Born Again (Rewrite)

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1: Sunset In The Dark
Chapter 2: The Ones We Love
Chapter 3: The Ones We Hurt
Chapter 4: The Ones We Leave Behind

Prologue

"I once believed that justice could be found in the court of law, and in the light of day.
But I was fooling myself.
The darkness only responds to darkness..."

The sun shone upon the city of Canterlot, despite the snow blocking its way. The birds were singing, and the citizens of Canterlot were heading to their destination; whether it was job-related or else.

It was rather... peaceful, to say the least.

It's a pity, that no one knew how it was during the nighttime. There was one place in particular, where everyone was truly enjoying their morning - Canterlot High, a school where everyone seemed to know each other, was filled with chatter. Every student was simply having a good time, talking to each other, or simply listening to music.

Entering the school, however, two individuals were in a heated conversation.

"So you've been alone on the holidays...for all that time?!" Applejack exclaimed, clearly stunned by her friend's words.

"Yep." Sunset Shimmer replied with a sad sigh.

'Cuz I don't think I can find anyone who would want to spend time with me. Me, a former bully, a former villain from another world who is now roaming the streets at night, beating up criminals. What would possibly be wrong with that?' Sunset told herself, only half sarcastic.

"That's awful."

She could only agree.

Trying to get rid of the uneasy topic, Sunset said in a cheery tone, "Don't worry about me. I've got you guys now! I'll see you later, AJ."

"Yeah... later Sunset."

Making sure she was out of sight, Applejack started texting her other friends.

Darkness.

The only thing she saw, the only thing she felt, was darkness.

But nevertheless, she admired its beauty, and the sense of familiarity it brought. She had always liked dark places. Whenever she was feeling down, she wouldn't go and talk about it with anyone else. She would go hide in a dark corner, until she was fine to come back.

Or somepony found her. Mostly, it was the latter.

She would sit there, alone, and let her mask fall. The mask she put up for covering her true emotions. She was truly worthless. She wasn't worthy of being her dau- no. Her student. She wasn't even worthy of being their friend.

She hurt so many people. On both sides of the mirror. Just because she thought she was superior. That she didn't need anybody. She'd be just fine on her own. She didn't need friends, only servants.

She was a fool back then.

She wouldn't be one now.

She had a wonderful life. She had friends now. She was reformed. She was nice to everyone, and they've accepted her, right?

'Right?'

Sunset sighed. She couldn't help it. The fact she still had doubts about the whole... friendship thing. It felt... wonderful, to be honest. The Rainbooms were pretty warm and forgiving.They took her in, despite everything she had done, mostly to them.

And she was both thankful and ashamed for that.

But she didn't deserve them. She would never deserve happiness. She-

'Okay Sunset, you do not wanna go there again.' Sunset thought, 'It's all in the past. No need to beat yourself up over it.'

If it was that simple. She could still feel the pain... The scars...

They were the reminders.

'I got a question for you, miss Shimmer. Should I tell you or should I TELL you?' A teasing voice asked.

In her head. And no, she wasn't crazy.

'...yet.' She mentally added as an afterthough.

However, it did stop her from farther self-loathing.

Sunset sighed and told it, 'Whatever. I don't think I can ever stop you from doing so.'

'How are you so sure that they're your friend?'

'Pardon?'

'Well, look at it this way, Shimmer. The Rainbooms hated your guts way before the Fall Formal. Then, Princess Twilight shows up, like an angel coming from above, fixes everything, gets rid of the scary demon, and tells them to take care of you. And guess what? Plot twist, they fucking accept! Amazing! They even become best buddies with you, all the while, every other person in CHS wants you gone forever. But that doesn't mean they can't remind you of your past EVERY. SINGLE. TIME! Hell, they didn't even asked you to join their band until after the Battle Of The Bands. And for what? Did they even tell you the fucking reason?'

'For fuck's sake, we had this conversation for about a thousand times, and I-'

'Yeah, yeah. People make mistakes, they're humans, I was a bitch, blah blah blah! Honestly, they disgust me! Not just them, but all the others as well! You should know better. You're the one who's always cleaning their filth!'

'No one asked for your approval, dipshit.'

'You hate me because I was your shitty past, your greatest form, or because I'm right most of the time?'

'That's a hard pass.'

'Sure. Do what you want. But if I was in charge...'

Sunset desperately tried to block her own thoughts. Sometimes, she wondered how she was still sane. Or if she was.

'I guess sanity comes with a price.' She groaned mentally.

Pushing past the heated mental argument, she tried to get her thoughts back on track.

Right now, she was on a rooftop of a building near Pinkie's house. She had nothing better to do, so she went in there and waited for the others, since the slumber party was starting in about twenty five minutes.

'That means I get out of the costume.' Sunset reminded herself.

That's when she heard something. The sound of someone panting heavily.

Normally, she'd dismiss it as some random guy being late for work, home or whatever. This time, however, she heard a familiar sound, not so far from the first one. A faint heartbeat, and it startled her because...

It was Rarity's - that couldn't be good.

She looked down, and closely examined the view from above. After a bit of searching, she found Rarity walking towards Pinkie Pie's house for the slumber party. From the looks of it, she didn't seem to notice a strange figure creepily observing her from the shadows - not too different from what Sunset herself was doing. And soon enough, it was revealed that Sunset wasn't the only one who took interest in her. "Damn it! All I wanted was a peaceful night! I can't even get that, can I?" Sunset frustratedly exclaimed.

'Karma's a bitch, ain't it?'

She shook her head and decided to take action. After jumping across a few rooftops, dodging a pesky cat, she landed on the building next to where the man was hiding. She swore she could feel the drops of sweat falling from his face, as his heart beat like crazy.

'That sounded weird.'

"I thought a lady was supposed to be smart, or so I've heard." She caught him saying under his breath, an unusual tone to it. What the hell was he thinking about doing?

Daredevil heard several clicks and flashes from the man. Was he... Was he taking pictures? Is he a stalker or something?

"Wait till Thunderlane gets a load of this!".

And she froze.

'Thunderlane? As in, the Thunderlane? From the soccer team? Why would he want to-'

And then it clicked.

Thunderlane hired someone to spy on Rarity, but why? He seemed like a nice guy, but he always got a bit flustered around Rarity. Sunset always dismissed it as a joke, and her and the other Rainbooms would sometimes tease Rarity about it. Although, she always thought that it'd be impossible for them to make up. Not after what happened at the fourth grade, anyways.

But this? This... This is messed up! This is something you'd expect from a creep, not a well-known athlete with a good reputation. Well, seems like she was wrong.

'Again.'

'I don't think I can ever look into his face again after this! Actually, I don't think I can ever look at anybody in CHS like before! Go Wondercolts, not Wondercreeps!', Sunset angrily thought.

'Your obliviousness is gonna get you killed someday. Literally.'

'Thanks. I'm sure that you're really benefiting from this!'

'I don't suck up emotions! I'm not a Siren, and I'm pretty sure I'm not a symbiote either!'

'You're right? Wait, what the fuck's a symbiote?'

'Nevermind! Don't you have a girlfriend to save from the hands of evil?'

'Oh! Right! Wait girl-'

Sunset cut herself off and swiftly came to the conclusion that she stood there long enough, so she decided to put an end to this mess. She took the billy clubs off of her holsters, detached them, and aimed for the guy's hand. More specifically, the one with the phone.

'You should know better than to mess with my friends like this!' Sunset told him mentally.

And then she threw it.

It happened in a matter of seconds, since the building wasn't that tall and her aim was near perfect. When she heard the man shout, she jumped down and landed on the ground. The man didn't notice her, mostly because he was too caught up in groaning and grunting from the pain of his right hand. Daredevil took this as an opportunity and started talking.

"You know, you're really stupid for thinking that you could get away with this."

The man turned back and stared in shock. He wasn't expecting anyone catching him off-guard. And he sure as hell didn't expect it to be some cosplayer. "Wha- What are you talking about?"

Sunset rolled her eyes in annoyance, and replied, "Don't you even try doing that! That's the lamest excuse you could ever give somebody! Besides, it'll probably cost you an arm."

The man, after recollecting himself, asked, "Who the fuck do you think you are? Some kinda ninja?"

"No, but I did fight a ninja before! They have no sense of humour. And if you must know, name's Daredevil."

"Who?"

"You know, the local vigilante, the girl without fear, devil of Hell's kitchen, etc etc. I'm sure you've heard at least one of them?"

"You're the freak who goes around punchin' people?"

"Real funny pal. But yes! I'm the guy who 'goes around punching people'. And you know why I'm here now?"

"No."

"To punch some more people, duh!"

She grew serious, and grabbed the man by his coat, slamming him against a wall and ordering, "Now, be a good boy, and tell me who hired you to take pictures of Rarity Belle. If you do just that, then I might let you go unharmed."

"I don't know what're you rambling on about! I-I don't even know who that is!"

"Yes you do! In fact, you were hired to do that. Tell me their name, and I'll let you go! Don't, and I'll start breaking each and every one of your fingers till you spill! Which one do you prefer?"

He was sweating like crazy at this point. His heartbeat was rapid and fast, and his breathing grew unsteady. He was scared - just what she wanted him to be.

He struggled a bit, before finally sighing, giving up and crying out, "Fine! I'll tell you! But please! Please don't kill me! I-I really needed that m-money!"

Sunset checked for his pulse, finding he wasn't lying, so she just told him, "Alright! Just give me the name, and I'll let you go! But never, and I repeat, never, do anything like this again! Understood?"

The man whimpered, but nodded anyway, replying, "It was a guy named Thunderlane! He- He just came to me and asked t-to follow this girl. He said he'd give me more money if- if I took pictures! I wasn't gonna do it, man! I swear! B-But he threatened me! He said he'd call the cops on me! I didn't have a choice man! I have a family!"

Sunset shook her head and sighed. Was he that low? To threaten someone for just a perverted action? She was praying that it wasn't Thunderlane, but deep down, she knew it was the only answer. She let go of the man, telling him to go. He frantically nodded and scampered off. After that, Sunset didn't know what to think. She was too tired to come to a straight conclusion, so she decided to leave it for tomorrow. It'd be better this wa-

"Is anyone there?"

Shit.

Daredevil perked her head up, looking for a way out. Unfortunately for her, there wasn't any of them that insured she'd be out in a matter of seconds. It was too late anyways. She stared at the woman who was getting closer, and when she saw her, she froze.

It was Rarity.

Under the mask, Sunset started panicking. 'Oh, what should I do now? She might think I'm following her! Even worse, she might think I'm there to hurt her! Oh shit!'

'Easy there, Sunny buns! Don't freak out! You're annoying enough as it is!'

'Shut up!'

Rarity, upon seeing who was the mysterious stranger in front of her, gasped in shock. She was face-to-face with the devil of Hell's Kitchen herself! She asked with surprise, "Are you-Are you Daredevil?"

Sunset froze. Did she know her?

'At least somebody here knows who you are! Be thankful for that, kid!'

But she ignored that. Gathering all the courage she could find, she replied, "Ummm, yeah! That's me! Anything I can do for you, miss?"

Sunset mentally face-palmed. What the hell was that? She tried to ignore the roars of demonic laughter that was ringing in her head. She gulped.

Rarity, however, didn't seemed to be phased by this. Her lips formed into a smile, and said, "Oh my god! I'm really lucky then! I've never met a vigilante before! Well, I should say hero now! You did save us, after all! And the costume! It looks divine, darling! It's very... fashionable, I say! Very modern and outright gorgeous! It does need a little bit of work, though."

'Wow! I didn't expect her to be so... I dunno, calm about it? But I think I should get going! The party's gonna start at... FIVE MINUTES!? Shit shit shit shit! That took too long! I gotta go!' Sunsetpanickly told herself.

Daredevil interrupted her, and gently responded,"Miss? I'm sorry, but I should get going! The city can't protect itself now, can it?"

Rarity stared for a good minute, before realizing what she said and replied, "Oh! Oh, I'm sorry darling! I think I took enough of your time! The city needs you, of course! Go on!"

Sunset let out a relieved sigh and said, "Thank you! I'll go now! Bye!"

And with that, she jumped on the nearest building and started going up. However, she stopped before she could move away from the area. She had to do something else first. So, she called out:

"Oh, and be careful out there Miss Belle! You never know when you're going to get in trouble!"

She then climbed out of sight, leaving. Instead of going towards her home like usual, she headed to Pinkie Pie's house without being seen. It was a bit of a long way by foot.

Luckily for her, being Daredevil had its perks.

Five minutes later, she was in her usual outfit, panting as she was standing in front of Pinkie's door.

KNOCK KNOCK

She was surprised - like always - when Pinkie Pie opened the door and pulled her in for a bone-crushing hug.

"Hiya, Sunset! Areyoureadyforthemostsuperduperawesometasticgirlsnightoutandslumberpartyofyourlife?!" Pinkie blurted out.

Sunset, barely understanding what her pink friend said, while also nearly choking from how strong her grip was, answered with all the breath that was left, "Pinkie... can't... breathe..."

"Whoops! Sorry!" Pinkie apologized, though she was still grinning.

Sunset let out a chuckle and said, "It's fine. Just never do that again".

Walking to her friends, Sunset, clearly enjoying herself, let out a relieved sigh and thought, 'This couldn't get any better.'

She wasn't wrong.

It could only get worse.

'Are you sure you want to create a new account named "Anon-a-miss"?'

The cursor paused for a moment. Then moved to click on its desired button.

'Yes'.

"...And the truth is... I'd rather die as the devil...
than live as Sunset Shimmer."

Chapter 1: Sunset In The Dark

"Violence doesn’t discriminate. It hits all of us; the rich, the poor, the healthy, the sick. It comes as cold and bracing as a winter blizzard off the Hogson. Until it sinks into your bones, leaving you with a chill you can’t shake. They say there’s no rest for the wicked, nor any hope for the wicked. But what about the good? The battle of good versus evil is never-ending because evil always survives, with or without the help of evil beings. And as for Daredevil, well… soon Equestria will know the truth. That this is a city born of heroes, that one mare could make a difference."

That's what Celestia used to say, and for the most part, Sunset disagreed with it. Simply because she didn't believe in such a black and white view of good and evil back then. When she first decided to be Daredevil way back then, she didn't do it for fame and money, nor for justice. At the time, she couldn't even give a damn about any of those. She only did it for one thing - revenge.

She knew it was risky, and it would've only made Celestia even more disappointed with her. Asking about the mirror all the time was really getting to the princess of the sun, so it'd only make things worse for her. But Sunset, as hesitant as she was, decided to go and give those pricks a lesson. She did swear to make them pay when she found out who they really were.

'Why am I thinking about this? Anon-a-miss is my problem right now! Not some stupid mistakes I did in the past!'Sunset hotly thought.

'From what I've learned, you ponies always remember important pieces of writing when you're in trouble!'

'We do not!'

'Are you suuure?'

Sunset stopped her pacing for some time, and sighed. She was tired, and unfortunately, she couldn't go back to her home. Why, you ask? Because it may or may not be surrounded with angry students every few hours, as if they were taking turns with each other inbetween the resultant bickering.

All because of that blasted account. All because of Anon-a-miss.

For the past few days, Sunset had been filling her mind with a flood of questions, all of them revolving around the recent cyber-bullying and verbal fights between the students of Canterlot High. It was like a battlefield, and Sunset was caught directly in the middle of the crossfire.

'More like starting the crossfire.' She reminded herself.

Not only did the cyberbullying ruin friendships and spill secrets, she also framed Sunset for it. The reason why is still unknown to her.

'I just don't get it!' Sunset mentally screamed, 'Why would someone wanna do something like that? What would they gain from doing this? And why me? What have I ever done to them that-'

'WOAH WOAH WOAH! Just hold it right there! Are you freakin' serious?!'

'Come again?'

'What I mean is, what happened to your alpha girl phase? Y'know, the one where you were ruling the school with an iron fist, hoof, which ever you prefer, and generally being an outright dick-tator?'

After hearing this, Sunset mentally face-palmed. Not only because she completely forgot about her own past for a moment, but also because her demon side loved to make stupid puns. She then continued, 'Real funny. And just for the record, I didn't completly forget about that! I'm just thinking about why someone would do the same thing I did, just to get revenge on me!'

'Well, humans aren't really that honorable when it comes to vengeance, gotta give 'em that! Plus, you didn't expect them to just come and straight up invite you to a magic duel or something!'

'Fair point. That way, I'd have a long line of bloodthirsty students after me!'

'You already do.'

'Right... Now, where was I?'

'Thinkin' about bangin' that purple chick with wings.'

'Aha! Wait, WHAT!?'

'I saw your dreams.'

'The fu- That was one time! I was in heat, dammit!'

'Doesn't explain why there was only her on your mind! There are a lot of chicks around you, just sayin'!'

Sunset immediately got flustered, and desperately tried to hide the blush that rose on her cheeks, before just sighing and giving in. She once again cursed herself for stealing that crown - if she hadn't, then she wouldn't be talking to a voice in her head, nevermind being embarrassed by it. She inhaled sharply, and then sternly replied, 'Watch it there! I don't remember I gave you permission to get that comfortable!'

'You didn't. I did.' The voice paused for a moment, before continuing with a serious tone of voice, 'Enough of that! Let's just stop and... think, for a good minute.'

'About Anon-a-miss?'

'Yes, about that.'

'Why do you care about it now? I thought you loved to see me like this! Or is there something more to it?'

