Author's Note

With this arc being short, I will be releasing one chapter today, another on Wednesday, and the last on Friday. Since I've been told my cliffhangers are evil incarnate.

Case File 6-1 (Nihil): The Endgame

Twilight was busy this morning, she had a free period in the morning so she spent it trying to figure out who Anon-A-Miss was. She actually spent the last two days doing that, but she hadn’t made any kind of headway, and it was honestly frustrating her.

It was supposed to be a simple hacking of MyStable’s servers, she found the Anon-A-Miss account and tried to shut it down, but something prevented her from doing so, some kind of firewall that kept blocking her every avenue of attack.

Twilight decided to forgo shutting down the account and instead shifted her focus to finding out who the account belonged to by checking IP addresses. But yet again, she was blocked. Social media security was a joke, as much as companies bragged about enhancing their security and plugging their holes, they couldn’t find all those holes, and there were many.

So why in the ever-loving-hell can’t I get around you?!

Twilight decided to finally go for the nuclear option, instead of just shutting down the account or finding the account user, Twilight decided to just shut down MyStable altogether. Would this mess with hundreds of people's social lives? Yes. But the goal was to stop a cyber bully, and prevent harm to a person who was trying to turn their life around. So a few people wouldn’t be able to update their followers about this or that, small price to pay.

However, that again never happened. Twilight launched her virus attack on the MyStable site, but yet again, this strange firewall came up and erased her virus before it even got a chance to take root. At this point, Twilight was wondering if MyStable was employing counter hackers to protect their site, or if the company was using some sort of sophisticated A. I. system that was able to react in real time to threats to the site.

If they had such a system, it’s a waste to use such a thing on something like this, thought Twilight.

Whatever, Twilight had confidence in her computer skills and her intelligence, it was only a matter of time before she cracked the wall and took down this Anon-A-Miss for good. While she was clacking away at her keyboard in the library, there were two of her tormentors that decided to talk louder than what was appropriate for the library.

The first girl had a light-blue mint complexion, with purple hair, a bit of eyeshadow, and orchid colored eyes. Her name was Sunny Flare, and unfortunately, was the daughter of the Academy’s principal, Abacus Cinch. Next to her was another girl, her skin tone was light-yellow, with freckles on her face, and her mauve colored hair done up in a ponytail. Her name was Sour Sweet, she was aptly named, as Sour Sweet liked to switch between being a nice girl to being a sarcastic mean one. Twilight suspected that she might either be bipolar or schizophrenic, but she didn’t want to blame all her shortcomings on a possible mental disorder, after all, there were plenty of people like that and none of them were – for lack of a better term –assholes.

“So did you hear the news about CHS?” Sunny asked.

Twilight stopped typing.

“No. What, they decided to admit defeat before the Friendship Games even start?” Sour asked.

Sunny Flare chuckled in a haughty tone. “I wish, it’d definitely save them the humiliation. But no, apparently they just had a shooting there, one of the students got gunned down right on their steps.”

“No shit? Wow, I didn’t think that they were that ghetto. Was it some gang thing?”

Sunny shook her head. “No, from what I’ve heard, it was some kind of revenge thing, something about cyber bullying or some crap like that.”

Twilight’s face went pale, they couldn’t be talking about who thought they were talking about, right? The young genius hurriedly looked through news sites, trying to find a live stream that was reporting on the shooting. Twilight quickly popped in her earbuds and listened to the report.

{A tragic event has occurred here upon the steps of Canterlot High School, a local teen girl was shot in what some are calling a revenge shooting. Eighteen-year-old, Sunset Shimmer–}

Twilight clasped her hands over her mouth, her eyes started to water as the news site put up a picture of the same girl that Shining Armor showed her once before,

No…I…I’m too late…

Twilight looked at the window that still had the Anon-A-Miss profile up, despite it being an inanimate object on her computer screen, the silhouette of Sunset Shimmer that it used as its profile, it seemed as if it were mocking her. As if saying, “You lost Twilight, you weren’t good enough, and now she’s dead.”

“Damn you, Anon-A-Miss…! Damn you…!”

The ambulance sped down the road, honking its horn loudly to make all the cars part like the Red Sea. Inside, the paramedics were feverishly working on Sunset, they had no idea how or why, but she was barely alive. She had lost a lot of blood, and her head still had a hole where the bullet entered, but there was a faint heartbeat.

When they received the call, the paramedics were ready to carry out a dead body, but when they arrived, and found that Sunset still had a heartbeat, they hurriedly worked to get her stable and into their van.

“I’ve got one female, eighteen, with GSWs to the torso and head, pulse is weak, and breathing is shallow, I need the O. R. ready to receive! I don’t know how long this girl has, but I’ll be damned if she’s dying!”

