Lifting up a dusty old board, Angel Song managed to locate a trap door to a room that she and her friend Starlight had previously not explored. It was dark, but the phone on Angel’s wrist had projected a pair of lenses as a hologram in front of her face, giving her night vision. The latest Samsung Ultraphone model came equipped with all kinds of features that she had found useful in their line of “work”.

The slender woman set the board aside and reached into her side bag to retrieve a small pry bar which she used to crack the trapdoor open. Once it was opened, she stuffed the tool back into her bag and poked her head down to see how far the drop was. Once she confirmed it was safe to go down, she lowered herself into the room and peered around with her hologram night vision goggles created by her phone.

Reaching a small table in the room, Angel noticed a tome sitting atop of it which she quickly flipped through. She frowned as she closed the book and grabbed it. It was all the evidence she needed that they were both wasting their time at this old manor.

Angel gave a voice command to her phone. “Call Starlight.”

Obeying, she could hear a dial tone in her ear as a set of headphones holographically appeared over her ears. They hovered over her ears, not actually touching them, much like the goggles which were really just green glowing lenses in front of her face.

“Find something?” Starlight asked.

Angel held up the book and opened it for Starlight to see as the other woman on the call peeked through Angel’s lenses. Angel could see Starlight on screen as the woman let out a sigh. “Lemme guess... Another lunatic that’s obsessed with dark magic?”

“Pretty much...” Angel frowned.

“I figured as much, this place is a bust then. Let’s pack up and head back. Sunburst and Nova I’m sure should be up soon. Guess it’s a good thing we didn’t bother bringing them with us this time, they’d have been bored shitless as we wasted our time rummaging through yet another abandoned old house...” Starlight sighed.

Angel could understand the woman’s frustration. It felt like they were consistently just wandering from small town to small town to hear stories about a place that was either haunted, had some weird happenings, or that a crazy person had lived in all in the hopes of finding something linked to magic.

Sadly though, most of the time when they arrived there was always some logical explanation, with a few exceptions. One out of every eight jobs tended to be something legitimate such as an animal that had been mutated strangely due to exposure to magic, or a group of people that went missing with no explanation, but ultimately nothing that linked to answers to their own questions.

The two couldn’t even remember when they had silently become semi-paranormal hunters, but it seemed to come with the territory. Their true goal was to find anything that linked to magic, but that often meant following up on any leads of anything out of the ordinary.

Their journey across the country though was bringing them closer and closer to understanding their powers. Now and then, they would have another vision that would give just a bit more detail that painted the big picture.

Angel and Starlight now knew that Equestria was not only an alternate universe that only opened up to traverse naturally through a portal. In that world, the residents were predominantly talking equine, and magic was fairly commonplace.

Furthermore, they understood that magic had come to the human world through said portal. So long as the portal remained, the link between worlds could make magic exist. Once the connection was severed though, magic would likely cease to exist in their human world.

There were other versions of people in their world in Equestria, and that intrigued Starlight. She always wondered what her other universe self was like or if she married Sunburst in that world as well.

When the two girls met up outside of the manor, Starlight ran a hand through her short boyish hair. She had gotten gum in her hair a few weeks back and hacked it all off after failed attempts to save it. Now she was sporting a short cut that was surprisingly cute on her along with a pair of glasses that she now needed to see correctly.

Originally she only needed them to drive, but she began to wear them all the time simply because she didn’t want to always keep taking them on and off.

Angel smiled at her friend as she checked her phone on her wrist for the time. 8:08 PM.

It was getting late, and they knew that Sunburst would get annoyed that they weren’t back. There was a good chance that Nova would want to play cards or something.

“Maybe we should get back to the hotel? I’m sure the others will want us to get back soon. They’re probably bored out of their mind,” Angel suggested.

Starlight knew her husband, and he was likely showing lame magic tricks to their daughter. She would find it pathetic if she didn’t somehow find it insanely sexy that he was such a family man. Ever since their daughter was born, Starlight had been so proud of both her husband and herself at how much Nova looked up to both of them. There wasn’t a secret kept between any of them or Angel for that matter.

While what they had was far from “normal”, it was a family, and a tight-knit one at that. Starlight could rest easy knowing that her daughter was surrounded by adults who would show her the right way in life.

“Ordinarily, a teenager left with their father would be rolling their eyes from embarrassment by now, but I suppose nothing about this family is ordinary is it?” Starlight smirked.

“Guess not.” Angel shrugged as the two reached the car.

Starlight opened the door and checked the gas. She sighed as she buckled her seatbelt. “I think we need to stop and get gas before we make it back.”

Starlight stood next to the car with a gas nozzle in hand. The girl casually made a newsfeed hologram appear from her phone on her wrist and scrolled through it while he car filled up.

Angel had decided to wander around the area, trying to stretch her legs a little more before they all retired for the night, followed by a lengthy road trip to their next destination, which was unknown at that point.

The woman glanced at a window for the gas station and could see her own reflection looking back at her. Her long blue hair had grown substantially over the past few years. At this point, it was down to her knees, which was saying something as she was a taller girl.

The girl looking back at Angel in the window was still quite youthful-looking. She passed more for a girl who was closer to twenty rather than one who was closer to forty.

Starlight was like that too though, she had a very youthful appearance in general as well. Many people mistook her and her teenage daughter for sisters.

Behind herself in her reflection, however, Angel saw a figure approach. Quickly, she spun around to see a tall feminine figure standing with her arms crossed. Her tight leather outfit complimented her body so wonderfully as she stood on a pair of gothic looking boots.

The two had seen each other before and Starlight had met them as well. Upon their face was a familiar gas mask that Angel had seen many times now.

“I was wondering when you’d come back, Ghost...” Angel said.

“You both seem like you’re having a good time, don’t you?” Ghost asked in her usual distorted voice, tapping her arm with her finger.

Angel was quiet with her response, “What do you want from us?”

Ghost let out a gentle laugh before turning her head to Starlight, who she had now caught the attention of. Putting the gas pump back, Starlight raced over and joined her friend, her hands ready to perform magic if necessary.

Catching notice of Starlight’s eagerness to fight, Ghost shook their head. “No fights today. Something important is going on, after all...”

“What do you mean?” Starlight blinked.

“You two had better make your way to Canterlot, Maryland. Trouble is brewing, and you two will definitely want to be there...” Ghost stated.

“Why should we trust you?” Starlight asked with a huff.

“You don’t have to, but then you won’t get answers to all of your questions...” Ghost responded, there was a hint of snideness in their voice, though it was hard to tell with the distortion.

Angel began to process it all as she questioned the phantom. “What’s going to go down, Ghost?”

“Not sure how it’s going to play out, but I definitely know that you won’t want to miss it. Canterlot, Maryland is where you want to be... What’s coming could be bigger than you imagine, possibly even the end of this world...” Ghost stated.

“I guess we know our next destination then...” Starlight grinned.

As Angel looked over at her friend and nodded in agreement, when the two turned back, Ghost was nowhere to be seen. Just as quickly as they had appeared, they have vanished into thin air. Was it possible? Was Ghost really just some kind of phantom that followed them around? Did phantoms even exist?

It didn’t matter though, they always followed up on a lead, no matter what the odds of it being true were. That was their code, and they always followed the code.

It wasn’t as if they had any other place to be either, but Angel had a strong feeling that they were about to be in Canterlot for a lot longer than anywhere else they had stayed before.

So this is the final intermission before Act VII. In two weeks we FINALLY start the last act of Shadows Cast Over the Sunset. I'm very excited and I hope you all really enjoy the dramatic conclusion to this tale.