You Will Never Escape

Chapters

You will never escape ch1
You will never escape ch2
You will never escape ch3
You will never escape ch4 (Gore)
You will never escape ch5
You will never escape ch7
You will never escape ch8
You will never escape ch9
You will never escape ch10
You will never escape ch6

You will never escape ch1

I twisted the handle to the door of my office and walked inside. It was a very small place with only three rooms, and one of those was the bathroom. There’s a small room off to the side with a table, microwave, coffee maker, fridge, and shelves filled with various office stuff, case boxes, and dishware that served as their break room. Despite the name, we don’t actually eat in there. There wasn’t even enough room to open a folding chair. We have just enough room for one person to walk around, but that was it. The main room was longer than it was wide, but it did have enough room where we don’t have to shimmy past each other. Rarity’s desk sat at the back of the room with her facing the front door and her back to the one nice thing about this place, a decent sized window that let in ample light. My desk sat opposite a nice-ish couch. It’s to your immediate right when you enter the office. Rarity herself sat at her desk, head deep in something and not even seeming to notice my presence.

“You’re gonna get yourself shot if you lose track of the world.”, I remarked.

Rarity nearly jumped out of her seat as her shot head up. “Fuck! Oh, Sunset, darling, you can’t keep doing that. Unless you want to kill me and take full ownership of the business, in that case, keep doing that.”

I walked up to Rarity’s desk and looked down at what she was doing. “What’s got you so engrossed anyway?” On Rarity’s desk was her design sketchbook with a few new entries. “You’re still working on this?”

“Well, yes, I still want to be a fashion designer.”

“What? Why would you want to give all this up? We work in a shoebox, get shot at, screamed at by the helicopter parents of “missing kids” and abusive exes, and get to wait around for hours and hours, and we don’t even have to seduce pretty ladies like the movies made us think we would.”, I joked.

“Ah, yes, the joys of the PI business. Speaking of missing kids, we got another one.” Rarity pulled out a box from under her desk and placed it in front of me. The name ‘Wallflower Blush’ was written on the front, along with the case number and the start date (today’s date). Inside were the case notebook, a set of keys, and a diary.

“Wallflower, why does that name sound familiar?”

“Because she went to high school with us.”

“Hardly a kid. I’ll make a few calls.” I grabbed the box and took it back to my desk. I plopped my backpack on the floor, took the notebook out and looked at what was already in it. Work called mom asking where she was. Not in her apartment. There’s no law against disappearing. No friends, no romantic relationships, Dad’s dead, lives alone. “Uh-oh”, I said with genuine concern.

“That’s what I thought.”, Rarity commented.

“Did you discuss the possibility with the mom?”

“No, she didn’t seem to have that concern, and she could just be an introvert.”

“So is literally every one of us, except for Pinkie, and there’s seven of us.”

Rarity shrugged. “Some people are just more extreme.”

“Alright, I assume the keys are for Wallflower’s place and car.”

“Yes, the address is in the book.”

I pulled out my phone and rang up Pinkie. Girl’s got the city tapped like a maple tree.

“Pinkie’s Bakery and Café, cakes, jokes, and a party place just an ask away, Pinkie Pie here.”, Pinkie said in her cheerful business voice.

“The woman, the myth, the Lovecraftian creature, it’s Pinkie Pie.”

“Hey, Sunset,” she said in her actually cheerful voice, “lunch or intel?”

“Intel, Wallflower Blush.”

“Okay, um, Wallflower, Wallflower-”

“She went to high school with us.”

“Oh yeah, Wallflower, I remember her now. What do you need to know?”

“Do you think she’s capable of killing herself?”

“Honestly, I don’t know.”

“But you know everything about everyone.”

“Yeah, but she, well, to borrow a turn of phrase, she was a background character in her own show. She’s absolutely unremarkable in every sense of the word. Sorry I couldn’t help you more.”

“That’s alright. I have her diary. I’m not out of avenues yet.”

“Good to hear. I’ll talk to you later. Bye”

“Bye” I hung up and pulled out the diary. It was locked, but it was a lock only meant to keep out nosy siblings. I grabbed my hammer from my drawer, and with one good smack, the lock popped open.

I never understood why people kept these things. The school counselor suggested I keep one after my mental breakdown at the Fall Formal, but I just couldn’t ever bring myself to put anything on paper. I skimmed through the pages but they were fairly normal, complaining about school/work, what happened that day, until the last few entries. It was nothing suggesting she was planning on ending her life or leaving. It was stranger than that.

“Dear diary,

This is going to sound strange, but I think someone’s stalking me. There’s this black, shadowy figure lurking on the other side of the street. It hasn’t moved all night. I can’t see its eyes, but I know it’s staring at me. I’m scared to go to bed, but I have work in the morning.”

“Dear diary,

It’s in the middle of the street. It’s still standing as still as a statue. It was gone in the morning, and I thought I was safe, but it’s back. Nobody else seems to notice it. They just drive by it. Am I going crazy?”

“Dear diary,

It’s on my side of the street now. It’s right in front of the lobby doors. People are walking through it. They don’t see it. I’m going to talk to my therapist.”

“Dear diary,

It’s in the lobby now, right next to the stairs. My therapist wrote me a prescription for antipsychotics, but they haven’t taken effect. I’m too scared to stay here. I’m going to a motel.”

“Dear diary,

That didn’t work. It just followed me to the motel. I saw it in the parking lot. I came home because there was no way I was staying in a motel with it watching me, and now it followed me back here. It’s on the first landing. I hope these antipsychotics start working soon.”

“Dear diary,

It’s on the second floor landing. The meds still aren’t working. My neighbors are looking at me funny when I shimmy past the thing.”

“Dear diary,

Situation’s unchanged. It will be on my floor tomorrow.”

“Dear diary,

It’s on my floor now. I can see it from my door. It is reeeeally creepy seeing it just standing there. It has no features at all. It’s just a human shape inside a black cloud. Thankfully, it’s Friday, because I don’t have enough room to go around it. Hopefully, the meds will start working before Monday.”

“Dear diary,

It’s in front of my door now. I’m going to die. I just know it.”

“Dear diary,

It’s at the door to my room. I’ll be dead before morning.”

That was the last entry. I didn’t know what to believe. For now, I was going to get my boots on the ground. I put my hammer back and exchanged the diary for the case book and keys. “I’m off.”

“Okay, see you tomorrow.”

I checked the address real quick then placed the book and keys in my backpack and headed to the garage. Despite the cheap nature of the building, it had reserved and secured underground parking. However, in line with the cheap nature of the building, only one spot was included with the rent, and extras cost a kidney each. But the oh so devious minds at Shimmering Diamond Detective Agency had a work around, i.e. the landlord, who I called Skunky (both definitions fit), was too drunk whenever he came around to notice my bike hidden behind a corner pillar. Getting it in and out could be a challenge, but it was better than the alternatives. The tenant in the spot that served as my entry and exit point was also a bike rider and a cool guy. He parks off to the side for me.

I hopped on my bike, rode to the gate, punched in the code, and headed off to Wallflower’s apartment. Gray clouds blanketed the sky, just like they had for the past several weeks, casting the world into a gray filter. Climate change had not been kind to Canterlot or her surrounding suburbs. My journey brought me to one of the nicer parts of the city. It’s not boujee but also not as run down as the part of town the our office is in. The address belonged to one of the many apartment buildings in the city that are, what one would call, boring and ugly. The entire thing was lifeless gray with just a bunch of windows.

I found a place to park and entered the lobby. It was a bit nicer inside with a colorful rug and some well taken care of plants, but the walls were still gray concrete. There was the typical wall of mailboxes next to the stairs in the back of the lobby and two doors guarded by a digital keypad lock, one for each side wall. It all came out to, front door, locked door, stairs, mailboxes, locked door. Fortunately for me, each door had the letters of the apartments they led to on a plaque next to them, i.e. A-H and I-P.

Okay, 3C. I took the keys out and checked Wallflower’s mailbox. Yes, it’s illegal, and I’m possibly earning the ire of one of the most well funded and the single most bored government agency, but this could save a life. Bills, bills, junk, junk, lots of junk, porn. “Hm, girl’s got taste.” With nothing like personal letters or anything else, I stuffed the porn mag in my backpack and everything else back into the mailbox.

Next step was to head upstairs and search the apartment. As I ascended the stairs, another resident came out to the stairs. “Hi, are you a new tenant?”, the resident asked.

“No, I’m a PI. I’m investigating the disappearance of Wallflower Blush.”

“Who?”

“The girl in 3C.” That didn’t do it. “Green hair, brown eyes, mint skin, ring a bell?”

“Uuh, maybe. Are you sure you have the right building? I know pretty much everybody in this building.”

“I’m quite positive.”

“Alright, I hope ya find ‘er.” The resident continued down the stairs, and I continued up.

The other floors were the same layout as the lobby, just replace the mailboxes with trash and recycling shoots and the front door with one large window. A couple nice looking chairs and a coffee table sat in front of the window on each floor. Upon getting to the third floor and approaching the A-H door, I punched in the four digit code. 0428, not a bad way to remember a code.

Entering the hallway, it was actually fairly nice. They were still more subdued and more natural colors, but it wasn’t lifeless gray. The floor was some sort of dark colored wood, the walls were still gray but a lighter gray that was less “greetings, comrade” looking, and it was well lit. In terms of decoration, all it had were what the residents put out themselves.

The hallway was one straight line, so Wallflower’s apartment was easy to find. I unlocked the door and entered. There were a lot of plants inside the apartment. It was practically an indoor forest. “Maybe the plants ate her.” I slipped off my biking gloves and put on a pair of forensic gloves then crept my way through the apartment, unable to see the whole apartment from one spot with all the plants in the way. The windows were surprisingly large for a cold war era looking building which gives the plants their needed sunlight. My first cursory search brought up nothing. Aside from the plants, it was a normal apartment. It was obviously lived in but otherwise clean. The plants all seemed to be accounted for too, and some of them are expensive. “Either not financial or the perp didn’t realize how valuable these things are.” Neither’s impossible. My musing was cut off by a knock on the open door.

“Hello?”, someone called out.

I hurried over to where I could see and could be seen from the door while trying to find my license. “Hi, sorry, I’m not a robber.” I finally found my license as I came into view of the door. A girl with red hair, green eyes, and cream skin stood in the doorway with a skeptical look on her face, a girl I recognized. “Roseluck”

Roseluck’s face turned to the type of confused look that someone gets when they’re trying to figure out if they know someone then quickly shifted to surprise. “Sunset?” Roseluck’s face quickly regained her skeptical look but now also had a hint of anger mixed in. “What are you doing in Wallflower’s apartment?”

“You know Wallflower? That’s great.”, I said with excitement, choosing to ignore her anger. She did have a right to hate me, in all fairness. “I’m a private investigator looking into her disappearance.”, I said while handing Roseluck my license.

Roseluck took the license tentatively and scrutinized it every way she could short of tearing it apart. “Wow, I honestly expected you to be in prison. Never would’ve imagined you’d be on this side of the law.”, Roseluck said as she handed my license back.

“Harsh but fair. I don’t mean this as an excuse; I knew what I was doing and am responsible for my actions. I just believe you deserve an explanation. I’ll understand if you never want to forgive me.”

“Alright, let’s hear it.”, Roseluck said while crossing her arms.

“I was not mentally well. I’m still not, but I’m now better at handling it. I took all my frustration and anger out on everybody else. It wasn’t fair to you or anyone else. I am truly sorry.”

Roseluck had no reaction other than a nod of her head. “I see.” Roseluck then got a more sympathetic look on her face. “Your voice hasn’t cleared up.”

I nodded my head. I understood why she would bring it up but still didn’t like when it was.

“How did it even get like that? I just remember you disappearing for a week then coming back with a messed up voice.”

I internally cringed. This was about as far from a happy memory as one could get. “It was my mom. She hated me but hated not having control over me even more. She realized she was losing that control, so she tried to choke me to death. She didn’t, obviously, but my throat was still damaged.”

The face Roseluck made could only be described as pure horror and realization. “That explains…” Just about every emotion there was flashed across her face before finally settling on the face a person makes when they just don’t know how to respond. “What about Wallflower?”

I welcomed the change of subject and took out a pen and the notebook and opened it to a clean page. “Her work called her mom and said she hadn’t come into work, and she wasn’t in her apartment when her mom went to check on her. She texted and called her but got no answer. With still no response the next day, she went to the police, but without any evidence of a crime, the cops couldn’t do anything. It’s not illegal to disappear. I’m trying to find any evidence of a crime the police can use to start working. When was the last time you saw her?”

“We don’t talk much aside from plant care. We’ll trade clippings and let the other borrow tools and fertilizer, but I wouldn’t exactly call us friends.”

“Would you be able to tell if any of her plants are missing?”

“You think someone did something to her for her plants?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time. I learned more about botany in that one month than in all of high school.”, Sunset deadpanned. That got Roseluck to snort a laugh.

“I’ll take a look.”

I moved out of the way and let Roseluck in. Roseluck walked around the apartment and looked at all the plants. “I don’t think anything’s missing, but I don’t have every plant of hers committed to memory.”, Roseluck called from within the foliage.

“That’s okay.” I took note of the plants and that none of them seemed missing along with what Roseluck said about their relationship.

Roseluck returned from her nature trek and stood in front of me. “What now?”

“I have a few more questions, if you’re willing to answer them.”

“Shoot. I wanna help Wallflower, if I can.”

“Good. Firstly, do you know if Wallflower has any friends?”

“I don’t think so. I know she doesn’t have any social media other than a WatchTube account, which doesn’t have any videos.”

“Any romantic partners?”

“Definitely not. She once joked that she has way too many children to take care of to even think about dating.”

“Children?”, I asked, very confused. Roseluck just gestured around to all the plants. “Oh, ha ha.”, I half-heartedly laughed. “Has she mentioned any problems she might be having or any major life changes?”

“No”

“How would you describe her mental state?”

“You think she killed herself?”, Roseluck asked with concern. I only responded with a shrug. “She seemed okay. She kept to herself but didn’t seem depressed.”

“Depression can be hard to notice. Some people hide it by acting happy and making jokes.”

“That also doesn’t sound like her. She was pretty chill. She didn’t seem sad or overly happy. Though, she was acting kinda weird for the last few days.”

“Walking around something that wasn’t there in the staircase and lobby, acting fearful, and looking at something that wasn’t there?”

“Yeah, how’d you know?”

“Her mom gave us her diary, and she wrote that she was being watched by a shadow figure. It only started a few days ago, and those were the last entries. She expressed that she knew she was going to die.”

“That’s terrifying. I had no idea she had such terrifying hallucinations.”

I nodded in agreement, but there was something that told me that she wasn’t experiencing mere hallucinations. My rational mind knew that was impossible, but the part of my mind that thrived on horror and the fantastical said otherwise.

“Is there anything more I can help you with?”

“No, I have no more questions.”

“Okay” Roseluck left the apartment, leaving me to my own devices once again.

I wrote down the summary of our conversation then put the book and pen back into my bag. I then walked back into the bedroom to have a closer look. Like the rest of the apartment, the bedroom was covered in plants. I began looking around the room and found nothing out of order. It looked like all her clothes were still in the closet, her suitcases were definitely still here, and Wallflower’s phone, wallet and keys in her nightstand drawer. The wallet still had her cards and some cash in it, and there were even some coins in the drawer. Definitely not robbery. If she was taken, it would’ve been from here, and everybody would’ve heard that. Who still uses coins? With the possibility of robbery thrown out and abduction looking less likely, I began looking for any sort of note, but there was nothing. I went into the bathroom and looked into the medicine cabinet. Inside, I found the bottle of antipsychotics. Shit

Running out of options, I grabbed Wallflower’s keys and headed downstairs and out to the parking garages. I stuck out the fobby and clicked the lock button. I didn’t hear anything so began walking around the garages while continuing to click the lock button until I heard Wallflower’s car beep. Car’s still here. Keys and wallet are still here. Expensive plants are still here. All her clothes are still here. Med’s still here. The apartment’s in order. It’s like she literally ran away without taking anything.

Letting out an annoyed huff, I returned to Wallflower’s apartment. I returned the keys to the drawer, took pictures of the lack of out of place and missing anything, and grabbed the phone. Hopefully, the mom knew the password. If not, Twilight could likely get into it. I left and locked up the apartment. It was no guarantee, but this might be enough to get the police going. I would take it to the police once we got into the phone.

I returned to the office and parked in my typical spot. As I headed to the elevator, I bumped into Rarity returning from her own case with a tired look on her face and her camera in her hand.

“So, will this relationship be crumbling or standing strong?”, I asked.

“Standing strong, the wife isn’t cheating. She’s working to set up a reunion of her husband’s old band. They didn’t split on the best of terms, but they all still want to see each other again. It’s just taking some convincing, and that’s what the husband’s friend saw.”, Rarity explained as they got into the elevator.

“What are you going to tell the husband?”

“That he’s not being cheated on and to just have some faith in his wife.”

“Hehe, y’know, it’d be nice to get the seven of us back together sometime, have one big jam sesh sleepover, just like when we were kids.”

“Hm, that would be nice.”, Rarity said fondly. “How’s your case going?”

I pulled Wallflower’s phone out of my bag and showed it to Rarity. “This is Wallflower’s. Her car, wallet, and keys were also still in her apartment along with travel bags and all her clothes. She has what seemed like a hundred plants, some of which are very expensive, and she joked they’re her children. Her diary also suggests she was having some kind of psychotic episode.”

The elevator reached our floor, and we continued our walk to the office as I tucked the phone back into my bag. The hallways of the building are long, narrow, winding, and poorly lit with these crappy ass lights. Walking with someone in these halls means walking in a single file line or being shoulder to shoulder. The walls are covered in a light yellow colored wallpaper with a faded vertical design with the lower third covered in that old, weird wood paneling. All the wood from the floor to the doors is a medium brown. The space is shadowy, really ugly, and garnered the building the nickname of “The Backrooms”. People in the building would do everything from tear down walls, take up extra parking spots without paying (at least for a while), and they had even put up extensive signage to help people find whatever business they were looking for, but the hallway’s god awful design was the one thing Skunky actually cared if anyone did anything about. A lot of people in the building suspect he still thinks it’s whatever decade this style was popular in and that was the last decade he was sober. The advantage to his drunkenness was that basically everyone was able to paint their units to not look like a fever dream, remove the paneling, and fix their lights without him caring.

“You’re worried she ran away, without taking anything, because of some sort of psychotic break. I’ll call the mom and ask for the password.”, Rarity said as she pulled out her phone.

“Thank you. If she doesn’t have it, I’ll ask Twilight to help.”

Rarity nodded but didn’t say anything as the mom picked up. “Hello, Ms. Blush, this is Dt. Rarity from- Yes, exactly. We found your daughter’s phone but not yet your daughter. You wouldn’t happen to have the password, would you? No? Okay, thank you. No, we’re not out of options. We just need your permission to hack into your daughter’s phone. - Very good, we’ll have our tech expert open it up for us. Yes yes, have a good day.” Rarity hung up her phone and looked up at me.

I nodded back as we entered our office, the clean, white walls and fully functioning lights offering our eyes relief from the hallway. We couldn’t do much about the floor, but it looked better when not paired with that yellow. Each of us headed back to our desks, and I deposited the notebook and keys back into the case box. We both booted up our computers and began the process of downloading our pictures and adding them to our case files and writing up our reports with me also scanning in the diary entries. Both of us have freakishly good memories, so this was easy. The notebooks existed as a summary to help jog our memories while out in the field or in case the files got corrupted, which has happened before.

Once my write-up was complete, I put the case box in the shelves that hold all our physical evidence. The boxes we use are kinda like banker boxes, but their dimensions are closer to a shoebox. They’re the type of boxes girls used to organize their room back when the two of us were in high school. We do have banker boxes, but they’re rarely needed. Rarity’s case didn’t have any physical evidence other than the notebook, so when she came in, it was just added to this year’s miscellaneous notebooks banker box, and its case number was added to the side. The case numbers consisted of the year and then month in which it was started and then 1, 2, 3 etc, for example, 2032-10-4.

I took a step back, as much of a step as I could take in such a small space, and looked over all the boxes. Three years of working for Spear Investigations and five years of work to build up our reputation, and these boxes are the culmination of all of it. It was both a good and bad feeling, a feeling of pride and a sense of sadness. Our job is built on other’s troubles. Dozens of relationships down the drain, and reunions of human and stolen animal and everything in between. It was all a part of the job, the highs making one feel elated, and the lows making one want to bawl their eyes out.

“Rarity, are you happy with how your life turned out?”

“I’m not unhappy with it, but this isn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of it. I thought it would be a fun way to work through college, I’d be just like Shadow Spade, but then nobody wanted to hire me as a designer, and those who did wanted me to move too far away. I like the job, but not being able to work at my dream job kinda soured it, but you make it better.”

I smiled at Rarity, a warm feeling welling up in my chest. “Thank you.”

“How about you?”

“My life’s the best it’s ever been. I have a kitchen, an actual full kitchen.”

“Hff, it’s really sad that’s how you evaluate your life being good.”

“I mean, I never had my own kitchen before.”

“True. Anyway, I’m going to take off. Are you coming?”

“Yeah”

We headed back out into the main office and locked up the breakroom. We gathered up our personal stuff and locked everything up before heading back down to the garage. The building was closed for the night, meaning the crappy hallway lights were dimmed, making the liminal-esque space even creeper. It wasn’t dark enough to need flashlights, but we couldn’t easily see either. It felt like something would jump us whenever we approached a corner, and the echoes from our footsteps made it sound like there were more people we couldn’t see, which didn't help. Both of us knew we were being irrational, but I still caught a glimpse of Rarity checking to make sure she had her gun’s in her shoulder holster. This prompted me to check my own gun and my knife that’s strapped across the back of my belt.

“Hey, Sunset, if I were a flavor, what would I be?”, Rarity asked, trying to lighten the situation.

“Um, mint.”

“Why mint?” Rarity sounded confused and maybe even slightly incensed.

“I don’t know. You ask me such an odd ball question out of left field. What do you expect me to answer?”

“Okay, fair. I say you’d be capsaicin. You’re a spicy darling.”

“Ha! Yeah, I am.”

We finally made it to the well lit elevator, but the light only seemed to make the rest of the floor seem darker. We quickly got in, and Rarity pressed the doors close button before pressing the button for the garage. Every horror movie elevator scene flashed through my head as the doors were closing, expecting something to rush us from the darkened hallway, but this isn’t a horror movie, so nothing happened. Even as the elevator descended, there was no sound of something jumping down onto the top and trying to rip it open like a tuna can.

“Hey, Rare, how old is Skunky?”

“He’s ‘I’m surprised he’s not dead yet’, especially with his drinking habits but not ‘go get the stakes’.”

I let out a low growl of annoyance. Short of the building getting a new owner, we weren’t getting better lighting or a less creepy paint job. “What do you think are our chances of murdering him and getting away with it?”

Rarity hummed her “I’m thinking” melody for a while before answering, telling me she was getting a legitimate answer ready. “Nowadays, low. There are cameras everywhere. I highly doubt he’d have any, but his neighbors definitely will. Even if we could get in and out without detection, how would we do it? We can’t use our guns.”

“Wait until he passes out and stab him in the neck.”

“But then the investigation. We’d likely lose business while that’s going on.”

That put the kibosh on my dreams of murder. There was a reason I haven’t gone on vacation in the last 8 years. “Aw, poo”

The doors opened to what we call the lock room, which kept random people from just getting into the elevators, and the two of us headed to our respective vehicles. The garage was much better lit and more open than the rest of the building, resulting in us feeling safer in a place that’s only protection from the street is a couple of those automated karate chop arm gates that can only stop vehicles; that’s definitely not what they’re called, but that’s the motion they make, and I didn’t know what they were called. Either way, that should tell you just how creepy the hallways are.

Unlike Rarity, my destination was not my own home. Instead, I was headed to the purple nerd’s place. To say Twi lives in a nice part of town would be an understatement. It was still filled with high-rises, but these were the fancy-schmancy places where everyone had two whole floors to themselves and gold encrusted toilet seats. Okay, they don’t all have whole floors to themselves, and I could neither confirm nor deny if people had gold crappers, but the two story apartments are normal here.

Street parking could be hit or miss around these parts, but it was generally easy to find a spot. I did manage to find a spot and hurried out of the cold and into Twilight’s building. Twi’s building was a trip but a very pretty trip. There’s a large indoor water feature with koi that went straight through the lobby, was surrounded by live foliage, and had bridges crossing it. The ceiling over that section of the lobby is glass, and there are lounge chairs surrounding the water feature. The whole thing created an indoor outdoor scene. Aside from the indoor outdoor space was the front desk, the elevators, the stairs in the corner, and a lounge area without direct sunlight that also had a staffed coffee bar. The place was basically a fancy hotel with permanent residents. The only thing this place didn’t come with that a hotel normally does is house cleaning. Residents have to arrange that themselves, but the building does have a contract with a local company that gives their residents a discount.

I hurried over to the elevators as the lobby always gave me the feeling I wasn’t supposed to be there. I couldn’t fully explain it, but it felt like the people were silently judging me or something like that. Whereas the office had a feeling of irrational danger from some unseen creature, this place had a feeling of danger from being stared at and that, at any moment, security would come attack me. Both are unsettling, but the latter had a tinge of indignant rage whereas the former was fueled by instincts while being familiar.

As I got on the elevator, a man named Mr. Neighsay joined me. Dude’s an unpleasant motherfucker in both looks and personality, being the human embodiment of a weasel. I could feel his eyes on me, and I was glad I had kept my helmet on instead of leaving it in its tail box. Then again, maybe the helmet was why he was staring. My helmet completely covered my face, and the visor was opaque enough that you would have to be close to see through it. This gave me the opportunity to give him the side eye without being noticed. He was a big shot private lawyer from a powerful family known for screwing over the little guy. I had dealt with him before and managed to derail a couple of his cases before by recovering that one deleted email and stuff like that. But his and his family’s practices were only a major reason why I hate him. He also has those eyes; they were the exact same color as mine. I hate having to look at them or him looking at me.

“Can I help you?”, I asked, stretching my vocal training to make my voice sound even gravellier than normal. I could make it sound like I was gargling fire.

The man looked away from me, but that only eased me back to how I was before he was looking at me. As soon as it reached Twi’s floor, I jogged off the elevator and to Twilight’s apartment. I rang her doorbell and, luckily, didn’t have to wait long for Twi to answer. I was surprised to see her in a bathrobe, but that didn’t lessen the relief I felt.

“Hey, biker girl.”, Twilight said with a flirtatious smile.

“Do I get to see what’s under that robe?”

“Why don’t you come in and find out.” Twilight moved out of the way, and I practically bolted inside. Twilight closed the door and turned to me with a slightly disappointed look. “Seriously, Sunset, these people aren’t out to get you. I’m positive they barely notice you.”

I took my helmet, face mask, and backpack off and placed all three on Twi’s kitchen counter. My nerves were still on edge and were unlikely to settle. “I can feel their eyes on me. In my line of work, you either trust your instincts or end up on an autopsy table, and my instincts are telling me they do notice me and scorn my presence.”

Twilight spooned me and nuzzled my neck. “Well then, they’re stupid. You’re just as much of a smarty pants businessy woman as they are.”

“You and I both know that’s not what they’re judging me for.”

“Still stupid, especially since one of my wealthiest neighbors suspects her wife is cheating on her.”

“How do you know this?”

“It’s obvious with the way she’s been acting, and yesterday, I asked her about it and suggested a PI firm by the name of Shimmering Diamond.”

Dollar signs were in my eyes, which reminded me of what I was carrying. “Speaking of work.”

“You have a phone or computer you need me to get into.”

“Yes” I fished the device from my backpack and showed it to Twi.

Twilight took and examined it. “Who’d it belong to?”

“Do you remember a girl named Wallflower Blush? We went to high school with her.”

