With a proper night of sleep under her belt for a change, Sunset felt enough motivation to take a much-needed relaxing bath, resting her exhausted body. The aches of the previous few days of working out finally being soothed by the warm water of the large bath. She sunk down and laid against the tiling behind her and reached to the edge to retrieve an iPad in a waterproof case.

Unlocking the device, Sunset began to shift through notes she had taken, reviewing all she currently understood. Her mind focused on Shimmer’s clue she had left for Sunset months ago on the video she had given her months back. She had searched all of Shimmer’s computers for any and all research on magic or Ghost only to come up empty. Her phone had been broken when she was shot, and nowhere was a single file regarding either magic or Ghost.

She knew that Shimmer hid her work somewhere, but the only hint she had was the one that was left for her in that video. She had uploaded the video onto the iPad she was holding and decided to play it back one more time, specifically the part with the hint.

The only clue I can give you is that my family will light the way for you.

Sunset paid close attention to Shimmer’s body language in the video, hoping that something she did would make the clue slightly less mysterious, but no such luck. She had stared at the same video numerous times at this point over the past few months, but no matter how many times she looked upon it, it refused to share its secrets with the teen.

“What could you be hinting at…” Sunset thought out loud in frustration at the clue that was left for her. She had been stuck on it for months now, unsure of what Shimmer was getting at. She wished it wasn’t so cryptic.

She growled in annoyance before setting the device down next to the bath and laying her head back. Her vibrant eyes looked to the ceiling as she thought everything over. She was annoyed at how little progress she had managed to make in trying to uncover the mystery of Ghost and Shimmer’s death.

She knew that Ghost clearly was linked to something to do with Shimmer’s magic research and for whatever reason either had successfully acquired it or was attempting to acquire it. That meant Shimmer was forced to hide it somewhere where she believed Ghost could not acquire it. In Sunset’s mind she linked that to mean she had to have hidden her research somewhere in this house, however despite months of searching, nothing came up.

Part of her knew even if she found this digital archive somewhere that it would be relatively impossible for her basic computer skills to allow her access. There was little doubt in her mind that Shimmer had put other methods of protection in place beyond just hiding the machine.

Finishing with her bath, Sunset came to a stand and stretched before wrapping a nearby towel around her body and scooping the iPad from the floor up.

The girl grabbed a second towel and began to rub it viciously against her wet hair as she stepped out into the hallway, allowing the towel to just drape over her head as she made her way back to her bedroom.

Inside her room, Moon was gnawing on a bone she had given him a few hours ago as he sat on her bed, his tail wagging with pure excitement. Sunset smirked briefly imagining how it would be to be so easily amused. At times she felt that Moon had the best life and what she’d do to just be a dog.

Sunset noticed her phone that had been sitting on the end table was lit up displaying a missed call. Stepping closer, she eyed the screen to see specific contact lit up.

She sighed and threw the towel off of her head and onto the floor before picking up the phone and redialing Shining’s cell phone.

The phone only rang for a few seconds before an answer could be heard. “Hello? Detective Armor?” Sunset spoke.

“Sunset! And I told you, you can call me Shining,” he replied in a pleasant tone, clearly trying to be friendly.

“Right… Shining… Anyway, you called?” Sunset decided to skip the pleasantries and get right to the point of why they were currently communicating with each other.

“I did, I was wondering if you could answer a question for me that would be very helpful to the investigation…” Shining spoke.

Sunset sat down in front of her vanity Mirror and stared at herself as she held the phone to her ear. “Yeah, what is it?”

“Would you happen to know if Shimmer was connected to any kind of… criminal activity? Possibly even a crime ring maybe?” Shining asked.

That was not the kind of question that Sunset was expecting. In her entire time knowing Shimmer she seemed far from the criminal type, the girl came off as too uptight for a life of crime. Not to mention she didn’t exactly have any friends before Sunset arrived. Shimmer mostly kept to herself, after all.

“Not that I know of… I spent a lot of time with her and never once noticed her talk about anything illegal or something like that… why do you ask?” Sunset blinked.

