite the dust. Sunset slowly turned around to the soccer team along with Twilight and AJ who approached the soccer team, as Sunset puts back her force gun in her inventory slot. The girls who are with Sunset were quite freaked on what weapon she used on the Shadowbolts, but more than that, the soccer team were very glad that Sunset defended them.
"Sunset," Fleetfoot called slowly. "What..... the hell...... was that...?"
"A ‘Handheld Graviton Accelerator’ or force gun," Sunset explained with a shrug. "A short-range kinetic booster device. Its function in mining operations is to provide blasting power beyond conventional explosive charges, thus making it suitable for precise terraforming applications."
They were quite shock to know what the hell she meant. "You're telling me the cannon you were using there should've killed people?!" Twilight asked aloud, worried if she had killed someone like the Shadowbolts.
"Don't worry about the force gun I'm having here," Sunset replied. "I have set it to non-lethal for crowd control."
They all signed gladly if she had tune up her force gun first. "Hey, thanks for defending us," Spitfire replied.
"Your welcome," Sunset replied, but then noticed Spitfire's expression. "What's bothering you?"
"Umm, well...." Spitfire stammered in doubt. "About what we did to you... a-a year ago. Is it....?"
Sunset sighed with a frown face, but then decided on what she said to her. "You don't have a grudge against me, do you? Because I'm not either."
"No, we-I swear it!" Spitfire replied quickly. "I'm very sorry for what we.. I did to you!"
They all fell to silence once, Spitfire doesn't have anything else to her, Sunset gave her choice. "You're forgiven."
"Wait, what?" Spitfire asked in surprise. "You... you really mean it?"
"Yeah, I mean it," Sunset replied, but then looked over to AJ. "But not you."
Applejack only nodded in understood, as Spitfire only smiled a little to Sunset. "Let's get in the school, shall we?"
They all nodded in agreement, and headed for the entrance for the school. Now it's time for them to start a new day of school.
Chapter 12 - Job Well Done
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. Author's Note
Well, here it is the prologue.
Chapter 1 - Prologue
It's now been a few days since the Battle Of The Bands ended and Princess Twilight returned back to Equestria for the preparations of Heart Warming Eve while Sunset still staying with her friends in the human world. It filled them with almost pure joy after we'd defeat The Dazzlings. Now Sunset was getting ready for the incoming winter and holiday season. There was this one day that Pinkie invites all the band members to have a good slumber party at her home. It is really good for Sunset (she guessed), after she had to fix all that she had done in the past.
It was, of course, it was a really good time for her. She had some fun with her friends during that time. Sings a song, played video games, and pretty much more than that. When the 4 of them went sleep, only Applejack and Sunset were the ones who still awake. Applejack apparently was telling her the story about why her sister, Apple Bloom called her 'piggly wiggly'just moments ago, which Sunset found it funny. After Applejack went to sleep, Sunset wrote to Twilight about what she has experienced in making friendship now.
Then in the next day, the Anon-A-Miss showed up. Posting something about what Applejack told her yesterday, the piggly wiggly things. Though they let this pass for now and then they do another slumber party again in Rarity's house. It was much more fun than before until they took pictures together, a lot. Which after they slept, Sunset opened her messaging journal book again and wrote the progress to Twilight. What was she didn't know was, things will change forever.
In the next day, Sunset found it odd that, each other friends that she passed by, didn't reply to her when she greeted them with a 'hello' or 'hi.' Never had something like this happened before. Then she tried to look for her five closest friends around their lockers in the hallway.
When she found her friends, Sunset called out to them, "Hey guys!" and asked, "What's going--" and that was when she got a good look at their faces. ". . . on?" she finished weakly, even more, confused than she had been with the glare by the mob.
All of them looked at her strangely. Well, all of them except for Fluttershy who seemed to be hiding as Sunset couldn't see her face at all. Rarity was easiest to gauge. She had her arms crossed and seemed to be angry, Pinkie Pie was looking positively timid and holding her left arm with her right as if she were the Lost Child Number 3 straight from central casting, Applejack's expression was unplaceable, but definitely not in the realm of good, and Rainbow Dash seemed sad, but it could possibly could have been mad instead.
Sunset repeated her question in her head, "What's going on?"
She didn't get an answer. Instead, she got a question, "Sunset, do you . . ." Applejack started. Then she revised it to: "Have you lost your phone recently?"
"Um . . ." Sunset reached for her phone. It was definitely there.
She said, "No," though it had practically been a question. The same question, really. What was going on? She took out her phone and showed it to the others, "It's right here." No response. "Why?"
Her friends all looked away from her and at each other, and Sunset felt like some silent conversation was taking place.
Applejack was the first one to look back at Sunset, now clearly very angry. She shoved her own phone toward Sunset and said, "Then you need ta' explain this."