{Roger that, Canterlot General is ready to receive.}

The driver looked in the rearview as he watched his partner give Sunset an I. V. and a shot of something. You’re too young to die like this kid.

The ambulance pulled into the emergency room, several nurses and doctors were out and ready to take her in. The moment the backdoors burst open, they swarmed around Sunset and the gurney, wheeling her out and towards the O. R. as doctors began ordering this and that to try and save her.

When they entered the O. R. the doctors prepped to begin whatever life saving surgery they could on Sunset. However, before they could touch her, the doors burst open, all the attending nurses and doctors turned around and saw Shining Armor standing in the doorway with a surgical mask on, alongside him was Dr. Blueheart from the CSU team, who was surprisingly dressed in surgical scrubs.

“What’s the meaning of this?” one of the doctors asked.

“Sorry, my name’s Detective Shining Armor of the CCPD, and I need you all to leave this room immediately!” Shining Armor ordered while holding up his badge.

“I’m sorry, but are you insane?! This girl’s barely hanging on, she was just shot! We need to work on her, now!” said another.

“I know that, that’s why I brought her!”

Blueheart stepped forward and stated, “My name’s Dr. Blueheart, I’m a forensic analyst for the CCPD, but I’m also a licensed doctor and have standing credentials with this hospital.”

The surgical staff looked at each other with confusion.

“And we’re happy to have you, but I don’t understand how–?”

“We need you all to vacate the room immediately, I can take it from here,” said Blueheart.

“Ma’am, with all due respect, she’s barely hanging on and has four GSWs, one of them to her head!”

“Look, this is a police matter, and I need you all to leave! Now!” Shining Armor ordered. The doctors and nurses didn’t seem to listen to him. With a frustrated growl, he took out his service weapon. “Please, do I say!”

“I’d do it, he’s pretty crazy,” Blueheart commented.

The doctors and nurses did as Shining Armor ordered and left the O. R. When they were gone, Blueheart sighed heavily, hunching over as if she had just ran a marathon.

“Armor, are you insane?! I’m good, but I’m not some miracle worker! I need that team!” Blueheart stated.

“Sorry,” Shining Armor holstered his weapon, “but if I’m right, you won’t need to do anything.”

Shining walked over to the operating table, he grimaced when he saw the damage done to Sunset. The shots were done center mass, with one right over her heart, and one to her head. This wasn’t a random shooting, this was an execution. However, his attention was drawn to Sunset’s bracelet, the Witchblade. The ruby jewel at the center was glowing dimly, pulsating as if it were a heart.

“C’mon, you’re supposed to be some kind of ancient, magical weapon! If you’re really all that powerful than save her!”

Blueheart was confused as to what Shining Armor was doing. The doctor walked over to Sunset and grabbed one of the scissors, she cut a straight line from the collar of Sunset’s shirt all the way down to the hem, when she was done, she opened it, allowing them a better view of the damage that was done to her.

Blueheart was worried, she could see the monitors showing low vital signs, if they didn’t do something soon then they’d lose this girl, and Detective Armor would be blamed for it for practically threatening the staff to leave. The lawsuits filed against the department, the jail time he was going to face, Blueheart respected Shining Armor, he was a good cop, so for him to do something like this was insane.

Just then, Blueheart and Shining Armor saw something extraordinary. From the bullet holes on Sunset’s chest, something began to rise. In less than a few seconds, three bullets were pushed out of the wounds and rolled down Sunset’s chest onto the operating table. The fourth bullet from Sunset’s head did the same, pushing out of her skull and coming out the same way it came in.

“Doctor, get those quickly!”

Blueheart hurriedly found some pliers, picked up the bullets, and dropped them into a pan. The wounds started to close up, little by little, Sunset’s flesh began to stitch itself back together, even the damage to her skull was being repaired. As she watched this, Blueheart took a quick glance to the monitors and saw that Sunset’s vitals were steadily coming back to normal.

“Oh my god…” Blueheart whispered.

After another moment, the damage had been repaired, and Sunset’s body looked untouched, aside from the dried blood stains on her stomach, head, and clothes.

“How does she look?” Shining Armor asked.

“The fact that you’re not freaking out about this means you know something about why this girl just regenerated from severe mortal wounds. We’re going to have a talk about this later, Detective.” Blueheart checked the monitors and palpated the areas that were shot. “While I can’t say for sure, it looks like all the damage has been undone, I’d feel better about this after seeing an x-ray and a CAT scan.”

“Yeah, that’s not happening, not while that’s on her,” said Shining Armor as he pointed to her bracelet.

Blueheart looked at the bracelet, which was dimly pulsating in rhythm with Sunset’s heartbeat. “I’m guessing that’s not coming off?”

“Try it at your own risk. Nothing short of cutting off her arm will probably get it off, and that’s even if you get that far,” said Shining.

Blueheart sighed heavily. “Alright…I assume you want me to keep silent about this?”