'Don't be ridiculous! I care because I'm a part of you. Our very existence depends on each other! Plus, you don't want the big bad demon to come out because Sunset Shitter's feelings were hurt now, do you?'

Sunset sighed, and dejectedly stated, 'No, I don't. And just for the record, I hate that nickname!'

'Wanna get rid of it? You've got to find the person who made you hear it in the first place. And it better be quick about it!'

'But how? I can't just... listen to their heartbeats and then suddenly know who they are! I'd have to go and ask everyone in the school for that! And I don't think they're really in the mood for me. Especially-'

'Especially her?'

Sunset flinched, remembering the girl she was talking about. 'Yeah. I don't think I can face her after... you know. What's worse is that thanks to my not-so-stealthy mood that night, she figured out who Daredevil friggin' is!'

'What, you thought somethin' else was gonna happen? You just went out there and served your secret identity - which was supposed to be secret, for crying out loud - and served it on a fucking silver platter! What else did you expect?!'

'It was dumb, okay? You think I wanted to give it away? Out of all the people who I thought would find out, little miss magic was not on the list! Jeez, look how low I am right now! Arguing with a voice in my head while losing the damn thing!'

'This not a competition, and you're not losing anything! But please, just whatever you do, shut up and put one of those detective Shimmer skills you have to use!'

Sunset stopped dead in her tracks. As much as she hated to admit it, the demon was right. Even if she could calm herself by patrolling endlessly in the city, it wouldn't do her any good. If she wanted to clear her name and get her friends back, she needed to get to the bottom of this. Anon-a-miss needed to be found, and someone has to find her, whether it's Daredevil, or Sunset Shimmer. But in order to find the culprit, she needed to look through the evidence first, which meant that-

'I need to go back!', Sunset happily thought cutting off her own growing train of thought, 'Well, not go back back, but to look through the stuff that happened in the past few days! How did I not think this through sooner?'

'Because you're an idiot and you need someone like me to guide you through the right direction?' The demon teased, giggling slightly as she spoke.

Sunset rolled her eyes and muttered a "whatever" under her breath, then sitting down on the stone-covered floor of a rooftop, and started to think.

'Sooo, what time are you going to start from?'

'Five days ago. The day when it all started'

"Piggly Wiggly!"

Applejack sighed in frustration. The name calling had been going on for some time now, and it was far from a pleasant experience for the cowgirl. She knew she had to ignore them, just like Granny always said, but it was still frustrating beyond belief.

Today, after the girls came back from the slumber party, people started harassing her with her childhood nickname. The blonde didn't know how they found out about it, but they did. The only people that knew about it were her family, and Sunset.

She couldn't help but think about who this 'Anon-a-miss' person was. Sure, the girls would shrug it off eventually, saying it's all gossip. But she knew something was up. How can you be calm when the whole school suddenly know about your secret, and especially after you told it to someone the night before, too?

That was enough for her to start questioning some people, and unfortunately, it hit a dead end.

Anon-a-miss's profile picture didn't give away a good clue about who she, or he, was, but the colors were a tad bit familiar, with streaks of red and yellow. AJ thought of it as a coincidence, or maybe a simple misunderstanding. Sunset was their friend, after all. She wouldn't just turn her back on them after all the good times they had together.

But then Applebloom, her younger sister, suggested that the only people who knew about Piggly Wiggly were her family and Sunset. The other Rainbooms were informed after that. Now Applejack, being the good friend she was, told her little sister that it was nonsense. The Sunset Shimmer she knew would never do that to her best friends. She changed, and that's all that mattered to her. She'd say the same thing too, right?

'What are you suggestin', Applejack? You're really starting to doubt your friend over this little secret? That's not like you at all! What would Granny Smith think of you? What would Sunset think if she heard you say these things?'Applejack mentally scolded herself.

But then... where was Sunset when she needed assurance so badly?

Sunset stood in silence as she watched the lavender-skinned bookworm walk around her lab- more like a workshop, in Sunset's opinion- in a crazy manner. She was doing another one of her crazy researches about possibly anything that didn't make any sense to her. All in the name of science.

And a few other benefits. That girl sure had a thing for research!

Sunset let out a small chuckle. She was hiding in the darkness, but she could still see her new friend, doing a research on...

'Let me guess... magic.' Sunset dryly thought; after she had told her about the existence of magic - after which she tried her hardest not laugh, seeing her face so shocked and puzzled - Sunset had asked her for another favor, which she hesitantly accepted.

It was Twilight Sparkle, after all. Always there for a friend in need, no matter which dimension she was in.

Apparently, she didn't know not to trust strangers, which was good in Sunset's case, though it seemed that had changed recently, as when she finally revealed herself, she was greeted by a short scream. Sunset swore it was high-pitched enough to make her deaf, even without her heightened senses. If she was listening with them, however, it probably would not end well for Sunset. Daredevil, on the other hand, didn't mind her reaction. She was long used to it, finding it somewhat entertaining, even if it was an unwanted scream.

Smirking, Daredevil teasingly said, "I thought you were used to seeing me like this, Pri- Twilight!"

Twilight, after realizing that it was just her friend - who she knew next to nothing about - sighed with relief. Only then did she angrily reply, "How can you ever get used to a sneaky cosplayer, dressed up in a devil costume, suddenly jumping out from the shadows?!"

"Hey! You designed it to be intimidating!"

"Because you told me to!"

"Fine! I'm sorry I did that! Though, I must admit, you do look cute when you're embarrassed!"

"St- stop!" Twilight stuttered, desperately trying to hide her blush.

Daredevil, satisfied with her reaction, smirked and started walking around the lab, examining all the equipment there. She noticed a strange, round device laying on Twilight's desk. She didn't know what did it do, but she couldn't ask Twilight about it. She didn't want a lecture that took forever - Twilight really was a sucker for science whenever she got the oppotunity. So was Sunset, but not as much as Sci-Twi, as she had come to know her.

What she didn't know was the fact that she knew how she could make a heavily-armed suit. Bulletproof, too,and yet it was still very flexible and light. She always thought that Twilight Sparkle, Princess of friendship, was always a peaceful person-pony. Her counterpart should have held the same similarities, and she was right, to some extent. Even so, knowledge wouldn't hurt anyone now, would it?

'I'm thankful for the suit at least.' Daredevil thought, 'It helped me a lot during my final battle with the Prince. Plus, it showed that my ridiculous idea for a costume wasn't that bad after all. This one is better than my last costume. Although, I still miss the old one.'

The vigilante stopped herself from losing herself in her thoughts and turned to Twilight, awkwardly trying to create a conversation, starting, "Sooo, how have you been?"

"Well, things have been... rough, to say the least. But I'm doing fine myself! Although, socializing is not a common thing for nerds in Crystal Prep, despite your humble opinion!"

"Sheesh, and I thought our guys were assholes! Wait... I didn't kick their dad's ass or anything, did I?"

"No, you didn't. They might be snobs, but they're not criminal material! Most of 'em, anyway."

"Heh, figures. Oh well, that's their loss."

Twilight smiled at her friend with appreciation. They had only known each other for two weeks, and not under the best circumstances. But they were warming up to each other nonetheless. Still, she didn't know who the lady behind the mask was.

Twilight, perked up suddenly remembering something unknown to Daredevil. Without further hesitation, she went and while she was looking for it, she exclaimed, "I made something else for you! Hope you like it!"

Daredevil, now turning her attention to her, asked, "What? I don't think I requested another suit or anything! You sure?"

"You didn't. It's a gift! And it's something I always wanted to see working." Twilight replied. A few moments later, she returned with what appeared to be a three foot long red stick.

Sunset was a bit surprised after seeing what was suddenly in her hand, so she asked, "Umm, thanks. But may I ask you what is this?"

Twilight, smiled as she heard the question and went into what Sunset creatively dubbed the 'Lecture Mode'

"This is a modified version of the weapons you used before - your batons. They were useful in combat, but they were pretty old-fashioned, in my opinion, and sort of limited in use. This beauty here is my latest gadget! This will be your signature weapon. As a specially designed baton - essentially a customised billy club - it is a multi-purpose weapon and tool that contains roughly 30 feet of a special steel cable connected to a case-hardened steel grappling hook. The weapon can also be adjusted to combine both sticks into an Eskrima sick. Most notably, it can be disguised as a cane, as I actually based it off of a blind man's cane. The weapon should fit into your current holster, though i may need to make adjustments. Of course, it can be used for several other uses as well, I'm sure you'll be able to experiment."

"i don't wanna question your intelligence or profession or anything like that, but why did you choose to turn it into a blind man's cane? I'm not blind, you know!" Daredevil interrupted, half demanding and half curious.

"Well, since I thought it would draw less attention if it was a blind person's cane, seeing how it can be tied together. People could get suspicious if someone were to walk the streets with a baseball bat, or even a stick! It was just something that came to my mind." Twilight responded.

Sunset was still a bit hesitant - Sure, it was handy thing and all, but was it really necessary? She would have said no before, but after fighting the Prince, she was sure she'd need an upgrade sooner or later. After a while, her mind came to one single conclusion: 'Take it.'

"Thanks. It is really cool-looking, by the way!" Daredevil said in a thankful tone.

"You're welcome! I owed you at least that! You can consider this an early Christmas gift, if you like!" Twilight responded.

'Huh! My very first Christmas gift!' Sunset thought, 'It isn't what you call a 'normal' gift, but it's still something!'

After another hour of chit-chat, Daredevil said she had to leave. She wanted to go to the second slumber party with the girls, and she didn't want to be late. Saying their goodbyes, Sunset decided to head straight for Rarity's boutique. She knew it was going to be fun.

And yet, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to go wrong.

'Well, paranoia's something you'll get when you go crime-fighting at night.' Sunset told herself, before starting to walk down the street.

By the time Sunset entered Rarity's boutique, everyone else was already there. She felt a bit embarrassed, seeing she was the last person to enter. But hey, she wasn't that late. The party was even better this time. They sang, they played games, all courtersy of Pinkie. But the best thing they did was taking some outrageous selfies.

With some funky clothes! Oh, how silly they looked in them.

There was tons of different costumes to try out. Apparently, Rarity had this "Closet of Shame" which she had the silliest clothes she made, or the ones that she thought were useless stuffed in. She donated the clothes from time to time, so they were lucky to get their hands on them.

However, there was one in particular, which made Sunset's face pale.

It was a Daredevil costume, though it wasn't the actual costume. It was... redder than hers, made of... Leather? Latex? Sunset wasn't sure. It also had a symbol on the left chest part. Two D's, interlocking together, just like her emblem. It was weird, but inspiring to Sunset. She decided to ask Rarity about it.

All she said was that it was just an inspiration that came to her mind, nothing more.

Sunset was relieved to hear that, though she didn't show it

After taking tons of selfies and doing some weird things with the clothes, they all agreed that they should call it a night. They were all seemingly tired, which was why they went sleep fast.

Sunset, on the other hand, was still awake. She was used to being awake in night, but even she was feeling tired. But first, she decided to write to Princess Twilight about her fun with the girls. She wrote;

Dear Twilight,
My second slumber party with the girls, and already I feel so much better. I haven't felt so loved, so accepted, in... Well... Ever! I feel like i finally have a home again. Without all of you to help and support me, I'd be...

'Insane? Dead? Locked in a cage for display in front of the town hall?' Sunset thought, but decided to let it go as she continued writing.

Well, you know what I would be! Anyway, I should get some sleep, I really shouldn't be up this late. But i wanted to let you know, before I do...
...That I love you all.

Your friend
Sunset Shimmer

Sunset finished writing. Then, she laid on the bad, closing her eyes as she thought about her life.

It was truly amazing.

Before she could ponder on that thought, however, she started to drift off to sleep, the time
"Friendship is Magic."

Sunset's POV

i was going to school while listening to my favorite playlist. It was cold outside, but I didn't mind. I've been in some tougher situations before. It wasn't that big of a deal.

Once you survived being unconscious, while also falling from a building straight into a dump, you can survive anything!

After the slumber party, I told the girls I had to go back to my place, to get my stuff. The real reason was that I had to dump my costume somewhere. It was a bit heavy to carry around in a freaking backpack, and it would definitely draw unwanted attention.

As I was making my way to the front doors of school, I noticed people on their phone, laughing at something. When I got close to some of them, they started looking at me in a weird way, like I did something funny.

It was... not that great.

When I entered the school, everyone suddenly stopped talking. That was odd, seeing how Canterlot High is always filled with sounds of chatter and sometimes even music. After I started walking in the halls, they started whispering. I didn't know what was it they were talking about, but thanks to my mutated hearing, I could hear them saying all sorts of hushed comments.

"Oh, they look so stupid!"

"I wonder how could she post the photos. Maybe it really is her!"

"Man, this Anon-a-miss sure knows how to strike!"

What the hell are they talking about? Did that "Anon-a-miss" do something again? Who was it this time?

I didn't like the feeling I was getting one bit!

As I was making my way to my locker, I could still hear the students whisper about the same thing. None of them told anything so I could make sense of stuff, so I decided to ignore them. When I saw the girls, i waved at them and said: "Hey girls! What's going... on?" I paused when i saw the looks on their faces.

They did not look happy! Something definitely happened, and it sure can't be good.

Applejack approached me, and with a doubtful look on her face, asked, "Sunset... have ya lost your phone recently?"

'Huh?'

i was caught off-guard. I was pretty sure I didn't, otherwise I'd notice. So, I answered the cowgirl's question with uncertainty, "No, It's right here. Why?"

"Then you gotta explain this!"

I took her phone and looked at it. It was showing MyStable. More importantly, it was Anon-a-miss.

I knew it!

Wait a minute... These look real familiar. They're...

...They're our pictures! At the slumber party last night! What the fuck!?

How did she knew about that? And more importantly, how did she get the freaking pictures?

I felt my heart skip a beat when I realized something else.

The pictures were from my phone!

This... This isn't right! I know I didn't lose my phone, and I'm sure as fuck I didn't tell anybody about them either!

Just like "Piggly wiggly"

People on the street called me the "Lady Without Fear" but at that specific moment, I was terrified of what was about to come!

And what they told me, only made me feel worse.

"What?!" I literally yelled, "How did she get our pictures?"

"They're not our pictures, Sunset... " Applejack exclaimed furiously.

".. They're yours!" Rainbow Dash finished her friend's sentence, with pure venom in her words.

"All those pictures were taken by you."

I was beyond confused at this point. Sure, my phone could have been hacked, but...

...Who would hack my phone, just to get some stupid pictures?

"Wait, but... I've had my phone all this time! How did she-" I told them, only to get cut off by a furious Applejack, "Yeah, how did she? How did she know about my nickname? How did she get the pictures from your phone? It was you all along! You're "Anon-a-miss"!"

Wait...

WHAT!?

No. There is literally no way in hell they would believe that! This can't be happening! I'm probably still sleep, having another nightmare. There's no Anon-a-miss. There's no argument actually happening. It's all a fucking dream!

But it felt so real.

"We trusted you, Sunset! We thought you were our friend!"

"How could you do this? After all we've been through together?"

Rarity's disappointed tone was worse than a thousand bullets. Same went for the others.

Why would they think that? I've been through a lot, too! I thought they believed that.

Was I wrong?

Out of desperation, I begged them, "No, wait, you guys!... I didn't do this! I could never hurt you! You know I couldn't_"

"But you did!" Pinkie Pie cut me off, half-sentence, "You must've just been pretending to be our friend, when all along you were after our secrets! You secret-stealer!"

I could no longer hold back the tears that were forming in my eyes. I didn't care about it at this point!

I just wanted them to believe me!

I just wanted my friends to believe me!

"No! NO! I don't know how she got this stuff, but it- it wasn't me, I swear! I'm not this person!"

After that, all I got was a slap from Fluttershy. She was crying when she told me this.

"No, you're not! You're not the person we thought you were! You're not our friend!"

I begged them. I hoped it would convince them.

Or I tried, and failed miserably.

"No, I... I am. I promise! I-" But Applejack cut me off before I could say anything else.

"This is it, Sunset. You're not gonna take advantage of us anymore.

I'm sorry, but you did this to us. Tell whatever secrets you want...

... But we won't have to listen"

No!

No, no, no, no, no, no, no!

NO!

They can't just walk away like that! They didn't even listen to me!

Why?

I pleaded them, begged them to listen, but they ignored me. They had hurt in their eyes.

But I had more.

I fell to my knees, and started crying loudly. Never in my life, I felt so hopeless. Not when my dad died. Not when my mot- Celestia cast me out.

This time, I was truly alone, with no support.

I cried, and cried, until I thought I would pass out.

But I didn't. It wasn't enough.

It never was.

The next few days were hell for Sunset Shimmer. She lost her reputation. Everyone's trust. Her friends.

Her family.

She couldn't take it. After all this time, she thought she found a second chance. She found friends; something she didn't have for most of her life. She learned the magic of friendship, didn't she?

She thought she did.

But that was all gone now. And she found something she thought, even prayed, would never come again.

Loneliness.

Loneliness was the reason she became an arrogant bitch. Loneliness was the reason she was thirsty for revenge for three years!

And yet, it was here, again, threatening to take her sanity away. Right now, she was making her way to the church. She really could use a confession right now. About a year after she entered this world, she learned about religions. Back in Equestria, everypony would praise Celestia, because she was the almighty alicorn that raised the sun and the moon. She was also the immortal ruler of Equestria, so there was no wonder ponies would consider her a god-like figure.

This world, however... didn't have someone like that. But most of its residents believed in a higher power. The one who created everything, and gave every creature life.

