Lighting a cigar, a successful crime boss sat in a tattered chair as him and his consorts met in an abandoned warehouse. They chose different locations for every meeting and this one happened to be one of the old locations that he and his boys didn’t frequent anymore. They had abandoned the spot when it got hot and the police started poking their heads around a bit more than he would like. However, after a good three years, they had given up on that lead and left the spot alone, making it the ideal place to meet, after all, who would suspect they would return to a previously investigated area.

Taking a long drag of his fat stick of cancer, her looked around at his team sitting around the makeshift table they had set up. His eyes darted around the room as he noticed they were short a member.

Growling, he removed the cigar from his lips and glared at the others. “Where the fuck is Slip? I can never keep a good eye on that fucking rat, but he was supposed to be here…”

One of the larger men sitting on the right side of the table leaned in to speak, “Sir, no one has seen him since last night…”

“Stupid piece of shit probably got drunk and is sleeping under a bridge somewhere. Someone remind me when this is over to fire that asshole, I’ll give one of you $500 to kill that little puke stain.” Their leader scolded.

One of the men on the left side, a slender looking man with a serious face raised his hand. “Would be happy to sir, hell I’ll do it for free, that asshole has always pissed me off.”

The leader of the group smiled and nodded. “That’s why I like you, Streak; you’re quick to get violent, a valuable asset to this… company…”

“Thank you, sir.” Streak bowed his head, showing respect for their leader.

“Alright, well we’ll start without the little fuck up. How goes our business with East Canterlot, and Shaky, you better be giving me good news, I was very unhappy with your progress last month…” The leader leaned back in his chair letting out a plethora of smoke. “You know what happens when I get unhappy…”

The man named Shaky nodded and swallowed as sweat dripped down his neck, fear spreading through his body as his hairs stood on end. “W-well sir…”

“You nervous, Shaky?” The leader asked with a smirk.

“Well sir, I don’t know how to say this but… all of our pushers on that side have…” He gulped not wanting to finish that sentence.

The leader of the group leaned in and interlocked his fingers as he stared down the nervous criminal. His fierce eyes glowing practically in the poor lighting. “They’ve what, Shaky?”

“Well, they have all just… gone AWOL. They’re not responding to any phone calls, texts, nothing…” He frowned.

Leaning back in his chair and shaking his head the leader of the group sighed as he reached into his expensive jacket. “You disappoint me, Shaky. Clearly, they’ve left because your leadership sucks…”

“Sir, I swear it had nothing to do with me!” The man defended as he came to a stand.

“No more excuses, I’m putting Flint on your position…” The leader spoke.

“Sir, Mr. Black, please reconsider!” Shaky pushed his chair out and took a step back.

“Don’t worry so much, Shaky… You’re just retiring early, that’s all…” Mr. Black smirked before taking a long drag of his cigar. As he exhaled, he retrieved the item he was reaching for in his jacket and wielded it, pointing it in Shaky’s direction.

Shaky froze as he saw the gun in Mr. Black’s hand and instinctually put his hands up. “Was a pleasure working with you, Mr. Shaky.” Mr. Black stated plainly.

“Please, sir-“ Shaky was cut off by a loud crack through the air.

Blood splattered backward as a new opening was made in Shaky’s head, and his body fell backward onto the floor, blood oozing from his open wound. The weapon in Mr. Blacks hand still smoking as he lowered it and sighed. He placed the gun on the table, still in his grip. “I swear, you can’t find reliable help these days…”

“Sir, no disrespect, but what Shaky says is the truth…” Another man stated.

“What do you mean?” Mr. Black raised a brow, his patience already wearing thin again.

“We have lost contact with some of our guys too, they just started… disappearing, not responding to any messages, no amount of threats making them listen. We checked their homes and places we normally knew them to frequent but none are going there, it’s as if they just dropped off the face of the earth…” Mr. Black’s associate explained.

Mr. Black shook his head and put the cigar out in a nearby ash tray. “How do drug dealers just vanish like that? More importantly, how do you guys lose track of so many of them? They have to be going somewhere…”

A familiar voice entered the room from the main doorway causing Mr. Black to look in that direction. “Sir, I think I have an answer to that…”

Looking at the scrawny man standing there, there was no mistaking him, his ginger hair, his stupid freckles, and that dumb look plastered permanently on his face. “Slip, how fucking nice of you to join us, glad you decided you could fucking find the time to pay us a visit…” Mr. Black stated as he waved his gun around.