“It would help, both me and her.”

“Very well, but we’re going to have a nice long chat about this.”

“It’s a date.”

The doctors from before came in, this time with security who looked ready to fight, but all of them paused when they saw that Sunset’s vitals were normal and that the damage was no longer there.

“What…but…?” one of the doctors stammered.

“I’m a genius, don’t question it.” Blueheart stated smugly.

Shining Armor walked up to the doctor and patted his shoulder. “Thank you for your cooperation. Make sure she gets whatever she needs, I’ll fit the bill myself if need be. Oh, and no x-rays or CAT scans.”

The doctor looked to Blueheart.

“You heard the man, none of those.”

“I got an investigation to get underway, I’ll leave Sunset in your hands,” said Shining Armor as he exited the O. R. “I’ll find out who tried to kill you Sunset, I promise.”

The school was still reeling from the attack, or assassination as some were calling it. Rarity was busy trying to comfort a catatonic Pinkie Pie, her eyes looked dead and her hair had lost its fluffy, curly state as it was now straight and cascaded down her back. To be honest, Rarity wasn’t doing any better, none of them were. Rarity’s mascara was running from the cry fit she had not too long ago, she hadn’t bothered to clean herself up, it seemed pointless right now after having seen your friend being shot not two feet in front of you.

Rainbow Dash was busy cursing herself for not acting sooner, muttering that it was her fault for not noticing the killer sooner. Applejack was sitting down, her Stetson hat pulled down to hide her expression of sadness, she was normally the rock of their group and she wanted to maintain that for them, but Applejack was just as torn up inside about the shooting as any of them, evident by the number of times she had wrung her hands.

Fluttershy was not here, but none of them doubted that once news got to her about Sunset getting shot, she was sure that the kind and caring girl would be a sobbing mess like the rest of them.

Principal Celestia was just like them, crying into her hands as Vice Principal Luna tried to comfort her big sister, but it was obvious that Sunset’s shooting was affecting her as well. The normally stoic woman looked about ready to break down alongside her big sister, but right now one of them needed to be strong, but once they were alone, there was no doubt they’d both be crying their eyes out together.

The students of CHS all found themselves in a haze of confusion and fear, Sunset was someone who had tormented them since freshman year, saved them from the Sirens, and then as Anon-A-Miss, spilled their secrets. However, now they were starting to contemplate the terrible truth, that maybe Sunset wasn’t Anon-A-Miss, not even Sunset was stupid enough to make herself the target of someone who was unstable enough to kill her. It only took the death of someone who was trying to be a better person to make them realize that perhaps…perhaps Sunset wasn’t Anon-A-Miss.

The girls, along with Celestia and Luna, were waiting in one of the music rooms with two officers standing guard for them. All of them nearly jumped when the doors swung open and revealed Detective Shining Armor.

Celestia ceased her sobbing and shot up quickly, nearly knocking her younger sister over in the process as she rushed towards the detective. “Detective Armor, please…please don’t tell me…”

Shining Armor smiled. “She’s okay.”

“Don’t lie me, Detective! I saw her…I saw her body! She was shot in the head, no can live through that!” Celestia wailed.

“Sunset did, she’s a strong, tough as nails young woman. She’s not conscious as far as I know, but she’s alive and breathing. If you wish, I can have one of our officers drive you to the hospital later?”

Celestia began to weep again, but this it was out of happiness.

“She’s okay…?” Everyone looked to Pinkie Pie, she had remained silent since the shooting occurred, her eyes and demeanor was similar to one who had died inside and was hollow, but now, she seemed to have regained some of that life. “Sunset’s…really alive?”

Shining Armor nodded.

The paleness that seemed to overtake Pinkie faded as some color came back to her, her hair hadn’t completely “inflated” back to its normal state, but she was smiling again. Most likely she wouldn’t return to normal until she laid eyes on Sunset and confirmed for herself that she was alive.

Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash were now openly crying tears of joy, Rainbow actually collapsed onto the floor as her legs turned to jelly from hearing the good news. The four of them knew that the Witchblade had brought Sunset back from death once before, but they weren’t sure if it was going to do so a second time.

“I hate to make you girls relive that moment, but I need you to tell me everything you remember, no matter how small or stupid you might think it is, we’re going to catch the person, I swear it to you,” said Shining Armor.

Normally, hearing a detective say that was encouraging, but it wasn’t always a good thing to promise such things. However, the girls knew that Shining was aware and helped Sunset with her Witchblade demon slaying, so when he said he’d find the killer, they knew he meant it.

The classes for the rest of the day were cancelled, allowing the students to go home and get some counselling for what happened, however, there were three students of CHS who were more afraid than anyone in school.

Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom, the three girls were currently at Scootaloo’s home, her aunts were there and hadn’t disturbed them much, they checked in on them now and again, but felt it best to let them have a moment together to process this.

