Shining Armor wouldn’t normally have considered himself a coward—he had several commendations in his file at work and at least one reprimand that claimed the exact opposite—but he felt like one in that moment, sitting with his car parked in his parents driveway, trying to work up the courage to confront a teenage girl less than half his size. This was the last stop on an investigation that had been ongoing for weeks now, one that had revealed more than he anticipated and less than he’d hoped, a tangled mess of non-answers, vague hints, and unsettling implications that made him feel sick to his stomach just as much as he felt grateful.

His eyes traveled upward until he was watching the second story window that was his sister’s, able to see the light on and the faint shadow moving within. From what he could tell, it was a safe bet she was on the phone, a fact that brought a wry smile to his face. It gave him a reason to delay going inside, something other than admitting to himself that he was scared of confronting five feet three inches of skinny teenage girl—albeit one who’d developed one hell of a right hook lately if one accidentally snuck up on her in the hallway. No. Clearly his delay was courtesy and respect, since he didn’t want to interrupt what was almost certainly a Very Important Phone Call to a particular motorcycle riding redhead. Intruding on such a thing was something he wanted to avoid at all costs, since he could remember the early days of his own relationship and the need to connect as much as possible with the person that meant so much was a driving need that sometimes overrode rationality and good sense.

Shining chuckled to himself—Sunset and his sister were adorable, moreso because of the attempt at maintaining the ‘just best friends’ facade. It was plain to him—and everyone who spent more than five minutes within a ten yard radius of them—that the two girls were so much more than just friends. Sunset may have been good at keeping most of her secrets, but her feelings for Twilight Sparkle were not one of those secrets. He’d seen her plenty of times, in unguarded moments, eyes following Twilight like she was the only thing in the world that mattered, more precious than any gem, more important than even breathing, always ready to jump in and do whatever she could to make Twilight happy, no matter how big or small, half the time without giving anyone else a chance to offer anything. And Twilight? She was more comfortable at Sunset’s side than she was in her own skin, which spoke volumes on its own, and she’d already proven to be deeply invested in Sunset’s interests and wellbeing to a degree she had never shown for another living soul, not even him. The way she’d instructed them firmly what to buy for the room—right down to colors and styles of blankets—had come not from a list, but from Twilight’s memory, and there had been no hesitation in the delivery. She didn’t even have to stop and consider the questions their parents had asked.

That was half the reason for his trepidation, if he were to be completely honest to himself. Twilight very rarely pushed back against others, but the one way to make her dig in her heels and become defiant was if she saw something as a threat to those she was closest…like that day in their front yard a few years ago, when she’d whacked a bigger boy in their neighborhood with a piece of her disassembled bike, all because he threw a rock at Spike while she was working in the driveway on replacing the chain. That had been a fiasco that came down to the word of a boy with a broken arm versus a little girl and her injured puppy who had needed four stitches at the vet. His sister didn’t even remember the incident, but he remembered it clearly: the way she’d curled protectively around Spike until she could get him to her room after the vet visit, and how she’d spent the next several days in her room, only leaving for food and bathroom breaks for her and Spike, ready to fight anyone who tried to bring further hurt down on the injured dog.

Shining had no desire to be on the receiving end of Twilight’s rare moments of anger, but he had to talk to her, he knew that. There were only a handful of people with the answers to his questions, and out of all of them, she was the one most likely to give him a real answer, but Shining was afraid of how she would react to those questions, especially if she perceived his inquiry as a threat to Sunset’s position as a member of their household, their family—even if it was really anything but. Rubbing a hand down his face, he groaned, torn between getting out of the car or just putting the whole thing off to a better day. This whole thing had started out so seemingly innocent too, with a discussion between him, Cadence, and his parents…

“Twily told you what?” Shining looked between his fiancee and his parents in disbelief.

His mother had her hands wrapped around a coffee mug, her brow pinched and tight with worry lines. “Your sister said,” she elaborated, “that Sunset had confided some things to her that she felt we should know. Among them that Sunset is living on her own, supposedly legally emancipated from whoever her guardian was after her parents died.” Twilight Velvet glanced out the kitchen window to where she could see the girls in question in the backyard, sitting amidst some piece of disassembled equipment by the door of the former-garage-now-Twilight-Sparkle’s-lab. “She also mentioned that Sunset intimated her finances come from an inheritance of some kind…and that she wonders if there’s some kind of gag order that keeps Sunset from going into any details on her previous guardian and what went on with them before she was emancipated.”

The young man followed his mother’s gaze, studying the laughing girl with grease smudged on her cheek that was giving his sister a playful shove as she reached into a toolbox. “You want me to abuse my badge—and my new promotion—to make use of police resources to dig into the record of a teenage girl and to see if I can learn anything from social services, in order to verify and elaborate on the vague story said girl told Twilight in private confidence.” It wasn’t a question.

His parents winced, and Cadence chewed on her lip, stepping to hug him. “Shiny…”

A smirk played across his lips. “I never said I wouldn’t,” he told her. “I just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page. She’s important to Twily, and I know I’ve worried about what her home life is like—that’s a kid who has been exposed to things no kid should, somewhere, somehow, and I want to get to the bottom of it. I’m in…and if something shady is going on, we’ll make sure Sunset is safe…though I’ll only be able to check public records and databases, since this is technically off the books and not a sanctioned investigation.” Another glance outside, where the two teens were elbow deep in the guts of some machine, connecting wires and servos like they’d been working together on engineering projects for years. “I…I’m also not comfortable doing this completely behind their backs—if I do this, we need to come clean to Sunset and Twilight, no matter what I find. Kids like Sunset don’t trust easy, and I don’t want to break the trust she’s got in us.”

