{It’s a gruesome Tuesday morning as several are found dead in east side Canterlot City. Witnesses say it sounded like a battle had taken place last night with multiple gunshots going off. When police arrived on the scene they found several dead bodies, killed in the most horrific manner, some residents have described it as if a wild animal – several maybe – had broken in and attacked.}

{Among the victims are a few noteworthy names, some of which have been linked in the past to Russian controlled crime mobs they are–}

“Jeez that’s messed up,” said Rainbow Dash.

The reunited Rainbooms were in the music room, their unofficial hangout inside the school. They had just gotten through with practice and were taking a break. Rainbow had whipped out her phone and got a news alert about the incident last night.

“You don’t think…?” Rarity asked as she let that question hang in the air.

Sunset shook her head. “There’s no way it’s Wendigos, I destroyed them all.” Least I hope I did.

“Well, if it is, we got two badass demon slayers who can take care of them.”

Fluttershy blushed, Sunset patted her on the back. In all honesty, Fluttershy would rather not have to don her Magdalena attire and wield the Spear of Destiny unless she had to, otherwise she was content to let Sunset do the demon slaying.

“Still, it does sound similar. Has Shinin’ Armor contacted ya?” Applejack asked.

“Nope, and to be honest, he wasn’t too keen on me getting involved with the Mystery Murders in the first place, but, as he’s said, I’m a ‘weird shit magnet’, so I got involved whether I wanted to or not. But if he had it his way, he’d rather not see me put myself in danger.”

Rarity giggled upon hearing this. “I swear, if he didn’t have a girlfriend, I’d say he might be sweet on you.”

Sunset scoffed. “Doubt it, though in another timeline, had I met him first…I wouldn’t say I would’ve passed up the chance.”

Pinkie Pie gasped. “Please don’t leave me Sunny!” she playfully begged. “I beg of you!”

Sunset stifled a chuckle as she crossed her arms and looked away. “I don’t know, I might consider stealing him away from his girlfriend. He is dorky, but cute, or I could see if his girlfriend’s up to sharing?”

Pinkie Pie feigned hurt. “Am I not good enough for you? What does he have that I don’t?!”

“I can think of something,” Rainbow snickered.

Applejack elbowed Rainbow in the ribs making her release a low “ow”.

“Hmmm,” Sunset pretended to think. She then reached out and took Pinkie by the waist and kissed her button nose. “Actually, not much compared to what I like about you. So I guess we’re still together.”

“Yippy!” Pinkie chirped as she threw her arms around Sunset.

Fluttershy and Rarity quietly d’awed at the scene before them, they really were a perfect match for each other.

“That reminds me, yesterday I saw someone hanging around the Wondercolt statue,” said Sunset.

“Who?” Applejack asked.

“I don’t know, there were two of them. One was hovering around the statue, and another was sitting on a motorcycle like a getaway driver or something.”

Rainbow stood up and crossed her arms. “Did you manage to see who it was?”

“Sadly no, they were both wearing helmets with reflective visors so I couldn’t see their faces or eyes,” Sunset stated. “When I tried to confront one of them, the one near the statue ran towards the other and both of them got away.”

The girls shifted glances between each other, a knowing glance.

“It’s gotta be,” said Rainbow.

“Who the hell else,” said Applejack.

“Of course,” said Rarity.

“No doubts,” said Pinkie.

“It must be,” Fluttershy began.

“Crystal Prep,” the five said in unison.

Sunset looked at her friends and girlfriend with confusion. “Okay, I’ll bite, why do you think that it was Crystal Prep?”

“Because those snobby asswipes always fuck with the Wondercolts statue before the Friendship Games. Every. Single. Time,” said Rainbow.

Rarity crossed her arms in disdain. “Despite their winning streak and our…losing streak, they still feel the need to humiliate us further by defacing the Wondercolt statue.”

Sunset thought back to her freshman year at CHS, she remembered that statue getting vandalized one day, and that it happened after the Friendship Games. Honestly she didn’t really pay much attention to the games back then, but she was a bit worried by the vandalizing of the statue, seeing as how it was her only way back home when the portal opened again. Even though CHS had a few problem kids, they never went as far as to mess with the school like that. Now Sunset knew who was behind it, and she was glad that she stopped was able to prevent them from doing something to the statue.

