1. A Day like any other

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It was day like any other in Equestria. The sky was a bright blue, the wildlife was flourishing as always. It was a calm day, for everypony but two unicorns in particular. They were moving along empty roads in direction of a small village.

“How long until we get to that village? We've been walking for hours at that point!” complained the mare. Her complains were par for the course, for she was the impatient type.

“We shouldn’t be too far away now; it’ll take about half an hour before we arrive.” responded the stallion in a nervous voice. The two were pretty tense, for they were on a dangerous mission. A mission to save a small village from an aggressive dragon that has made its nest nearby. There was indeed, much at stake.

For any unicorn, going up against a dragon would be suicide, but these two had a chance. They were widely considered the best of the best by their peers in Canterlot. They were sent to deal with the dragon for their combined magic could overcome nearly every obstacle. The mare however, wasn’t so sure they could manage such a fearsome beast.

“Please tell me you have a plan in mind? I don’t want to jump straight into my death.” she asked rudely, clearly harboring some dislike for the stallion.

The stallion’s nervousness slowly faded away as he began to feel more confident, seemingly overlooking his partner’s bad attitude. “That’s what I've been thinking about for the whole trip and I believe that my plan might just work. I’ll tell you right now, but please don’t forget the important details this time.”

Awakened by the startling sound of her alarm clock, Sunset Shimmer stumbled out of bed after a few minutes of mustering up the will to start her day. Thursdays are the worst days possible for she had a lot of very demanding classes that day. She had many classes to attend that day, including a lab report, though it was thankfully done in teams of two. She would be joined by Twi for this experiment, a good thing since the girl is known for being very good at chemistry and physics. It had been only a few weeks since she first met this world’s Twilight. She was still very much the same Twilight Sparkle from Equestria, though only much younger and less experienced in the concept of friendship.

Eating breakfast, packing her things up and leaving her dorm, Sunset quickly made her way to Canterlot High while greeting the many acquaintances she would come across. She went about her day in a state closely resembling lethargy. It was terribly boring, but at least her friends made it bearable.

Though they weren’t always together, Sunset did share multiple classes with some of her closest friends, which greatly helped for group projects. She sighed, knowing that they would all gather at Sugar Cube Corner after school. This would easily be the best moment of her entire day.

During recess, Sunset was approached by Rarity, who looked especially excited.

“Darling! Have you seen these new posters littering the hallways?”

Sunset shook her head. “No, what’s gotten you so excited, Rarity?”

Rarity pulled out a copy of the poster and shoved it into her friend’s face. “It’s the upcoming Halloween party! This is the perfect occasion to show everyone here my crafts! Oh, I can hardly wait for this day, or night.”

Sunset pulled the poster away from her face so she can take a better look. “How could I have nearly forgotten? Canterlot’s High Halloween party has got to be one of the most anticipated events in the whole school!”

“Indeed it is! I have been working hours on end for my costume, I really hope It'll knock ‘em dead.” Rarity glanced at the poster in Sunset’s hand for a brief moment. “You can keep the poster; I’ve already memorised everything on it.”

She left to go up to her locker, leaving Sunset to imagine how the party would go. She had only experienced it once before, but it was back when she was known as the school bully. This time, she’d get to experience the Halloween party to its fullest. And that is because she has actual friends now. This made her much more excited for this event.

Next up; fitness class. These classes were usually Sunset’s favorite, partly because they were very easy to pass, but it was mostly since they got to play all sorts of games. It was definitely a much-needed break from all the mathematic and physic classes she attended otherwise. Being at the top of the school didn’t mean she truly enjoyed these classes.

Bulk Biceps was dominating most games due to his incredible physique. Most people in Canterlot couldn’t believe that this guy was just a high school student. With the appearance of a body builder, most assumed that he was much older than he let on to be which would always make for some pretty funny reactions when they learned just how young he truly was.
Sitting on the bench and waiting for her turn to get in the game, Sunset Shimmer watched the game of volleyball alongside her fellow teammate; Applejack. They both remarqued just how much Bulk was crushing the other team. He was very skilled in volleyball and that skill really showed in how much he was enjoying every moment he got to play. He truly looked like a child stuck in a man’s body, which was a funny theory the two friends liked to entertain.

“Well, at least someone looks happy to be here. The same cannot be said for the team going against Bulk. This guy’s crushing ‘em all like ants.” noted Applejack.

Sunset giggled as she got to witness the ridiculous power behind Bicep’s smashes. “He really is good at smashing. I can hardly believe at times that he’s just a student.”

“Yeah, he really has the looks of a P.E teacher. Think he might become one someday?”

“Ha! That wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest.”

The rest of the day flew by quickly and soon enough; the Rainbooms gathered at their usual hanging spot; Sugar Cube Corner.

“So, I don’t suppose you girls have seen the fliers around school?” spoke Rarity as she took a sip of her milkshake.
Rainbow quickly chugged down her drink. “Aw yes! This year’s Halloween party is gonna be so, awesome! Cuz, we got Sunset and Twilight to join us this time!”

Twi looked really excited herself; she barely able to sit still. “This is going to be the first time I'll ever get to spend Halloween with friends!”

“Gee, were you spending Halloween all by yourself? That’s quite sad.” curiously asked Pinkie as she nearly splattered her drink around everybody.

“Well, not exactly all by myself. I had Spike, and Shining Armor too. Cadance would come too, sometimes.”

“Did you dress up Spike for Halloween? I know I do for Angel, though it can be a hassle to get this little bunny in a costume.” said Fluttershy as she was wiping away the milkshake stains on her clothes, courtesy of Pinkie’s extravagant method of drinking.

“I do, Spike really likes to get in costume too. It also nets us more candies, even though we can’t let him eat any.” answered an amused Twi.

Rarity was shielding herself with a napkin from Pinkie Pie’s mess, trying her hardest not to stain her face and clothes. “Are you done Pinkie?”

“Almost.” Pinkie burped immediately after. “Done.”

“Great...” Rarity finally lowered her napkin to finish her drink.

Sunset wanted to share an interesting fact about Equestria. “Did you know that in Equestria, we call Halloween; Nightmare Night?”

“Huh, I was just about to ask that.” added Applejack. “Where does the name come from?”

“The name comes from what we used to call Princess Luna, back when she was still corrupted by the nightmare on the moon. She went by the name Nightmare Moon. Ponies around the globe were so scared of her that they offered candies at the foot of her statues in hopes that she wouldn’t come to eat their soul at night.” continued Sunset.

Rainbow Dash found it especially cool. “Wow, that sounds way cooler than our Halloween!”

While they were talking, Trixie waltzed in Sugar Cube Corner, looking for a snack after a long day of school. She walked up to the counter, closed her eyes and struck a flamboyant pose. “I, the Great and Powerful Trrixie...” She opened one eye to view the menu up above. “... would like a banana sundae.” Mrs. Cake nodded gleefully and went on to prepare the treat.

“I heard you wanted to work part-time here, Pinkie. Have you applied yet?” asked Applejack as she took one last sip of her milkshake.

Pinkie Pie’s entire body snapped towards Applejack in a split-second, surprising her for a bit. “I already did! I’ve been scheduled an interview later this week and I can safely say that I'm going to get this job! I mean, I’m meant for it aren’t I?”
Trixie sat on the table located right next to theirs, with a rather mocking look on her face. “With how your hair look like cotton candy, I’m sure you’ll feel right at home here.”

Pinkie took a good look at her hair in realisation. “Ooh! It does look like cotton candy!” She took a piece of her hair and brought it close to Trixie’s face. “Want a bite?”

Trixie cocked her head back in slight disgust. “Um, no. The Great and Powerful Trixie only has eyes for more, refined food.”

“Man, I wish I could feel more secure about my appearance like you, Pinkie.” admitted Twi as she watched the exchange between the two girls.

Sunset Shimmer leaned in closer to Twi with a warm smile on her face. “Don’t worry about that, we’re gonna work on this little insecurity problem together!”

It got really dark when the Rainbooms finally left Sugar Cube Corner, each heading back home on their own. Walking down the streets of Canterlot, Twi wasn’t paying much attention to what was around her. She was mostly lost in her thoughts, thinking about what she was going to study at her room and of course, to come up with a good costume for the upcoming Halloween party.

She snapped back to reality when she noticed that it was much darker than usual outside. She looked around, trying to see a reason why when her gaze landed on a couple of street lights. They appeared to be broken; they weren’t lighting up like the other functioning ones. Funnily enough, the street lights on the other crosswalk were still very much functional.

Pretty bizarre, but Twi didn’t think much of it. She looked back down at the road ahead of her. She stopped walking when she spotted a man standing under the broken street light she just looked at. The darkness made it impossible to tell any discerning feature. All Twi could tell was that the man was quite tall and burly. He was wearing a jacket and a normal-looking pair of jeans. Most noticeable however, was his long hair going all the way down to his shoulders.