God.

Apparently, Canterlot city was more of a Christianity fan. Since it was fairly common, so Sunset decided to look into it, and she found herself getting more and more into it.

Until she met a certain person that made her truly a believer.

Father Light.

He was always warm and welcoming to everyone. Even Sunset, despite her past and her actions. He really was like a good friend, if not a father figure.

As she entered the church, he noticed that not a lot of people were there today. It wasn't odd, seeing that people would want to spend more time with their families, rather than being in a church. Sunset would have been like them, if...

...If only she had a family.

She sat on one of the tables that was there, shivering from the cold. She did want to tell the Father about all the fun she had, and the progress she made. He was always happy to hear it.

Sunset didn't want to tell him about the recent events that happened in , but she was sure Father Light would be comforting, as always.

She waited for a while. After a few minutes, she could hear the familiar sound of footsteps.

It was him.

"Oh, you are here! I was surprised to see you here again in Christmas! i thought you were having fun with your friends!" he exclaimed.

Sunset, with whatever force she could find, put on a smile and told him, "Good to see you again, too, Father."

Light sat beside the redheaded girl.

"So, what brings you here? I suppose it's not about another evil crime lord. And it sure is nice not to hear from him for a while!"

"No, it isn't. It's a bit more... complicated, than that"

Father Light finally noticed something was not right with the girl. The last time he saw her like this was...

...well, after that incident at the 'Fall Formal'.

She wore a blank expression on her face, but he could see her bloodshot eyes, and the dried tears on her face screamed that she had cried for quite some time. That was more than enough reason for concern.

"My daughter, something has happened, hasn't it? Tell me, what's been bothering you?"

Sunset, however, just stared in front of her, unmoving. How could she tell? It was too painful.

"It's just... my friends, father. They... they left me!"

Father Light remained silent, allowing the girl to explain everything.

And she told him everything: Anon-a-miss. Her friends leaving her. The bullying.

And how helpless she was.

"i know that I've been an ungrateful bitch before, but does it mean that i can't have a second chance? To live a normal life, with friends? With a family?"

Father Light stood silent for some time. He considered the girl's state, and his words. He then spoke, "People can be... harsh to one another when it comes to mistakes. In your case, past. Not everyone is forgiving like god. God forgave you, and let you have another chance, as he always does with people who seek redemption, and forgiveness. Therefore, you are forgiven by god, so that is more than enough.

"But redemption is not always easy. You have to earn everyone's trust. Their forgiveness. If you're sincere about your apology, then you can be sure they will understand, and some will even help you along the way. Some people will hold a grudge against you, no matter what you try. They won't care about what you have to say, or how willing you are to right your wrongs. They'll only care about themselves, and how hurt they were.

"With people like these, sometimes, the only sane way might be to just let go. Stop trying. You'll never be able to get them to listen to you, so why should you bother? But you shouldn't let them discourage you. You should keep trying, and go to people who believe you. You can't force them to forgive you, no matter how stupid they are behaving. Remember, god will deal with them. However, based on what you just told me, I find it rather upsetting, that even the first option didn't work as it should have. It is simply quite childish, in my opinion; to hold a grudge for so long, even after you got to know the person more. But since you had the reputation for being the bad girl, you became an easy target.

"So here's my advice: Try again. They will, eventually, listen to you, even if that is going to take some time. Also, look for others that believe you. I'm sure not everyone believes you are the culprit. You did mention you had another friend, am I correct?"

Sunset nodded. Then suddenly, she got up from her seat and told her companion, "That... thank you father! That actually gave me an idea!"

Father Light, who could only stare at the girl's sudden change of attitude, slowly gave her a thankful nod.

"Just... be careful out there, my child! I take that the teens can be quite... cruel to your state in the present."

Sunset said her prayers before she got out of the church. She waved the priest goodbye before that.

For now, she had a suspect.

And she needed her to talk.

Trixie Lulamoon was in front of her locker, when suddenly, someone tapped on her shoulder.

Trixie groaned and responded with,"What do you want from the great and powerful Trixie now?"

"Hello, Trixie!"

The harsh tone made it clear that she meant business. And Sunset Shimmer was far from friendly at this point.

Trixie, however, was rather amused by the latter's attitude. "Ah, miss Sunset. How are you, dear? I'm pretty sure you had your fair share of fun with your friends?"

Sunset Shimmer, who was suppressing the urge to punch the selfish bastard in the face, only responded, Save it, Trixie. i know what you're doing!"

Trixie took on a look of curiosity, so she asked, "Oh, prey tell!"

"You're Anon-a-miss, aren't you?"

Sunset expected the girl's face to pale, or to quickly deny it. She was expecting a sign to give away that she was her tormentor.

What Sunset didn't expect was that the girl in front of her, suddenly start laughing.

"Ha, I wish! She stirred up this school more than Trixie ever could! Whoever she is, I'd like to thank her!"

Sunset felt something snap inside of her. If it wasn'tmotherfucking Trixie, then who else would want to ruin Sunset so badly? Cautiously, she asked Trixie, "So... you don't know who she is, do you?"

"Why, I assumed it was you! You tricked your friends, stole their secrets, and posted them for all to see!" As she walked past her, she finished her stupid rambling. "I couldn't have done it any better!"

And when she left, she left a hopeless Sunset Shimmer behind.

"Sunshit Shitter!"

"Go back to your world, bitch!"

"Stop posting my secrets, you whore!"

"Way to go, Anon-a-miss!"

"She-demon"

These were the kind words that Sunset's been hearing for the last two days. They were brutal, they were unpleasant, but worst of all, they were there.

In just a few days, she lost everyone she ever loved. In a few days, all the friendships, the hard work, and forgiveness she had worked to earn was gone with a press of a button.

'At least I have some Twilight's left,' Sunset thought, 'though none of them can really help me with my problem. Plus, let's face it, I brought it upon myself.'

She told Princess Twilight about most of the stuff that happened. Though, she didn't mention the hateful words and all the shoving she got from the students.

What was her response? A lecture about the possibility of Windigos being here, in this world. Also finding your family, which Sunset didn't have one, at the moment.

"Stay strong." How much stronger she could get? She would break at some point!

"Remember who you are." That was exactly the problem to begin with. Her past completely fucked up her present!

"Find your family." Again, it didn't do her any good! Now that she thought about it, she was starting to question all the time she spent with the girls. Was it ever real?

There was a sound, however, that made her stop her internal monologing. As she tried to block out the annoying thoughts inside her head and concentrate, she could hear a couple arguing about something.

"So, you think you can cheat on me and walk away with it?" The man told his girlfriend.

"I didn't cheat on you! Why do you think so badly that I did?" The woman responded, afraid.

"Then who the fuck was that guy, huh? Who was the fucker that just walked out of your apartment?"

"He was just a friend, for fuck's sake! He came there to help me with my-"

"i don't care about why he came there. All I care about is that he was in there for too long, and when he came out, he had this goofy grin on his stupid face! You think I'm an idiot?"

Sunset could hear them briefly. She didn't know why, but she had a feeling that this was not going to end well. So she jumped on the building closest to them.

"I don't know why he was like that! We were just friends, but you're acting so bitchy about it."

She wasn't lying. Her normal heartbeat showed it clearly.

"Ha, and I would fall for that like a stupid kid! I know you're lying, and when you lie to me and cheat on me at the same time..."

Sunset listened in horror as she heard the sound of a knife coming out of his pockets.

"You're gonna regret it, bitch!"

And that was her cue.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHH, FUCK!" The man screamed in pain as the billy club hit his hand hard. While not tearing through his flesh like a throwing knife would do, it still had enough force to make his hand bleed.

And make him scream like a bitch.

Twilight did good work.

"What the fuck, man!? I-I-I thought you'd only beat up scums!"

Daredevil only responded with a, "You didn't count yourself, did you? Wanting to kill this woman when she didn't do anything wrong is a pretty shady thing in my opinion"

"You- You stay from this! It's not your FUCKING BUSINESS! She's my girlfriend, and I do whatever the fuck I WANT to do with her!"

"SHUT UP! You think you own her? You think she's a pet? She didn't even do anything! I sensed it. What made you suspect that in the first place?" Daredevil shot back, already losing her patience with the man.

"Heh, just look at the long line of exes she left behind! She must've been a whore to drive them away like this! She-"

But he didn't get to say anything, as seconds later, he was met with a bone-crushing blow to his jaw. Daredevil could feel the blood that spilled on her hands. The sound of his jaw breaking after the impact, echoed in her mind.

Another person being misjudged by their past.

Another person nearly dying because of everyone's carelessness.

Another person paying the price because nobody could turn a blind eye.

And suddenly, something snapped inside of her.

All the anger, the frustration, the sadness that was eating her from the inside. All the emotions that were forgotten and left ignored.

Her own rage.

Her hopelessness.

Her helplessness.

And she took all of it out on the bastard in front of her.

She started punching, and kicking the man repeatedly. Every hit becoming stronger than the last one.

"You secret-stealer!"

"Way to go!"

"Too many secrets."

"Traitor"

"How could she?"

She could feel her knuckles, starting to bleed. They were already sore, but she didn't care.

She didn't notice, because she was too lost in her beatdown.

"Thief!"

"Spill all the secrets."

"What kind of monster would do this!?"

"She caused my breakup."

"Can't believe she's getting away with it!"

"How can you do this?"

Sunset was hurt. And she needed to kill someone to calm herself.

"You're not our friend!"

She could still feel the pain from when Fluttershy had slapped her.

"You bitch!"

"Go back to your world, whore!"

"Motherfucker!"

"Go die in a ditch!"

"Just die already!"

"Monster!"

"She-demon!"

"Anon-a-miss!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Please stop! Y-You're killing him-m! STOP!" the woman shouted, terrified of her savior's brutal takedown.

Sunset finally stopped. She stopped and looked at the man who was unconscious on the ground. He was bruised and nearly beaten to death.

By her.

She could feel his breathing was much slower. His face...

She wasn't thinking straight. She could have killed him! She never thought of killing another person before! It just wasn't right!

She hadn't even realized the tears that were streaming down her face, mixing with the dried tears from before.

She hated herself right now, but more importantly...

...She hated this world.

She looked at the woman she just saved. But the look in her eyes... it wasn't thankful...

...It was afraid. Of her.

She couldn't be there anymore. She couldn't risk being caught by the cops again. So she ran. She didn't know where she was going, but she still ran.

And ran.

And ran 'till her lungs gave out.

She was so tired, she had to duck inside an alleyway. After she made sure no one was there, she collapsed on the ground, and she started crying again. She didn't have the chance to live a normal life. She didn't deserve a normal life.

Not that she could ever be normal.

So she cried.

And cried until she heard footsteps.

And she saw her.

Author's Note

Darkiplier1383: Hello everyone! Thanks for reading the story! This is the rewrite of the original story, with a few major changes here and there! This chapter (or the next two chapters, presumably) might be familiar. That's because they kinda are! But don't worry! Things are going to be new pretty soon! Bye for now!

P.S. I suck at A/N's. Sorry!

Co-author/editor/proofreader's note:
As a warning, there's going to be a lot of mental conversations. I think both of us plan for 'the voice' to actually play a somewhat significant role, if not a physical one.
Let us know if it gets a little too annoying. Feedback makes the world go round!

While I try to get as many as Dark's errors as possible, I still do miss a few, so do point them out.
It should also be noted that it is physically impossible for me to write first person, so that area is more likely to be lower quality than others.

Chapter 2: The Ones We Love

Trixie Lulamoon was frozen in place. She stood in shock and disbelief as she examined the figure in front of her. There she was - the devil of Hell's Kitchen. The lady without fear.

Daredevil.

Unmasked.

They were both looking at each other, stunned. Neither expected to see the other like this.

Finding Sunset Shimmer, of all people, with teary eyes and the local vigilante's outfit was... really unexpected.

The 'Great And Powerful' Trixie still could not believe the sight in front of her. It wasn't true, nor it was real. She was just seeing things. maybe it was the guilt finally coming to her. The alcohol, maybe. She already felt a little bad for humiliating her before.

But this? This changed it. It changed everything.

All she could feel now was... confusion? Anger? Hatred? Guilt? Sorrow? Betrayal?

Excitement?

All of them?

"...Y-You're not real, a-are you? You're just in m-my head, r-right? You can't be her!" She mumbled weakly.

Daredevil only had one thing to say to her intruder before she disappeared in the dark.

"No."

A Few Hours Earlier

Alcohol was not something Sunset Shimmer indulged in often. For someone like her, becoming drunk could be very dangerous, but here she was, staring at a glass of cider anyway. The bar she was in wasn't of the greatest quality, but it was one she occasionally visited and was therefore familiar with. It was also fairly quiet, a perfect place for someone to try and forget their recent woes for a short while.

Sunset swirled the liquid around in the glass, before taking a short gulp of the drink, letting it burn her throat. Sighing, she pushed the cider away, unwilling to have anymore, and the bartender asked if she was finished, which she instantly denied. Just like the past dozen times he asked.

Footsteps sounded behind her, and then a familiar giggle, prompting her to groan, and irritatedly called, "Fuck off Trixie."

A sigh, and someone came to sit next to Sunset, revealing the blue girl she had argued with not a day before. Waving off a look from the bartender, Trixie slumped on her stool, completely ignoring the other girl for now. Sunset, on the other hand, was strongly resisting the urge to lash out and push Trixie away, and instead took another swig of her cider, drowning her internal conflict.

'Y'know, this isn't helping anyone.'

'Shut up.'

'Particularly us.'

'Shut up.'

'I mean, you're trying to forget something that'll still be there the next day. Not to mention who's next to-'

"I said, shut up."

"What?"

Sunset blinked - had she been saying that out loud?

'Gotcha.'

'Goddammit.'

"... Nevermind."

Trixie turned away, but her curious expression didn't fade, instead commenting, "I never thought you were behind that account, you know."

In reply, Sunset simply took a quick sip of her cider, without much indication she was listening, and so Trixie continued, "I respected you. for your confidence. Me, as a person? I just doesn't have that kind of will to just be that confident. I could never just talk back to someone with such ease. I would just have to take it." She glanced at the other girl, stating, "You grew soft."

"I respected you too." Sunset suddenly said, still staring into her nearly empty glass. "For your ambitions. It's not something I was jealous of, but it was impressive. Not many can continually have the drive to do that." Snorting, she added, "Shame you were blind to your pride. Though I suppose I can't blame you too much. I didn't really have such abusive parents."

Almost immediately, Trixie waved the bartender over, ordering the same cider Sunset had. Once she had got it, and gulped down most of the glass, she turned to Sunset with a weary look, asking, "How'd you know?"

"I was desperate for information when I first started. Just happened to come across your house." She finished the glass of cider, allowing the barkeep to take it away, before asking, "Who do you think that account is?"

"Not you. This is done by an amateur, compared to your days, anyway. I'm no fool. That's a blatant framing job." She momentarily coughed, concluding, "Could be anyone in that blasted school."

"You want something from me. What is it?"

"...Nothing."

'Well, that's just bullshit.'

'Agreed. For once.'

At Sunset's incredulous look, Trixie sighed, admitting, "Alright. I don't want anything from you... You heard of Daredevil?"

Concealing what would normally be a nervous answer, she replied, "What about her?"

"I... might have a small obsession with her." At the ensuing silence, Trixie continued, "She's the reason I don't have to deal with my parents anymore."

'Huh. Look at that. She actually cared about who saved her.'

'Didn't I tell you to shut up?'

"What's that gotta do with me?"

"Nothing, I guess. Nice to talk to someone for once."

All in all, it had been a rather eventful drink for Sunset. She wasn't entirely sure what to make of Trixie's change in attitude, so instead of coming to a conclusion, she stood up, paying for her drink. "Thanks for the talk. See you later."

She hurriedly exited, leaving Trixie alone with her drink, and questions unanswered.

'Why did you run off like that?'

'I... don't wanna talk about it.'

'Of course you don't. I'll have to find it myself, then.'

Sunset's eyes widened in shock, and she whispered, "Don't you dare!"

'Honey, I'm Daredevil! Of course I do!'

Sunset wanted to argue, but merely sighed and gave up. She knew it was pointless, and the cider was already affecting her. For the meantime, she decided to leave the argument there and go along with whatever it was doing.

'Fine! What do you wanna know?'

'First of all, why the fuck did you run off like that? The girl just came there and admitted that she believes you're not Anon-a-miss. Not only that, but she also said she had a thing for you! You should've been at least a little... happy or something. Instead, you just freaked out! what the hell?'

'What else was I supposed to do? Just so you know, everyone in CHS want to get rid of me! If I befriended her, she'd be a target too! Not to mention, she didn't even admit she actually supported me!'

'Oh, don't play the hero for me now! That has nothing to do with this!' The voice then paused and asked, 'You... you liked her too, didn't you?'

Sunset felt her heart skip a beat at the comment.

'How did you get that idea?'

'Well, you weren't really good at hiding it, soooo...'

'You know what? This conversation is officially over! Now please, just shut up so I can get patrolling!'

'Fine, but we'll discuss this later.' Its voice seemed to vanish with a little giggle.

'I don't think so.'

Present Time

Sunset Shimmer was heading to the Sugarcube Corner, in search of her former friends. She was going to try one last thing, and hopefully, it would work.

Meanwhile, she couldn't help but think about what exactly happened last night.

'I totally lost it last night! I could have killed that guy!' Sunset thought, shivering while doing so.