“No, I don’t.”

“That’s not surprising. Even Pinkie had a hard time remembering her.”

“Damn, what happened to her?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know. She wasn’t robbed, her car, phone, wallet, and suitcases were all still at her home, and she didn’t leave any note. She was taking antipsychotics, and I found those in the apartment as well. I’m not confident she’ll be found alive.”

Twilight let out a sadden sigh and nodded. “Poor girl. That’s no way to go. Why don’t you stay here for the night. I’ll have this opened by morning anyways.”

“Sure. I’m going to make myself something to eat. You hungry?”

“I already had dinner, but I’ll join you for dessert.” Twi gave me a pat on the back as she took the phone back to her office.

I went about making something to eat. Out of the seven of us, Twilight had the nicest place with the latest of technologies as she created many of them. The kitchen was separated from the massive living room by a breakfast counter. The kitchen itself was basically what you’d see in catalogs. I made myself some pizzadillas and walked over to the floor to ceiling windows that made up the entirety of Twi’s outside wall. Wrath, a pitch black, mean looking, Great Dane and Doberman mix Twi got after Spike’s death, merely looked at me before going back to sleep. Despite her name, size, and how she looks, she’s a sweetheart, but she is a trained guard dog.

The city lights almost looked like stars, but the actual stars were drowned out and blocked out. I miss them and hope to someday live in a log cabin on a fish-filled lake, far away from anyone else and where the stars shine bright. Hopefully, people will have pulled their heads out of their asses and fixed the damn planet by then. Since there was nothing up to look at, I looked down at the people that were on the street. As I swept my gaze across the street, a black figure caught my attention. None of them were exactly easy to see, but this one was pure black and even a bit… shadowy.

Without taking my eyes off the figure, I put my now empty plate down and clapped the lights off. It was now a lot easier to see outside, but the figure was still pitch black and shadowy, and I could’ve sworn it was staring at me.

“Sunset, why are the lights off?”

“Don’t turn them on. Just come here.” I didn’t take my eyes off of it for a second, like the moment I looked away, it would vanish.

“What are you looking at?”

“Down there, do you see it?”, I said, my voice becoming frantic.

“See what?”

“That, that shadow person, across the street.”

“Sunset, I don’t see anything like that.”, Twilight said in a worried tone. She was trying to be calming, but I was in no state to be calmed. “Maybe we should skip tonight’s festivities. You aren’t looking great.”

Yeah, that’s right. I haven't been getting the best sleep for the last few nights. The case is just freaking me out, and my brain’s using that as fuel for my sleep deprived paranoia. That’s it. I just need some sleep, and it will be gone in the morning. “Yeah, okay”

Twi led me to her bedroom, and the two of us wound down for the night. But as I laid in bed next to Twilight, my mind swam with theories and fuel for my nightmares. What if that wasn’t just my mind playing tricks on me? What if there was something in Wallflower’s apartment that infected her and caused a rapid decline in her mental state, resulting in her having a complete mental collapse and to run away, and now, the same thing is happening to me? What if Wallflower wasn’t hallucinating, and that thing killed her, and now, it’s after me because I know about it? Have my actions doomed Twilight and Roseluck too? Am I going to die?

You will never escape ch2

I was woken up by the sun coming in through the blinds and assaulting my eyes. Twilight had really crappy blinds. I rolled over away from the window to go back to sleep but only got another hour before the weird ass dream woke me up. I always had weird dreams whenever I took a nap or went back to bed after being woken up.

I pulled myself out of bed and walked out to the kitchen, where my helmet, mask, and backpack still sat. Wallflower’s phone sat next to said items with a sticky note with the password slapped on top. Invisible, fitting. I made myself breakfast, showered, dressed, and otherwise got ready for the day. I stuffed the phone and sticky note in my backpack as I secured it to my person once again.

“Off to save the city, I see.”, Twilight remarked. She walked in with a poop bag and Wrath and let her go back to her bed. She wore her “work clothes”, which consisted of an oversized hoodie and sweatpants. She used a separate cooling system in her office and kept it on near full blast to help her computers. “See any shadow people?”

I shook my head. “No, heh, I guess reading Wallflower’s diary spooked me more than I realized.”

“Was Wallflower seeing shadow people?”

“That’s why she was taking the antipsychotics. I’m going to take this all to the police today. They can’t ignore a mentally ill person without their meds.”

“Let’s hope they find her alive.”

“Yeah, see you later.” I put my mask and helmet on and headed out the door.

“Bye”

I hurried out of there and out to my bike as quickly as wasn’t suspicious. I wouldn’t even come anywhere near such a place if it weren’t for Twilight. There were significantly less people, but I could still feel the front desk staff staring at me.

The trip to the office took much longer from Twilight’s place, but it’s not like I ever got there “on time” anyway. We don’t even have a “be in the office” time as we're rarely in the office. What we do have is a “have your phone on” time, which my phone is. The only reason we even have the office in the first place is because laws regarding PIs have barely been updated in nearly 100 years.

Getting into the office, I only gave Rarity a small wave as she was talking to her client, took off my backpack, made myself a cup of coffee, and grabbed the evidence box from the storage room. Once I was settled and had taken a huge gulp of coffee, I grabbed the phone from my bag, opened it up, and began searching through it. The apps were your typical games, socials, a calculator, shopping, and other phone related stuff. Her only contacts were “Mom”, “Work”, “Psych Doc”, and “Doctor’s office”. There was nothing unscrupulous in her files or pictures. There were very few texts on her phone. It didn’t seem as if she deleted them, judging by the dates and what they said. It just looked like she didn’t text much. Emails, on the other hand, she had a lot of, but they were mainly between her and her work and the government. Clearly, she was an avid follower of the “get everything in writing” principle. One thing’s for sure, she was smart. It didn’t look like things between her and work were bad, just seemed like a precautionary step.

With no more evidence to be gained, I compiled all of it into an email and addressed it to the police. With the subject of “Missing persons report”, I began writing.

“I am a PI hired by Ms. Sunflower Blush to locate her daughter. She had previously tried to file a report with you, but you had not had reasonable suspicion to search for her. I have gathered evidence suggesting that she may have suffered a psychotic episode and is now without money, her phone, and medication. Please send officers to the address listed below to collect the physical evidence. Speed is imperative as she has already been missing for two days. I will be waiting for your response.”

I then added the digital case file and my signature, which had my name, title, phone number, and the office address and then sent it off. I then grabbed the Wallflower case box; removed the notebook as what's in it was already sent to the police in the email, only more comprehensible; added it to this year’s banker box and yada yada; and brought the case box out to my desk. I checked the email to see if the police responded, and surprisingly enough, they already did.

“Dt. Shimmer, thank you for bringing this to our attention. We will be sending officers to collect your evidence promptly.

Officer Skyranger
Canterlot PD”

I set the box down and quickly shot off a reply.

“I’ll be waiting in the lobby.”

I then grabbed the box and my mask and headed down to the lobby. The lobby’s the same Backrooms design that the rest of the communal areas of the building are, but at least it isn’t claustrophobically narrow. The lobby consists of a wide hallway type space with a wall of mailboxes, a big ass directory with what businesses are found on each floor, the hallways to the ground floor businesses, a small waiting area that smelled questionable, and an unmanned front desk. The front wall is mostly glass with one of those revolving doors and two automatic sliding doors that were added on either side of the revolving door some time in the double zeros.

Many Halloweens ago, someone dressed up a plastic skeleton and placed it at the desk, and no one ever bothered to remove it. Her name is now Sharen and has her own name tag along with a sign that reads, “If you can ring this bell loud enough to raise the dead, Sharen will gladly help you. Otherwise, there’s the directory.” with an arrow pointing to the directory and said bell sitting next to it. Some would say having Sharen there might scare away customers, but so will the wallpaper. The state the Boomers left the world in has left Millennials and Gen Zers in such a state of apathy that only the remaining Boomers and neo-Boomers care about that sort of thing.

I took a seat as I waited for the police to show up. I didn’t have to wait for hours, but given the potential urgency of the situation, I wished they acted a bit faster. An unmarked cruiser pulled up in front of the doors, and out stepped Detective Shining Armor and Spearhead.

“Took you long enough.”, I remarked as the boys came in. “Did you get the email?”

“Yes, we were forwarded your email. You have some more evidence for us?”

I got up from my seat and presented Shining with the box. “Here you go, Piggy-boy.”

Shining took the box but scowled at the nickname. “Seriously, Piggy-boy?”

“I saw your bedroom back when you lived with your parents. The only reason you’re not currently living in a pigsty is because of Cadence. So, yes, you’re going to be called some variation of ‘piggy’ for the rest of your life.”

Spearhead outright laughed at Shining, and Shining let out a low growl.

“You should see his desk junk drawer. He treats it like a trash can.”, Spearhead chuckled.

“Ew”

“Yeah. Oh, and nice skeleton but terrible everything else.”

“Yeah, we’re waiting for Skunky to die so we can get a new owner.”

Spearhead made the face you make when you’re not quite sure how to respond but smiled and nodded anyway. “Have a good day, Ms. Shimmer.”

“Detective, I had to go through the same kinds of tests you did.”, I said in annoyance.

Spearhead nodded non committedly, and the two of them left with the box. I let out a low growl and headed back up to the office. I passed Rarity’s client in the hallway as I walked from the elevator to the office. Rarity was leaning back in her chair in the way she does after dealing with a difficult client. I took the bottle of Scotch and two tumblers from my desk drawer and placed them on Rarity’s desk. Rarity poured us a couple as I took a seat. No words were spoken as we clinked our glasses together and took our first drinks.

“So, how’d he react?”, I asked.

“Shouted about him hiring us to find evidence of his wife cheating, not to give him vague answers.”

“Is he cheating?”

“I don’t think so. He’s just a douche.”

The two of us sat in silence as we sipped our drinks. Once we finished our glasses, I took the glasses to the bathroom and washed them out.

“You have any other cases for me?”, I asked as she put everything back.

“Not today.”

I gave Rarity a thumbs up then used the time to take care of other, non-case related things involved in running a business. It was better than a stakeout but still not fun. Rarity made some calls out to see if other PIs have any cases that they’d be willing to toss our way. It was a common enough practice. It didn’t seem practical at first glance, “Why would you give business to your competitor?” and all that, but it made a lot more sense if you looked at what would happen if you didn’t do that. In simple terms, you’d get unhappy customers. Large firms have the money to put up big advertisements, but they can’t always get to all their cases in a timely manner. If you take too long to get to a case, your client will be unhappy and take their business elsewhere anyway. With that in mind, it’s better to redirect a client to a less busy firm and leave them with a good impression of your business. Plus, the primary business keeps a portion of the deposit without having done much work.

“Okay, I have three new possible redirects. I’ll let you know if we get any of the cases.”, Rarity said.

“Good” I checked the time and noticed it was almost lunch. “I’m going to head out before traffic picks up. Want me to get you anything?”

“Heading to Pinkie’s?”

“Eyup”, I said in an inflection that I’d picked up from AJ over the years.

“Something without much sugar, please, darling. It’s almost frightening how little sugar I can handle nowadays. It’s undoubtedly good for my health, but I start to feel sick after a couple donuts.”

I nodded in understanding as I put my backpack on. “We’re old.” I caught Rarity shaking her head as I left.

Pinkie’s Bakery and Café, family friendly snack house by day and bar and grill and comedy house by night. To say the place was a success was an understatement. During the day, you could find children’s parties in the well soundproofed back room, sweets, pastries, good food, good coffee, and the occasional live band, and at night, you could find alcohol, sweets, pastries, good food, good coffee, and amateur comedians. Pinkie ran it alongside her husband, Cheese Sandwich.

The place was primarily white but had a lot of pink too, obviously. The walls were covered in murals painted by me. They’re the same sort of stuff I painted back as Flanksy. I miss doing street art, but getting caught could mean losing my PI license or even ending up in big girl jail.

“So, did you find Wallflower?”, Pinkie asked in her usual excited tone. She was still sporting her wild curls, bright clothing, and even brighter smile that you could see even behind a mask. When the pandemic started, she first wore a mask with a huge smile but quickly switched to a pink one with white polka dots after people pointed out how creepy her first one was. That’s still the mask she wears to this day. The only thing that’s changed about her is the very noticeable baby belly.

I took another sip of my coffee before answering. They were simple yet loaded words. “No, I didn’t.”

“Aw, what happened?” Pinkie was far more subdued now and actually concerned.

“I don’t know. She just disappeared. Didn’t take anything with her, not even her phone.”

“Wow, that’s sad.”

“Yeah.” I took another sip of my coffee. Those questions from last night still plagued my mind. The situation reminding me of that damn STD demon horror movie Rainbow insisted we all watch back in high school wasn’t helping. Nearly two decades of not thinking about that movie, and now, I remember it. Shut up, brain. “Pinkie, you’re knowledgeable about spirits, pseudo-sciencey stuff. Is it common for spirits to only be visible to their victims?”

“Well, no, spirits aren’t normally visible to anyone, and spirits rarely have victims. You can’t exactly ask a spirit why they’re doing something, but most want nothing to do with the living, and the stories you hear are from them trying to scare people off. They’ve had enough of us when they were alive. Why do you ask?”

“What about people predicting their own deaths? What’s up with that? Is it common to see death itself coming for you?”

“People that predict their own deaths usually die from stuff like heart attacks where they feel a sense of impending doom. That’s just our bodies giving us a new signal we don’t know how to interpret. Imagine feeling hungry for the first time and no one told you what that means. You’d have no idea. Hell, I still sometimes mistake it for nausea. People that avoided being killed because of a prediction have never reported seeing death itself coming for them. The how is still up for debate. There can be many reasons. You could most likely do it by subconsciously picking up on things your conscious mind ignored.”

I hung my head. I had no answers for anything and was just tired.

“Are you okay?”, Pinkie asked, having lost all jovialness in her voice. “You ain’t lookin’ so hot. Do you need to see a doctor?”

“Ugh, maybe. I’ll schedule a visit.” I downed the rest of my coffee and grabbed the doggie bag containing Rarity’s food as I stood up to leave. “I’ll see you later, Pinkie. I’ve got a lot of professional stalking to do.”

“Bye, Sunset.”

What am I doing? This is crazy. Spirits don’t exist. Wallflower was just hallucinating, and my brain was just being a jerk last night. If I don’t think about it, I won’t see it tonight. But what if she wasn’t? What if it comes back? Shut up, shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!

I rode down the street that led to my apartment building with a backpack full of groceries. It was a normal night, like any other. I would park, go to my apartment, get the groceries put away, eat dinner, play video games, go to bed, and wake up the next morning. I wasn’t going to see some black shadow figure. At least, that’s what I kept telling myself.

I still couldn’t shake that feeling. Some part of me, some part that was little more than a monkey swinging from branches wouldn’t drop it. I did say that those in my line of work that ignore such things end up with their organs on a scale, but this was just crazy. There’s no such thing as demons, spirits, ghosts, or ghouls. There certainly is no such thing as murderous shadow people. I just had to get home and wait for the thing to not show up and prove to myself that I was just seeing things.

It was not long before I reached my block. Traffic was congested but still moving fast. I slowed down in preparation to turn into the parking lot, but as I looked over to check if it was clear, it was standing in front of the lobby door. Clear as day, it was there. Before I could even react, I felt my bike make contact, and I was thrown forward. The world was a blur, but I felt myself land on my back, then side, and then my other side before finally rolling to a stop.

I wasn’t knocked out, but it took a moment or two for the world to come back into focus. A man was speaking, but I couldn’t make out what. I tried to get up, but a hand on my chest kept me down.

“Don’t move. An ambulance is on its way.”, the man said. I could finally make out what he was saying, but it took me another couple seconds to process it.

“Fuck,” I wheezed out, “I can’t pay for that.” As much as I wanted to protest, the adrenaline was starting to wear off, and I was quickly becoming very aware of the pain in my sides.

I couldn’t really move my body but could still move my head and survey the area. The other drivers were trying to get around us while the pedestrians either ignored us or just stared. I couldn’t see the car, aside from the grill, so I didn't know the damage. I’m screwed. Even with the financial blow this will cause, that wasn’t what I'm most worried about. I'd seen it. I couldn’t see it from where I laid but could still tell it was there. It stared at me through the car, and it wasn’t some figment of my imagination. It was real, and it was coming for me.

The sounds of sirens were quickly approaching. An ambulance pulled up, and the paramedics ran up to us. “What happened?”, one of the paramedics asked. The second paramedic was talking to the man, and a police car tried its best to us on the two lane road.

“I got launched.”, I said as she feebly attempted to point to my bike.

The paramedic knelt down next to me. “May I take off your helmet?”

“Yes” My voice was still weak as I couldn’t take in much air.

The paramedic carefully took my helmet off and looked carefully at my eyes. “Do you feel any pain?”

“In my sides. I first landed on my back then both my sides before laying to rest where you see me.”

“Okay, we’re going to immobilize your neck and take you to the hospital. You could have a broken back or ribs.”

I let out a weak grunt. The paramedic was right, but my wallet was going to be hurting after this. “Okay”

The paramedic gestured for his college to grab the stuff from the ambo. The cop was talking with the other driver but also shooting judgmental glances towards me. My backpack had some bottles of alcohol in it that definitely broke, and now, I stank. My voice undoubtedly didn’t help. As Capper put it, I now have a druggie’s voice.

The other paramedic returned, and they worked to get me on the gurney. That involved getting my backpack off. They cut the straps, and I mentally added that to the list of items that needed to be replaced. I could now see the thing again. It hadn’t moved or changed. It was just there.

As they started to load me up into the ambo, the officer walked over to us, and I knew exactly what was going to happen. “Can I get a quick statement, before you leave?”

One of the paramedics opened his mouth to protest, something along the lines of “This can wait until she’s been seen by a doctor”, but I was faster.

“Sure, and no, I’ve not had anything to drink tonight. I was just returning from a grocery run, which included alcohol. You’ll find the smashed bottles in my bag. As far as what happened, something distracted me, and I never realized the person in front of me had stopped.”

“Uh-huh”, the officer said disbelievingly. “What exactly distracted you?”

I shrugged, well, as best I could with having just been thrown onto a car. “I couldn’t put a name to it. It all happened so fast. Even if I had noticed he stopped, I doubt I would've had enough time to stop.”

The cop still looked at me like he didn’t believe me, but I was talking without showing any signs of intoxication.

“We need to get to the hospital. Leave us.”, the first paramedic said forcefully, just as much to me as it was to the cop.

The cop walked away, and the paramedics finished loading up. The second paramedic rode in the back with me. I patted down my left pocket, which held my keys, and confirmed they're still there. This exact scenario is why I have a clip connecting my bike key to the rest of them, and I take it off the ring before I start up my bike. Thank whatever smarty pants for zippers on pockets. I then tried to pull out my phone but only got a pile of shattered glass, circuits, and plastic.

“Well, shit. Hey, can I borrow your phone? I need to make a few calls.”

The paramedic unlocked his phone and handed it to me, and the first person I called was AJ.

“Hello, who’s this? Do ya have any idea what time it is?”, AJ asked.

I decided to take this perfect opportunity, covered my mask with my hand à la Bane, and made my voice sound all deep and menacing. “Hello, Applejack, let’s not stand on ceremony here. You will know my name one day, and-”

“Hi, Sunset.”

“Fuck you”, I said in my normal, yet still weak, voice. “How’d you know it was me?”

“Ah know all your voices by now. Now, what’s up with tha unknown number?”

“I was in a wreck, just outside of my apartment, and my phone’s scrap. I’m on my way to the hospital. Could you retrieve my bike and bag?”

“Absolutely. Ya just worry about yourself. Ah’ll rally tha troops. We’ll meet ya later.” AJ hung up on her end, and I handed the phone back to the paramedic.

Once we got to the hospital, the first place I was taken was an x-ray room and the second was somewhere I could be cleaned off and changed into a hospital gown before the rest of the hospital stuff could take place. Being cleaned by an older woman as an adult is probably one of the most humiliating things I’ve gone through, at least this decade. I told the doctors the what and why about my planned doctor's trip for tomorrow, feeling tired and icky and generally bleck without any other symptoms for nearly a week, and they took some blood. Once everything was said and done, I was placed in a room with a sliding glass door and an unobstructed view to the front doors. This allowed me to see my friends bolt in and brace for the Pinkanado.

“Sunset!”, Pinkie shouted as she prepared to bear hug me.

“Ribs! Pinkie! Ribs!”, I managed to shout before Pinkie pounced.

“Oh, sorry.”

“You okay, sugarcube?”, AJ asked. Like the rest of us, she changed very little from high school. The only thing that’s really changed about her was that she’s come to wearing RD’s college letterman jacket when she gets distressed. It was heavy, so it acted as a weighted vest of sorts, and it kinda smells like RD. Despite what some of her relatives said and did, AJ was always in full support of the mask mandate, though doesn’t wear one if she doesn’t need to. A hospital is a place where a mask is still required, so she wore a plain green mask.

“I’m not great, but it could’ve been worse. My backpack absorbed the brunt of the impact. I just have bruised ribs on both sides. How’s my bike?”

“Tha headlights, front casing, windshield, front wheel, n’ mudguard are all goin’ ta need ta be replaced, but it’s otherwise fine. Ya scratched that thing up so many times, Ah can’t tell which are new n’ which are old. Ah’m sure Rainbow has some spare parts ya can use.”, AJ explained.

“No, that’s okay. I don’t want to bother her.”

“Both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are already on flights back here, darling. I will also be driving you around until you’re well enough to ride again. That will mean that we’ll both be working the same cases for a while, but we’ll make it work.”, Rarity said. Her mask was cyan with her symbol on it.

“You’re not even going to try to talk me out of going straight back to work?”, I asked confusedly.

“Sunset, if I didn’t know better, I’d say your father was a mule. We’ve accepted that fact and are done fighting you.”, Twilight said. Her mask was plain black, just like mine. It might actually be one of mine.

“My dad could’ve been a mule. My mom would’ve fucked anything if it paid her.”, I joked.

“Did you tell the doctors about your concerns?”, Pinkie asked.

“Yeah, they took some blood and are going to run some tests.”

“What concerns?”, the other three asked.

“I’ve just been feeling tired and overall crappy for the last few days.”

“What about you seeing that shadow person yesterday?”, Twilight asked, peeking Rarity’s attention.

“I haven’t seen it tonight. Hff, I guess my brain is just an asshole.”

“You’re lying.”, Twilight said with a scowl.

“Look, Twi, I’m not sure what’s going on. Rarity, I want to reopen the Wallflower case.”

Rarity looked up like she does when she’s doing mental calculations then looked at me with a serious face. “Are you saying that Wallflower was possibly poisoned, and you picked it up too when you went to her apartment?”

“Um, no, I just want to talk to Roseluck. She’s one of Wallflower's neighbors and was also in her apartment.”

“Oh, my bad.”, Rarity said with an apologetic smile. “I’m jumping again.”

“Back to other matters, give me a list of all you lost in the crash, and I’ll get it replaced.”, Twilight said.

“Twi, you don’t have to do that.”, I tried to protest.

“Nope, I’m not hearing it. You need a new phone first off, and you now have medical bills. I’m your girlfriend. Let me help you.”

I glared at Twilight before giving her a mischievous smile. “You’ve been spending too much time around me, Sparkles.”

Twilight gave me her own mischievous smile, but before she could say anything, a nurse interrupted. “I’m sorry girls, but visiting hours are over. You can take her home tomorrow.”

The five of the girls said their goodbyes then I was left alone in my darkened room. The lights were kept on in the lobby, but I could still see the thing outside, just past the awning. It stared at me, and I glared back at it. I don’t know what you are, but I know why you’re here. I won't let you take me too. I won’t let you take me away from my family.

You will never escape ch3

I was awoken by knocking at the door to my room. A doctor walked in with a fresh face, clearly now a member of the morning shift. I recognized him from that night, the worst and start of the best days of my life. The thought of my mother made me want to rip her apart and, simultaneously, caused my heart to ache. The part of me that was genetically programmed to love my parents, it refused to let go. It ached for their love, even though I very well knew they had none for me.

“Good morning. How are you feeling?”, Dr. Hooves asked.

“Like I was used as a punching bag and still abnormally tired and icky.”

“Your tests will be done in a couple days, and we’ll email you the results. You can go home and take some over the counter medication for the pain, but if you need something stronger, go talk to your regular doctor.”

“Okie dokie”

Dr. Hooves nodded and left my room. A nurse soon came in with a wheelchair and helped me get dressed then into the chair. It wasn’t that I needed it or the help. I could walk well enough, but we live in lawsuit land. The nurse wheeled me outside to Rarity’s car. Once we were outside the hospital, I was allowed out of the chair and got into Rarity’s car, and the nurse took the chair back inside.

I caught a look at myself in the mirror, and I looked like shit. Bags under my eyes, paling skin. I looked like that one dumbass in zombie movies that try to hide their infection.

“Get anything good?”, Rarity asked, then pulled out a doggie bag and a big bottle of orange juice. “By the way, we got you some real breakfast and a lot of OJ. You need the VD.”

“Thank you. No, Doc said over the counter stuff should work. We?”, I said as I took the bag from Rarity.

“I came here from dropping Rainbow and Fluttershy off at their homes. We were thinking that we’d hang at Twilight’s tonight, maybe find some place to play.”

“That would be nice. We should get to Wallflower’s apartment before Roseluck leaves for the day. Then I need to go back to my apartment. Then we should poke around Wallflower’s work. They were one of only four contacts in her phone.”, I said as I ate my breakfast.

“Alrighty” Rarity started the car, punched the address into Maps, and started us on our way. Once they got to Wallflower’s apartment building, I led Rarity to her hallway. “So, do you know what apartment-?”

“No, just start knocking.”, I cut in. We chose a side of the hallway and knocked on each of the doors, mostly getting no answer. It didn’t take us long, as apartment E proved to be the correct one.

Roseluck opened the door and seemed initially surprised to see me. “Sunset?” She then made the ‘right, that’ head motion. “Did you find Wallflower?”

“No, not yet. Have you seen anything strange over the last couple of days, stuff no one else can see?”

“No?” Roseluck looked past I and to Rarity. “Is she okay? She looks like she hasn’t slept in a week.”

“Grm, you’re not exactly wrong.”, I admitted.

“We’re, or at least I’m, worried that Sunset was exposed to something while investigating Wallflower’s disappearance.”, Rarity said. “It coincides with the worsening of her general condition, and she’s having the same hallucinations as Wallflower.”

Roseluck’s face twisted into something between concern and confusion. “N-no, I haven’t seen anything like that. As far as I know, everything I’ve been seeing was actually there.”

I scrutinized Roseluck for any sign of dishonesty or that she wasn’t telling the whole truth, causing Roseluck to take a step back from me. I’ve been told that my “judging face”, plus my clothing choices and general disposition, made me look like I was sizing someone up for a beating. “If you’re lying, you better have a real good way of keeping on the run, a very good and fast way.”, I snarled.

Roseluck scurried backwards into her apartment and quickly closed the door. I relaxed my posture and looked to Rarity. Rarity was looking up at me with a ‘you damn well better be sure’ look.

“I know. I know.”

“Are you sure she’s lying?”, Rarity asked. We turned and made our way down the hall.

“I’m not sure. My gut’s telling me something’s wrong, but I can’t say what.”

“Okay”

We got into the car, but instead of starting the car, Rarity just stared at me.

“What?”, I asked.

“Are you scared?”

“Scared of what?”

“Scared of whatever happened to Wallflower happening to you.”

I was, but how could I express it? I’ve only started seeing that thing after I learned about it, but I’m the only one that knows it’s not just a hallucination. That seems to be the deciding factor, or is it a hallucination? Some schizophrenics full heartedly believe their hallucinations are real. Can I trust my own mind?

I curled over in my seat, wincing in pain as the seatbelt put pressure on my side. Rarity unbuckled me and wrapped her arms around where they wouldn’t hurt. “It’s okay, Sunset. We’ll figure it out.”

