Celestia was awoken in the predawn darkness by a loud banging on her bedroom door. Opening the door, a nervous guard was waiting. "Yes? What can I do for you, private?", Celestia asked with a slightly annoyed tone in her voice.

The guard, bowing, replied, "Your majesty, nearly twenty minutes ago the magi detected the portal to the other world activating even though it's not supposed to open for another two years at least. When several of the Night Guard went to investigate, they found the portal had been damaged, but no sign of any creature had come through. Princess Luna and Prince Bulwark are currently investigating."

Celestia pushed past the guard and hurried down to the basement where the mirror portal was being held. Luna and Bulwark were already investigating the damaged portal. A strange hole had penetrated the mirror. leaving the remainder of it in a spiderweb crack and laying on the ground was an odd steel blue device with a long thin hollow tube sticking out one end and a large short cylinder in the middle of it, the smell of a strange smoke hung in the air. Celestia quickly gestured for the guards to leave the room, then began manipulating the odd device. The large cylinder swung open and six smaller brass cylinders fell out. Five of the cylinders had lead cones embedded in the end, one was completely empty. Levitating the empty brass cylinder up to her nose, she took a sniff. It had the same smell as the odd smoke in the air. Dropping the six brass cylinders on the floor, she began looking around the room.

"Something definitely came through.", Luna said, probing the room with her magic, "Whatever it was, it definitely has unicorn magic."

Celestia found just outside the door on the floor between the wall and the frame a small rectangular patch. It had a couple of dark green threads hanging off the edge of it. Turning the patch over with her magic, she found it resembled a flag, it had thirteen red and white stripes, in one corner it had a deep blue square field with fifty silver stars. Celestia gestured for a guard. "Double all guards around the element bearers, especially Twilight and around the vault holding the elements." She turned back to Bulwark, "Tell Calligraphy that she's back."

Bulwark set his jaw and narrowed his eyes before nodding. He disappeared in a flash of bronze light.

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

Twilight opened her eyes, the morning light began pouring in through the crack in the curtains. She yawned as her stomach growled. Looking over at the plate that held cookies from the night before, she frowned seeing only crumbs left. Looking down at her belly, she was just beginning to show. Climbing into her wheelchair, she began her morning routine, excited for her three month checkup. Sitting in the shower chair as the warm water cascaded over her, she ran her hooves gently over her bump feeling the occasional twitch as the foal squirmed within, a small smile spread on her lips. Drying off with a fluffy towel, she opened the medicine cabinet, pulled out a small bottle of vitamins, shook two into her hoof and made herself a glass of water. After swallowing the two vitamin pills, she wheeled herself to the door, opening it. A group of a dozen guards snapped to attention in the hallway, catching her by surprise. "Uh, what's going on?"

When none of the guards answered her, Twilight became cross. "Somepony better start answering me or I'll go straight to Celestia and find out what's going on.", she said, her words taking a harsh tone. When she got no answer, Twilight began wheeling herself down the hallway towards the throne. The guards formed in a box formation around her. "Get away from me!", she shouted, flailing her hooves.

"Twilight!", Cadence called out as she hurried through the hallway, "Stand down! Give her some room!" She hurried over and gently laid a hoof on Twilight's forelimb.

Looking up at Cadence, Twilight asked, "Just what in the name of Tartarus is going on?!"

"The whole castle is in an uproar."Cadence replied, "This morning, before dawn, a creature entered into the castle and then escaped before any of the guards could stop it. Apparently it caused some minor damage before it escaped." She turned to the guards, "It's okay, she's with me. Go inform Shining Armor of the change in orders." The guards saluted before marching off. As she began pushing Twilight through the hallway, she asked softly, "So where is our first stop this morning?"

"First I've got to go to the OB/GYN, he said at my last appointment that if I'm lucky today, they'll be able to tell if I'm having a filly or a colt in eight months."

"Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh!", Cadence began to babble as her hooves came to a stop. In her head two dozen versions of herself began a choreographed dance fight. Half were wearing black leather jackets with a picture of a shark on them, the other half were wearing white tee-shirts. She shook her head feeling like there were little Bridleway versions reenacting West Saddle Story in her head.