'Oh, and that would have been wonderful! He deserved it anyway.' A far too familiar voice in her head responded.

'Shut up! I don't kill criminals, because it's not the right thing to do.''

'But you do leave them bleeding on the street.'

'It's still better than outright murdering them! I just let the cops handle it from there.'

'And that's gonna get us both in trouble someday. But apart from that... you're just gonna pretend that you didn't see that trickster bitch? You know, from what I remember, you didn't have that oh-so-scary cowl of yours attached to your head, did you? And I'm pretty sure she wasn't just in your mind. Believe me, I would've known...'

That caught Sunset's attention. Honestly, she'd been thinking about it as well, and it was worrying. She was sure that everything that happened was real, but she didn't know if the other girl believed what she saw. and that girl was Trixie, of all people. Sunset really didn't know how to think about that, especially given what she had said to her not too long ago. She didn't explicitly say she had hated her, as if it was all a result of her pride, but she didn't say the opposite either. hopefully she had just blamed it on the alcohol. But if she told everyone just for the sake of her reputation...

That would be... not cool, to say the least.

"So, what do you suggest, genius? Should I go kill her so she can't tell anyone? Or should I hang her from a roof, making her swear she wouldn't tell anybody a word about it?" Sunset told her, half-sarcastically.

'Maybe. But you should make her keep quiet, one way or another.'

Sunset decided to just deal with it another time - she had priorities. As she got closer to Sugarcube Corner, she examined the sad sight in front of her. There they were, the Rainbooms, all sitting on the same table they usually were sat. Sunset nearly panicked as she saw her ex-friends. They lacked... well, whatever made them, them; Happiness, energy, hope.

'Well, it's now or never I guess', Sunset told herself. She let out a shaky sigh, but she decided to go in anyways. So, she gathered up all the courage she could find, and walked into the shop.

As soon as she entered the place, she was greeted by a certain Rainbow-haired teen.

"Hey! Get out!" Rainbow Dash yelled at the newcomer, with pure venom in her words, standing up form her seat.

'Well that's just rude. Not unexpected though.'

Blocking out her mental companion, Sunset sighed, and tried to speak. However, applejack decided against it, interrupting her before she even began. "Yer not welcome here, Sunset!"

Sunset tried once again, beginning, "L-look, I know everyone here is upset with me. Heck, I bet Rainbow Dash wants to put me in a grave right now! But I swear to God, i'm not Anon-a-miss! I have proof! Look!"

She then handed her journal over to them, and they started to read it. The letters she wrote to Twilight about Anon-a-miss, of course. Not the more... private stuff.

At first, everything seemed to be in slow motion. She could hear the ticks and tocks of the shop's clock; time seemed to have slowed down for a decent amount. Each second passed like it was a day. she could feel the tension in the air - it was all one big stress inducing event for Sunset Shimmer, who was watching the scene with a growing nervousness.

As for the girl's side, they were simply reading the journal. Their facial expressions shifted from anger, to indifference, to confusion, and finally, hesitance.

There was silence for a good five minutes, but Sunset, finally feeling some calmness, knew that everything was going to be fin-

"You bitch!"

That... was unexpected.

"W-What!? What do you-"

"You even tricked Princess Twilight! You forced her to believe you! Who do you think we are?" Rainbow Dash shouted at Sunset.

Sunset was stunned. She felt her world come crashing down at her. She lost. It was over for her.

Nothing to convince them.

Nothing to make them belie-

And that was when she felt something else. Something more than desperation. More than sadness, more than sorrow.

Anger.

A feeling that she knew was mutual, thanks to her friends.

But when Fluttershy said, "Please, Sunset! Stop doing this! I promise, if you stop, and confess to being Anon-a-miss, we might be able to forgive you. We might even be friends again-"

"FUCK YOU!"

"Pardon?!" Rarity responded, with shock.

Sunset visually snapped, a twitch in her eye as she began to angrily pace in front of the table. "You held a grudge on me for, how long it's been, a year? You've been lying to my face about being my friend, so much for my family! I've been through hell over these past few days! I've been shoved in the hallways! I've been blackmailed! I've had to endure all the insults they threw at me! And the thing is, you bastards weren't even there to see it! You were so caught up with your own stupidity, that you completely forgot about another friend that you had! You didn't give me the benefit of the FUCKING DOUBT! Not when I was crying my eyes out in front of you! Not when I was being bullied by your so-called wondercolts!

"And all of it was for something I didn't even do." she stopped pacing, spinning around to face her ex-friends, fixing them with an angry glare. "We weren't even friends, were we? You never believed that I was reformed, did you? You always thought that I was a monster, waiting to come out and strike? You thought all you were doing was keeping the monster at bay? That you were the heroes of the story?! well, guess what?! You fucking aren't!

"I always thought that you were some sort of saints! I always viewed you as the people who wouldn't turn their backs on a friend in need. Instead, you showed you are nothing more than a bunch of hypocrites who think they can play God with me, just because you're a rip-off of the actual Elements of Harmony!"

Applejack could only respond with a straight 'go to hell' tone, exclaiming, "Now look who's talkin'! You really should know your place, Shimmer! You're gonna be sorry about that one day!

Sunset let out a dry chuckle, and hysterically replied her, "Or what? You're gonna start becoming a bitch like everybody else? Sorry, too late for that shit!"

That did it. Rainbow Dash jumped out from her seat and immediately reared up a punch aimed for the other girl's face.

Unfazed by the attack, Sunset simply dodged the comparatively weak blow and before the multi-colored girl could try anything else, grabbed her by the wrist, twisting it.

The entire shop, who had been listening or watching the heating argument, could hear the pain filled scream Dash let out, the sickening crunch of broken bone still audible over the yells of agony.

She held Rainbow by the broken arm, ignoring the athlete's cries of pain, and started to make her statement, "Not so tough now that you're facing the so-called 'problem' directly, are you? anyways, here's what's gonna happen, since no one's actually doing any about it! I'm gonna find the bastards who calls themselves Anon-a-miss, take them confess in front of the whole school, and get rid of this problem as soon as possible. Then, I'm gonna enjoy seeing all you motherfucker's begging me to forgive me, just like I did after the Fall Formal!"

Letting go of Rainbow, the girl fell down on her knees, grunting as she tried to examine her broken arm. The other girls rushed to her side, trying to help their friend, Sunset meanwhile simply turned her back on them and then strode out of the shop, ignoring the various stares she was getting. Checking the journal was not damaged from when it was carelessly thrown in the corner.

After walking for some time, and making sure she was out of sight, she collapsed, and she started crying.

She could deal with other things later. Right now, she just needed to cry.

"Sooooo... how do you feel? I mean, you're gonna go on your first mission today. That's something!"

"Yeah, that is a big deal! But I don't know what it actually is! What the hell am I even gonna do?"

"Relax! You'll figure it out! That, or they're gonna tell you at some point!"

The two individuals both shared a laugh, amused by their conversation, before they both similtaneously shook their heads and caught their breath

Things have been going well for Sour Sweet. She'd been doing great in school, while also being praised by her fellow teammates and her supervisors. She was going to go on her very first mission, and if she was successful, she would become an official FBI agent! She also had Sunny Flare on her side as well, who was being supportive and more than helpful. She was the best friend anyone could have, and Sour Sweet couldn't believe her luck in finding that person.

Overall, she was on the top of her game! Life couldn't get any better!

That is, until what happened this morning.

And that was enough for her mood to change in seconds.

Sunny Flare noticed the deep frown on her face, and decided to half-rhetorically ask, "Okay... I see Miss Sweet is feeling a little under the weather today. What in the world could've made her this uncomfortable?"

No response came from Sour Sweet, who was mentally cursing herself for letting it show, internally scowling. Sunny only grew more worried after the uncomfortable silence, asking for another time, "Hey! What is it? Did I say something? Or was it something that happened in school? Just tell me, okay? I promise, I won't act like an idiot!

Sour Sweet opened her mouth to speak, but found herself unable to do so.

'How should I tell her?' She thought, "How can I tell her? I literally just witnessed her mom, giving me an offer from some goddamned crimelords, to work for them. Everyone knows that Cinch is a bitch! Even Sunny Flare admits it! But this? This sinks her down into a whole new level! Who the hell would've thought she'd really turn up as a criminal? Oh, that sucks! That really really sucks! I can't just arrest my crush's mom, even if it's my mission!

'But the worst part is gonna be Sunny Flare's reaction! How am I gonna tell her that I got an offer from her mom, who I just discovered is actually doing illegal shit behind everyone's back, to go and become a freaking criminal myself!? She'd either think it's a joke, or I'm trying to ruin the picture of her mother by accusing her, or make her worried and terrified. Either way, it will force her to grow her distant from me! I don't want that! I don't want that at all! I haven't even told her about how I really feel...'

Finally finishing her internal rant, Sour was filled with doubt and hesitation, before finally coming to a descision, starting, "Ummm... Look! I don't wanna make you worried or anything, but... there's something I need to tell you about. Something that happened to me in school, in the morning. you know, when Cinch called?"

Sunny Flare looked confused for a moment, before gaining a curious expression and responding in a matching tone, "Yeah, I remember that! You still haven't told me what happened, though!

"Well, I didn't wanna tell you because it wasn't something pleasant! You see, when I went there, Cinch was there, with two other dudes. She said that these guys wanted to talk, and left the room. After i sat down, they started talking. At first, it didn't seem like they were doing anything bad! But they revealed to me that they wanted me to work for them, and that meant I had to go and threaten some of their rivals. I dunno if they were a gang or something, but that did it! I stood up, and told them if they don't leave, I will call the cops on them! They got scared and left! Bastards thought they could get away with it! After that, Cinch came in, and asked how did it went? She was clueless, but I lied and said that they changed their minds and left. that's the whole story!"

Sour Sweet knew she was bluffing, but it was necessary. She didn't want her best friend to leave her, or find out that her mom had a double life as a criminal.

Sunny Flare was shocked, as expected, but managed to keep cool and told her, "Oh my God! are you ok!? Did they hurt my mom!? Tell me, please!

"Yeah, I'm okay, don't worry about me! They wouldn't be able to lay a single finger on me! I'm a FBI agent! I'm tougher than those wimps!

Her friend was still not convinced, but chuckled to that nonetheless, as Sour pulled her into a heartfelt hug, continuing, "And no! You're mom was not harmed in any way! She didn't know anything about their true intentions, and it's best that way! She doesn't want to know that a couple of thugs came into her school so easily, because reputation!

"Are you telling me the truth?"

"Huh?"

"I need you to swear that you're not lying about this! You promised not to lie to me, remember?"

"I- yeah, I remember. And I swear to God, I'm telling you the truth."

"You have to promise me that!"

"What!? That's bullshit! I can't do tha-"

"Do it, or it means you're lying!

Sour Sweet sighed. She just wanted to protect her, but now she ended up in an awkward situation.

'The lengths I go for this girl...' Sour Sweet told herself.

"Okay, okay. I promise! Cross my heart and hope to die and all of that! I promise I'm not lying."

Now, it was Sunny Flare's turn to sigh, presumably in thought. But when she looked up to her, it was clear that she was at least a little bit more convinced, responding, "Well, I guess you're right! I shouldn't worry about it too much! There are some shady people that come to Crystal prep!"

Sour Sweet smiled, and told her, "What did I tell ya? Now, let's go and get something to eat! I'm starving here! You mustn't keep a special agent this vulnerable! That's a crime!"

Sunny Flare smirked at that, and replied, "Oh! And how is that a crime?

"It is if I say it is!"

They laughed and started walking to their destination, and along the way, Sunny Flare asked, "Sour?"

"Yeeesss?"

"You know you're my best friend, right?"

Sour Sweet didn't know exactly why, but she was a bit saddened by that comment. Nevertheless, she answered, "Yeah, Flare! Why do you ask?"

"Nothing! Just wanted to strengthen our bond, that's all!"

When their talk was done, Sour Sweet couldn't help but wonder how the rest of the day would go. Hopefully, it would go fine, just like every day she had had with Sunny.

"Alright, everyone! Thank you so much for coming. Hope you had a great time."

Grubber was exhausted. This birthday party for his son was really tiring to prepare. And when you add his recent problems...

'No, Grubber! You have to be strong! Your son looks up to you! You don't wanna let him down! You'll figure something out!' Grubber told himself.

After he escorted all the guests out from the house, he threw himself on the couch, and let out a relieved sigh. It had been a long day.

His son, Night Fury, saw this, and naturally started to laugh out loud.

"Hey! who're you laughin' at!? I'm literally gonna die from exhaustion, and my son, my own flesh and blood, decides to laugh at my misery? Oh, what a cruel fate!" Grubber said mockingly.

"C'mon, Dad! It's hilarious! And you sound like a kid right now!" Night Fury responded, still giggling as he did so.

"Hmph. Wait 'til you become a dad! I'd love to see how you would do!"

"Sure! But I don't think I'd be better than you, Dad! You're the best dad anyone could ask for!"

"Thanks, buddy! I really needed that. You're a great son, too!"

After that, Grubber decided to get up from his trustworthy couch and clean up the mess. But when he saw the amount of cleaning he had to do, and the dishes he had to wash, he reconsidered his options; 'Nah, I'll do it tomorrow! If there's any tomorrow for me!'

He watched the clock, and he suddenly realized it was too late for his son to be up. So he looked at him and said,"Alright, little fella! Time for you to go to bed! It's way past your bedtime!

"Ah, come on! Can't i stay up a little more? Please, please, please, please, please?" Night Fury whined, while also trying to make the infamous puppy dog eyes..

Grubber noticed, and told him, "Oh, no you don't! That stopped working on me when you were 8!"

His son pouted, but followed the orders that was given to him, and as he walked up the stairs, he called, "Thanks dad! For the party and everything!"

Grubber turned his face to him and responded with a smile, "You're welcome, son. You deserved it! Plus, you don't turn 11 years old everyday!"

Night Fury giggled again, and waved. "Goodnight, dad!"

"G'night, son!"

After Grubber saw his son went to his room, he sighed and started walking around the house. As he was walking, he looked at the pictures that wer placed on the walls. Each one of them were a reminder of the past. He decide to look at he family photos, just to be reminded of all the good times he had with his son.

There was one particular picture, however, that caught his attention real soon. Grubber picked it up and stared at it.

It was a family photo, but this time, it was different. Instead of having only Grubber and Night Fury, it had another person in it as well.

Her.

He grabbed the picture and examined it; the picture was ancient from Grubber's point of view. It was taken after Night Fury had been born. It showed a newly born and sleeping Night Fury, who had been covered with blankets. Although, you could see his black-skinned and strings of black hair with light shades of grey.

Just like his father, only slightly different in comparison.

Grubber let out a shaky sigh, and thought, 'I wish you were here, Liz! We all miss you so much! But I don't know what to do anymore! I always had you on my back, reassuring me that everything will be fine. That things will look up to you eventually. But they didn't! Nowadays, it's like everything and everyone is against me! they won't let me do anything important! I'm always the one who gets left behind!'

'Do you know how hard it is? For me to look to my son in the face, and lying to him? Telling him that everything's fine? Filling him with false hopes and dreams? It tears me apart, Liz! it really does! I don't wanna lie to him anymore! I don't wanna ruin his picture of me! I wanna be the dad he's proud of having! The badass FBI agent who goes after the bad guys and saves people! Not a loser who can't even get a simple mission to do!'

'I'll see what I can do tomorrow. I'm gonna go talk to Stellar Flare, and hopefully, she'll finally give me a case to work on. Maybe if I insist, she'll let me continue my work on Blueblood's case. I don't think I'll get anything out of it, though. The bastard kept his fucking mouth shut for the past two months!'

He put the picture down and decided to go up and get sleep. He walked to his room, but suddenly stopped before he could enter, mentally reminding himself, 'Oh, right! Night Fury!'

He made his way towards his son's room, trying not to make too much noise. he slowly but gently opened the door, and walked to his bed. He smiled when he saw that his son had fallen sleep for quite some time, and he gently stroked Night's hair, and kissed him on the forehead, saying, "Please forgive daddy! I promise, I'll do whatever I can to keep you happy like this."

Then, he simply went back to his room, closed the door, and gently crawled into his bed. As he tried to sleep, he thought about what he had to do tomorrow. Aside from having an unpleasant conversation with Stellar, he had other things to do as well. he had to get ready for another training session with Sour Sweet.

Grubber though she was quite a nice girl, most of the time anyway, and she was always fun to train with. She was like a little sister to him, and he appreciated her company as much as she did.

'Tomorrow is another day, I guess.' Grubber thought, before yawning, finally drifting off to sleep

"What!? That's nonsense!"

"I understand your anger, Agent Grubber. But in no circumstances I can allow you to continue doing this case!"

"Why the hell not?!"

"Grubber, please calm down! You have to understand!"

"Understand what, Flare!? My performance review has been differed twice now! And when I ask you to move it up, all you do is denying it! You're literally denying me the advancement opportunities and possible promotions that I rankfully earned! And you know what the great part about it is? It's not anybody else that is doing it, It's you! Why the hell are you of all people doing this to me, I wish I knew!"

"What are you implying here, Grubber?"

"That maybe I should file a complaint with the EEO! I'm sure they will take this more seriously than you!"

Stellar Flare sighed; she had been dreading this conversation, especially because it was with her friend. But she had to make the right call. And she needed to show him that as well, and so she started talking. "You're right. You're performance reviews have been delayed, but not for the reasons you think, or whatever bullshit I fed you over the time. The real reason for that is because I'm trying to protect you!