Scootaloo was currently sitting against the edge of her bed, her legs to her chest as she held her head. “We…We killed her…We killed Sunset!”

Sweetie Belle was on Scootaloo’s bed, staring up at the ceiling with the same shocked expression as the rest of them. “We…We just wanted her to stop stealing our sisters away…it shouldn’t have gone this far…”

Apple Bloom stood silently against the wall as she looked at her cellphone, at the accursed Anon-A-Miss account, the silhouette of Sunset Shimmer that they used as the profile picture, it was as if it was mocking her, telling her that it was all her fault for not stopping this sooner.

“We gotta tell the cops…” Apple Bloom spoke somberly.

Scootaloo bolted to her feet with a look of panic. “WHAT?! W-We can’t do that, we’ll go to jail!”

Sweetie Belle sat up, also with panic in her eyes. “B-But we didn’t shoot her!”

Scootaloo glanced back at her friend, with a look that said “she couldn’t possibly be that stupid?”. “It doesn’t matter if we didn’t pull the trigger, Sweetie! Sunset was killed because the person who did shoot her believed that Sunset was Anon-A-Miss! We’re just as guilty as that person is!” Scootaloo then turned her attention back to Apple Bloom. “Which is why I don’t get why you want to do that?!”

Apple Bloom looked to her two friends with shame and disgust, mostly for herself. “Y’all don’t have to do anythin’…Ah’ll tell ‘em it was me. Which…to be honest, it all started with me in the first place. Ah shared the password to the account with ya, but Ah’m the one who created it, so if anyone needs to go to jail…it’s me.”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked to each other, they didn’t know what to say. Apple Bloom’s family would be devastated, not that their families wouldn’t be either, but even so, Apple Bloom loved her family more than anything.

“N-No, we can’t let you do that! Let’s just delete the account!” Scootaloo suggested.

“That won’t work! I’ve seen those cop shows, even if we delete the account they can still find out who set it up! Especially since someone was killed, they get warrants and all kinds of stuff to find out!” said Sweetie.

Apple Bloom sighed. “Exactly, and when they do, it’ll come back to me. There’s no point in draggin’ you girls through the mud with me…” Apple Bloom chuckled darkly. “Dammit…too late…”

“What does that mean?” Scootaloo asked.

“Ah was thinkin’ about endin’ Anon-A-Miss after…after what Sunset did fer us,” said Apple Bloom.

Sweetie Belle got off the bed and asked, “What did she do?”

Apple Bloom explained to them, keeping the details of her big brother and sister’s sexual affair under wraps and just informing them that it was something bad enough to almost get their farm taken away. She told of how she gave Sunset her phone – of course Scootaloo and Sweetie raised holy hell at that part – and somehow, managed to get rid of the thing she had, and found something that was going to help her family.

“Gold…there’s gold under your house?!” Scootaloo exclaimed.

“Not under it specifically, but on the land. Applejack said Sunset managed to hack her way into their systems and found out that’s why Flim and Flam wanted our land so badly. Granny said we’ll wait until after Mac and Applejack graduate before we do anythin’, let things cool off fer a bit since those two guys are six feet under. But, yeah, pretty soon our family will be rich.”

“And…Sunset got that for you? Helped you bring Flim and Flam down?” Sweetie asked.

Apple Bloom nodded.

“And that’s why we haven’t been posting new stuff lately?” Scootaloo asked.

Apple Bloom nodded again.

Scootaloo plopped back down and let her back slump against the edge of her bed. “Shit…”

Apple Bloom’s tears fell as she remembered how happy they were to hear this information, they owed everything they were about to gain to Sunset Shimmer, Granny Smith even said that they’d share their wealth with Sunset, if what the information on the flash drive was to be believed, they’d have more than enough to do whatever they wanted, hell, they could buy and sell Diamond Tiara’s family a thousand times over and still have more.

Just then, Sweetie Belle got a text from Rarity. Sweetie Belle, with great dread, read the message. After a few seconds her worried expression turned to one of relief. “Girls! Sunset’s alive!”

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom perked up their heads at the news.

“Don’t bullshit me, Sweetie!” Scootaloo stated.

“No, it’s true! She’s alive at Canterlot General! Rarity doesn’t know much more right now, but they’re going to go to the hospital later to check on her!”

All three of the girls felt a great sense of relief at hearing that, granted they didn’t know what condition she was in, but the good thing was that she was alive.

Sunset, in her unicorn form, walked through the halls of Canterlot Castle, on each side of her was a stain glass window, each one depicting a moment in history, a moment where ponies of old did something truly heroic and for the good of not just pony kind, but all the world. There was one of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna when they first defeated Discord. There was one of when Princess Celestia banished Nightmare Moon to her lunar prison. There was another of the Princesses fighting against King Sombra in the Crystal Empire, although that one ended in tragedy rather than victory. Another, Sunset wasn’t sure of, she had asked the Princess why there was a window of a powder blue pegasus filly? The only answer she gave was that it was someone who understood the person she most cared about far better than she did back then.