“This year, we’re going to kick their asses!” Rainbow stated as she slammed her fist into her palm. “I can feel it!”

“Don’t psych yerself up too much Rainbow, we don’t even know who the team members are goin’ to be this year,” said Applejack.

“Heh, you’ll see.”

Celestia sat at her desk, going over Maria’s words about bringing their relationship into the public, and bringing that kind of media attention to her, her sister, and to Sunset. Her name was in the news due to the shooting, and with such an announcement, it wouldn’t be too long before the news found that Celestia was Sunset’s guardian and they’d hound her.

She loved Maria, but…sometimes she wondered about their relationship.

\\\/// Trouble in paradise I see. \\\///

And then there was this voice in her head. It didn’t come out until the day of Sunset’s shooting, at that point it was a whisper carried on the wind, then it grew louder as the weeks went by. Celestia self-diagnosed herself, believing that the trauma of her ward, her “daughter”, caused some kind of PTSD that created an alternate personality, or just a voice that was sometimes the sign of a psychotic break.

However, the voice, while sometimes condescending, wasn’t berating her, wasn’t talking down to her, nor did it encourage her to hurt herself or someone. It was just there. Like a passenger, sitting in the backseat of the car that was her mind and occasionally offering commentary and/or dispensing some advice.

“And what do you care?”

\\\/// Just looking out for you. I don’t see that woman as doing something for the good of others, more as if what’s good for her. You’ve had doubts about your relationship, perhaps it is time you addressed them. \\\///

Celestia did feel like giving the voice inside a leg to stand on, but it did have a point, she did need to talk to Maria about where they stood. While she did like the idea of their relationship not being a secret, she also had some reservations about making a show of it.

At that moment, Celestia felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She reached into it and pulled out the device, the caller ID read: Maria Mare. Celestia quickly answered it and said, “Hello, Maria?”

{Celly, how are you doing?}

Aside from my doubts and a voice in my head. “I’m alright, it’s pretty quiet over here today.”

{Well that’s good, you deserve those quiet days with all that happened not too long ago. Speaking of, I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind having dinner at my place, say six, Friday?}

“Oh, yes, that would be lovely.”

{And, if you don’t mind, I’d like you to bring your sister and Sunset.}

“Um…that sounds lovely, but – and I’m not complaining – but why do you want them to come?”

{Well we’ve been seeing each other for almost a year and a half and I thought it was time I officially met your family. I’ve only met with Sunset that one time, and Luna doesn’t know about us, correct?}

“That’s right, Sunset and, well, some of her friends know because of what happened. But they haven’t said anything.” Celestia felt a little giddy at the idea of introducing Sunset and Luna to Maria, in a more official manner than a haphazard way.

{If they aren’t able to that’s fine, but I just felt like it would be nice for all four of us to be together.}

“No that sounds great, I’ll talk to Luna and Sunset before the end of the day and see if they have plans.”

She could hear the smile in Maria’s voice. {Thank you, Celly, I love you.}

Celestia’s face turned red, hearing those words made her feel like a schoolgirl. “I-I love you too, Maria. Goodbye.”

{Goodbye.}

Celestia hung up her phone and sighed wistfully.

\\\/// Don’t lose focus, you need to address your relationship. \\\///

“Just let me have this.” Celestia ran her fingers through her hair and sighed heavily. “Maybe I need to see a therapist or something?”

A day had passed since that Tuesday afternoon when Sunset and Twilight went to CHS and investigated. It was still a shock to them that there was a second Sunset Shimmer, Twilight couldn’t get over it, although her Sunset seemed to be taking it more in stride. Twilight blushed, her Sunset, possessive noun, as in belonging to Twilight.

The young genius shook her head, she didn’t know where this was all coming from. She never showed any interest in either gender, so why did being around Sunset Shimmer feel so right?

Again, in the end, it didn’t matter. As interesting as things were right now, soon Sunset would get disinterested in their little project and move onto someone else worth her time.

Twilight roamed the halls, still getting knocked around, searching for Sunset. When she turned the corner, Twilight froze and then went back, hiding behind the corner. She peeked this time, seeing Sunset Shimmer, her back against the locker, arms crossed,. A couple of feet from her were the four girls she disliked most in the school.

