“So, Shining, has Cadence been giving you any trouble today?” Twilight asked as she bit into her hamburger, munching happily before placing it back onto the lunch table. She and her brother were sat in the middle of the loud school cafeteria. Twilight’s usual group of friends were chatting around them, Sour Sweet angrily arguing about her favorite music with Lemon Zest while her other friends talked about the upcoming Friendship Games.

“Yeah, it was a mess...” Shining gave a deep sigh, resting his chin in the palm of his hand. “That was probably my fault though.”

“Well that’s a shame… what all happened?” His sister asked, taking a drink from her chocolate milk.

Shining’s face morphed into a cheeky grin, “I proposed~!”

Twilight blinked. Then again, though this time a wide grin formed on her face. “Really?! You did?!” Her smile turned into a frown. “This isn’t a prank, right?”

“Nope! And she even said yes!” Shining gleefully added, his smile stretching across his face more and more.

“I’m so proud of you, bro!” Twilight’s grin returned. “So Cadence is gonna be my sister-in-law, huh? That’s gonna be exciting!”

“Not if I have anything to say about it~!” A dark voice giggles from behind Twilight. She swung around, ready to give whoever had said something so rude a piece of her mind, when she heard a chilling ‘thwump’ echo through the suddenly dead silent cafeteria. Twilight found herself face to face with a blood-drenched Thunder Girl, her grenade launcher in hand as her pearly whites flashed through the blood coating her. Twilight noticed that she was now surrounded by burning rubble, the cafeteria all but disappearing.

“After all, I can’t let there be any leftover problems~!” Thunder Girl giggled as she kicked something over to Twilight, and the purple-skinned girl nearly threw up. It was the bottom half of her brother, blood pooling out around her as the heroine leaned over Twilight. “Don’t worry, you’ll meet him soon~! After all, you’re next~!” She laughed darkly, the noise flooding Twilight’s ears, and she found herself facing the barrel of her grenade launcher.

“Gaaaaaah!” Twilight screamed from her bed, limbs flailing everywhere as she struggled to get free from the bedsheets. As she failed, her arm met with something warm and fuzzy, and there was a small yelp as something flew off the bed. “A-ah… S-Spike...?” Twilight groaned, slowly coming to her senses as she sat up in bed.

The purple and green dog leapt back onto Twilight’s bed, unphased by his owner’s lashing out and quickly burying himself into the crook of her neck.

“O-oh, Spike!” Twilight lightly complained, petting her dog and giggling a little at his antics. “Sorry about that, Spike, I had a bit of a nightmare.” The puppy just wagged his tail and pressed himself against her hand. She gave him a small smile, and rubbed his head a little more for good measure, before picking Spike up and getting out of bed, setting him down on the floor.

“Come on, little guy, I need to get ready for…” She trailed off, her smile fading as she thought about today. “School…” She finished her sentence, before ruffling through her drawers for her school clothes. It had been three days since the… ‘accident’, and she didn’t know if she was ready for all the questions, or the false sympathy she would inevitably be bombarded with. She quickly got out of her dark blue pajamas, grabbing her plaque skirt and the rest of her school uniform and quickly got dressed while Spike hopped around her.

Once she got all the daily necessities completed, she went downstairs and towards the dining room where she was hit by the smell of pancakes from the kitchen. She turned towards the kitchen and began walking towards it.

“Mornin’ dad.” Twilight said, looking up at him. “Pancakes for breakfast, eh?”

Her father, a fairly muscular man wearing his navy blue pants and white button up shirt he always has on when working security at night. “Yeah, I thought I’d change things up. Cereal was getting pretty old.”

“Thanks, dad.” Twilight gave him a small smile and pat on the shoulder before heading to the dining room. “How much longer till they’re ready?”

“Shouldn’t take too long.” Her father grew quiet not long afterwards, preferring to make their food in relative silence.

Twilight waited for her father to finish by feeding Spike while stealing glances at her father. His blue skin seemed to have become paler, and his hair was unkempt, which was new to Twilight. He was usually a very neat person, always looking presentable. Now, he looked far older than he usually did. She caught a glimpse of his yellow eyes, and noticed with concern that he seemed to be lost in whatever he was looking at.