There was a sigh on his end before his answer. “We picked up a guy named Slip on another charge. Your name came up, but he didn’t say much else. The guy is known to be connected to a pretty big crime ring in the city. I figured you might know something. Can’t say if this is connected of if the guy is just out of his mind…”

Sunset spoke quietly, but her voice was filled with interest. “What else did he say?”

Shining chuckled. “Well, he kept saying this stuff about some kind of ghost. Wouldn’t say too much about it, but he seemed really fixated on a ghost… I think he might be loopy.”

“What did he say about the ghost?” Sunset asked sternly.

There was a short pause, but Shining answered. “Why does it matter? You can’t honestly think a ghost is involved can you?”

“I’m just… exhausting all possibilities…” Sunset lied.

“Well… he didn’t say much. He just kept repeating the word ‘Ghost’ over and over. After we put him in a cell he hasn’t said a word and refuses to talk with us any further. It’s pretty odd, but the guy does have a history of mental illness, so he’s probably just lost it… Still, he said Sunset Shimmer before that and as clear as day…” Shining explained.

“I see…” Sunset grew quiet.

“Does the word ‘ghost’ mean anything to you?” Shining asked.

There was a pause, Sunset had to force herself not to speak anything that might reveal too much regarding Ghost. She calmed herself and played it cool.

“No… nothing…” Sunset replied plainly.

She heard Shining make an approving noise, her performance obviously satisfactory. “Well… regardless, I’ll keep on searching on my end. How’re you holding up?”

“I’m fine…” Sunset lied.

“You don’t seem fine. My sister says she hasn’t heard from you in a while and your friends say they haven’t seen you in months…” Shining inquired.

Sunset narrowed her eyes and grew annoyed. She didn’t appreciate Shining trying to play the role of father to her.

“I said I’m fine, Detective.” Sunset growled, hoping he’d get the message.

Shining sighed, realizing he was hitting a wall. “Well, anyway… as always I’m doing all I can to find Shimmer’s killer. I told you before, and I’ll tell you again, I’m going to find this guy; I promise.”

“Thanks for calling, Shining…” Sunset stated before hanging up the phone and setting it on the vanity.

Sunset brushed her damp hair out of her face and looked at the tired looking girl in the mirror staring back at her. Her eyes were bloodshot and clearly lacking sleep. Sunset frowned as she realized how much she had let herself go in the past few months. Her body was in tip-top shape from all the exercise, but her appearance was not. Her hair clearly needed a salon trip, her nails definitely needed a lot of work, and she could use about a few days of just rest to go along with it all.

Her mind returned back to her phone call with Shining. She stared at her phone as she thought out loud. “Ghost… better hope you catch him first… because if I do…” she paused, “I’ll make him regret everything…”

Sunset and Twilight had spent the last night at Camp Everfree by the dock together, reminiscing about the time they had had together. After many setbacks and the dock being destroyed multiple times (and once even by Pinkie’s over-exuberance), it was finally finished and hopefully for good this time around.

Twilight dangled her feet above the water below and looked up to the sky, the corner of her eye, catching a glimpse of her best friend sitting next to her, her eyes drawn to the new geode attached to her neck.

Sunset caught Twilight’s gaze and turned her head to look at her friend with a bright smile, causing Twilight to blush slightly. Sunset always had one of the best smiles, or rather some of the best facial expressions in general. Twilight knew her to be an emotive girl, and she always had relatively strong body language. While there was a saying about people wearing hearts on their sleeves, Sunset wore her emotions on her face. Twilight had only had the pleasure of seeing Sunset get excited about something a few times, but it was always a treat to see her light up.

“So…” Sunset began, a smirk creeping onto her face.

Twilight already could sense some teasing in her future.

“So…” Twilight replied.

“Timber huh?” Sunset stated.

Somehow Twilight predicted the conversation would go there, but she nodded regardless and decided to see how this would play out.

“Y-yeah…” Twilight nodded.

Sunset nodded back and looked to the sky, a smile still on her face. “You’re a lucky girl. He seems like a really great guy…”

“I guess so… I just hope this doesn’t make things awkward for everyone…” Twilight rubbed her neck and looked at the water at her own reflection.