I righted myself and looked at Rarity with reassuring eyes. “I’m okay. My stomach just decided it was going to flip.”

“Liar.”, Rarity said mirthfully, then her face turned serious. “Sunset, you don’t have to keep playing the protective mama role. We’re not kids anymore.”

“I’m the alpha of this pack. I’m never not going to be protective over you all.”

Rarity gave me the ‘I’m not going to win this’ face then started the car. “Let’s get you some pain meds.”

I put my seatbelt back on, and Rarity drove me to my apartment. My apartment isn’t in the best part of town, but rent’s cheap, and I kept my valuables in my backpack or behind a false wall in my closet. The street was already cleaned up. One would’ve never known there was a crash if they weren’t there. Rarity pulled into the garage and parked in my allotted spot, and we headed to the garage door. I pulled out my keys, unlocked the door, and let Rarity inside. The garage door was made of glass and only led to a staircase and a couple vending machines.

“Why do you have vending machines in your building?”, Rarity asked.

“I’m not sure. I think one of my neighbors runs a vending machine company.”

I led Rarity to my floor, which was unremarkable. My building was built some seventy years ago. It’s mostly brown and dark green, but the lighting was acceptable. I just wished it wasn’t carpeted. They’re hard to clean, and in a common area, you couldn’t not wonder if it had been used as a urinal at some point. At least it didn’t smell like it.

Getting inside my apartment, my first stop was to check on Mustard, Ray’s son, whose terrarium was next to the window. Mustard was named that because that’s about the color of his skin. The sleepy gecko looked up at me with his goofy smile as I gave him a gentle head scratch.

“Hey, baby, you hungry?”, I said in a whisper. Naturally, he didn’t respond. I got out his crickets from the drawer and dropped a few in. He enjoyed hunting them and quickly became alert. Mustard watched the crickets, waited until one came close, and snatched it up. I giggled at how serious he looked. Mustard has his mother’s ferocity. He too was getting older, almost being ten, but he’s still got his spirit.

My apartment was small with my bedroom barely having enough space for my bed, a bathroom that was only slightly bigger than my closet, a kitchen that was more of a cooking nook, and a living/dining room that would have a good chunk of its space taken up by a TV, if I had one. It was beige and brown instead of green.

“I don’t get why you don’t just move in with Twilight already.”

“We’ll move in together when we’re good and ready, and I’m never living in her current apartment. I don’t want to live in a high school.” I checked Mustard’s water dish and heat lamp while he went back to sleep.

“Darling, I still don’t have the foggiest idea of what you mean. I’ve never felt that way at Twilight’s place.”

“Try speaking in your local accent.”

Rarity shrugged, and I grabbed my bottle of ibuprofen from my nightstand and stashed it in my pocket.

“Will it be easier to pick up my guitar later or take it with us?”, I asked.

“We can take it with us.”, Rarity answered.

I nodded and retrieved said instrument from behind the false wall.

Rarity scurried over and looked over my shoulder. “So, that’s where you keep it.”, she said in astonishment.

“False bottoms and walls were the only way I was able to keep things that were important to me.”

Rarity put her head against mine, and I returned the action. I couldn’t put it into words how liberating it was to finally tell someone what was happening to me and to have all the lies my mother put into my head shattered. To put it bluntly, everything I did back then was to gain some control and security over my own life, as I had none at home. The foster system wasn’t great, but it wasn’t the Hell on Earth my mother made it out to be. The five of them saved my life. I’m glad I was able to do the same for Twilight. Her family wasn’t abusive, but an abusive school could be just as bad.

The two of us separated, and I put the wall back then placed the guitar on my bed. “I’m going to change my pad.”

“Wow, you really are in a right lot of pain.”, Rarity joked as I headed to the bathroom.

“Aw, go gargle some vegemite.”

Once I was clean, I headed into the kitchen and got a cup of water and pulled out the ibuprofen. I did some quick mental math as to how long ago I’d last taken some and how much I could take now then poured out four tablets. I popped them in my mouth and downed them with the water. I placed the cup down as I looked off into space and compiled all my evidence. Only Wallflower and I could see the thing. Neither of us ever tried to touch it. Other people could walk straight through it without issue. Could I touch it? Would that cause me to die on the spot?

“Hey, space cadet, ruminate in the car. We’ve got places to be.”, Rarity said.

I put the lid back on the pill bottle and cup next to the sink. “Rarity, what will you do if I die next week?” My already artificially deepened voice was even more morose than usual.

“You mean aside from hide away from the world in the fetal position and close down the business, not much.”

“Are you really going to shut down the business?”

“I’d eventually go under without you. And you mean ‘would’, not ‘are’. You may treat your body like it owes you money, but you aren’t dying any time soon, darling.”, Rarity said sternly.

“Okay, I’ll put my will back in its hidey-hole.” I walked back into my room, gave Mustard a goodbye head scratch, grabbed my guitar and rejoined Rarity. “I’m ready to go.”

We went back to Rarity’s car and drove to Canterlot Garden Labs. The place was unassuming from the outside, aside from the glass dome on the roof and a mural of what many people now call “Never Land”. Its official name is ‘Green Earth’ or something like that. I don’t remember. The reason people call it ‘Never Land’ is because “It’s never going to happen” and “It’s a fantasy”. I like to think it’s not so far-fetched, but looking up at the sky, it’s looking more like a fantasy each day.

Entering the building, we were greeted by two staircases to the sides and then a large, open space that only housed a desk in the center of it and a few chairs along the front wall. It was faint, but I could smell a mixture of soil, fertilizer, perlite, and foliage. We got our licenses ready as we approached the front desk man.

“Hello, I’m Dt. Rarity, and this is Dt. Shimmer. We’re PIs hired by Sunflower Blush to investigate the disappearance of Wallflower Blush.”, Rarity said as we presented our licenses. “May we speak to her direct supervisor?”

The man looked up at them with a disinterested expression. He wore a see-through mask, so there was no hiding it. “The cops already questioned us about her.”

“Well, we also need to question you, and we have a contract to fulfill.”

“Dr. Petals is very busy right now. You’ll have to come back later.”

I leaned over the desk and started snarling and growling at him. The man scurried backwards in his chair and, for the first time since we got there, looked anything other than mildly annoyed. “What the hell is wrong with her?”, he asked fearfully.

“Cops have dogs. I have her. Now, please, we need to speak with Dr. Petals.”, Rarity said while petting my hair.

The man looked between Rarity, me, and the phone on his desk. Without taking his eyes off me, the man picked up the phone and pressed a button, which got me to stop making noise. “Dr. Petals, there are two detectives that wish to talk to you about Dr. Blush.” - “These are private detectives hired by her mother.” - “As you wish.” The man put his phone down and quickly did something on his computer. “Dr. Petals will see you now. Please follow the floor lights.”

I leaned back into an upright position and followed Rarity. The floor lights, or will-o-wisps, fox fire, or spirit/ghost lights as they’re colloquially known as, indicates the building was built or renovated within the last five years. The concept’s simple but not practical in high traffic areas, relegating it to places like this. A strip or row of lights are embedded in a straight line along hallways, then a basic layout of the floor is inputted into the app, and then destinations are added and synched with the lights. At that point, any stationary computer can have the app installed, be designated as a terminal, and have its location added to the map. These maps can be 2D for a single floor or 3D for multiple floors and have elevators and stairs added. So long as one could find a terminal, anyone can either search the map manually or use the search bar to find their destination and then have the lights guide them. Some systems even have multi-colored lights for when multiple people are using the system. I once worked a case where the perp hacked one of these systems in a wealthy tech corp and used the map to aid in stealing some design prototypes.

The lights led us down a series of white hallways until we reached a door with “Dr. Sunshine Petals” on it. Rarity knocked on the door, and a soft “Come in” came from the other side. We entered and were greeted by a lot of plants and a woman with yellow skin, purple hair, and green eyes. She wore a green top with a flower mask.

“Well, you certainly aren’t wanting for oxygen.”, Rarity commented.

“I guess you’d need to be a plant nut to be a botanist.”, I added.

“You’re not wrong. Please, have a seat.”, Dr. Petals said with one of the softest voices I've ever heard. It was comparable to Fluttershy’s.

We sat in the two chairs in front of Dr. Petals’ desk, and Rarity pulled out the Wallflower notebook and a pen from her purse. “Dr. Petals, I’m going to get straight to the point. Do you know if Dr. Wallflower Blush works with or owns any poisonous plants, specifically ones that can cause hallucinations or psychosis?”

“I don’t know if she owns any plants like that, but I know for sure she wasn’t working with any. Given the current crisis, we’re working on either breeding or genetically engineering a plant species that’s, in layman’s terms, better at unfucking up our air. Hallucinogenic plants are not involved in that.”

“I have pictures of the plants in her home. Could you identify if they’re poisonous?”, I asked.

“Most likely.”

Rarity handed me her phone, and I logged it into my cloud account and handed it to Dr. Petals.

Dr. Petals took the phone and began scrolling through the photos, muttering the plants’ names as she did so. “Most of these won’t do anything good for you if you eat them, but they won’t kill you. Some of these are plants from Dr. Blush’s projects, but the majority are species you can get from the garden section of any home improvement store or a commercial nursery.” Dr. Petals returned the phone but had a perplexed look on her face. “May I ask where your line of questions are going?”

“Wallflower kept a diary, and in the last few entries, she mentioned seeing a shadow figure. Her mother never mentioned concerns about her mental health whenever we talked to her, and those entries were the only ones like that.”, I explained. “We’re trying to rule everything out, including if she may have accidentally poisoned herself.”

“Okay, I get what you’re saying. Do you have any more questions?”

“Yes, do you know if Wallflower had any enemies or work friends?”, Rarity asked.

“Not to my knowledge. She kept to herself but was always polite. You can talk with the others. They’re all likely in the green house.”

“Thank you, I think we will.”, I said. We got up and started to go to the door but were stopped by Dr. Petals.

“Do you think she’s okay?”

I looked to Rarity then back at Dr. Petals with a solemn expression. “When someone says that they’re gonna die, they’re rarely wrong.”

Dr. Petals' expression turned to match my own, and Rarity and I left quickly. We had passed a terminal on our way to Dr. Petals office so we headed back to it. I studied the 3D map and took note of the facility’s design. The greenhouse was by far the largest room, taking up more than half of all three floors, but Garden Labs only took up the greenhouse and the bottom floor. The other two floors were taken up by various other companies. I entered the greenhouse as our destination, and the lights on the floor lit up.

“As much of a security risk these things are, they are useful.”, I remarked.

Rarity chuckled, and we followed the will-o-wisps to the greenhouse. The large glass dome turned out to be the greenhouse roof. The place was filled with rows upon rows of various tree species. They made it very difficult to see much.

“Um, hello?!”, Rarity called out. There was no chance she wouldn’t be heard as the place was quieter than a library.

Someone came out from the brush and looked at us quizzically. “Can I help you?”

“Yes, we’re investigating the disappearance of Wallflower Blush. May we speak with you?”

The researcher, judging by the lab coat, approached us with a displeased look on his face. “I already talked to you guys about her.”

“We’re not the cops.”, we both said.

“Then who are you?”, he said with added skepticism.

“We’re PIs working for Ms. Sunflower Blush. We were wondering if you know if she had any friends or enemies.”, Rarity said.

“No, no one has any reason to hate her, and she doesn’t have any friends. She’s brilliant, and we all respect her. Now, I need to go back to work.” Without waiting for a response, the researcher went back into the trees.

Rarity and I looked at each other with a mix of ‘What else were we expecting?’, ‘wtf’, and ‘yeah, understandable’. I looked to the trees then back to Rarity and pointed to the trees. Rarity nodded, and we searched through them. We found another researcher working with a different species.

“Hello, can we ask you a few questions?”, Rarity asked.

“Wallflower, yeah, I didn’t know her beyond work. She wasn’t some super-duper star that would end up being killed by a jealous second rate, but she did good work.”, the researcher said. She was at least friendlier than her co-worker.

“Okay, thank you.”

We continued on our search but found no one else within the forest. We pushed our way back out of the dense foliage and were startled by Dr. Petals standing right in front of us, now wearing a lab coat.

“Dr. Petals?”, I asked.

“I figured you’d want to check Dr. Blush’s locker.” It was only then I realized how small Dr. Petals is. She didn’t even reach my chest. I’m not short by any means, but I’m also not some giant that towered over everyone. I’d put the doctor around five foot-ish.

“Yeah, but how did you know where we would come out?”

“You two are the only ones in here that would be stomping around like you’re lost.”, Dr. Petals deadpanned.

“Fair”, Rarity and I said in unison.

Dr. Petals led us to a room that was clearly a break room. It was in the same area as the greenhouse and had all the furnishings of a normal breakroom. There was a door off to the side of it that the doctor led us through, and it led to a small locker room. Each of the lockers had names on them, so Wallflower’s was easy to find.

“It’s locked.”, I said.

“You’re PIs. Can’t you pick it or whatever you do for combination locks?”, Dr. Petals asked.

“We can, but we need the owner’s permission.”, Rarity said.

“My family owns this facility, and I’m giving you permission.”, Dr. Petals said with conviction.

Rarity pulled her email up on her phone and handed it to the doctor. “Email that to me, and we’ll do it.”

Dr. Petals pulled out her own phone, and within a minute, Rarity’s phone dinged. Rarity took her phone back, nodded, and basically, sicked me on the lock. I placed my ear to the lock and began the process of picking it. The lock was the same cheap crap that one would find in high schools. I could sneeze on, and it’d open. It only took seconds for me to open it. Inside was a lab coat, a plain white mask, and some other personal items. The two of us pulled stuff out and looked through everything, but none of it was noteworthy.

“Thank you for your help.”, Rarity said to Dr. Petals.

“Just find her. I’m not going to believe she’s dead until you show me a body.”, Dr. Petals said with determination in her eyes.

I closed up the locker, and Rarity and I nodded in acknowledgement. “We’ll try.”, I said. I thought I kept my tone neutral, but the look on the doc’s face said otherwise. Dr. Petals squeezed her eyes shut and lowered her head. Rarity and I looked at each other with ‘What do we do?’ looks. Even after all the years, comforting someone that was or is about to cry is still an awkward situation.

“Do you want a hug?”, Rarity asked.

“No, thank you. I’m good.”, Dr. Petals said.

“Alright, we should be going. We still have some investigations to do.”

“Good, good, get going.”

We hurried back out to Rarity’s car and just sat in it, staring through the windshield. It was a familiar silence, similar to the one back when I tried to make a move on Rarity, only to learn she’s straighter than the stick up Mrs. Harshwhinny’s butt, but less awkward.

“What now?”, Rarity asked, then realized her error. “Other than lunch.”

“Am I really that predictable?”

“You are the single most food motivated human I know.”

“Well, my mom was a bitch.”

“A bitch and a mule, that explains everything.”

The sheer deadpan of Rarity’s delivery caused me to let out an uproarious laugh, which caused my bruises to go ‘none of this, no laughter’. “Hahaha, ow ow, Rarity, you can’t do this to me.”, I wheezed.

“Hehehe, sorry.”

I took shallow breaths until my sides stopped hurting. I leaned back in my seat and stared off into the distance once again.

“We have no leads, no motive, no body, and not even a proper crime scene. What do we do now?”, Rarity asked.

“I wanna look more into Roseluck. Something just doesn’t sit right about her.”, I said.

“Are you hungry?”

“Yes”

Rarity started the car and drove to the nearest Burger Princess. She ordered our favorites and drove around to the parking lot. A worker brought our food out, and we chowed down. Rarity being Rarity, only got a salad and water. I rolled her eyes, earning a glare from Rarity, and stuffed more fries into my double cheeseburger.

“How do you not weigh five hundred pounds?”

“I’m not on my butt all day.”, I said through a mouthful of food.

Rarity made a displeased face, and I stuck my tongue out.

“How are we going to investigate Roseluck?”

“I’m going to investigate her.”, I insisted.

“A, why? And B, that doesn’t answer my question.”

“You can’t afford to get caught breaking into her place.”

“You would face the same consequences that I would.”, Rarity said with skepticism. “Is this because of the shadow person?”

I didn’t answer and lowered my head, not willing to look her in the eye.

“Sunset, you’re not going to die, so stop acting like you are.”, Rarity said with a mix of anger and fear.

“Okay”, I said disingenuously. “Positive thinking, right.” That earned me a solid whack in the side from Rarity. “Eeee, okay, okay, ow.”, I wheezed.

“Let’s just go back to the office. We have other cases.”

I nodded. Should I go see a psych doc? It didn’t work for Wallflower. We finished our food, and Rarity drove us back to the office. We deposited our garbage in the garage trash can and took our usual way up. In front of our door was a small box with a note taped to it. The non-injured of us bent down and picked it up. It was a box of chocolates, and the note only said “Sorry”.

“Your client?”, I asked.

“Looks like it. He does own a candy shop.” Rarity unlocked the door and brought the box to her desk. “Want some?”

“Is that a rhetorical question?”

Rarity rolled her eyes and presented me with the box.

“Sunset, darling, are you ready to go?”

“Nope”, I said without looking up from my computer.

“Get up, you malformed shrimp, we’ve got places to be.”

I looked up from my computer and gave Rarity a raised eyebrow. “Did you just call me a “malformed shrimp”?”

“Have you seen your posture?”

“So, I’m a mule, a bitch, and now, a shrimp. Alright, where are we going?” I stood up and began packing, which wasn’t much without my backpack.

“Twilight’s, Pinkie’s throwing a welcome home party for Rainbow and Fluttershy.”

“Alright, I’m ready to go.”

We locked up shop then headed down to the garage. As we were walking to Rarity’s car, I initially walked straight past the car, forgetting my bike wasn’t in its usual spot, then scurried back to the car.

“You got another ride?”, Rarity joked.

“Can it, Rare, or Imma give you a cricket infestation again.”

Rarity stuck her tongue out, and we loaded into the car. We made a quick pit stop to pick up Rarity’s keytar then headed to Twilight’s. Going from the street to Twilight’s apartment was the same as usual, except I didn’t have my helmet. I still had my mask on, so that was better than nothing, but I still felt like I was being watched, and the shadow figure being in the center of the lobby wasn’t helping. If Rarity felt the same, she was hiding it well. I led Rarity up to Twi’s floor and unlocked and opened her door. The moment we set foot inside, Rarity was subject to an inspection by Wrath. She wasn’t here often enough for Wrath to be completely trusting of her.

“Hello, darling.”, Rarity cued at Wrath.

Once Wrath was satisfied, we were let into the apartment, and Rarity put her bags, and I put my guitar out of the way, against one of the walls. Rainbow and AJ were already there and chatting with Twilight in her living room.

“Hey, Twi, I see you got a new mop. Crazy how colorful they are these days.”, I joked.

“If you weren’t injured, I’d tackle you into next week.”, Rainbow said irritatedly.

“Wow, it talks too. Fancy”

“Okay, that’s it!” Rainbow jumped up from her seat and charged at me. I side stepped out of the way, and Rainbow came to a stop a few feet away from me. Both of us spun around to face each other again, and I took off my jacket and used it as a muleta. Both of us got stupidly large grins on our faces, and Rainbow scuffed her foot like a bull and charged at my jacket. I spun out of the way, and Rainbow stumbled to a stop, nearly crashing into Twilight’s table.

“Hey! You break it, you buy it!”, Twilight chastised.

Rainbow and I laughed our asses off, and Rainbow came in for a hug.

“It’s been too long.”, I said as I carefully reciprocated the hug. Despite Rainbow being a good deal shorter than myself, she reached up and over my shoulders in order to not agitate my bruises.

“Yeah, I couldn’t get back here fast enough to see your ugly mug.” Rainbow released the hug and pulled out her phone. “I took a look at your bike, and I definitely have what you need to fix it, except for the windshield, but I do know a guy that can get you hooked up.” Rainbow showed me her phone, which had the website for Crate’s Auto and Tool Emporium. The slogan under the name read “Where quality is priority”. “My guy’s name is Supply Crate, Crafty’s son. They can get just about any part from anywhere on the globe.”

“Okay, show me the parts.”

Rainbow opened up her photos and showed me a picture of the parts next to my damaged bike. They were wildly different colors, but I could paint them.

“These look good.”

“Good, once you’re healed, we can put it back together.”

“Sounds good.” I hope I’m around for that.

“You two done? We’ve got stuff to do.”, Twilight called out.

“Yeah”

Twilight, Rarity, and AJ stood up from their seats and joined RD and me in Twi’s pathway. The girls escorted me into the kitchen. On the island was a bike helmet, just like my old one, minus my personal paint job; a backpack; an unopened phone; a laptop; and a mystery Nile box.

I hid my face in my hands to hide my embarrassment. “You guys didn’t have to.”

“No, but we wanted to.”, Rarity said.

“Helpin’ each other out is what family's for.”, AJ added.

Before I could respond, the doorbell rang. Twilight opened the door, and Pinkie and Fluttershy came in.

“Hey, Sunset.”, Fluttershy said in her soft voice. She was a lot bolder now than back in high school, but some things will never change.

I parted my fingers just enough to peek at Fluttershy with one eye. “Hey, Flutters.”

She apparently found it amusing and chuckled at me. “You’re so cute when you get embarrassed.”

My cheeks grew even redder, and I covered my face once again.

“Oh, just bring everything to the living room. My feet are killing me.”, Pinkie said as she walked to the couch.

The rest of us grabbed the stuff and brought it into the living room and sat around the coffee table, either on the floor with pillows or what seats were available.

“We couldn’t find the exact backpack you had, so we found one with similar features.”, Twilight explained.

I took the backpack and examined it. “This is perfect.”, I said, still embarrassed.

“Sunset, seriously, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Think of these as early birthday presents.”

I next picked up the helmet, removed it from the packaging, and stuck it on my head.

“Better?”, Twilight asked.

I nodded and next opened the phone. It was the same one as my old phone, so I pulled the bits of my old phone out, fished the sim card out the mess, grabbed a paperclip from my assorted pocket, used it to pop the tray out, and slid the sim in.

“Have ya been carrying your old phone around all day?”, AJ asked.

I nodded, placed the remains of my old phone in the growing garbage pile, stuffed my new phone in my pocket and the laptop in my new bag to be dealt with later. That just left the mystery box. I examined it before opening it up. Inside was an at home genetic testing kit. Unlike the “at home” genetic testing kits of old, this one was actually at home, as in there’s no need to mail it off to anywhere. It’s quite a bit more expensive than the mail off variety, but this type is faster, and you don’t have to worry about some company having your genetic material.

“What’s this for?”, I asked.

“I remembered what you said at the hospital last night, and figured that you can use this to find out who your father is.”, Twilight said.

I placed the box and my helmet back on the table and shook my head. “I appreciate the thought, Twi, but I already know everything I need to about my father. His love for me was only worth six hundred dollars and he’s the reason I’m allergic to latex. He didn’t even care enough to make sure my mom actually used that money to abort me. What could I possibly need from that man, and he might not have gotten a DNA test.”

“Eighteen years of missed child support, and there’s no hurt in trying.”, Fluttershy suggested. That perked my ears. That can easily be in the hundred thousands.

“Can she even sue for that? I feel like there’s some sort of, whatcha call it, statue of limitation.”, RD asked.

“Statute of limitations”, I corrected. I closed my eyes and mentally searched through my case files. MIA baby daddy, MIA baby daddy, aw. “No, not in our state. Though, I’m not sure if I could sue him.”

“The threat alone could be enough to get him to pay.”, Rarity suggested.

“So, you in?”, Twilight asked.

“Flutters had me at child support.” I opened the package and read over the instructions. I then grabbed the swabby thing and handed the rest to Twilight.

“Really?”

“What? You’re our techie, and this was your idea.”

Twilight rolled her eyes but took the kit. She set it up while I swabbed my cheek then took the swab. Twilight did the steps needed to start the test. “Okay, we just need to give it a couple hours, then we’ll have your results.”

“Wouldn’t it be funny if Sunset’s dad was actually a mule?”, Pinkie said.

I closed my eyes and leaned back on my pillows. “That would explain why I’m so ugly.”

“Yeah, it would.”, Pinkie said absentmindedly.

I popped an eye open and used it to glare at Pinkie. “I’m going to blame that on the baby brain.”

Pinkie didn’t seem to pick up on my threat and just turned to Twilight. “Hey, Twi, got any snacks?”

“Ah’ll get ya some. Any preferences?”, AJ said.

“Something salty.”

AJ nodded and disappeared into the kitchen. The rest of the girls engaged in idle chit-chat while I rested. I heard AJ return and dump something on the coffee table.

“Here, Ah figured you lot would want snacks too, n’ drinks.”

Everybody let Pinkie have the first pick then grabbed what we wanted.

“Eyup” AJ retook her seat with the snacks she held back, and the rest of us dug into ours.

The girls continued talking, catching up with each other and generally shooting the shit. Unfortunately, this gathering was a dry one, and so will the rest be, until Pinkie pops.

“Have you picked out a name yet, darling?”, Rarity asked.

“Cheesecake, if it’s a girl, and Little Cheese, if it’s a boy.”

“What if they’re twins?”, RD asked.

“Oh, we checked.”, Pinkie stressed. “We asked the doc to not tell us the gender, but we definitely asked how many. My parents love Marble and me, but when little Marbie popped her little head out, they were thrown for a loop I tell you. They weren’t prepared for two babies, so I’d like to avoid that surprise. What about you? When are you and AJ going to have kids?”

“That’s tha thing, neither of us wants to get pregnant.”, AJ explained. “We’re gonna adopt, when tha time comes.”

“Better be quick about it. We’re already in our thirties.”, Sunset poked.

“Yeah, we’ve already gotten the paperwork done. We just need to actually adopt a kid.”, RD explained.

“You’ll make great parents.”, Fluttershy said.

Twilight checked the time and looked at the test kit. “It’s done.” She got up and grabbed her laptop from her room and brought it out to the living room. The rest of them huddled around her as she pulled up the website and plugged the kit into her computer.

“What’s it say?”, Pinkie excitedly asked.

“Give it a minute. This is analyzing a… well… this is a crap ton of data.”

After what felt like an eternity, a new page popped up and a circle chart that represented my genetic makeup was presented to us. That wasn’t what we were interested in, so Twi switched to the tab that said “Family tree”. Several bubbles with lines connecting them popped up. It showed that my father had indeed used the service, and I have three sisters, but that’s not what surprised me the most. My father’s Mr. Neighsay!

“What sort of prick names their kid ‘Chancellor’?”, RD asked.

“The same kind of person that produced him. Remember the joke “What’s the difference between a porcupine and two lawyers in a porsche”? That's him.”, Rarity explained.

“Look at the kids’ ages.”, Pinkie said. “They’re all around Sunset’s age.”

“Do you think he did the same thing to their mothers?”, Fluttershy asked.

“No, this shows that these three have the same mother.”, Twi pointed out.

“Hey, look here.” Rarity pulled out her phone and showed everyone his Instabook page. It showed him as married and had pictures of him with his wife and his three daughters.

“That snake was sleepin’ with prostitutes while married.”, AJ said irately. “What are tha girls’ birthdays?” Rarity found the daughters’ profiles and showed each to Applejack. “Even while his wife was pregnant!? Tha middle one’s only a month older than Sunset.”

“He lives in the building.”, I stated.

“He does?”, Twilight asked.

I closed my eyes and looked over all the times I’ve encountered him in the elevator. “Floor nine, he should be home by now.” I shot up from my seat and marched to the door.

“Sunset! You’re injured!”

“I don’t care! I’m going to pumble that bastard until he begs for his mama!”

“At least take one of us with you!”, RD exclaimed. Everyone turned to look at her expectantly, and realization dawned on her. “And I just volunteered myself.”

Rainbow joined me and was shortly followed by AJ. We all looked at her questioningly. “Ah hate cheaters.”, she growled.