“I had a reason for not coming on time…” Slip frowned.

“Oh really? Got a fucking dentist appointment? No cavities, I hope?” Mr. Black taunted.

Slip shook his head. “It is about our missing guys, I know where they went…”

“Oh? Enlighten us, this should be good…” Mr. Black chuckled and crossed his arms.

“Well, it would seem they have a business proposal…” Slip grew quiet.

Laughter filled the room from all the men except Slip. “Business proposal!? Oh boy, this should be fucking rich, what’s their proposal?”

“Why not ask them…” Slip said as he stepped aside.

Within seconds the room was flooded with men carrying weapons, mostly automatics, but a few were even wearing Kevlar. Every single one of them pointed their guns at the table before any of them could respond.

“You fucking traitors! What’s the meaning of this!?” Mr. Black hissed.

Another voice entered the room from the doorway, muffled and distorted by some kind of voice modifier. “You haven’t heard our proposal…”

The sound of gentle footsteps echoed in the air as the person of interest stepped out of the hallway and through the door. Their steps were slow and calm, their hands casually at their sides as they came into view. Stepping out of the dark Mr. Black could see tall belted combat boots covering their small feet, and a black spandex body suit covering their entire figure.

As his eyes followed them up he could see just the hint of a feminine waistline and finally breasts on the smaller side accented by the tightness of her suit. A long high collared trench coat that had been left open draped over them and their hands too were covered in black leather gloves.

The most unusual part of their attire, however, was the odd modified gas mask they wore over their head, covering not only their face but the back of their head too, it served as some kind of helmet.

Whoever they were, they didn’t want anyone else to know, but that didn’t stop Mr. Black from asking.

“Who the fuck are you? This is a private meeting and you weren’t invited.”

“You may refer to me as Ghost…” the synthesized voice from the mask replied.

“Oh well then please make yourself fucking at home!” Mr. Black sarcastically remarked.

“I am to assume you are Mr. Black, the leader of this operation?” Ghost asked.

“That’s right, and what the fuck do you want?” He retorted.

Ghost extended her hands and opened them in a welcoming gesture. “I told you, a proposal… for new management…”

Mr. Black laughed and shook his head. “You think this works like the fucking stock exchange where if you just buy enough shares you get the company? Afraid not…”

Ghost shook her head and stepped forward, gently walking past everyone sitting at the table and coming to Mr. Black’s side as she stared him down from behind her mask. “I’m afraid you misunderstand me…” She grabbed his chair and pulled it back quickly, causing Mr. Black to fall to the ground. “This is not a negotiable offer…”

She quickly thrust punched him in the head causing his body to fall backward before she grabbed his open mouth and pulled a gun from her coat out and placed it inside. “You work for me now.” She threatened.

He gagged on her gun but managed to speak with it in his mouth. “You got noffin’ you can’t kill me. My brothers will-“

“Taken care of already, they already work for me.” Ghost reported before throwing him to the ground.

“What!? Impossible!” Mr. Black crawled backward to put more distance between Ghost and himself.

“Your days as leader are over, you’re all about to be a part of something greater than you’ve ever been a part of… Something far beyond your comprehension. You may join me, or die, the choice is yours…” Ghost threatened as she pointed her gun in his direction.

Mr. Black nodded in response. “Alright, alright… I’m in… You’re the boss…”

Ghost nodded and put her gun away before pulling up the chair that Mr. Black was previously sitting in and sat down. She pulled herself up to the table and placed her hands on of the old piece of furniture before speaking to everyone else sitting around it.

“Greetings, gentlemen. Your days pushing drugs and wares are over, now that I’m in charge we will be changing the direction of this…” She paused thinking of the best word, “Organization…”

The next day at school was far more uneventful for Sunset. Rainbow and Applejack had, of course, continued their silent stalking of her, but she decided to pay little to no mind to it and instead to focus on her schoolwork to get through the day. She chose to keep conversations with her friends to a minimum, and this time to further avoid such conversations she had brought her lunch from home and retreated to her sanctuary on the roof to eat.

Finishing her meal, she looked at the overhanging edge of the building down to the back parking lot, spotting her car she had brought sitting there. It was odd to think she now drove a car that cost more than some people’s homes, especially when she had gone from living on a tiny budget to now the lifestyle of a wealthy woman.

