Shade clicks on the photo to enlarge it. She then smashes the phone into Cobalt Blossom’s face, eliciting a yelp from the woman.

“What is the meaning of this?” Shade’s tone may have reached a normal level.

Cobalt pries the phone away from her face to massage her nose and glare daggers at the teen next to her. Shade shakes the phone to bring attention back to it. Cobalt’s blue eyes grow wide.

“Is that Sunset Shimmer?”

“What do you think, CB?” Shade taps to view that Sunset Shimmer’s profile.

CB takes the phone from the teen to review the profile information of this Sunset Shimmer. “Doesn’t give her DOB but she is the same age as you.”

“Tech, when is the earliest you enroll me into Canterlot High?” Shade asks the man sitting across from her.

“Sure! We can go tomorrow when the school opens.” Tech informs and returns to working on his laptop.

CB frowns. “Do you think Autumn Spice knows?”

“Only one way to find out, yes?” Shade retrieves her phone and continues digging for information about this Sunset.

Shade barely pays attention to the concert. Her phone holds her focus throughout the performance. The girl in the photos certainly resembles Summer, albeit a little older. This Summer wears confidence Shade’s Summer never had (and never will get the chance to find). Shade scrambles her brain over all the possibilities of how Summer had survived, each possibility making less sense. The photos, however, are the least of her concern. Where she finds them makes her blood boil.

There are several groups promoting their hate and hostile opinions toward this Summer. Many posters use explicit language, create videos demeaning Summer, have photos of Summer in the act of her own hostilities towards the one posting the photo. Is this Summer evil or a product of all this negativity?

Another group Shade immediately regrets viewing is one where users post all their dominatrix fantasies of Summer. One user catches her attention. This user does not write about Summer dominating them but of them dominating Summer. Their syntax and grammar remind Shade of the cards Autumn had written to her. Clicking on the user profile leads to a page that may as well be a shrine to Summer with no pictures of the user. She makes note of the school and prepares to close the app but her finger refuses to obey her.

She stares at the blinking caret in the “search” text entry box. Her hands shake as she wills her hands to keep from typing the name floating around in her mind. Slowly, each letter inputs into the search bar and presses “enter”. Expelling the breath she had subconsciously held, she opens her eyes to read “0 results”. A wave of relief washes over her. Of course Starlight is smart enough to stay away from social media.

Shade begins her search on the school. A light blue hand covers her phone. Shade follows the arm to see the cobalt blue eyes of CB.

“The main act is about to go on. Don’t you want to see them?”

“Do my eyes hear for me now?”

CB frowns. “Well, no.”

“Instead of focusing on me, maybe you should focus on Tech? Do you not have lustful feelings for him?”

CB’s face explodes with embarrassment. “Not ‘lustful’!” She stamps her foot and looks around the room for the man. Seeing the room devoid of him she turns back to Shade to whisper, “I… like him, yes.”

Shade notices Tech enter the private room. She signs, “Be forward and direct with him. He’s not so good at picking up subtleties.”

“But, what if he doesn’t like me back?”

Before Shade can warn CB about Tech, he speaks up behind the blue woman, “Then that guy is a moron!”

CB releases a startling shriek. She turns around to face the man. He has nachos in his hand and is facing the window. Seeing the food, her stomach reminds her that she has not eaten since lunch ten hours ago. She excuses herself from the two and rushes out the room.

“The Countess is my favourite artist!” Tech exclaims. “I’m so happy to be a billionaire right now! These seats were not cheap, but happiness is worth anything. Don’t you agree?” He turns to Shade, his emerald eyes scan the room for CB, who he had sworn was next to him a second ago.

Shade shrugs. “What is happiness?”

“Nothing but a bunch of chemicals in the brain. Just tell your brain to make those chemicals because if you try to go out and find them you will just make sad chemicals.” Tech munches on a nacho and yellow cheese drips onto his suit. He shrugs his shoulders and scoops up the cheese with a chip.

“You think happiness is that easy?”

“Depends on the level of happiness I suppose.”

Shade shakes her head and walks away from him. This guy has not seen his family die before him, watch his friends die, or seen all that he had built crumble around him. He is young and naïve. Innocent. She huffs. She envies him.

Her thoughts of being young again disappear as reality plays loudly in front of her. All her chances end up the same. She is a failure. She is a monster. Most of all she wants to rest. To enjoy blissful peace and quiet. To live with her children and friends in the peaceful Overworld. She had considered her lovers but most would kill each other.

Just make happiness. She will do her best to change. If doing the same thing has not work out then obviously she needs to change. After she kills Autumn. She hangs her head in her hands. No. No not kill. If she wants to change she will need to cast off her mantle of war and her mantle of vengeance. She will protect the weak.

And learn to forgive.

A light amber hand runs along the smooth marble of the Wondercolt statue plinth. Cyan eyes reflect on the surface as a wicked grin forms.