Grubber took on a look of confusion, so he asked,"Protect me? From what, getting paid?"

"No, because, to put it simply, you're buried in debt! And it's the company's policy to not promote someone with that level of financial problems! So, you have to either fix this, or give it up! I'm sorry, Grubber! I really am! But in this case, I can't do anything! I wish I could, but... I can't!"

Grubber was frustrated at this point, but decided to pull out what he believed to be his metaphorical ace in the hole. "What about the Prince? Can't I just, you know, continue his case?"

Stellar Flare argued, "I don't know, Grubber. We've been on this guy for months, and he won't give us anything useful. It's practically a dead end!"

Grubber didn't give up, retorting, "What if I can make him talk?"

"Pardon?"

"What if I can make things different? I was an expert in interrogation, so why not?"

Sighing, Flare hesitantly continued, admitting,"Look, I'm still not so sure about this. But I suppose there's no harm in trying!"

'And failing again.' She dryly thought.

"Thank you! I-I'll do whatever I can! I will make him talk! Promise!"

"I hope so, Grubber! I hope so..."

About an hour later, he was in the special room that was designed for the more dangerous inmates to be interrogated. He was sitting in a chair, thinking about his decision.

'Holy shit!' He internally swore, asking himself, 'What the fuck was I thinking? There's no way in hell I'm gonna make that asshole talk! I have zero chance! Let's face it, Grubber! You're done for!'

After waiting for several long minutes, someone showed up. He saw the infamous 'Prince', otherwise known as Blueblood, entering the room while still wearing his prisoner's outfit. He was not looking well groomed at all, despite the regal appearance he held before. His yellowish hair was a mess, with strings flying out from them. He also had a stubble; a result of not shaving properly for quite some time.

'He doesn't look like a prince at all. So much for the rumors of grandeur.' Grubber thought.

After Blueblood sat down in front of the special agent, there was silence for a few moments. Neither of them was sure how to start the interrogation, and it didn't bring much comfort to Grubber.

He knew that many agents failed to make him talk. He didn't think he would have much luck either.

'Well... I don't have anything else to lose! Better just try it and hope for the best.' Grubber thought.

Finally, he started, "Mr. Blueblood, my name is Agent Grubber and I'm from the federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI, including me, would like your assistance with..."

As he was talking, he remembered who he was interrogating. He also noticed the man's lack of response or curiosity. he sighed, and said, "Look, if you wanna just stay quiet the entire time, you can just go straight to the part where you tell me to eat shit and fuck off, so we don't waste each other's time, huh? But if you wanna talk, even about a small glimpse of your criminal associates or where to find them, I'm all ears!"

He was getting ready to leave. Grubber already knew which one he'd choose, so he decided not to make a bigger fool of himself than he already did. No wonder they wouldn't promote him. Who would want an idiot doing important work?

What he didn't expect was for the man to talk.

"I believe I have something that might interest you in your work, Agent Grubber!" He exclaimed, with a slight tone of excitement

"What!?" Grubber said, shocked by the fact that he was talking.

And willing to give him something.

Something useful.

"But i need something from you in return! Something only the Federals are able to do! You'll have to listen to what I have to say, of course!"

Grubber, who was still shocked about this situation, sat down again. He hesitantly replied with anticipation, "Well, there's no harm in listening!"

And they began talking.

Author's Note

The-guy-who-fixes-all-692-double-spaces-in-each-chapter's notes:
Yes, I am going to change my title each chapter, because why not? And title above is not an exaggeration.

If it wasn't obvious already, the story's going to start to come away from the normal Anon-a-miss at this point, and start to focus on the 'crossover' part of it. Not to say we're abandoning Anon-a-miss as a factor - Sunset fully intends to make good on her promise.
I also want to address the rather large amount of inner monologues left over from the original story. We know it's a problem, and one we're fixing in the future. They only exist right now because they contain information that is needed for the future but will also take an age to rewrite properly, and I have my own stuff I need to do.

As always, neither of us are perfect authors, and so we, or rather, I don't catch all the mistakes, so pointing them out would be appreciated, as well as ideas. I don't know if we've agreed on one at this point in time, but we might still be looking for a name for what we have temporarily dubbed with much imagination, 'the voice in Sunset's head'.

As a final note, expect long notes like this in the future. I have a habit of rambling in my work, and I can get a little carried away, especially if it's not a big story. Gives me a chance to vent, though I'll restrain from doing so as much as possible.

Author's Note (Darkiplier1383):

First off, thank you for sticking with us till here! I really appreciate it. Second, I'm gonna have to make some things clear:

1-Sunset is a lesbian in this story. Deal with it. If you're gonna hate the story for just that, then I don't know what to say.

2-As KitKataddel said, this story's entering the crossover part. However, Anon-a-miss will come back, and you will see those three little bastards suffer for their actions. Nothing gory, so don't worry (that rhymed!).

3-I won't tell you all of the things that happened in the past, just a few major things that had effect on it (in the flashback chapter). I'll leave it to you to fill it up with your own thoughts. Imagine something like Daredevil season 1.

4-The main characters are as followed: Sunset Shimmer/Daredevil, Prince Blueblood (I'll tell you which one)/Kingpin, Sour Sweet/Bullseye, Trixie Lulamoon/Karen Page (Not entirely, though), and Agent Grubber/Agent Nadim.

5-The plot is similar to Daredevil season 3, but with major twists here and there. Don't complain about the enormous similarities between these two.

6-And lastly, enjoy the story as it is. Don't compare it to every other piece of work you've read, or don't hate it because you don't like the plot. This is my first story, so be tolerate.

Thanks for listening. Remember to like and comment if you like the story.

Chapter 3: The Ones We Hurt

"Congratulations, everybody! The work this team has done today is incredible!"

"Thanks, guys! We couldn't have done it without you."

Grubber was feeling really great. After a successful hunt for the infamous Stormer gang, they could finally pinpoint their specific location. The mission was successful; they broke into their major hideout, arrested them all, and sent them straight to jail. All thanks to him and his team of special agents. And their source of information, of course.

Blueblood.

Who would've thought that the seemingly heartless crimelord would finally open up, and give them the Intel that saved lots of people? It wasn't a regular occurrence, to say the least.

Grubber didn't put too much thought into that, though. All he wanted to do was to go to Stellar Flare, and inform her about their new accomplishments. But he decided to go and talk to Sour Sweet first. The girl was sure rocking it today! A successful first mission wasn't something that happens often among the Feds. The least he could was give her the praise she deserved.

After searching for a few moments, he spotted the girl across the room, listening to some of the younger trainees' attempts at flirting. She clearly seemed to be frustrated, and he could hear her say, "Look, it's so sweet of you to come here and thank me for my bravery and all that crap, BUT If YOU THINK YOU CAN GET ME TO GO ON A DATE WITH YOU BEING THIS PATHETIC, THEN YOU CAN GO JERK OFF AT YOUR OWN PLACE 'COS THAT'S MORE LIKELY TO HAPPEN!"

"Sour!"

Hearing that, Sour Sweet turned back to her caller and irritably responded, "WHAT? Oh, hi Grubber! How's it going?"

"I'm fine, but you seem to be in trouble. Want any help?"

"If you want to, go ahead."

Grubber then turned back to the trainees and sternly asked, "Don't you have anything more important to do? Like, training?"

"Yes, sir. But we just got back from it and we thought-"

"i don't care what you thought. Remember the rules? Keep your personal life and work separated from each other. That means no flirting, or in this case, annoying other agents! Got it?"

"Yes, agent Grubber."

"Good. Now get back to work!"

After watching the young agents leave, he turned back to Sour Sweet, who softly asked, "So, what brings you here agent? I thought you had to report how the mission went."

"I'll do that in a minute. I just wanted to drop by and thank you."

Sour Sweet raised an eyebrow and asked, "For what?"

Grubber rolled his eyes and sarcastically replied, "Oh, Sour Sweet! So modest and wise! Please, forgive me if I bothered you with my stupid thoughts and dreams. I must've been hallucinating, so thanks for letting me know that the whole mission was a dream!"

That earned a giggle from Sour, and Grubber proudly announced, "Yep, still got it."

"The joke was terrible, but I take the praise!"

"So you knew what I meant?"

"Seriously? I may have anger issues, but I'm not dumb!"

"I think you mean, 'not dumb enough'."

"Oh, har har. Didn't know we had a comedian in our squad."

"But in all seriousness, you were great! The stunts you pulled there? That was beyond me! How'd you even do them?"

"Not to brag or anything, but it was pretty easy. I just had to be there at the right place and at the right time."

"Yeah, no biggies. You just scored three headshots in a few seconds, and you act like it was nothing!"

"What can I say? I am modest after all!"

"Yeah, you are!"

Grubber then looked at his watch and worriedly exclaiming, "Oh shit! I have to report to Flare soon! Guess I'm off."

"Okay, see you at noon."

"Bye. Good luck."

After that, he started going to Stellar Flare's office. After a few minutes, he reached his destination and let out a sigh of relief. 'Glad I made it just in time.' he thought, 'She'd be pissed if I was late again!'

He stopped in front of the door, and knocked, a voice answering, "Come in!"

He gently opened the door and walked into the room, seeing Stellar Flare at her desk. She looked up at him, simply asking, "Oh, it's you! How'd the mission go?"

Grubber replied happily, "It was great! We caught all of them! Every single one of their members were caught and arrested. They'll be staying in jail for quite some time, along with their leader! I still think they were smarter than the big ol' Storm King himself!"

"Good. Very good." She then paused, sighing, before tiredly explaining, "Look, I'm happy that the information he gave us wasn't fake. I'm more than relieved, honestly! But there's something off about the whole thing..."

Grubber raised an eyebrow and asked with mild curiosity, "What about it, Flare? The guy's been cooperating with us! He told us everything we wanted- no, needed to know! I hate to even think about it, but Blueblood is the hero today! The information he shared with us saved lives!"

"But why would he do that? Why would he give it to us? He wouldn't gain anything from it!"

"Well, he kind of does. Remember the deal he mentioned?"

"The one about us leaving his girlfriend or whatever out of this?"

"That he'll cooperate, if we don't press charges on her? Yes! That one!"

"Do you think it's a good idea, though? Did we have to accept the deal?"

Grubber didn't respond. Instead, he took some time to look at his friend, quickly how uncertain she was about the situation. And honestly? He wasn't so sure about it either! But he had to reassure her that nothing bad was going to happen... yet.

So he spoke, "Look, Flare! I know how you feel! I don't know if we're ever gonna accept it, either! But I know one thing: As long as we keep this bastard talkin', nothing's gonna go wrong! He has info! He has enough dirt on every criminal in this city, that it'd be enough for us to throw them in jail! We could save millions with his word! I know it's hard to accept, but it needs to be done!"

He then put a reassuring arm on her shoulder, and continued, "Besides, it isn't like he can do anything! He's locked up in a cell, so he's practically harmless! So... we good?"

Stellar Flare looked him right in the eyes, as if trying to work out by looks alone if he was telling truth. When she was absolutely sure, she sighed and responded, "Fine."

"Good. Now, we have t-"

But he was cut off with the office's phone suddenly ringing.

"I'll take it." Stellar Flare offered, picking up the phone and bringing it to her ear.

Grubber waited patiently, and watched the scene in front of him. As she was talking on the phone, he noticed that something was off about it. The reason being Stellar Flare's sudden shift of attitude, and a obvious look of concern in her eyes, leading him to ask, "Flare, what's going on? What happened?"

She answered, "Grubs, we have a situation!"

'What is it?"

"It's Blueblood. Something's happened to him!"

Canterlot Penitentiary was a mixed level security prison on the outskirts of the city, usually used to contain the smaller criminals who earned only a few months in prison, but occasionally accepted some of the more serious lawbreakers. One such prisoner was a man simply named Blueblood, who was currently enjoying a warm meal away from the common thieves who were reluctantly consuming gruel elsewhere in the prison. A knock at the door took his attention away from the food, leading him to sigh and put down his silver cutlery. Waiting a few seconds, he finally called out, "Enter."

The reinforced door swung open, as a prison guard - who, incidentally, had recently received an unexpectedly large bonus - exposing a tall, bearded man next to him, wearing an all black suit which contrasted with his red skin. Nodding respectfully to Blueblood, he announced, "Ah, a Mr Tirek wants to see you, sir. Should I call him in?"

Nodding and dismissing the guard, the door closed again with a click, Tirek already inside and took and a vague motion as a cue to sit down. He waited for Blueblood to make eye contact with him before he started speaking, telling him simply, "I bring news sir."

A moment passed, where Blueblood didn't react. Tirek absently stroked his long grey beard, his shaking hand dropping when the blond man finally gestured for him to continue. "The appeal operation is going smoothly as planned. Our contact appears to be reliable, for now at least."

"'News' implies fresh information, Tirek." Blueblood sharply cut in, a harsh tone to his voice. "What else is there?"

"There have been some..." The other man struggled to find his words momentarily, finally giving up and stating out right, "There's been some complications with Miss Songbird's return. I'm only the messenger, I'll remind you, so I only know so much, but it appears the Federal Government are looking to charge her as an accomplice or an accessory. If they can locate her over in Rom- Europe, or she enters US territory, she would most likely face prosecution, ultimately ending in prison."

"i see." Blueblood calmly responded, staring down at his meal. He moved to take another bite out of it, but ended up forcefully placing his fork back down and looking back up with a neutral, yet menacing expression. "Leave me."

"Sir." Tirek stood, swiftly making his way to the door, pulling it open without warning and rushing outside, leaving Blueblood alone with his new knowledge.

'This isn't good.' he thought, desperately trying to stay calm, 'Songbird shouldn't end up in prison for the things I have done. She doesn't deserve to suffer because of me. I've already put her in too much trouble! Maybe if I continue working with the FBI, they might leave her alone. Yes, I'll do just that!

'But what if something happens to her when she's at Europe?' he nervously added to himself, 'What if another one of those blasted scums I've kept in check for years, tries to reach my beloved Songbird and harm her? What am I to do then? Should I rat them out just like I did with the Stormers?'

He sighed deeply and stood up from his chair. After that, he started pacing around the cell, fidgeting with himself. With each step he took, his heartbeat got faster out of nervousness and worry. Never in his years of organizing the Canterlot's underground, or recruiting forces for his empire, or even partnering with the most gruesome criminal gangs had he been so worried. It wasn't surprising. though. At the time, he didn't feel anything special about anybody. All he thought about was gaining more power, and bringing order to the damned city he called home. There was nothing there that could have bothered him back then. He was Blueblood after all; a man who's influence was so deep on others they didn't dare say his name.

But he always felt the lack of something in his life. A hole in his heart that could not be filled with money and power. Something so unique and special he cursed himself for not finding it any sooner: love.

It was love that drove him to these drastic measures. It was love that kept him from unleashing hellfire upon Hell's Kitchen when he could do it so easily. It was his love for Songbird that made him feel like someone special. Someone who had something worth living. It was this strange feeling that made him feel young again, as if he was at home.

Now, her special song was being muted by the people who wanted him. The people who wanted to see him fall, and would stop at nothing to reach their goal. They were aiming for Blueblood, but ammunition was the ones he cared about the most.

"Look at yourself now, Blueblood." he muttered underneath his breath, "Back at home, all you had to worry about was going to diplomatic trips, or pass a judgment from time to time. Never in your wildest dreams you would've thought of loving anyone. But here we are..."

He looked up from the ground, and sighed again. If Tirek's words were true, then there was nothing he could do at the moment. He could only try and persuade the FBI to let her go for the time being, and he should do just that. Deciding to leave the dining area, instead focusing on venting his emotions, he called, "Guards!"

The same guard from before opened the door and responded, "Yes sir?"

"I want to head out to the gym. I need to blow off some steam, and a work-out session might be the best solution."

"Of course, sir. Would you like anyone accompanying you? That is, if you don't mind."

"I don't see why not. Bring someone useful."

"Sey sir! I mean, yeser! I mean, I'm sorry sir! Of course."

Blueblood nodded, and headed for the door. Before leaving the room, however, he stopped right beside the guard; who was sweating profusely from nervousness. He called, "And one more thing."

"Wh- what is it sir?"

"You talk too much."

After another exhausting day in school, Sunset walked out of the school's front doors as fast as she could. She wanted to go home, and she prayed that she wouldn't have to face yet another angry student. Not because she was afraid of what they would do to her; but because she was afraid of what she would do to them - lately, she'd been acting strange. First, she nearly killed someone. That alone was quite worrying. Then she broke Rainbow Dash's leg in self defense. Or, at least, that was Sunset had told herself, that she had reacted in self defense.

As she was heading out from the school, she still felt as if everyone glaring at her. It was nothing new, though. She was used to them, and she learned that it was best to just ignore them. Occasionally, they even ignored her back.

While she was distracted, a figure was marching towards her with determination, and as she got closer, her enhanced senses identified her as Spitfire - that was interesting. The captain and champion of the school soccer team was normally not someone who would want to do anything with the former bully.

'It's probably because of Anon-a-miss.' Sunset thought.

'No shit, Sherlock!' Her mental companion responded, accompanying its snark with a slow, mental clap.

But something was off. She could hear four more sets of footsteps alongside Spitfire's, coming up from the side, creating a very suspicious situation for Sunset. Stepping forward to move out of the way of a potential ambush, she was blocked by Spitfire, who casually started, "Well, if it isn't the big bad bully herself. How are you doing, Shimmer?"