RD and I nodded our understandingly, then we headed out to the elevators.

“Whatcha gonna do when we find him?”, RD asked.

“I’m not sure.” As we waited for the elevator, I could feel that same accursed feeling I have towards my mother. This man abandoned me before I was anything more than a cluster of cells. I shouldn’t feel anything other than utter disdain for him, and I do, as the most notorious lawyer in Canterlot, but that damn little piece of me.

The elevator arrived, and we got on. I pressed the 9th floor button then leaned myself against the back. The elevators were glass, so I could see the lobby below when I looked over my shoulder, and I could see the thing standing in the center of it. It hadn’t moved, even a bit, since I got to Twi’s, but it was, somehow, the least of my concerns, at the moment.

The doors opened, and I led RD and AJ to the closest door.

“So, what’s the plan?”, RD asked.

I knocked on the door while fishing for my PI license, and an elderly lady soon answered.

“Can I help you?”

“Yes, you can.” I flipped open my license and held it like a cop would a badge. “I’m Dt. Shimmer from Shimmering Diamond Detective Agency. I’m looking for one Mr. Neighsay.”

“Ooh yea, he lives in apartment nine-o-seven.” The lady pointed in the direction of his door.

“Thank you, ma’m.” I put my license away and motioned for us to move out.

“That worked scarily well.”, AJ commented once the lady’s door was closed.

“A lot of people think PIs have similar power to cops, and you can get a lot of information out of people just by asking politely and looking official.”

Despite it only being apartment 07, the size of the apartments made sure the walk was not short. It wasn’t like we had to walk a mile, but it was a much longer walk than it would be in a normal building.

Once we got to the door, but before I knocked, Rainbow tapped me on the shoulder. “I should probably hold onto your gun.”, Rainbow insisted. I glared at her, but RD hardened her stance. “You’re gonna be mad, and you and I both know that’s a bad combo.”

I relented and surrendered my gun and knife to Rainbow. With that taken care of, I knocked on the door. The response took longer than the old lady’s, but when the door was finally answered, I was face to face with Chancellor Neighsay. A rage that could best be described as a flaming ball welled inside my chest at the sight of him, the sight of those eyes, the eyes I inherited from him.

Before he could say anything, I grabbed him by his shirt and pushed him into his apartment and up against his couch. He looked at me with fear and confusion in his eyes, adding a spark of joy to my flaming rage.

“What is the meaning of this?”, he yabbered out.

How can he look me in the face and not realize? “Look at me! Do you not realize who I am?!”

“I don’t know who you are. Now, let me go!” A touch of anger was now added to his voice, and I could hear another set of footsteps approaching.

“Don’t you feel anything?! Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t feel anything!”

“Who are you, and what are you doing in my home?!”, a female voice that grated my ears screeched. Rainbow stepped in between me and the wife but out of my line of sight to her, holding my gun in front of herself and pointed to the floor.

“Maybe you would like to tell her. Tell her about the prostitute you impregnated thirty five years ago, or did you truly forget all about me?”, I said coldly, then turned my head towards the wife. “What about you? You look somewhat intelligent.”

The wife looked between the two of us, and realization dawned on her face. “What the hell, Chancellor?! You slept with a prostitute?!”

I cringed at the sound of her voice and immediately understood just how low his standards are and wondered how he still had his hearing.

“You, you need to leave!”, the wife screeched some more. Rainbow twitched the gun up a bit but didn’t bring it to bear, causing the wife to take a step back.

“In a minute. He’s got eighteen years of missed child support to catch up on, and I expect payment.”

“I don’t owe you a dime.”, Neighsay spat. AJ moved to my other side and palmed her fist at him, causing him to lose some bravado.

“We could bring the courts into this. Just think of your poor reputation.”, I mocked before switching to a more threatening tone. “I will drag your name through the mud and dig up every little bit of dirt on you until you're that week’s laughing stock. You’ll never get any business ever again.”

Neighsay looked between me and his wife before nodding his head. “Alright, just let me up.”

I let go of Neighsay and took a couple steps back.

“What?! You can’t just let her do this!”, the wife screeched.

“Shut up! If this gets out, I could be ruined. She’s already cost me cases.”, Neighsay snapped back.

“So, now you remember me.”, I snarked.

Neighsay said nothing and disappeared deeper into the apartment. He soon returned with a pen and some sort of book in his hands. He approached me and practically shoved them into my chest. “Just write down what you want.”

What the fuck is he- oh. After opening it up, I recognized it as a checkbook then realized I have no idea what to do with it. “Um, AJ.” I handed the book and pen off to AJ, who started filling it out. “Lucky Granny was so old fashioned.”

“He, yeah. How much do you want?”

“Let’s see, let’s highball it and say he makes two hundred thousand a year. Thirty percent of that sounds reasonable, and that times eighteen comes out to one-million-eighty-thousand.”

Neighsay nearly choked on his spit at that number, and AJ looked at me questioningly.

“I’m serious. You should’ve taken an afternoon to make sure my mom aborted me or splurged a little on latex free condoms.", I spat at Neighsay.

“O-kay” AJ finished the check, handed it to me, and handed the book back to Neighsay.

I took a couple measured steps towards Neighsay. “If this bounces, I’m comin’ f’r ya.”

Neighsay leaned away from me and gritted his teeth. “Fine, but I don’t want you sharing this information with anyone. As far as anyone’s concerned, we have no relation.”

“Like anyone would willingly admit to being related to you.” I stuffed the check in my jacket, spun on my heels, and headed back towards the door.

“That’s it?”, DR asked.

“Yes, I got what I wanted."

RD and AJ followed me out, and we hurried back to the elevators.

“Do you want these back?”, DR offered while they waited for the lift.

I took my gun and knife back and placed them back where they belong. The elevator arrived, and we entered. I, once again, glued myself to the back of the elevator. I didn’t even bother to look at the thing. It wasn’t going to have moved since I last saw it, and I could feel it watching me. The elevator returned to Twilight’s floor, and I scurried back to said girl’s apartment, closely followed by AJ and RD. Once we were back inside, we rejoined everyone else around the coffee table, and I took a seat on the couch.

“Sunset, how’d it go?”, Twilight asked worriedly.

I didn’t answer and just curled myself into a ball and wrapped a blanket around myself. The rest of the girls got the memo and cuddled up next to me, and Wrath laid her head on my lap.

“Why don’t my parents love me?”, I asked in a low voice. It wasn’t aimed at anyone in particular.

“Because they’re stupid, selfish meanies.”, Pinkie said. “I don’t have a better answer than that. The idea of not loving your kids is just so alien to me.”

“Then why do I still love them? Why is there still some part of me that wants to love them?” I was on the verge of angry tears. If my genetic programming makes me still love them, how can theirs let them not love me?

“Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do about that but drop them in the garbage like the jellied meat loaf your aunt insists on serving every time you visit despite any rational person knowing that monstrosity should’ve stayed in the Great Depression they are.”, Pinkie said with a hint of unhinged, managing to get me to chuckle through the unshed tears and pain in my sides and the rest of the girls to gag.

“Why did you make us eat that?”, RD said, the memory causing the screws to loosen and that coming out in her voice.

“Because we’re a coven, which means we suffer together, and so you understood just how badly I needed good excuses.”

“Okay, Pinkie, we get it.”, I said as I came down from my chuckles. “Thank you, but don’t ever feed us anything like that ever again.”

Pinkie saluted then snuggled back up against me. We remained like that, with Pinkie running back and forth to the bathroom every five minutes, until people started getting tired. Being as we were no longer kids, we couldn’t stay up until dawn and survive on only three hours of sleep. AJ headed down to her truck while the rest of us selected our pillows and blankets. When she returned, she brought the therapeutic mattresses we’ve been using since Rarity managed to hurt her back by sleeping on the floor. They were also useful for six months pregnant women as they were 2 ½ feet tall. There were three of them with one being a king and the other two being queens, so each couple would get their own queen while Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy shared the king. We had to move furniture to fit them. We finished putting together our beds and slowly went to sleep, at least, most of us.

I couldn’t sleep. It wasn’t the air mattress or the shadowy thing that made it hard to sleep. My mind kept swimming about what the rest of my family might be like. I have three biological sisters, and I couldn’t help but wonder what they would think of me. Would they shun me as the physical manifestation of their father’s adultery, or would they look past that and see me as their sister that may have come into this world under unpleasant circumstances but who is now here and a member of their family? Am I being selfish for wanting to have a relationship with them simply because they’re my biological family? I have six wonderful women who have been my family for nearly two decades, a nibling that I have no genetic or legal relation to on the way, and parents in Twilight Velvet and Nightlight, and I had a grandmother in Granny Smith. Would I hurt them by wanting more? Am I dishonoring the memory of Granny by wanting to meet my paternal grandparents? Would they be even worse than my maternal grandparents, who locked up and pimped out their own daughter?

Damned cycle of abuse. Where did it start? My grandparents were raised in a hyper religious, mega nuts cult that treats women as living sex toys and my family had been a part of for as far back as I can track. Are my sisters trapped in a similar cycle that will make them act like our dad? “Our dad”, why am I still thinking of him as “dad”? Mr. Pie was more of a dad, and he’s less emotionally expressive than a rock, but he is surprisingly wise about emotions. Weird guy. “Even the mightiest diabase will erode under an unrelenting storm. We mustn’t ignore such forces but calm them, control them and make them our tool.”

I pulled the blanket over my head, pulled out my phone, and logged into my Instabook. My sisters’ profiles were easy to find and completely public. There wasn’t any personal information like phone numbers and addresses, so better. At least other people’s stupidity makes my job easier. The oldest of them has a six year old, and the other two are also lawyers. There were a lot of pictures of the kid. Just by scrolling through them, I knew where the kid goes to school, could narrow down where they live to a neighborhood, and knew the kid’s name.

Should I message them? She really shouldn’t be posting so many personal photos on a public account. Would she even listen to me, or would I just freak her out? Maybe she’ll listen to Dt. Shimmer.

“Hey, you shouldn’t leave your account public, especially with so many pictures of your kid on there. Anyone can figure out where you live from them.”

Knowing that my sister was unlikely to see it until morning and not even knowing my grandparents names, I turned my phone back off and tried to go to bed. The operative word being ‘tried’. I still couldn’t sleep. The thoughts of my relatives still dominated my mind, but now, there was enough room in my mind for that thing’s presence to bother me. My mind flipped back and forth between it just being a hallucination and it being something very real that wishes me harm. It terrifies me that I’m not sure and can’t trust my own mind. What would happen if I touched it? Could I even touch it? Wallflower’s diary mentioned that people could just walk through it, but they couldn’t see it. My questions from earlier swirled in my head once again. I needed answers. I couldn’t do shit about my family situation, but I could do something about that thing.

I eased myself out of bed and crept through the ring of beds. Wrath looked up at me quizzically, and I placed my finger to my lips. Wrath blinked at me a couple times before putting her head back down. I managed to sneak out without rousing anyone else and reach the elevators. Once inside, I was able to see the thing again. The elevator reached the ground floor, and I headed out to the lobby. The place was nearly pitch black with the only light being from the path lights and what little moonlight made it through the clouds. After making sure no one was around, I approached the thing. It looked no different up close.

“Are you able to understand me?”, I asked but got no response. The thing didn’t give any sign that it heard or acknowledged me in any way. I reached my hand out and tried to touch it, but I just went straight through it. It felt no different than the rest of the air. It had no smell to it. It didn’t sound like anything. Despite the twisting shadowy-ness of it, it was completely silent.

“Sunset?”

I spun on her heels, instinctively grabbing for my gun and knife, which I then realized were back up in Twilight’s apartment, until I saw it was just said apartment owner. “Ugh, Twi, you shouldn’t sneak up on someone with a- wait, don’t have it, never mind.”

Twilight was tired looking but also concerned. “Sunset, what are you doing down here?”

I looked over my shoulder at the thing as I debated telling her. If my current theory was correct, the more Twilight learned about it, the greater the risk she’ll start believing it to be real and, thus, fall victim to it as well. “I’m seeing it again. It’s right behind me. I wanted to see if I could touch it.”

Twilight walked up next to me. She was staring right at it but clearly didn’t see it. She reached her hand out, but I grabbed it before she reached the thing, startling her. Twilight snapped her head towards me and looked at me confusedly then fearfully. “Sunset, you’re hurting me.”

I was confused then felt how tightly I was holding her. I let go of Twilight’s wrist and covered her face. “I’m sorry.” My voice was fear filled. “I don’t know what’s happening. It’s getting closer each night.”

Twilight grabbed my arms and pulled them away from my face. “Let’s go back to bed. We’ll figure this out in the morning.”

I kept my head down, not willing to look Twilight in the eye, and nodded. I wanted to hug her, pull her in tight and never let go, but didn’t want to scare her. Twilight dragged me back up to her apartment and into bed. She snuggled up to my back, but I still didn’t dare to face her.

“Hey, are you okay?”, Twilight asked while rubbing my back.

“I hurt you. Aren’t you scared?”

“I am scared but not of you. I don’t know what’s happening, but I do know that you would never intentionally hurt me, and we’re surrounded by women that can restrain you, if necessary.”

I rolled over to face Twi and looked at her blankly, but that blank look hid a cocktail of emotions that I couldn’t describe. “I’m scared.”

Twilight nuzzled me and pulled me in close. “We’ll figure this out.” Twilight snuggled up to my chest, and I could feel her falling asleep.

Will we figure this out in time?

You will never escape ch4 (Gore)

I stared at myself in the bathroom mirror. There was something wrong with me. I had my hands planted firmly on the sink counter. They simultaneously felt numb and tingly. Something was very wrong. I rubbed my hand on my face, and when I pulled it away, large, wet flakes speckled with blood came with it. I shot my head back up to look at the mirror and saw my face was bleeding. My skin peeled away, the space where the flakes once were acting as the tear to allow fraying. I placed my hands over the wounds to try and keep myself together, but it did nothing. My skin seeped out from under my hands. I placed my hands on my head in panic, but that only caused my hair to come with them when I pulled them away. I could now see fat and muscles, and my mouth ached. I leaned over the sink to puke, but nothing came up. I turned on the water and tried to wash off the hair and blood, but it was all stuck to my hands. I reached up into my mouth and grabbed a tooth. It practically fell out onto my hand, and the rest started falling out into the sink. Batches of bone and rot polka-dotted my face, and my eyeballs were melting in their sockets. I tried to scream, but all that came out were quiet squeaks.

“Sunset, Sunset!”

I shot up and realized I was screaming at the tops of my lungs. After a moment, I realized that I wasn’t in a bathroom but was still in bed and was surrounded by my concerned friends. I practically slammed my hands on my face, which felt normal except for a layer of cold sweat, and ran my tongue over my teeth, which were all accounted for. Just a dream, it was just a dream.

“Jeez, Sunset, what were you dreaming about?”, RD asked.

I was still too shaken up to answer and noticed Twilight was next to me, holding my shoulders. I grappled Twi into a hug and held onto her like a life preserver. Twilight wiggled into a more comfortable position and hugged me back.

“It’s okay. You’re safe.” Twilight cradled me as I calmed down. The rest of the girls continued with what they were doing but kept an eye on the two of us. It took a while and several deep breaths for me to calm down enough to let go of my death grip on Twilight. “Feeling better?”

I looked down at my hand and flexed it. I no longer had that “very wrong” feeling but still didn’t feel right. It was almost like an impending sense of doom. I grabbed my phone and looked up the symptoms of a heart attack.

“Sunset, are you okay?”, Twi asked, sounding more concerned.

“I’m not having a heart attack, at least.” I put my phone down and ran my hands over my face. “Ough, I feel like crap.”

“Did you have any tests done at the hospital?”

“They took some blood, and the doc said the tests will be done in a couple days.”

Our conversation was interrupted by the smell of breakfast wafting in from the kitchen.

“Let’s get some food in you. You’re nearly as white as Rarity.”

The two of us headed into the kitchen, along with the rest of the other girls. AJ and Pinkie were in there with sizzling bacon, pancakes, eggs, and something in the oven.

“Ya hungry?”, AJ asked.

“Yes”, Rainbow said.

Since we weren’t cooking, we worked to set the table. As the food was finished and the stuff in the oven was revealed to be muffins, we all brought it to the table, and everyone began serving themselves. Everyone dug into their food, but I was less eager.

“You okay?”, Pinkie asked. “It’s not like you to poke at your food.”

“My stomach’s just giving me a hard time.” I was very much planning on finishing it all. It’s just the thought of shoveling food like normal was causing my stomach to have something to say.

“So, what was your nightmare about?”, RD asked. “Ooh, let me guess, you dreamt that your ultra rich family hired a hitman to kill you?”

I looked up at Rainbow in bewilderment, and the rest of the girls shot her looks of disapproval. “No, not even close. Why would you even think that?”

“Well, you were screaming like you were being murdered, and considering recent revelations-”

“Well thanks, now, I’ll have that bouncing around in my head. As far as what I dreamed about, it’s a part of the reason I’m having trouble eating.”

Rainbow got the gist and returned to her food. As we finished and headed back out to the living room, I noticed Rarity’s and my stuff, including our instruments.

“We completely forgot about finding a place to play.”, I commented.

“We can play at my place tonight.”, AJ said. She got affirmative responses from the rest of us.

The seven of us packed up the mattresses and put Twi’s furniture back before doing our morning hygiene. As work’s a thing adults have to do, we couldn’t hang around Twilight’s apartment all day. All of us, except for Twilight, packed up our stuff and headed out. Rarity and I, as usual, headed to the office. Getting in, each of us grabbed our boxes and started on our cases.

“Are you going to email your theory to the police?”, Rarity asked.

“No, if she did do it, me saying I think she was involved wouldn’t be enough for a warrant.”

“Maybe the cops have some evidence we don’t and a concerned call from a citizen will be just what they need to get a warrant.”, Rarity said in her mock damsel voice.

“No, they’ve likely already got her on their radar as Wallflower’s neighbor. Not yet.”, I said sternly.

Rarity finally put her hands up in an ‘I surrender’ gesture, and I was allowed to get back to my case. It was a standard suspected cheater, which also meant I, well us, were in for a stakeout. My phone dinged as I was internally groaning at having to sit around for hours. I hurriedly checked it, thankful for the distraction. I was initially confused by the Instabook message then remembered what it was about.

“Who are you? What do you want?”, Royal asked, her irritation and suspicion somehow coming clear through the written message.

“I’m a PI, and I just want you to be safer.”

“What’s it to you?”

I contemplated how to answer. Straight up telling her I'm her sister would likely only get me branded as some crazy online weirdo. I opened up the genetic testing website and went to the family tree page. Both my Instabook profile and the family tree had my full name on display. It was just my name connecting the two profiles, but you can’t argue with genetics. “You took a DNA test some time ago. Take a look at it.”

I placed my phone back down and resumed work. I wasn’t sure how long it would take, but something was blowing up. For the rest of the time it took me to pre-cyber stalk my target, I didn’t get the expected shockwave. This was either going to be a building shaking kaboom or a ripple. “Hey, Rarity, I’ve got some surveilling to do.”

“Okay, give me a minute.”

The two of us packed up our stuff, including two walkie-talkies, and headed down to the car.

“Okay, where to?”, Rarity asked.

“The Champy’s on 64th street.”

Rarity started up the car and drove us across town. She parked the car on the street, near the Champy’s, hopped out of the car, and headed into one of the nearby shops while I stayed and slouched down in the car. We kept our walkie-talkies on us, and Rarity would stay within running distance. All this was to make it look like we were there for business other than stalking. I watched the entrance to the Champy’s for my target to come out while making it look like I was playing on my phone. His lunch break should be starting soon, based on his schedule provided by the client. As it was closing in on 2 o’clock, the traffic was dying down and there were fewer and fewer people. A bit after two, I spotted my target getting into his car. I pressed the walkie-talkie, alerting Rarity.

Rarity hurried back out and jumped in the car. I pointed out the target, and she followed. Staying close enough to not lose the target but staying far enough away so as to not be spotted is a difficult balancing act, but Rarity’s an expert at it. The fact that the average citizen isn’t watching for tails also helps. Our target drove to a neighborhood and turned into one of the driveways. Rarity pulled over around the corner but where we could still see the target, and I pulled out my camera and took pictures of the target and house. Rarity pulled out the snacks she bought earlier, and we waited for anything interesting. As the minutes passed by, we knew we were going to be in for the long ride. I handed Rarity the camera and put my seat back to get some rather needed sleep.

Some time later, I was shaken awake by Rarity. Looking at the time, it was nearly three. Once my brain was booted up and seat’s in an upright position, Rarity showed me the camera. On the screen was a clear as day picture of the target kissing a woman that wasn’t the client. I smiled and fist bumped Rarity.

“I knew it! I knew it!”, Wild Fire shouted. She held the printouts of the pictures Rarity took and looked like she was about ready to light him on fire.

“I’m glad you’re happy with our service.”, I said. “Now, for our full payment.”

“Yes, of course.”

I handed Ms. Fire a tablet to approve the bank transfer. She signed and handed the tablet back to me. “Pleasure doing business.”, I said as I reached out to shake Ms. Fire’s hand. Ms. Fire returned the shake and left with the photos. I turned to Rarity with a satisfied look on my face.

“If only all of our cases were that simple.”, Rarity commented.

“Yeah, next.”

Rarity presented me with another box, which I took.

Looking over the contents, my heart went out for the dude. Dognapping, how heinous. “I’m going to go talk to the client.”

“Okay, can it wait a few minutes?”

“I’m just going to walk. It’s close enough.”

“Okay, see you later.”

I packed the case book into my backpack and headed outside. Not many people walked around in this part of town due to it not being that good of an area and all the business being what I call “go there with a purpose” business, opposed to shops and stuff like that. The semi-permacloud cover also left people in a more dreary mood, including myself, and less inclined to walk around outside. There’s no real telling when the clouds will part, as previous permacloud covers have lasted anywhere from a few days to nearly two months with only a couple days to weeks of sunlight. There were still some people around but only like one every few blocks or so. Strangely, I felt as if I was being watched. None of the people I passed even gave me a second glance, so this was odd. It wasn’t like dozens of people were giving me the side-eye. It felt like a single person was staring straight at me. Without stopping, I looked around but found nothing strange. Just keep walking. No one will try anything so long as you keep walking.

The client’s place’s a little under a mile away, so the walk only took about 20 minutes. The feeling of being watched hadn’t gone away by the time I got there, and to my dismay, the door was locked. There was an intercom, so I tried that.

“Hello?”, a voice from the intercom said.

“Is this Stormfeather?”, I asked. While I wasn’t speaking, I carefully looked around for the source of the feeling. With my back to the street, I was easy prey.

“Yes, and you are?”

“I am a detective with Shimmering Diamond Detective Agency. I’ve been assigned to your case. I would like to talk to you.”

Mr. Stormfeather simply answered by buzzing me in. I hurried inside, but instead of heading straight for the elevators, I hid behind one of the pillars and watched the doors. The doors are glass and reinforced by security bars, and the lobby’s mostly barren, say for two pillars and the usual mailboxes, stairs, and elevators. I no longer felt like I was being watched, and no one else came to the doors. If I’m being followed, it’s by no amateur.

I grumbled to myself and headed to the elevators. Once I was inside, I contemplated why I got that feeling. Maybe someone hired another PI to follow me, but who would? Neighsay? What if it’s a hitman? - Ogh, Rainbow, that woman’s going to be the death of me.

I reached my client’s floor and found his apartment. I pulled out my license and knocked. Shortly after, the door was opened, and Mr. Stormfeather stood on the other side. “My name is Dt. Shimmer. I would like to ask you some questions.”, I said while presenting him with my license.

“Alright, come in.” Mr. Stormfeather stepped out of the way, and I entered. It was a simple set up, a couch, TV, table and chairs, basic kitchen, and a hallway entrance.

I walked around the main space and saw a dog bed, two raised bowls, and a basket of dog toys next to the couch, opposite the door. I could recognize the bed as being orthopedic from when Spike needed the same kind. These things can easily reach a couple hundred dollars.

“Would you like something to drink?”

“No, thank you. Could you tell me about what happened?”

“I told your partner everything when I hired you.”, Mr. Stormfeather said, irritation growing in his voice.

“In cases like this, I like to hear it from the horse’s mouth. Anything involving an ex can get pretty messy.”

Mr. Stormfeather let out a low growl but complied. “I broke up with my girlfriend last week. This morning, she showed up here, saying she forgot something, and I let her in to grab whatever it was. We got into a fight, and I left to cool off. When I came back, she and Bobo, my lab mix, were gone. I tried calling her, but she wouldn’t answer. Same story when I went to her apartment. I tried going to the police, but they were worse than useless. They said “We have more important things to do. You can get a new dog.””

I nodded in acknowledgement. “I understand. If the police were competent, I’d be out of a job. Well, I’d have less to do. And that’s coming from someone whose brother-in-law’s a cop.” That got Mr. Stormfeather to snort out a chuckle. “How would you describe your ex? I need to know how she’ll react if I need to confront her. And do you know her apartment’s dog policies?”

Mr. Stormfeather’s demeanor brightened up at hearing that. “She’s real good at acting all friendly and nice but can flip to mean and manipulative in a heartbeat. She’s never gotten physical, as far as I know, but she’s gotten real close, and her apartment doesn’t allow dogs.”

“Got it. Thank you.” I left the apartment and headed back out to the street. Before leaving the cover of the building’s awning, I looked around for anyone or anything out of place, but nothing stood out. The ex’s place is close, so I decided to go straight there. The feeling of being watched returned. I spun on my heels and spotted a man in a hoodie quickly averting his gaze from me. I couldn’t keep watching him and had to spin back around to face where I’m going. Okay, plan of action. Need a plan of action. An alleyway came up on my right, so I scurried down it and around the corner to the back of the building. I pressed myself against the building and pulled out my knife. I stayed like that, listening for the sound of footsteps.

I wasn’t sure how long it had been, but even after waiting for what felt like nearly five minutes, I heard nothing approaching me. I checked around for anything, but I was all alone. Carefully, I snuck back out to the street. There was no man or anyone else for that matter, and the feeling of being watched stopped. Did I scare him off, or am I just going crazy? Without a present threat, I continued to my destination.

The ex’s building didn’t have locked front doors, so I went straight inside, and it only had stairs and twelve stories. The ex lives on the top floor. “Fuck me.” Walking up those stairs was not fun, especially with limited breathing. And I’m probably going to have to help the dog down. Great. Reaching the door, I gave light knocks to seem like a normal visitor. Mr. Stormfeather’s ex answered the door, and I put on my best smile.

“Hi, can I help you?”, the ex asked in a damn good fake nice voice.

“Hi, I’m with building management. We’ve been getting reports about a dog. Building policy clearly states dogs are not allowed unless it is a service or emotional support dog, in which case, you would need to alert management.”, I said in my best professional voice, years of customer service experience rearing its ugly but useful head and making me sound like an automation.

“What? I don’t have a dog.”

“Ma’am, I know you have a dog, and I know that dog’s not yours.”

The ex tried to close the door on me, but I pushed my way in, causing her to stumble backwards. I stalked towards her and pulled my jacket back to expose my gun. The ex looked like she was about to snap at me but wised up when she saw the gun.

“Where’s the dog?”, I coldly and calmly demanded.

The ex looked down at my gun then up at my cold stare. “He’s in the guest room.”

I walked past her and opened the first door to my left. Inside was Bobo, locked inside a crate that’s only about the size of a travel crate for him. He looked miserable and wore a diaper that smelt soiled. The only remotely good part of the set up was that he had a full water dish. I hurried to get him out and glared at the ex, who looked at me like she wanted to murder me. Getting into a shouting match wasn’t what I was here for, so I just took him.

