Celestia pulled up a chair from the nearby desk and gestured for Sunset to take a seat.

Sunset sighed and sat on the corner of the bed, intentionally turning her face to the wall.

"You were gone for nearly twelve years. What exactly happened to you in the other world?", Celestia asked with concern in her voice.

"I don't think you really want to know, Princess,", Sunset said, looking down at the floor.

"I know what Luna told me when she looked in your dreams.", Celestia replied, "But I want to hear it from your mouth."

"If you really want to know, then I'll tell you, but I don't think you'll like what I have to tell you.", Sunset stated, "It'll give you nightmares."

"I've lived for three thousand years, I've seen more than my share of things to give me nightmares.", Celestia stated flatly. "Try me."

"Don't say I didn't warn you,", Sunset sighed, "As you know when I went through the portal twelve years ago I was a young and angry filly on the cusp of marehood. When I arrived in the other world, Earth they call it, I was a young girl in what they called middle school in the year nineteen ninety-nine. The country I was in was called the United States of America and an upcoming election loomed on the horizon. I'll save you that whole cluster fuck of a story. I was in what was called seventh grade and had aspirations of taking over that world, then marching back here to take over this world. Well it turns out I was just a nobody from nowhere and a Johnny-come-lately as the whole world was filled with hundreds if not thousands of others who had real aspirations of global domination. Politicians, religious leaders, racial supremacists, celebrities and telemarketers. So after a couple of years and more than a few run-ins with the law, I gave up my aspirations of global dominance and decided to keep my head down for while."

"I don't see how this changed you into the violent and traumatized vigilante taking the law into her own hooves.", Celestia said.

"I'm getting to that, I'm just laying down the backstory that eventually led to me coming back here.", Sunset replied, "In the year of two thousand one, a group of religious leaders who had taken control of a country had convinced several of their followers that it was God's will to crash some flying machines into some buildings killing thousands. This prompted the elected leader of the United States to send the military to two countries to prosecute a war to bring 'freedom' to those countries and free them from the 'oppression of tyranny’. At the time, my body was the age of a fourteen year old girl and I had gotten whipped up in a whole patriotic fervor, of course it was aided by the leaders of the group home I was placed in."

"Why were you in a group home?"

"You remember me saying I had more than a few run-ins with the law?" Sunset said, "Well it turns out that when you get arrested one too many times, they put you into a prison for kids called juvie and they ran my background, finding I had no known family, no social security number, or even a birth certificate. When they questioned me about where I came from, I finally cracked and told them I was actually a pony from a parallel dimension who was the estranged student of the goddess of the sun. They ruled that I had a mental illness and tossed me in a hospital for months where they made me take strong medications until I basically became more pill than person. After they finally released me, they figured I was the daughter of some homeless couple that had abandoned me. I was declared a ward of the state and placed me in a religious based group home. It was basically a legalized form of slavery as they would make us do work to keep the place up, take our state checks and basically fed us the grossest food imaginable."

"Sounds like it was awful. Like Tartarus on Equus.", Celestia said with a sad look in her eyes.

"It was horrible, I was basically made to eat the flesh of animals, some of it was weird colored and tasted like chemicals, even the fruits and vegetables tasted bland and full of artificial chemicals.", Sunset said flatly, "When the attack happened, I was in the first year of what was called high school. Between the group home and the four years of high school, I practically jumped at the first chance to get out of there. A branch of the United States' military called the marines was the first to send a recruiter to the school I attended with the promise of traveling the world, seeing distant locations, and that they'd pay for college. So I signed my name on the dotted line and a few months after I graduated, the bus came to pick me up. I really didn't have much choice as once the kids in the group home are out of school, they're usually kicked out and seeing as I didn't have any family I could call on, it was either sleep on the streets or commit to my promise to join the marines."

"Why would they throw a young mare out in the streets once they were out of school and not help them find a place to live and get a job?"