Still, she didn’t feel that wealthy, in fact, she seldom bought much of anything beyond the bare necessities such as food. Everything else she could need and more was already readily available in the house. Sunset had never truly cared much about material things, and the little that she did have, she often cherished and took care of. Her guitar was still stored safely in a case in her bedroom, despite having the money now to buy something used by an actual rock star.

The entire change of her way of living bothered in a way; she felt isolated from her friends despite them never making a big deal about the money. She could feel a divide knowing that she would never have to worry about having a future again, something that only a few months ago she sat up at night fearing. Her friends, however, had to work for theirs, they had to go to college or start businesses and take risks to get their lives moving. She even noticed the kids at school were treating her differently, and not just because she had just experienced a recent death in her “family”.

Girls that previously didn’t notice her at all were now all asking to hang out all the time, people who previously rejected her alternative style were suddenly insanely interested in it even though she had gone to more extremes now with it than before.

She wondered if this was how Shimmer felt, unsure if anyone was really genuine. Unlike Shimmer though, Sunset knew her friends were, even if things were a little awkward.

She closed her eyes and sat down, deciding some meditation would clear her head. When her thoughts began to dispel like being washed away into an ocean she found herself in pure silence. In her mind, she stood there at the warm beach, the image so vivid she could almost feel the water at her feet as she stood there in a bikini with no shame, the scar on her back available for all to see, but she didn’t care.

She sat down in the sand and laid back as she smiled at the place her mind had created. There in the nice Summer sun, in her red bikini, all was right with the world. Looking to her right there next to her was her sister, Shimmer in an equally attractive black bikini and stylish Oakley sunglasses on her face. She sat up gently and turned to Sunset with a big smile.

“I see you’re enjoying yourself, sis…” Shimmer said.

Sunset nodded, sitting up with her sister. “We never got to go to the beach together…”

Shimmer giggled and nodded. “You were always afraid of people seeing your scar.”

Frowning, Sunset looked away. “Yeah… I know…”

Shrugging, Shimmer looked back toward the water, her eyes hidden behind the glasses. “We would have turned heads at the beach, you know?”

Sunset chuckled and rolled her eyes. “You kept saying that…”

“It’s true! Guys would have been undressing us with their eyes, hoping to score with some hot twins… Would have been fun…” Shimmer giggled.

Frowning, Sunset realized what she was doing to herself by envisioning all of this. “Yeah… but we didn’t… and now we can’t…”

Shimmer nodded silently.

“I wasted our time together… I didn’t think I’d be saying goodbye so soon… so I didn’t think too much about any of this until now when I can’t do anything about it…” Sunset sighed.

Shimmer’s voice grew serious as she responded. “You can’t change the past… You can, however, find peace and justice.”

Tilting her head, Sunset leaned in to listen better. “How do you figure?”

Shimmer turned to Sunset and removed her glasses slowly; beneath them were eyes black as charcoal with piercing glowing green irises, a black mist emanating from her eyes. As Sunset looked to the rest of her, she noticed bullet holes appeared in the same spots she remembered the day of Shimmer’s murder.

Her voice grew dark and cold as she spoke to Sunset, “you can find who did this… You can make them pay for what they’ve done…”

“I don’t know how…” Sunset frowned.

“You will soon enough…” Shimmer spoke before Sunset blinked and was back in the waking world with a hand on her shoulder. Turning quickly in the direction of the hand and looking up she saw the friendly face of Twilight looking down at her on the ground.

“T-Twilight… hey…” Sunset blushed.

Twilight smiled and sat down next to her. “I knew I’d find you up here…”

“Sorry… about yesterday… pulling a gun on you and all?”

Twilight gave a dismissing hand gesture. “You’re in shock from being back after so long, I understand.”

Sunset rubbed the back of her neck and shrugged. “Nerves got the better of me… I’ve been on edge for a while, I shouldn’t have taken it out on you…”

Twilight shook her head and continued her smile. “It’s no trouble, I was wondering if you wanted to get together with us at the ice cream parlor after school? It’s been a long time since we’ve had you there and it’d be like old times, you know?”

Sunset paused, unsure for a moment but then decided that anything was better than being left with her thoughts. “Yeah… sure. Want me to pick you up after class? I can drive us there.”