Sunset replied, "Well, you know, like shit. What do you want?"

"We want justice, you whore!" Soarin, another member of the Wondercolts, answered, almost shouting in fury.

"Relax, Soarin. I know you're angry, but we have to be patient. We should try reasoning first." Fleetfoot tried to calm her friend, to not much success. Sunset, on the other hand, immediately wanted to ask why, but after a few moments, she got it - they wanted to teach her one of their lessons, and a rather physical one at that.

"So, let me guess; you guys think I'm Anon-a-miss, and that I posted something stupid about you. Now, you want payback. Right?" Sunset responded, bitterness dominating her tone.

"Sort of. It doesn't have to end in violence, though." Replied Fleetfoot, who was still uncomfortable with the whole ordeal. She never resorted to violence, simply because she didn't like to. She just prayed that everything would turn out fine, hoping nothing would go too far.

"You really are idiots. Don't know how it took me so long to realize." Sunset shot back, irritated and unsatisfied by her answer.

"What did you just say?" Exclaimed an increasingly irate Soarin. He was already enraged when he heard she broke Rainbow Dash's ankle, but he didn't expect the red-haired bitch to talk back, despite what was happening

Seeing the situation was getting a bit out of control, Spitfire decided to interfere, stepping in between the two. "Shimmer, don't get any ideas! We're just here to talk."

Sunset glared at her, and hotly replied, "Oh? Is that true? I suppose you normally talk to people with a knife in your pocket. It's a perfectly reasonable form of diplomacy... from the middle ages."

Spitfire froze - how did she know about that? She didn't act suspicious, and she was pretty sure she didn't give away anything. Startled, she muttered, "How the fuck did you know that?"

"Not even going to deny it? How confident. And at the same time, oh so pathetic." She then paused, looking thoughtful. None of the three attackers knew what she was thinking about, but in their minds, it was almost certainly going to be an insult. However, she instead chuckled darkly.

"What the hell are you laughing at? Aren't you a bit scared?" Soarin growled, his patience thinning with every second.

"Hate to break it to you, but you don't look scary, like, at all! You actually look cute when you're flustered like that. But we both know Dashie doesn't like cute stuff, don't we?"

And that did it. While it wasn't exactly a massive secret that Soarin was very protective of Rainbow Dash, Sunset knew it was a bit more than that, and right now, she was more than willing to use that to her advantage.

Before anyone could stop him, Soarin ran forward with a furious shout, rearing up a punch as he did so. Not putting much effort into it, Sunset simply moved one step to the side, allowing Soarin to go soaring past, stumbling before falling to the ground with a surprised cry. Hearing someone else break into a run from behind her, she pivoted on a heel, knocking the blow aside with a slap before pushing the attacker, Misty Fly, backwards into another Wondercolt, who turned out to be Fire Streak. The boy caught her with ease, helping her back onto her feet, before shooting a glare towards Sunset.

All the Wondercolts started to circle Sunset, now more wary of who they were attacking. Taking the time to think, the defending girl started to plan.

'Five people. Soarin is strong but hot headed. Fleetfoot is panicking, and doesn't want to fight. Misty and Streak are trying to do some sort of dual attack. Spitfire's the biggest threat. She needs to go first.'

'Remember to get hit a couple of times. Sunset Shimmer isn't meant to be some ninja.' As annoying as the voice always was, it depended on Sunset's survival to exist, so it was more than happy to help in some situations, and for that, it was tolerable. Most of the time. 'But do put on a show. Even I'm getting sick of all of the stares and snarls.'

'Got it. Now shut up.'

Without any warning whatsoever, Sunset dove forward, directly towards Spitfire, intent on disabling her. She could hear someone charge in from her side, and she grimaced before she was tackled onto her back by Soarin. Instinctively tucking her legs in, Sunset kicked out, sending her attacker rolling away, before she jumped to her feet, just in time to duck a punch from Misty. Moving forwards, she dodged a blow from Streak, before lashing out with a leg, scoring a hit directly on his knee, creating a yell of pain. While he hopped away, Soarin came in for yet another charge. Instead of attempting to dodge, she grabbed him by one of his arms, forcing her back a few steps, before swinging him around, directing him straight into the still recovering Fire Streak, downing both of them with groans.

Misty Fly came in for another punch, Sunset catching it with ease, ignoring the knee being driven to her stomach. Twisting the arm in her grasp around, she pulled it just enough so it dislocated, Sunset then shoving Misty into Spitfire, who had finally decided to join the fight. Turning around in response to more footsteps, she rolled out of the way of a double charge by the two male Wondercolts, using the opportunity to grab Streak by the head and smash her knee into his face, knocking him out with ease. Soarin, once again going to fast to stop, plowed into the dazed Misty, effectively immobilizing her as well.

'Two down, three to go.'

As Spitfire helped her friend up, Sunset swiftly made her way over to Fleetfoot, who had yet to do anything. Not giving her chance to react, she reached her hand underneath her jaw, applying pressure and knocking her out painlessly. She muttered a half respectful apology, before returning her focus back to the remaining two opponents. Scowling, Soarin began to run at Sunset again, determined to ram her into the ground. For the first time in the fight, Sunset threw forward her fist, driving it into Soarin's stomach, using his momentum against him. He doubled over, Sunset taking the opportunity to deliver a strong uppercut directly to his face, causing blood to shoot out of his nose as he stumbled, finally falling flat on his back.

"Word of advice, Soarin..." Sunset panted, smirking at her success. "Don't use the same move over and over. It's... predictable."

"How the hell did you do that?!" Spitfire demanded, taking her knife out and waving it menacingly.

"You really think I could do what I did three years ago without knowing how to fight? Please, give me some credit."

'Now for the hard one.'

'Weren't you saying she needs to go down fir- look out!'

Taking the warning, Sunset rolled out of the way of a knife stab, ducking under another slice. Spitfire advanced with short slashes, Sunset taking steps back at an equally fast pace, driving her back into the crowd that had gathered to watch the fight. As the spectators parted, one of them subtly shoved Sunset, sending her off balance. Spitfire lunging forward, bringing her knife around in a horizontal arc, Sunset's eyes widening as she tried to twist away from the path of the blade.

A short spray of blood flicked off the blade as Spitfire brought her weapon closer to her, a victorious smirk on her face. Sunset, on the other hand, was gingerly feeling a long line along her forehead, feeling the warm liquid running down her face. As the red blood rolled out of the cut, Sunset started to shake, out of fear or anger was answered a moment later.

"RAHHH!" A feral roar escaped her throat, storming forward, smacking the knife out of Spitfire's hand and grabbing her by the neck, slamming her onto the ground. "You think you're the hero here?! HUH?! This isn't how it always ends?! The good guys are meant to win! The bad guy, dead in a ditch!"

She swung a punch across Spitfire's cheek, snapping her head to the side, before doing the same with the other fist. "But no! It's not! No one is in the fucking right here! You're in the wrong if I'm innocent! I'm in the wrong because I'm beating the fuck out of you!" Sunset punctuated her point with another series of blows. "And even if I am guilty, YOU SHOULDN'T FUCKING ATTACK SOMEONE WITH A KNIFE! SO FUCK YOU! GRAH!"

Her voice cooled, losing its almost demonic tone, but her cold expression remained, scowling down at the barely conscious girl. "I don't want to fight, but you started this. You with your gang, your knives, your delusions." She glared at the crowd, daring anyone to argue against her. "Not too long ago, I would've let you beat the shit out of me. But I'm over it. I'm not gonna take this kinda bullshit just because everyone thinks I did something I didn't do."

Sunset sighed, turning slowly on her heel, glaring at all who looked at her. She considered saying something more - perhaps a threat - but that possibility was immediately destroyed by a voice calling out from across the room

"SUNSET SHIMMER!"

'Shit.'

The principal's office was strangely quiet. Normally, it would be considered concerning, since Principal Celestia was always warm and welcoming to her students. She would always start the conversations, and she would always make sure it was convincing enough for the troubled students to open up. However, she never had been in a situation like this.

Sunset Shimmer, a girl she knew very well due to her past, was sitting in front of her. The last time it happened was when she had to give an explanation about what happened at the Fall Formal. This time however, it was for an even more shocking event that was witnessed. The principal had caught the red-head in the school's gym, with a fairly large collection of students, five of which were scattered over the place. All of them were in varying condition; while some were seriously injured, another was just knocked out. And in the middle, Sunset Shimmer was standing there, with bloody hands and quite a few bruises. Not to mention a rather nasty cut on her forehead.

She came to the perfectly logical conclusion that she was the one who was responsible, much to her dismay.

She looked over to her sister for reassurance, only to witness a rather angry Luna. She didn't entirely fool Celestia - she knew her sister was as nervous and terrified as herself, and she didn't blame her. Never before had they been in such a situation like the one currently at hand, and neither of them knew how to deal with it.

'Oh dear god, what should I do? That is, if I can do anything! What am I supposed to tell her? That I found her with half the school's football team nearly beaten to a pulp? Or ask her if she's responsible? Should I even ask that?'Celestia thought nervously. Luna saw her hesitation, and decided to take care of the situation herself, taking a deep breath and speaking.

"Miss Shimmer, we've been watching you for a while now, specially after that incident at the Fall Formal. We kept a close eye on you, and your frien-"

"Ex-friends, vice-principal. Do pay attention to the relevant details, please." Sunset interrupted her bitterly. She didn't like the situation she was in, and she was sure she didn't need a scolding from the principals.

"Don't interrupt me, Miss Shimmer! As I was saying, we couldn't trust you like Princess Twilight did."

"You too, huh? Why am I not surprised?"

"I said, SILENCE!" Luna shouted, slowly losing her temper.

"Or what? You'll start attacking me, too? Or you'll expel me?"

"Don't tempt me, Sunset! You're not in a position to talk back to us."

"Oh, you think that's new for me? You think I give a shit about what you'd do to me?"

"I am an adult, Miss Shimmer! You must respect me and my sister."

"Well so am I! But nobody gave a flying fuck about anything I told them! How's that fair, huh?"

"That does it, Shimmer! You're-"

"ENOUGH!"

Both of them froze in place as a result of the outburst that came from none other than Celestia herself. They were surprised, simply because none of them had seen her get this frustrated. And now, she finally snapped.

"Stop it! Both of you!"

They stared at each other for a while, then at the principal, and then back to themselves. Luna sighed, and Sunset grunted in frustration, but they eventually leaned away from each other and listened.

"Miss Shimmer, Sunset, please! I know you feel abandoned, but this was not the way!"

Sunset raised an eyebrow in irritation, and replied, "You sure about that? Because last I checked, I was about to be murdered or mutilated by a bunch of high school students. And for what, something I didn't even do! You seriously think I'd back down?"

"What you did wasn't 'backing down'! Sunset, you sent Spitfire straight to A and E, and another two are in hospital! They're lucky to be alive at this point!"

"Damn right it wasn't backing down! As I said, It was rather a knife to my chest, or a knife in them. They should know their place after that!"

"Are you even listening to yourself right now?"

"Yeah, like, all the time."

"This is serious, Sunset!" Luna rejoined the back and forth argument as any facades of politeness were thrown out the window.

"Do you think it's a joke to me? Your moronic students nearly got me killed!"

"You could've come to us before things went that far!"

"Why should I do that when you're all useless?"

"What do you me-"

"Have you figured out who Anon-a-miss is?"

The bickering in the room went dead silent, Sunset's unusually calm sounding question only adding to the eeriness. The principals immediately shut their mouths after the question, stunned into silence. Luna tried to speak, and even dared to open her mouth, but the words simply wouldn't come out. She didn't like lying to her students, even if they were bullies. Celestia, however, managed to start talking again, though not without an unsure tone.

"Not yet, but we're trying to find the culprit as soon as possible."

"You don't think that's me?"

"Why would I?"

"I don't know." Sunset shrugged, a tiny bit of aggression fading from her face. "Maybe for the same reason each and everyone of your students think I'm her."

"So this is what it's all about? Cyber-bullying?"

"No, more like identity theft and getting away with it!"

"Sunset, I'm sure the students aren't that sensitive. I know them, and I know they won't do anything irrational just because they got bullied. I'm sad to say this, but you might have done something to anger them."

"For fuck's sake, why's the first thing that comes to your mind is that I did something? Am I that much of a hassle for you?"

"Language, Miss Shimmer. Why would you think that-"

"Because I'm sick of everyone trying to put the blame on me! I'm always the bad guy! The monster! A bully, a villain! Someone who deserves to burn in hell for what she's done! The whole school blames me for everything bad that's happening to them! I'm the source of all the misery they have to endure. But that's only what the students think. Let me tell you what i think about it!" Sunset saw Celestia open her mouth to try and interject into the conversation, but cut her off with a stamp of her foot, standing up. "Everyday, I wake up from another nightmare! I always blame myself for what happened during the Fall Formal! I can never truly forgive myself for what I've done in the past. And the worst part is, everybody else agrees with me!"

She pointed at Celestia, her finger shaking slightly as she continued with a venomous hiss, "But don't let them fool you! You think they're the best kids in the world. Always obedient and friendly to one another. Always there for a friend in need. You think they're forgiving and kind. Well, guess what? They fucking aren't! They're some sick bastards who jump at the chance to do justice their own way! And I could never convince myself that they forgave me so easily! Especially my friends, who dumped me when they saw the first sign of trouble! The friends that gladly took every chance to remind me of my past, and simply rub it in my face! I was always a monster to them! A she-demon! Someone who tried to murder them! How could they forgive me?"

She turned away, her voice becoming slightly softer, but the fire in her tone was still there. "Whenever I help people, they always look at me like I'm gonna kill them any second. Whenever I save someone, I'm always feared by the people I save. I'm always viewed as some sort of a monster! And they're not wrong, because I am one! I tried to commit suicide because I'm a monster! I endure anything they throw at me because I'm a monster! I'm literally your 'devil in disguise'! The monster, the monster, it's all I am!

"So go ahead! Say whatever you want to say! Do whatever you wanna do! But remember this: when you want to punish someone, make sure you have enough information and knowledge about the whole thing! Make sure to consider what the fucking victim says! Don't accuse them of something they didn't do, just because they always were the easy target!"

The two sisters were speechless. They could only watch in shock as Sunset suddenly turned to face to door and slowly began to leave the office, hesitating for some unknown reason. But before she went out, they heard her mutter something underneath her breath.

"What have I done to deserve this?"

And after that, she left, leaving two stunned adults behind her. Celestia, still recovering form her surprise, spoke in a shocked voice, "Sister! What- what did she mean? What happened? I..."

In an attempt to comfort her sister, Vice-Principal Luna took a step forward and hugged her, rubbing Celestia's back slowly. "Don't worry, Tia. We'll figure this out. We just need to give her some space; she'll tell us when she is ready."

Celestia could only mutter in response, "I hope so, Luna. I hope so."

"Idiots! Both of them are idiots!"

Sunset kept swearing all the way on her journey home. She couldn't believe it! The two principals, whom she trusted the most after the whole Fall Formal fiasco, had outright told her that she was not trustworthy at all! More importantly, she had beaten the living hell out of a bunch of students. She could be exposed for that! Everyone would know she's Daredevil!

'Calm down. They're dense as rocks! I'm sure they won't suspect a thing! Besides, it's not sane to think that an eighteen year old girl could be even close to a vigilante.' the demon responded. She did not like the situation they were caught in, and it'd definitely give her a headache if it could.

"Calm down? CALM DOWN? HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO CALM DOWN AFTER ALL THIS!?"

'I dunno. Maybe if you shut up and think for a fucking second, then you'll figure it out! How does that sound for you?'

"Can you NOT be a dick for once? Annoying me to death won't do you any good you piece of shit!" Sunset growled with gritted teeth, not caring if she looked insane.

'I'm being reasonable for once; something you never even consider to be!'

"What was that?"

'You never think before you act! The only time you do is when you're taking a math exam.'

"Shut up. I've got better things to do than argue with a stupid voice in my head!"

'Like what?'

"Like going home, getting dressed, and starting to patrol. Maybe even sleep for a while. I really need to calm down after all this shit!"

'You still won't get rid of me like that.'

"I'll shut you up one way or another! It'a just a matter of time before I find something to get rid of you."

'Gee, am I that much of a burden? If it weren't for me, you'd be insane after all that Anon-a-miss crap.'

"Says the thing who literally encouraged me to kill a thug a few days ago!"

That shut the voice up. Good, she thought. After an exhausting day at school, the only thing she didn't need was a headache. Having gotten distracted by the half-vocal half mental-conversation, Sunset hadn't noticed she had gotten close to home. It wasn't anything fancy, just an abandoned house she found when she first came through the portal. Unfortunately, it was located in the more shady side of the Hell's Kitchen.

That is, until the Prince was defeated.

It didn't mean it was still safe, though.

Apart from all that, Sunset had grown somewhat attached to the place. She redecorated the place after a year, and decided to choose it as her permanent home. Walking up to the door, she searched her pockets, hoping she didn't forget her keys again.

"Aha! Gotcha! I'm glad I didn't lose you like the last time." Sunset exclaimed, lifting them up to the door. Entering her home, the girl let the door slam behind her, immediately making her way to her bedroom, discarding her bag as she did so. She slumped down on her bed, staring at the ceiling as she thought about what to do next.