The answer was a sad one, and Sunset often wondered if Princess Celestia was speaking of a lover? Of course, now, after her journal conversations with Princess Twilight, Sunset found out that the Princess was speaking of her sister, Princess Luna.

As Sunset continued to walk through the hall, she saw other windows, but these ones weren’t of ponies, they were of humans. Each of them showed a different woman, and, each one bared the mystical weapon that Sunset now wielded, the Witchblade. Their windows depicted each of them at a moment in time of their greatest triumph over some evil.

The unicorn mare remembered that the Witchblade spoke briefly of its former hosts, but had no idea there were so many. Despite the revealing nature of the armor, Sunset felt a sense of pride at being among such strong women who defended others from the forces of evil .

Sunset continued her journey further down until she stopped, the windows she now looked at were her own. One showed her defeat at the hands of her friends and Princess Twilight, a moment in her life that held bittersweet memories for her, the second showed her, along with Princess Twilight and her friends, uniting together and defeating the Sirens.

Another window showed the beginning of Anon-A-Miss, an image of her friends turning their backs on her and Sunset huddled with her knees against her chest. The next was of the night that Sunset sacrificed herself to save Pinkie Pie. The one after that was of her receiving the Witchblade. From there, the next few windows displayed her battles against the Wendigos. There was only one left at the end of the hall, and this was blank, or kind of blank. It was wavy, distorted, as if it wanted to become something, but wasn’t sure what it wanted to be.

“Kind of a head scratcher, isn’t it? Just what does the future hold for us?”

Sunset froze, she recognized that voice, one that she had hoped to never hear ever again. The unicorn mare turned around and saw none other than her demonic self, or as others called her, Sunset Satan.

“What the hell are you doing here?!” Sunset demanded as she widened her stances and lit her horn.

“Honey, please, where else would I be? I’m you, I’m in your head, in your soul,” said the demon.

“You liar! The Elements of Harmony purified me of you! You’re… You’re just some phantom of my mind, a nightmare that plagues me!”

Sunset Satan strut towards her pony counterpart, putting some sway into her hips with each step. “Well, they couldn’t get all of me. Because a part of you still clings to your darkness. And each time you change with the Witchblade, you bring a little bit of me out more and more.”

Sunset backed away from the demon. “The Witchblade is a weapon of good! It doesn’t use darkness!”

Sunset Satan laughed boisterously, as if Sunset had just told a hilarious joke. “The Witchblade is a product of both Light and Darkness.” Sunset Satan held up her right hand and created a ball of light and in her left a ball of inky black shadows. “It’s meant to bring Balance, it’s the keeper of Balance between the two. In other words, I’m the reason why you’re able to wield this thing at all.”

Sunset shook her head, she didn’t want to believe this.

“Didn’t you ever wonder why it was so easy for you to kill these possessed people? Why it never bothered you whenever you swung your sword and sliced them up that you didn’t feel an ounce of disgust? Despite how bitchy we were back in Equestria and here, even you couldn’t kill someone.”

Sunset never really thought about it before, but…Sunset Satan was right. Every time she brought down her sword, cut down a Wendigo, she was never disgusted by the bloodshed, nor the sheer brutal violence of her actions, it was as if it was natural to her. Sunset had attributed this to the Witchblade, believing that it was boosting her confidence and suppressing that part of herself so as to make it easier for her to fight.

“Haven’t you wondered about that heat inside you? That rush you feel when you transform, the pure sense of…” Sunset Satan ran her hands over her figure. “…ecstasy? That’s me coming out, sure, you’re still in control, but for those few lovely moments I get to come out and play. And more recently, we seem to be getting more in sync.”

Sunset plopped down onto her rear as she held her head with her hooves. All this time, Sunset believed she was fighting with nothing but her righteous fury against the Wendigos, but now her dark half was saying that that was only half the truth. Sunset looked up at her dark half and sneered as she asked, “So why are you here now?!”

Sunset Satan squatted down until she was at Sunset’s eye level, of course this action gave Sunset an unabashed view up her dark half’s skirt, which made her blush and turn her head away immediately as she said, “You’re not wearing any underwear?!”

Sunset Satan looked down at where her light half looked and snickered. “I’m your dark half, hun, remember? I’m ready to go any time any where.”

“I’m not some kind of slut!” Sunset shot back.

“Hmm, no, but you are a perv deep down,” Sunset Satan replied.

Sunset really couldn’t counter that one, it was true.

“Plus the little unicorn mare should not be criticizing me.”