Sunset tilted her head, her long hair falling to one side. “Why would it make things awkward?”

“Well because now I’m the only one of our friends who has a boyfriend…” Twilight explained.

Sunset nodded in understanding but smiled again regardless. “Eh, it’s whatever. I’m sure the others will find significant others eventually… I’m sure when it happens with Rainbow Dash we will never hear the end of it. Though it’ll be a nice change of pace to hear about that instead of all the girls she’s put her fingers inside…” Sunset rolled her eyes as she recalled the many stories by Rainbow Dash that she was forced to endure.

Snickering, Twilight nodded. “Yeah, I guess so…”

Sunset looked down to her fingers and then back at Twilight. “I hope she washes her hands all the time…”

Twilight just snorted at the inquiry. She hoped the same, but at the same time didn’t want to ask for fear of the answer. Part of her wondered how Rainbow managed to attract so many girls, but she chalked it up to sheer persistence. She didn’t know Rainbow to be the kind of person who gave up that easily.

“Still… Everything changes, right?” Twilight asked.

“So long as you don’t start changing on us, I’m sure everything will be cool.” Sunset winked.

Twilight shrugged. “I mean… I might wear some makeup more often or something like that?”

Giggling, Sunset leaned back and used her hands to hold herself up, her tight T-shirt accenting her bust quite pleasantly, causing another blush on Twilight’s face.

“You know you could do with some too, you know?” Twilight suggested.

Sunset shrugged. “Too expensive, can’t afford that stuff. Besides, who am I trying to impress? I’m a romantic retard, remember?”

“Yeah but you’re incredibly naturally pretty… Some eyeliner, maybe some lip gloss and you’d have guys eating out of your hand.” Twilight huffed in jealousy.

Sunset blinked and tilted her head. “You think so?”

Twilight nodded. “Are you kidding? You’ve got nice legs, your butt looks good in virtually any jeans, very soft face, thick long hair… and what cup size are you currently wearing?”

Sunset looked down at her chest and then blushed. “Oh… I’m a D-cup, I guess…”

“Exactly my point!” Twilight waved a finger. “I even hear Rarity complain about how naturally well put together you are. You could basically get any guy you want!”

Sunset thought it over and shrugged. “Yeah, but she says that about Applejack too. She’s curvier than me even.”

“Yeah and we never hear the end of how Applejack is ‘wasting her potential’ from Rarity, do we?” Twilight cocked a brow with a smirk on her face.

Sunset found herself giggling at Twilight’s impression of Rarity. It wasn’t quite as spot on as Rainbow’s impersonation, but it was amusing nonetheless. Rainbow often made fun of her when she wasn’t around, once she did a whole routine where she pretended to make a dress as Rarity and it caused everyone to burst out laughing until the actual Rarity showed up that was and smacked her across the head.

“Either way, it’s not like I’d even know what to do… I have no idea how to ask someone out, and the only boyfriend I have ever had… It really wasn’t that intimate… I was more like a lost puppy that had just seen the world for the first time, mesmerized by the first person who took me in…” Sunset admitted.

Twilight sighed and shook her head. “You just need a few lessons in confidence…”

Sunset nodded and chuckled. “Yeah, like… I don’t even know how I’d kiss someone. I’ve seen it in movies, on the internet and I know how it’s done but like… I don’t know how to tell when the moment is right you know? I’d probably just freeze up and do nothing… Such is my life.”

“On the internet...?” Twilight blinked.

Sunset leaned in and gestured for Twilight to get closer so she could whisper. Twilight did as instructed and listened.

“I watch a lot of porn…” Sunset admitted quietly, causing Twilight to blush and both girls to lean back.

After a moment of silence, Twilight chuckled which only caused Sunset to do the same. Before they knew it they both fell into a fit of laughter and when the laughter subsided, the two merely looked at each other. Twilight examined Sunset’s eyes, realizing that at that time of night, they truly shined. The cyan color made them really stand out.

Her eyes were drawn to her slightly open mouth, her lips looking somewhat inviting. A part of her wanted to lean in, she wanted to close the distance, but as the two sat there staring at each other, Sunset broke the gaze by pulling herself up to a stand and stretching. “Well… I think I’m going to head to bed, you coming?”