Sunset slowly reached for the phone, as if hoping a lack of sudden movement would protect her from whatever was happening.
"Two days ago" meant that it went up the morning after the sleepover.
"What‽" Sunset shouted. This didn't make any sense. "How did she get our pictures?"
And, to make matters worse, Anon-a-Miss' full-sized profile image, which Sunset hadn't seen before, was clearly a stylized image of Sunset. Oh, and the fake account that used her actual picture and had been mocking her since the Fall Formal was already listed as one of Anon-a-Miss' friends.
"They're not our pictures, Sunset," Applejack snarled.
Sunset looked up as Rainbow Dash said, "They're yours."
Fluttershy was no longer hiding; instead, she radiated disappointment and, if the closed eyes were anything to go by, wouldn't even look at Sunset. Applejack and Pinkie Pie had both adopted Rarity's earlier arm crossed, and angry stance, Rarity herself had dropped her arms but adopted a glare that made it very clear whom she was angry with, and Rainbow Dash had her hand on her hips.
"All those pictures were taken by you," Applejack said.
"Wait, but--" Sunset started. None of this made any sense, "I've had my phone the whole time, how did she--"
"Yeah, how did she?" Applejack asked, snatching her phone back before lunging forward. Applejack's face filled Sunset's vision, and Applejack shouted, "How did she know about my nickname? How did she get the picture from your phone?"
Applejack backed up a tad and then jabbed a finger into Sunset's sternum and shouted, "It was you all along! You'reAnon-a-Miss!"
Applejack backed up again, this time Sunset could see her four other friends clearly. It was apparent they all agreed with Applejack.
How could they? After everything she'd done in the past, after everything they'd experienced together, how could they all just be ready to assume the worst when going by a picture by someone that was apparently trying to frame her? How could they turn on her so fast? One question about whether she'd lost her phone and was automatically guilty? That's not how friends acted, right? Did anything she's done for them not matter to them anymore? Did she matter?
"We trusted you, Sunset!" Rainbow Dash shouted, "We thought you were our friend!"
Sunset's ears were ringing from all the shouting and she was having trouble thinking about everything happening so fast.
"How could you do this, Sunset?" Rarity asked. "After everything we've been through together?"
Sunset needed time to think, "No, wait, you guys--" and what could she say? "I didn't do this! I could never hurt any of you." The 'again' went unspoken.
"But you did!" Pinkie Pie shouted, pointing a finger very similar to same way Applejack had. "You must've just been pretending to be our friend when all along you were after our secrets! You-- You secret-stealer!"
What secrets? Someone stole pictures from her phone. Applejack's nickname was a secret, but she hadn't even learned it from any of them. Unless Applebloom told someone. None of that mattered though. They thought she'd just been pretending all this time. Disguised as a pariah among fish for all this time, no offense to sirens?
"No! No! I don't know how she got this stuff but it wasn't," Sunset said. "I'm not this person."
Fluttershy shouted back, eyes now open and full of tears, "No you're not! You're not the person we thought you were! You're not our friend!"
"This is it, Sunset," Applejack said. "You're not gonna take advantage of us anymore."
Sunset collapsed to her knees. She didn't have it in her to stay standing.
"I'm sorry," Applejack said, "but you did this to us. Tell whatever secrets you want. . ."\
Sunset couldn't look. She held her face in her hands as more tears came.
". . . but we don't have to listen," Applejack finished.
Sunset heard her friends walk away. She didn't know what to do. She'd just stay there on her knees in the hall forever. Maybe she'd fall asleep. That would be comforting. Just let the darkness take her. Let it swallow her whole. At least oblivion didn't hurt. Though, she knows that won't help her in this situation.
Few days then passed, her school days was getting worse as they came because of the actions of Anon-A-Miss. Sunset Shimmer was the only person who got accused a lot them for being the Anon-A-Miss culprit. She had got the whole school bullying her, and had lost all of her friends. Every time went to go to school, she got harassed, punched, or got her stuff stolen away. Sometimes all three happened. It was the worst experience she had in her life.
By Wednesday, she went over to her locker and found that someone sprayed offensive graffiti on her school locker. The words were 'She-Demon,' 'Anon-A-Miss,' and 'Sunset Shitter.' She felt the heart-ache was becoming much worse the longer she was looking at it. When she was on her way to the class, she got insults from her former friends along the way. Sunset continued to hold up from the abuse, but it all was starting to get to her.
When Thursday came around, she had to suffer the punches and kicks from the students of the school. Whether it be the regular students or the soccer team. Sunset surely didn't know anymore if she could hold on for much longer. Heading to the class while hiding the bruises of her recent encounter, she sat down limply and only stare straight towards the teacher while ignoring more insults from the students from all around her. After the school was over, she had to quickly pack up her bags and make a dash back to her apartment. And then immediately opened up her journal to see if Twilight had replied back to what she wrote to the other day, but the reply never came. Sunset, who was still standing with her journal on her hands, dropped the book in sorrow before falling to the ground, curled up in a ball.