He took a sip of the soda he’d bought earlier that day, mulling over the wild goose chase that had followed. Looking up information on Sunset had proven…difficult at its best, and a frustrating mess of red tape and sealed records that he had no clearance or justification in getting opened, though not from lack of trying. Even his new partner had come up empty once she’d found out what he was doing, and the older detective was a very formidable woman with a lot of surprising connections.

Ice blue eyes stared at the words blinking on the screen, denying him the information that would have completed the puzzle for him: Access Denied, Reason: Record Sealed.

“Damn it all,” he growled, sitting back in the ancient, extremely uncomfortable desk chair and rubbing at tired eyes with one hand. This was the part of Sunset’s files that would give him knowledge about her current state of affairs, and it was the one part hidden behind a gate he lacked both the skill and the desire to breach. He had been serious in the conversation with his parents—checking Sunset’s living situation to make sure it was safe, or ensuring she wasn’t involved with anything illegal or dangerous was one thing. That was justifiable, and even well within the purview of parental concern given how much time Twilight spent with her out of the house. However, digging into anything that required a warrant or court order signed by a judge was crossing a line that didn’t need to be crossed, and he wouldn’t risk his job, or his own integrity to do so. It seemed like he’d gone as far with this as he’d be able to.

A blonde head poked into the office, and his tanned skinned partner stepped in, surprised. “You’re still here, Armor? I thought you went home to your fiance already—didn’t you turn in your reports several hours ago?” The older woman raised one eyebrow at him.

He sighed. “I did, Dev, but Cady is having a girl’s night with her best friend—something I don’t want to interrupt—and I had something I wanted to look into anyway. It’s…proving to be a headache.”

Devil’s Advocate leaned forward to read his screen. “That’s a sealed court record. Sunset Shimmer? Is this for another case, or a private investigation?”

“Private investigation. Sunset’s this girl my sister is extremely close with. Good kid, but…some of the things about her don’t exactly add up, and she’s given my sister this story about being an emancipated minor, but either she hasn’t given Twily the details or Twily wont share them with us. My parents and I are worried that Sunset might be in trouble, is all.” He glowered at the screen. “But I can’t find out what I really need to know! I can find out the really basic information. Birth certificate, parents names, parents’ death certificates—car crash when she was eight—but her guardian after that? Sealed adoption file. Her emancipation? Here and recorded, but other than dates and a case number, the whole thing is sealed. Juvie record? Clean as a whistle. No arrests, no jail time…the only mark on her record was a speeding ticket earlier this year, which she paid on time. A search on our records does come up with her name being mentioned in a handful or incident reports, but as either a witness or a good samaritan.”

The other detective snagged a chair and nudged him out of the way, sifting through the information he’d located with a practiced eye. “…Huh. This screams money, Armor. Somebody with the cash to burn made sure these records were sealed. High profile figure, celebrity, or old money, if I had to guess. Couldn’t have been a movie star or face from Hollywood, or the paparazzi would have been all over it—being the kid of someone famous is no picnic.” She snorted, disdain and perhaps a little personal experience from her years in LA showing through. “And I’ve seen it before—old money has a habit of using a little bit of cash and influence in the right circles to make ‘problems’ disappear.” Dev turned his way briefly, expression thoughtful. “Any chance the poor kid is gay or got herself pregnant at some point? Average parents might just shove them out or ship them off to relatives, but the silver spoon lot tend to hand them a wad of cash and make them disappear legally before their behavior ‘taints the family name.’”

Shining grimaced, reminded of the loud, harsh words of Great Aunt Alabaster and Great Aunt Aurora over the years, the snide, thinly concealed distaste they held for Cadence and her advocacy, and the way they terrified his sister if they so much as glanced her way. “More than a chance—she’s absolutely head over heels for my little sister…but she also isn’t very…outspoken…about her preferences, and according to Cadence, her feelings in the present seem to be a first for her, so it's hard to say if that had anything to do with it.”

His partner nodded, turning back to the screen. “Sometimes the parents can tell and they’ll punish a kid for something the kid isn’t even aware of. It's not right, but when someone has the money to pay cash for a brand new private jet every year, you can often get away with making your own rules." A few clicks of the mouse. “She’s awfully far from where she was adopted out though. The records here have her born and adopted on the other side of the country…”

She frowned thoughtfully. “What if…” Another window was opened, and her fingers flew over the keys. “Here! Passport, issued at age nine. No one gets a nine year old a passport unless they are taking them out of the country right then. Probably a wealthy foreigner from Europe. Girl shows up across the country as a high schooler, has enough of a case to get legally emancipated, but the former guardian pays to cover it up…I can see why you think this reeks.” Her features set into a stubborn frown, her infamous bulldog-like persistence making an appearance. “Let’s see what else we can dig up…If it stinks too bad, I’ve got a friend in LA with plenty of connections and a soft spot for kids who got kicked out of home because they stood up to a parent…He might be able to find out things we can’t.”

The mystery of it had caught the older detective’s interest, and she’d been all too happy to dive into the little side project with him—even going so far as to justify it as a good learning experience for any future cases that had someone trying to cover it up. They’d spent over a week, staying hours after their shift, finding what scraps of information they could dig up, but in the end, all he’d been left with was a lot more suspicion than facts. The whole thing had left Devil’s Advocate rather surly and disappointed, since she’d been hoping for at least a name to match to the former guardian so she could reach out to her contacts to look up more on them…with the implications of a potentially unpleasant chat in store for said lackluster guardian. Shining Armor had shuddered at the look on the woman’s face, and quietly resolved to never get on her bad side.