Twi knew someone from Canterlot High with such a physique. Could it be Bulk Biceps? Probably. She thought about calling out to him, but chose not to in the end. If this guy wasn’t Bulk, then it would be wiser to not let her presence known. A young school girl out at night, it was a recipe for disaster should she bring any unwanted attention onto herself.

His behavior certainly didn’t resemble that of Bulk Biceps. He was standing still, his back to Twi, looking at the ground. What was even stranger was the complete lack of movement coming from him. Normally, when a person took a breath, their chest would move to let the air in and out. This man on the other hand, didn’t even appear to breath. He was quite literally deathly still.

Unnerved, Twi decided to not bring any attention onto herself. She would simply cross the street and pass by at a safe distance from him. At night, a girl had to be careful regarding who could be lurking out there on the streets. This guy certainly screamed “stranger danger!”, better not get close to him.

However, before Twi could even take a step. The man turned his head around, slowly but surely. With each movement he made, his bones cracked and snapped. After a few disturbing seconds, he had his gaze locked on her. Twi froze in fear, becoming as still as a statue. Both were staring at each other, but only she showed any emotion. For a moment, none even dared to move a single muscle.

Then, the man’s entire body followed his stare, turning around to face the young school girl as his bones cracked some more. His face and eyes were completely hidden in the darkness.

“Uh, d-don't mind me sir, I am just p-passing by.”

2. Stranger Danger!

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Nothing but silence, the stranger would not move an inch, the same goes for Twi. Both were locked in an intense staring contest, though it was very clear who was winning this hypothetical contest. Twi was slowly starting to shake in fear while the man was as still as a statue. It felt as if any sudden move could make the ominous person aggressive like a wild animal.

This guy was bad news, really bad news. After what felt like an eternity, Twi regained control of her legs and chose to back away to go to the other side of the crosswalk and hopefully get past him. Creepily enough, the stranger followed her every step with his gaze... before he finally took one towards her. Bones cracking accompanied his step, the sickening crunch sounded like he was snapping his bones in half each time his feet made contact with the ground.

This also reflected in his walk as he looked like he could fall at any moment with just how uneven and hesitant it was. Feeling her heart beating faster, Twi accelerated in hopes to get as far away as possible from him.

Then, he stopped moving. Raising an arm in the air, his hand was closed in a fist before it opened. A pendulum fell out of his hand and hung by the thread wrapped around his index. Twi slowed down without even knowing why. The stranger began to move the pendulum left and right and she felt drawn to the movement of the object.

She kept on looking at it and strangely enough; it made her fears go away. She felt comfort in watching the thing swinging about. That was until the man began to walk towards her again, startling her. Twi tried to move her legs but they wouldn’t respond. She tried to move her arms but they too wouldn’t respond. Not even her eyes would look away from the incoming danger. She was stuck in a trance.

Her eyes were still staring at the pendulum, they couldn’t even blink. It was a very strange feeling, made even worse by the fact that it left her defenseless from the creepy man. Tears of terror began to leak down her face as her body started to shake. It was the only type of movement she was capable of doing, or perhaps allowed would be a better word to describe this feeling.

He was now right in her face; at this distance she would be able to feel him breathing down her face but there was nothing. No breaths, no sound, only cracking noises as he methodically tilted his head from side to side as if he was analysing her.

“P-P-P...”

She tried as hard as she could to speak, but her lips were sealed shut. The stranger slowly lifted his arms up to her face, grabbing her by the cheeks and he lifted her head to get a better look.

Tilting her head left and right, Twi could feel the man’s finger cracking with every slight pressure he applied to her face. Looking into his eyes, she could barely perceive a faint yellowish glow that showed some semblance of life in him.

Finally, he let go of her and slowly walked away, leaving Twi in disarray. She crumbled on her knees as soon as she got back control of her body, still terrified of this scary encounter. She could have easily been murdered back there.

Twi slowly turned her head to look at the stranger leaving without a single care showing in his body language. He simply walked away after his bizarre examination.

I have to get back home, now!

Just as she stood up, a horrible migraine overcame her. It was so bad that she felt dizzy. Walking became extremely difficult, it felt as if she was really drunk, even though she had never consumed any alcohol in her life. Then, she fell down on the ground and passed out.

Dark, gloomy and deathly silent. These were good adjectives to describe this rundown shack in the middle of nowhere outside of Canterlot. There was no electricity, mostly because it was abandoned a long time ago from the looks of things. Nobody remembered this shack and none even ventured close to it, the perfect hideout for him.

All he had to light up the place was a small lantern that he had brought with him, very archaic in design. He was sitting on an old wooden chair, staring at the pathetic looking shiv he placed on the table. Was he really going to use it to murder his target? It would take at least 256 stabs to kill a person with it. Oh my, how long as he been searching already? So long he hadn’t even though of a plan.

Well, first things first, he had to get a real weapon. Something sharp, bigger and deadlier than this.

“Do you ever worry you might be going mad?”

He stopped fiddling around with the shiv. Instead, his focus was now on his hands. They looked so pitiful. They were shriveled up in the same way a person’s hands would look if they stayed in water for a long period of time. Not only that, but his hands had lost their beautiful color. Now all that remained was a faded sickly tint. It’s been so long since he’s been this way to the point that he was starting to forget who he was.

Looking to his right, he noticed a beanie sitting on the table. Drawn to it, he wore it without a second thought. Better hide his dying hair than to let anyone see just how pitiful he was.

“It’s going nowhere. To succeed, one must send a message first. Then and only then, would it be a good time to savor the kill.”

It was right, he must let himself be known first. Though he must stick to the shadows, too much exposure would jeopardise everything. It won’t happen, not after all these years and all the things he sacrificed. He needed a weapon, and he’ll get it now.

Or perhaps tomorrow. The sun is slowly rising over the horizon, guess he’ll just have to be patient. An easy thing to do now for he was so close to fulfilling his and only desire at the moment.

Another day, another exam. These were getting really wearisome to Sunset Shimmer. It was that awful period near Halloween where the teachers would cram all their exams, making for a really stressful week. Good thing she was studying hard, because she finished early and got to head out of class. She took a seat in the cafeteria and pulled out her phone while waiting for her friends to finish their exams.

Unsurprisingly, Twi was the first of her friends to finish. She walked up to the table Sunset was sitting at and fell down on the chair, looking somewhat exhausted.

“Hey Twilight! I’m quite surprised you finished after me. You’re usually better at maths than I am.” playfully said Sunset.

Twi rubbed her eyes before responding. “I haven’t slept much last night, that’s probably why I was slower this time around.”
“You didn’t sleep much? Why, was it the exam that got you spooked?”

Twi shook her head and opened her mouth as if she was about to explain why, but then she looked confused. She looked away for a moment, trying to remember something, but it just wouldn’t come to mind.

“Uh, Twilight? Is something wrong?” Sunset worriedly asked, putting down her phone to face her friend.

Twi finally snapped out of it. “No, I don’t think so. I’m just trying to remember why I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, but... I just can’t remember.”

“And that is... not a cause for concern?”

“The exam was pretty easy, so thankfully that didn’t really cause any problem. Plus, if I forgot about it; then surely it must have been not important.”

Though still unsure, Sunset didn’t want to pride any further. “Yeah, I suppose this isn’t really something we should be worried about. I mean, there are some stuffs that I can’t remember too... Hehe... he.”

Time passed and eventually, the entire band was here. Each of them looking worn out from the difficult exam they had just finished.

“Oh man, that wasn’t very fun...” Pinkie exclaimed, her chin resting on the table.

“At least darling, I can say that I’m confident that I will get a good grade!” said Rarity as she was running a hand through her nicely combed hair.

Applejack turned to look at her, unimpressed. “Why? Is it the flashy clothes?”

“Oh yes indeed! A girl has to look good for such an important event!”

Rainbow Dash groaned. “You do know that fancy clothes don’t equal good grades? You can ask Twilight about that.”

Rarity looked at Twi and noticed that her friend’s sense of fashion was clearly nowhere close to her standards.

Twi giggled nervously. “I didn’t have time to slip into something flashy.”

Fluttershy didn’t seem to think it looked that bad. “Hum, I still think it looks good on you, Twilight.”

“Meh, let’s stop talking about exams and fashion, ‘cuz I've got something cool to show y’all!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash, suddenly filled with a wave of energy. She rocked back on her seat to take something out of her pockets. As she did, the seat cracked, though no one seemed to have noticed except for Fluttershy.

“Hum, Rainbow Dash. I thi-”

“Huzzah!” Dash pulled out a butterfly knife, much to everyone’s surprise.

Sunset looked especially shocked. “Dash, that’s a butterfly knife...”

“Dash...” said Fluttershy in an attempt to get Dash’s attention.

“I know! I saw this cool French guy on YouTube doing all sorts of cool tricks with it and I thought it would be awesome if I learned how to do some myself!” she continued enthusiastically. She once again rocked back and this time... the seat snapped and she tumbled on the floor.