One was Sunny Flare, the leader of the group, and the other was Sour Sweet. Along with them was a girl with a hot pink complexion, lemon-lime colored hair, and a pair of headphones, her name was Lemon Zest.

She was a music enthusiast, classical, punk rock, metal, rap, you name it, she loved it. CPA normally discouraged students from having headphones with them in class as they believed that it was a distraction. However, Lemon Zest’s grades never faltered, she always paid attention even if it looked like she wasn’t. In a way she was like Twilight. Why did Twilight dislike her? During a school function, Lemon and her band played, when they were breaking down their equipment, they asked for help from Twilight as far as technical expertise. While messing around with their soundboard, she didn’t notice that some of her bandmates were setting up an amp right behind her.

Lemon Zest broke out her guitar and struck a chord on her instrument. The subsequent concussive burst from the amp threw Twilight forward, making her tumble on the stage. When she landed, her head ringed and her ears hurt, but worse than that, was the fact that her skirt had flew up, giving all those in attendance a clear view of her underwear. Just as bad, she was like that for five minutes in disoriented state before she figured out why everyone was looking at her and laughing.

The third girl had a grayish-blue skin tone, her silvery hair done up in two pigtails and one ponytail, and wore glasses, her name was Sugarcoat. Despite her name, Sugarcoat did not, well, sugarcoat anything. She was blunt and straight to the point, she didn’t beat around the bush for anything. To her, tiptoeing around any subject was a waste of time, it was better to get to the point.

At one point, Twilight believed that she could be friends with Sugarcoat, she wasn’t a genius like her, but she believed someone was straightforward as Sugarcoat wouldn’t trick her or lead her on. Of course, that backfired spectacularly when she said, “I don’t see a point in associating with you. From what I’ve seen, although you’re at the top of the academic leaderboard, you’re also at the very bottom of the social ladder. Being around you would just invite the same amount of harassment onto me. I’d rather be in a higher state and away from dealing with such things. Also, you’re kind of a doormat, a pushover, and someone I could see getting taken advantage of. Either physically or emotionally. The word ‘weak’ comes to mind. Anyway, please leave me alone and don’t speak to me.”

Twilight wasn’t sure if she should have been grateful to have someone be truthful with her, or angry. But one thing was certain, it did hurt her to hear that so plainly and bluntly, she had cried in the bathroom for five minutes before she came back out. And of course, the fourth and final member of this group was Indigo Zap.

“You have three minutes, I have to be somewhere,” said Sunset.

Sunny Flare nodded. “This won’t take up too much of your time, we’re just here to make a proposal.”

“That is?”

“Hang out with us and dump Twilight Sparkle,” said Sugarcoat bluntly.

Sunset arched an eyebrow.

Sour Sweet stepped in and said, “What she means is, it’s not really good for you two to be seen together, sweetie. She’s…how do I put this…? The schools whipping girl.”

“That so?” Sunset asked.

Lemon Zest chuckled. “Yeah, she’s so easy to prank and mess with.”

“Mother always likes to tout how Twilight’s grades are bringing up the school’s reputation and such, and that we the students need to strive to be more like that, despite the fact that our GPAs are well above the average of the public schools in the city combined!” Sunny argued.

“I see.”

“Bottom line, hun, if you keep hanging around Twilight, she’ll just drag you down.” Sunny placed a hand on Sunset’s shoulder as she looked her in the eyes. “But if you’re with us, then that’ll change. I’ve seen your files, you’re pretty smart, I’d say as smart as Sparkle, and you’re loaded.”

Twilight gripped her backpack straps tight. She knew that Sunset was smart, but also rich? Of course she was rich, most of the kids at the school were rich. Twilight knew that she had no business hanging around Sunset Shimmer, she was beautiful, confident, and smart. And her? She was weak, nerdy, introverted, and had as much sex appeal as a Weeping Willow.

Sunset took out her cellphone and nodded. “Okay, times up.” The flame haired girl gently removed Sunny Flare’s hand off her shoulder. “This was a nice chat, but I’m running late and I need to meet Twilight.”

An indignant look crossed Sunny Flare’s face, at the same time, across the way, Twilight’s frown curled upwards into a small smile.