Crying on how her friends had betrayed her, accusing her of things, not giving her a chance to talk, and most of all not believing what Sunset has admitted.
Sunset went home and sat down on a chair. Today she was wearing a long sleeve shirt, for the reason of hiding the scars on her arms made by her own with a knife yesterday. She then retook her knife and start to make a couple of cuts on her arms. She doesn't know what to do next, the only thing she had in mind was to go kill herself, just end it all. But she doubted things would be right after that.
Friday had now come and she just enough of this fucked up day. Achieving insults and new bruises along the way, Sunset made her way back to her locker. Where there are still graffiti of insults. When she opened her locker everything went black, it seemed like a bomb went off. Suddenly her world went dark. She could feel thick, sticky liquid covering her face shoulders and chest. Wiping her eyes of the sludge, she saw that it was brown, almost black. Molasses.
Then there were around 4 students showed on her side and throwing a lot of glitters and fake feathers at her. Then a bunch of other students laughed at her and cheered the 4 students for what they did.
“Go back to your world Sunshit Shitter.”
"Way too go!”
“Go to hell Anon-a-miss.”
“Yeah!”
“Karma’s a bitch isn't it She-demon!”
This went up long enough until principal Celestia and vice-principal Luna appeared showed up and stopped them from continuing the scene. After See how they did to Sunset, the students along with Sunset were ordered to go to Principal Celestia's office. But when the students were about to go to Principal's office, Sunset was still standing in front of her locker, frozen like a statue wordlessly as she starred at her locker. Sunset turned around, not toward the way to the Principal's office, but towards the nearest exit of the school. Sunset then walked forward without a second thought while she heard the shout of Celestia's voice.
"Sunset! Where are you going?"
Sunset didn't reply immediately though. Keeping thinking about what she would do now while walking. Sunset had only one answer in mind. Which she knows there was no turning back from what she'd been through. Which she answered without looking back and with a low voice.
"I'm going home."
Sunset then quickly ran back to her apartment after exiting the cursed high school and immediately took a bath and changed clothes. And then packed up all the kinds of stuff she had in her big bag and then quickly opened up her journal. And in her disappointment, Twilight didn't even fucking reply. Sunset then wrote the last words to Twilight, which she would hope Twilight see.
"Open up the portal, Twilight. I'm going home."
She then closed the journal and before putting it in her bag. Now, she would wait for night to come down. She doesn't want everyone know where she was going, besides they want her gone from the school and if they knew where she was going, they would chase her down (which to her was actually quite absurd if they try to chase her through a magic portal). She just waited for the time, sitting on a chair in her living room facing the big window of her apartment. Watching the sun is setting. Then the night comes as it dawned upon the city.
"It's my time."
Sunset turned off all the lights in her apartment and went out through town heading back to the CHS for the portal at the base of the statue of CHS. She quietly recons the area to make sure no one was around, it was safe. Sunset standing in front of the statue, silent and sorrow overwhelmed her. Until when she touched the bottom of the statue where the portal to Equestria would be. The portal wasn't open. She was disappointed again due to the fact that Twilight hadn't read her message. All she wants just to go back, and she doesn't have the time to keep waiting for it, which she insisted on one thing. Looking at her wristwatch, she saw the time was eight thirty-one
"It's now or never."
Sunset put both her hands on the closed portal and transferred all the magic she had inside of her into the portal with all her might. Having taken long enough to do it, she screamed a little from the pain of transferring her magic to the portal, and man was it a pain in the ass. She then retracted back her hands and felt blood leak from her nose, she then wipes the blood off her face with her sleeve before looking over to the portal. She smiled at what she had accomplished now that the portal was open.
Not even bothering to look back at the world that been her home for the last few years Sunset made a mad dash into the vortex.
Year 2508
Isaac Clarke was not anything but happy right now. He currently back where he grew the northeastern sector of North America and earth again, for however long that was due to his mother.
He had just recently learned of her sudden passing due to unknown means. When he came to his old home to see the body and to see if there was small chance that she left something for him in her will only to find that she had given everything to the Unitologists, the fucking church his mother devoted her life to.
Isaac shouldn't be surprised by the actions of his mother. The trip was a waste of his time and vacation days, even if he could take haft a year off if he wanted to. Having been with the merchant marines for several years now and having elevated to a high ranked engineer of its forces.
Again he shouldn't be surprised by the current turn of events. After arriving the reading of her will, and announcing that the Unitologist were getting everything including her body. Which pissed Isaac even more as he kicked a nearby can at the mear thought of it came to mind. After hearing the last part he just up and left, now he was exploring his old neighborhood. Thinking back to fond memories he had of this place back when times were better for him.