“Dash, I wanted to tell you that your seat was going to break.” muttered Fluttershy as she looked at her friend resting on the floor.

“I can see that...” groaned Rainbow Dash out of embarrassment.

Her friends laughed at her tumble for a moment before stopping entirely, now looking somewhat worried.

Dash lifted her eyes only to see the school’s supervisor looking at her with disapproval. He bent down to pick up the butterfly knife. “I’ll have to confiscate such a dangerous item and well... probably notify Celestia about the broken seat.” He looked back at Dash with a cold, uncaring look. “We’ll have to talk about this, later this day.”

He then walked away as the Rainbooms watched on in silence. Rainbow Dash got back on her feet and took the other seat next to Fluttershy, covering her face with her two hands in embarrassment. “That was a stupid idea...”

Sunset agreed with her. “Yeah, bringing a knife to school was probably not an awesome idea if you think about it for more than a second.”

Trixie walked by and looked at her in amusement. “The Great and Powerful Trrrixie commands you for your absolutely stunning stunt, Rainbow Crash!”

Rainbow Dash buried her face further in, now blushing.

“A little piece of advice for ya; show us these kinds of things anywhere but in school if you don’t want to get scolded!” exclaimed Applejack mockingly.

“Well, I thought the butterfly knife was pretty cool.” admitted Pinkie Pie with a smile.

It was now night time, the school was closed with only a night guard as the sole person wandering the dark halls. He had to make a quick round just to make sure everything was in order and then he could finally leave.

Everything was quiet, it was quite unnerving but to him, it was just another shift. Working the night shift really made the darkness much less terrifying. He got used to it, though the occasional strange shadows can still catch him off guard.
Canterlot, in general, doesn’t see much crime happening. It’s a relatively safe city all things considered, though people still take security very seriously just in case. Just in case...

A door creaked, odd but it isn’t really something to be worried about. No, wait... it so is! The security guard spun around and pointed his flashlight at the other side of the hallway. A door was opened, though he swore it used to be closed when he first passed by it.

No doubts about it; someone else was inside. Although the security guard always hoped for some action, he didn’t want to investigate. He always had fantasies about being a hero, stopping a robber from stealing something or beating up a creep who wanted to do some morally questionable things. On one hand, simply going away and acting as if nothing was happening would be the safest bet.

On the other hand, he’d probably get fired. Okay, yeah, this is kind of bad. Better check it out. He wasn’t going to give up this job. The horrors of job hunting motivated him to take a look at this mysterious intruder.

Peeking through the open door, he noticed that the room the intruder had entered was Celestia’s office. Rustling sounds broke the silence as this mysterious person fiddled around with the various drawers on the desk.

“Hey! Get up and put your hands in the air!” shouted the night guard as he took out his handgun and pointed it at the intruder. The rustling stopped and the figure rose up from its crouched position. As he did, his bones cracked and nearly snapped as his trembling frame finally came into view. Right as he was standing, his body stopped trembling, almost as if he had a hard time simply getting on his feet.

The darkness was hiding all of his features to the guard. The only thing he could make out was his frame. Bulky and rather tall, he was a bigger guy than him. A much bigger guy. Now it was the guard who was trembling, though he tried his best to hide it from the intruder.

“I-I said; put your hands up!”

The man stared him down for a while but eventually complied. The stranger lifted his left arm, closed in a fist before suddenly opening it, startling the night guard. A pendulum attached to his index dropped and hung in the air.
Then, he swung the pendulum left and right. It swung, and swung. The guard stared at it in surprise at first, but it quickly turned into a very warm and comforting feeling.

Keep looking at the pendulum. Keep looking and... let the hypnotist work his magic.

3. First Blood

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“We’re here!” exclaimed the stallion as he finally got to saw the village in the horizon. His expression of relief quickly shifted to horror as he saw the village being up in flames. The dragon was flying above, raining down fire on the poor townsfolk while the two unicorns watched, disturbed at the apocalyptic scenario happening right before their very eyes.

The mare looked at her partner with uncertainty. “Do you... have a plan B? Because I don’t think we are going to enter the dragon’s lair after all.”

He stared horrified for a minute before springing back to life. “Holy Sun-on-a-stick, this is terrible! We’ve got to form a new plan, now!”

The mare examined the dragon briefly, it looked like your run of the mill dragon, a good thing considering these flying beasts are tough to bring down. “Beating a dragon is out of the question, we should try to lure it away. You know what these monsters seek don’t you? You’ve done your studies?” she asked with slight hints of arrogance in her voice.

“Of course, I did!” The stallion proudly reached a hoof out to his chest and closed his eyes. “Celestia wouldn’t look at me so favourably if I neglected my studies and her teachings.”

“Yeah, she wouldn’t otherwise...” responded the disgruntled mare. She quickly changed her expression when the stallion started looking at her, slightly confused. “We’ll just need to find a diamond big and shiny enough to get its attention.”

The stallion smirked, knowing it was his time to shine. “Or we could just craft a fake diamond with magic. It just has to look like the real deal for your plan to work!” He sounded very proud of himself in these two sentences. A rare sight to see.

The mare’s face now showed a slight hint of disdain towards the stallion, though the latter didn’t pick up on it whatsoever. She knew she couldn’t pull off this kind of spell, and it made her angry. “Sure, go ahead.”

The stallion began to form the fake diamond, his horn glowing to an extraordinary degree. “You’re really good at acting on the spot and I must admit; I wish I could be as confident as you are, but I'm sure I can improve on that front!” he said enthusiastically.

The mare scoffed. “Thanks.” Her gratitude didn’t feel genuine, which was something the stallion, again, didn’t pick up on.

The diamond took shape. It was bright, shiny and beautiful. Nopony would ever be able to tell this one was fake without examining it closely with magic. It would surely work on a dragon too. The goal was simple; to lure it away to buy them enough time to form a new plan to stop the dragon’s tyranny over the village.

“Alright, I think we’re good to now. This village needs us, we can’t afford to mess this up.” he said as he picked up the heavy diamond with his magic.

“Sure thing. Lead the way, Stardust Radiant.”

Sunset Shimmer woke up before her alarm. One quick look at the time confirmed that it was better to get out of bed rather than to snooze for a while longer. She slowly lifted herself up from her resting position and stretched out before taking her first steps out of her bed.

She yawned as she sluggishly walked over to the kitchen, preparing a bowl of cereal. She used to put the milk before the cereals, but that changed after her defeat at the hands of Twilight Sparkle. Now, she preferred to put the cereals before the milk. An odd detail for sure.

She turned on the TV as she was eating, wanting to listen to the news just in case there was something important going on.
“We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to deliver a tragic new. A night guard was recently found murdered inside the halls of Canterlot High by the school’s principal.”

Sunset nearly choked on her cereals. Now, she had her full attention aimed at the news broadcast. A murder, in Canterlot? Even worse, it was at Canterlot High!

“The body was discovered earlier this morning as principal Celestia entered the establishment and headed to her office. The night guard appeared to have died right by her office with a gunshot wound on his forehead. Stranger still, the word “murderer” has been written in his blood on the wall above him. The police have been called to the school and are currently investigating the crime scene in hopes they can find anything to track down the killer. Stay tuned for more information on this case, later that day. We leave you back to your regularly scheduled program.”

She didn’t even take a single bite during the whole broadcast. She was in far too much shock to even fully process what she had just watched. Many crazy things happened at Canterlot High, but this was the first time there had ever been a murder there.

Sunset snapped out of it after a while, realising that she still needed to finish her cereals. She ate them quickly and then took out her phone to hop into her friends group chat, wanting to know if they saw the news too.
No new messages, so she decided to send one herself to get the others attention.

Did you guys see what was on the news?

Not long after, Twi replied. Yeah, I just did. The night guard was murdered while he was on his shift!

This is horrible! Rarity added. What’s to say this killer is going to stop at just one?

We should be careful y’all. This killer might hang around Canterlot High seeing as the murder happened at night. Pointed out Applejack.

Do you think he was looking for something? Asked Rainbow Dash.

Very likely, you don’t go into a school at night just to hang around. Answered Twi. This murderer wanted something in Celestia’s office.

This is sending chills down my spine, really bad chills! Wrote Pinkie Pie.

I am scared to go to school today. Admitted Fluttershy.

Still, why would the killer write “murderer” in the victim’s blood? That doesn’t make any sense! Pointed out Rainbow Dash.

Maybe this is some kind of threat or something? Responded Applejack.

We should talk about this more at school during recess and lunch. If this killer isn’t going to stop there; we’ll have to take immediate action. Finished Sunset as she closed her phone.

It would be best to chat about the murder face-to-face. None of them knew what the killer’s intention was to sneak inside the school at night. From now on, they should be careful for none of them are truly safe.

Sunset quickly packed her bag and headed out in direction of Canterlot High. There was so much to talk about, but she would first have to sit through her classes.