“Y-yeah… just a minute…” Twilight blushed and ran a hand across her face to brush a stray strand of hair away.

Nodding, Sunset winked and made her way back to the tent. Twilight found her eyes glued to her friend as she made the short journey, only able to break the spell Sunset had over her when she finally vanished into the fold of the tent.

Twilight blushed and sat there in confusion. Had she really just desired to kiss her best friend just then? She shook her head and decided it was just a heat of the moment thing; she was just caught up in the intensity of the conversation prior and let her imagination run wild. She had never been kissed before, and her close encounter with Timber was still fresh on her mind.

I’m not even into girls, right?

Twilight was typing away at her computer, working on her latest school assignment with gusto, really feeling the flow as she chipped away at this large project. She had already gotten a significant head start weeks ago, but it paled in comparison to how much she was able to get done now. The bookworm loved large assignments as she would set up little challenges for herself to see how much faster she could get them done over the previous time. Twilight was a firm believer in challenge making education more entertaining, and successful. When she attended Crystal Prep she made it a mission to be the best student in every class.

She must have added an additional five thousand words to her paper in that night alone before she heard a call from downstairs. “Twilight, dear, come down for dinner! Your brother and sister-in-law are here!”

Blinking, Twilight peaked at the clock to see it was already 7:48 PM. She must have lost track of time again (a common problem for her), she thought before hitting the save button and racing down the hall excitedly to meet her brother and his lovely wife.

Reaching the kitchen she saw her brother standing there in his usual work attire, though he had hung his jacket on the back of his seat so he was sitting there in just a dress shirt and tie, a holster under his arm for his firearm.

The moment their eyes met he opened his arms expectantly, and sure enough, Twilight raced into them, allowing them to close around her in a tight embrace. Her brother always gave some of the most comforting hugs she knew. Cooing in delight she let go of him and looked over to Cadance who offered the same to Twilight.

Accepting her offer, Twilight pulled herself into a tight hug with her sister-in-law and smiled up at her. While not as strong at hugging as her brother, Cadance’s hugs always offered a sort of calming effect, creating a feeling of safety and comfort.

Breaking the embrace, Twilight was gestured toward the table where she took a seat across from her brother, and next to Cadance. Her father grinned as he saw Twilight’s mother bring a veritable feast before them. Salivating, Twilight licked her lips as she gazed upon her mother’s finest roasted duck. Somehow her mother was always able to make every meal look like artwork.

“A damn fine looking bird! See, this is why your mother can still fill a room, kids; I love this woman!” Twilight’s father teased, a bit of pride in his voice as if he himself made the meal.

Her mother rolled her eyes and sat down. “If I didn’t come into the picture, your father would still be heating up cup noodles in a microwave…”

“True that!” Her father agreed, not even the slightest bit embarrassed to admit his ignorance when it came to cooking. Twilight knew him to be the kind of person who would burn water if he had to make dinner.

The entire table chuckled at the honesty of the couple before reaching forward to help themselves to some food. Twilight filled her plate after she realized she had forgotten to eat all day, and her brother chuckled as he watched her stack her plate.

“Sheesh, Twily, slow down.”

“Oh… sorry… I forgot to eat today…” Twilight blushed.

“How am I not surprised? Studying too hard?” Shining teased.

Twilight merely nodded in response before changing the subject. “So… Shiny… What’s the latest on Sunset’s case?”

Shining sighed and set his fork down shaking his head. “You know I can’t discuss that with you, Twilight. It’s confidential and I don’t need you involved in a murder investigation…”

Twilight frowned and pouted, hoping to put a crack in his defense. “Not even a little info…?”

“No, Twilight…” He stayed firm on his stance, causing Twilight to accept defeat on that subject.

“Alright well… can you at least tell me how Sunset’s doing? As a concerned friend…?” Twilight tried to give the best puppy dog eyes she could.