Twilight nodded and offered her pinkie. “Promise?”

Sighing, Sunset nodded back and took Twilight’s pinkie in her own. “Alright, it’s a promise. I’ll see you after class, alright?”

Shining sat at his desk with a tired expression as he sipped from a mug of reheated coffee. He had pulled an all night shift organizing his findings and work on Shimmer’s murder, and of course, spent the remainder of his time trying to connect some dots.

His former partner when he was a mere patrol cop entered the room and smiled at him as he removed his hat. Shining blinked and stood up approaching the man with a grin on his face.

“So, Shining Armor, homicide detective, has a nice ring to it,” the man stated as he offered his hand.

Shining chuckled and grabbed his hand in his own and gave it a firm squeeze as he pulled the man in for a quick hug before releasing him. “Steel, damn good to see you again, what brings you into this neck of the woods?”

Steel smirked and placed his hat back atop of his head. “I wanted to see how a hero of Canterlot lives, by the look of it… on not so much sleep…”

Shining looked himself over and realized his hair was a mess, his face had grown scruffy and his tie was poorly fastened. He hadn’t realized how obvious his lack of sleep truly was to the casual observer but shrugged as he took another swig of the vile old coffee, wincing slightly at the flavor, thinking he may have heated it again for too long, causing it to burn slightly.

“Eh, been working on the Shimmer case…” Shining admitted.

Steel tilted his head, a bit surprised. “Really, find anything out?”

Shining sighed and retreated to his desk before sitting down and setting his mug down. “Surprisingly, nothing. Amazing really, someone who is in the top ten richest people in this city is murdered in broad daylight, has virtually no one who liked her, and yet not a single suspect or anyone who saw anything useful. I’ve retraced that area at least eight times now…” Shining sighed as he placed his head in his hands. “I feel like this case is going cold way too quickly for my liking…”

His former partner shrugged as he pulled up a chair across from Shining and sat in it backward. “What about her sister? I mean she stood the most to gain from Shimmer’s death, right?”

Shining shook his head. “We looked into it, there is nothing suggesting Sunset is responsible for Shimmer’s death… She had no motive, she didn’t even know about Shimmer’s will until she went to the hearing. So while she did benefit the most money wise, she had no idea that would be the outcome. Not to mention she seems to still be grieving if she was acting it’s an act she’s been putting on for a long time…”

“So you actually did look into the sister then?” Steel laughed.

Shining glared at him. “Standard procedure, but I was pretty certain she had no involvement if anything she may be a potential second victim… All I know about the perp is that they definitely seemed like a trained killer… So it’s hard to say what they are planning now…”

“I’m sure something will come up that busts the case wide open… I know you, you’re Shining Armor, you don’t let anything stop you…” Steel snickered.

Shining sat up and puffed his chest out with pride as a wide smug grin appeared on his face. “That’s partially why Cadance is with me… This old dork managed to get the head cheerleader by sheer persistence.”

“Or maybe out of pity…” Steel joked.

Shining shrugged. “I’ll take what I can get, once she said ‘I do’ she was stuck with me, anyway.”

“You will never change.” Steel shook his head.

Shining and he both let out a jovial series of laughs as they recalled this type of conversation happening a lot together when they both ran patrol. It felt like only yesterday, but it had already been a few months since he had been switched to homicide. He remembered how much he bragged about the waves he was going to make in the department, but now was struggling to solve even his first case. It didn’t help that he chose to take on a case where he himself would have to purposely keep details secret even from his colleagues.

His former partner sensed the negative feeling in the air and reached forward placing a hand on Shining’s shoulder. “Hey… You’ll get ‘em, that’s what you do. You’re Shining, you always get the bad guys.”

“You sound like my wife now…” Shining rolled his eyes.

“Oh good, then you’re the same at home as you are at work,” Steel joked.

Shining smirked but his frown soon returned as he was finding it difficult to regain confidence in these trying times. It was difficult to admit he had nothing, but he wasn’t quite ready to give up.

“I’m just hoping something comes up soon that changes this investigation quickly…” Shining admitted.

“Who knows, maybe it’ll walk through that door and right into your office,” Steel replied with a shrug before looking into the black tar that Shining had been drinking. “Could probably do with some fresher coffee, by the way…”

About to respond at that moment another detective entering Shining’s open door and tapped on the doorframe to get Shining’s attention. Shining looked up at the man in his late forties with a raised brow in question. “Yes?”