Threading through the streets of Canterlot, Sunset couldn’t help but think about the murder. More specifically, the circumstances, the victim, the fact it took place near the principal’s office. She was cobbling together some theories as to what the killer was doing in there. Her daydreaming was cut short when she noticed a strange man standing still just in front of her.

She stopped walking and... snickered. That man was strange indeed, wearing a pickle suit out in public with absolutely zero sign of shame or embarrassment. It was quite a funny sight, and definitely an odd one at that.

Oh well, no use in mocking him for his extravagant choices, she was well beyond the point of being a bully. She walked forward, getting past the man in the pickle suit without a second thought.

But then, he called out to her. “Hey, you.”

Sunset turned around, curious as to what he was going to say. Now that she was closer to him, she noticed that he was wearing fingerless gloves and sunglasses. “Yeah, what is it?”

“No more lies, no more cover-up, no more projecting a false image.”

Sunset looked terribly confused, this guy sounded like he knew everything about her just from the way he was trying to speak. It was kind of cringy even, just how much he had this “cool guy” voice as if he was a video game character or something. To make it worse, he was gesturing as if he was acting in a movie. The epitome of trying way too hard to appear intimidating. “O...k?”

“We’re all sick of it, sick of your deceit. I know your secret. Your biggest secret, and I'll bring it to light.”

She chuckled, obviously this stranger didn’t know anything about her. “Yeah, sure you do.”

He was still adamant on keeping this over-the-top serious face. “See, I have your mugshot.” He pulled out a picture from a pocket inside his suit. He showed it to Sunset, and this time, she was struck with worry.

The picture was an extremely unflattering image of Sunset while she was all by herself in the school. Why and how he got that picture was a mystery, but from the looks of things; he was trying to blackmail her into something.

No longer finding this guy amusing, Sunset took on a more agitated expression and posture. “Hey! How did you get that picture? Are you blackmailing me?!”

The man in the pickle suit put the picture away and shook his head. “No, I'm letting you know I have all the cards. You’ll just have to deal with the hand I give you.” He approached her at a rapid pace, making the girl take a step back in fear. “Your consequences aren’t easy to swallow.” he said, this time, his voice had a growl added to it. And oh boy, did it sound ten times more intimidating than before.

He left just as quickly as he appeared, leaving Sunset in disarray. She simply looked at the man exiting the scene until he was no longer in sight. “What... what just happened!?”

The bell rang and it was time for recess. Finally, Sunset could join her friends and theorise about the situation. They’ve saved the school from the Dazzlings, from the arrogance of Crystal Prep and now, it was their duty to protect it from whatever killer was roaming out there. She waited in their practicing room for the Rainbooms to come and in just a minute; the gang was all here.

Rainbow was the first to enter the room, looking frustrated. “Gah, I can’t believe they lost my butterfly knife!”
“This again?” asked Applejack.

“Yeah! I asked principal Celestia about it and she couldn’t find where they putted it! It’s just... gone!” she continued, sounding desperate and frustrated all the same.

“Wait, hold it there! You said that your butterfly knife was taken to principal’s Celestia’s office? And now it’s gone?” questioned Twi.

Rainbow Dash looked at her, slightly confused. “Uh, yeah. That’s literally what I just said.”

Twi shook her head, annoyed that her friend didn’t even think much about it for more than a second. “Dash! The murderer was snooping around in Celestia’s office! He must have taken your knife!”

Dash’s eyes widened as her jaw dropped. “Oh.”

Fluttershy though about the incident and realised something strange. “But if they took Dash’s knife, then, why didn’t they steal the guard’s firearm? A gun is deadlier than a knife.”

Sunset looked at her, intrigued by the good point that the shy student made. “You’re right, why would he settle for just a small knife? It just doesn’t make much sense!”

“Well, this “killer” was just snooping around the school at night. I assume it wasn’t their initial intention to kill the guard.” shared Rarity. From how the whole event was described, there was some semblance of truth in there.

“But then, why write “murderer” in the victim’s blood? What is this intruder trying to say?” spoke out Twi as she took a hand to her chin.

Pinkie Pie wasn’t participating in the conversation. She looked very trouble which was normal considering the circumstances. “Hey, can we stop talking about this creepy man? It’s making Pinkie feel very anxious right now!”

Applejack looked at her, perplexed at the mention of the word “man”. “Creepy man? Do you know something about the killer we don’t or were you just assuming their gender?”

“It’s gotta be a man! Didn’t you see just how strong the night guard looks? This creepy murderer must have been a man to have done it!” Pinkie sounded really adamant about their Mr.X’s gender.

Sunset took Pinkie’s side, knowing just how good she was at figuring things out about people. “Well since Pinkie is saying it’s a man who did it; then I'm inclined to believe she’s right.”

“Argh! If only I still had my knife with me, I'd at least feel safer.” groaned Rainbow Dash as she curled up her hands into fists.

Rarity had her two cents to give regarding this statement. “And how is a small knife going to help you against a man who’s most likely twice your size, Dashie?”

Dash’s arm fell unenthusiastically to her sides. “Not much I guess...” she responded in defeat.

During this time, Fluttershy was browsing the Internet on her phone, hoping that there would be an update on the news regarding the murder. Lo and behold, there were now more information regarding the incident, but it was something very strange. “Girls! You gotta hear this.” she called out to her friends.

The others stopped talking and now had their full attention towards the shy girl. “We’re listening Fluttershy.” said Twi.

“It says in the news that they have done an autopsy on the body and searched around for fingerprints.” relayed Fluttershy.

“And..?” they said in unison.

“They only found the guard’s fingerprint on the murder weapon! Moreover, his brain appears to be scrambled, not just from the shot but from something else entirely.” continued Fluttershy, her voice raising more and more as she went on.

“What?!” screamed Pinkie while she hopped around the room, stricken with fear. “That doesn’t make any sense, even for me!”

“The message written in blood confirms that this is a murder case, so why did he just shoot himself in the head?” asked Sunset, horribly confused, a sentiment now shared by everybody in the room.

“Darling, please don’t tell me our mysterious killer knows magic.” said Rarity, her voice trembling with every word she spoke.

“But if he knows magic, then...” started Twi, stopping mid-sentence to reconsider what she was about to say. “Then we’re not going to let him get away with this!”

Applejack felt a shiver go down her spine. “Something’s weird is going on y’all. And I have a feeling it’s going to get much worse...”

Everybody in Canterlot High was in the gym, awaiting the principal and the vice-principal's speech regarding the troublesome situation. Tensions were at an all-time high amongst the students and teachers. This was the first time somebody had died in their high school, which made this problem very different from those that had come before.

Sunset stood near her friends while they were waiting for the two to show up, still talking about the investigation. It was all that was on their mind for the time being. With nothing much to do, she scouted the room with her eyes, looking at everybody’s reaction. They were lots of chatting and murmuring, which only made the entire gym feel more oppressive.

What was that? Sunset’s stare quickly snapped back at a group of students sitting on the benches. It was just Derpy, Lila and Bonbon who were there. But Shimmer swore she saw someone else sitting behind them for just a split second. Someone big. But then again, that could have been just an hallucination. Those occur quite frequently under periods of heightened stress and anxiety.

It’s like when you just stroll down a dark street at night and you see a couple of trash bag in a dark alleyway and mistake it for like, the grim reaper or something. It’s nothing more than a bizarre illusion, courtesy of your brain.

Suddenly, the whole room went quiet. Celestia and Luna had walked up on stage and were about to give their speech to the whole school. The principal was the first to speak.

“Attention everybody, I understand that you are all feeling quite anxious and afraid about the recent tragedy that has taken place here, in Canterlot High. This situation has made us realise the shortcomings of our security system. We promise that we’ll work our hardest to make sure that our school is safe place for students to perfect their education.” Celestia said with a warm and comforting tone.

Then, it was Luna’s turn to talk.
“We’re all deeply saddened about the unfortunate passing of our beloved night guard. He was a good man who took his work to heart to ensure the school’s safety at night. In honor of all the heart and passion he put into his job; we will establish a memorial to remember him by...”

Now there were movements in the corner of Sunset’s eyes. Not just students moving their heads around, but it was someone who was walking around. Every time Sunset tried to pinpoint who was wandering around the gym, she would be met with nothing. It was as if this person vanished any time, she would look at them.

At this point, it can’t be just an hallucination, it had to be real. Either that, or she’s going insane... Nah, couldn’t be. She’s tougher than that and she knew it. It was just her mind playing tricks on her, if she just ignored it, then it won’t bother her...

“Boo.”

Sunset jumped as she spun around and let out a surprised yelp. That voice couldn’t belong to anybody around her. It was deep, sinister, sounding much more like a growl than anything. Luna stopped her speech and looked at her in confusion. Her friends did too, and nearly all of the students and teachers inside the gym.

“Uh, Sunset? You alright?” asked Rainbow Dash.

Realising that everyone’s eyes were on her, Sunset blushed out of embarrassment and tried to cover her face. “Y-Yeah. It was nothing...”