Proving effective this time, Shining sighed and nodded as he leaned in. “Well… I can honestly say… she’s still pretty shaken up. The few times I have been over to talk to her or heard from her on the phone she sounded tired and distracted. It’s clear she’s not taking care of herself, she doesn’t go out and she definitely has the guise of someone who is very broken at the moment…”

Twilight frowned at the news. She knew Sunset was likely not doing well, but she had hoped that Shining would affirm otherwise and erase her fears.

“I wish she would talk to me…” Twilight replied.

Shining shrugged. “She’s still grieving, Twilight. Some people take a long time; don’t forget that she never knew what family was until a little while ago. To have it taken from her so soon… it must be devastating. Combine that with the realization that she watched her sister die. Hell, to make matters worse Shimmer was technically Sunset from this world, so you can’t even tell me that something like that wouldn’t mess with your head…”

Shining had a point, Twilight had never considered the point that Shimmer was technically just an alternate universe version of Sunset, whom Sunset watched die, thus, in theory, watched herself die. Just thinking about it was already giving Twilight a headache.

“I’m worried about her… I wish things could just go back to the way they were…” Twilight admitted.

“Twilight… when someone close to someone is murdered… sometimes it changes people. Maybe Sunset will go back to her old self, maybe she won’t. It’s the sad reality of murder, the effects are forever. All you can really do is try and support your friend when she’s ready to open up,” Shining explained.

Twilight knew he was right, she knew that she had to give this entire ordeal more time, but she hated waiting. She had waited for months now in the hopes that Sunset would leave her home and come approach her or their friends, but she was remaining stubborn on staying locked up in that big estate and not reaching out to anyone. All that solitude only made Twilight question what was going on in Sunset’s head. She wasn’t entirely sure if being alone was the best thing for her at that moment, but she had no foundation to argue against it.

All she knew was that her best friend was hurting and she wanted to do something to end that pain, but there was nothing in her arsenal to make that happen.

“I wish I could help her…” Twilight admitted.

Shining nodded. “I know you do, Twily. She has to come around on her own though, don’t worry. She will come around, I’m sure. She may not be the same, but she’ll be far better than she is now, that much I’m confident of.”

Twilight nodded and forced a smile on her face. “Thanks, Shiny. I think I needed to hear that right now.”

He shrugged. “Hey, that’s my future sister-in-law right? I gotta look out for her.”

Twilight’s face turned beat red. “W-wha!?”

“It’ll be a cute wedding! I want to help design it! I’ve already got some colors picked out!” Cadance chimed in.

“C-Cadance!” Twilight slammed her palms onto the table in protest with little to no effect.

“Do you think we should invite Sunset over here for dinner again? We should get to know our daughter’s future wife better,” Twilight’s mother asked.

“M-mom, not you too!” Twilight groaned.

The entire table burst into a fit of giggles at Twilight’s expense who just placed her head down in embarrassment. If anyone knew how to push her buttons it was her family.

Spitting into the sink, Shining looked at himself in the mirror as he stood there in an undershirt and his boxers. He had finished brushing his teeth and was satisfied as he stretched and marched his way to the bedroom where Cadance was sitting up with a book in her hand. He briefly caught the cover image to see it was another one of her cheesy romance novels. Cadance seemed to be all about those kinds of books.

For a minute, Shining stood there examining her, her long vibrant hair draping over her as she sat there in a simple pair of pink lingerie with a blanket over her bottom half. He loved everything about her, from the way her hair looked when it was messy to the way she licked her thumb to flick to the next page of a smutty book.

Yawning, Shining climbed into bed next to her and turned toward his alarm clock to set the time to far earlier than he normally did. Normally he’d be up by eight, but he decided he would need to come in at six nowadays.

Catching what he was doing out of the corner of her eye, Cadance raised a brow. “Going to work early tomorrow?”

He nodded and grumbled just thinking about it. Shining wasn’t a terrible morning person, but six AM was close to his limit.

“Yeah… I wanted to get a head start on looking into some notes, examining some leads I got…” He sighed, already not looking forward to the long day ahead of him tomorrow.