“Shining, we got a guy in custody… He was tailing your girl, I figured you may want to have a chat with him, you know? Mentioned something about some ghost or something?” The older detective asked.

Shining smiled and stood up and looked down at Steel. “Well, looks like luck is on my side after all… Thanks for the pep-talk, Steel… I owe you lunch sometime…” Shining stated as he ran around his desk and patted Steel on the shoulder while he made his way to the door before his former partner could respond.

Stepping up to the older officer, and walking with him down the hall to the interrogation room, Shining had a grin the entire way. Despite being so tired, it felt rewarding to say he actually had a potential lead on the case.

Looking through the window he saw the man in question sitting there with an empty look on his face as he stared forward with his hands in his lap. He didn’t look like much, but just getting a look at the disheveled man, Shining could tell he had a drug problem and likely only worked in the criminal industry to feed said addiction, in other words, he was a squealer.

Shining smirked and patted the fellow officer on the shoulder. “Thanks, I’ll take it from here. This guy will be talking in no time.”

The other officer chuckled and gestured toward the door, impressed by Shining’s gusto. “Well have at it then, detective.”

Confidence coming back to him, Shining nodded snagged the file on the guy as he pushed his way into the room and casually sat across from the man as he eyed his file to learn all he could in the next few seconds. He had only scanned the file for a good eight seconds before he closed it and set it on the table and looked up at the man across from him.

“So, Mr. Flood, says you used to work in dam construction before this? How’d you end up out here in Canterlot then? There are no dams out here…” Shining asked as he leaned back and crossed his arms.

The man sat in silence staring forward.

“Hey, you can plead the fifth, but I can make your life very difficult from here on out if you don’t cooperate. See, let me tell you what you’ve walked into…” Shining smirked before leaning in over the table making his tone more serious, “the girl you were tailing we suspect is a target for a murderer, a murderer we believe to be one in the same as the person you mentioned… this… Ghost person…” Shining smirked, hoping the revelation would spark some kind of reaction out of him.

Sadly, nothing appeared to happen and the man sat quietly.

Sighing, Shining shook his head. “You probably think you’re really smart. Probably have the law memorized thinking you know all the loopholes, that I can only hold you seventy-two hours and then I have to let you go if I can’t find anything, right?”

A smirk came to Shining’s face as he leaned back. “Well, if I file the paperwork correctly we can hold you for each individual crime… trespassing, stalking, and of course, obstructing an ongoing investigation. Not all of them will stick, but we can hold you for considerably longer and get court orders to keep tabs on you which will make conducting your… business very difficult. How’s that sound? Still not interested in talking?”

Unexpectedly, the man remained silent causing Shining to squint and lean forward. He raised a hand in front of the man and waved it, noting his eyes didn’t even follow. “Hey… Can you hear me?”

The man’s silence was unwavering as he sat there.

Shining snapped his fingers and noted that there was no change.

He looked to the glass window where he knew the other officer was standing and spoke to the glass that could only be seen through one way. “Are you seeing this guy?”

Sighing, Shining shook his head and stood up and exited the room, shutting the door behind him. He looked at the other officer and shrugged. “Put him in a cell, maybe holding him for a while will make him talk…”

“You think maybe he’s having some kind of withdrawal?” The other officer asked.

“Nah… This is… something different, I’ve never seen it before…” Shining admitted.

“Could just be a loon?” The officer suggested.

Shining shrugged. “Maybe… Maybe…”

Shining started walking away with his head now racing with thoughts, the most prominent is what kind of case he had actually walked into.

Standing there outside of the school in the back parking lot, Twilight held her bag in her arms as she waited for Sunset, noting the cold weather. Checking her watch it was 3:08 PM, but her eyes were drawn up to the sound of a powerful engine revving as an expensive Mercedes pulled up in front of her and the tinted windows rolled down showing Sunset in a pair of stylish shades.

“Hop in,” Sunset gestured.

Twilight paused for a moment but nodded as she stepped forward and opened the back door, setting her bag inside before approaching the front and sitting down in the passenger seat. The fine leather squished under her and she could already feel the heated seats begin to warm her.