Still, without probable cause, Shining had been unable to dig any deeper into that avenue, and with no warrant or actual case, he couldn’t start digging into any financial records either, so finding out about how a teenage girl paid rent, utilities, and food without apparent employment was limited to asking her. It did relieve some of his worries when his brief check with Vice showed no record of her in their department, which meant she was not selling herself on street corners to make ends meet, and since he’d seen her streaming channel, he knew that she made a name for herself there by raging at video games and not by baring skin in underage cam-shows.

Then he’d turned to her schooling, which had only gone slightly better. What he could get out of her records was nothing he hadn’t already been told by his family or Sunset herself. She went to Canterlot High and had for the last several years. Her grades were top of her class, she very rarely missed days, and while she’d had some minor disciplinary occurrences, most were just that…barring the glaring two week suspension she had admitted to receiving in October for what Sunset acknowledged freely was ‘her own fault and completely deserved.’ His subsequent attempt to talk to Luna and learn more had almost turned into a fight between him and his long time friend.

Luna slid into the chair opposite him at the cafe, carrying a steaming cup of coffee and a slice of pie on a paper plate. “Alright, lunkhead—what’s this about?” she asked without preamble, fixing him with a long, hard stare. “You never invite me out to meet alone like this unless you need my help with something. Any other time, you just wait until I come over to see Cadence to bring something up, or you hit me up over Steam.”

He rubbed his neck sheepishly. “I didn’t think I was that easy to read.”

The woman rolled her eyes. “I’ve known you for a decade, Shining Armor. I spent four years LARPing with you two weekends a month. I’m your fiancee’s best friend, and you practically lived in our dorm room at college. And that’s not even getting onto the subject of the Brownie Incident.”

“Alright! I get it, no need to talk about the Brownie Incident.” His cheeks were hot and he took a long swallow of his own coffee to help block out those horrifying and embarrassing memories. “You’re right. I need your help with something.” Shining exhaled. “…I wanted to talk to you about Sunset Shimmer.”

The change in Luna’s demeanor was instantaneous. Her eyes narrowed dangerously, and her lips pulled down into a frown. “And just why,” she asked, her tone suddenly intensely formal and cold, “are you asking me about one of my students?”

The young man immediately raised both hands. “Whoa, Lu...no need to go all Empress of Eternal Night on me. Dial it back a bit? Yikes,” he joked with a grin in hopes of easing her back down into friendliness. When her face didn't even twitch, he sighed. “It's nothing bad, I swear....it's just...you remember my baby sister? She used to call the dorm a lot?”

“I am aware, Shining Armor, yes. I am also aware—though learning it was accidental—that your sister and Sunset are close. Now. Why are you asking for my help over one of my charges?” She took a sip of her coffee, still fixing him with a dark glare.

“She’s...she’s let some stuff slip to Twily and to us, and I’m not stupid Lu. She spent time on the streets—she’s got all the same marks of the kids I send to your Dreamwalker folks: vague, infrequent references to her past, eyes too old for her face, wary mistrust of anyone in a uniform, hair trigger reflexes...Mom and Dad are worried about her. We want to know she’s not in any kind of trouble, that she’s safe. She means too much to all of us to not make sure. I've done a little looking on my own, but there’s a lot of stuff in her records that are sealed, and I don’t have reason to go prying into that mess, so I’m checking things like school and where she lives.” He met her gaze, refusing to back down. “If something happens to her and I could’ve stopped it...I couldn’t live with myself.”

Luna's face softened, and she sighed, giving him a wry smile, "Dammit, lunkhead, this is why people thought you were a paladin, no matter what you played.” She savored a bite of her pie, composing her thoughts before she spoke. "I refuse to spill any of Sunset’s secrets she has chosen to share with me—yes, I am aware that you weren’t going to ask me too, but I am establishing ground rules here.”

Pointing the fork at him, she continued, “What I can tell you is that she is not in any immediate danger in regards to her living situation, nor is she getting in further trouble at school. Her wake up call at the Fall Formal seems to have done its job thoroughly. She is also sensible enough to seek help if she encounters a problem beyond her ability to solve. In the last few months, shes not only become a model student, she has shown tremendous growth as a person. My sister and I are extremely proud of her.”

Letting that sink in, she picked at her pie, eventually looking back up at him. “And I do hope you are planning on letting Miss Shimmer know about this little foray into her business—I can tell you that she is unlikely to be pleased when it gets back to her what you are doing. Because it will get back to her.”

“I know,” he admitted to her. “It was one of the strongest arguments against doing any of this, because I don't need to be told how hard it is for her to trust anyone. I can see it in her eyes.” Shining ran his fingers through his hair to get it out of his eyes. “...but...at the same time, Sunset’s part of my family, Lu. She’s become part of it in every way other than on legal paperwork and I’m fairly certain that my sister has plans to remedy that—well, if the law changes.” He looked at his friend steadily. “She’s gonna be my sister one way or another, and I need to know she’s okay, because out of anyone in the family I know exactly what's out there that wants to prey on girls like her.”

Something flickered in Luna’s eyes—a sort of shadow followed by wry humor, as if she was in on a joke that Shining wasn’t. “The truth, Shining, is that the last person you really have to worry about is Sunset Shimmer. She is far more capable than even you realize, but I wish you luck in your investigation—I sincerely hope it will put your mind at ease.” With that, she left him alone at the table to ponder what to do next.