Cadance lowered her book and frowned. “Shining, don’t overwork yourself. I know murder is not an easy thing to solve, but working yourself to exhaustion won’t solve it any faster…”

Shining pulled himself up and sat up looking at her. “Hun… I love you, but this whole thing is… well, it’s important to Twilight. Sunset is her best friend and I got lucky enough to be the one working on this case… I just… I can’t let her down, you know?”

Cadance nodded. “I understand, but you have to think about yourself too, you’re only one person. You can’t solve anything if you’re exhausted and worn out. You’ll need to take it easy some days…”

“I know, but I am forewarning you that I may start working longer hours to get this done. This case is… somewhat personal. You understand, right?” Shining frowned, knowing he likely was upsetting his wife. All those nights when he was a patrol cop, he knew she would stay up later than usual; worrying about his safety, fearing that night he didn’t come home.

Cadance let out a long sigh before resting her book on her dark nightstand and turning back to him with a gentle smile. “I understand. You have to catch the bad guys, that’s what you do. Hell, it’s what you’ve always done… I shouldn’t expect any different. Ever since we met you always had a strong sense of justice.”

Shining chuckled as he thought about it. “Remember when you caught me picking a fight with that huge eighth-grader because he stole my friend’s lunch money?”

Giggling, Cadance nodded. “I remember. You were only in fifth grade and he beat the snot out of you. I had to carry you to the nurse’s office and the entire time you kept begging me to let you go back out there and fight. You were such a stubborn weakling, it’s amazing you managed to live long enough for me to get into the picture.”

“Hey! I had heart at least!” Shining crossed his arms in protest.

“Unfortunately, heart didn’t win you that fight.” Cadance teased.

“Sheesh, I thought this marriage thing was you were supposed to support me and stuff…” Shining pouted.

“We weren’t married then.” She raised a finger.

“You should have been a lawyer if you can find loopholes that easily.” Shining smirked.

Cadance giggled and crawled over to him and kissed his cheek before snuggling up and resting her head on his shoulder. Shining responded by wrapping his arm around his wife and pulling her closer.

“Just promise you’ll stay safe on this case, okay?” Cadance asked with pleading eyes.

Pausing, Shining stared at her for a moment. Her innocent eyes always lured him in, and with a few bats of those lashes, he would move mountains for his wife. His hand stroked her cheek as he observed how beautiful she was and how lucky he was to even share a bedroom with such a maiden.

Shining nodded. “You know I will. After all… I have you and our little one to think about…”

Cadance smiled and placed a hand on her lower stomach. “It’s exciting, isn’t it? There’s a whole person forming inside of me…”

Shining smiled and kissed her forehead. “I can’t wait until we can meet them…”

“When do you plan on telling our families about the upcoming addition?” Cadance asked.

Shining sighed. “Soon, but maybe after things wind down a bit. This thing with work has a lot of us all stressed out.”

Cadance nodded and looked down at her stomach. “They’re going to be a lucky child… their dad’s a hero.”

With a laugh, Shining rolled his eyes. “Let’s wait until I catch the bad guy before we start telling them that…”

Smirking, Cadance looked up at him with a look of lust and desire. “Well… I’ve been a very bad girl…”

He grinned and nodded. “Ah yes you have…”

With faux innocent eyes, Cadance made her best guilty sounding voice. “What are you going to do officer?”

“I suppose I could let you off with a warning… on one condition…” Shining smirked.

“Anything, officer…” Cadance pleaded with an insincere tone in her voice.

He chuckled and pushed her down onto her back before climbing on top of her, both of them giggling profusely.

After much digging through Shimmer’s old files, Sunset managed to find a few that mentioned her research and Ghost that Shimmer likely had missed, either due to being in a hurry or forgetting they were there. One of them was merely a word document regarding her notes on what she understood about magic thus far, it didn’t have much in the way of relevant information or information that was new to Sunset, but she went over it regardless.

The second was a physical item, a photograph was taken of the portal to Equestria with various notes scribbled on it, most of which looking like reminders of things to look into regarding the portal, but one note stuck out in particular, at the bottom of the photograph, there was a single word written that left Sunset perplexed and certain that this photo may be some kind of clue. There at the bottom in red ink in merely read “Ghost?”