“Maybe we didn’t make it clear–” Sunny began.

“No, I understand perfectly. I figured this place had some issues, but damn, I was off. I’ve seen the way she hunches and makes herself small, people sometimes go out of their way to bump into her. She’s guarded, and flinches as if I’m going to hit her, and all I was doing was a high-five!”

Sunset grabbed her backpack and slung it over her left shoulder. “Fuck your little hazing shit, and back off of Sparkle.”

“C’mon, why are you so interested in her? You gay for her or something?” Indigo asked.

Sunset arched her eyebrow. “If I was, that a problem?”

Indigo blew a raspberry. “Hardly, straight up lesbo right here. I get that she’s cute in a nerdy way, and yeah, I kind of want to do her too. But c’mon, there are easier ways of getting that.”

Sunset’s eyes became dangerous slits, she then took a step forward and got right in Indigo’s face. “You seem like someone who likes sports, am I wrong.”

“No,” Indigo replied.

“Then I want you to think about this whenever you get the urge to ‘touch’ Twilight. ‘Is this worth having my arms and legs broken?’”

Indigo glared back at Sunset, but flinched when she saw something in Sunset’s eyes, something akin to a dangerous animal.

“Good talk,” said Sunset.

Sunset began walking in Twilight’s direction, she began to panic, she didn’t want Sunset to know she was watching that whole display just now. Twilight took a few steps back and slowly walked towards the corner just as Sunset rounded it.

“Oh, Sparky, there you are,” said Sunset.

“S-Sunset, hey, how’s it going?” Twilight asked knowingly.

“It’s okay, do you mind if we take the long route? I wanted to go over some theories with you.”

Twilight knew that the shorter route to their next shared class was down the same hallway that Sunset just came from, where she was sure those four girls were still there, probably glaring daggers at Sunset right now. Her heart fluttered a bit, Sunset was trying to protect her.

“Sure, that’s alright with me.”

As they began their walk, Sunset couldn’t help but glance at Twilight once and awhile. “Sparky, are you…do I worry you?”

Twilight left eyebrow rose. “What do you mean?”

“I mean…” Sunset ran her right hand through her hair as she searched for the right words. “We just saw another me not too long ago, I was just worried that…you might be a little freaked out by me. After all, you have no proof that I’m who I say I am…For all you know I’m the imposter and she’s the real one.”

Twilight couldn’t argue that point, it was true, she had no basis to believe that the Sunset Shimmer she was talking to was indeed the authentic – or whatever – Sunset Shimmer and the other was a fake. Then again, Twilight only knew of Sunset Shimmer through Shining Armor, and her brother was often a good judge of character. While Twilight couldn’t say she had the same ability that her big brother did, something told Twilight that this Sunset Shimmer wasn’t a bad person, at least, after what she saw, she hoped she was.

“I’m not worried. Until I see proof one way or the other, I’ll trust in you,” said Twilight sincerely.

Sunset smiled. “Thanks, Sparky.”

Three days had passed, and the news was filled with even more chaos than it was before. The police had confirmed that the Russian mob had effectively uprooted their operation in the city, and now the Italian mob had been hit even harder. The same carnage and destruction was left in the wake, making the police and citizens worry that another Mystery Murder was taking place in spite of the fact that the mayor and police announced otherwise.

But right now wasn’t the time for all that, as tonight, Celestia was nervous. She had asked Sunset and Luna if they would accompany her to Maria Mare’s home for dinner, just the four of them. At first she was worried that Luna would refuse, Sunset not so much, she was a teenager, and she did have her own girlfriend that she might want to go out with on Friday. But to her surprise, both were happy to come with her.

Celestia drove all three of them to the Mayor’s Mansion. She herself had been there a few times, but every time was still awe inspiring. The city of Canterlot took the position of mayor seriously, dating back to its founding. As a show of the people’s admiration and respect, the people built a mansion to house the mayor and their family, if any. Over the years it had been modified, added onto, and eventually became the near behemoth that it was now. A gate with ornate iron bars, and outside it were two guards dressed in black suits. They were a private security force that was hired by the city that looked after the mayors of Canterlot City, similar to the Secret Service, but with a bit more…freedom if you will.