Sunset smiled at her from behind her sunglasses as she turned her attention back to the road. Twilight could hear the sound of what appeared to be some kind of heavy metal music coming out of her stereo system, which likely had been turned down heavily when Twilight entered the vehicle.

“You uh… listen to heavy metal?” Twilight asked, trying to make conversation as Sunset pulled out of the parking lot, waving at Celestia who caught a glimpse of her.

“Totally, rock, metal, I even like rap too, no shame.” Sunset shrugged as she turned the wheel.

“It’s weird because in the band you guys mostly play like… pop and rock stuff…” Twilight shrugged.

“I still like those genres too; I just have a relatively wide taste. I’ve grown to love music here in the human world, so I listen to a lot of it. I didn’t have a computer or video games or anything for a long time here so this was all I had for a while,” Sunset replied.

It had dawned on Twilight yet again that Sunset was indirectly reminding her that she wasn’t human. Twilight didn’t even know how she could live without the internet or computers, but to hear that for a while there, all Sunset had was music was a bit sad to hear, but the sadness disappeared as she remembered that now Sunset had all she could ever want, proven by the fact that they were sitting in a car that was likely more expensive than anything she’d ever own.

The odd part though was that Sunset didn’t seem to care too much about having all this wealth. She utilized it, but Sunset didn’t appear too keen on trying to show off, she just used what she had or what was practical. Twilight noted the fact that she was still sporting an older iPhone that she likely found at the estate rather than go out and buy the latest one.

Twilight’s eyes were drawn to the geode choker that Sunset wore around her neck, it had been modified slightly to be a bit more gothic, but it still suited her so well.

Sunset was gently humming and tapping the wheel to the music when she finally spoke up. “Sorry I’ve been so distant…”

Twilight blinked and looked her way with a shrug. “It happens… if what happened to you happened to me… I have no idea how I’d behave…”

“You behaving oddly though is far from abnormal,” Sunset teased.

Twilight rolled her eyes and leaned back in her seat, allowing herself to relax. Sunset engaging in their old banter was a good sign to her, a sign that she hadn’t gone off the deep end like she, Rainbow and Applejack had feared.

Part of her wanted to ask more about the gun situation from the other day, but she decided not to soil the pleasant conversation with such a nasty topic.

“I’m glad you came back to school… I missed you…” Twilight admitted.

Sunset shrugged. “Were you guys expecting me not to come back?”

Twilight wiggled in her seat awkwardly as she looked down. “Well… yeah… sort of anyway…”

Smirking, Sunset reached over and nudged Twilight’s shoulder. “Come on, Sparkle… You can’t get rid of me that easily. If I’m gone, who’s gonna rip on you?”

Rolling her eyes, Twilight crossed her arms. “Gee, I have no idea how I’d live without that.”

“You love me and you know it, that’s why you’re my best friend,” Sunset giggled.

Twilight heard those words and opened her mouth, wanting to tell her there was more truth to that statement than she knew, but she closed it promptly and realized she was unsure of herself. She was so bold and ready to tell her friend how she felt months ago, but now she wasn’t so sure. Actually being next to her and all she had gone through, Twilight couldn’t think of a way to say it, hell she wasn’t sure if she wanted to say it. Everything Sunset had been through, she didn’t want to add more stress to that.

It was true she worried about what it would do to their tight friendship, but at the same time, she also worried about the fact that Sunset had too much going on in her life for romance at the moment, maybe ever.

Fortunately for Twilight though, she wouldn’t have too long to ponder these ideas as the two would eventually arrive at their destination. Sunset pulled the car into a parking space and turned the music off. She looked over at Twilight with a big grin.

“We’re here, Ms. Sparkle,” Sunset stated as she removed her sunglasses and placed them into a compartment in the vehicle.

“So we are…” Twilight nodded.

Stepping out of the vehicle, Sunset pressed a button on her keychain and the car beeped and Twilight could hear the doors lock as she offered her hand to Twilight. “Shall I guide a lady to the establishment?” Sunset spoke in a faux posh voice.

Rolling her eyes, Twilight took Sunset’s hand and allowed Sunset to lead her into the building where their friends awaited. As soon as the doors opened and Sunset managed to get the two inside, however, she let go of Twilight’s hand which left a small feeling of sadness and longing in Twilight, wanting to hold her friend’s hand for a little longer. Accepting it was not meant to be, however, she sighed and made her way toward the familiar group she could see sitting in the booth.