"All because a few decades before I came to that world an elected president had some laws passed that cut funding to programs that helped released convicts, the mentally ill and the homeless find jobs, get an education and find places to live, I believe he called it 'deinstitutionalization'.", Sunset said with a half smirk, "But back on topic Princess, I went through marine boot camp for about sixteen weeks. It was hard, but I stuck through it because the choice was simple, stay in and work hard to become a trained killer for the government or wash-out and live on the streets. Then, after I completed boot camp, I took several months of MOS. I made a few friends between boot and MOS, most of us were split up and sent to other divisions. I was lucky to have a friend I made in boot deployed with me. Over the years I made three more friends. The five of us were nearly inseparable. I guess that's what happens when you fight in the mud and sleep in foxholes together."

"So you abandoned your friends?", Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No I didn't, during my third year of deployment we were on patrol in this sun baked desert town called Fallujah when we were ambushed. Right out the gate everything went to shit and out of the five of us, I was the only one to survive.", Sunset replied as she curled the corner of her lip in a partial smirk, "It was two years later when I was on leave and found what the government did to the soldiers, airmen, and seamen who got injured in combat that I decided to get out of that world as soon as I could."

"What did they do to them?", celestia asked as she leaned forward, "Did they kill them or torture them?"

"That would be more humane than what actually happened to them.", Sunset replied, "Though most were able to adjust to life after the military, even with all the nightmares and the jitters and jumpiness, too many were just discarded." A tear ran down her cheek as she recounted the tale, "When I was on leave I had found a former marine who I had personally seen two years prior wade through the bullets and shrapnel to drag wounded marines and soldiers to safety. He had ignored his injuries and just kept dragging them one by one to safety. When I found him he was living under an overpass, bone thin starving, he was sick both physically and mentally, he barely knew who he was or where he was." She gave a small sniffle before clearing her throat and continuing, "It was then and there I personally swore I'd find a way to get out of that world at any cost as I refused to become like that. I had found in the local library a book on Equestrian magic someone had written down decades or centuries ago. I stole the book and began looking through the spells until I found the one that would force the mirror portal open early. On the night before I was supposed to report back from leave, I stocked up on food, broke into a pawn shop, stole a half-busted colt forty-five and some bullets. I then cast the spell forcing the portal open, as soon as I stepped through, the portal slammed shut. I aimed the forty-five at the portal with the intention to put all six bullets through it so no one from either side could come through but after the first shot the cylinder jammed, so I discarded it and bolted."

"When you encountered Chrysalis, you didn't use a forty-five on her, you used a different thunder weapon.", Celestia stated.

"So that's what the bug thing was called.", Sunset said with a half chuckle, "No, I used the Beretta I had smuggled off base on it. She was talking to another bug thing about sneaking in through the crystal maze to replace someone called Cadenza. After the smaller bug thing flew off, I stepped out to confront it. It was all smirking and pontification after it stuck my feet to the ground with some green goo. The look on its face was priceless when I pulled out my pistol and pumped a half dozen shots into it. The nine millimetre may not have the knockdown power of a forty-five, but it makes up for it by having a higher muzzle velocity and greater penetration. The bug thing tried to fly away but it didn't get very far because of blood loss and shock. That's when I got out of there."

"So then after you got to Manehattan you decided to take the law into your own hooves and kill the members of the terrorists gang.", Celestia said flatly.

"I had actually read about the terrorist's attack on your pupil from some old newspapers here in Canterlot. It was only when I got to Manehattan that I heard about what the terrorist and her group had done with a gas attack that I decided to go to war in the name of all the children she had killed."

Celestia tapped a hoof to her chin. "So is that your end goal? Wage this war of justice on the terrorist and her gang one death at a time?"

"I wage a war of vengeance for the innocents she has killed. I prefer to think it is punishment, though if you want to call it justice, then justice is justice, whether it is at them smack of a judge's gavel or at the end of a muzzle.", Sunset said with clear certainty. "I wanted her to know I was coming, I wanted her to know that every one of her fellow terrorists I kill is one step closer to killing her. I never expected to get a face to face meeting with her so soon, but now that I've got her face, I know who I have to put the bullet into. I just never expected her to be so fast, almost like she could anticipate my movements as I made them."

"You're not the first to say something so similar.", Celestia said calmly, "One last question. Why the skull motif?"

"Criminals and terrorists are a cowardly and superstitious lot.", Sunset replied, "Make them think that you're death himself coming to drag their souls into hell and they'll actually cower before you. Now one question for you. Did this laughing mare actually kill your student or just injure her and you've managed to squirrel her away in the castle?"