It was a bright day outside, and yet... the shack was nearly pitch black inside. All the windows were closed, boarded off to prevent any sunlight from entering, casting the interior in darkness. Once again, the only thing that lighted up the place was the archaic lantern.

The man was reading a book he had stolen from Canterlot High’s library. It was a book about the art of hypnotism, a craft he was already great at. He knew that there existed more effective ways to go about it, and he was dying to know.

“Perfecting your craft? This should be interesting.”

The murderer stopped his reading and slowly turned his head around, not out of fear, but out of curiosity at just who this voice belonged to. He had only started to hear it mere days after his arrival in Canterlot. But as he got to see what was behind him, he was meet with emptiness. He truly was the only person in this rundown shack.

Or... maybe not. He took out the butterfly knife he stole from Canterlot High and examined it. The handle was rainbow colored, not the most intimidating look but it’ll do the job just fine. The stranger wanted to try out some tricks with the weapon, he hoped that learning how to do them would make his approach much more terrifying. He was going for psychological warfare first, so everything that could strengthen his presence is a good thing.

He first tried the most basic of trick; to open the knife. It looked easy to do, it was just three simple moves to get it done. Well, that was what he thought. Trying the trick, the blade hit his fingers and cut them open, spilling blood over the table. The man didn’t react, nor did he even flinched as he injured himself. Instead, he simply stared at the wound with a certain sense of sorrow.

Placing the knife away for the moment, he directed his attention towards something else, a yearbook photo he took with his phone in the library. It depicted Sunset Shimmer and the Rainbooms together alongside a girl he recognised. Although she looked different in this picture, no glasses and a different hair style but he knew it was the young schoolgirl he saw a few days ago.

“Interesting information. What are you going to do with it?"

He put the picture away after memorising the faces of everyone in it. Now onto the final point of interest; dangerous chemicals. Lots of dangerous chemicals...

With these, he could make acid, toxic gasses and much more. Though he still didn’t know how he would use them, but it was better than nothing.

“Are you throwing feces at the wall just to see what sticks? You’ll need better planning than that if you want to succeed.”

There it is. Something that can improve his hypnotism. From what the book says, music can strengthen any kind of magic. All he needed was an instrument to combine with his hypnotic abilities to push his power even further. An instrument that was easy to play, most preferably. Auditory hallucinations could then be used to make the victim think there are more being played at once to create a stronger effect.

He'll just need to experiment with this new method first...

4. He's coming to get you, Sunset!

View Online

What a misty Friday morning this was. Sunset had trouble sleeping that night despite trying many different methods to fall asleep. In the end, she simply chose to get some fresh air in the early morning before her classes. There was a somewhat thick mist present in Canterlot, but it wasn’t too hard to see what was over in the distance.

Sunset Shimmer brought a jacket along for the ride as it was cold outside. The breeze was quite chilly, almost freezing. This at least helped her stay awake. She then moved to the Sweet Snacks Café to kill the time before school. A good drink would surely give her the energy she’d need for the day.

It usually opened at very early hours in the morning, so she could stay inside to warm herself up with a hot beverage. Entering the café, she went up to the counter and ordered her drink, then took a seat to drink it in peace.

There was practically nobody in the café at the time being. Well, that was until an old man entered the scene. He was wearing a purple coat alongside a boat hat, which was quite a rare sight for Sunset. His mustache was snow white and his skin was slightly paler than normal. He was in a hunched posture, holding a cane tightly to help him walk. He looked really old and frail as his entire body was trembling with each step he took. It almost seemed like being alive was an arduous process for the poor elder.

He ordered a cup of coffee and took a seat, right next to where Sunset was sitting at. “Oh my, I didn’t know there was someone else in here. I usually find myself alone when I go at such early hours.”

“I suppose you must like the peace and quiet in here?” asked Sunset Shimmer.

The old man smiled. “Yes, that I do. I’ve had quite the eventful life. Now, it just feels good to finally be able to relax.” He looked at her for a moment, his eyes almost seemed fully closed thanks to the large number of wrinkles on his face. “Hold on, I think I've seen your face before.”

Sunset looked quite surprised. “Hm? You did? I just go to Canterlot High, maybe you have grandkids that attend this school?”

The old man’s face suddenly illuminated. “Ah! I remember now. You’ve been on the newspaper recently!”

“What? Really?” Sunset was extremely curious as to why she was in the newspaper.

“It was about the Friendship Games. I’ve read that plenty of exciting things happened this year, some even more spectacular and quite frankly, hard to believe.” He chuckled lightly.

“I’d hardly believe any of it happened if I wasn’t there myself.”

“You were specifically mentioned due to your contribution to Canterlot High, Mrs. Sunset Shimmer.” continued the elder. “I am happy to see that our school is finally showing the arrogant heads at Crystal Prep what we’re capable of!” He pumped a trembling fist up, a gesture that looked quite adorable to Sunset.

“Thanks for the kind words, sir.”

Sunset’s expression was quite the complex one indeed, showing both happiness and a certain sense of sorrow. The old man picked up on that, mostly thanks to the wisdom he had acquired over a very long life. “Is something the matter? You don’t look entirely happy...”

“Oh! It’s nothing to feel concerned about. It’s just that I’ve done some regrettable things in that school. I’m just trying to fix my mistakes.”

The elder nodded, then apologised. “My bad, I shouldn’t be prodding into other people’s life.” His eyes suddenly widened. “Ah! I believe I still haven’t properly introduced myself. I am Beelz.”

“And I'm Sunset Shimmer, though you already knew that.” responded the amused girl.

Beelz’s face darkened out of the blue. “I’ve... also heard about the recent murder that took place in Canterlot High yesterday. Truly horrible stuff.”

“It’s especially bad for us. We go to that school for the whole week. Now the atmosphere in there is stressful. People are afraid this killer is gonna strike again.”

“I understand how they feel; I’ve been in the force myself when I was still young and full of energy. I’ve solved many cases like this over a very long career.”

The mist outside began to clear, it was now much easier to make out what was outside. Sunset was intrigued by the kind of life Beelz had led. “That’s sounds really awesome!” Hopefully, his knowledge in these cases might prove to be useful in catching this murderer who is most likely using some form of magic to get his way. “Do you think, maybe you could share your experiences in solving murder cases? I’d like to hear your stories.”

The elder took a sip from his coffee. “Heh, of course! I’ll tell you some. And if you want to hear more; you know where to find me!”

Arts and craft, a domain Sunset Shimmer was quite interested in. She wanted to improve her skills with painting, and who better to ask for advice than Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy? Quite the lucky coincidence she was with the both of them for this class.

“Just be careful not to paint too roughly or else you’ll get messy lines. It’s all about control.” advised Fluttershy.

Sunset’s painting was very simple in nature, depicting only one object without any background. But hey, everyone’s gotta start somewhere.

She certainly did catch Pinkie’s attention; she was now looking over her shoulder. “Ooh! It’s actually quite good for a beginner! I’m sure you’ll be able to paint just as good as me if you keep it up!”

Sunset giggled nervously. “I sure hope so, painting’s a lot harder than I initially thought it would be.”

“That’s what I also thought, but I didn’t give up and kept on trying until I was finally satisfied with what I was painting.” said Fluttershy to keep her friend motivated.

“Ha ha! That’s true! All it takes is perseverance and time to truly get good at something! You surely must know just how much success some people obtain just by being driven by passion and desire!” added Pinkie Pie.

“Yeah, it’s impressive just how much motivation plays a large role in success. Some people go to truly extraordinary length just to get what they want! I won’t let any blunders bring me down!”

The halls of the school were now littered with various decoration for the upcoming party. Halloween was going to take place in the next Friday. Just one more week before the big event everybody was waiting for. During lunch hours, many students participated in hanging up the decorations alongside the staff. Sunset also wanted to help, partially as a way for redeeming herself for all the bad things she’s done although it didn’t bother her as much now as it did before the Friendship Games.
She chose to help in the gym, seeing as it was the biggest room in the entire school alongside the library. Walking up to the stage, she spotted Trixie casually flying while hanging up skeletons around. Wait, flying?

“Wha- Trixie are you flying?”

Trixie spun around flamboyantly. “Why yes! The Great and Powerful Trrixie-”

Sunset now noticed the rather obvious wires attached to the self-proclaimed magician. “Never mind, I can see through the magic now...”

Trixie frowned for a moment, before regaining her cool. “I’ll let you know that I can do real magic just as well as you! I just don’t feel the need to show it now.”

Sunset Shimmer rolled her eyes, clearly not wanting to go any further in this discussion. “Sure, I’ll leave you to it then.” she said unimpressed.

Trixie watched on as the girl left, feeling insulted by her reaction. “I’ll show you what I'm made of... on Halloween of course.” she told Sunset before speaking to herself. “I’m more than a show-off. I’m the real deal. You’ll see.”

Finally back home, Sunset dropped her bag and fell on the couch, exhausted by this long and stressful week. She just wanted to sit in front of her computer and browse the Internet for this afternoon, nothing really demanding.