Rainbow and Fluttershy appeared to be openly chatting, and much to no one’s surprise, Rarity was seated atop of Applejack’s lap, with her arms around the strong woman’s neck as the two conversed. It was odd at first seeing the two of them together like that, but as time had passed, Twilight got used to it. She imagined that it was awkward for Sunset though whom had just been exposed to it yesterday.

The group peaked over in the two entering girl’s direction and various smiles and waves came from them as Twilight and Sunset took a seat made by Pinkie who scooted over to make room for the two girls.

Sunset adjusted herself in her seat and smiled at the group. “How’s it going, everyone?”

Rarity smiled at Sunset. “It’s nice to see you again, and in such… style. Well, alternative isn’t inherently my thing but you do look fabulous!”

Sunset chuckled and nodded, guessing by Rarity’s demeanor that Applejack, Twilight, and Rainbow had not told anyone else about the incident that happened at school yesterday. She guessed Twilight’s handiwork likely convinced them to keep it under wraps for now.

“I can finally afford a nice wardrobe, but I guess it helps a little that most of Shimmer’s old clothes are close to my size, so with a little modifying most of them fit me pretty easily.” Sunset shrugged.

“Shimmer did have impeccable taste!” Rarity nodded in agreement before covering her mouth realizing what she had said. “Oh… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-“

“It’s fine,” Sunset dismissed.

“Really I didn’t-“

“It’s fine, Rarity. Look let’s try not to let this get more awkward than it needs to… Shimmer is dead, yes it’s hard for me, but I’d prefer everyone not tip toe around me and act like you have to hold your tongue…” Sunset sighed.

Applejack frowned and tilted her hat. “We didn’t want to bring up anything hard for y’all…”

Sunset shrugged yet again. “At this point, I was figuring you all would be more interested in talking about how I’ve been a super shitty friend who shut you all out and has been impossible to get a hold of for months…”

Pinkie shook her head and her usual goofy grin seemed to shine through even during these most awkward of conversations. “Nope-a-roni!”

“We all grieve in different ways…” Fluttershy decided to chime in and add her two cents.

“That may be true, but I need to stop trying to be so tough sometimes, I guess… I keep acting like I can handle everything myself because I’m afraid of other people getting hurt because I wasn’t strong enough to protect them… I guess Shimmer’s death did that to me…” Sunset looked down at the table and her hands which she found herself clenching into fists.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Rainbow pointed out.

Closing her eyes, Sunset continued to speak. “I promised her… That I’d protect her… I promised I wouldn’t let anything happen to her… Only hours before it happened… I promised that and I failed…”

“Sometimes y’all can’t keep a promise…” Applejack reminded.

Rarity smirked and nodded in agreement. “Trust me, darling. Applejack here knows all about that.”

Applejack merely rolled her eyes and refocused her attention on Sunset who had grown silent as she stared at the table top. Shaking her head she finally looked back up with a smile on her face. “Look, let’s talk about something else, alright? I don’t want our first time together again to be so… pessimistic.”

Rainbow nodded and put a hand on the table. “Yeah like let’s talk about how Applejack and Rarity won’t give the details on the goods!”

Rarity’s face turned red both with anger and embarrassment. “Rainbow!”

“Yeah tell us the details! Did you guys do the hanky panky yet!?” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Not you too, Pinkie!” Rarity sighed and shook her head.

“We’re dying to know!” Rainbow smirked as she leaned in with interest.

“A lady doesn’t kiss and tell!” Rarity protested.

Shrugging, Rainbow moved her gaze over to Applejack. “Alright, we’ll ask Applejack then!”

“Rainbow Dash!” Rarity screamed.

Sunset had arrived at home with a content sigh as she allowed the newly made memories of her time at the ice cream parlor with her friends to roam around in her head, forgetting all the negative and difficult things from before the event even for just a few hours. After the initial awkwardness, it seemed as though things were almost how they were before.

She longed to return to those times, the times where she was just happy all the time and didn’t have so much to worry about, frowning as she knew those times would not return until Ghost was stopped, even then she wasn’t certain if she was even capable of returning to how she was before. A part of her wondered if she would ever be the same after Shimmer’s death, or if she would continue to be the horrendously emotionally damaged girl she was now. It only took a second for her to remind herself that she was emotionally damaged before Shimmer’s death as well.