His steps were slow and shaky, but he looked infinitely happier to be out of the cage. Getting to the stairs, I walked facing Bobo and a step ahead of him, watching every step he made. The poor guy had to rest between floors, but he trooped on. Getting to the bottom floor, Bobo completely pancaked. I took the hint and sat down next to him. He wasn’t panting. He just seemed to need to give his legs a break.

“Excuse me, ma’am, we have a strict no dogs policy. If-”, some office-y looking lady said.

“Can’t you see he’s resting?!”, I snapped. “This poor guy just spent the last eight hours locked in a tiny crate, without a diaper change, and I’m trying to get him out of here. How can you not have an elevator with twelve floors?”

The lady seemed taken aback by my outburst but quickly regained her composure. “My apologies, ma’am, but our policy’s clear. Dogs are not allowed. What is your name and apartment number?”

“Did you not hear me? Neither of us are residents. He was abducted from his father and locked in a tiny cage and dirty diaper for eight hours. I’m here to bring him home.”

The lady looked between us then, to my surprise, sat down next to Bobo and started petting him as well. “What’s his name?”

“Bobo, I was hired by his dad to get him back.”

“Do you want me to call the police?”

“My client already tried them.”

“Could you give me the name and apartment number of where he was kept?”

“You are quite set on enforcing that rule.”

“When people do something wrong, they need to face the consequences.”

The phrasing of that caught my attention, and I looked over at her with a surprised and knowing look. “1204”

The lady nodded and headed up the stairs. After some more time resting, Bobo got up, and we headed outside. The flat ground gave Bobo an easier time, so we were able to go faster, and we probably wouldn’t have made it up without the elevator. I knocked on the door, and when Mr. Stormfeather opened the door, his face lit up.

“Bobo!” Mr. Stormfeather scooped Bobo into a hug and nuzzled him affectionately then jumped up and hugged me. “Thank you! Thank you!”

“I appreciate your gratitude, but please let go.”, I said in my robotic professional voice.

“Oh, sorry.” Mr. Stormfeather released me from his hold and returned his attention to Bobo. “Do you want your payment now or?”

“That matter can be dealt with tomorrow. I expect to see you at my office.” I left the two together and went on my merry way back to the office. As soon as I got a block away from the client’s building, I felt like I was being watched again. I looked around again and even up the buildings. It was like my pursuer was invisible. Without anything to fight, I had no choice but to hurry back to the office. A light jog was all I could manage with my limited breathing, but I made it back quickly. Those yellow halls never made me feel so safe. Aw great, I’m starting to feel sentimental towards this place.

Entering the office, Rarity was packing up her stuff. I headed over to the window and looked down at the street. There’s a person in a hoodie, leaning against the opposite building, but that was it, wasn’t even the same colored hoodie as the earlier guy. Could’ve changed his hoodie.

“Sunset, are you okay?”, Rarity asked.

“I’m either being tailed or Rainbow got me paranoid.”

“What do you want to do?”

“Not go anywhere alone, for starters.”

“Alright, any theories?”

“Several, but I haven’t even confirmed I am being followed.” I headed back to my desk and marked my case as ‘complete’ and ‘awaiting payment’. I packed my things up as well, and we headed to the garage. We were once again walking down the dark hallways of the building, kinda freaked out and scanning for jump scares.

“How did your last case go?”, Rarity asked, once again, trying to ease the tension.

“It went well. I was able to reunite Bobo with his dad.”

“Bobo?”

“The dog” It was then I realized what happened. I lost my professional separation with the case all because I saw a creature locked inside a confining cage. “Great, I’m losing my edge.” I pinched the bridge of my nose.

Rarity rubbed my shoulder and gave me a compassionate look. “What happened?”

“The ex locked him in a cage the size of a travel crate and left him in a solid diaper for eight hours.”

“Were you ever-?”

“I don’t know about diapers, but I wasn’t literally locked in a cage. It was his face. The sheer misery and being deprived of love.”

Rarity pulled me into a hug, but we broke it off quickly. Creepy ass hallways ain’t the place for hugs.

Rarity pulled into my garage and dropped me off. Playing with the old band was a nostalgic trip. I had some pep in my step as I headed inside, but it was gone the instant I saw the thing in my staircase. I was scared and angry. How dare this thing come into my life and terrorize me and not even give me a chance to punch it? I stomped up the stairs and straight through the thing. I guess I’ll know if touching it caused my nightmare last night.

I placed my guitar back in its hiding spot as soon as I got back to my apartment. I had dinner at Sweet Apple Acres, so I just went straight to winding down. I changed into my PJs and went over to Mustard’s terrarium. He was wide awake now, and I pulled him out. The first thing he did when I picked him up was try to bite my fingers, as usual. He’s a hunter. I brought him into bed with me and laid him on my chest. He scurried around on me as I watched him. It was small, but these little moments are what life’s about.

“I should cash that check and make sure my will is up to date. Even if I don’t die next week, I’d still be a good idea. Fluttershy will take you. Twi will like my guitar and probably enshrine it.” I felt sleep calling me so put Mustard back and climbed back in bed. My thoughts turned to the thing again, but I was done with that for the night. I grabbed my second pillow and smashed it on my head. It stopped the thoughts, and I closed my eyes before they could start up again. Instead of sleep, my phone thought it was important I attend to the new message. At this time of night? I grabbed my phone and opened up the message. It’s from Royal.

“Never contact me or my family again.”

I was blocked on everything. I checked my other sisters’ accounts, and it was the same for them. I couldn’t say I was surprised, but it still hurt. Selfish fucking bastards, I didn’t choose to be born. They’re acting like it’s my fault we share a cheating scumbag of a father. I held my pillow to my chest. I felt like I needed to cry, but no tears came.

You will never escape ch5

The bleeping of my alarm gently brought me out of sleep. Even though some smarty pants found out how to not have morning alarms give people heart attacks, mornings still weren’t fun. I felt like a slug pulling myself out of bed. I didn’t have any weird dreams, but I didn’t feel rested. I stumbled into the bathroom to take care of morning crap and nearly fell asleep on the toilet. Seeing myself in the mirror, my golden skin was now almost ivory. Okay, something with spinach in it.

I drudged through my morning routine, cursed my way through my attempts at electronic depositing, and headed to the garage to meet Rarity. She was waiting in my spot and did a double take when I got in. “Sunset, you look like you’ve never seen sunlight.”

“Yes, I saw the mirror this morning.” I laid my head against the headrest and hoped to get some rest on the ride to work.

“You should go to the hospital. I don’t care about the tests, you need something.”

I looked at Rarity, and she looked at me in the way I knew I wasn’t getting out of this. “Fine”

Rarity pulled out of the parking lot and drove straight to the hospital. She practically dragged me inside and brought me to the front desk. “Hello, this is my friend.” Rarity pulled out her phone and showed it to the nurse. “And this is the color she’s supposed to be.”

The nurse’s eyes widened but didn’t look panicked. “Okay, can your friend speak?”

“I can. My name’s Sunset Shimmer. I was here a couple days ago and had some blood drawn.”

“Okay, please have a seat.”

We sat down in those uncomfortable waiting room chairs. With how much these places cost, you’d think they’d put some of that towards making sure the sick and injured are more comfortable. I laid my head on Rarity’s shoulder and closed my eyes. I didn’t keep track of the time, so I couldn't say exactly how long it took for the doctors to get to me, but I wasn’t five minutes away from dying, so I could wait. Rarity tapped me on the shoulder, and I looked up to see a medical person trying to talk to me. I couldn’t understand what she was saying but got up and followed her. She led me into a room, and I sat on the bed and placed my backpack and jacket next to it. She took my vitals and other medical stuff. I was left to wait some more.

“What brings you in today?”, the doctor asked as she finally came in.

“I’m supposed to be rich gold, not a shade yellower than ivory.”

“Alright” The doctor looked at her clipboard and took a seat. “Any other symptoms?”

“I had a nightmare that I was decaying a couple nights ago. I've been generally tired for over a week, I overall feel like crap, my appetite hasn’t lessened, but my stomach has been giving me some problems, and today, I woke up feeling like a bloated slug.”

“Any issues with feeling faint while standing up or blacking out without cause?”

“Nope, oh, and I was in a motorcycle accent three days ago, so both of my ribs are bruised.”

“Ouch, okay, something went wrong with your labs, so we’ll need to take more samples.”

I let out an annoyed grumble, and the doc nodded sympathetically. “The results weren’t ‘incompatible with life’, were they? Because I know some people that had labs that said that, but they were walking around if a bit sickly.”, I asked.

“No, when I mean something went wrong, I mean a car crashed into the building, contaminating or destroying all the samples.”

“Oh, something did go wrong.”

“Yeah, I’ll have someone come in and take samples, but are there any other symptoms or anything at all strange going on. The symptoms you’ve given me so far could be anything from a bad case of the flu to cancer.”

Should I tell her? What if it’s real and telling her will corrupt the data? What if I am hallucinating and not telling her will leave the linchpin out of the clues? What if I have a brain tumor that’s causing me to hallucinate? “Possibly, I might be hallucinating, but I’m not sure. It’s nothing obvious like voices in my head, but things have been kinda weird lately.”

“Describe ‘weird’.”

“I’ve been seeing some things that are strange but not impossible, and I’ve always been alone when I see some, so I can’t, like, ask the person next to me if they saw that too.”

“Okay, I’ll add that. Are you worried about a brain tumor?”

“Uh, maybe. I’m not sure. I don’t have much information about my family’s medical history.”

“Okay, are you experiencing any new onset or change in pattern of headaches, headaches that are becoming more frequent and severe, unexplained nausea or vomiting, vision problems, such as blurred vision, double vision, or loss of peripheral vision, loss of sensation or movement in an arm or a leg, or difficulty with balance?”

“No, none of that.”

“Okay, a tumor seems unlikely, but we’ll still test for it. Has your breathing changed, before the accent?”

“No”

“Any change in thirst like needing more water?”

“No, but now that I think of it, my other thirst has gone down in the last few days, but that could just be from the anxiety caused by the situation.”

“Do you feel scared?”

Okay, phrasing. “Yeah, mainly about the possibility of hallucinating. None of them were ever officially diagnosed, but everyone on my mom’s side is crazy.”

“Do you feel like you need to see a psychiatrist?”

“I’ve been thinking about it. I already have one. It’s just been years since I’ve last talked to her.”

“Anything else you’d like to talk about?”

“That’s it.”

“Okay, I don’t have a diagnosis, yet, but we’ll take more blood and get that tested. However, I am concerned about your lack of color. I would like to give you an IV.”

“Will my insurance cover it?”

“Depends on your insurance.”

“I’ll pass. I’ll just get some fruit or something. Oh, do I need to tell you I just got off my period this morning?”

“I let the phlebologist know. If that’s pertinent information, he’ll know, and he’ll be in soon.”

The doctor left, and I was once again left alone. More waiting later, the phlebologist came in and took my blood. Once that was done and we were certain I wouldn’t bleed out, I got everything back on and headed back out to the waiting room, where Rarity still sat.

“Ready to go?”, Rarity asked.

“Yes, but something tells me it’s not to work we are going.”

“Correct, you’re taking the day off to rest.”

I scowled at Rarity, but she’s gotten too good at her ‘I’m serious’ face. “Fine, but I don’t find sitting around my apartment all day restful.”

Rarity got up and we began walking to her car. “Sigh, fine, where do you want to go?”

“Sweet Apple Acres, I want to get my bike fixed.”

We got into her car, and Rarity looked at me like she was done with me. “How is that restful?”

“It’s like meditation to me.”

Rarity rolled her eyes but drove us to AJ’s and RD’s. Most of the cars were gone with the exception of RD’s bike. Rarity pulled into the driveway, and I hopped out. RD came out of the house and walked over to us with curiosity plastered on her face.

“Hey girls- wow, Sunset, you look-”, Rainbow said.

“Yeah, yeah, I know what I look like, and Rarity already took me to the hospital.”

“I insisted she take the day off, and she wanted to fix her bike.”, Rarity explained.

“Sounds like a plan. Let’s get to it.”, Rainbow said.

Rarity looked at us like she was questioning why she befriended us, shook her head, and left. Rainbow and I headed into the barn she has her work station in. She and AJ took it upon themselves to maintain and repair anything metal or that could be repaired using metal on the small farm, and that’s what this whole barn was dedicated to, that and a bit of storage. They did expand slightly when they started to prepare for their own families. They bought the two properties on either side of their original home when Applejack and Applebloom came of age and folded them into the farm. They still didn’t have or need a tractor, but they do have several cars and trucks, home appliances, and lots of tools.

My bike sat in the corner with its replacement parts sitting next to it. We got changed into jumpsuits and put the clothes and personal effects we removed outside the barn, then Rainbow rolled my bike to the center of the work space, and we placed it on a work stand. My key was still in the ignition. I ran my hands along the body. In my many years of owning it, it’s become a franken-bike with parts from any year that would fit. Rainbow handed me a drill with a box of driver attachments, and we got to work. Due to our more reckless and thrill seeking habits, we’ve had much experience replacing parts on our bikes together. The open, flat lands and empty roads just outside the mountains and the abandoned race track just a few miles out of town make for perfect places to go really fast. We worked like a well oiled machine and got the damaged parts off in no time. The damaged parts were added to their respective scrap or trash piles, and the new parts were brought over to the spray-bay. I keep a paint sprayer and an old stable reserved in the barn for when the Apples need me to paint a replacement part. Appearance may not be their primary concern, but it’s still nice to have things match in color. The wheel was put next to the bike, but everything else was disassembled and masked off and placed in the stable turned paint room. We got on our safety equipment and got to work.

Painting takes a while since you gotta make sure you get complete coverage and wait for everything to dry. We prepped the pieces, got them dry, then got to priming. Once all the pieces were completely white, RD turned on the big butt fan, I set the timer, and we exited the barn to let them dry and the place air out. We took off our masks and leaned against the outside of the barn. An outside observer might think we should’ve done the painting first then dismantle my bike during the drying periods, but these masks are much more uncomfortable than our everyday masks, and the barn isn’t well air conditioned, a fan can only do so much, and it’s loud in there when the fan’s going.

“AJ and I are going to go kid shopping next week.”, Rainbow said.

“So, that’s why it was called ‘KidsRus’.”

“Eyup, shelves upon shelves of babies. Do you remember that place?”

“Nope, the only reason I was ever allowed to leave the house at all was because the state forced my mom to let me attend school.”

“Oh, yeah. Do you know where she is now?”

“Hell, and I’m not joking. She got shanked and ended up dying from a superbug infection about a year ago.”

“Damn, how do you feel about it?”

“Conflicted, I hate her and am glad she’s dead, but I also feel guilty about feeling happiness at someone’s death. Does that make me a bad person?”

Rainbow let out a burp then shook her head. “Nah, your mom was a bad person, your dad is a bad person, but you’re a good person. We all die, and we get to feel however we want to feel about it all.”

I nodded my head, and the timer went off. We put our masks back on and headed back inside. Rd turned off the fan, and we repeated the same process for the first layer of red then turned the fan back on and headed back outside. We leaned back up against the barn and took our masks back off.

“Hey, Rainbow, do you believe in an afterlife?”

Rainbow shrugged. “I don’t really care if there is one or not. I don’t need the threat of eternal damnation to be a good person.”

I nodded. I’ve come to a point in my life where death is one of the better possible outcomes once again. “I just hope there are a lot of hot chicks in Hell.”

“Well, all chicks in Hell are going to be hot.”

We gave each other our own devilish grins and then went back to looking over the farm. The chickens waddled about the yard, and the dogs patrolled the fence. I could almost forget about the ugly side of life.

“I’m going to get something to drink. Want anything?”, RD asked.

“Sure, nothing alcoholic, I’m still on pain meds.”

Rainbow gave a thumbs up and headed to the house. She soon came back with a can in each hand. Rainbow onced described canned beer as tasting like android piss, so that’s how I know she got us a couple of sodas. She came back to our spot and handed me my preferred soda. We sipped our drinks in silence until the timer went off again. We put our drinks down on a nearby barrel and masks back on and headed back inside. RD turned the fan off, so we could hear ourselves think, and we got to work again. I taped out the design I wanted, flames, and started painting by both spray and hand. Once it was to my liking, we turned the fan back on and headed back outside.

We took off our masks and checked our cans for any insects. It only took one of us being stung by a wasp in a can once for us to develop the habit of checking our beverages. We went back to sipping our drinks and looking over the trees and animals.

“Have you talked to Supply yet?”, RD asked.

“No, not yet. I’ve been busy.”

“Once we get the clear coat on, I can take you.”

“Thanks”

We waited for the timer to go off and headed back inside. We repeated the usual process for the clear coat then headed to RD’s bike. We binned our now empty cans, hopped on the bike, and drove to Crate’s Auto and Tool Emporium. It was a small place and rather unassuming. It’s another “go there with a purpose” business. Rainbow parked, and we headed inside. Just as the slogan had promised, there were a lot of higher quality parts and tools all over the place. They did still have some lower quality stuff, but it was clear the better stuff was their focus.

We approached the help desk, where a man about our age sat. “Hey Supply, how ya been?”, RD asked.

“Pretty good. You?”, Supply said.

“I’m good, but my friend here crashed a few days ago and needs a new windshield.”

“Sure, what do you need?”

I told him what brand and year I needed, and he gave me a thumbs up and disappeared into the back. He soon came back out with my windshield, and I gave him my card. He ran it, gave it back, I grabbed my windshield, and we were on our way. I had to cradle the windshield in between us and hold onto Rainbow. It was awkward, but I managed. We rode back without incident and got back to my bike. With all the parts painted and dried, we removed the masking tape and assembled the parts, and it looked good as new. We took it off the work stand, and I started it up. The engine roared to life, and the sound of my own engine was like the biggest, fanciest orchestra to my ears.

“Hey, wanna do something Twilight definitely wouldn’t approve of?”, RD asked.

“I’m tempted, but I’ve already been in the hospital twice this week.”

“I hear ya.”

I turned my bike off, and we brought it out to the driveway. I pulled out my phone to call Rarity, but she beat me to the punch. “Hey, I was about to call you. My bike is fixed, so I won’t be needing a ride.”

“Good, but I just had a weird guy in the office, asking about you.”

“Hang on.” I signaled for Rainbow to come closer and put my phone on speaker. “Okay, take it from the top.”

“So, I’m in the office, doing stuff, when this man I’ve never seen before comes in. He seemed odd but in the ‘strangely familiar’, ‘looking in a mirror’ way. I made a note of it but still did my usual spiel. Instead of asking for help or to hire us or whatever, he asked for you and you specifically. Of course, I was worried you had been chaotic stupid again and he’s pissed at you so asked some probing questions. I told him you were busy on another case and asked him what he wanted, saying that I might be able to help him, and he said that you were buddies back during your high school days and that he was hoping to reconnect. He wore a basic medical mask with dark sunglasses and a baseball cap and gave me an obviously fake name and is average in every other way, so no description other than dark blue skin.”

Rainbow and I looked up at each other with ‘something stinks’ faces, and Rainbow mouthed “hitman”. As much as I wanted to tell her off for saying something so ridiculous and getting me paranoid, it was looking less ridiculous. I hope he’s just another PI, but I should prepare for a hitman.

“We should go inside.”, I commented. RD shot her head up and surveyed the surroundings then we bolted into the house.

“What do we do now?”, RD asked as I closed all the blinds and curtains. “Fuck, who knew trying to get child support could be so deadly.”

“Never underestimate the deadliness of greed.”

Rainbow and I took a seat at the table, and I placed the phone between us.

“We need to keep Sunset away from windows and make sure she doesn’t go anywhere alone.”, Rarity explained. Rainbow didn’t say anything, and you could hear her fear in the silence. “We’re not at risk, at least not as much. If they aren’t getting paid to, a hitman won’t kill us.”

“You sure?”, Rainbow asked.

“They’re getting paid for the potential punishment as much as the actual service. They don’t want to risk more charges without the money.”

“Okay”

“Finding my address won’t be hard, if they know where to look. I should grab Mustard a UV lamp.”, I said.

“You’re thinking about getting your lizard new crap now?”, RD asked, almost outraged.

“Mustard gets his UV from his window. If I’m going to need to keep my blinds closed, he’ll need a new source.”

“I’ll call Fluttershy and ask her to pick one up for you.”, Rarity said.

“Thanks. I need to go to the store to replace all the food that got destroyed.”

“Okay, let’s do that now.”, RD insisted.

“Okay, see you, Rare.”

“Bye”, Rarity said before hanging up.

Rainbow grabbed her backpack, and she and I headed to the front door, but before I even made it to the threshold, Rainbow put her hand out and looked around for something.

“Check for glints of light.”, I informed.

Rainbow looked around again then gave the ‘move out’ signal. She was being a dork and moved around like she was trying to be stealthy in a video game. I just walked normally as we headed to the barn to change back into our street clothes. Once we were dressed and I had my backpack, we got on our respective bikes and drove to the nearest grocery store. RD came in with me, and we went around the store.

As we walked down the isles, I kept on noticing the same person at the end of each isle. I knew I was most likely just being paranoid, but my jackass brain was being a jerk. Even though, I kept an eye on the person. They had dark gray skin, so couldn’t be the person Rarity talked to, but they are also wearing a baseball cap with dark glasses and a basic medical mask. I chose not to alert Rainbow. Stealth and discretion is not her strong suit. We continued getting the stuff I needed, minus alcohol. I doubt I’ll be off the pain meds before that thing gets me.

“Sunset, what are you looking at?”

Shit. “Nothing, this whole thing’s just got me paranoid.”

“Well, you don’t need to worry. Even I know that no competent assassin would attack in here, and your dad is rich enough to hire the best.”

“Yeah, I know.”

We finished shopping then headed to the checkout. As we were scanning my items, I noticed the gray person was also checking out. They were at the checkout behind us and hadn’t even glanced our way, as far as I knew. I didn’t look too closely, but it almost looked like the person didn’t scan anything or even have anything at all. The self checkouts were noisy with beeps and other sounds related to such a place, so I couldn't tell whether or not the person behind us was scanning or doing whatever else. I didn’t see a basket, and I couldn’t tell if their arms were moving.

I paid for the stuff, and we packed it into our bags. I lost sight of the person as Rainbow would see me looking at them now. I could feel the person’s eyes on me as we left the store, but I didn’t hear anyone following us. We climbed on our bikes, and Rainbow futzed with her backpack. It had gone askew when we mounted and was now doing everything but what she wanted it to do. I watched the entrance for the person while Rainbow swore at her backpack but wasn’t seeing them come out.

“Try repacking it.”, I suggested.

Rainbow growled but unzipped her bag. “What the hell are you even looking at?”

“We were being followed throughout the store. I’m waiting for them to come out.”, I said in what RD called my “hard-ass voice”.

“Wait, what?”, Rainbow instantly went from annoyed to worried and concerned. “How could they’ve known?”

“I don’t know. They wore the same attire as the person Rarity described, but they had dark gray skin.”

“Where had you seen ‘em?”

“They stayed at the ends of the isles, and they checked out at the checkout behind us, at least they acted to check out. I never saw them grab anything, and I couldn’t see them moving like they were scanning.”

“Huh, I don’t remember seeing anyone like that. Why didn’t you alert me earlier?”

I looked back at her with a ‘you know why’ look.

“Okay, fair, but I never noticed anyone behind us at checkout. Granted, I don’t have as keen of an eye as you, but I think I would’ve noticed someone there.”, RD said as she zipped up her backpack.

“I definitely did.”

“Good, that means we know about them, but let’s get you home.” RD got her backpack back on, and we rode off. I still didn’t see the person as we left. We drove straight to my apartment, and we unpacked our bags onto my counter. RD copied my actions at the farm and closed my blinds while I put the food away. “You good?”

“Yeah” I handed Rainbow back her spare helmet and placed my mask on the kitchen counter. “You want something to eat?”

“Nah, thanks, but I got a lunch date with AJ.”

“Best get going then. Don’t want to keep a pretty lady waiting.”

Rainbow giggled and scurried out the door with her spare helmet and empty backpack in hand. Those two really are going to be good parents. I went into my room and moved Mustard out of the window then removed my gun and knife and put them in their lockbox. I grabbed my new helmet and my painting supplies and brought them out to the table. I gave my helmet a similar paint job as my bike, with flames emerging from the visor. The public opinion on masks, helmets, and items of that sort hasn’t really changed, just stopped being a topic of interest. There are still people that view masks and helmets as the devil and wear theirs incorrectly or not at all and spout that week’s nonsense, most people just view them as just another think you need to remember to grab, like keys, phones, and wallets, and there are those of us that view them as an artistic expression of ourselves, like makeup or tattoos or any other article of clothing. You can tell a lot about a person by their masks.

I set my helmet aside to let the final layer of varnish dry as I brought my brushes into the bathroom to be cleaned. For the first time since this morning, I saw my reflection, and my complexion has improved but was still very pale. I should eat something. I quickly washed and put everything back then went into the kitchen. I whipped something easy up and retook my seat. My helmet stared back at me from across the table. The events of the shopping trip played back in my mind. The person that followed us was very strange. It was almost like they were trying to act strange. How can acting strange possibly be beneficial during the recon phase? Are they trying to alert their targe- they’re trying to wear me down! Brilliant! They either make their target think they’re going crazy or just keep them on alert until they let their guard down, then they strike. It’s brilliant, almost too brilliant. It made too much sense, like my brain was trying to rationalize it. Things rarely come out so cut and dry. Am I actually going mad? Rainbow never noticed the person following us. That could be because the person is good at their job or my experience let me notice them. Now, I wish I had alerted Rainbow. If I was hallucinating, I would’ve known then and there.

I grabbed my finished plate and utensils and brought them to the sink. I could be hallucinating both the shadow figure and the gray stalker, but the person that visited the office is undoubtedly real. I am being hunted. It’s just a matter of what’s killing me first.

I felt my exhaustion from this morning return with a vengeance. I put my now clean tableware in the drying rack and lumbered into bed, barely having enough energy to get into my PJs. Mustard looked at me expectantly. “I’ll feed you tomorrow. Don’t act like you’re starving. You’re not.” I snuggled into my blankets, and let sleep take hold.

I woke up in a dark room, the only light coming from Mustard’s heating lamp. It was past midnight, and why I had woken up was clear. I lumbered out of bed and into the bathroom. After I finished my business, I checked my complexion. It had neither improved nor gotten worse. I quickly washed up and headed out to the living room. I was once again hungry so began walking to the kitchen, but a sound coming from my front door stopped me in my tracks. The deadbolt jiggled, and the sounds of someone trying to pick it eliminated from the other side. I grabbed the largest knife I own from the kitchen, put on my mask, and crept to the door.

Looking through the peephole, I could only see the top of the perp’s head. I’m not human. He’s not human. We’re monsters, two monsters trying to kill each other. Be the monster. Be unafraid. Now having confirmed this was a break-in, I quickly unlocked and yanked the door open and brandished my knife in the classic horror movie pose. The would-be intruder stumbled back onto their rump and looked up at me with his masked face. The man perfectly matched the description of the guy Rarity met.

Before I could react, he scrambled to his feet and began running down the hallway. I ran after him, ignoring the protests from my sides and slowly gaining on him. He reached the stairs, and I chased him down them. As we ran down the stairs, we passed through the shadow thing that was now further up and closer to my floor. I didn’t care about it. This man is my target. He reached the ground floor and tried to open the door, but those few precious seconds are what allowed me to grab him and pin him to the wall.

He looked to be about to strike back, but I put the tip of my knife to his throat to discourage such behavior. I used the knife to flick those glasses off his face, putting me eye to eye with his crimson eyes.

“Time to answer some questions.”, I growled.

“I’m not telling you anything.”, he said in an emotionless and cold voice. His eyes were also cold and showed no emotion. It was like staring into the eyes of a doll but with that spark of life.

“Cute, do you value your own life? Are you physically incapable of feeling fear, or am I just a target? Would talking to me cause you to chicken out, make me seem human, or is this just an annoyance?”