Luna’s cryptic, non-answer responses meant his next step was looking into Sunset’s actual residence next. The building was up to code—in fact, in the last three years, it had been renovated, refurbished, and repaired from a rather dilapidated, tired structure to being in better condition than it had in seventy years. It was also in the same neighborhood as the locations of all the incident reports Sunset had been mentioned in. The alley at its back and the one beside it were both fairly clear and clean—no signs of old bottles or discarded needles, just some graffiti that was probably a few years old by the dumpster at the back of the building. A scan of the nearby buildings had shown much the same—worn buildings of considerable age, but lacking a lot of the signs and symptoms of illicit activity or substance abuse.

The pizzeria next door to her building was run by a kindly old man who waved at him and offered a free slice sample to “one of the city’s boys in blue,” and the dry cleaners on the other side was a surprising bustle of activity for so small a shop. Shining had gone into both studying owners and clientele closely before he said anything. A few questions about his quarry had netted him a strange look from the dry cleaning attendant, and a stern lecture from the pizzeria owner.

“Good girl, that one,” he had said, kneading a portion of dough on the counter. “You leave her alone—she’s one of my best customers, and she’s not done anything wrong! I find out you been harassing her, I’ll call my cousin at city hall!” It was almost amusing to have the short, elderly man threatening him with dough covered fingers, but Shining had decided to avoid laughing at him. Some of the knives behind the counter looked fairly sharp. Instead, he peeled a couple of twenties out of his wallet and dropped them in the “pay it forward” donation jar that the shop owner kept on the front counter, the neatly printed sign in front of it declaring it used to pay for free meals for people who needed it. That had made the old man grin and nod approvingly, with a remark about how “she puts something in there every time she comes in. Such a nice girl—if she was my granddaughter, I would be proud of her.”

With very little from the place she lived, Shining had found himself traveling to the locations mentioned in the various incident reports, starting with a little local market several blocks from where Sunset lived…

“…Oh yes, I remember that day. Very lucky for my Yama and I that she was in the store, buying groceries,” the older woman said, her accented voice crisp and clear. “She’s a quiet one, yes, buys food once a week—lots of my produce. Not a lot of young people eat enough vegetables…but you should see her eyes light up every time I get new peppers in! And fruit too—decimates my apple display in the fall, and peaches in summer…now where was I? Yes, yes. That day. She was shopping, and was in the back—over there, by the freezers, you see there? They came in the main doors and went right to me at the counter, and they didn't see her. Too busy threatening me with their bats, those boys. Three of them, all too young to be up to that kind of trouble, but making trouble all the same. Very demanding too: ‘Give us the money, old woman, or we break your face!’ So rude! But I am old, and Yama was not here—he was delivering groceries to Mr. Okami—so I go to open the register. It sticks sometimes, so they must wait while I make the key work, and that is when she struck. There was a shelf down on the end there, and Yama was going to fix it when he got back, but she picked up the big shelf piece…”

There was pride in the woman’s voice. “No fear, that one. She took that shelf in her hands and swung. Hit all three boys in the back of their heads! The weakest boy fell and hit his head on my counter, so he did not get back up to fight. One came close enough that I used this on his face!” She brandished a canister of pepper spray. “He screamed like a child who is being spanked for misbehaving—served him right. Waving a bat at an old lady.”

Shining cleared his throat. “And the third boy, ma’am?”

“Oh. That boy turned to fight her, yes he did, but she was very fast. Used that shelf again—I believe his ancestors felt that hit, you know. Right in his male pride yes, and when he bent forward, she hit again to knock him out. Then we tied their hands with the plastic ties that Yama uses for bundling our cardboard and I called the police.” The market owner huffed. “They took those boys away, not that it did any good. Still they made trouble, but not here, and not where she goes, no. They learned their lesson about making trouble where she can see. Has eyes like one of Inari’s foxes, that one, and tolerates no troublemakers in her presence.” Her eyes gleamed, and she reached out to grip his hand in both of hers. “…I have heard that those boys finally got what was coming to them, yes. No one speaks of what happened in the park, but it has our little kitsune’s pawprints all over it. Good riddance to them. Now here. Have a mocchi, officer. You deserve something sweet for working so hard.” A paper wrapped treat was placed in his palms, and the old woman seemed to consider their conversation at an end, returning to stocking the goods behind the counter…

It had been the same in the next two businesses he’d checked in with. The mechanic at the auto parts place talked about how Sunset had chased the group of local delinquents away from his daughter the year before, and the manager at the hardware store had seen her rescue a middle schooler from a shake down that could’ve rightly been called a mugging. In all three incidents, Sunset happened to be in the vicinity, and for whatever reason, took particular offense to the gang of boys and interfered with their activities with extreme prejudice.

He’d ended up taking a walk to the park not far away, mulling over what he had learned, and decided that he wanted to look into this group that Sunset seemed to clash with on the regular…if nothing else, he’d wanted to make sure that Twilight wasn’t going to get caught in the crossfire…

Sitting on the bench, Shining Armor stared pensively at the road in front of him. The more he learned, the more confused and worried he was becoming about Sunset Shimmer and her life. He also had yet to answer any of the questions he’d started out with.

Footsteps approached him, and a somewhat stocky, wiry woman with sky blue hair sat next to him on the bench. “So you’re the one going around asking about Sunset Shimmer. Hm. From the way Mrs. Yuki was carrying on, I thought you’d be more imposing.”