Her phone suddenly vibrated; it was a message on their group chat. Rarity asked them if they had a costume prepared for the upcoming Halloween party. Sunset figured she only asked because she wanted to make their costume, it was her passion to craft all sorts of pretty clothing. Halloween was all about creepy ghouls and other scary monsters, it would be very interesting to see how Rarity would go about crafting a costume to fit the spooky mood.

I have one prepared for myself, and Spike as well! He really loves Halloween! Wrote Twi to the group.

Sunset smiled as she read her message. She really wanted to see what adorable costume Twi had cooked up for the little puppy.

I’m still trying to think of one, but there’s just so much to choose from... I’m thinking maybe an animal would be good. Fluttershy added.

I know what you’re thinking Rarity! And no, I'm not letting you design my Halloween costume! I want it to be super awesome and terrifying! Spouted out Rainbow Dash. Of course, she wouldn’t want Rarity’s rather extravagant touches to spoil the terror her costume was supposed to bring.

Rarity defended herself, wanting to be given another chance. Dash! Come on! Give me a chance, I may have messed up last year, but this time, and this time! I’m going to make you the best Halloween costume in all of Canterlot!

The chat went silent for a minute. Fine, but you better make it 20% cooler...

I’m sure you girls will like my costume! It’ll be quite the scene-maker! Wrote Pinkie Pie, adding in some emojis to spice up her text.

Let me guess... a clown? Responded Applejack.

How’d you know?

Sunset decided to tease them a bit with what she was preparing for this event. Just wait until you see what I’ve got, Pinkie!

Gasp! It seems I have finally met my rival! Jokingly replied Pinkie Pie.

Maybe as a butterfly? Proposed Fluttershy.

Rarity seemed thrilled. Why yes! I can absolutely work with that Fluttershy!

I’ll keep mine a secret; Granny Smith is helping Applebloom and I with our costume. You’ll just have to wait and see. Teased Applejack, spicing it up with a smirking emoji.

I’d like to see it surpass mine! Taunted Rainbow Dash with full confidence.

The discussion kept on going for a while, and slowly but surely, the friends all left one by one, occupied with their homework and tasks at hand. Time passed by quickly as Sunset was watching all sorts of videos on the Internet to entertain herself. She could afford to procrastinate on her studies just for this night only because she already had amazing grades. She was in no hurry whatsoever.

Now it was dark outside, and Sunset tucked herself in her bed, still holding onto her phone. She was scrolling around various news site, still unable to get the recent events out of her mind. The best thing to do in that situation was to entertain her curiosity by gathering as much information as possible on this tragedy.

Her room was terribly dark, and thanks to the fact that she had her face buried in her phone, everything around her was shrouded in darkness, making it impossible to see anything in there. She probably could have turned a fan on to make some noise at the very least. It was deathly quiet, giving off an unnerving feel to what was supposed to be her comfort zone. Well, it’s not like someone could have gotten inside her room, she had closed her door and locked her front door. Plus, she wasn’t on the first floor, so it was unlikely someone would just climb in from the window.

Ah yeah, the window. She had pulled the curtains on it, blocking any light from getting in. That only served to make the bedroom pitch black. Not a great idea in hindsight. She kept on scrolling and scrolling... but then a sudden creak took her out of her trance-like state. It was the creak of her bedroom door opening!

The sounds that followed were the most disturbing part, however. They sounded like bones cracking, and snapping all at once, grinding on themselves for an even worse effect. Then, they just stopped completely. An eerie silence filled the atmosphere with a sense of dread.

Sunset hesitated to move even an inch, too scared to see what was just outside her bedroom. After many long seconds of pure nothingness, she finally made a move. Turning her phone around ever so slightly, the light of her phone finally reached the door only to reveal a man standing by her door.

She couldn’t even make out a single feature from him as he left almost immediately, most like startled by her scream. The sounds of bones snapping returned with a vengeance as Sunset instinctively jumped out of her bed in a fight or flight response.

The man’s loud stomping echoed throughout the entire apartment, stopping abruptly once he reached a nearby window, though Sunset didn’t see any of this happening as she locked her bedroom door and took to calling the cops.

911, what’s our emergency?

“There’s a man inside my apartment! Please, send the cops immediately!”

After a few unbearable minutes of pacing around her room in a panic, the cops finally arrived at her apartment.
“Police! Open the door!”

Their voices finally got Sunset Shimmer to leave her bedroom. She ran up to the front door to let them in as quickly as possible just in case the man was still inside.

“Don’t worry ma’am, you’re safe now. We’ll search your apartment for any sign of a break-in.”

Four cops entered and they began to search around the place in hopes of finding clues about the mysterious intruder. Sunset stayed behind with the fifth one, better let the professionals do their job.

This intruder might have no relation to the murderer they were looking for, but Sunset wasn’t going to let this slide. She’d talk about this the next day to get her friends on board with this new problematic.

Then, one of the cops screamed and nearly fell on his butt. Alerted, the rest of them quickly joined him, wondering what had gotten such a strong reaction out of him. Lo and behold, on a counter lied a gruesome and truly abhorrent sight.

A severed head that belonged to a woman, a teenager more specifically. But... that wasn’t the disturbing part. No, what was most shocking was that the head was decorated to look exactly like Sunset Shimmer. Plus, there was a message in her mouth. I’m coming for you. It read. A threat, courtesy of the stranger that had broken in.

Her heart began to beat faster and faster as her vision got blurrier with sweat now accompanying her terrible panic attack. No doubts about it, the intruder was the killer, and he’s coming after her now. Worst of all, it feels personal. Far too personal to just be a surface level pick. She will be... his next victim.

5. You're on your own now.

View Online

With the giant diamond in hoof, the two unicorns descended the hill to reach the town. They’ll have to act quickly if they want to save what was left of it. It was quite a steep curve; they could fall if they aren’t careful with their steps, which is exactly what happened.

The stallion tripped on a branch sticking out of the ground and fell. The diamond hit the floor with a large thud, being half buried thanks to its surprisingly heavy weight.

The mare looked at the shining diamond, worried that it could have been damaged from the fall. “Hold on. This thing does look like a diamond, but it’s sure is much heavier than the real deal.”

The stallion picked himself up from the dirt with an embarrassed expression. “Well, it is official size, but not official weight...” He lifted the diamond, getting it out of the ground with a bit of effort. “Now let’s not waste any time; the village is being destroyed!”

Now, they’ve finally arrived at the village. Everypony around was fleeing in all directions, panicking too much to think clearly. The dragon was being smart about the whole assault, breathing down fire every time a pony reached the edge of town. This one was much, MUCH different from its peers, and unnatural at that. It was thinking smartly, carefully trying to keep the townsfolk inside for whatever reason.

It couldn’t be looking to feast on them, because if it did; it would have swept down to catch its prey. This was a pretty good reason to be worried right now, especially for our duo of unicorns who were tasked by Celestia to save this village. It was a test for sure, but the silver-lining here is that they both knew their mentor wouldn’t send them to their deaths. They can do it, they must be.

“We gotta get its attention!” shouted the stallion amongst the flames and rubbles. “Do you have a spell for that?” he continued as he looked at his companion.

The mare rolled a hoof through her hair with a smug look on her face. “Who do you think I am? Of course I have something!”

Her horn lighted up with a fierce spark. She began to exert an immense amount of energy as she was cooking up a powerful spell. Then, all the concentrated energy erupted, creating a jaw-dropping show of fireworks. Her hooves began to dig into the ground with the sheer weight of her magic weighing her down.

Thankfully, it worked. The dragon took notice of the sudden fireworks and quickly spotted the two below him. The stallion waved his diamond around like how a parent would wave a toy in front of its child’s face. The beast was enchanted by the beautiful jewel, and now had tunnel vision as it swept down to snatch it.

“Alright!” exclaimed the stallion while he pumped a hoof in the air. “We got its attention!”

The dragon was going down at a terrifying speed indeed. “Oh no... we got its attention.” repeated the stallion, this time being not so pumped up about the plan.

His companion ran way and hid behind a couple of barrels. “I’ll follow you closely in case things go wrong. Now go!”

The stallion sprinted as fast as he could to avoid the incoming flying monstrosity coming down on him. Thankfully, he did stay near the edge of the village, so getting the beast away from the townsfolk wasn’t going to be much of an issue. The real problem was to get it far enough to face it away from the bystanders, and to not die. Yeah, that too.

However, the dragon was coming down much faster than he anticipated. It was mere feet away from him now...

“Oh.”

Saturday Morning :

What a horrible night to be have been greeted by a murderer. Sunset didn’t go back to sleep once the police was done looking around. All she wanted to do now was to let her friends know what had transpired during this dreadful event for now, this was also their problem.

The sun rose, indicating to Sunset Shimmer that it was morning. Some of her friends were probably awake at this time, so she figured now would be the time to send the message. But just before, she made sure her door was locked as well as all her windows. Now feeling safe, she took out her phone and began typing.