The man didn’t answer any of my questions and tried to kick me, but I shut that down with a sturdy headbutt to the forehead. It wasn’t enough to knock him out, but it did disorientate him.

“Okay, I’ll just give you my answers, and then you can give me yours. No, I don’t see you as human, and this is an annoyance. I could kill you now, and I wouldn’t really care. We have different jobs, but they need the same skill set. My empathy is locked away in a little box, and it’s not like I have any for you in the first place.”

The man remained silent. His eyes showed no change. I might as well have been talking to the wall.

“Sigh, I’ll just start making wild guesses then. My dear old dad hired you to kill me so he could reclaim his one-million-eighty-thousand dollars. I doubt any of the other people I’ve pissed off this week have the money to hire you. Well, how ‘bout this?” I used my knife to cut the straps of his mask, letting the mask fall to one side and making sure to cut into his skin and get his blood on the knife. I then moved out of the way and pointed to the camera. He looked up, and his face got a hint of ‘oh, fuck’ in it. “You go tell my father that, even if I die tomorrow, he won’t ever get his money back. I’ve known he’s a fucking piece of shit since I was ten, and I know how dangerous my job is. My will plainly states that any blood relatives not mentioned in it were not omitted by mistake. He knew I existed and had nothing to do with me growing up, so he gets nothing of mine.” I let him go but kept the knife trained on him. The man opened the garage door and hurried out.

Only once the door closed and the man was out of my sight did I lower my knife, and the first time since this whole assassination thing started, I let myself feel. My heart kicked up to what had to be two beats a second, and I felt light headed. I practically collapsed onto the stairs and put my head into my hands. I was shaking like a leaf, and my sides ached. I know he paid for me to be aborted, but I’m not just a cluster of cells anymore. “My own dad wants me dead. I’m worth less than his money to him.”, I said in a shaking daze. I brought the hand that held my knife down to where I could see said knife. Neither of my parents love me. They both want me dead. They both tried to kill me. My eyes traced along the razor sharp edge of the blade. I’m dying. Why prolong it? No. I grabbed my knife wielding wrist with my other hand as if some alien force had possessed it. “I have a family, one that loves me. I’ve never not been dying. They’re why.”

I stood back up and headed back up to my apartment. I came up to the shadowy thing and took a light swing at it with the knife. Of course, that did nothing. I muttered various curses at it as I continued up the stairs. As I approached my door, I noticed a box next to it. It was a UV lamp. Fluttershy. I picked the box up and re-entered my apartment. After locking my door, I placed the box and my mask on the counter and grabbed a paper towel and a plastic bag. I wiped the blood off the knife, stuffed the bloody paper towel in the plastic black, zipped it up, and stuffed it in the freezer. I placed the knife next to the sink to be taken care of in the morning then just stood in the kitchen, debating on if I was more tired or hungry. I remembered the protein bars and just scarfed a couple of those down then went back into bed. Mustard still looked at me expectantly from his rock, like I was going to feed him.

“You love me, right, Mustard?”

Mustard caught sight of a bug that made the mistake of entering his terrarium and snapped it up.

“Yeah, you love me, even if it’s only because I feed you. If only you were dragon sized. I could feed my enemies to you.”

The two brain cells that exist within his head seemingly banged together at that moment, as I saw the slightest glint of intelligence between those reptilian eyes.

“You like that idea? I wish my life was as easy as yours.” I grabbed my spare pillow and snuggled up to it. Let’s hope these dreams aren’t too weird.

Author's Note

The remaining chapters will be released after Halloween. I've got some birthdaying to do that day.

You will never escape ch7

A dark expanse stretched out in every direction. The only thing that seemed to exist was the water I stood on. It had a blue glow that provided the only light in this place. It wasn’t bright enough to blind me when I looked down. It was like someone built a pool with blue lights at the bottom. I knew I wasn’t just standing on glass because the water would ripple whenever I moved my foot. When I looked back up, I saw the person that stalked me through the grocery store standing a few feet away from me. Only, it was some strange computer rendering of them. It looked like one of those 3D retro games popular in the 20s, and it was dancing. It danced kinda like one of those blow up tube man things but more accordion like. Its feet were kept in place as the top part of it moved up and down and side to side like an accordion. Its arms flailed in a similar manner. Despite the way it moved, it didn’t look like an accordion. It acted more like rubber, stretching beyond what a human body is capable of. I looked past the dancing thing and saw the shadowy thing. “What is it doing here?”

Beeeebbeeeeb

The soft beeps of my alarm roused me from my sleep. My headache was gone, and for the first time in a while, I felt refreshed and not tired. I shut off the alarm and looked down at the still sleeping Twilight. I licked Twilight’s ear which got her to giggle but not fully wake up. Some more licks and nibbles and kisses managed to stir her.

“Okay, okay, I’m up.”, Twilight said while teasingly pushing me back. “You seem better.”

“I feel a lot better. Guess sleeping for nearly a whole day is what I needed.”, I said as I pushed myself up into a sitting position.

Twilight scooted her head onto my lap, and I petted her hair. “You still look like you’re wearing diluted white face paint though.”

“I would say “If you’re gonna talk like that, talk to my slit.”, but we’ve got work.”

“Aw, poo.”

Twilight worked her way out of bed, and I followed. We went through our morning routine and managed to have some fun in the shower. Once we were dressed, fed, and caffeinated, we headed down to our vehicles and to our respective works. Interestingly, when I got to the office, Rarity wasn't there, but the door was unlocked. The office was in order and how it usually looked, minus the curtains being drawn.

“Odd” Probably in the lobby. Without Rarity to give me an assignment, I just started up my workstation and played some games.

About thirty minutes after I arrived, Rarity finally came back with an armful of letters. “Oh, Sunset, I have great news. Well, great for us, bad for Skunky.”

“What happened?”

“He’s been institutionalized. He was arrested last night, and the alcohol withdrawal was so extreme that it caused brain damage. He was eating his own shit in the cell.”

“And here I thought I had a crappy night. Is the damage permanent?”

“Looks like it, but all this is coming from the mouth of our favorite pig, so take that with a grain of salt.”

“Any idea when we’ll get a new building manager? And who do we even pay?”

“I don’t know. For now, I’m just going to keep paying as normal, as, officially, we know nothing. Now, what was so bad about your night?”, Rarity said while leaning back on her desk.

“Think of the worst hangover you ever had then multiply that by ten. That was the magnitude of the headache I got last night.”

“Ooh”

“Yeah, and I was trying to laid when it happened. I was on the bed, reaching up for Twi’s bra, when my head suddenly decided that, no, I have not suffered enough.”

“Hahehe, that sucks. You do seem better though.”

“I feel better. Is the Skunky situation what kept you?”

Rarity looked down at the mail that now sat on her desk. “That and I also got a call from the younger Sparkle sibling.”, she said in a ‘ya better spill’ tone.

“So, you know. Do you have a theory to add to the pile?”

“No, you two summed up my thoughts.”

“Good. You got a case for me?”

Rarity handed me another case box, and I got to work while she got going on her own work. Fell in love with a man at a seminar, lost touch, looking for him. Don’t know his name, phone number, or address. Alarm bells started going off in my head. A physical description, age, and past jobs were about all I had to go off of. The lack of a name, not even a guess, made me smell witness protection. I took a look at the client’s name and contact details and looked her up. The name’s a common one, but the contact details led me to a burner.

“I smell a rat, a protected rat.”, I growled.

“Got any proof?”

“Not exactly, but the client’s sus.”

“Let’s investigate before tossing the case out. I don’t want to lose the money.”

“Alright, but you should listen in. Was she a hand-off?”

“Yes- those bastards gave us a rat case.”, Rarity said irately.

“You still want to take this?”, I asked while leaning back in my chair.

“Yes, I have a bone to pick now.”

I shrugged my shoulders and called the client. Rarity came over and shoulder surfed me. It rang a few times, but then I was answered by a burly sounding dude.

“Who dis?”, the man asked rather rudely.

I gave Rarity a raised eyebrow, and she gave me a knowing look. “Hello, I’m looking for Ms. Bright. I’m the PI assigned to her case.”

I heard talking in the background before a pleasant female voice came on. “Hello, this is Star Bright.”

“Hi, I was hoping to talk to you about the man you wanted us to find. You didn’t exactly give us much to work with.”, I said in my ‘sweet, happy, jovial’ voice. Any decently skilled voice reader will recognize it for what it was, but anyone else will take it at face value. The moment of silence I heard at the other end told me she does have those skills.

“Ah, yes, I understand. I wish I could give you more, but I was drunk and don’t remember much.”

“You remember his previous jobs but not his name?”, I asked skeptically.

There was silence on the other end of the line before Ms. Bright let out a chuckle. “Hehe, yes, I know. We were so enraptured by each other that I never got his name.”

“I’m pretty sure seminars give their attendees name tags. You’re telling me you never took a look at his.”

More silence on the other side before she just hung up. I looked at Rarity, and she looked at me. I canceled the case, and Rarity went back to her desk.

“What do we do in this scenario?”, I asked.

“I’m not sure, but I do have a theory on who that was.”

I looked over at Rarity with a ‘go on’ side eye.

“Have you ever heard of the Chess Master?”

“I’ve heard the name. I take it they’re some mastermind?”

“The rumors are that she’s in her mid-twenties and a master manipulator. To sum her up, she’s you, if you never went straight.”

“That does match who we heard on the phone, but a woman in her mid-twenties also matches a couple thousand other people. Did you get a physical description?”

“Nope. Snoops’ going to get an earful from me, next time I hear from him.”

A knock at our door stopped our conversation in its tracks. Please be a client.

“Come in.”, Rarity said in her cheery, customer service voice.

A woman in some very expensive looking clothing and one of those big, rich people hats came stomping in, in her high heels. The way she carried herself told me she was going to a fun one. Maybe she’s the lady Twilight recommended us to. She looks in the right price range. The lady stomped passed me and straight to Rarity’s desk.

“My wife is cheating on me. I was told you could get me proof.”, the lady huffed to Rarity. She sounded exactly like someone mimicking a snobby, rich, southern-ish lady. She sounded so ridiculous, I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing.

I leaned back so Rarity could see me and mouthed the word ‘money’ while motioning something coming out my ears. She got the message, I think.

“Yes, we are excellent at intel gathering. Please, have a seat, and we can discuss how to proceed.” Rarity gestured to one of the seats in front of her desk. The lady looked down at the chair with such disgust that it was visible from the back. “I can assure you, our office and chairs are clean.”

The lady sat down, but I could practically smell the indignation. She and Rarity began talking about our services, rates, and contact details. The inflated rate Rarity gave confirmed she got the message. Rarity was also putting together the contract as they talked. I’ve never put together a contract myself, but I know Rarity uses a template where she can just punch in the service and pay rate.

“So, why do you believe your wife is cheating on you?”, Rarity asked.

“For starters, she is frequently accusing me of cheating. My friends tell me that’s a sign of cheating.”

“That is correct. Those that do suspect others of doing the same.”

“I also smelled another woman’s perfume on my pillow. It was a good brand but not one I’d personally wear, and I’ve never smelled it on her.”

“That is some pretty damning evidence. Alright, we can set up camera surveillance in your home and have her followed.”

“That would be perfect.”

“Very good, that will cost you 4,000 dollars as retainer and 500 dollars an hour plus expenses.”

Without a word, the client pulled out her credit card and handed it to Rarity. Rarity turned her monitor around so the client could sign the contract then ran the card, and as soon as the happy beep came from the machine, Rarity handed it back.

“Do you have any idea where she is now?”

“She’s at work and isn’t expected home until six. She works at Neighsay Attorney-at-Law.”

That caught our attention. “Are you saying you’re married to one of the daughters of Chancellor Neighsay?”

“Yes, Citrine Spark, her name is Citrine Spark. You know them?”

“We have had prior encounters with your father-in-law. We operate in similar fields. Sunset, you take care of the cameras. I’ll do the following.”

I didn’t protest as we packed up. I grabbed a case of camera equipment, Rarity grabbed her camera, and the three of us headed out. Rarity led the way with me bringing up the rear. As we passed one of the many branching hallways, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I snapped my head to look at it. At the other end of the hallway was the grocery store stalker.

“Hey! Halt!” I chased after them, but they disappeared around the corner. I burst around the corner but couldn’t see them. The building’s a maze, so they could’ve slipped down any of the branching halls then down more branching halls.

“Sunset?”, Rarity asked. I turned back around to see Rarity quickly approaching. “Sunset, what happened?”

“Did I tell you about the grocery store stalker?”

“Rainbow did.”

“I saw them here.”

Rarity looked around, but like me, didn’t see anyone. “If only we had security. What do you want to do?”

“Let’s just continue with the job.”

We turned back around and joined back up with the client.

“What was that about?”, the client asked, annoyed.

“Someone that’s not supposed to be here.”, I informed.

The client looked annoyed, but we continued to the elevators. The client got off at the lobby while we continued down to our vehicles. I hopped on my bike and followed the client back to Twilight’s building. She pulled into resident parking while I looked for street parking. Walking through the lobby was the same as usual, except I had the client waiting for me by the elevators. I pressed the call button, and when the elevator arrived, I gestured for her to enter. We got in, and the client pressed the button for her floor. The client led me to her apartment. It was one of those two story places.

“I’m going to set up cameras in all the common areas, the kitchen, living room, places like that. I won’t be putting anything up in the bedrooms or bathrooms. All the footage will be automatically saved to our company’s secure cloud file. If you object to any of this, we can cancel this service and just follow your wife.” This was a typical spiel I have to give whenever I set up cameras.

“That sounds good. Go ahead.”

I went around the apartment and placed cameras where they are easily hidden, usually up in corners. They’re motion activated and battery powered, so no need for outlets. As I passed the bathroom, I peaked my head in but only saw a normal toilet. Once all the cameras were placed, I met back up with the client in the living room. “Okay, everything’s set up.”

“Very good.” The client, despite the elegant face she tried to put on, looked distressed.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I- no, I’m not.” The client’s dam broke, and she began sobbing into her gloved hands.

I gingerly approached and patted her on the shoulder. Even though I’m terrible with comforting people, I had to do something. Even if her wife rejected me, she’s still my sister-in-law.

“Why would she do this?”, the client sobbed out. “I love her. I give her everything. I even gave up on the idea of ever having kids because she doesn’t want any. Why?”

What now? Do I hug her? What’s appropriate? “Um, Ms.- Charm, I have a- she gets it from her dad.” The client- should I even be calling her that? She- well- I’m on a case. For now, she’s my client. The client looked up with a tear filled questioning look. “When my partner said we’re familiar with your in-laws, we are very familiar with them. Mr. Neighsay had a habit of sleeping with prostitutes. One of those- um, you know-” Even though I hate my parents, the thought of them in the act still made me uncomfortable. “-resulted in a child. That’s how we know about the cheating.”

“There’s a genetic component to cheating?”

“I hope not, but there’s definitely a nurture component to it.”

“So, I married a second generation cheater. I guess it’s a good thing we never had kids. I wouldn’t want them ending up like Citrine or Neighsay.”

“And you could find someone who also wants kids. Better you learn about this now rather than when it’s too late.”

“I suppose that’s true. Still feels like my heart’s going to break in two.”

I grabbed my wallet, pulled out one of my cards, and handed it to the client. “I suggest you tell her you’ll be going out tonight, maybe even say you’re going to spend the night with a friend, and actually go out. That will bait her into bringing her lover over and give me a chance to catch it. What time would you like me to call you?”

The client nodded and took the card. “I come home to eat lunch, so meet me here a little after noon.”

“That will work.” I packed up my stuff and headed back to the elevators. I pressed the button for Twi’s floor. Stepping off the elevator, I turned to head down the hallway but saw my gray skinned stalker half way down it. After a second to process what I was seeing, I dropped my bags and chased after them. They weren’t near a corner, so they couldn’t just disappear like last time. They tried to lose me by going around corners randomly, trying to psych me out, and running in circles, but I wasn’t losing them this time. I chased them all over Twi’s floor. They were much faster than their colleague and faster than me. I was losing ground, and the pain in my sides was getting harder to ignore. I watched my stalker bolt around the corner to the elevators, but when I got around the corner, I was only able to catch sight of the doors as they finished closing.

“Crap” I took several shallow breaths as I waited to come back down to normal. Explaining to Twilight why I was out of breath would not be a pleasant experience. Once I didn’t look like I just ran a marathon, I picked up my bags and resumed my trek to Twi’s.

I crept inside, gently laid my stuff down, and crept into Twi’s office. She wasn’t wearing her headphones so wasn’t in a meeting. I crept behind her, her carpeted floor making it all the easier. I skillfully ducked low in case a stray black screen gave me away. As I got right behind her, I sprung up and wrapped my hands over her eyes. “Guess who.”

“Bob Marley?”

“Nope”

“A banana sundae?”

“Now, you’re just being weird.”

“Okay, okay” Twilight turned to face me with a smile on her face. “What are you doing here?”

“Your neighbor ended up hiring me. Oh, and she’s my sister-in-law.”

Twilight looked like she was processing what I said before she got a concerned look on her face. “Couldn’t that be seen as a conflict of interest?”

“Unlikely. For starters, the courts don’t know about my relation to them, and they aren’t too keen on having it be known. I also hate my sister, so helping her ruin her life is a bonus.”

“Well, you definitely will be ruining her life. Sure, Citrine does have some cash, but Charm’s the one with the big bucks. She comes from some mega, old money.”

The grin that crept over my face could make the Cheshire cat envious. “My day just keeps getting better and better.” I bent over to put my hands right next to Twi’s butt. “Do you know what will make it even better?”

“I do, but I can’t. I’m already running behind as it is.” Twilight gave me a quick kiss and my butt a squeeze. “How ‘bout the day after tomorrow.”

“Really”, I whined. “Fiiine, but I’m going to fuck you and fuck my sister over if it’s the last thing I do.”

“Well, make sure your body gets the memo.”

“If it doesn’t, I’ll drug myself up so I don’t feel the pain.”

Twi opened her mouth like she wanted to say something but closed it and turned back to her work. I gave Twi one last noggin kiss before leaving her freezing cold office. For such a dark skinned girl, Twi has some serious cold resistance. Since I had no reason to leave, I just grabbed my computer and set up camp. Twi’s building, as upscale as it is, has unsecured security cameras along every hallway. Well, ‘unsecured’ is a bit harsh, but as Twilight put it when she hacked me in, “The password is little better than 1234”. At least the cameras are hi-res and record. I logged in, but instead of seeing the security feed, I saw static. It was like that for every camera on every floor. I tried rewinding the recordings, but it was all still static then black up until yesterday, and I couldn’t see the incident that caused this. Shit. I headed out into the hallway and looked up to the camera. It was gone. “Oh, fuck me.” I re-entered Twi’s apartment and went back to my computer.

“Hey! Twi, the building’s cameras are gone!”

“Hang on!” Twilight came out and looked at my screen. “When you mean “gone”?”

“I just checked. At least the one monitoring your hallway is straight up gone. It looks like someone ripped it off the ceiling.”

Twi got a stunned look on her face as she processed what I just said. “Okay, at least I can bring it up to security without- you know.”, she said with a shake of her head.

“Admitting you broke the law.”

“Yeah, that. What I want ta know is how someone managed to yank all the cams off the ceiling without anyone noticing.”

“Probably dressed as a repairman. You can get away with a lot of sketchy stuff in blue jumpsuits and high-vis vests.

Twilight paused for a moment before slowly turning her head towards me with a ‘you’ve done that before, haven’t you’ look on her face.

“There’s a reason cops tend not to like us. We operate in a legal gray area.”

“Gray my butt. I’ll take this up with security once I’m off work.” Twilight turned on her heels and headed back to her office.

I logged out of the now useless security system, pulled out my phone, and called up Rarity.

“Hello, Sunset. Are the cameras set up?”, Rarity asked.

“Ours are, but the building’s cameras were ripped from the ceiling, and I quite literally mean ripped.” I lowered my voice, even though Twi was unlikely to hear what I had next to say at my normal volume. “I also had another encounter with the grocery store stalker.”

“That’s… disconcerting. Sunset, you’re the only one who's ever seen this person, and given your current condition-”

“Are you suggesting I’m hallucinating this person?”, I asked angrily.

“I’m saying it’s a possibility. The way you’ve described this person, they sound like a ghost, inhuman.”

“We’ve been described as ghosts. That just means we’re good at our jobs.”

“I know. I intend on helping you catch this person. I just want to make sure we explore all possibilities. Are you still seeing the shadow person?”

“I was in my apartment before the sun set last night, so didn’t see it. How’s the stakeout going?”

“I’m really bored, so it’s going well. Do you plan on telling Ms. Charm who you are?”

“Maybe, it’s not like we’ll be sisters-in-law for much longer.”

“I’m glad you’re nothing like your family.”

“Me too. I’ll see you later.”

“Bye”

I hung up and turned to figuring out what to do next. Going somewhere alone wasn’t the safest option as of now. Even walking around the building isn’t safe, like I’d want to do that anyway. Joining Rarity on her stakeout would likely result in us getting made. My hair is pretty easy to spot. The only thing that I needed to be at the office to do is cleaning, and that’s just light busy work. I had no other cases, but I remembered something from earlier, the Chess Master.

I cross referenced that name with crime bosses and found her. A newcomer, all that’s known about her is that she’s a woman in her mid twenties, never been caught, and gets her name from how she treats this whole thing like a game of chess. If that’s the case, we don’t have to worry about her coming after us. If she’s as smart as people think she is, she’ll try to distance herself from us. Coming for us will only leave her exposed. As much as I would like to be the superhero that saves the city from the BBEG, I’m not. I’m just a PI. It’s nothing like what you see in the movies.

I closed the page and put the Chess Master out of my mind, but that only let the shadow figure take her place. I do still have a couple cameras. I hopped up from my seat and grabbed one of the last cameras. Heading out to the hallway, the hardest part will be finding a good spot. Corridors and passageways don’t have much in the way of nooks or crannies one could hide something in. I could hide a camera in the wires of the security camera mount, but if anyone comes to fix it or even inspects it, my camera’s gone, permanently. The hallway was so plain that even if I put it on the ceiling, it’s likely getting spotted.

I looked up and down the hallway for an answer, and that’s when I spotted it. In the wall at the near end of the hallway was an air vent. I scurried over to it, making 100% sure no one was around, and kneeled down to get a better look at what I’m working with. The thing was filthy. Perfect. I cleaned it up a little and stuck the camera in it. Just like with the cameras in the client’s apartment, I used the connected app on my phone to make sure it was angled properly. Once that was set up, I hurried back into Twi’s apartment. I used the app to program the camera to start recording a few minutes before sunset instead of when it detects motion.

With that taken care of, I turned my attention back to figuring out what I should do until Rare’s done with her stakeout.

I laid in bed with Twilight snuggled up to my side. She had fallen asleep basically as soon as she hit the covers while I remained up. I stared at the hallway cam footage on my phone. The thing was out there. I stuck my head out earlier and saw it. It was near the elevators, and I could see the general area around the elevators on the camera, but I couldn’t see it. Well, that’s not exactly accurate. It didn’t appear on camera, but I could still feel it watching me, the same way I could feel its gaze through the car. I’ve had possible ghost encounters before, and this was nearly identical. This thing had a distortion effect on the space it occupied. It wasn’t a visual thing and more of something you could feel, like it warped and twisted the ambient energy. Hang on.

I gently extracted myself from Twilight and the bed, placed my phone on the nightstand, and headed out of the apartment. I walked over to the elevators and stood in front of the thing. It was no different from the last time. I closed my eyes and focused on the ambiance. It’s like air, something you don’t notice until it’s been disturbed or changed, and this thing disturbed it. I felt nauseous then I got that feeling. I bolted to the trash can next to the elevators and just barely managed to get into position before my stomach completely emptied itself. It felt like my stomach was trying to even rid itself of its mucus lining.

I heaved until there was nothing left. The pungent stench of my innards permeated the hallway, making me feel even more sick. I picked my head out of the can and glared at the thing. “Fuck you.” I straightened myself up, went back inside, and brushed my teeth. I tried to sneak back into bed but ended up rousing Twilight .

“Hey”, she said sleepily.

“Hey, go back to sleep.” I petted her hair, and she lulled back to sleep. I got into a comfortable position and curled up next to her. This beautiful woman, this beautiful woman I’m never going to get to marry. She was going to have to live on without me. I could hear her wails of pain now. It wasn’t fair. What do I do?

You will never escape ch8

“Sunset, time to get up.”

I felt Twilight shake me awake, and she was standing over me with a loving smile on her face.

“Tomorrow night, I won’t accept any excuses.”, I said through my sleep dusted eyes.

“Oh, I won’t accept any either.”

Twilight exited the room, and I began working on the process of waking up. I didn’t feel as refreshed as yesterday but also didn’t feel like absolute crap. It was more like a usual morning for me when the sun hadn’t been out for months. The best way I could describe it is like having mild depression. I worked my way out of bed and through my morning routine. I was sufficiently awake by the end and booted up my computer. I looked through last night’s footage of the client’s apartment, and what I found couldn’t be more perfect. Clear as day, there in the living room was my sister making out with and going down on a woman that wasn’t the client. An evil grin spread across my face. Poor, poor little sister, I’m going to destroy your life.

“Someone looks happy.”, Twilight commented. I turned the computer towards her, and she took a close look at the footage. “Huh, for such an unpleasant looking guy, your dad does produce some beautiful children.”

“I guess.”

Twilight kissed me on the head then continued with whatever she was doing. I resumed going over the footage and fast forwarded to this morning. The two of them were hurrying out the door and would likely reach the elevators in a couple minutes. I could confront them now, but would that result in my desired outcome? If I confront them in the lobby, I might be removed by security. Same if I confront them in the elevator. No, confronting them now would not produce a desirable outcome.

I closed out of the camera feed and headed out into the hallway. I looked to make sure no one was around and retrieved my camera from the vent. I cleaned it up and placed it back in the case. I had nowhere to be until it was time to relay my intel to the client. I was once again left with nothing to do. Twilight’s still busy, and the only people that weren’t working were Rainbow and Fluttershy. Fluttershy is flying back out tomorrow. I’d like to spend more time with them.

I pulled out my phone and texted the two of them. “Hey, I got nothing to do for the next few hours. Wanna hang?”

It took a few minutes, but Fluttershy responded first. “Sure, any preference where?”

“You’re stayong with your parents, right?”
“*staying”

“Yes”

“I take it u don’t want 2 do something that risks putting u back in the 🏨”, Rainbow added.

“Correct”, I confirmed. “But can’t you write like someone who graduated from primary school?”

“Hey, I can text however I want. Their r no rules”

“Except for “make sure people can understand what you’re trying to communicate”.”, Fluttershy retorted.

“🖕”

“Back on topic, wanna grab some coffee?”, I typed.

“Sounds good”, RD answered.

“Okay”, Fluttershy answered.

“Alright, Sugarcube Corner in thirty minutes.”, I typed. RD and Fluttershy gave affirmative responses. I packed up the stuff I wanted to bring with me and gave Twilight a quick noggin kiss before heading out.

Riding through my old neighborhood was a trip. Much had changed with the economy in the toilet. A lot of people have been forced to move elsewhere to find work, leaving more than a few empty houses, and businesses have shut down and been replaced or radically changed. The one bright side is that it was one of the areas less affected by the change in weather. Sugarcube Corner was mostly the same except for some minor changes from when things needed to be replaced. It was still owned and ran by the Cakes and a popular hangout spot for the students of Canterlot High. None of the kids of my old classmates would be old enough to be in high school, so none of the patrons I saw were even remotely recognizable. However, there were two faces that I recognized behind the counter.

“You look familiar, but you two couldn’t possibly be who I think you are as they’re only about waist height.”, I said as I got up to the counter.

“Hi, Sunset.”, Pound said in that way only annoyed teenagers can.

“I guess Alzheimer's can strike at any age.” Pumpkin quipped.