Celestia pulled up to the gate and opened the window, the guard came up and Celestia said, “I’m here to see Maria Mare, we were invited to dinner.”

The guard nodded and waved towards another guard. The gate opened and allowed Celestia’s car passage. The road led to a paved circle driveway with a flower arrangement at the center. When Celestia pulled up two more guards came up and opened the doors. Sunset got out from the rear passenger’s side, she wore a magenta, short sleeve blazer atop a white blouse. A pink skirt that stopped just above her knees and then had black lace the finished it out and went past her knees, and it had her cutie mark emblazoned onto it.

Luna came out second, wearing a necklace with a moonstone gem cut into a crescent moon. Her dress was a deep burgundy color, like that of the night sky, and hung off of her right shoulder, exposing her neck and left shoulder and arm. Celestia was the last, and her dress was white as the snow, backless, and hung off of her neck. Both Luna and Sunset were a little surprised by the outfit, as it was beautiful, but also a little daring as it gave a somewhat generous view of her cleavage. Sunset figured Celestia was trying to look sexy for her girlfriend, not that she could blame her, she’d do the same if she was on a date with Pinkie.

The guards opened the door and Maria was already there waiting. She didn’t get dressed up, sticking to her mayoral attire, which was dressy in and of itself. Maria stepped out as three ascended the seven steps to meet her.

“Celly, I’m so happy you could make it,” said Maria as she gave Celestia a hug.

“Thank you, I’m glad we can have the chance to all meet each other, officially.” Celestia stepped back and stood next to Luna. “This is my little sister, Luna. She’s the Vice Principal of Canterlot High School alongside me, and the best partner in crime I could ask for.”

Luna smiled with a bit of pride and then reached out to shake Maria’s hand, the mayor accepted her hand and shook. “I must admit, when Tia said she was friends with the Mayor of Canterlot City, I thought she was full of it.”

“Luna!”

Maria chuckled. “I don’t blame you, but I’m glad you know so she can brag all about it to you.”

Luna sighed. “Great, now I have to keep hearing about for the rest of the night and moving forward.”

Celestia crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. “Oh please, Lulu, like you never bragged about your friends, or boyfriends!”

Luna shrugged. “True.”

Maria chuckled at the sisterly banter and then turned to Sunset. “And of course, I know who this brave girl is. I’m so happy to see you’re doing better after what happened, Sunset.”

Sunset chuckled nervously. “Yeah…it was a real touch and go thing, but I tend to bounce back pretty quickly. Tough girl and all that.”

“I can see, and you should know that Celly brags about you all the time. She’s very proud of you, Sunset,” said Maria.

Sunset and Celestia blushed furiously, a smile crept onto Sunset’s lips as she glanced over at Celestia. “S-She does?”

Maria chuckled. “Oh yes, she sounds like a proud parent every time.”

“Maria!” Celestia abashed.

Luna and Maria chuckled at how both women were embarrassed.

“Alright, that's enough teasing, come in, and let’s have dinner.”

Luna followed alongside Celestia’s left, while Sunset was on her right. Celestia glanced at her young ward and asked, “I’m sorry if it sounds like that…but, I am proud of you for all you’ve accomplished, Sunset.”

Sunset grinned as she glanced back at Celestia. “No, it’s okay…I-I’m happy you’re proud of me.” Although this Celestia wasn’t the Princess she knew and grew up with back in Equestria, hearing those words still filled Sunset with happiness nonetheless, for all she endeavored to do was make Princess Celestia proud of her, and even though this Celestia wasn’t a Princess, it was still nice to hear those words, even if it was another version of her former mentor/mother figure.

The four walked through a long hallway lined with pictures of past mayors of Canterlot City, each had a metal plate on their frames that was carved with the date they were sworn in and the end of their terms. It was like getting snapshots of the past as each mayor was painted with the image of Canterlot City as it was during that time, one showed the name of the city as “Ponyville”.

“Wait, this place wasn’t always called Canterlot?” Sunset asked.

“Oh no, it’s not known to many outside some of the historians and families who have lived here for generations, but Canterlot, when it was a rural town, was called Ponyville. The mayors of Ponyville all strived to make the town great, something to match the other growing cities in the country. So, over time, they developed the land, brought in businesses, and eventually it grew so big that it was a full blown city, and changed its name to Canterlot.” Maria explained.