He finally finished cooking breakfast, and scraped the pancakes onto three plates and carried each out to the dining room, one in each hand, and once under his chin.

“Thanks for the food, dad.” Twilight gave him a smile, trying to keep her worry from showing on her face as he set the plate down in front of her. “Should I go get mom?”

“No, she’s been… really tired, I’d hate to bother her.” Twilight noticed her father’s somber tone and decided it best not to press the matter. And remembering her mother’s reaction upon hearing of Shining’s… demise, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to see her anytime soon.

The two ate in relative silence after that. Twilight would’ve called it awkward, but found that her father’s presence was calming on her nerves. After finishing her plate before her father, she sat up, deciding not to delay the inevitable.

“I’ll uh… be heading to the bus stop, then.” She said, trying to give her dad a smile. It felt like a weak attempt at most.

“Stay safe.” He said with earnesty, giving her a weak wave.

“I’ll... try my best.” Twilight nodded, before grabbing her backpack as she passed through the hallway. She had already prepared everything she had needed for school the night before, so all she needed to do was put her shoes on and walk out the door. She hesitated as her hand reached towards the doorknob, and quickly spun around. “Love ya, Dad.” She called out.

“Love you too, sweetheart!” He called out before she closed the door and was on her way towards the bus stop. It took her about three minutes of walking before she arrived, the bus visible from about a mile down the street. Once it arrived, she quickly got on, managing to get to the front of the small group of her fellow students, who had been giving her a wide berth while they had waited.

It seemed that word had definitely spread.

She spotted her usual sitting partner in the back, who was absentmindedly staring at her phone. Her skin was a paler shade of purple than Twilight’s, peach rimmed glasses to help her purple eyes, and white hair done up in a hybrid of a ponytail and pigtails that made Twilight happy her hairdo wasn’t the worst in her circle of friends.

“Hey, Sugarcoat… how have you been?” Twilight asked as she sat down next to her, the bus quickly filling with the other students before departing.

“Better than you, I bet.” The blunt teen replied dryly, finally looking away from her phone. “My condolences, by the way. Let us know if you need anything.”

Twilight had expected an answer like that, but it still made her flinch. “Yeah… yeah, I’ll let you know.” She sighed and leaned into the seat after putting her backpack on the floor between her legs. “So, um… what have you and the girls been up to while I was… away?”

“Mostly practicing for the Friendship Games. Indigo’s teaching me how to ride on a dirt bike- it’s hard, for your information. I have no idea how she can find it so entertaining. Lemon Zest and Sunny Flare have been working out- though Lemon got detention for putting all of Flare’s school stuff in jello… again. And Sour’s been at the range practicing her triple arrow shot trick. I still think that it’s impossible.”

“Oh, yeah, the Friendship Games…” Twilight gave out a dry laugh. “I should probably have been preparing for that too… I can probably still study just about everything I need to by the time that comes around…” She turned to Sugarcoat. “Sour’s trick might be possible, if unlikely. You’d need to be one of those… heroes, for that kind of accuracy.” She frowned, and looked away.

“Well, feel free to skip out. Pretty sure Cinch won’t bug you about joining after Dean Cadenza mouthed her off for the whole student body.” Sugarcoat nonchalantly remarked, “But I guess that’s up to you or whatever.”

“Wait… Cadence- I mean, Dean Cadenza, did what?” Twilight asked, her eyes widening as she took in this information, and she looked back at Sugarcoat incredulously.

“Principal Cinch started complaining about you taking too long to come back to school and expressed how she was worried about the games if you weren’t there. Dean Cadenza then smacked the Principal and shouted quite a few choice swear words like ‘cunt’, ‘bitch’, ‘slut’, ‘whore’, ‘loveless hag’-”

“W-wait, wait, please stop! I get the picture!” Twilight freaked out, completely shocked by what Cadence had done for her. “I’ll… I’ll have to thank her, later though...”

“It was kinda funny though, I’ve never seen Principal Cinch so red.” A small smirk danced across Sugarcoat’s lips, and Twilight was starting to become nervous. The two talked for the rest of the trip, though Twilight only became more nervous by the time that the bus pulled up to the school.