Sunset forgot that she was in her pony form again, she took a glance over her shoulder, and again, she had no room to argue the point her dark half made. Sunset Satan propped her chin on her upturned palms, resting her elbows on her thighs as she smirked at her light half, tail wagging back and forth like a cat studying its prey.

“So, what do you want from me? To take control of me or something?” Sunset accused.

“Please, I have no way of doing that. I’m just here in the back of your soul, happy for the time I can come out through the Witchblade. But what I do need to talk to you about, is accepting me.”

“Excuse me?!”

“You and I both know that these Wendigos, the First Three, are stronger than the others we fought. The only time we’ve been able to gain the upper hand over them was due to our synchronizing. But it’s incomplete, mostly because you’re subconsciously keeping me restrained. You’re afraid of your own darkness.”

“Can you blame me?!” Sunset stood on all fours and then pointed her hoof at her dark half. “You wanted to take over Equestria, mind control the students of CHS, and almost killed Princess Twilight and my friends!”

Sunset Satan nodded to each of her accusations. “Mmm-hmm, true, true, all valid points. But at that time I was going off of the extremes of what you wanted deep down. Taking over Equestria was your desire to rule alongside Princess Celestia. Mind controlling the students was your desire for them to admire and worship you. And lastly, well, that one was more of a ‘Just go away and leave me alone!’ kind of feeling dialed up to eleven.”

Sunset was getting irritated by what her dark half was saying. Yes, she did feel those things at the time, she believed them, but that’s not who she is anymore, and to Sunset, the demon before her represented all the mistakes she made in her life, all the bad that she once had made manifest. And now she was supposed to just accept this thing before her?

“I know that look,” said Sunset Satan. “I can see we’re not going to get along.”

“Gee, what gave you that idea?”

“Well, get comfy, we’re going to be here awhile. The Witchblade healed our body, that bitch shot us in the head and while that’s been repaired, it’ll take a minute us to come back.”

Sunset blinked. “Wait, you’re saying I’m in a coma right now?!”

“Yep, so, we got some time to kill and an entire dreamscape to explore!” Sunset Satan changed her position, now lying on her stomach and swinging her legs back and forth. “So, what should we do to pass the time?”

Sunset face hooved herself.

~*~*~*~

Celestia, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie were all gathered in Sunset’s hospital room. Dr. Blueheart was put in charge of Sunset, meaning nothing happened without her say so. Right now that included any x-rays or CT scans as her bracelet would interfere with the magnets. However, they were able to hook brainwave monitoring equipment, something that Blueheart requested as Sunset still hadn’t awoken.

“I can’t believe it…I saw her with those wounds and it’s…it’s like it never happened,” said Celestia in a hushed tone.

“I assure you, Ms. Celestia, it did indeed happen. I have the bullets to prove it. That being said, physically, Sunset Shimmer is alright,” said Blueheart.

“So why isn’t she awake?!” Rainbow asked.

Dr. Blueheart didn’t know herself, she saw all the damage get repaired before her eyes. “The only thing I can say is the trauma that her head suffered may’ve put her into a coma.” Blueheart pointed to the monitor that was recording her brain activity. “Her brain waves tell me that she’s still in there, probably fighting to come back, that’s a good sign, it means she’s trying to wake up.”

Pinkie Pie chuckled a little. “Sunset’s a fighter, she’s stubborn too. She won’t quit until she’s come back to us.” The pink party planner looked at Blueheart. “Do you think…she can hear us? Feel us?”

“She should be able to, it might actually help her if you speak to her, but one at a time, it’s not best to overwhelm her.”

Rarity placed her hand on Pinkie’s shoulder and said, “You should go first, darling. If that’s alright with you?”

Pinkie Pie nodded.

The others cleared the room, and waited outside. While they did, Mayor Mare came walking down the hallway, flanked by her bodyguards. Celestia opened her arms as the older woman came in and hugged her.

“I heard what happened, are you alright?” Maria asked.

“I’m fine, only Sunset was targeted. Miraculously, she's alive, but…the doctor says she’s in a coma,” said Celestia.

“I’ll speak to the staff, whatever she needs, she’ll get it. I’ll speak to the police chief as well about finding the killer, I campaigned on that there would be no such school shootings in my city, and I plan to keep it that way.” Mayor Mare delicately wiped away Celestia’s tears, she then looked to the assembled girls behind her and smiled. “I recognize you, Miss Belle.”

“Your honor, it’s a pleasure to see you again, and thank you for your help,” said Rarity.

“Whoa, whoa, wait, Principal Celestia knows the Mayor? And you too?!” Rainbow asked with surprise.

“That’s a head stumper fer me too,” said Applejack.

“We’ll tell you later darling.”