“Ooh, not bad.”, I complimented. “I take it your brother’s in the ‘I’m mad at everything’ phase.”

“Yup”

Pound let out an annoyed grumble, and Pumpkin stuck her tongue out in response.

“What would you like?”, Pumpkin asked.

“A vienna coffee”

Pumpkin nodded. “Coming up.”

“Thanks” I handed Pound my card, and he ran it. He gave me my card back, and I moved to the pick-up part of the counter. Pumpkin always works quickly and got me my drink within a minute. I took my drink and tried to find a place for us to sit. The place was just about packed to the gills, but I was able to find a space just big enough for the three of us. If this was going to be all seven of us, there wouldn’t have been enough space. I took a seat and waited for the others to show. The sounds of talking were all around, but it wasn’t too loud that someone couldn’t have their own conversation. RD and Fluttershy arrived not too long later, ordered their own drinks, and joined me.

“Hey”, I said.

“Hey, you’re looking better.”, Fluttershy said.

“Yeah, I slept basically all through Sunday, but I’m doing better. What have you two been up to?”

“I officially went on extended leave yesterday.”, Rainbow said.

“For how long?”, Fluttershy asked.

“Honestly, for as long as I can make it last. I wanna spend as much time as I can with AJ and the kid. I’m even thinking of going into early retirement. Maybe one of the schools needs a PE teacher.”

“I’m sure AJ would like that.”, I said. “What about you, Fluttershy? How are things going?”

“Not so great, sure cloning does give us more time to try and breed the animals, but clones have a shorter life expectancy and will have the same issues as their template.”, Fluttershy said.

“What about genetic engineering?”, RD asked.

“We are looking into that, but we first have to map the animals’ genomes, and we have a lot of very different animals. And that’s just making it a possibility.”

“Something tells me that PETA will try to stop you if you guys do go down that road. I wonder what stupid argument they’ll try.”, I said.

“Probably something like “You’re mutilating animals! AAGGGHH!”.”, Fluttershy whisper-yelled.

“I’m still a subscriber of the theory that they were created to make actual animal rights activists look insane and delegitimize the movement.”, RD interjected.

“I so hope that’s the case.”

We continued chatting about life in general, and I drank an amount of caffeine that would’ve earned me a lecture from Twilight, but like all things in life, our time had to come to an end. Before long, it was nearing noon.

“I gotta go. Got work.” I grabbed my stuff and stood up to leave, but before I left, I took one last look at them. “Goodbye”, I said in a somewhat somber tone.

“What? What’s this ‘goodbye’ stuff about? We’ll be seeing you again.”, RD in a slightly teasing tone.

“Let’s hope.” Before either of them could respond, I headed back out to my bike. When I got back to Twilight’s building, I only made a quick stop at her apartment to grab my computer and camera case before heading to the client’s apartment. It was about ten minutes after noon when I got there and knocked. The client answered, and I was let inside.

“Your suspicions were correct.”, I said as the client closed the door. “I have footage of your wife engaged in sexual acts with another woman.”

The client looked like she was going to break down or be sick but steeled her resolve. “Show me.”

I pulled out my computer, placed it on the table, and opened up the recording. As the video played, the client looked defeated and like she was going to cry.

“I can’t say I know what you’re going through, but I can say that this isn’t a reflection on you.”, I said in my most reassuring voice. The client looked at me confused but didn’t say anything. “Her choice to betray you was made by her and her alone. There’s nothing you could’ve done differently that would’ve made her stay. A cheater is just who she is. You did nothing wrong.”

Before I could react, the client hugged me. I was stunned by this but recovered and hugged her back.

“Thank you”, the client said in a tearful voice.

I just rubbed her back and did my best to comfort her. She wasn’t crying, but it sounded like she was heaving through her teeth the way a person does when they are angry and in pain. After a while, her heaving came to a stop, and the client pulled back from me.

“You kind of look like her, right around here.”, the client said as she pointed to my eyes.

I looked at a photo of the client and her wife. It was of them at the beach on a sunny day. They were looking into the camera, smiling, leaning against each other, and holding hands. They looked happy. “Yeah, I kinda do.” I either horribly misjudged her, or it’s my eyes. I’m going to go with my eyes. “I’ll email it to you. Do you plan on confronting her?”

“Yes, I need to.”

“I understand. I just ask that you allow me to be there as well.” The client looked confused, so I continued. “I have some questions for your wife as well. I also believe my presence will prevent, or at least deter, any actions that will result in anyone going to jail or the hospital.” I pulled back my jacket, exposing my gun, to emphasize my point.

“I see. You may come. I will confront her when she gets home tonight.”

“Very well, I’ll be here before then.”

I packed up my computer and opened the camera case. I went around the apartment and retrieved the remainder of my cameras. They need to be recharged. Once everything was packed up, I headed down to my bike and to the office. The door was locked, so Rarity wasn’t in. I fished around for my keys and tried to remember which one’s the office door key. Once inside, I plugged in the camera batteries and opened up the case on my computer. I found the client’s email and sent her the video.

Looking around at the office, I could see all the work and love Rarity and I put into all of this. We were the ones that redecorated this place to not look like some sort of creepypasta setting. We built up our reputation. We poured everything we had to what was, at one point, merely a high school fantasy after reading too much Shadow Spade. For all my gripes, I enjoy this job.

Just as I was getting ready to leave, I got a call from Rarity. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Sunset, we’ve got a slight problem.”, Rarity said in her ‘I’m calm, but this is very panic worthy’ voice.

“Were you made?”, I said in a serious tone.

“No, this is about the assassin. Twilight was right, well, sort of.”

“Okay, give me the details.”

“So, I planted a bug on your sister, and she went to lunch with your dad. Now, this was in code, but they were talking about you, a contractor, how surprisingly cheap they were, and how everything was going to be all better once you’re gone.”

“Great. Next time I see that third rate hitman, I’m going to shoot him in the groin.”

“That would take care of him.”

“Thanks for the update.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Bye” I hung up and close up shop.

Heading down to my bike, I noticed the sound of another person’s footsteps. They were in time with my own and the garage is very echoey, so it was hard to judge who’s making them and where they were coming from. When I got to my bike, I grabbed my gun and spun around. As expected, I was face to face with crimson eyes, and he had his own gun pointed at me. Unexpectedly, he was way closer than I anticipated. I was right next to my saddle, about where I’d stand to mount, and he was inches away from my tail.

“There are only two ways this can go. We either both get shot, or neither of us gets shot. Which is it going to be?”, I growled.

My assassin looked down at my gun then back up at me. I had my gun trained at his heart, and his was the same. Even if neither of us dies, we’d both be nursing a damaged organ or two. Wait, why didn’t he shoot me from behind? He’s not here to kill me.

“You’re not an assassin. You’re a kidnapper.”

Crimson used his empty hand to clap the one with the gun. “Very good, Detective.” His voice was so calming and sweet. If you met him on the street, you would’ve thought he worked as a carer or teacher. He sounded like Morgan Freeman but with a higher voice.

“Mind telling me which of my oh-so lovely relatives wants me so badly that they’re willing to pay several thousand dollars for a mercenary to come get me?”

“You know I can’t. I’m a criminal, but I still have client confidentiality.”

“Fair.” Hold on. “But you couldn’t be sued for breach of contract, correct?”

“Not the way you can be. In my line of work, getting sued for breach of contract means a hit’s been placed on you.”

“Sounds like a waste of money to me.”

“It depends on the client.”

“I see. How ‘bout this? How much would it cost for you to leave me alone?”

Crimson didn’t say anything for a bit and looked to be contemplating it. “Double, 20,000 dollars.”

“Fine”

We put our guns away and pulled out our phones and moved closer together. I transferred the money to him, and we separated.

“Good, now, you and your partner can leave me alone.”

Even though his face was covered, I could clearly see that he was confused. Crimson pulled his glasses up so I could see his eyes and clearly see his emotions, and his emotions were genuine, or he’s way better at faking them than me. “I don’t have a partner. I work alone.”

I looked at Crimson, equally as confused. “Then who else is following me?”

“Beats me, but good luck.” Crimson lowered his glasses and left without another word, and I was left wondering who that other stalker is affiliated with.

I shouldn’t be here, out in the open yet no one around. But where do I go? I hopped onto my bike and just drove around. I had nowhere to be and no one to hang around with. I just rode around and realized I had to get gas. I made a quick stop to fill up then continued driving, ending up near the ocean, the docks, the edge of the bad part of town, the Everfree, and eventually on the roads outside of town. I revved my engine, but the sky apparently decided that I would not be speeding today and opened up on me. My ride slowed down to just below the speed limit. The rain hitting the miles of grassland created a fine mist that covered the ground. The already gray skies turned darker. As beautiful as it all was, it was becoming difficult to see and uncomfortably cold. I’m not dying before I confront my sister.

I turned around and drove back into town. By the time I got back, the sun was setting, meaning that it was getting close to six. I headed straight to the client’s place with only my gun and knife. I didn’t even have my mask on. I wanted my sister to see my face in full. I knocked and was let inside. The client looked far from the well put together, rich snob persona she put on at the office and, now, looked like she’d been crying since I left. I slipped inside and checked the time. 5:55 any minute now.

“Are you okay?”, I asked.

“No.”, she said in a weak voice. “You’ve done this before. How did they react?”

“I’ve seen people react in many different ways. Most are angry, some are accepting, and some are devastated. It really depends on the person and relationship.”

The client nodded, and we got in position to confront my sister. I stood off to the side of the door while the client waited in the living room. Citrine Spark entered soon after and headed straight into the living room without noticing me. It wasn’t even that the door hid me. I was standing on the other side of the doorway. I know people can be that oblivious, but it’s still baffling. The way she walked made her seem like she thought herself invincible, that her wealth and status makes her untouchable. That notion was laughable. Safety is like intelligence, the safer you think you are, the more you’re actually in danger.

“Aw, what’s wrong, babe?”, Citrine cooed. As sweet as she likely wanted it to sound, I could hear a hint of condescension in her tone. Though, the client almost assuredly couldn’t pick up on it.

The client took in a deep, shuddering breath and steeled herself with a determined expression that hid her sadness. She looked like she was trying to be angry and not break out into tears again. “I know you’re cheating on me.”

“What? What do you mean?”, Citrine said in a tone she meant to sound assuring, but I could hear the ‘oh, crap’ under it.

“Kinda hard to deny something there’s video evidence of.”, I remarked.

Citrine spun around and looked like a deer in headlights when she saw me. She looked me over, and realization sparked in her eyes. “What the hell are you doing here?! I’m calling the police!”

“Nope, your wife owns this place, and I was let in by her. The cops won’t help you.”

Citrine’s face turned red with anger, and I snorted at how much she looked like me at that moment. We have completely different hair, but we have the same noses and the same eye and skin colors. “So what?! It’s not enough you ruined my parents’ marriage! Now, you’re trying to ruin mine!”

Confusion was added to the client’s face as she looked between us for some sort of answer.

“I didn’t ruin anything. You and your father ruined your marriages by being unfaithful.”

Citrine opened her mouth to shout some more, but the client stepped in between us and cut her off. “No! No more! I want you out! Now! Pack your things and get out!”

Citrine glared at me then stomped up to her room like a toddler. Once she was out of sight, I heard the client breathing heavily and shakily. I quietly approached and patted her on the shoulder then a realization hit me.

“Does your wife have a gun in your room?”, I asked urgently.

The client spun around with a look of panic on her face. “No, but I do, and she knows the code.”

All I had processed was ‘gun’ before I bolted in the direction of Citrine and was staring her down as she opened the gun safe and was reaching for the pistol. Running on pure instinct, I tackled her against the shelves and grabbed the hand that held the gun. Citrine struggled, but before she could do anything stupid, I pulled out my own gun and pressed it into her side. Citrine looked down at my gun then back up at me with both fear and anger.

“I have some questions.”, I sneered. “I know about the contractors, and I know blue boy and that he’s a kidnapper. Now, the gray one, is he also a kidnapper, or is he an assassin?”

Citrine seemed to be thinking then looked back down at my gun then back up at me. “Yes, I did hire the assassin, but I didn’t hire the kidnapper, and I don’t know who did.” The look in her eyes told me she wasn’t lying.

“Drop the gun.”, I ordered with a shove of my own gun. Citrine complied, and I spun her around so I was behind her then I pushed my gun into her back. “Hands on the back of your head and walk.”

She put her hands on her head but looked back at me like she won. “You’ll regret this. I’ll get out by tomorrow night, and you’ll be dead.”

“Shut up and walk.” I walked her out to the living room where the client was letting in a pair of cops. The client looked at Citrine with heartbreak in her eyes. She looked so hurt, sad, and angry.

“Okay, what’s going on?”, one of the officers asked.

“Cheating wife, grabbed for a gun, that sort of thing.”, I explained.

One of the officers began talking with the client while the other took Citrine from me, letting me put my gun away. The client- Well, the contract is complete, and she’s no longer my client. Charm told the officer her side of things then the officer came over to me. I told him my side, omitting our talk in the bedroom. Citrine was taken away, leaving Charm and me alone in the apartment. Charm collapsed to her knees and began to cry once again. Not knowing what else to do, I sat down next to her and patted her shoulder. Charm hugged me and sobbed into my shoulder, and I switched to rubbing her back.

I wasn’t sure how long it took, but Charm eventually passed out. I picked her up and laid her down on the couch. I locked up the best I could as I left. I headed down to my cheating father’s floor and knocked. As soon as he answered, I pulled out my gun and pushed him back inside, closing the door behind us. I pushed him up against one of the side walls of his entryway and stared him down.

“Call off the assassin.”, I ordered in a cold, steely tone.

Chancellor Neighsay said nothing and glared back at me, apparently better at keeping his mouth shut. I flipped my gun around so I was holding it by the barrel and pistol whipped him with the back of it, leaving a small laceration by his eye, then flipped it back around and pressed it back into his chest.

“Y’know, you’re lucky. I don’t want to spend my last couple days in a cell.” I grabbed his hair with my free hand and forced him to look me straight in the eye. “Though, if your assassin hurts any member of my family, that reservation will be out the window.”, I growled.

I left quickly and headed down to my bike and back home. At least I now know gray is real, but now, I have no fucking clue who hired blue. Let’s see, there’s my two older sisters and their mom. Why would they want me abducted instead of just killed? Maybe the timing’s just a coincidence, and blue was hired by one of the many other people I’ve pissed off. Well, fat chance I’ll figure it out now. At least he’s gone. I got into my apartment, took my weapons off, and made myself dinner. I wanted to open my curtains and open up my apartment a bit, but gray could be out there with a rifle. The cramped feeling didn’t help the returning icky feeling. One thing at a time. I finished up my food, went about my night, then went to bed.

You will never escape ch9

I stretched as I awoke, earning several pops from across my body. Curious as to why my alarm wasn’t beeping, I looked over at my alarm and saw that it was 12:06 pm. Shit. I jumped out of bed and rushed through my morning routine, not even making coffee or breakfast, and to the office. When I got in, I saw Rarity sitting at her desk, rubbing her temples.

“I missed her.”

Rarity looked up at me and gave me a crooked smile. “Your SIL is a piece of work.”

“Sorry about that.”, I said as I dropped my backpack then took a seat in front of Rarity’s desk.

“You have nothing to be sorry for. You didn’t marry her.”

“Yeah, but I resemble my sister enough for her to behave around me.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“I’ve got more good news. I got Blue off my back, but it turns out he and Gray aren’t affiliated, so they’re still an issue.”

“Hold on, wait.”, Rarity said while bringing her hand up. “Who would hire two different assassins?”

“And it turns out Blue wasn’t hired to kill me. He was hired to abduct me. I don’t know by who or why.”

“Maybe… uh, I got nothing.”

“I know that my father and youngest sister want me killed, and both their wives are divorcing them, and I don’t think- what do I even call her?- Chancellor's wife would want me dead if she’s divorcing that cheating scumbag. That just leaves my two older sisters, and Royal doesn’t want anything to do with me. She could want me disappeared, but she doesn’t strike me as that kind of person. I could be wrong, but I’m going to check other possibilities first. That just leaves the middle sister, Fizzlepop.”

“I’ll let you get to it.”

I gave Rarity a salute then went to my desk. I searched for Fizz on all the usual places, but there was only her private Instabook. I then punched her into our background checker and found her military record. Honorable discharge, lost her right hand and got a head injury, former Seal. Impressive. Code name, Tempest Shadow. There we go. Her address popped up in the search, but she lives on the other side of town, way aways from any other member of the family, all the way in Klugetown. Why would anyone choose to live in that hell hole? Chancellor doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to let one of his children live in such a place, even if it was a choice. I looked for where she worked and found a non-profit for at risk youths. Oh, that explains the location.

“It looks like I found the black sheep of the family. As in, she’s the only white sheep, former military, works at a children's non-profit, even lives in the same crappy hood as the kids.”

“I wonder what led her down such a different path?”

“That’s what I’m going to ask her.”, I said as I grabbed my backpack.

“See you later.”

I put the address in my phone as I headed down to my bike. I stopped for some breakfast and coffee then headed to the youth center. Getting there took the better part of an hour, and when I say hell hole, I mean the streets are more potholes than road and families are living in houses that look condemned. The youth center Fizz worked at looked okay, but it was still clear what part of town it was located in. Heading inside, I was greeted by an average small reception area with chairs, a hallway off to the side, and a front desk.

I approached the front desk lady, who wore teen friendly looking clothes. “Hi, I’m looking for Fizzlepop Berrytwist. Is she here?”

“Fizzlepop Berrytwist, oh, you mean Tempest. Yeah, she’s in the activity room. Just down the hall, you’ll know it when you see it.”

I nodded and headed down the hallway. There were several doors, mostly single doors with a couple double doors. It was through an open double door that I saw Tempest talking to a preteen. They’re sitting at one of many white, plastic tables, and the kid was drawing. Tempest had her right arm resting on the table, which was prosthetic up to just below her elbow. I quietly approached them and looked down at the kid’s drawing. It was crude but clearly showed a man lying in the street, getting cavity searched by the police. Poor kid.

“That looks very nice.”, I commented.

The kid looked up at me with a blank expression. “Thanks”, he said dully.

Tempest also looked up at me and recognition flashed in her eyes. “Smallfry, this is my sister, Sunset.”

I gave him the best friendly smile, but his expression didn’t change. I couldn’t blame him. I too shut myself off emotionally when I was a kid. It let me exist without having to deal with the reality of my situation.

“Hey, Smallfry, why don’t you go play with the others. I would like to talk with my sister.”, Tempest said.

“Okay” Smallfry slid off the chair and walked over to a rugged area with toys for various ages.

I took the seat Smallfry previously occupied, putting me right in front of Tempest. “So, you prefer your Navy nickname?”, I asked curiously.

“Yes, it was given to me by my actual family, as powerful as a raging tempest, as silent as a shadow.”

“That answers a few of my questions, but I have many more.”, I said in a more serious tone and pulled out my license, letting Tempest get a good look at it before putting it away. “Someone hired a man with blue skin and crimson eyes to kidnap me. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about this, would you?”

Tempest got a resigned look on her face and nodded. “That was me. I hired him to take you somewhere safe. I don’t want to alarm you…”

“I already know about the assassin.”, I said firmly, cutting her off. She spoke to me like I was a child. I hate that.

Tempest looked surprised. “Okay, I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Clearly. Now, why did you feel the need to hire a mercenary instead of just talking to me?”

“I figured you wouldn’t believe or go along with the plan.”

“You're right on the second half. I’m not leaving my family.”

Tempest nodded solemnly. “You’re better than us.”

“And that leads into my next question. Why are you nothing like the rest of our relatives?”

Tempest leaned back in her chair, and her face told me that was a loaded question. “That requires a family history lesson to answer.”

“I’m listening.”

“You’re lucky to look like our grandmother. Our grandparents’ marriage was not a love filled one. Our grandfather raped our grandmother and got her pregnant, and their families forced them to marry. I look like a female clone of our grandfather. I’m disgusted that I look so much like him. I don’t want to be anything like him. That’s why I joined the military, work here. I’m trying to be a better person.”

“I see.”, was my only reaction. Tempest looked surprised by my lack of reaction, but this kind of story is hardly rare as far as I’m concerned, and I couldn’t get emotionally invested in it. “It is sad to hear that happened to your grandmother.”

“What are you going to do now? I can’t protect you.”, Tempest said worriedly.

“You don’t need to worry about that. I’m sick. I’ll be dead in a couple days.”

Tempest looked me over and pulled out her phone. I could only guess she was comparing what she saw now to an older picture. She looked between me and her phone for a bit before a sad realization spread across her face. She put her phone back and bowed her head. “I wish I got to meet you sooner.”

“I’ll let Rarity know to invite you to the funeral. I have your number.” I got up and left without waiting for a response. Although, when I got to my bike, I didn’t immediately ride off. I’m going to die in two days. Saying it out loud smacked me straight in the face. I could do the usual kind of stuff people do when they know they’re going to die, but that could land me back in the hospital. Maybe tomorrow.

I took off but didn’t head back to the office. Instead, I drove out to the beach. Not many people were there given that the overcast skies were not great beach weather and it’s the middle of the work day. As nice as it is that the beach isn’t crowded by tourists and their garbage all summer long, the same lack of tourists has caused the economy to suffer. The nerds say the water level has risen a couple inches. “Yay, climate change.”, I said sarcastically. The cloud cover stretched out over the water as far as I could see. The gray clouds gave the water a slight gray tint as well. It was beautiful in its own way but also a constant reminder that we’re in increasing danger. Our permacloud isn’t even the worst of it, ancient diseases reemerging from thawing ice, anthrax outbreaks in the north from thawing reindeer carcasses, increasingly violent storms, and some places are already being flooded. You’ll hear the over dramatic types saying the world is doomed, but that’s not true. Humanity is doomed, but Earth will survive and recover in a few thousand years of our extinction, and everything we have built will be gone with the only traces of us ever existing being our space junk. “Almost makes dying seem preferable.”

I was about to ride back off when I spotted a familiar head of blue hair. Flash. The poor guy never managed to get his music career off the ground. We’ve lost touch over the years, so I have no idea what he’s doing now. He still looked okay, if with a bit of a dad-bod.

I dismounted my bike and hurried to intercept him. “Hey man, how ya been?”

Flash looked up at me surprisedly, then got a look of recognition on his face. “Sunset? It’s been a while.”

“It sure has. What are you doing here?”

“Oh, today’s my day off. I’m taking a walk to clear my head. Wanna join me?”

“Sure”

We headed down the sidewalk and looked around at all the places we used to hang out at. Very few of the businesses that were around when we were kids are still around, many of the buildings being boarded up or a new business that has nothing to do with tourism. Even during the summer, you aren’t going to see the food trucks that used to be all over the boardwalk.

“This is depressing.”, I commented.

“Yeah, it’s like everyone is slowly disappearing. Unfortunately, I’ll be joining them soon.”, Flash said sadly.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I can’t earn enough money here to support Muffins and the girls. Even with her disability benefits, it’s just not enough. We’ll be moving in a couple weeks.”

“A couple weeks, that means you’ll have to drive back for my funeral, assuming they’ll find my body.”

“What kind of goodbye is that?”, Flash asked worriedly.

I took off my helmet and looked Flash straight in the face. His face dropped when he saw how pale and sickly mine was. “I’m dying, Flash. I’ll be dead in a couple days.”

Flash’s head fell and his entire body tensed up as he tried to hold back his tears. The look of pain on his face made my heart break. “Is there really nothing that can be done?”

“Nothing”

Flash looked back up at me like he was pleading for another answer, but none came. Flash pulled me into a hug, and I could feel the tightness in his chest. “I love you, Sunset. I never stopped loving you.”

“I know. I wish I was better to you. You didn’t deserve my crap.”

“You didn’t deserve any of that either. You were just a child. I wish I could’ve helped you.”

I pulled back from the hug and fixed him with a serious expression. “You did help me. I don’t think I would’ve made it if you weren’t there. I will never forget you, wherever I go. Goodbye, Flash.” I pulled away and put my helmet back on.

“Goodbye, Sunset.”, Flash said sadly.

I nodded and made my way back to my bike. I drove off and back to the office. Rarity wasn’t there, but she left a case box on my desk. I looked over its contents, but my mind couldn’t focus. Knowledge of your impending doom is quite distracting. What should I do for my last day alive? I knew what I was doing tonight but afterwards.

I closed up the box, taking the case notes. At least for today, I still had a job to do.

I heard the door to my apartment open as I was in the kitchen, and Twilight walked in. She was wearing her usual casual attire of sweats and sneakers. I gave her a smile as I finished plating our meal and brought it over to the table.

“So, how was your day?”, Twi asked.

“It was… something. I met the middle sister today.”

“Oh, what was she like?”

I played with my food a bit before answering. “She was… actually nice. She’s just as disgusted by our family as I am and is trying to be better. She even referred to me as her sister.”

“Wow, sounds like someone worth getting to know.”

“Yeah”, I said halfheartedly.

My lack of enthusiasm caught Twi’s attention, and she gave me a light smack to my side. “And you are going to be around to get to know her, no matter how bad you look.”, she said forcefully.

I gave her a gentle smile. “Can we at least act like I’m not for tonight?”

Twilight wrapped her leg around mine and nuzzled my neck. “Gladly”

I scarfed down the rest of my food and brought out what alcohol I do have and every sweet treat I have stuffed away. Twilight finished her food in a more relaxed manner as I poured us each a glass of wine. Once Twi had finished her food, we dug into the ice cream and sweets. By the time we were finished, we were both slightly drunk, and we stumbled to bed and out of our clothes.

You will never escape ch10

I woke up with an annoying but not agonizing hangover. A cold breeze running over my shoulder prompted me to pull the blankets further up. I felt Twilight nuzzle up against my boobs, and I pet her hair. This roused her, and Twilight looked up at me the way she does when she’s hungover, kinda looking like she’s having a stroke. She slowly fully woke up, and her “hungover death face” morphed into a sleepy smile. I smooshed her into my body and heard some content hums.

“I wish we could stay like this all day.”, Twilight said, muffled through my fat.

“Take the day off of work. You’ve been working so hard. You deserve it.”

Twilight unburied her head and looked up at me with a crooked smile, like she thought I was joking. “You know I can’t. I still have a lot of work to do.”

I looked down at her with a serious, sad look. “Twi, please.”

Twilight’s smile dropped to a sad, kinda scarred frown. “This isn’t funny. Don’t joke like that.”

“I’m not joking.”

Twilight let out a small whine and buried her face back into me. I resumed petting her hair and heard her quietly begging for this not to be real and for me to be wrong for once. “Hey,” I said softly, getting Twilight to look back up at me, “let’s not spend this last day being sad. Let’s go out, have some fun, make this a good final day.”

The pain in Twilight’s face was evident, but nonetheless, she nodded and started getting out of bed. We went through our morning routines and got ready to leave. As we approached the door, I handed Twi my spare helmet. We headed down to my bike, and I drove us around the city. I had no particular destination in mind. It just felt nice to have Twilight holding onto my midsection. She never fully came around to the idea of my motorcycle, but I made her feel safe, and I knew, deep down, she liked the rush. Still, I refrained from my usual stupid stunts.

We ended up at a cafe we like, not Sugarcube Corner. It was a small, French style place with very little indoor seating. We ordered our drinks and took seats outside.

“Huh, the clouds parted.”, Twilight commented.

I looked up, and yeah, the clouds were parting. “Huh, blue.”, was all my slowly degrading mind could come up with. Twilight lightly nudged me in the side, and I gave her a raspberry as revenge.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a well dressed woman sitting down at the table next to us. The lack of other people and the way she was dressed made an action that would normally fade into the background stand out to me. Fashion was never my strong suit, but I’ve spent enough time around Rarity and Twi’s place to tell the faker crap from the actually good quality stuff. The clothes she wore were well fitting and well worn, clearly having lasted her at least a good few years. People that try to look rich will wear those “high end” brands that have their logo plastered all over them in order to let the whole world know you have this expensive, luxury thing but are actually crap quality and wouldn’t last nine months. She had on a yellow sun dress with a matching ribbon around her hair and a black leather jacket with matching ankle boots, all as high of quality as what I was wearing. Seeing someone in those kinds of clothes on this side of town was odd.