His brows furrowed. “I’m getting the sense that I’ve worn out my welcome around here.”

“Nothing so ominous as all that, but maybe just a bit, officer. The fact that you aren’t too pushy about it is a point in your favor, and you’ve also not tried to intimidate anyone into keeping silent about it. At the same time, you’re making a lot of people nervous with your interest in Sunset Shimmer.” She extended a hand. “Active Lifestyle,” she offered as an introduction. “My sisters and I run the Starlight Home for Foster Girls.”

He shook it, finding her grip firmer than expected. “Detective Shining Armor. And I have nothing to hide, really—I have every intention of talking to Sunset at the end of this anyway.”

That made her raise an eyebrow and give him a long look. “Alright, Detective, I’ll bite. Wanna share why you’re sniffing around Sunset Shimmer?” Dark eyes bored into him intently, withholding judgment but clearly unafraid of him.

There was a long moment where Shining considered telling this woman it was none of her business, but as she held his gaze, he felt himself relenting. “She’s close with my sister,” he admitted at last. “And my family has grown fond of her since she started coming around our house. I wanted to make sure she was okay on her own, that she’s safe and not suspected in any kind of trouble.”

Active Lifestyle nodded, her expression serious. “Officially, my sisters and I are all in the system—Starlight House is the group foster home for girls started back in the eighties by our mother, Starlight Synergy. The oldest of us, Starlight Gem, is technically in charge, but we’re all trained, certified, and on the books.” She produced a business card and proffered it to him. “All the info on us is there if you need to vet it. When Sunset moved into the building two streets over, the social worker that is our liaison with the system—Gentle Concern, by the way—made a stop at the house, letting us know about her. He asked us to keep an eye on her, look out for her, because he was worried about a young girl with no actual adult supervision.”

Shining Armor blinked in surprise. “Maybe I should have come by your place first then.”

“Probably would have saved you a little time,” she agreed. “Because I can tell you that for the most part, she’s quiet and keeps to herself. Has for as long as she’s been in the neighborhood. I doubt she even realizes that several of the older people here keep an eye on her well-being. She doesn't party, no one’s ever caught her drinking or doing drugs or breaking the law. I know she had some behavioral issues at school, mostly because our girls talk, but it seems to have been confined to the school itself...and most of it wasn’t worth noticing anyway because it sounded like the kind of petty bullshit teenagers pull.” She paused again, running a hand through her hair. “Her only real conflict is with that pack of punks who like to think of themselves as a gang...but at this point the whole lot of them are terrified of her. And, honestly, after what happened in the park, we all expected to hear from the cops sooner.”

“You’re the second person to allude to something happening in the park with the local delinquents. You...wanna tell me what that’s about?”

The foster parent looked at him steadily. “Only that an ambulance came one night last fall and picked up some of the troublemakers near the park. No one has seen them since, and most of the rest of the group has gone to ground. I’d wager there was a police report on it.” She smile became a smirk. “It was good to meet you, Detective Armor. Now that I’ve done what I came to do, I’ve got a date with an oil change. See ya around.”

He received a hearty and friendly thumping on the shoulder before the woman started off. After thinking over the conversation for a minute or two, he sighed and headed for his car. It seemed he had more research to do at the station.

Shining rubbed his face again. Looking into the mysterious “park incident” had proved enlightening, but not in the way he’d expected. He’d anticipated some sort of arrests, not a report taken in the hospital with comments by medical professionals about three teenage boys in serious condition, one of them bad enough to be considered “critical.” The police had initially been contacted because of the severity of the injuries that had seemingly been visited upon the boys by a physically superior attacker....

Reading the report, Shining shook his head. At first glance it seemed there was no way Sunset could have been involved. She was a teenage girl, and the average teen girl lacked the musculature and training required to shatter someone’s entire knee beyond even surgical repair, or to nearly crush someone’s throat and crack two vertebrae. Even he would have been hard pressed to do that kind of catastrophic damage to another human being...but he recalled the bruises she’d left on his wrist at Thanksgiving, the way she had, in her sleep, rendered him unable to move his arm. She had power, and the implications were that she had training...but it still sat oddly in his stomach. The report wasn’t telling the whole story.

A glance at the name on the report, and he found himself heading for Hard Bit’s desk. The heavy set, older beat cop was just getting in for his shift. “Hey, Bit? You got a minute? Wanted to ask you about something.”

“Sure thing, kid. I’ve gotta wait for Sweet Spot to get done talking to Detective Fleece anyway.” He held out a box. “Donut? The wife sent them with me today.”

Accepting a powdered sugar covered treat, Shining exhaled. “I was reading over a report you filed back at the beginning of October last year. Three teenage boys picked up at the park after a 911 call?”

“Ooof.” Hard Bit made a face. “That was a report alright. Could only really talk to two of them, and that was...well, I can’t say I felt too sorry for them.” When Shining raised an eyebrow, the other cop looked around and lowered his voice. “Look, those three shitbags and their friends? Nothing but trouble. All of them had already done stints in juvie, and those three? I know defensive wounds done by a vic when I see ‘em. Two of those boys had scratches on their arms from fingernails, the kind a girl gives when she’s trying to run away. There were already two rapes that happened in the park in the months before that...and fact is, despite the beating they took, none of them would say who attacked them or why. Got real clammed up when we tried, especially the boy who made the 911 call.”