"Uh, Cadence? You still with us?", Twilight said turning her head.

"Yeah, yeah!", Cadence responded, feeling a bit bewildered, "It's just a minor shock to the system that they'll be able to determine the gender of the foal so soon."

"The doctor said that he might not be one hundred percent certain depending on which way the foal is facing. But he did say he could definitely determine if I'm having an earth pony, a pegasus or a unicorn.", Twilight said with a small smile as she laid a hoof on her bump. She giggled as she felt it squirm through her hoof.

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

Celestia and Bulwark were going through some paperwork when a guard burst in in full gallop. "Your majesties!", he called out between gasps, "Somepony’s reported that they heard what sounded like several snaps of thunder down by the entrance to the Crystal Maze. When some guards went to investigate, they found Chrysalis laying on the ground dying with several strange holes in her and six brass cylinders nearby!"

"Where is she now?!", Celestia barked out the question.

"Down at the western guard hub!", the guard snapped a reply

"Go Celestia!", Bulwark rumbled, "I've got everything handled here."

Celestia teleported off in a flash of golden light.

Through the alleyways, a light-orange unicorn mare wearing a dark olive-green jacket, matching cap, and wearing saddle bags with a grey square pattern camouflage design galloped, dodging guard patrols. She stopped at the edge of an outcrop. Looking behind her, she heard several guard patrols galloping, searching for her. Taking a look down, she saw a freight train passing by on the tracks. In a flash of orange light, she vanished and reappeared on top of one of the cars. Sliding the heavy door open on the freight car with her magic, she swung down inside the car. Levitating a semiautomatic pistol out of her saddle bag, she waved it around in her magic. Confident she was alone, she returned the pistol back in her saddlebag and slid the door on the freight car shut until it was open only a crack.

Taking off her cap revealed a red and yellow streaked mane, several long thin scars ran lengthwise along the left side of her face, a chunk of her left ear was missing with scar tissue where the rest of it should be. She reached in her saddlebag and pulled out a picture of herself in human form with four humans. All five were wearing body armor and fatigues. She sniffled quietly as she remembered the last time she had seen her four best friends alive. They were on patrol on the streets of a sun baked desert town when a man jumped out of a nearby doorway with a grenade in his hand screaming something she didn't understand before charging them. She and her friends cut the man down with several bursts from their rifles, a split second later the grenade exploded killing Braddock in a hail of shrapnel and gore. A second later, bullets start flying out the windows like angry hornets. As they scrambled for cover, "Stinky" Carpazio was nearly cut in half by a line of bullets. The next second a grenade landed a few feet from them. That's when Sergeant "Double Doobie" Davidson threw himself on it, he vanished in a cloud of pink mist and fire. As the three of them tried to fall back into an alleyway that's when "Grunty'' Gunderson took a stray bullet under his helmet spraying her with his brains and blood. As a Humvee pulled up to extract them, an RPG round slammed into it, the last she saw of her old boot camp buddy, "Twisty" Yang, he was screaming as he burned alive.

She ran her hoof along the picture, she whispered, "It's okay boys, 'Bacon-head' is home now." She slipped the photo back into her saddlebag, reached up to her collar and undid the pins. Looking at the two bronze pins in her hoof, they depicted an eagle sitting atop a globe with an anchor under it. Putting the the bronze pins in her saddle bags, fishing around, she pulled a pen and a piece of paper, then started writing a letter.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I'm sorry that I wasn't the best student I should have been. I'm also sorry for forcing the portal back open early and then damaging it with a pistol. I couldn't go back to the humans and that war. By the time they realize I've gone AWOL, it will be too late. I'm sorry for the stir I caused in the castle and at the mines. When I caught that changeling trying to sneak in, I didn't hesitate and cut her down. I also want to apologize for the loss of your prized student. From my own personal experiences, too many good lives have been cut too short by violence or madness. If you send some ponies to arrest me, I won't fight them.