Girls, something bad just happened last night! The killer broke into my apartment! I’m certain I'm going to be his next victim!

Sunset waited and waited for anybody to read her message. She desperately needed help right now. Equestrian magic was useful, but they all lacked the knowledge to properly use it, leaving them defenseless should the killer rear his ugly head.

Finally, someone was replying and unsurprisingly, it was Twi. This girl was quite the early bird, taking her studies very seriously to the point of waking up a few hours before school just to get her studies done before the day.

Are you ok, Sunset? Did he hurt you?

Sunset quickly typed a response, trying to sound more level-headed this time. Thankfully no. He did make his intention clear; he wants me dead.

Do you think we should ask for the pony version of me for help? I’ve heard you tried this before with the Dazzlings.
Asking Princess Twilight wasn’t initially part of her plan, thinking at first that they should try to solve their problems by themselves. However, her life is on the line and thus, she’ll make an exception just this once.

I’m going to do it right now. I’ll go through the portal and return as quickly as I can. She answered.

She could also write to her instead of crossing the portal, but it’ll be safer to simply leave the human world for the time being. Chances are that the killer probably doesn’t know about Equestria. Over there, she could safely ask Twilight to help her stop this monster from killing more people.

She putted on a coat, a cap and a pair of gloves to traverse the cold. It a misty morning yet again except this time, the mist was denser. Sunset was shivering even though she had all these extra clothes to warm her up.

Finally, she arrived at the statue standing before Canterlot High. With her magic, she could cross the portal and return to Equestria, a world where she’ll be hopefully safe from the killer. She took one confident step forward and reached out a hand to touch the portal. It passed through as excepted. Sunset felt relief as she began to go through the portal.

But then, something unexpected happened. Something absolutely abnormal; the portal zapped her. The pain was strong enough to send her back, falling and hitting the ground with her back. Shocked at what just transpired, Sunset was barely bothered by the pain, simply staring at the sky in disbelief.

“Hu hu ha ha!”

The laugh echoed through the silence of the misty morning. She recognised that voice; it was the exact same she had heard back at the gym during the principal’s speech.

She painfully stood up, being more stressed out at the idea that Equestria was no longer accessible than the terrible pain in her back. She ran up to the statue in mere seconds and tried once again to plunge her hands through it.

“No no no. Let me in. Let me in!”

Her hands went pass the surface as normal, but it felt as if something was blocking her from the other side. It was like an invisible wall hidden beneath the intangible. Try as she might, it was futile. Sunset couldn’t fully cross the portal to Equestria.

“Oh come on, how long is this going to take? You can’t get through, get over it. You’ll just have to deal with this serial killer on your own.”

She stepped back from the statue, horribly confused as to why it wasn’t working as indented. Even worse, she was now fully confident that there was something else out there. It was observing her, but she couldn’t see it. Its voice sounded like it came from every single direction at once, while being impossible to pinpoint where they came from.

But then she remembered that there was still another way to contact Princess Twilight. Yes, this could work too! All she had to do was to retrieve the book in her apartment and write to her friend. Even if she couldn’t come, they’d at least be able to stay in contact throughout the whole thing, which would be much better than to be left stranded without any outside help.

Sunset ran back to her home, arriving at the front door in just a few minutes. Nearly out of breath but still filled with so much energy, she fumbled her hands through her pockets and pulled out her keys, that she promptly dropped. She got down on her knees to pick them up and unlocked the door and entered. She took out her coat and boats in mere seconds before running towards her bedroom where she had left the magical book.

She opened the door and her eyes first laid on the most unexpected ever. The man in the pickle suit was there, and he had the book in his hand, examining it closely.

“Hey!” called out Sunset. “What are you doing in my apartment?! And give me back my book!” she shouted in anger.

Her shouts didn’t faze the strange man one bit. He still had that edgy tough guy expression, accompanied with those silly sunglasses to give him a cool edge, which was still contrasted by his dumb, dumb pickle suit.

“You use this book to write to a pony princess...” he said with a deep, gruff voice. “But you won’t call her for help.” he pointed a judgemental finger at her. “Only cowards run away from their problems.”

He bolted for the window, but Sunset didn’t think much of it. After all, how was he going to escape? They are currently on the fourth floor of this apartment complex. It’ll be quite the fall. No sane man would jump down a four-story building, except he did... sorta.

Sunset looked out the window and saw something even more unexpected. It was a long rope that descended to the streets. The man in the pickle suit was using this rope to rappel down to the ground. She wasn’t going to let him get away with it that easily. She climbed out the window and used the rope to slip down.

The man in the pickle suit had quite the head start in this hot pursuit, if Sunset was to slow down, she’ll lose sight of him. She finally got to ground level and began running after him. Luck was on her side, for the streetlights in front of the man turned red and the cars began to move. He’ll have to round the corner and then, she’ll catch up to him.

Well, that is what would happen under normal circumstances. Instead, what happened was both mind-blowing and absolutely ridiculous. The man in the pickle suit didn’t take a detour from his original trajectory, no, he ran into the streets while there were multiple cars still driving. One of them was going to hit him, but he narrowly avoided it by performing a move so graceful and stunning that it blew Sunset’s mind.

He dropped to the ground and rolled like a pencil under the car as it passed by him. Then, he got back on his feet and ran the rest of the way safely. Now, there were too many cars for Sunset to cross the streets and from the looks of it; she wasn’t going to get them to stop just so she can pass. All she could do, was to watch the man in the pickle suit get away.

She felt like she was going to lose it. None of this made any sense. A ghost was seemingly haunting her and preventing her from returning to Equestria and now the man in the pickle suit turned out to have been a ninja from the start. What else is going to happen?! The killer would reveal to her that he was part of the Illuminati? No no NO! This needs to stop!

No choice... she’ll have to solve this bizarre mystery without the help of Princess Twilight.

It was quite dark outside. In such darkness, any and all girls would be terrified at the idea of even being outside. Well, perhaps not the Great and Powerful Trixie, who was strolling around without a care, accompanied by an acquaintance that sure did look awfully nervous.

“T-Trixie, ar-are you sure this is safe for us to be outside at night?” she said, looking in every direction constantly while Trixie herself didn’t show the slightest hint of fear.

“You’re all making these murders out to be much worse than it is. WE, are probably not going to run into this killer.”

The girl didn’t seem convinced. “What makes you think that? He could be stalking us for all we know!” she said in a fearful voice.

“Canterlot is a big city. Chances are he’s probably somewhere else and not in this block. Plus, do I need to remind you that the Great and Powerful Trrrixie is....” She waved her arms around flamboyantly as she was holding her sentence in suspension. “Great and powerful?”

She groaned and facepalmed after hearing Trixie’s ego speaking yet again. “You know what? Screw this! You do it alone! I’m going back home!” The girl spun around and left spontaneously, finally getting Trixie to stop her confident march.

“Wait, hold on! You aren’t seriously leaving the Gr... me?” Yes, yes she did. Now Trixie was all by herself. That got her confident attitude to completely fall apart. She looked around, now feeling unsure about her initial plan. She just wanted to scare Sunset Shimmer with her magic, her REAL magic mind you. But now, she was far too scared to go through with the prank.

“Maybe I should just head back home...”

On the other end, the girl was fast walking back to her house which wasn’t too far away from this block thankfully. This night was especially cold for October. Really, really cold. She was trembling, coming from both the fear and the cold. Just a couple of streets and she’ll be back home in no time...

Bones cracked; she swore she could hear bones cracking just ahead of her. The sounds were accompanied by shuffling. There was someone out there in the dead of night.

“H-Hello? W-Who’s there?” she asked in a trembling voice.

A man suddenly came into view, his entire front covered in shadow casted by the light behind him. He was quite big and burly, but that was pretty much all she could make out. It wasn’t easy to discern any detail seeing as he was a couple of steps away from her.

One of his hands reached out for something in his pockets. The girl could barely see what it was, but from the shape of the object, it must have been a pair of maracas. It was quite out of the ordinary for a random person on the street to pull out maracas on you. Most of the time, you’d expect a gun or a knife to be drawn, but not this!

Then, he began to shake them as his eyes turned into shining spirals. Even though he was only playing the maracas, more instruments joined in to play a soothing and enchanting melody that felt really good to the ears. In no time, the girl was losing control of her own body, though she wasn’t aware of what was going on.

“They weren’t joking, music really strengths magic in this world...”

“We're interrupting this program to deliver yet another tragic new. A high school student was found murdered on the streets this morning! The victim was a young girl who attended Canterlot High in its music program. Her throat had been slit with a knife which was still present at the scene of the murder. The police have checked the murder weapon for fingerprints and found something truly disturbing; the knife only has her fingerprints on it. Normally, this case would be chalked up to suicide, but one important detail has convinced the police that this tragic incident was indeed, a murder. Right next to the body was a message written in her blood.

It specifically says; I could have accomplished so much... What this message is supposed to signify is still unknown, as with the serial killer’s motives. Stay tuned for further updates on this murder case.”