He scratched his chin. “Can’t prove it, but my guess? They were going for rape number three, and someone stopped them. Brutally. If it were up to me, I’d’ve had the detective get DNA from all three to run against the rape kits for the other vics, see what came up. Wish I knew who beat the tar out of them—that glorious bastard deserves a fucking medal. They did everyone a favor, because it only would’ve escalated until someone ended up dead.”

Shining did not like the mental picture that he was slowly piecing together, not one bit. “You know whatever happened to them?”

“Those sorry pieces of shit? Probably still adjusting to their new lives. The one that ate a tree and had some kinda stab wound? He’s probably going back to shoplifting by now, but not the other two. Heard the doc talking to the detective—they weren’t sure if they could save the leg on the one, and the other? No more talking for him, ever, and probably other crap from nearly getting his neck broke.” Hard Bit grimaced. “I was the one who found one of the earlier vics—the girl was seventeen years old, and practically catatonic. If they were behind it, they ended up getting off easy in my opinion.”

His stomach twisted uncomfortably, and he swallowed, trying to keep the donut he’d eaten down. “Thanks, Bit. I need to get home before I’m late for dinner and Cadence kills me.” The young man had to use every ounce of willpower he had to keep his departure from being more than a slow walk.

That had been three days ago. It had taken him this long to put his thoughts in order and look at what facts he had, and then work up the courage to drive to his parents house for this conversation. He needed to know the truth, and there were likely only two people with the answer that he could talk to. Especially because it wasn't even about Sunset anymore, or even what he’d learned. It was about how he had realized just how badly he had failed one of the most important people in his life...

Because he checked the date, and that night...that night had been the night he had bailed on his baby sister and his plans to take her out stargazing for some rare event. Instead, he had cancelled last minute when he was called in to work, and had flippantly suggested she try the park instead of their original plans to go out near the farms beyond the edge of the suburbs.

That was also the night she had met Sunset Shimmer, and in the weeks that followed, barely even mentioned the astronomical event in favor of talking about the new friend she had made. He had also noticed it was the last time she had asked anyone but Sunset to go stargazing with her.

With a sigh, he finally exited his car and headed inside. It was time to face his fears and get it over with. Stalling was only making it worse.

His mother greeted him with a warm hug in the kitchen. “Shining! I didn’t know you were coming by tonight! Have you eaten dinner yet? I just put the leftovers away if you’re hungry.”

The mere mention of food made his stomach lurch and nausea tickle his throat. In a voice he knew sounded odd, he gently turned the offer down. “I’m good, Mom. Twily in her room? I wanted to talk to her about something.”

Velvet looked at him for a moment, but seemed to read something in his expression. She pointed upwards. “She’s upstairs working on one of her projects, I think. Or on the phone with Sunset. Or both.” His mother studied his face a bit longer, before patting his arm. “Go talk to your sister, dear. I’ll get some hot chocolate started.”

Shining felt some of the tension leave his body. “I’d appreciate that. Thanks, Mom. I need to talk to Twily first, but I’ll explain later...” He jogged up the stairs, and knocked on his sister’s door, waiting for her call to enter. He slipped in and shut the door behind him.

“Shining Armor!” Abandoning her desk, Twilight flew into his arms for a hug. “Not that I’m not glad to see you, BBBFF, but...what’s going on? You don’t usually come over this late during the week.”

Rubbing the back of his neck, Shining moved to sit on the edge of her bed, noting in passing the permanent presence of two pillows instead of one. “Can we talk, Twily? It’s...I need to ask you a few things.”

Purple eyes scrutinized him as his baby sister returned to her desk chair. “What’s going on?” she asked, anxiety coloring her tone. One hand dropped to pet Spike.

Exhaling, Shining considered how to approach this. “Okay....first, don’t be mad. We were worried, and that’s why we did it.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Did...what, exactly?”

“After you told Mom and Dad about Sunset living on her own, we were worried about her, so I checked up on her.”

“I see,” came the terse, clipped response. Twilight Sparkle was not happy. “And then what did you do?”

“Just that, really. Checked up on her to make sure she was safe and not...you know...doing things to survive that she shouldn’t have to.” He knew how it sounded when it came out of his mouth, but there was no taking it back—all he could do was wince.

“You mean that you thought she might be doing illegal things in order to survive, don’t you? That she might be selling drugs, or stealing, or that she was selling herself to earn money, is that it?” Twilight accused him, her voice harsh in a way that was completely out of the norm for his sister, her face set in cold, hard lines as she stared him down. “And you didn’t find any of that, did you? I told Mom and Dad that she wasn’t doing anything like that! She wouldn’t lie to me and I wouldn’t lie to Mom and Dad!”

This was exactly the reaction he’d been worried about, and he tried to placate her. “We know that, Twily, please, calm down.”

“Calm down?” Twilight retorted, leaning forward to jab his chest with a finger. “You didn’t trust me enough to believe me, to believe what I told Mom and Dad, to be smart enough to know if Sunset was in trouble!” There was hurt behind the anger in the eyes glowering at him behind thick lenses, and she sat back, tense and shaking, crossing her arms over her chest defensively. “More than that, you went snooping around Sunset’s life without her permission! That’s a huge breach of trust, Shining Armor!”

He sighed, head hanging. “I know, Twily, please, believe me—but it was never a matter of trust or mistrust. What have Mom and Dad always taught us, from the get go, about anything anyone tells us?”

His sister fell quiet, thoughtful, and then she sighed. “Trust, but verify.” Purple eyes bored into him. “So you’re saying that you trusted me, trusted Sunset and that you were just verifying it, is that it?”