Could Shimmer be implying that Ghost came through the portal? Or that Ghost’s end goal had something to do with the portal? It was difficult to say, but she knew the possibility of Ghost at least knowing about Equestria was there, that however was good news to Sunset in a way. She surmised that if Ghost knew about Equestria and knew that Magic came from another world, that they would be very careful about who their confidantes were. Knowing that this was untapped power and that it was not from this world meant that anyone he kept as part of his plan he had to keep at an arm’s length. There was little doubt in Sunset’s mind that any minions working for him were kept in the dark.

Given the information from Shining, Sunset was now aware that Ghost at least had allies of some kind. The fact that anyone whispered her own name and Ghost’s showed that there was a connection of some kind.

Sunset had managed to find one last piece of evidence that she had been examining over and over on her computer screen. A rough draft of an email that Shimmer either was going to send or already sent to some contact that she was not familiar with. Unfortunately, Shimmer had not attached the outgoing address on this draft, meaning finding out where it went was impossible. She likely was the kind of person who put the outgoing address on something last.

Leaning back in her chair, Sunset read over the email for perhaps the fifth time.

Hey,

I know these communications are not the easiest thing for either of us, given the circumstances, but I do greatly appreciate your help on all of this. I knew I was right to bank on you, as you’re the fastest learner that I know. If anyone can figure out magic quickly from my notes, it’s you. I promise after this is over though, if you don’t want anything to do with me, that is more than acceptable.

When we’re done, I’ll pay you on the agreed upon amount of eight million dollars and then we can part ways. You can go do whatever it is you plan to do, and I’ll do whatever I plan to do.

Regardless of your methods and your… history, I still have a tremendous amount of faith in you, more than any other person regarding this, anyway.

So I guess that brings us to the obvious discussion that we have yet to really go into: what happens to Ghost after we catch him? I mean we can’t exactly go to the police, what will we tell them? Some mysterious hacker stole tons of information of this energy from another universe? No, I think… maybe we may need to employ other methods to take care of this problem.

If it comes to that, I am counting on you. You’re better at that kind of thing, anyway. I’m useless in a fight…

Sincerely,

S.

Sunset thought it over and realized that the two were likely talking about killing Ghost. Granted at this point, Sunset knew that the necessity to do so now was even greater than it was then, but she could understand Shimmer’s desire to kill Ghost. Given the circumstances, Shimmer was correct, the police would be useless, and Ghost likely was too smart to be caught by them. Prior to Shimmer’s death there was no crime they could report him for that wouldn’t backfire on themselves.

Sunset guessed that this was intentional, and that Ghost knew police involvement would be minimal, which was likely why he was confident enough to kill Shimmer. That meant he likely was banking on Sunset herself getting involved and that Sunset would keep the police out of it as much as she could.

If all of this was true, Ghost was remarkably clever, possibly a genius even. Sunset knew she couldn’t underestimate him.

Her mind turned back to the email and questioned who Shimmer’s mysterious contact was, and how they helped with Ghost. Perhaps if she could find their identity they could ask them for information about the entire ordeal. However, it was clear that Sunset and this person communicated in secret and went to great lengths to hide what little info they did relay to each other.

The teen leaned back in her chair and took a deep breath as she stared at the ceiling in thought. All of this was far more than she expected. She had to keep her mind sharp, her focus unbroken. Every little distraction had to be put aside for Ghost’s game. It was the most dangerous game she had ever played as the wager was her life. One mistake, one wrong move and she knew she could meet the same fate as Shimmer. If that happened, it was likely that Ghost would never be caught, or worse, he would kill all of her friends.

Sunset squinted her eyes and clenched her fists. She couldn’t let that happen, not as long as she was still around. As long as she drew breath, she knew she had to be the one to stop this all before it was too late.

Despite what little she did know, she did know one thing for certain: the aim of this game was to figure out who Ghost was. The moment she did that, she won.

Sunset loves porn. Go figure. Then again who doesn't. This chapter managed to still happen despite my computer attempting to stop it by ceasing function tonight. Woo!

Behind the Scenes: Originally I was going to have Twilight be the porn addict, but I ended up finding it made more sense with Sunset.