Sunset had to admit, she did find it fascinating. From what she knew from Princess Twilight, the castle that the Princess of Friendship occupied was situated in the town of Ponyville, and was a somewhat rural town compared to the sprawling capital that was Canterlot. She wondered if Ponyville would change in the future since there was a castle there and a Princess lived there now?

Eventually they made it to the dining room, a table stretched the length of the room and could comfortably seat twelve people. At the far end of the room was a window that gave a nice view of the backyard garden and the rising moon. All four sat at the far end of the table, with Luna and Sunset on one side, and Celestia and Maria on another. The waiters brought in the appetizers and soon after the food, it was around this time that the conversations got a little more personal.

“Sunset, Celly tells me you’re seeing someone right now, how’s that going?” Maria asked.

Sunset blushed and shot a glare at Celestia that said, “Really?!” through her eyes. The older woman suddenly found her food very interesting to look at. “Y-Yes, I am. Her name’s Pinkie Pie, she’s great. Really funny, and she just brightens up the room whenever she’s around. And she was a big help in keeping from spiraling when…well…all that was going on.”

Maria’s expression fell a bit. “I’m sorry that you went through all of that, and I’m very happy that you’re alive. You’re such a bright young girl, and no one deserves what happened to you. On that note,” Maria turned to Celestia, “were the perpetrators ever caught?”

Luna decided to step in. “Yes, they were. Incidentally, it led to the strange event that occurred, that ‘Storm of the Century’ as the news called it. Thankfully, that woman, Witchblade, managed to stop it all. Apparently, it was a plot by those monsters manipulating three younger students into taking it further than they wanted or needed to. They have been punished accordingly.”

“With jail time I assume?”

Celestia shook her head. “I wanted to, believe me I did.” Her eyes fell on Sunset. “But Sunset convinced me to just leave it be and not press charges, since she was the victim in all this.”

Maria arched in an eyebrow in shock at hearing this. “That’s…noble, I suppose, but, their actions did lead to you getting hurt badly. Despite your remarkable recovery, if it weren’t for them, you wouldn’t have been hurt like you were.”

Sunset took a drink of her water and said, “What good would it do them and their families? They already regretted doing what they did, and were nearly killed by monsters for it. Hatred only breeds more hatred, the only thing to do is to start on the road to forgiveness. Trust will be something they’ll have to earn from me and everyone at school, but they have my forgiveness.”

Maria smiled and nudged Celestia. “Celly, you didn’t tell me that she’s also such a saint.”

“Oh, she wasn’t always, she was quite the little hellion before her reformation,” said Luna.

Sunset blushed in embarrassment. “It’s true…I was…”

Maria shrugged. “Weren’t we all at one point in our lives?”

“Tia certainly was, she was very rebellious back in our youth,” Luna stated.

Celestia coughed upon hearing that, having some of her drink go down the wrong pipe. “I-I wasn’t a troublemaker! Unlike someone I know.”

Luna gave her big sister such an innocent look, even batting her eyelashes. “Who, me? I was just precious little ‘Woona’.”

“Oh don’t ‘Woona’ me, every time you made that little innocent look of yours, you’d get out of trouble with Mom and Dad, hell, you did it to me whenever you got in trouble at school!”

Maria leaned over a little and whispered to Sunset, “I like these little sibling spats, don’t you?”

Sunset grinned and replied, “Same here, it’s like a rare sight to see these two not acting like school admins.”

“Humph! Well, I’m glad we’re sooo entertaining for you two.” Celestia pouted.

Sunset threw up her hands and said, “Hey, if there’s one thing I learned, it’s that you never get between two siblings – especially two older ones – things never go good when you’ve chosen a side.”

“That’s right,” Luna then grabbed Sunset by the shoulders and brought her closer and started petting her head as if she were a pet cat, “Sunset has learned that my side is the better one, Tia. I have stolen what’s most precious to you! Mwahahaha!”

Celestia crossed her arms. “Honestly, Luna.”

“Now, now,” Maria draped her left arm over Celestia’s shoulders, “play nice you two, I don’t want any bad blood between sisters, especially when I’ll probably be seeing more of you.”