It was difficult to admit, especially out loud, but the fact was the Sunset knew she was far from emotionally sound. Her friends made it easy to smile and act like she was okay but that was merely because she was forgetting about the past, trying to push it away, pretend it wasn’t there. She had learned from her mistakes, but she pushed out the parts that weren’t her mistakes, but rather mistakes that others made which had negative effects on her. She couldn’t remember the names of half the foals back in Equestria that used to pick on her, or half of the names she used to vividly remember them calling her. She couldn’t even remember what a single one of them looked like, perhaps for the better though.

Her thought train was broken as her phone vibrated. Without even thinking or looking at it she answered it. “Hello?”

“Sunset?” A male voice came through the phone.

“Flash? Is that you?” Sunset asked.

“Heh, yeah… I didn’t think you’d answer…” He replied.

Walking toward the stairwell, Sunset smirked as she spoke to him through the phone. “I guess I’m almost over the whole lock myself away from the world thing…”

“Yeah… I heard about Shimmer… I’m sorry…” His voice suggested he clearly wasn’t even sure how to address that subject as there was a hint of nervousness about him, clearly worried he would upset her.

“So am I, but I’m assuming that’s not what you wanted to talk about? You haven’t tried to call me in months…” Sunset stated as she reached the top of the stairs.

“Heh, yeah well… I can never really think of a good time to try or what to say…” Flash admitted.

“When we were together you mostly did all the talking, so I find that hard to believe,” Sunset retorted.

A chuckle escaped Flash.

“You were like a lost puppy back then… You didn’t know much of anything… now I know partially why… I mean, I don’t know too much, but I know you came from another world and all that…” Flash rambled.

“Flash, not that I’m not flattered that you remember all of this, what is your point?” Sunset decided it was better to cut directly to the chase and stop beating around the bush.

The line grew silent for a few moments before Flash replied. “Sunset… Are you… in trouble by chance?”

Sunset blinked and thought it over. She knew the possibility that Ghost was targeting her next existed, but she never truly considered the danger. On one hand, she considered that Ghost clearly wasn’t above hiring trained killers to take her out, on the other, she knew that she had magic on her side which gave her a huge advantage.

The amount of danger Ghost posed was not certain, but it was clear that her life was at moderate risk.

“I… Well…” Sunset struggled to answer.

“Sunset… I just want to tell you that if you are in trouble like your life is in danger or something… Please don’t do anything risky… I know how you are from when we went out and I can’t imagine that part of you has changed… You like to let yourself be consumed by things, sometimes to where you don’t like letting other people inside…” Flash said.

Sunset knew he was right, but ironically decided she didn’t want to have such a deep conversation with him.

“Flash, I promise I’ll be okay.”

“You’re sure?” Flash asked.

Before Sunset could answer she stepped forward and her foot caught a spot on the carpet that was pulled up slightly, causing her to tumble. With a yelp, she reached to grab anything to catch herself. What she happened to grab was a light on the wall and while it held her up, it turned as she pulled it down with her body weight, causing a door to open.

Blinking Sunset looked at the wall, realizing it was designed to hide this door. As she looked next to the door, she noted a painting of Shimmer’s mother then allowed her eyes to focus back on the light before her eyes widened and it all clicked in her head.

“Flash, I have to call you back sometime, sorry…” Sunset said before hanging up, not even giving him a proper chance to respond.

Her mouth opened in awe as she realized it was the answer to Shimmer’s riddle.

Hey, you're probably wondering why this chapter is so many hours later than normal? That's because Windows 10 was created by the devil and should not be sold for a profit as it's an unfinished terrible pile. Literally randomly decided to lock me out of my computer for no reason and despite numerous troubleshooting attempts I am actually STILL locked out of it. Basically I am currently having to type this and edit and publish this week's chapter via my wife's computer. I really want to replace my computer, but I am still a few months off of getting the machine I want, so this definitely will create a challenge for me. Sorry for the delay, I hate Windows, I hate Microsoft and I intend on switching to Macs by the end of this year as I've put up with this nonsense from them for long enough.

Enough about that though, sorry about the rant, super frustrated as you can tell.

Behind the scenes: Ghost's design was sort of a combination of Zero from the Nonary Games, Joker from Persona 5 and real life gas masks. You can kind of see it in her illustration.

And yes, Ghost is a woman, surprise.