Your former student, Pvt. 1st class Sunset 'Bacon-head' Shimmer

She pulled an envelope out, slid the letter in, and sealed it with a lick. She quickly ran a mental check of her gear: one Beretta nine millimetre pistol, two full spare magazines, one magazine with nine rounds rounds left, one K-bar knife, one vest of bullet-proof armor, one can of black spray paint, one can of white spray paint, one compact of camouflage paint, two dozen cans of food, and two canteens of water. She pulled out the rolled up bullet-proof vest and two cans of spray paint. She peeled off her name tag from the Velcro on the vest, spray painted the vest black and painted a stylized pony skull on the front of the vest.

Back in the castle, Twilight was proudly showing off the printed ultrasound picture of her unicorn colt growing in her to her friends.

"Have you decided on a name darling?", Rarity asked.

"I'm thinking of naming him Dusk Shine.", Twilight responded.

Rainbow gently ran her hoof on Twilight's bump, "Hey there little buddy, I can't wait to meet you. Your Auntie Rainbow is going to teach you how to be awesome."

Midnight walked up, levitating the revolver in his magic. He cleared his throat as he levitated it to Twilight. "Do you think you can transcribe the markings on this device that was used to damage the mirror portal? Don't worry, we have determined it has been properly deactivated."

Twilight took the revolver in her magic and began looking over the markings. "I can tell you right now that these numbers are ponish that say point four five." She pointed a hoof to a picture of a pony, "It looks like this picture of an earth pony, maybe the picture combined with the numbers something like earth pony point four five. Hmm. Maybe Mare point four five or stallion point four five or just pony point four five. Without some point of reference for these runes, it's going to be hard to make out." She rolled the revolver over in her magic seeing a series of numbers and letters along the side of the barrel. "Here on this tube is a combination of ponish numbers and strange runes, maybe a maker's mark or a batch number.” She rolled it, seeing at the bottom of the grip four numbers and some letters. "Hmm. Two zero one five, three runes divided by three dots. Another maker's mark or batch number with some kind of abbreviation?" She passed the revolver back to Midnight. "If I didn't have my health and the health of this little colt to worry about, I'd think nothing about sitting up several nights in the archives seeing if there were any books on any of the old languages living or dead that I could cross reference it too. Maybe ask Spike, or if he's still alive, Owlowicious to help you out. They know all my research methods and they maybe could help you out."

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

*Twilight's log entry 30*

It's been three days since Shiny and Cadence had their wedding in secret. We took an airship to Mareuba along with a complement of three dozen guards, three nurses and an OB/GYN. Poor Shiny was airsick the whole ride down. Mareuba is beautiful. Golden beaches as far as the eyes can see, steel drum bands playing every evening and the stallions in their tight little swim trunk or their surf shorts. Lemme tell you now, momma likes! I thought Shiny was going to have his eyes pop out of his head when Cadance showed off her new bathing suit. I'm four months along now and between the cravings and the hormones, it can be difficult to relax or sleep. I kept getting weird looks from the wait staff whenever we eat out because of my odd requests, but they immediately write it off when they see my bump. I thought Shiny was going to shave my mane off the first night we were there because I woke up with some serious craving and raided the minibar of all the cookies, crackers, jelly beans and fruit. We decided right after that to always keep my room stocked with plenty of whatever snacks I might wake up craving in the middle of the night. I thought Shiny and Cadence's hearts were going to burst out of their chests when they felt the little colt wiggling and dancing in my belly. The club scene isn't too bad here and I even managed to get some cute local stallion to keep bringing me non-alcoholic maretais and plates of fruit all night.