Most of the day was going fairly well, and nobody had really spoken to her for the majority of the day. That was until lunch came around, and every one of her friends had quickly joined her side.

“Hey, Twilight!” Lemon practically yelled as she jumped the purple haired girl and pulled her into a hug. “How’s it been? You missed a whole lot, ya know!”

“Y-yeah, Sugarcoat told me all about what I missed…” Twilight tried to push her friend off of her.

“Whaaaat? Man, come on, Sugar! I wanted to fill her in on all the details!” The neon green and yellow haired girl whined as she detached from Twilight. “That’s so uncool!”

Sugarcoat just gave a lazy shrug as she began heading towards the food court’s line.

“Well, she’s got the right idea. I’d hate to not get pudding because everyone else grabbed them.” Sunny Flare, another of Twilight’s friends said as she examined her purple nails. She was their more trendy friend, with magenta eyes, cyan skin and purple hair that was shorter in the back and longer at the front and a sharp looking golden hair clip.

“What are you, five!?” Indigo shouted indignantly, her face contorting in disgust.

“Oh of course, we should absolutely let the others grab the only good thing about lunch before we can get to them.” Sour grumbled, before she visibly brightened as she went to follow Sugarcoat. “Great plan though, Indigo! I’m sure you’ll enjoy the food once everyone’s picked it clean!”

“W-well, I suppose pudding would be nice…” Twilight gave a small smile, quickly falling in line with the others.

“Come on, let’s go.” Sugarcoat rolled her eyes as she and the others inserted themselves into the line. “So Twilight, what exactly happened?” The blunt girl asked, only for Sour Sweet to elbow her in the gut.

“Oh, um…” Twilight’s somewhat happy demeanor completely shattered as she stared down at her tray, apparently trying to analyze every dimension of the metal plate.

“You guys already know what happened from the news! A villain murdered her brother with a shotgun point blank, then got away! I hope Mandate catches the fucker that did it!” Indigo ranted loudly, and was promptly elbowed hard enough for her to crumple to her knees.

“W… what?” Twilight looked up, confusion written plainly on her face as she turned to look at Indigo. “N-no! That’s… that’s not at all what happened! He… th-that hero…” Her eyes widened and she held a hand to her mouth as she recalled the vivid memory of her only brother being torn to pieces. “I… I think I’m gonna skip lunch…” She muttered after a few shaky breaths.

“Hey, Twi, are you alright?” Lemon asked, grabbing her shoulder as Twilight turned to leave. “I know it’s a… sensitive topic, but what do you mean that’s not what happened? They got all this from that interview with ya!”

“I…” Twilight gave an even more confused look. “I never had any interviews… who told you that?”

“It was on the news… but the ‘interview’ had no audio or video for ‘privacy reasons’.” Sugarcoat added, narrowing her eyes. “Girls, I think we should all skip lunch. I believe we have some things to discuss.” They all looked at Twilight expectantly, not budging an inch. Even Sour Sweet and Lemon Zest.

“I… alright.” Twilight nodded after a moment of contemplation. “Just… give me a couple moments to compose myself, okay?”

“Okay. We’ll meet you in the girl’s locker room when you’re composed.” Sunny Flare said.

Indigo added, “But hurry up, Coach will roast us if he catches us in there!”

“Right… I’ll meet you there.” Twilight nodded, taking a deep breath before walking towards the one place in school she could more easily calm down in.

After walking through the halls for a few minutes, Twilight turned to an unused room. She opened the door and ducked inside, sighing in relief to see that her room hadn’t been disturbed since the last time she had used it.

There were about three tables and a few blackboards, within the room, which was several square meters smaller than the average classroom. Strewn across the tables were dozens of blueprints, lab sets, and experiments in various stages of creation. The wall to her immediate left was almost completely occupied by a large bookshelf, with only a small portion of Twilight’s book collection, while the wall in front of her held her computer setup, which took up about half the space as the bookshelf. Next to it, however, was a large blackboard covered in writing and sticky notes, with red strings pinned to each one connecting the notes together.