Shining nodded, holding up his hand, uttering the childish oath that they’d developed when she was young. “I swear, on comic books, the stars, Smarty-pants, and Mom’s hot cocoa, I believed you, and I believed what Sunset told you. I didn’t go digging into her secrets either—I only accessed basic information and simple conversation to make sure there weren't any dangers that you or Sunset might not be aware of, like gang activity in her neighborhood, or known predators living nearby.”

His sister nodded. “I would have told you guys if I thought she was in any danger, but she’s not.” Mollified slightly by his admission, her tone softened. “I wont tell her what you did...but you really should. It’d be better if she found out from you.”

“...I will...I’d always planned to, in the end...” Shining ran a hand through his hair. “...but that’s not really what I wanted to talk to you about.”

Twilight frowned again. “Alright...if that wasn’t it, what did you want to talk about?”

Once again, Shining mulled over how to broach the subject. “I...” He hesitated, then plunged ahead. “I wanted to know about how you met Sunset.”

“We met in the park, while I was stargazing. I thought you knew that,” she answered, her tone even.

Still, Shining knew LSBFF better than anyone in the family except for Cadence, and he caught the way her breath had hitched at the question, the way her whole body tensed up. In that moment, he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was lying. It made that sick feeling in his stomach rise up again. “Twily,” he said gently. “Tell me the truth. How did you really meet Sunset?”

Twilight shook her head tightly, drawing Spike up into her arms almost by reflex, hugging the small dog tight. “Stargazing, in the park,” she repeated, trying to hide her trembling. “It was a good night for it, and the celestial conjunction was enthralling for any amateur astronomer to experience, particularly with a full array of monitoring equipme—”

“Twilight,” he said, trying to get her to look at him. “I know that’s a lie. Why won’t you just tell me the truth? I won't be mad or upset or anything like that, I promise you.”

She broke then, shaking like a leaf but wound up tighter than ever. “I can’t,” she cried, her voice carrying a fierceness he’d never heard from her before. Tears threatened to overflow and spill down her cheeks. “Please don’t ask me that, Shining Armor.”

“Can you tell me why not, Twily?”

“I can’t tell you,” she repeated, shaking her head vehemently. “I can’t. If I tell you, the wrong person will be punished. Please, Shining...ask me anything else, anything at all, but don’t ask me for that. I can’t do it. I won’t do it.”

Her reaction confirmed his suspicions just as much as a verbal affirmation would have, and he felt his guts twist. Sunset had been responsible for the ‘park incident,’ and Twilight had been involved. It explained why the redheaded girl was so protective of his sister, and in a lot of ways, shed light on why Twilight felt so strongly about Sunset’s character from the very beginning.

Hunching in on herself, Twilight hugged Spike with everything she had, her breathing coming in irregular, strained pants, quaking so bad her teeth would have been chattering if her jaw wasn’t clenched so tight. Shining rubbed his forehead and rapidly ran through options to deescalate the situation. He really didn't want to push Twilight into a panic attack over this, and he had no intention of getting Sunset in any kind of trouble when all she’d done was clearly defend herself and Twilight from others.

The answer came in the form of something he used to do when she was little, when she was still learning her coping skills and her anxiety was through the roof more often than not. "Alright. I'm not asking,” he assured her, holding his hands out, palms up. “But...if we were to talk hypothetically here for a minute...if there was someone who happened to engage in some targeted, interpersonal violence towards a group of individuals who...again, hypothetically...attacked an innocent person with the intent to cause harm...then that first person would not get in trouble. In that situation, they would have been protecting and defending someone else, and it would be seen as a form of self defense. And if the police were to learn about such a thing, they would likely call that person a hero. Especially because groups of people who harm others like that aren’t usually first time offenders—they have a long list of offenses and victims.”

Twilight watched him, before nodding her head, still cuddling Spike in her arms. “Someone like that would be pretty heroic,” she acknowledged, her breathing easier now that he wasn’t pressing for details. “A good person at heart.”

Shining smiled. “She very much would be,” he agreed, “and she’d be someone I would definitely trust with people I cared about.”

There was a long silence between them. At last Twilight set Spike down, moving to hug her brother. “Thanks, BBBFF,” she whispered into his shoulder.

“Hey, you’re my little sister. I love you, and I want you to know I’m always here for you, and I’ve always got your best interests at heart. Okay?” He patted her back gently.

“Okay…” she exhaled slowly through her nose. “…I don’t suppose ‘not telling Mom and Dad about this hypothetical situation’ falls under ‘my best interests, does it?”

Pulling back from the hug, he met her eyes with a serious expression of his own. “Twilight…You know I can’t do that. I promised them I’d tell them what I’d found out about Sunset, and in this case, this is something I don’t feel right keeping from them.” He canted his head slightly. “What I don’t entirely understand is why you didn’t tell them.”

Another firm shake of her head. “I told you why I won’t. Why I can’t. Why I didn’t. That won’t change, Shining. I can’t risk your hypothesis being wrong.” Twilight took her glasses off, cleaning the lenses on the hem of her shirt before resettling them on her nose. “…I understand that you feel obligated to tell them…but I ask that you…and they respect my wishes—I cannot talk about this hypothetical scenario, for my own reasons.”

She was hiding behind logic, he realized, her vocabulary starting to forgo more conventional words in favor of the scientific ones she found comfort in. “…Twily,” he started, “it’s not healthy to bottle things up, especially about something like this.”