That fight had both advantages and disadvantages. On one hand, all of the students knew not to mess with her, but on the other hand, such a display of fighting skill could only lead to rumors. And then there were Celestia and Luna. Useless, the both of them. Sunset was starting to suspect she should just find Anon-a-miss herself, instead of relying on the school at all. Groaning, she sat up. None of this was helping her situation, she concluded, so instead of moping, Sunset stood, moving to crouch down near a corner of the room.

Hesitantly, Sunset lifted the top of a small hatch, usually hidden by a well placed lamp, revealing what was hidden below the floorboards in a small hole. Reaching in, she pulled out a piece of folded cloth, two interlocking 'D's immediately catching Sunset's gaze. Unfolding the piece of clothing, she hastily put it on, doing up the single strap that substituted for a belt, and Daredevil went over to a large mirror, intent to seeing if she looked right.

She hadn't really had a chance to see how she looked in her new costume, and she had to admit, it was indeed impressive, and somewhat frightening. Thin, dark red armor covered Daredevil's body, just flexible enough to do acrobatics in, but also strong enough to stop a light bullet. Boots were held on her feet by a pair of straps, their ridged soles digging into the floor, the tough metal caps shining in a dim light. She stretched her fingers, slipping on the gloves and checking the firm padding on them, swinging a relatively weak punch at thin air as a test. Nodding, Daredevil shifted the armor on her body, making sure it was secure against her body, rolling her shoulders to make sure the plates was comfortable. Her eyes traced the double letters proudly displayed in a blood red upon her chest, standing out among the dark crimson of the costume, and the even darker red-black tone of the armor pads.

Reaching back into the small hidden space, Daredevil removed the last pieces of her outfit, slowly adorning them as well. First was the cowl, by far the most visually impressive piece of the set. Two short, pointed horns rose from either side of the forehead, the rest of her head covered by a rigid red material, shaped in such a way that it barely gave any clue to her identity. Her eyes were hidden by some black lenses, creating a pit of darkness in place of her green irises, only adding to the intimidation factor. Some light armor, this time colored black went around the front of her neck, and up to her jaw line, neatly slotting underneath the cowl halfway down her cheek. It was an interesting and useful feature Twilight had made - when out of a direct light, only her lips were visible, her skin color completely hidden by the shadowing effect created. And as an added bonus, it protected what was debatably her biggest vulnerability, and would mostly likely save her life one day.

Finally, she brought her weapon into view - a light red pole made out of a strong alloy, with no visible breaks or markings, and what Daredevil considered to be Twilight's masterpiece. She had been... testing it recently, and had come to the conclusion that it was the ultimate non-lethal weapon. It was four and a half feet long when fully extended, though it was almost useless at that length, particularly since it was far too flimsy to stay intact. In one of it's shorter lengths, however, it proved to be much more versatile. In truth, the vigilante wasn't sure how Twilight had managed to stuff so many functions inside just a tube. As a default form, it created a short staff, but could be split into a pair of eskrima sticks, or some nun-chucks, but that wasn't even the beginning; it could be fired as a grappling hook, or a flail, perhaps even a whip if Daredevil was feeling imaginative. The young inventor had even managed to install some kind of mechanism so that it could bend twice into a hook; a very useful feature for several different reasons, among them being a safe way to snare criminals without completely strangling them.

Twirling the currently eighteen inch long stick about, she flipped it up into the air, catching it and slipping into into one of the holsters built into her suit.

'So, patrol it is then?' Her ever present companion asked.

'Yeah. Nothing calms me down like jumping on rooftops and letting the wind take me away.' Sunset thought back.

'Or sleeping pills.' the voice added, which earned her a sad chuckle.

'You know me too well, don't ya?'

'More than you think. Now, let's get out there!'

"Fine by me."

Author's Note

Tired and injured co-writer's note:
I wrote about 3000 words for this chapter, including the suit description, the fight scene, and the conversation with Tirek and Blueblood (the former and the latter are based off of bits from the TV show), so if they seem different or out of place, that might be why. That and I sprained my arm just before editing it, so there are most likely more mistakes than usual.

The Author's Note:
Hey everybody! Thanks for being patient and waiting for the new chapter. I'm sorry if it bothered you. This story doesn't have a really strict schedule, but you can expect a chapter come out every month.

Huge shout out to KitKataddel, who did a major part of this chapter. He's a great guy, go check him out.

Also, if you liked the story so far, make sure to like, comment, follow and share with the ones you think are interested. This is my first attempt at writing a story, so I want it to be out for people to see.

As always, thank you guys so much for reading, and I will see you next time. Bye Bye!

Chapter 4: The Ones We Leave Behind

"Ahhhh. What a night!"

The patrol was finally over. After a few hours of jumping on rooftops and searching for any kind of criminal activity, she was ready to return to her place. Nothing special happened, if you don't consider the small drug party she needed to crash, which she didn't. So aside from that, it was a peaceful night. But her mind was anything was peaceful at the moment.

'I still can't get my mind off of today.' she thought glumly, reflecting back on yet another bad day.

'All your days are shitty one way or another. Today just happens to be a tad bit shittier!' Her eternal mental companion cheerfully replied. Like Sunset, she - it, Sunset reminded herself - didn't feel good about how things went south in a matter of seconds. Normally, she'd be pleased with seeing her tormentor suffer, but this wasn't enjoyable for her either. She didn't know why, but lately, she wasn't in the mood for mischief. Her troublemaking spirit seemed to have been crushed by the latest events that happened in Canterlot High.

'Of course you're not going to be any help. Some things never change, I guess.'

'Go on. It's not like I'm being offended or anything. In fact, I love it when you blame me for all the shit that happened to you! Ever heard of karma, idiot?'

'You think I like seeing these stuff happen to me? What am I supposed to do when everyone else want to punish me for things I haven't even done?'

'When all else fails, blame the others. That's classic Sunset Shimmer for you.'

'You mean yourself? I mean, it sounds like the stuff you would do.'

The voice stopped talking, and for a second, Sunset thought she heard a sigh before it was muted. Only after a couple of seconds, she heard her again.

'Look, Shimmer. I know I'm not trustworthy, and a literal pain in the ass. I know you hate me, and sometimes, I hate you too. But that doesn't mean I don't care what goes on in your head. I care because you don't. Or at least, you don't want to.' Sunset started to protest, before immediately being cut off before she could even think. 'i know what you want to say, and I'll shut you up before you say it. You don't care about the stuff that happens to you, because you think you deserve it. Now, I can be a total ass and say you do, but I'm not like that. I'm an asshole, sure, but I'm not like those bastards at CHS who think they can play god with us. I think that you suffered enough. That's why I encouraged you to fight back today.'

'Even if it got me into trouble?'

'Sunset, look around you. What bigger trouble are you gonna get into? The whole world turned their back on you. You can't lose anything else.'

'So, you say I'm fighting for a lost cause? Gee, I didn't know you worked at a suicide prevention center. You'd do a great job at convincing people not to lose hope'

'You haven't lost yet. You still have a few people that actually care about you.'

'I do? Where are they, though? I can't see them. You think I need glasses?'

'I'm not joking. You've got Princess Twilight. You've got Celestia-'

Sunset shook her head, only just catching herself from talking out loud. 'No no no no no! Absolutely not! Princess Celestia is off the list for several reasons!'

'Care to explain at least some of them? From what I can remember, you never told me or anybody else why you don't want to see her. Or how did you even meet her, for that matter.'

'Can't you just go through my memories or something? Find them yourself?'

'I could, but I want to hear it from you.'

'And why's that, exactly?'

'Because that way, I wouldn't be able to make any sense of it! You're too hard to read sometimes, ya know.'

'Fine! Have it your way!'

Sunset sighed, and decided to sit down on the roof. The ground was covered with a thin layer of snow, which made it cold and uncomfortable. But thanks to her suit, she didn't need to worry about the temperature that much. Plus, she was used to the cold long before she became Daredevil anyways. Stick had specifically ordered her to swim for 5 hours in the lake, in winter of all seasons! That old bastard…

She let out another, heavier sigh, this time accompanied with a trail of mist coming out of her mouth. Random blasts from the past were all she got, really. After the Fall Formal, her mind would always go back to the past, reminding her of each and every terrible thing she'd done. Not that she complained, though. In her mind, she was being punished for who she was. Relationships were destroyed, friendships were broken, and no trust had remained in the high school. It was ironic, she supposed. How she'd paid the price for each of those things. Things she thought didn't matter as long as they didn't posed a threat to her. She was really something, wasn't she?

Instead of further dwelling on her past, Sunset Shimmer decided to lean on a wall and get comfortable. Well, as comfortable as one could while laying down on a roof. After that, she began to tell her tale. A short and complex version, out loud, as if she needed to hear it herself.

"A while after my dad died, I was put into an orphanage. It was tough at first, but… it became normal after a while. Sure, ponies called me a freak and a criminal for what happened to my dad, but I got through most of it. Funny, my nickname was 'Daredevil' at the time, mostly because I did some stupid things just for the sake of it. One day, I was minding my own business, when the matron came into the room and told us that the princess was going to come there for a visit. She expected us to behave, otherwise she'd give us crap for the rest of the month.

"I was… a bit shocked, to say the least. I didn't expect a princess to come visit a crappy orphanage in the shady side of Canterlot. It was odd, but I didn't care at the time. Then, I found something I thought I've lost a long time ago: hope. I was beginning to feel like the world was actually giving a shit for the first time! The Princess of the fucking Sun was coming to meet us! If I could impress her enough, then maybe I could finally get the fuck out of that hellhole!"

'Wow! Young and ambitious my ass, huh Shim-Shim?'

Sunset chuckled, but continued, "Well, you aren't wrong. Though, during that time, I only saw Celestia as a way of escaping the prison I was locked in. I never thought about being her personal protégé or anything like that!"

'Why her? I mean, there wasn't anypony else to adopt you before that?'

"Let's just say that I wasn't the best behaved filly around. I was famous for being extremely angry at the time. As you can see here, that got me into trouble often."

'What do you mea- OH! Oh crap, that must've hurt! That poor guy! Why in Tartarus would yo-'

"Anger issues, remember? Anyway, during that week, I was trying to be the best filly you'd ever see. I'd go to bed early, washed my clothes, and didn't zap anyone with my magic. I put so much effort into making sure that I'd set a good example for Celestia. It was hard, but I was sure it'd pay off. Then, the day finally came, and I was… stressed? No, that'd be an understatement. I was nerv-cited, as Pinkie Pie would say. Celestia was coming, and under no circumstances I'd let myself screw this up! I could do this! I just needed to believe in myself, and get rid of all the competitors. Easy as pie!"

'And that was the time when you hatched Philomena, and got to be Celestia's personal student, right?'

"Yeah. At that moment, I was so happy I thought I was gonna die! Like, I was gonna have a heart attack and die! What happened afterwards was mostly a blur to me. They signed all the paperwork, and after a month or so, I got into Canterlot Castle! And the rest, well, is history…"

Sunset finished her sentence and smiled. Remembering all those moments, how happy she was in them, how simpler things were made her feel a bit of nostalgia. Right now, she'd give anything to live those moments once again. She wanted to prevent all this, and she wanted to have a happy life in her home world.

"That was back then, and I still managed to fuck it all up! I think my special talent is to destroy lives, don't you think?", Sunset said bitterly.

'Maybe. But now, you decide who or what you're gonna fuck up'

"Well, Anon-a-miss would argue with that."

And then they fell silent. For a couple of minutes, Sunset laid down and gazed at the stars, as a way to distract herself from the conversation. And Anon-a-miss.

God, she hated that name with every fiber of her being.

The voice, however, seemed to be deep in thought. She couldn't see what she was thinking about, due to the limitations of her mind, but whatever it was, it was serious. Not dead serious, but pretty important, she guessed.

Finally, when she decided to stand up and leave, the demon began talking once more.

'I want to tell you something. It might sound repetitive, but I'll say it anyway.'

That peaked her interest. Cautiously, she replied, 'Sure. What do you wanna tell me?'

'When I said you have people that care about you, I meant it. It may not be Celestia, but there are others.'

'Who? Like I said, I can't think of anybody that haven't left me thanks to lady Anon-a-miss. You've got any candidates?'

'Well, like I said before, there's Princess Twilight…'

'I don't think she'd-'

'…Which would be useful considering what you're going through qualifies as a friendship crisis. And no, I don't care if you've got a crush on her or not.'

' But I don't!'

'Then ask her to come over! Geez, is that so hard to do?'

'It's just… she's a princess, and she's got her own stuff to do. She doesn't have time for me.'

'Again with the self-loathing! You can never find out if you don't fucking try!'

'Anyone else?'

'Then there's this other Twilight…'

'What the hell is with you and Twilights? It seems like you're the one having a crush on her!'

'So you admit that you're crushing her?'

"NO!"

'But seriously, go talk to her. She seems like a nice girl, and I'm sure she'd listen to your rants.'

'Oh, I'm sure she would. Better reveal my secret to her too while I'm at it!'

'Just… give her a chance, would ya? Sci-Twi helped you once, remember?'

''Sci-Twi'? Seriously?'

'Yeah. She loves science, so I though it'd suit her.'

'Thanks for the name, Cisco Ramon.'

'At your service, Mademoiselle Shimmer.'

Sunset sat up, and cleaned herself after sitting on the snow. She looked at her watch, and to her surprise, it was 2 hours left until morning. She had to go back to her apartment, get some rest, and head for school afterwards. Joy!

'Don't worry! It'll be over before you know it. Well, depending on how many students have the balls to come even near you after yesterday.'

'I'm praying they won't. I don't wanna deal with those morons again!'

'But you are gonna send them flowers, won't you?

'Ha, as if!'

'Well, you can buy them cacti if it bothers you so much. It's cheaper, if you want to save money.'

'Maybe one day. Until then, I'm gonna go home. I'll visit 'Sci-Twi' later tonight. I think I need the company.'

'Ya think?'

'Oh, shut up you!'

'Fine, Fine. I was just being friendly.'

And with that, she jumped down the building.

"You did WHAT!?"

Rainbow Dash was mad. No, she was goddamn furious! Yesterday, a fight went on between the Wonderbolts and Sunset Shimmer. While Sunset somehow got out of the fight with a few bruises and a cut across her forehead, it didn't go so well for the group of attackers. The battle left them scattered all over the gym's yard, and possibly scarred for life. From the looks of things, Sunset broke their pride, alongside with multiple bones and ribs. For example, Soarin's nose was completely shattered, his jaw was fractured and a few broken ribs. The doctors treated it, of course, but it still forced him out of commision for a while.

Spitfire's condition was no better. In fact, she was worse. During the examination, the doctors informed her family that she was suffering from head trauma, concussion, and a slightly fractured skull. The effects would remain for weeks, maybe more. The leader of the Wonderbolts was hospitalized, and would return to school when she was fully healed. The rest of them had to stay for check-ups and proper examination as well, all except Fleetfoot. Apparently, she was the only one who made it out of the fight without any serious damage. All she got was a small bruise on her neck - how Shimmer knocked her out. She went down without a fight, and she was apparantly fine about it, instead seeing how her friends were doing. Both Soarin and Fleetfoot were tasked to tell the story to the school principals, and got detention for a month because of the attack. Well, Principal Celestia said it was a month. They didn't know what Vice Principal Luna would say about it. The idea of having their Vice Principal setting their punishment sent chills down Soarin's spine. And that wasn't even considering Spitfire's punishment. She brought a knife into school, that was bad enough, let alone actually attacking someone with it.

'A war,' Soarin thought, 'It sure as hell felt like one. We got our ass handed to us! All from Shimmer! A bloody massacre!'

He still couldn't believe what he saw. Sunset Shimmer, that skinny girl who had never got her hands dirty in her life, beat them to a pulp with her bare hands! He didn't see it coming, at all! And the worse thing was the fact that she used Rainbow Dash as bait for him. She knew about his crush on Rainbow, and used it to enrage and distract him. And, unfortunately, it worked.

But the worst part? Rainbow Dash wasn't slightly impressed by their attempt at attacking Shimmer. On the contrary, she became very angry with them and the Wonderbolts. And he didn't know why, so he asked her about it.

"Why are you so mad? I thought you wanted us to teach her a lesson!"

"No, I didn't! You barely talked to me before deciding to go ape-shit on her! Just… ugh! What were you thinking!?"

"We didn't know she'd fight back! Plus, we were just there to talk! She started teasing us!"

"So you attacked her? God, this is the stupidest thing I've ever seen a Wonderbolt say or do! I thought you guys were cooler than that!"

Soarin frowned. He still didn't get why Rainbow didn't want actual revenge on Sunset. "But Dash! She broke your arm! It's not something you can just get away with!"

Rainbow retorted, "Yeah, but trying to 'teach her a lesson' in the gym doesn't solve anything! And with a knife, too!"

"You're just saying that because she's your friend, don't you?"

"No, because it's a sane thing to do! My gosh, why don't you guys get it?"

Rainbow shook her head and sighed. This situation was getting out of control, fast. Anon-a-miss needed to be taken down, but not like this! Brute force solved nothing, based on her own experience, and it only made things for both Sunset and the whole school. Besides, Sunset was their friend once. And as much she hated to admit, Rainbow actually cared about her well-being. So did the rest of the girls.

Lately, Sunset's been acting strange. She was more aggressive, paranoid, and wet with tears for most of the time. Not to mention the fact that she suddenly gained incredible reflexes and fighting skills.

'I mean, it's pretty awesome and all,' Rainbow thought with only minimal glee, 'but not when she's trying to kill us with it! That's not like her!'