Addendum: Our vacation had to be cut short because of a hurricane that was blowing in and we had to fly back to the mainland with Shiny feeding the fishes the whole time.*

*War journal entry 1*

I've been in Manehattan three days. Immediately after I arrived, I panhandled for a few bits so I could mail off the letter off to Celestia. Either she doesn't care or she hasn't received my letter yet as to explain why she hasn't sent anyone after me. I found some old newspapers recounting a new terrorist, some deranged mare that likes laughing and committing mass murder. I'm in a new war, only now I'm not taking orders from some bean counter in D.C. telling me I have to fire this many rounds or from some oil tycoon wanting to protect his investment. I'm fighting this war on my own terms. I did a little recon and found a small cell of the terrorist organization holed up in an abandoned house. There were eight inside when I kicked in the door, I fired five shots from my trusty Beretta and five clean kills. My old drill sergeant would be proud. One tried to ambush me, in his last few seconds he knew what a K-bar felt like when it went through his neck. The last two I tied down to some chairs. Before I even began asking questions, I skinned the first one alive while his buddy watched. After I strung his bleeding corpse from the rafters, I then turned the knife on his buddy. Whether it is, a pony or a human, when you make them watch their buddy be tortured alive has a real way of loosening the tongue. After I got what I wanted from him, I began driving nails through his hooves. He caterwauled on about justice, I informed him this wasn't justice, this was war and in war you don't have the luxury of being nice or singing songs about friendship. I let him go and told him to tell his friends about me and how I was here to seek vengeance for all the fillies and colts his kind murdered. When he asked my name, I just told him Bacon-head before carving the words "foal murderer" in his chest and sending him out into the crowded streets. Fuck 'em, if he survives mob justice, then his buddies know I'm coming for them. I ran a sweep of the old house, finding a couple of crossbows, several packs of bolts, some homemade explosives, and some fireworks. Now at least I've got some supplies for my war. I stashed what I could carry in my saddle bags, then set fire to the house to deny his buddies any further access to what remained.

*War journal entry 2*

I've been fighting my own personal war for six days now. I spent most of the fourth and fifth days either breaking apart the fireworks to make crude firebombs or gathering intel on the local terrorist cells. On the fifth night while I was gathering intel, I discovered that Celestia had sent one of her agents after me. Whoever he is, he's well trained. If I were back in Iraq I'd say he was a SEAL, recon, CIA or SAS, but this ain't Earth. He's definitely got some kind of military training though, maybe one of Celestia's former soldiers. Well soldier boy, let's see how you deal with a jarhead. I managed to give him the slip and posted up a roof to watch him. When he couldn't find me, he began tracking down some of the terrorists. He didn't hesitate to hurt them, but he won't kill. More for me. On the sixth night I tracked down one of the larger cells to an abandoned warehouse on the waterfront. I nabbed one of them that was shaking down a boat captain for protection money and slit his throat. Thanks for the bits. When I tossed a chunk of the bits back to the captain, he thanked me and said I was a good pony for bringing that crook to justice. I informed him that what I do isn't justice, it's vengeance and I'm not a good pony, I'm a bad pony that makes other bad ponies fear going out as I'm waging a one mare war. I decided to leave this agent a little calling card and tossed a few firebombs into the abandoned warehouse that the terrorists were using as a base. As soon as the first one bolted, I put a crossbow bolt through his head. They had the choice, burn to death in that warehouse or come outside to their death in the streets. Two of them decided to rush me while I was reloading the crossbow, two quick shots of my trusty Beretta later and they decided that it was better to just scatter. I saw Celestia's agent watching me from on top of a nearby building. There was something familiar about him. Though the color of his mane and coat were wrong, he looked like a colt I knew before I enrolled in Celestia's school all those years ago. I guess if I get my hooves on him, I'll ask.

*Monochrome's Journal Manehattan day 1*

Dear journal,

Father sent me to Manehattan to track down my old friend from when I was a foal, a mare named Sunset Shimmer after seeing what she did to the changeling queen back in Canterlot (she embedded six small lead cones in her in less than a second with some box that makes thunder). She definitely is trained in that weapon. I immediately found her handiwork. Seven bodies were found in an old abandoned house that had been burned down, an eighth was in the hospital. He had nails driven into his hooves and the words "foal murderer" carved into his chest. It was a miracle that the crowds didn't tear him apart. When I questioned him about who had done it and why, he said some mare calling herself "Bacon-head" and that she was waging war. So Sunset, you're veteran too and you've gotten the taste for killing in the other world and now you're fighting your own personal war. I'd chastise you about this, but I'm fighting my war too. As long as you're just going after those scum suckers, I'll let you keep doing what you're doing, for now.