A fine layer of dust had settled across the room, and Twilight frowned. She’d likely have to clean in there once all this business with her friends was sorted. She groaned at the idea, sitting down in her computer chair and leaned forward, holding her head in her hands. “What the hell is going on…” She muttered, talking to herself. “A shotgun? The robbers did it? Why would they lie about that? There wasn’t even a shotgun!” She continued talking to herself, tossing ideas as to what was going on and why, before eventually just sitting there in contemplative silence.

“... What the actual shit!?” Indigo Zap was the first to react to Shining’s demise. “There’s no way a hero would do that…”

“The news was probably paid off by the company that owns Mandate…” Sugarcoat estimated with a thoughtful expression. “They must’ve made a deal with your parents to keep them quiet if they added you as a ‘witness’.”

“But why would they do that?!” Sour asked, for once not in a mocking or overjoyed tone. “Twilight’s parents wouldn’t have done that, would they have?”

“Extortion is a pretty good motivator. But this is just speculation.” Sugarcoat replied cynically.

“So what are you gonna do, Twi?” Lemon asked, looking at the purple-skinned girl in worry. “Letting them get away with this would be wrong, but… we’d be up against Mandate!”

“I… I don’t know.” Twilight muttered, holding her legs in her arms. “This is all just so screwed up…”

The girls all seemed to grow quiet, and a heavy atmosphere began to settle. That is, until Indigo leapt onto a bench and slammed her fist into her palm. “I tell you what we do! We make their lives a living clusterfuck!” She shouted. “They own several small merchandise stores all over the city! Mandate’s big, but if we’re quick we can get in and out and break as much of their merch as we can! It’s petty as shit, but the most we’d get is juvy for a month or so if we’re caught!”

The others stared in utter bewilderment at their superhero fanatic of a friend.

“A-are you sure? I-I mean, I thought you liked the heroes?” Twilight asked, looking up at her in concern.

“Not when they screw with my friends! If I could get my hands on the bitch that did that, I’d-!”

“End up in the hospital or end up like Shini- er, sorry, force of habit…” Sugarcoat blushed after cutting herself off, after she cut Indigo herself off.

“I totally agree with Indigo!” Lemon Zest nodded eagerly, looking around the group. “Sure, it won’t accomplish much, but maybe it’ll at least let Twi feel a bit better!”

“Oh yes, such a brilliant idea!” Sour deadpanned, before clapping her hands together and smiling. “But, um… what would we do if a hero showed up?” She asked in a much sweeter tone.

That seemed to stunt the girls’ rivalry, before Indigo brightened. “My dad has a couple guns we could use as self defense, and I could drive us there and back!”

“W-well…” Twilight frowned. “I… doubt a hero would show up for something like this, but… it might be a good idea. And, well… I suppose I might wanna… join in.” It wasn’t something she’d normally do, but after Shining’s untimely death, Twilight had felt a pit of rage boil inside her stomach. And she wanted more than anything just to spite the one who took her brother from her.

“Alright! Sugarcoat, Sour, can you guys get some bats or something? Sunny, you get us our wardrobe- can’t have us caught on camera! Oh, oh! Lemon, you’re on map duty! I’ll get the guns and ride. Twi, you wanna help me hotwire my dad’s car~?” Indigo listed off excitedly.

“Um, sure, I can find a manual for that.” Twilight nodded, slowly getting more eager. “We should also cover the license plates, so your dad doesn’t get in trouble.”

“Or we could dump the car and make it look like it was stolen.” Sugarcoat suggested.

“Details, details! Meet me at my place, Twi! We’re gonna have the greatest joyride ever!” Indigo shouted, raising her fist in the air.

“Alright…!” Twilight smiled, raising her own fist in the air. The others raised their own after Twilight, though with mixed enthusiasm.

“Alright, let’s meet up outside of school by nightfall. Let me just say though that this is a terribly stupid idea.” Sugarcoat laced her words with unease.

“Oh come on, that’s why it’s so great! No hero would ever suspect six teenage girls would vandalize their store in their city! They probably think it’s invincible!” Indigo assured her friends. With their plan decided, the girls left the locker room and headed to their next period on empty stomachs, but racing brains.

Author's Note

If there are any errors, please tell me. I've been sitting on this, debating if it's filler or not...

Next chapter will hopefully be much longer and far more engaging.