Luna released Sunset and started to look at her sister and the mayor, really look at them. The way her big sister blushed and fidgeted, that goofy grin on her face, the way Maria was hanging off of her and invading Celestia’s personal space so casually and brazenly. Then it hit her like a runaway freight train, her eyes widening to the size of silver dollars.

“You’re not…?” Luna gasped, she then turned to Sunset who didn’t seem at all surprised. “Are they?”

Sunset nodded.

“We are, Lulu. Maria and I have been together for almost a year and a half now,” Celesita answered.

“Don’t be angry that she kept it from you, it was by my request that she did that. I didn’t want many people catching wind of it in case we didn’t work out, but I don’t feel that that’s a problem anymore,” said Maria.

Luna looked back to the couple and then proclaimed, “Finally! It’s about damn time you got someone!”

Celestia was confused. “You’re not angry that I kept this from you? And what do you mean by ‘finally’?!”

Luna smirked. “Tia, dear big sister, our work is good, but you can’t let it stifle your social life. I at least go out once and awhile.”

“Yes, I’m well aware of your little ‘one night stands’.” Celestia deadpanned and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Hey, I offered you a chance each time to sow some oats! My partners were always up for a threesome.”

“LUNA!” Celestia exclaimed.

Sunset’s face was bright red and steam could practically be seen coming out of her ears.

“Granted I was inviting her before I knew you two got together, but now she has a legitimate reason to decline, I wouldn’t want her to cheat.”

Luna got a sadistic kick out of teasing her big sister, and Celestia knew it. Often times she didn’t let Luna get to her, but in this case it was. “Luna, please, Sunset’s right here!”

Luna glanced to her left, smiled and patted Sunset on the shoulder. “C’mon now, she’s eighteen, she can hear stuff like this. Who knows, you might even learn something to help you and Pinkie spice up your relationship.”

Celestia buried her face in her hands and Sunset wished she was invisible, and deaf, invisible and deaf to this conversation. Maria just enjoyed the show, she felt she should save her lover from this, but she was having too much fun watching Celestia and Sunset squirm, not a mean-spirited way mind you.

Luna then reached out over the table and took one of her sister’s hands into hers. “Really though, I’m happy that you found someone.”

Celestia’s smile widened. “Thank you, Luna.”

“Well then, I think desert is in order, don’t you think?” Maria asked.

}}} Sunset, I sense HIM! {{{

“Him”? Him who?

Before a reply could be given, the lights went out. Emergency lights kicked on, offering dim lightning within the dining room. Not long after that, the sounds of gunfire and small explosions rang through the mansion, forcing the four women to jump to their feet. Two guards burst in through the doors and locked it immediately upon entering, weapons drawn, and both with scowls on their faces.

“What’s going on?!” Maria asked.

“Ma’am, the mansion’s under attack!” the guard stated.

Luna and Celestia looked shocked upon hearing this, and their faces reflected the fear in their hearts. Sunset, however, had a knitted brow, anger filled her, the woman who resembled her mother figure, the woman who treated her like a daughter, was being threatened along with Luna, and Maria Mare. The teen quickly started to think of a way to leave the room so she could transform and begin dispatching the ones stupid enough to attack them.

However, her chance wouldn’t come as the doors were forced open by black tendrils. The guards opened fire, but it was no use, the weapons were snatched out of their hands, snapping their fingers off as they both tried to hold onto their guns. The tendrils whipped back, impaling them and pinning against the back wall like a couple of macabre decorations. The urge to scream filled Maria, Celestia, and Luna, but outright fear prevented them, as if by some primal feeling that noise would just draw the attention of the thing that killed the guards.

The tendrils retracted and returned to a man with a black leather coat, ashen skin, and red eyes that glimmered in the dim lightning. Three men rushed in behind him and entered the dining room, guns pointed at the four women.

“Your Honor, pleasure to meet you,” said the black coat man.

“W-W-Who or W-What are you?!” Maria asked.

The man in the black coat took a couple of steps forward and said, “My name’s Sombra King, new leader of the newly formed Blood Kings. And as of tonight, I’m declaring myself king of the city.”

Next Chapter: Setting up the Pieces: Part 4 Estimated time remaining: 12 Hours, 33 Minutes