A couple of days passed since the shooting, and still the shooter hadn’t been found out. Effort was put towards finding out more about Anon-A-Miss, the investigation was headed by Shining Armor, he vowed to find out who tried to kill Sunset. He actually had to take a day off to console his little sister, she was crying and blaming herself for not working harder to find out who Anon-A-Miss, saying that Sunset’s shooting happened because she wasn’t smart enough to get around this cyber bully.

School had resumed, but the tension in the school was high. The killer hadn’t been found out, leading a lot of the students to be suspicious of each other. Pinkie Pie hadn’t been back to the school in the last two days, refusing to leave Sunset’s side until she finally woke up. The girls wanted to do the same, but they knew it was better that Pinkie was there.

Fluttershy had contacted them, crying her eyes out about Sunset. They managed to calm her down, assuring Fluttershy that Sunset was alive, she was in a coma, but at least she was alive.

Meanwhile, the three who started Anon-A-Miss roamed the halls, completely on edge, not sure what the right thing to do was. Delete the account and come clean, or just wait for the cops to find them. But as they roamed the halls, they could see just how much damage they truly did. There were people who were definitely not alright with what happened. Did they want Sunset gone? Yes, but gone as in not in their school anymore, not gone as in dead.

Their feelings were conflicted, Sunset was a bully, she was their savior, then she showed everyone that she was trying to be a better person, but then Anon-A-Miss brought all this hatred, all this distrust into their lives.

Apple Bloom’s cellphone began to buzz, she took it out and saw that it was from their fourth mystery member. All three girls ducked into a random empty classroom, moved to the far end of the room, and answered the phone.

{Hello, girls, how are things?}

“Things a pretty fucked up right now, that’s what!” Scootaloo answered. “I know you know that Sunset got shot a couple of days ago!”

The girl on the video call, who was still cast in shadows, smiled wickedly. {Yeah, she didn’t see it coming at all. It was so surreal when I pulled the trigger, shame though, I heard she’s recovering in the hospital. Thought for sure I shot her right in the head and the heart.}

All three girls went pale, to the point that they looked like ghosts.

“Y-You…You shot her!” Apple Bloom accused.

{Guilty as charged.}

“Why?! We never said we wanted her dead, just gone!” Sweetie argued.

{Gone, dead, same difference.} she shrugged.

Apple Bloom narrowed her gaze. “No, BIG difference! We never wanted her dead! You went too far with that!”

The girl on the screen chuckled. {Oh don’t get all holier-than-thou with me. You guys started all of this, you started Anon-A-Miss just because you couldn’t get over the fact that Sunset Shimmer was changing, that, and because she was stealing time away from your pwecious sisters. Well two of you have sisters, Scoots over there has a sis-con crush on Rainbow Dash.}

“Shut your mouth your fucking psycho bitch!” Scootaloo spat with venom. “Yeah, okay, we did do all that shit! But we’re not the only ones to blame! We wouldn’t have half of what we have if people didn’t send us secrets to post!”

{Naturally, everyone had a hand in this. But the biggest contributors were you three. All of you made her life a living hell, made her closest friends abandon her, made her the focus of constant abuse from her fellow students, and let’s not forget, she got jumped about a month ago, and now was just shot. All of this, because of you three.}

Sweetie Belle was crying, Scootaloo clenched her fists and gritted her teeth in anger, and Apple Bloom only had a look of shame and regret.

{Now, here’s the kicker girls, this whole conversation…I’ve been live streaming it on the Anon-A-Miss profile page.}

“WHAT???!!!” the trio yelled in unison.

Apple Bloom hurriedly switched to the Anon-A-Miss profile on MyStable, and much to their dread, it was true. On the profile page, they could see their three, horrified faces being featured on the page. They knew that the entire school followed Anon-A-Miss, as much as they hated Anon-A-Miss, they didn’t want to miss a post, just in case she posted something about them.

{You heard it here folks, the ones responsible for Sunset getting shot, the ones responsible for riling you all up and making you gang up on a girl who did nothing wrong and wanted nothing but to make up for her misdeeds. As far as I’m concerned, all of you are monsters.}

The feed was cut after that, now it was just them on the phone.

“You…Why would you do that?!” Apple Bloom demanded, strangling her phone as if doing so would allow this mystery person to feel it on the other end.

The shadows began to move from around the girl on the phone. The room she was in lit up a bit, revealing it was a girl with a gray hoodie, she then pulled back the hoodie and revealed her face. Her hair was raven colored, with ashen gray skin, and small horns that poked out from her forehead. Her eyes were red as blood and glowed a sinisterly, within those eyes was a slit iris that were silver in color and a black pupil at the center.

Apple Bloom nearly dropped her phone, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had wide eyes, their pupils shrinking to pinpricks.

“Because I want hatred. I want anger. But most importantly…I want wrath. The wrath of every single human in that school, which is so charged with magical energy, I want it all. I want them to find you, to tear you apart in their blind fury, and with that wrath, the Eternal Blizzard shall howl and my Wendigo brethren will come forth in droves. Rejoice you three, for you will be the sacrifices that will usher in the end of the human race.”