Twilight played with a lock of hair, her eyes flicking from point to point on his face, a sure sign that she was nowhere near as calm and collected as she was trying to project. “I…I have talked some…with Sunny…and if I need to, I still have my sessions with Dr. Soft-Spoken.” Letting go of her hair, her hands moved restlessly, seeking something calming to do. “Hypothetically…it might be why Sunset has been giving me lessons on the weekends.”

Shining found himself nodding, even as he cursed at himself internally for not taking more notice of why his sister was suddenly taking an interest in fitness and being shown how to combat an attacker by the motorcycle riding teen. He’d been too quick to dismiss it as a result of their mutual infatuation driving them to join in on each other’s hobbies. “She’s definitely had training—she stopped me cold on Thanksgiving. You could do worse for a teacher.” He tried to keep his voice light and reassuring, but guilt crept up on him. “…I’m sorry I never thought to offer you something like that before, Twily. I should have—I’ve not been the best BBBFF lately, have I?”

Twilight slamming into him for another tight, rib-creaking hug caught him by surprise. “Don’t say that,” she told him fiercely. “You’re the greatest Big Brother Best Friend Forever in the whole world. It wasn’t your fault. Don’t you dare think it was your fault. You had no idea, and I was stupid and went alone instead of just going into the backyard.”

His chest felt like an elephant was using it as a chair, and his voice broke on the response. “…I should have been there though. We were supposed to go together—I was supposed to be watching over you. It was my job to protect you. I…” Shining swallowed hard. “I’m sorry, sis. I let you down. When you needed me most, I wasn’t there.”

When he tried to turn his head away in shame, she caught him, made him look down at her. “You didn’t,” she reiterated. “I’m fine, Shining…and…you have to understand…that was the night I met Sunny.” A brilliant smile chased away the shadows in her eyes. “Having her in my life…that’s worth any…situation…hypothetical or actual. I wouldn’t trade her for anything in the world..in any world the multiverse could offer.”

A smile crept across his own face. “If you say so, Twily…and hypothetically speaking…it just gives us more reasons to be thankful for Sunset.”

“Hypothetical reasons that I will not discuss,” the teen reminded him, stepping back from the hug.

“As you wish,” he teased, using levity to chase away what darkness remained. “…and in a completely intentional and pointed change of topic, to avoid further awkwardness, Mom is making hot chocolate. I’m pretty sure there’s a mug with your name on it.” With an impish bit of glee, he poked her in the ticklish spot on her ribs, making her squeak and jump back. “Last one downstairs is a fishface!”

Twilight jumped back towards him in mock outrage. “You’re on, dogbreath!”

“Hey! We agreed to never bring up the Couch Incident!”

With that, both siblings were jockeying to get out the door of her room, playfully pushing and shoving, until Twilight pulled a sneak attack. “Don’t forget, Shiny! You’ve got to tell Sunset what you did—she’s going to be really pissed at you!”

It was enough to throw him off balance for her final shove, and he ended up tumbling to the carpet, half in and half out of her room, while she sped down the hall with a cry of victory. Shining Armor grunted as he faceplanted in the carpet, a muffled, “Shit…” escaping around a mouthful of carpet fibers, even as Spike nosed at him with a whine.

Whoo boy. This is officially the longest chapter to date--though there's one in arc 2 that will probably exceed it once it goes into editing, hehe.

Its also a chapter that's filled with reference, call-backs, and tidbits of backstory...or allusions to things I've got planned for side stories.

So Starlight House started out as me making a Jem and the Holograms reference, and ended up being a minor plot point later on, as seen here. Amusingly "Active Lifestyle" is supposed to be Aja Leith, the tomboyish Hologram who was often seen as their grease monkey and mechanic. What I didn't know when I wrote this chapter, mostly because I'd completely forgotten, is that there is a page in the recent Jem comic by IDW that has Aja at a faire, and she ends up with a prize--a giant stuffed unicorn. The unicorn? Its unmistakably Sunset Shimmer, right down to the cutie mark. (I stumbled across that later when I was rereading the comic last year, after I'd written this scene. It made me laugh.)

Second on major references is Shining's partner/mentor, Devil's Advocate. Since he's a rookie, he needed an older detective to be paired with, to show him the ropes. I figured a sensible, woman in her thirties was a good call, and I needed one that would be on board for his casual investigation. Putting in a reference to a show I enjoy was easy enough, and I couldn't resist calling her "Devil's Advocate" since she did in fact, once defend the honesty of the Devil himself on the stand. (As a side note: Lucifer is worth watching if you haven't. Seriously.)

Lessee. The "Dreamwalker kids" that Shining mentions to Luna has to do with something that will be discussed in detail in the College Years sidestory, but the short is that "at some point towards the end of College, Cady and Luna and a few others put together a nonprofit organization and outreach program that helps LGBT+ youth who have either been kicked out or run away from their homes."

I also know a number of you have been eagerly waiting for the family to find out about how Sunset and Twilight really met, so...Yeah. Here's that ball rolling to, and yes, it will affect things later on.

I hope everyone appreciates my work with Shining, who I always felt got shafted in canon. There was a lot of careful thought and progression in developing his character, and I have to admit I'm pretty pleased that I've managed to turn "dorky but lovable paladin type" into a real person who clearly loves his family.

Anyway. This is the last buffer chapter I had, so the story will be on hiatus until I finish arc 2. (THat's coming along nicely. Finished another two chapters this past week, one of them an 8500 word monster that was comandeered by the characters. Again. Oy.) I'll be posting updates periodically--as well as a few side stories and one shots while I work on arc 2. Other than that, I'll see you guys for Arc 2!