Her skin was a salmony pink. She had curly, light blue hair and crimson eyes, and she looked to be in her early twenties. The more I looked at her, the more I felt like I knew her from somewhere but couldn’t place her. The feeling she gave me also made my hair stand on end.

My staring had apparently gotten Twilight’s attention as I felt her grab my arm hard enough to get mine. “Should I be jealous?”, Twilight asked with a smirk. I fixed her with the ‘this is serious, we might be in danger’ face, and all silliness dropped from hers, which instantly switched to ‘oh, crap’. She tried to school her face into something more neutral as she stole glances at the woman. I put my hand on the side of her face and firmly kept her looking at me. I brushed my thumb over her face and kissed her forehead. She still looked like she wanted to turn around but restrained herself.

I resumed watching the woman and saw she’d pulled out her phone and now appeared to be checking her messages. “What? What is wrong with these people?”, she said quietly, and I finally knew where I knew her from. She was the woman from the suspicious case, the Chess Master. We were definitely in danger.

I looked back down at Twilight, and her expression had become even more scared. I nuzzled the side of her face and kept my voice low. “Kiss me goodbye then walk out of sight.”

I could hear Twilight’s heart beat jump to triple digits, but as I pulled back, I could see that her face was one of determination. She gave me the goodbye kiss then got up and left, leaving her helmet. I watched her go until she was out of sight then turned my attention back to the Chess Master. My heart nearly jumped into my throat when I saw that she was looking straight at me. I quickly recomposed myself and took this as an opportunity to “introduce” myself.

I grabbed our helmets and sat down in the seat across from her, giving her my best ‘friendly’ smile. She looked at me curiously but made no protest to my actions. “I think you and I know each other.”, I said.

Surprise and recognition flashed across the Chess Master’s face, but she quickly reschooled it to a more “sinisterly happy” look. “So, we finally meet.” The Chess Master flicked her eyes to where Twilight went then back to me, clearly meant to tell me she saw her. “Your girlfriend’s pretty.”, she said with a sneer.

“She’s an uninvolved party. She’s not a part of our world.”, I said firmly.

“Oh, I don’t intend to involve her. That is assuming I don’t have to.”

“I don’t intend on turning you in.” As much as I want to. Dying before ever pulling a James Bond, that’s the real tragedy of my life. - or maybe. “I wouldn’t even have the time to see it through. I’ll be dead by tomorrow.”

“Oh, what from?”

“There’s this entity that’s stalking me. It already took an old classmate of mine. It’s a sort of shadowy, humanoid thing.”

The Chess Master looked at me worriedly but not like I was crazy. “Oddly enough, I believe you.”

I smiled wider and more evilly than I had in a long time. It wouldn’t have looked out of place on my middle school self. I didn’t bother to hide my contempt for her existence. “Good” I got up quickly, leaving her confused, and got back on my bike. I drove around until I found Twilight, and she nearly tackled me off my bike when she ran up and hugged me. I steadied myself and petted her hair to comfort her. She wasn’t crying, just scared. “It’s okay. I’m here.” Twilight pulled back, and I gave her back her helmet.

“Who was that?”

“Me, if I were still evil. I’m not sure what her next move will be, so I want to take precautions.”

I motioned for Twilight to get back on, which she did, and resumed driving us, but this time, I had a destination in mind. I brought us to Tempest’s youth center, which took decently less time to reach than it did from Twi’s part of town.

“What are we doing here?”

“I just pissed off someone that knows you exist and that I’m dying. I don’t peg her as the vengeful type, so I don’t think she will make a move against you, but I still want to get you some protection.”

“Firstly, from a youth center? Secondly, what the fuck did you do?!”, Twi asked disbelievingly then angrily.

I dismounted my bike and pointed at the building. “That’s where my middle sister works. She’s who we’re here to see.”

Twilight looked reluctant but placed her helmet in my tail box anyway and followed me inside. I took my helmet off as we got inside, and I saw instant recognition on the receptionist’s face.

“Hey, I know you. You were here yesterday.”, the receptionist said enthusiastically.

“Yes, that was me.”

“Hard to forget that hair. Tempest is down that way.”

“Thank you.” I led Twilight down the way the receptionist pointed, which was the same way as last time and led to the same open double doors. Tempest was once again inside but this time was playing with the kids in that rugged area. I brought Twilight over to her and tapped Tempest on the shoulder.

Tempest turned around and looked genuinely surprised to see me. “Sunset? I thought you said you were gonna die.”

“Close, I said I’ll be dead by tomorrow. Speaking of which, you told me you wished you could’ve protected me. Well, she needs protecting.”

Tempest looked behind me and gave Twilight a surprisingly kind smile. “Hello, and who are you?”, she said in a well practiced tone meant to make scared kids feel more comfortable.

She really has very limited experience with handling adults, doesn’t she?

“My name is Twilight. I’m Sunset’s girlfriend.”, Twilight said in a tone that told me she was agitated with Tempest but trying not to show it. I gave her the ‘look around’ side nod, and she acknowledged it.

“We should sit down for this.”, I said.

Tempest nodded then bent down to let her charge know she had to leave for a bit but will be back shortly. She then led us to one of the white folding tables, and the three of us took seats around it.

“So, what does she need protecting from?”, Tempest asked me.

“A couple days ago, I was contracted to find a man. This contract seemed off, and I was able to determine that the client was looking for a person in witness protection. Earlier today, we ran into the client, and she became aware of Twilight’s existence. I don’t believe she’ll do anything, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.”

Tempest looked between then nodded her head. “I’ll protect her.”

“Thank you.”

“I work from home, so you don’t need to worry about that.”, Twilight said.

“She also lives in the same building as Dad but on different floors.”

“Great”, Tempest said unenthusiastically.

We continued talking about what was to be done, what needs to be done and when, and other details that needed to be hammered out. Once I felt Twilight would be adequately protected, we let Tempest get back to work and headed back out to my bike.

“So, what now?”, Twilight asked. “Are we going to go back to your apartment?”

“No, I still want to spend this day with you, and I ain’t letting some Sunset knockoff ruin it.” I popped my helmet back on, got on my bike, and extended my hand out for Twilight.

Twilight shook her head, grabbed her helmet, put it on, and took my hand. I helped her get on and started up the bike. I began driving again, again without a destination in mind. I drove around the city, making sure to pass by our favorite places. It almost seemed like the only places from our childhoods that weren’t closed down were Sugarcube Corner and the school. I continued our drive to the outside of town. The rolling green fields looked lovely with the sun shining off of the still damp grass. I took in the sight, knowing it’d be the last time.

I felt Twilight’s chest heave against my back. Feeling her breathe, hearing her heartbeat, it’s the most comforting thing in the world. That, that’s what I’ll miss the most about being alive.

When it was a couple hours from sunset, I turned my bike around and headed back to my building. Once we got back, we dismounted my bike, and Twilight handed me back her helmet. She pulled me into a hug and put her ear to my chest. I stroked her hair and held her close.

I pulled back slightly and brought Twilight’s face up to look me in the face. “Thank you, for being my everything.” I took her hand and led her up to my apartment. I brought her into the main space and motioned for her to stay. Twilight looked confused but didn’t say anything. I disappeared into my bedroom and went to Mustard’s tank. I grabbed the cup of his food, put it in, unplugged his lamp, balanced that on top, and took the whole thing back out to Twilight. “Here, I’d like you to have Mustard. I’ll understand if you can’t though. You can give him to Fluttershy.”

Twilight took his tank, taking a second to properly balance things. She looked like she wanted to say something, probably some quip about how I better come pick him up tomorrow, but couldn’t seem to bring herself to, so I said it.

“If I do survive the night, I’ll come and get him back.”

“You better.”, Twilight mumbled. “I love you, Sunset.”

“Love you too, Sparkles.”, I said softly.

Twilight left my apartment, and I was left waiting for her to leave the area. I still had things to do before night fell, things I don’t want Twi to have to bear witness to.

I’ve used recorders to give Rarity messages before, ranging from pranks to- okay, I pretty much only use these things to prank Rarity when not work. What was on it, now, was about as far from a prank as you can get. I laid it on her desk right where she’d see it, along with my office keys, wiped the tears from my eyes, and left for the garage. I ran my hand along the side of my bike. This would be my last ride. I was going to make it count. I climbed on and rode back to my apartment, taking the scenic route. There was a blackout across the entire city. For the first time in years, I could see the stars. Their twinkling brilliance brought me back to when the girls and I went camping. Camp Everfree was such a beautiful place. Shame it’s gone.

The thing was waiting outside my door when I got back. Like the last few nights, I walked straight through it. I walked inside and pulled up the blinds. I wanted to spend my last moments on Earth under the stars. All that was left now was to wait.

I pulled a chair around to face my door and waited and waited. After however long, I grabbed myself a snack and started a video. After a few hours, the damned shadow stalker finally came through the door. No, it did not open it or leave a vaguely shadow person size hole in it.

“So, you can move and, apparently, have no concern for anyone else’s time. Oh yay, fear snark.”

The thing slowly and silently approached. It didn’t move its legs. It just glided across the floor. Out of instinct, I got up from the chair and backed away. Questions of ‘What was going to happen to me?’ and ‘Is it going to be worse than death?’ swirled in my mind. It was overwhelming. My heart pounded like a computer fan that was preparing for take off, and I could hear the blood rushing through my ears.

“What are you going to do to me?” Fear laced my voice. If I knew what was going to happen, I could be mad, but I have no idea what’s going to happen. Death? What if? I don’t know what comes after death, but I know this thing won’t have me. “You won’t take me! I won’t let you!”

I pulled my gun from my holster and put it to my head, tears running down my face. “Goodbye” I closed my eyes.

I fiddled with the recorder in my hands. I still couldn’t believe it. I can’t accept it. This couldn’t be happening. I rewound the tape and played it back. Sunset’s raspy voice came out of the device.

“Hey, Rarity, by the time you’re listening to this, I’ll be gone. Don’t try to find me or continue the Wallflower case, please, for your own safety. I know you’ll have a lot of questions, but I can’t answer them. I would only be putting you in danger. Don-don’t let your life go down the drain. Continue on the firm or don’t. Become a fashion designer or don’t. Jus-just don’t lose sight of what you want to do… and tell the girls that… I’m sorry. I’ve loved every moment we’ve shared together, from the moment you all pulled me out of that dark place to all those long hours on stakeouts,” Sunset’s voice began to quiver, and Rarity could hear her crying, “I’m sorry we’ll never get to see another day together, I’m sorry we’ll never have another sleepover, and-and.. Oh God, Rarity, I’m so scared. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t want to go.”

I stopped the recording there. The rest was just Sunset crying. I couldn’t handle hearing that again. I broke down crying anyways, collapsing into my desk. Tears of sadness and rage streamed down my face, staining my design book. I seethed beneath my arms. No longer able to contain it, I let out a pain filled roar into the night.

“Why?! Why?! Why?! Sunset, I’m sorry.”

You will never escape ch6

I was awoken by a knock at my door. Checking the time, it was almost twelve in the afternoon. I dragged myself out of bed and to the front door. Checking through the peephole, I saw that it was Twilight. I opened the door and greeted Twi with a, hopefully not deranged looking, smile. “Hey, babe.”

“You look like crap.”, Twilight said teasingly. She wasn’t dressed to the nines but was dressed in a nicer getup than her usual sweats. She wore black fancy work shoes, cream colored fancy pants, and a violet blouse with a simple black purse over her shoulder. Her hair was in its typical bun with the marigold pin I gave her holding it together.

“Thank you, I saw the mirror.” I moved out of the way, and Twilight scampered in, undoubtedly having been getting catcalled by my neighbors. “Going somewhere special?”

“What, I can’t dress up to go see my girlfriend?”, Twilight asked with false innocence as she leaned against my kitchen counter.

I closed and locked the door then walked over to Twilight. “I mean, yeah, but,” I pinned Twi to the counter and switched to a more sultry tone, “you’ll be out of them quicker than it took you to put them on, if I have anything to say about it.”

Twilight let out a soft moan and exposed her neck, which I gladly took. I gave her some light nibbles but nothing that would leave a mark. “Oh, I really do wish that’s why I’m here, but you’re right.”, Twilight said breathlessly. “I got a business thing. I just came by to check on you.”

“On a Sunday.”, I whined. I pulled back, but as I straightened up, I felt light headed and stumbled slightly.

“Woah, are you okay?”, Twilight asked, grabbing me under the arms.

I righted myself and rubbed my head. “Yeah, I’m fine. I just haven’t eaten yet. Oh, I have to set up Mustard’s lamp.”

“I can make you something to eat while you set up the lamp.”

“Okay”

We separated, and I grabbed the box and re-entered my bedroom as Twilight put her bag on the counter and entered the kitchen. Mustard snoozed on his favorite rock and didn’t rouse as I entered. I set the lamp up along the back of his tank to simulate the natural light he’s used to. I’m going to have to turn this off manually every night. I went to my closet and rifled through my miscellaneous electronics box. I found one of those things that turns off power to whatever’s plugged into it on a schedule. Perfect. As I turned to finish the set up, I saw the box I keep my copy of my will in. I still need to double check that thing. I’m pretty sure it says what I said it did. I grabbed the box and fished my will out. Yup, “Any relatives of mine that choose to make themselves known are not entitled to any part of my estate. If my mysterious father chooses to contest any part of this will, he can have his $600 back. Clearly, it wasn’t used for its intended purpose.” I stuffed the document back where it belongs and headed back over to Mustard. I set the thing up to turn off the lamp around sunset and turn it on around sunrise.

With Mustard’s needs sated, I rejoined Twilight in the kitchen. A pleasant smell emanated from the stove, and I saw a pot full of leftover stew. Three things became immediately apparent about the stew; it contained meats, peas, and spinach, lots of spinach. Given what happened, I can see her line of thinking. I spooned up to her and nuzzled her neck. She had showered so only smelled like clean water.

“Has anyone told you how beautiful and incredible you are?”, I asked.

“Not today.”

“Well then, you are the most beautiful, incredible, and smarty-pantsiest person ever.”

“That can’t possibly be true. The most beautiful, incredible, and smarty-pantsiest person ever is standing right behind me. Though, she does need a shower.”

I let out a soft chuckle and dislodged myself from Twi. I grabbed two bowels and two spoons. I left the bowels next to the stove and brought the spoons to the table. I returned to the kitchen as Twilight poured each of us a serving and helped her bring the bowels to the table.

“How have you been? Rarity told all of us about the potential assassin.”, Twilight said.

“You can update ‘potential’ to ‘would-be’. An attempt was made on my life last night. You can file it under ‘saved by my bladder’.” I noticed that the sounds of metal on varnished clay that should be coming from Twi have stopped. I looked up from my bowel to see her looking at me in abject horror. “It’s not like he got me, and I got some of his blood.”

“Somebody tried to kill you, and you just mention it as a passing comment.”, Twi said in a mix of disbelief and horror.

I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s not like it’s the first time. Plus, he didn’t even get inside, and now, the cameras got his face.”

“You were nearly assassinated!”

“Twi, my dad just wants his money back. If he does manage to kill me, he won’t be getting it back. I made sure the assassin understood that.”

“What if it isn’t about the money?! What if his wife or one of your sisters want you dead because their sick minds think that killing you will fix their family?!”

“Then it doesn’t matter. I’ll be dead in a few days anyway.”

“What? Sunset, no, you’re not going to die. Is this about the shadow figure?”

“Forget about that thing. It only came after me once I learned about it. For your own safety, just forget I ever mentioned anything about it.”

“Sunset, something is wrong with you! I’m taking you to the hospital.”

“No, Twilight.”

“No? What do you mean ‘no’?”, Twilight asked angrily.

“I mean no. I’m not spending my final days strapped to a gurney.”, I said forcefully.

“Sunset, you need help. You’re sick.”

“Clearly! Clearly, I’m sick, and I’m going to die! I can’t stop it! I can’t touch it! It doesn’t even seem to acknowledge my existence, and it will take me!”, I said, wildly gesturing with my arms. “What can the doctors do?”

“The doctors can make it go away. We just need to go to the hospital, and you need to tell them what’s going on.” Twilight grabbed my arm and tried to drag me to the door, but I’m much bigger than her and merely yanked my arm free.

“I’m not going, and you can’t make me. I’m not a danger to myself or others, so the cops aren’t going to help you either.”

Twilight came back around to my front and cupped my face in her hands. She looked into my eyes with pleading and fear in her own. She scrutinized every part of me. It was clear she was trying to find something to get me to go to the hospital. She could see my graying skin and tired eyes. Even a complete stranger looking at a picture of me from a month ago could be able to tell that the life was draining from me. I could see tears start to form in her eyes but not enough to fall. I caressed her face and hand, and Twilight put her head to mine. “Please, Sunset.”, she pleaded in a gentle voice.

“I’m sorry.”, I said solemnly.

We stayed like that for a while then Twilight pulled back. “Sunset, I’m scared for you.”

“I’m scared too.”

Twilight looked down at her watch and grimaced.

“Go to your business thing. I’ll be fine.”, I assured.

“Are you sure? I can cancel, or do you want to come with me?”

“No, you go. I wouldn’t want to make you late.”

Twilight let out a sigh but grabbed her bag from the counter. “If you need anything or another attempt is made, call me. I don’t care if it’s in the middle of the work day or midnight. I mean it.”, Twilight said forcefully.

“Fine, go.”, I said while pointing to the door.

Twilight gave me one last solemn look before leaving. I finished my meal and brought the dishes to the sink. Once the dishes were cleaned, I headed to the bathroom and hopped in the shower. The warm water felt wonderful against my cold skin. I worked the knots out of my hair and basked in the warmth. What would it be like when it takes me? Will it just kill me or something worse? My mind swam with nightmarish images of what could be awaiting me. Killing myself to end the fear, anxiety, and uncertainty seemed like a valid option again. Maybe it is all in my head? It could be. Roseluck, I need to talk to her.

I finished up in the shower and got dressed to leave, specifically, a hoodie under my leather jacket. I put my newly painted helmet on then headed down to my bike. As I approached Roseluck’s building, I parked the next street over, put my helmet in its tail box, and made sure my hoodie covered my hair. I walked to the building and up to her floor. As I approached Roseluck’s door, I heard sounds coming from Wallfower’s apartment. It was faint, so I put my ear against the door. It was still an active crime scene, made clear by police tape being strapped across it. If it was the police, the door would be open. They would have no reason to have it closed. Plus, these weren’t the sounds of an investigation. It sounded like clay pots being messed with.

I straightened up and slowly opened the door. Inside was Roseluck with one of Wallflower’s plants in her hands. She stared at me like a deer in headlights, and I looked back at her with an annoyed ‘are you freaking kidding me’ look.

“I can explain.”, Roseluck blurted out.

“You’re stealing Wallflower’s most valuable plants under the pretense of “They’ll die if I don’t.””, I deadpanned. I sound like Scully talking to Mulder.

“Okay, I guess I don’t have to explain.”, Roseluck said nervously.

“You do realize how bad this looks for you?”

“I would never hurt Wallflower, especially for her plants. I could’ve just asked her, and she would’ve given me some clippings. I-I even already have most of these plants.”

“Even so, you’re contaminating the crime scene. You might have even completely ruined any chances of her ever being found.”

Roseluck looked between me and the plant. She seemed conflicted on what to do.

“Put it back.”, I said while pointing to the table.

Roseluck hesitated but put it back.

“Do you have any more of her plants?”

“No”

“So, if I go into your apartment, I’ll only see your plants?”

“How would you even know if they’re hers or not?”

“I’ll know.”

Roseluck glared at me disbelievingly, but I kept my stone cold stare. She approached me, and I moved out of the way. She ducked under the police tape and headed back to her apartment, and I closed the door behind her and followed her to her apartment.

“So, are you going to report me to the cops?”

“Depends on how cooperative you are. I have some more questions.”

Roseluck opened her door and entered. I followed her or rather attempted. Roseluck tried to slam the door in my face, but I pushed it back open. I’m by no means as strong as AJ, but I am bigger than her. She fell back on her ass and scurried backwards away from me.

“I hate it when people do that.”, I said in cold annoyance. I closed the door behind me and picked her up by the front of her shirt and planted her in a nearby chair. I pulled out my phone and opened up the file containing the pictures I’d taken of Wallflower’s plants. Roseluck had nearly a dozen of Wallflower’s plants. “You have no more of her plants, huh.”

Roseluck looked to be trying to phase through the chair and the floor below.

I let myself tower over her and summoned up the parts of me that were that high school bully. “Time for my questions.” My voice sounded like fire dwelled in my throat. My hair and hoodie framed my face in what looked like a gate to Hell. My only exposed skin was my angry, baggy eyes. I was the demon I used to be.

Roseluck’s face went pale, and her eyes widened. She looked as if she was staring down her greatest fear. “W-what do you want?”

“Did you poison Wallflower? Did you poison me?”

“What? No, I liked her. She was a good person.”, Roseluck said frantically.

I pulled out my knife and put it up to Roseluck’s throat. She leaned back as far as she could without tipping the chair back. “Wallflower’s plants say otherwise.”

“I’m not lying. H-how would a poison even get into you? You were wearing latex gloves and a mask with a filter.”

They aren’t frickin’ latex. “Really, that’s what you’re going with?” How would I’ve been poisoned? I don’t touch my face with gloves on. If it was in the air and Roseluck was responsible, she wouldn’t have gone in. “Alright, you didn’t poison me. What about hallucinations?”

“Do you think I’d lie about hallucinating?”, she said, getting some courage back. “I’d be in the frickin’ hospital if I thought I was poisoned or going crazy. Look, if anything like that does start happening, you’ll be the first one I call.”

I lowered my knife and took a couple steps away from Roseluck. People normally are very bad at hiding this stuff, usually giving a piece of information an innocent person wouldn’t have, and her logic made sense. “Stay there.”, I forcefully ordered.

I looked around the apartment, which had the same layout as Wallflower’s, though with fewer and smaller plants. I searched throughout the apartment, looking for evidence of any kind. Aside from the stolen plants, Roseluck didn’t have anything suspicious. I even checked for false walls and bottoms. I returned to the living room, where Roseluck still sat in her chair.

“You see, nothing. I had nothing to do with Wallflower’s disappearance or your hallucinations.”

“It would appear that way.”

“So, you’re not going to report me to the police?”

“Oh, I’m still going to report you. I don’t care about the theft, but you contaminated my crime scene.”

I turned to the door and reached for the handle. But just as I cracked it open, I was hit in the upper back. I stumbled forward but didn’t fall, using the door handle to stabilize me. I slowly turned around in the ‘you done fucked up’ way and glared down at Roseluck. She had the chair in her hands and looked about ready to piss herself.

“Yeah, it’s a lot harder to knock someone out than the movies make it out.”, I growled. I took the chair from her and placed it back on the ground. I stalked towards her, but she bolted past me and out the door. I took chase, but she hasn’t lost any speed as she’s gotten older. Roseluck bolted out the door and down the stairs, but when I reached the stairs, I began to feel light headed. I was just about stopped in my tracks but was able to reach the lobby. I tried to follow Roseluck outside, but I could barely stand up straight, and the world almost seemed to spin. I stumbled to the closest wall and slumped down to the ground. What’s happening? I tried to get back up but just didn’t have the energy. I leaned against the wall and tried to make myself as small as possible.

I’m not sure how long I was there, but after a while, I was able to stand back up. My legs were shaky, and I felt nauseous, but I pushed through it and made it outside. Roseluck was long gone, so I just hobbled back to my bike. I put my helmet back on, lifted up the face guard, and just rested on my bike as I waited for my body to not feel like utter crap. I’d hardly call it fresh air, but the chill did make the nausea somewhat subside. Once I felt well enough, I closed up my helmet, started the engine, and drove to the police station Shiny works at.

I took my helmet off and entered the building. It was a typical police station with an officer at the front desk. I approached the officer, and he looked up at me.

“Can I help you?”, he asked.

“Yes, I’m a private detective working the Wallflower Blush case.”, I said. The officer let out a low grumble of annoyance I wasn’t meant to hear. “Can it, officer. Your crime scene’s been broken into. I need to talk to the detective assigned to the case.”

The officer got an ‘oh, shit’ look on his and disappeared into the back of the station. He soon returned with Shining armor and Spearhead.

“Hey, Sunset- jeez, you look like crap.”, Shining said.

“I know. What did Scoffs Mcgee tell you?”

“That the Wallflower crime scene was broken into.”, Spearhead said.

“Yes, a woman named Roseluck broke in and stole some of Wallflower’s plants, which you’ll find in her apartment. She then tried to knock me out and escaped.”

“We’re familiar with her. Would you like to press charges?”

“Don’t bother. Just grab her.”

“Alright, could you fill out an official report?”, Shining asked while handing me a standard incident report form.

I took the form and a pen and nodded. I placed the paper on the counter and began to fill it out while Shining and Spearhead headed to their car. Once it was filled out, I handed it to the front desk officer. He took it, and I went back to my bike. Given what happened at Wallflower’s apartment, I decided to go home.

Once I was back in my apartment, I fed Mustard, who was now waking up. “Up early, aren’t ya?” Mustard never gets up early. I checked the clock and realized it was four. “Jeez, how long was I on the ground?”

My train of thought was interrupted by the sound of my toilet flushing. What kind of assassin uses their target’s bathroom? I waited in the threshold of my bedroom for my bathroom door to open. Once it did, I was relieved to see it was just Twilight.

“Oh, there you are.”, Twilight said. “You weren’t here when I got back from my meeting, so I decided to wait. Where did you go?”

I smiled at the fancy business woman, walked over to her, and wrapped my arms around her shoulders. “Oh, I just went to go question Roseluck some more.”

“On a Sunday.”, Twilight mocked in my earlier tone as she wrapped her arms around me. “How’d it go?”

“She was stealing Wallflower’s plants and then tried to knock me out with a chair. She watched too much TV.”

“So, a normal day for you.”

I kissed Twilight on the forehead and ran my hand through her hair. “Pretty much.” I ran my fingers under the hem of Twilight’s shirt and leaned in to whisper into her ear. “Now, I believe we have some long overdue business.”

Twilight responded in kind and practically pushed me back into my room. I fell back onto my bed, bringing Twilight down with me. I ran my hands up her back, towards her bra, and Twilight feverously kissed along my collarbone. “Aaaah, nnnn” My pleased moans were interrupted by groans of pain as the same light headed, spinny feeling from earlier returned, only now accompanied by a pounding headache. I yanked my hands out of Twilight’s shirt and pressed them to my head and squeezed my eyes shut as hard as I could.

“Sunset, are you okay?”, Twilight asked worriedly.

“Gggr, turn off the lights.”

I heard Twilight quickly get up and scurry away, then the lights went off. I curled over onto my side and tried to press myself into my soft blankets.

“What’s happening?”, Twilight said softly. I felt the bed depress behind me then Twilight rubbing my back.

“My head, it feels like the worst hangover ever.”

“Worse than your twenty-first birthday?”

“Way, way worse.”

“Okay, I’ll get you some painkillers.”

I felt Twilight get up then start walking around. I climbed up to my pillows and tried to bury my face into it. Twilight returned and offered me my pill bottle and a glass of water. I popped four pills into my mouth and downed the water before placing the bottle and glass on my side table. I managed to kick my boots off, get my holster and knife off, and get under the blankets, and Twilight joined me. I turned over and brought Twilight in close. Having her in my arms helped slightly. Sleep was a long way off for me, but I could feel Twilight fall asleep. We laid there, and I suffered until my body finally decided that I could go to sleep.