Apple Bloom’s hand was trembling, Scootaloo’s heart was racing, and Sweetie looked about ready to wet herself from pure fear.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you’re remembered. I’ll build a statue, a memorial over the ruins of this place, if there are to be any survivors, I think they’ve earned the right to see the place where it all started, to know who brought forth this age of cold death.”

“Who…Who are you…?” Sweetie dared to ask.

The demon smiled and said, “I am Nihil. Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, it’s been fun. I’ll miss messing with you three. My one regret is that I won’t be able to pick you apart myself. Oh well, I’ll be enjoying the show.”

The call ended right then and there. The girls looked towards the door, no one had come in, they must’ve not noticed them slipping in, but they knew that this classroom wouldn’t remain a haven for long. Soon a teacher or students would come in and use the room, and the moment they did…

“We’re going to die…the moment we step foot outside that door, we’re going to die…” Scootaloo stated as sweat dripped down her brow.

“T-They wouldn’t do that, right? T-There’s no way they’d actually hurt us…” Sweetie Belle looked to Apple Bloom and grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her fiercely. “Please tell me they won’t hurt us?!”

“Ah…Ah don’t know…”

Just then, the door handle jiggled. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked around for something, anything that they could use to defend themselves with. Apple Bloom spotted a paper cutter, and quickly grabbed it, “Scoots, give me a hand!”

Scootaloo pulled on the cutting lever while Apple Bloom kicked the flat table as hard as she could. She did this repeatedly until the lever-blade broke off. It was an older paper cutter, so the guard on it wasn’t as broad as the newer ones and allowed the blade to curve out more. It was the best that they could do. Apple Bloom let Scootaloo have the blade, she was swifter and more agile, the blade would be better for her, Apple Bloom was going to make due with her own fists. She may not be her sister and brother, but she sure as hell wasn’t a push over when it came to strength.

Soon, the door opened and all three girls tensed up, ready for a fight. However, the tension they felt suddenly dropped when they saw that it was Rainbow Dash who entered the room. The prismatic teen quickly shut the door behind her and walked up to the three girls.

“Are you guys alright?” Rainbow asked.

“Y-Yeah, we are!” Scootaloo answered as she stood before her idol.

“Good, thank god…” Rainbow Dash swiftly punched Scootaloo in the face, sending her straight to the floor in a heap.

Scootaloo was stunned by the blow, for a second it didn’t register, but then the pain made itself known and she began to tear up. The young teen looked up at her idol with tears in her eyes, her friends at her side in a protective circle. “R-Rainbow Dash…”

“That’s the least you deserve!” Rainbow yelled. “You did all this shit, just to make Sunset go away! Because you were jealous of how much time she was spending with us?! I thought you were more mature and above petty shit like this! Do you have any idea what you put me through – put SUNSET through?! The whole fucking school!”

Scootaloo began to sniffle, her heart breaking at the look of anger and disappointment in her idol’s eyes. “I…W-We’re sor–!!”

“Save it!” Rainbow interrupted. “You’re going to have a lot to fucking answer for, but right now we need to get you three somewhere safe.”

“I-I-Is it bad?” Apple Bloom asked.

“The whole damn school is turning into an angry mob! I don’t know what’s going on, but they’re not listening to the teachers and are searching every part of the school for you! At this rate…I don’t know what they’ll do to you, but they look like they’re out for blood,” said Rainbow.

The sports girl reached out with her right hand towards Scootaloo, the young teen looked at it with trepidation.

“I already got my lick in and I said what I wanted to say, c’mon Scoots, it’s still me. I won’t let them hurt you. I’m still you’re ‘Big Sis’ after all.” Rainbow looked directly into Scootaloo’s eyes as she said this, her eyes full of sincerity for her little protégé.

Scootaloo took her hand and let Rainbow help her up, she then rushed into Rainbow and hugged her tightly as she cried into her chest. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!”

“I messed up and let a friend down once. You betrayed a lot of people, Scoots, but I’m not betraying you, c’mon, all of you, we need to move.”

“Yer not goin’ to smack us too, are ya?” Apple Bloom asked.

Rainbow scoffed. “Are you shitting me? If I laid a hand on either of you two, Rarity and AJ would rip me apart. That being said, Scoots is my ‘lil’ sis’, what your big sisters do to you is something else.”

Sweetie and Apple Bloom gulped hard.

Rainbow Dash moved closer to the door and cracked it ever so slightly. When she did, she saw dozens of CHS students roaming the halls, there as a red light tinting their eyes, and a look of bloodlust on their faces. Rainbow closed the door and cursed.

“Looks like we’re not going anywhere anytime soon…”