Yours truly, Monochrome

*Monochrome's Journal Manehattan day 4*

Dear Journal,

I picked up Sunset's trail on the lower east side, but she gave me the slip. I could feel her watching me. I managed to find one of the terrorists' henchponies. I broke his right forelimb and knocked out two of his teeth. Apparently they have received word of Sunset as he was trying to find a way out of town when I caught up to him. On the fourth night I caught wind of Sunset when I was pressing a henchpony for information. After splitting his hoof and teleporting him to the nearest police precinct, I began tracking her. She knows I'm tracking her and let me find her. When I finally caught sight of her at the waterfront, she had just cut the throat of a scum sucker who was shaking down a local boat captain for money. She slipped some of the bits into her saddlebags and then threw the rest back to the captain. I stayed on the rooftops following her as she went to an abandoned warehouse. She threw some firebombs through the windows, when the first henchpony ran out, she pinned his head to the door with a crossbow bolt. Two others tried to rush her, that's when she put them down with two blasts of her thunder box. The rest that weren't burning alive decided to grow some brain cells and decided to scatter. She turned and looked straight at me. In the gleaming light of the fire our eyes locked. I could see it all, she had gone into the very heart of darkness and had returned hard and cold. What did they do to you in that other world? I decided to slip back into the shadows and watch her. She's got to lay her head down somewhere. When I find out where, I'll introduce myself and we'll have a heart to heart.

Yours truly, Monochrome

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

Monochrome spent three days tracking Sunset Shimmer across Manehattan. She seemed to not sleep in the same place for more than a couple of hours before setting out. He finally got some luck when she settled down in an abandoned house for the night. He decided to drop in on her for a talk.

Approaching the house he paused looking for booby traps or magical wards. Finding none, he decided to look in the window and saw a sleeping form wrapped in a dark green blanket. He decided to slip around the corner of the house and teleport in.

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

Sunset Shimmer had caught sight of Monochrome tracking her across the city over the past few days. She quickly formulated a plan for when he decided to show up for the inevitable confrontation. She found an abandoned house somewhere out of the way. Slipping inside, she laid out her blanket. She cast a force field in a rough shape of a pony and an illusion spell to make a close approximation of her likeness over the force field, then laid her blanket over the top of it and posted up an ambush, it was a waiting game now. After a couple of hours she saw him look through the window from her place in the shadows, a small smile crossed her lips. As she watched him leave from the window and head for the corner of the house, she changed position and checked the ammo in the pistol, one in the chamber and two in the magazine, more than enough if she needed to shoot him.

Monochrome teleported into the room. As he went to kick the blanket off the sleeping form, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye as a small box-shaped object was pressed to his temple.

Sunset waited for her quarry to teleport in. She didn't have to wait long. When Monochrome appeared in a sepia flash of light, she quickly pressed the muzzle of the Beretta against his temple. "Any sudden moves and I dump your brains against the wall.", she said coldly as she pressed the pistol against his temple harder for effect.

"Easy, Sunset. I've come here to talk, not to fight.", Monochrome said in an easy and calm tone. If she had wanted to kill him, she would have used that thunder box on him as soon as he appeared.

"You know who I am, now tell me something. Why do you look like my old friend Calligraphy Well?"

Monochrome darted his eye in her direction. She recognized him, she just didn't know the truth, though this was Calligraphy's body, the pony was left behind in that war eight years ago.

Sunset saw the look of recognition in his eyes and pulled the pistol back from his head. "You're him aren't you?"

"Calligraphy was left behind in the Diamond Dog War eight years ago, buried somewhere in an old warren. All you see now is Monochrome."

"Don't give me that shit!", Sunset snarled, "I've seen war too. I spent six years in the Corps. Everything I was, was shattered and left strewn on the streets of Al Fallujah. I watched friends I made in boot camp and on the battlefield turned into bullet riddled corpses or red paste all because some bean counter said we needed to shoot this many rounds to justify some ledger or some oil tycoon wanted to protect their investment. So don't give me this 'I'm not Calligraphy' horse crap."