The few friends he had grown up in high school came to mind as he got closed to the said school. The school hadn't changed much in the last decade, maybe in the last few centuries yeah but not since he was last here. As he looked up he silently read the school's name, "Canterlot high school, home of the wonder colts," he smirked at the ridicules of the name and its weird mascot.
Turning around he walked over to the front of the figure and looked at the creature of mythology that stood proudly against time itself. A horse with the wings of a Pegasus and the horn of a unicorn.
Isaac never got to see a horse before, only through pictures and recordings of them. They were endangered after all along so are a lot of endangered animals species out there nowadays.
But Isaac's focus was now at the statue as memories of his younger days gone by, even if it nearly thirty years since his graduation. Pulling up his RIG to check the time, he saw that it was now eight thirty and needed to get home, his girlfriend had just moved in with him in his apartment on Luna's station of Apollo shipyards and would take a few hours to get there with his shuttle. (Sometimes it pays well to be a high ranked engineer of a security force.) He was about to head out until he heard a crackling sound. It sounded like a power junction was letting loose bolts of power out random like when you hear on a damaged ship, and it sounded really close to him.
Turning to the direction of the crackling, Isaac became surprised that it was coming from the base of the statue. He briefly wondered if there was a power conduit under the old concrete that had faulty wiring. His thoughts on the matter quickly vanished when a young girl suddenly fell out of nowhere and land roughly on the pavement.
Isaac stares at the impossible girl for a moment before his training kicks in and rushes to the young girl side. He finds the girl resting on her arm facing him. He can tell that it was indeed a girl by her looks. She had tanned skin and with a mix of red and yellow hair. Reaching over to her backside to access her RIG, he found none. Which got Isaac frustrated along with interest.
Everyone had at least a civilian RIG, you get one when a kid becomes of age, usually around the age of fourteen, and is required for school and work. This girl looked older then that, if he had to guess she was sixteen. Disregarding the thought of the lack of a RIG he looked up and down the young women. He saw that she was indeed still alive and breathing a found fresh cuts on her chin from where she landed roughly on the ground, other than that he couldn't see anything wrong with her besides being knocked out cold.
Isaac also noticed her clothing, it was real vintage and expensive clothing, especially the jacket. Isaac could tell it was real leather and not the synthetic kind that lots of people have, and it didn't look that old either. Having real leather in this day in age don't come cheap, and this girl has enough for a whole jacket? That alone would cost a years worth of credits.
Putting a hand on the girls head, Isaac noted that the girl's temper was slightly elevated but not to the point with a fever. Looking around he saw that no one but him was around sawed the girl appear other than him. Feeling conflicted, he got his arms under the young women lifted her up made a quick trip over to his shuttle. Thinking about Nicsole, she had just left for the USG Ishimura on Titan station just the other day for its last voyage to the unknown and won't be back until over a year for its decommissioning.
Reaching his shuttle, he laid her down on the small bed in the back. Reaching the cockpit Isaac flipped the ignition switch and issued the autopilot, lifting the shuttle up in the direction of his apartment on Luna. Taking another look at his new charge, he let out a sigh of frustration at the events that are about to come next.
Hello and good day, ladies and gentlemen. It's Chittatos here, and I want to say something about this story.
I have noticed that all of you are pretty excited on waiting for the next chapter, I very appreciate that, really. 👍
But if you think I have stopped on writing this story and had decided to cancel finishing it, well... you're wrong.
You see, I have decided to put this story on hiatus for the moment (Note: lazy to change the status of the story). But... the reason why I put it on hiatus was because me along with a co-writer of mine have been met with a lot of complications.
I don't know what's up with my co-writer but if I have to guess... is that he got not time for helping me on this story because the problems he has in his house. Me, on the other hand, actually had an internship for the course of three months and started a new story project elsewhere than here. And yes, I was so focused on making the new story project because I got a clearer story line on that one than this story, I would say it's my 'imaginative adrenaline'. I think I lost the plot on Dead Sunset story, but hopefully I worked it out.
I will get back to this story if I got the time, the last thing I'll regret is to let someone else to adopt this story on one condition, which is continue the story from the latest chapter and do not re write the previous chapters.
If you're wondering what new story project I'm working on, it's an anime/FPS crossover. Girls Und Panzer and Call of Duty MW crossover. If you want to read that aside this one for a moment, it's here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13062626/1/Girl-Und-Modern-Warfare
(Yes, I know it's ironic how this new story got more than 30 chapters instead for the Dead Sunset got 10)
That's all I can say everyone, thanks for your attention and have a joyful day.
-We all believe in luck, cause and effect -