But then again, what was like her in these past couple of days? What was the real Sunset Shimmer like? Was she a manipulative bitch who tricked people into doing what she wants, or a genuinely caring and compassionate friend? One who'd stand by your said in thick and thin, not stab you in the back when they're done with you? One that'd help others, not bring them down?

'Okay Dash! Why the hell are you having these thoughts right now? She broke your fucking arm! I'm pretty sure she doesn't need forgiveness for that. In fact, she's way past forgiveness after the stuff she did! So just stop thinking like this and get your shit together!' Rainbow told herself. After she did, she noticed that Soarin was still standing in front of her, looking confused.

"Ummm, everything okay Dash? You just zoned out for a while."

Rainbow shook her head and replied tiredly, "Yeah, I'm good bud. Sorry, I was… distracted for a bit."

"Was it because of what I said? I'm sorry if it offended you or anything. I know she was your friend and all, but…"

"It's okay Soarin. It really is. I guess it's just… I dunno… surprised? I mean, I've never seen Sunset act like this. And I definitely didn't think you guys go down in a fight with her like that!"

Soarin groaned, "Uh, why do you keep reminding me?"

"Sorry about that. Guess I'm still not used to it."

"Neither am I. But I'd like to forget about it soon. Even though I won't be able to live it down for the rest of the year."

"Yikes."

Soarin looked at her and sighed quietly. 'Should I tell her?' he thought forlornly, 'Should I tell her that I have a crush on her? I mean, this seems like it'd be a good moment to-'

Suddenly, the school bell rang, which meant the students had to get back to their classes. Rainbow Dash started to walk towards a seperate corridor and told him, "Well, gotta go, I guess. See you after class?"

'Dammit!' Soarin silently cursed himself for his bad luck. Nevertheless, he replied, "Yeah, sure."

"Cool. Have luck with your, uhhh…"

"With my jaw? Recovery? I really shouldn't be talking this much..."

"Yeah, that. Just… make sure you don't get into any more trouble. We need you guys for the next Friendship games. You're the soccer team, you know?"

"I'll try. But that Shimmer better not do anything else! We've already had enough shit from her!"

Rainbow couldn't help but frown at that. But still, she replied, "Yeah, she better not. Well, see ya!"

"See ya, Dash!"

And with that, Rainbow Dash left the scene, leaving Soarin with a sad expression on his face. Eventually, he started making his way towards his class.

Luna had just grabbed her keys and wallet as she slipped her jacket on, checking her hair once more in the bathroom mirror before heading out into the hall, only to come face to face with her sister.

"I'll see you when I get back, Tia. I'll try not to stay out too late, but if you need me, give me a call." Luna said as she went to leave, only for Celestia to reach out for her shoulder, stopping her with a small smile.

"You've got one more thing to do before you go."

"What do you mean? I don't think I forgot anything?" Luna replied in confusion.

"She wouldn't go to sleep until she got a story." Her older sister began, holding up her hand, "And before you say anything, she meant a story from you. I would be a bit offended if I didn't already know her preferences."

Celestia folded her arms and smiled at Luna, who merely let out a mock sigh and turned back around with a warm look on her face as she approached a bedroom door which had the name 'Night Shade' on the door in multicolored letters. Knocking on the door lightly, she opened it to see the room's owner lying underneath the covers of a single bed, looking up as soon as Luna entered the room. The older woman smiled as she made her way to the bed, sitting down next to it's occupant who immediately thrust a small story book into her hands.

"Already picked one out, I see." Luna said approvingly, to which the girl nodded eagerly before moving over to snuggle into Luna's side.

"Your aunt said you would only let me read for you tonight? Surely she can't be that bad a reader, is she?" Luna asked with a small smile, making the young girl giggle and shake her head.

"No, aunty reads really well, but she can't do the voices like you can Mama." She replied in a bubbly voice, her green eyes shining up at Luna who nodded knowingly as she wrapped an arm around her child and placed a kiss on her head.

Night Shade was Luna's six year old daughter, with light blue-grey skin and blue and black hair. Her big blue eyes stared up at her mother, who smiled warmly, turning her attention to the book. She was about to open it, when the young girl's voice spoke up once more. "Mama… is everything ok with Aunty Tia?"

"Why would you think anything is wrong baby?" She asked with concern, looking at Night Shade worriedly while placing the book down on the bedside table.

"Well… earlier when cousin Cady dropped me off, I heard Aunt Tia on the phone, I didn't hear what she said, but she sounded upset, like sad upset and mad upset at the same time…"

Luna inwardly swore, but kept her outward expression calm and comforting as she rubbed her hand on Night Shade's back in soothing circles. She must have overheard Celestia dealing with even more of the aftermath of the incident with Sunset Shimmer. Turning her daughter around so she was facing her fully, Luna gave her a small, slight sad smile as she spoke.

"Everything is fine, my little star." she said softly, staring into Night Shade's eyes. "Aunt Tia was just dealing with boring grown up business. Nothing you need to worry about."

"Really?"

"Really." Luna confirmed with a nod as she brought the young girl back into her embrace and reached over for the book, ready to send her daughter off to a peaceful sleep, free from any nightmares that might try and haunt her dreams.

Only a few minutes later, Luna sat in a bar, silently sipping the beer that she and her friend had ordered. Lively patrons were scattered around the place, music playing in the background. She looked up at Redheart, who only gave a small smile before returning to the buffalo wings she was eating.

Outside of her work as the school nurse, Redheart was also one of Luna's closest and oldest friends, having known her ever since they attended high school together. This was just the latest of their biweekly meetings, in which they discussed many topics, ranging from the latest TV shows and books, to the occasional piece of gossip they had heard.

"So, I haven't heard from Sombra lately." Redheart commented, shifting topic as Luna looked up from her own meal.

"No, neither have I. Given how busy he is recently, you really can't expect a text every day."'

"I'm still astonished that he got so successful." Redheart shook her head in disbelief, and Luna gave a light hearted chuckle in return.

"Come on now, he must've had some kind of brain rattling around in that handsome little skull of his." An amused snort escaped Redheart, who took another sip from her beer, before her face turned serious. Luna immediately noticed the change, announcing, "I don't want to talk about it."

"You don't know what I was even going to say."

"You know I know that's not true. There's a reason I chose this place for our meeting, you know." She paused, staring at Redheart, before sighing and adding, "Fine, fine, say it. I know there's no stopping you now."

"Sunset Shimmer." Luna visibly sagged at the words, nodding in resigned understanding. With no small amount of concern in her voice, Redheart continued, "It's just... After everything that's been happening recently, especially today, what are you going to do? I had to call the hospital immediately! None of them were in danger of dying or being crippled, but they were still seriously injured! And then one of them had a knife! This is getting so far out of hand!"

"And you think I don't know that?!" Luna replied in a hushed shout, leaning fowards. "The Wonderbolts were beaten to a pulp, and Tia and I have been trying to get to the bottom of this whole mess ever since it started! All of the students - all of them - that we've questioned have firmly believed that Sunset is behind it all! There's apparantly a few people who aren't blaming her, but I've yet to speak to one of them, and that does nothing to help anyway! This Anon-a-miss is completely out of control, and as of now, we are completely clueless!"

Redheart winced as her friend slammed her forehead against the table, and was about to speak up when Luna continued, her speech muffled. "And that's not all!"

"What do you mean, Luna?"

The Vice Principal looked up, worry clear in her eyes. "When I looked at Sunset, I saw myself. You remember Winter Breeze? And when I beat the shit out of her and her little gang in tenth grade? You know how they were, making my life a living hell because Tia wasn't there to protect me anymore after she graduated. I snapped, and Breeze was bleeding on the floor. Only you stopped me from hurting her even more seriously, and I was lucky enough to have an influential mother - I would've gone to juvie otherwise."

"I know what Winter Breeze did was quite wrong, but you should not compare recent events to that." Redheart said softly, noting the hurt look in her friend's eyes.

"Shouldn't I?! Almost the whole reason I was so hard on Sunset was because of how much of myself I saw in her. And, once again, you know what happened back then. After the incident with Breeze, everyone treated me differently. People scrambled to get out of my way, whispering behind my back but never meeting my eyes. And that nickname..." Luna snorted dismissively, coming down from her tirade. "Still can't believe I started calling myself Nightmare Moon too..."

She scoffed, making her displeasure at her own past known. "I was so fucking stupid. No one can convince me otherwise. I just wanted to be normal - I don't want people to make fun of me, I don't want to be an outcast - so my mind immediately thought getting everyone to fear me was the best option. So yeah - really stupid. I don't know where I'd be if it wasn't for you and Tia slapping some sense into me. All I did was isolate myself."

"Oh, I think I know where you would've ended up, Lulu." Redheart teased, a small smile on her face. "In fact, if everyone had started calling you that, no one would've be afraid of you. 'Look out! Lulu's coming this way! Run!'"

Grateful for the lighter topic, Luna grinned, adding, "With all the black leather and spikes, I don't think I needed a special name!"

"Oh, yeah, the whole biker punk thing! I'll give it to you, you wore it well."

"I looked ridiculous." Luna replied with a flat look, before Redheart burst out into giggles.

"The mohawk! I had forgotten about that!"

"Ohh, please, don't remind me..." Luna hid her face in her hands, but couldn't quite suppress the laughter that bubbled up in her throat.

"Hey, at least you had some style of cool going on! I was stuck with braces until graduation, nevermind the skirt and suspenders my mom made me wear!"

The friendly banter continued into the night, reflected on their willing and not-so-willing fashions in High School. Luna was glad to have Redheart, for someone to talk to besides her sister. And, just for a moment, Sunset Shimmer and Anon-a-miss was out of sight and out of mind.

'This is a damn nightmare! And it never fucking ends!'

Sunset Shimmer had never really thought of school as exhausting. She breezed through almost any school work, and her extracurricular activities didn't really affect her any more. But during the day, people had had giving her looks. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but this time, the looks had hints of fear. It seemed word had gotten around about yesterday's fight, and if Sunset was being honest with herself, she didn't really care anymore. Giving them attention would just make everything worse, but even that couldn't solve the boredom of Mr. Cranky's class. At least it was last period, though it was little consolation when Sunset felt the fearful gazes on the back of her head.

'If I don't get out of here soon, I'm gonna go insane!' Sunset irritably thought, her head resting in her hands as she barely paid attention to what was being taught.

'Hate to break it to ya, but there's still fifteen minutes left. Or is that a good thing?'

'No! It's fifteen minutes too long!'

'Soo... should I get the roses?'

'I'm not going to have my own funeral!' Sunset mentally growled, only to audibly sigh. She seemed to be doing that a lot this week, though this time it was simply because she wanted school to be over. Was that really too much to ask? She could just go home, get some sleep, maybe go-

'-out on patrol? Is that seriously all you do these days?'

'What other options do I have? The girls all hate me, and Twilight's busy in Equestria with Hearth's Warming.' She replied irritably, adding with sarcasm, 'Oh, wait, there's the rest of the school to go to! I'm sure I can talk to one of them?'

'Well, my offer still stands. Or rather, my recommendation. Whatever. I don't care about linguistical differences.'

'English aside, I assume you mean about Twil- sorry, Sci-Twi? Yeah, I said I'll consider it.'

Honestly, Sunset was actually going to see Twilight before she went on patrol, maybe even during.It wasn't a hard descision to make - she needed someone who she could trust, and no one in their right mind could be her friend right now, let alone talk to her. Of course, that only applied in school, but she wasn't going to go around asking for people to be her friend. She had enough trust issues already, no need to risk adding to that. So that left only Twilight. Maybe Trixie, but Sunset really didn't want to see her after their last meeting, for more reasons that just it being risky.

'By the way, what's with you and Twilight? Do you know something?'

'Noooo.'

'Care to explain?'

'Nope.'

Sunset growled softly under her breath in frustration, even though the mysterious voice in her head hiding things was nothing new. 'But seriously, you keep on telling me to visit her. And before that it was all about Trixie. You think they're gonna save the world again? Rainbooms, two-point-oh? ...Or is it you who has the crush?'

The demonic voice goes silent for a moment - possibly doing its version of blushing furiously or choking horrendously - before making a composed sound and answering in its usual annoying tone, 'No, that would be you. As a matter of fact, I need you to survive to exist, in case you have forgotten. And these times are desperate, so, you - or rather, we - need allies. Or, at the very least, someone who actually will stay by us, instead of fucking off the moment they have an excuse to do so. People who won't leave you in the dirt with a moment's hesitation. Like, I don't know, your so-called stupid friends.'

'Hey, they're not stupid. Just a little... decieved.'

'If they're getting decieved by a terrible frame job that has literally no solid evidence, then they're pretty damn stupid.'

'They were gonna believe it no matter what because everyone else believed it was me.' Sunset had to resist cringing at the sentence - while not exactly flawed, they both knew it wasn't entirely true.

'You broke Rainbow Dash's arm, for fuck's sake! Regardless of why they think you're guilty, they sure as hell aren't going to trust you after that! And then there's the Wonderdolts! As justified as that one was, you did beat the actual shit out of Spitfire. She's still in hospital.'

'Okay, okay, I get the point.' Sunset conceded with reluctance, glancing at the clock - three more minutes. 'But remember that both times, I was the defender.'

'You provoked them all into a fight to let off stress and you know it.'

'The Wondercolts would've attacked either way, I jsut sped the process up, and you exploited my mood to encourage me into a fight with Dash and you know it.'

'...Fine. Fine, you're right. But that screw-up with the magician? Crying in an alleyway with your Daredevil outfit minus the mask? Was that my fault too?'

Trying to come up with a reasonable response and finding none, Sunset instead just groaned, sinking into her thoughts. The voice was right, that was entirely on her for losing her composure and having a breaking down without thinking about it. She lost control of her emotions, and in that kind of work, that could lead to her death. And it was someone from school that found out about. That alone was cause for more worry than usually, but it just happened to be Trixie of all people! Nevermind their meeting in the bar before that incident, she could use that against Sunset no matter what the circumstances!

The bell ringing sounded throughout the school, and Sunset let out a relieved sigh. Packing up her things, she went for the door, intent on leaving the school when the hallways were quiet and there was less chance of someone approaching her. She really didn't need another fight.

She would've been successful in this endeavour, if it wasn't for a girl - Trixie, Sunset noticed with extreme annoyance - standing directly in front of the doorway, causing Sunset to crash into her. They collapsed into a heap, groaning, when a sing song voice sounded in her head.

'That's karma, right there. Wow. I mean, good luck?'

Not bothering to respond, Sunset struggled to get up, lifting herself up and walking off without a word. A hand fell on her shoulder, and she fought back the urge to lash out at Trixie. Impatiently, Sunset spun around, demanding, "What do you want from me Trixie?! In case you haven't noticed, I've been avoiding you!"

"Trixie just wanted to talk, okay? She didn't mean to run into you or anything!"

Immediately, Sunset grabbed Trixie's arm, pulling her down the hallways. She glanced around, knowing this conversation was not something she wanted happening in public, and went over to a stairwell, the door creaking shut behind them. Releasing Trixie, she stared at the magician menacingly.

"Spill."

Trixie took a moment to collect herself, clearly unused to the sudden forcefulness, but not in the mood to question it. When she finally did compose herself, she looked Sunset directly in the eyes, telling her, "I, uh, wanted to talk about, um, that night."

If there was literally anything else being discussed, Sunset might've raised an eyebrow at the use of normal first person, but she was too worried about where this was going to think of such things. Almost instictively, she continued to stare, her face scrunching up in fake confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Frowning, Trixie took a determined half-step forward, getting closer to Sunset. "We both know what I'm talking about. I was a little drunk, yes, but not that drunk. I was not hallucinating, and you were crying in... that outfit."

Immediately, her face went cold, no emotions showing. She knew she would have to play this carefully. "And what assurances do you have?"

"Don't play me for a fool, Shimmer! I can connect the dots! I'm just more astonished I didn't find out sooner!"

'She's caught us. What're you gonna do about it?'

'Tell her everything.' Sunset's reply held no hesitation. She knew how Trixie worked, and she would not stop until she found out the full truth. Nothing - even blackmail - would stop her now.

Naturally, Sunset's mental companion's response was rather predictable. 'Have you gone mad?! She'll tell the whole school!'

'No. You heard in the bar. She has an obsession with Daredevil. I reckon she feels she owes me. Provided this doesn't go wrong-'

'It will.'

'-she'll probably want to help in whatever way she can. And besides, I'm not going to tell her everything. At least, not until she proves herself to be completely trustworthy.'

'...Okay. Do it. But if this goes wrong, I'm blaming you. You are insane after all.'

'Says the voice in my head.'

Managing to tear her attention away from the mental conversation, she found Trixie still waiting there with a patient expression on her face. Letting out a deep sigh of resignation, Sunset asked, "How much do you already know?"

"A lot, but I still don't understand why you've chosen to be a vigilante."

"Well." Another deep exhale, this one more out of preparation instead of reluctance. "You're about to find out."

Author's Note

Hi everybody. I'm really sorry about the late update, and I've got an announcement to make.
This story's going to be put on hiatus again, but it's not canceled. There are some problems in my life right now, school included, and I won't have time to write the rest of the story properly. At least, not until summer starts. So, this fic's going to be on hiatus for a month or so, and then be updated again.

In the meantime, I'd really appreciate it if you guys decide to share this story and help it get some more views. More comments would be awesome as well. If you liked the story, you can always give it a like and a fave. Thanks again, guys!