"What happened to you in this 'Corps'?", Monochrome asked, "Did they torture you? Did they break you? Did they murder everything you were?"

"No, until they sent me off to fight in that damned war. The Marines were the best years of my life. Hell, I even signed up right out of high school because I was sold on the idea of patriotism.", Sunset stated, "They turned me into a perfect fighting machine and sold all of us on this crap that were bringing democracy to some third world hellhole that was full of religious zealots bent on waging their holy war on anything and everything."

"Corps? Marines?"

“You know, the United States Marine Corps? Jarheads? Leather neck? Devil dogs?", Sunset asked, "That's right, I forget sometimes that this is Equestria where everybody is always licking the bottom of Celestia's hooves and telling her they taste just like strawberries." She lowered the pistol. "Well, where I wound up when I went to the other side of the mirror portal was a world filled with shaved apes. I thought I would be able to turn them into my loyal followers and take over the place. Only I found out that people like that were a dime a dozen and I just another Johnny-come-lately to that game. There were millions who were able to turn people to their cause without the use of magic. Politicians, celebrities, religious fanatics, cult leaders, billionaires. And here I was, a nobody from nowhere with no background in that world, so I learned to keep my head down, plus even though I may have been Celestia's prize pupil here, I was just another kid there. Then, one day, everything went to shit. Some religious fanatics convinced by their glorious cult leader that they'd receive some great reward, crashed some flying machines into some buildings killing thousands. I wasn't even high school yet and people a little more than ten years older than me destroyed thousands of lives in a few seconds for nothing more than the promise of a reward in the afterlife that might not even be waiting for them." She took a few panicked breaths as tears began flowing down her streaks.

"Sounds like a real Tartarus.", Monochrome said flatly.

"And you the worst part? I let myself get caught up in all the patriotic fervor!", she practically shouted, "I mean fuck, I wasn't even old enough physically by their own laws to even legally be able to have a drink, and I let myself get caught up in all that."

"So these religious fanatics met their gods before?"

"No, there's no evidence that any gods exist or that they even listen except what an individual personally believes.", Sunset ranted, "Unlike here, anyone can go and see a god literally move the heavens. As soon as I got old enough, I signed up for the Marines because I believed the country I lived in was the best. Hell, they even convinced me that I was 'doing my patriotic duty by helping stop a religious fanatic' or some shit. By the time I learned that the intelligence community of the government knew about the one big religious attack and a few smaller ones and let them happen anyways so some politician running for reelection or some oil tycoon could make more money off the blood of not only the fighting men and women of our country, they could also make money stealing the wealth of another country. And the worst part, I let myself fall for it hook, line and sinker. Don't get me wrong, there were good times and good people."

"So it wasn't all bad?"

"Not all of it." Sunset pulled out the photograph from her saddlebag and showed it to Monochrome.

They looked like apes to Monochrome, but he could tell which one was Sunset and he also recognized the camaraderie of soldiers in the picture. "So these were your fellow soldiers?"

"Yeah.", Sunset replied, "We all were part of the same company and even assigned to the same fire team. We all loved each other and all were willing to kill or die for each other. In my second year I watched them all die within minutes of each other. Watching them all die hurt worse than everything I had ever known, but I marshaled on for years. Made more friends, but never as close as them. What hurt the worst of all was when I watched a man from another company wade through the bullets and bombs to drag injured soldiers and marines he didn't even know to safety. He was injured at least five times, but he just didn't quit until reinforcements finally showed up. He was a mountain of a man, six foot five, easily three hundred pounds, just a walking slab of muscle and gristle. When I went on leave a year after that happened, I found him living under an overpass starving and begging for money, food, a place to sleep, anything. He was bone thin, sick in both body and mind. Our country had abandoned him and left him to rot on the streets. I decided on that day as soon as the portal opened, I'd get out and leave it all behind. I spent every available moment looking for some kind of magical relic or spell, when I discovered that there was a book with a spell in the local library that could force the portal open early. So a few nights ago, I snuck off base, broke into a pawn shop to steal a half broken forty-five and some bullets for it and then I forced the portal open. I jumped through and it slammed shut almost immediately behind me. I put one shot through the portal before the gun jammed, so I discarded it and bolted."