Celestia balked at the question.

Sunset chuckled. "Same old Celestia, the right hoof doesn't know what the left hoof is doing as you play poker with the universe. Take me to her."

"I won't. She's currently in a delicate position physically and mentally."

Sunset quirked an eyebrow at Celestia's response. “Fine, keep your secrets then. Just give me my stuff and I'll be on my merry way. Unless you plan on tossing me in prison."

"Actually I have a better plan.", Celestia said calmly, "You have a way of getting things done that not even my sister's brigand-hunter or my thief-taker generals can do. You won't be working in any official capacity, but my brothers, sister, and I would be willing to turn a blind eye to your little war. Give us a few months to familiarize ourselves with your weapons, I'll even put you in contact with a brilliant unicorn named Sunburst, he didn't go far in my school. If you work with him, I'm sure he can help keep you supplied and even possibly help make improvements on your weapons. Now remember that because you're not working in any official capacity, so if you wind up dead or arrested, we will disavow any prior knowledge of your existence."

"So either I jump through a few hoops for you and still have no guarantee of anything or I go to prison?", Sunset asked.

Celestia nodded.

Sunset sighed. "One condition. I do this my way, no orders, no reports, no letters. The only thing between me and the terrorists is the muzzle of my guns."

Celestia thought for a minute. "Deal."

*Monochrome's Journal, Whinnyapolis day 1*

Dear Journal.

I arrived in town two days after Sunset's rampage. When I went to the house she attacked, it was still marred with holes, scorch marks and dried blood. Asking around to the neighbors they said that the battle raged for fifteen minutes. She waded into this house outnumbered and made it out alive. In fifteen minutes, she killed thirty criminals, rescued five hostages and walked out alive. As I went through the house trying to get in her head, I could imagine that it must have been Tartarus on Equus. When I got my hooves on the statements the two young mares gave to the police, they described her as the very specter of death coming to enact divine justice. It turns out the criminals had foalnapped the two young mares and three fillies from their homes so they could abuse and force themselves on them, sick fucks. When I tried to talk to the hostages at the hospital, the doctors refused to allow me to talk with them, saying that they've been through too much for the time being. When they are released from the hospital, I'll try and track them down to talk to them. I must applaud Sunset, though I don't approve of her methods, she got the hostages out with any further harm.

Yours truly, Monochrome.

P.S. The next time I see Sunset I must find out where she got her thunder boxes from.

********************************************************************************************************

Four months had passed since The Mare Who Laughs had her showdown with Sunset. She was on the move to Vanhoover as there was a new prospect for an alchemy lab on the outskirts. She looked at a hoof mirror, observing at the small scar above her eyebrow. "Any news on where Bacon-head disappeared to?", she asked, turning to a henchpony.

"None boss.", the henchpony replied, "It doesn't make any sense on how somepony can show up, unleash Tartarus, and then vanish like a puff of smoke in the wind. It's almost like she's the specter of death itself."

The Mare Who Laughs mane became a pompadour. "Ah-heeheehee-oh-heeheehee-oo-heeheehee! Well lucky for you I don't believe in ghosts and specters. She’s very much flesh and blood. Even though she may have gotten away, it won't be long before she comes snooping around again." She pulled out a small binder from under the seat. Opening it she read over a ledger as she looked over a picture of Blueblood. "I'll go and visit those two former idiots' patrons when he arrives in Vanhoover. Maybe he'll be amicable to a proposition or I'll put a permanent smile on his face. Either way, I get what I want."

********************************************************************************************************

Twilight lay in her bed, her bump was massive. Fluttershy was in the bathroom emptying out her bedpan.

As Twilight leaned up in bed and saw a wet spot spreading on the bed between her hind legs. "Great! I pissed the bed." She threw back the covers ready to call for Fluttershy to bring her some fresh bedding. She gasped and shouted, "Fluttershy! Get in here!"

Fluttershy walked in from the bathroom. "What is Twilight?"

"Get a doctor! I think my water just broke!"

Fluttershy gasped and ran out of the room dropping the bedpan.

Outside the delivery room Twilight Velvet, Night Light, Cadence, and Shining Armor paced back and forth nervous. They had been waiting for hours for any news. A nurse came out of the delivery room.