"So why sabotage the portal? Why not leave it so others can use it?"

"Celestia might be a total cunt, but at least she pretends to care.", Sunset said, "I may have burned that bridge a long time ago with her, but I wasn't going to let another pony expose themselves to that world. I had already had enough of it. When I had heard that some crazed psycho terrorist had killed Celestia's prized student, I swore I'd stop him...her...it. It wasn't long after that I found that big bug and my marine training took over and I put six rounds in her."

"That's when you got out of Canterlot and came here.", Monochrome said, "So why wage a one mare war against this crazed terrorist."

"When I heard that this terrorist had killed pretty indiscriminately, I decided to wage my own war. No orders, no bean counters, no corrupt politicians or greedy billionaires. So I decided to use my marine training. They want to be a bunch of bad ponies killing and hurting at random, so I'm a worse pony showing these thugs what a true killer is."

Monochrome rubbed his chin in thought.

"I guess Celestia sent you here to bring me in?"

"Not exactly. My father, her older brother, sent me here to stop you.", Monochrome said.

Sunset flipped the Beretta around in her magic and pressed the muzzle to her head. "All you have to do to stop me is squeeze this little trigger with your magic and boom, one bullet to the brain you've stopped me."

Monochrome gently pushed the pistol away. "I won't use your thunder box to kill you, it's not my way. Just tell me one last thing; what's your goal"

"I may have left this world an angry child bent on returning to conquer, but instead I return an efficient killing machine. My goal? To wage a war of vengeance on the ones who actually seek to slaughter indiscriminately." Sunsets eyes become hard and cold. "To you I leave the lesser scum of this world, the thieves, the petty thugs, the wife beaters, the foal kickers. The higher forms of scum, the murderers, the rapists, the terrorists have strayed into my territory. Whether this higher form of evil was always here or if somehow it seeped its way into this world from the other one, I intend by blood and fire to purge them. So who is this terrorist leader?"

"It's some psychopath the press calls The Mare Who Laughs.", Monochrome said, "You intend on finding her and killing her?"

"I intend on doing more than just killing this 'laughing mare.", Sunset said coldly, "I intend on tearing her little band apart piece by piece. I want her to know I'm coming. She thinks she’s a demon, I may be no angel, but hell calls her and the devil has sent me to claim his pound of flesh. Just as you claim you are no longer my old friend Calligraphy, then I am no longer your old friend Sunset Shimmer, but instead I am Bacon-head and I ride the flaming whirlwind of vengeance." She gathers up her things. "Stay the fuck out of my way or next time I will not hesitate to put two in you." She vanishes in a flash of orange light.

Monochrome pulls out a quill and a piece of paper out of his coat pocket and writes a letter.

Dear Aunt Celestia,

I managed to meet with Sunset Shimmer. Whatever this United States Marine Corps is, they've turned her into a stone cold killer. She claims to have seen terrible war and has lost many friends or seen those who fought alongside her tossed away like a foal would a broken toy. She may have left your angry former student looking to seek vengeance upon you, now she returns a cold, efficient killing machine that nothing short of death will stop. She has taken it upon herself to wage a one mare war on the terrorist and her gang. Whatever these "Marines" turned her into and whatever she's seen in the war, she's now here to wage her own war of vengeance. Please apologize to father for me, as I couldn't take her down. Whoever she was is no more, she now has returned broken and unable to turn off whatever training she has received in the other world. She is no longer your former student, but now a lethal vigilante calling herself Bacon-head.

Your nephew and your sister's Brigand-hunter, Monochrome

Three days later Celestia receives the letter, tears swell in her eyes as she reads it and places a hoof on her face. "Oh Sunset, what did they do to you? What horrors did you see? What terrible things did you have to do to survive?"

Author's Note

Thanks for reading my fellow bronies and pegasisters.

As always I will try to take all criticisms as constructive.

Enjoy and mmfmlpl.