"What's the news?", Twilight Velvet asked.

"We've induced labor and have been helping with contractions, but it's difficult to tell as she has no conscious movements of her muscles below her midsection. It's only a matter of time now before we have any actual news.", the nurse replied. "Don't worry, Doctor Stable has experience with delivering foals from handicapped mothers." She went back into the delivery room.

Another agonizing two hours passed before the sound of a crying foal came out of the delivery room. It sounded like music to the ears of Twilight Velvet, Night Light, Shining Armor and Cadance.

After twenty minutes, Doctor Stable came out. "She's resting comfortably, though there was a complication.", she said, "She experienced some hemorrhaging and we'll have to hold her for a couple of weeks for observation. If you want, you all can go back to see the foal."

Cadence, Twilight Velvet, Night Light and Shining Armor made their way into the delivery room. They let out a collective gasp when they saw Twilight nursing the bundled up colt.

Twilight Velvet made her way over to her daughter's side and kissed her on the cheek. "Congratulations, mommy. What's his name?"

Twilight smiled down at her nursing colt. "Dusk Shine.", she said softly.

The four let out a collective squee.

********************************************************************************************************

Sunset stood in the impromptu firing range in one for the basements under the castle. Several pumpkins and buckets were set up on wooden pedestals She inspected the firearms that Sunburst had made for her and noted the improvements he had made. She lifted one of the pistols, he had added a selector switch to the original design allowing her to switch between semi-auto or full auto, slightly improved the balancing and made the slide move almost silky smooth. She inserted a magazine into the pistol, cocked it and squeezed off a few shots. She then flipped the selector switch to full auto and squeezed the trigger. She gave a slight whoop in celebration.

Turning her attention to the shotgun, Sunset looked it over, other than vastly improving the sights, there wasn't much change from her original design. Loading a shell into the chamber, she aimed the shotgun down range and squeezed the trigger. Levitating the bucket over, she inspected the spread pattern. Sunburst had mixed in a smaller shot with the buckshot. She gave herself a mental note to tell him that buckshot was enough, it didn't need birdshot as well.

Sunset then inspected the assault rifle. The barrel had been set lower in the fore stock, the cocking lever also doubled as the forward assist and pouches to hold spare magazines had been added to the butt stock. She loaded the magazine into the rifle and she chambered a round. Squeezing off a few shots, she noted the better balance the lower set barrel had added. Flipping the selector switch to full auto, she emptied the magazine.

Sunset then turned her attention to the sniper rifle. Cycling the bolt, she noted that it was almost silent. She flipped up the covers on the scope, it had been the most difficult part to make. Looking through the scope, she turned the sighting aperture a few clicks until the furthest target came into view. Loading a bullet into the chamber and squeezed the trigger. Frowning that the shot was low and to the left, she took a screwdriver and adjusted the windage and elevation. Loading another round into the rifle, she squeezed the trigger and smiled that the rough was less than an inch off true center.

Sunburst and Celestia came in talking softly. Sunset held in his magic a light machine gun based off the designs for a SAW Sunset had drawn out.

"I take it that the new weapon designs meet your approval?", Sunburst asked.

"Yes.", Sunset replied, "Though the shotgun doesn't need both buckshot and birdshot in a shell, buckshot will more than suffice."

"Noted.", Sunburst replied, "I've got your squad automatic weapon. Though I'm still having a problem with it overheating." He passed it to Sunset.

"Machineguns always overheat.", Sunset replied, "That's why you have interchange barrels for when you do any prolonged shooting." She loaded a belt of ammunition into the SAW and chambered a round. "You might want to brace yourself princess, it's about to get awesome." Flipping down the bipod, she sighted it down range, squeezed the trigger and sent a fifteen round burst shredding a pumpkin. Quickly switching targets, she shredded them one by one. Hoisting the now empty machine gun as wisps of smoke curled out of the muzzle, she turned to Celestia and muttered, "Oorah!"

Author's Note

I want to say to all those whom have read my story so far, thank you.
I hope you all enjoy.

I will try and take all criticisms as constructive

Again thank you all and enjoy.

Thanks to A_Darker_Font for the edit.