Sunset shut down the television. She sat there in silence as the news was starting to sink in. Once her brain had finally processed the whole event, she took out her phone and immediately went into the group chat.

Ok, this has gotten worse! We have a serial killer in town! She wrote in a hurry to her friends.

Twi was unsurprisingly the first to respond. Did you ask Princess Twilight for help? I think we’ll greatly need her help.

I tried, but I couldn’t get through the portal! And worst of all; someone stole the magical book that allowed me to stay in contact with her! Sunset answered.

No! Don’t tell me we’re gonna have to deal with this without her! Typed Rainbow Dash in a hurry.

I find it quite troubling how his recent victims have mostly been girls of our age. Especially since he’s marked you as his next victim. Shared Rarity, throwing in some nervous emoji into the mix.

Now, it was Applejack’s turn to share what was bugging her. But if he marked Sunset as his next victim, then why did he kill that girl on the streets? Was it just to send a message?

It’s really strange that he’s going this far just to scare you, Sunset. Started Fluttershy. I don’t think he sees you the same way as his other victims.

Sunset Shimmer felt unnerved at Fluttershy’s remark. Was it possible that she already met the killer before? The more she thought about it, the more it made sense to assume so.

He must know me. And considering he has only killed people that have something to do with Canterlot High, we can assume that he must attend or work there.

So, we got ourselves a mysterious serial killer X who goes to Canterlot High and kills female students. Great... wrote Applejack.

Twi was intrigued at the idea of calling him serial killer X. How about we refer to our mysterious serial killer X as just SKX for short? We’ve got to give him a name so we can know for sure we’re all on the same page.

Pinkie had an idea. I see where this is going... we’re going to suss out potential suspects and interrogate them! It’s a good thing my Pinkie senses can flair out suspicious people!

You’re describing it as if it was a superpower. Mocked Rainbow Dash.

What says it can’t be one? Pinkie Pie said, bombing her sentence with multiple different kinds of emojis. It was her eccentric style of texting.

Twi agreed with Pinkie’s method. That sounds good to me, Pinkie. We’ll just need to figure out who could have committed these killings first before proceeding with our investigation.

Sunset closed her phone; it was now time to get down to business. Onward to solve that mystery!

Sunday evening:

Rarity knocked on the door and awaited a response.

“I’m coming!” Sunset responded from the other side. She opened the door to let her friend in.

“Sorry if it took some time to come. You see, I had to work overtime.” informed Rarity with an apologetic voice.

“You don’t have to apologise. All that matters to me is that you came in the end.”

Rarity followed her friend as she walked over to the kitchen table. Though one thing was bothering her, and it was the tired look Sunset Shimmer had. But she refrained from asking right now, preferring to wait and see what this was all about. “So, you had something really important that you wanted to say to me in person?” she asked politely, curious as to what warranted a face-to-face meeting.

“Why yes! It’s right here, come on.” Sunset walked over to a wall by the fridge.

Rarity followed her with her eyes and found something absolutely worrying. The wall was an incoherent mess of pictures and staples and lines, exactly like those you’d see a conspiracy theorist use to figure out a mystery.

“D-Darling, what is that?!”

Sunset took a sip from her cup of coffee and spun around to face Rarity. “Okay, so I really really REALLY don’t know what in tarnation is going on and it’s the bothering the hay outta me!”

She slammed her coffee on the table and started pointing at the pictures on the wall. More specifically, at an image of a man in a pickle suit. “So, I've been visited by this man in a pickle suit, and he keeps telling me cryptic things like he knows who I am and it’s super weird! Worst of all, he stole my magical book that I used to write to Princess Twilight.”

She walked up to Rarity with a crazed look on her face. “Which leads to me to believe one thing.” she started giggling before spitting it out. “First! SKX is actually two people working under the same name! There is the man in the pickle suit, and there is the one who killed the students.”

“S-Sunset, what are you going on about?!” asked Rarity, sounding horribly confused at this theory that came out of nowhere.

“I know this because I saw the killer. He’s big and burly, which the man in the pickle suit clearly is not! But that’s not it...”
“Please, snap out of it Sunset! You’re losing your mind!”

“There’s still the unsolved mystery of the evil ghost. I believe he’s working with SKX and the man in the pickle suit. Therefore, it’s actually a team of three that’s behind the killings. There, I figured it out! It’s a conspiracy, they’re conspiring against me! I must owe them like five dollars or something I don’t know!”

Rarity started playing around with her hair out of nervousness. “You’ve lost your mind. You’ve actually lost your mind.” Her limbs started to tremble. “I think I’m starting to have a panic attack.”

“Here, take a cup of coffee; it’ll calm you down.”

“I am!” responded Rarity, having already taken a sip from her cup.

“You know what, fine. Blast, give my friend a stress ball.” proposed Sunset as she was looking at the man in the kitchen.

Rarity stared at her friend in confusion. “Huh who?”

“Blast. He’s the guy that tipped me off about the conspiracy.”

“Blast? Who in tarnation is Blast?!” shouted Rarity in a mix of confusion and desperation.

“You don’t see Bl- Wait, what? Where did he-” This Blast guy Sunset was referring to was nowhere to be seen.

“Sunset. You should perhaps get your mind off this whole investigation for a day. It’ll do you a lot of good.” proposed Rarity in a concerned tone.

“Okay, yeah. You’re totally right.”

6. Figuring out a course of action

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Monday :

The bell rang and the students left their classes for recess. The students that wandered around the halls looked terribly nervous and afraid. The most recent murders were teenage girls that attended Canterlot High. For all they knew, they could be next if they weren’t careful. This only served to create a dreadful atmosphere in the school, getting everyone inside to constantly look over their shoulder and distrust those they didn’t know personally. Male and female students became distrustful of each other. All the girls would stay away from the boys and the latter would constantly side eyed each other suspiciously. It was truly an awful time to go to school, especially for Sunset who knew she was on SKX’s hit list.

The Rainbooms had a lot of things to say about the weekend for it was an eventful one. During recess, they gathered in the same room as always to figure out a course of action. Their goal for the moment was to discover the killer’s identity. Then, they can form a plan to stop him once and for all. They already had a list of suspects that they would investigate, one at a time. The list was quite small, as not many people fit the description of their serial killer.

They closed the door and made sure no one was around to eavesdrop on them.

“Okay, so... where do we even start?” said Applejack to break the ice.

“How about we start by talking about the two most recent murder? You know, the one about the decapitated head and the dead girl on the street?” responded Rainbow Dash as she kept an eye out on the corridor.

“Our SKX is quite strange, he’s killing not to satisfy his warp ideals or anything but to simply leave out cryptic messages. All we know for certain is that he wants Sunset dead.” relayed Twi to her friends.

“It’s like he wants to play a game with us. A not so fun game of playing detective...” pointed out Pinkie in a voice that started out loud and happy, then turned quieter and nervous.

Fluttershy thought about the last message, it was the most telling after all. It could be an insight on the killer’s mind. “The last message he wrote is really ominous. It indicates that something happened to him, something bad and I think he blames Sunset for it.”

“Now that you mention, it does make a lot of sense Fluttershy. Good thinking!” complimented Twi.

“Thanks Twilight.”

“Only problem is that it doesn’t narrow down our list of suspects. Sunset has horribly bullied everyone in Canterlot High for a long time!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash in a slightly frustrated tone. “No offense.”

“Sum’s taken.” jokingly replied Sunset.

“Actually, Sunset has seen SKX in person.” pointed out Rarity. “You said he looked quite bulky, didn’t you?”

“Yes, he’s a big guy.” confirmed Sunset Shimmer.

“I see, so that’ll mean that our most likely suspect is...” Applejack looked uncertain now. “Bulk... Biceps? Nah, can’t be him. The guy’s practically a human teddy bear.”

“But he’s the only person that fits her criteria's.” defended Twi. Though she didn’t know Bulk much, she could see just by the way he acted with other people that he was truly a kind person. Nevertheless, they can’t let their feelings turn down potential suspects. “We can’t know for sure unless we search his personal belongings, as awful as that sounds...”

“I’m with Twilight.” affirmed Fluttershy in a soft voice. “I just want to make sure that he’s innocent.”

“I personally don’t mind looking into his stuff if we’re going to do this.” exclaimed Rainbow Dash without any shame.

“Careful when you’ll be searching through his personal belongings Dash; you might see something undesirable.” casually said Applejack in a mocking voice.

“Pff, I can handle it.”

Sunset walked over to Dash. “I’ll accompany you, Rainbow Dash. It’ll be much faster to look around together.”

Pinkie Pie’s face lighted up. “And we’ll keep Bulk occupied long enough for you two to sneak in!”

“Exactly!”

Unbeknownst to them, someone was indeed observing them. It was none other than... Trixie.

“So now you’ll all be playing detective, aren’t you Rainbooms. Heh, doesn’t matter to me, for I, the Great and Powerful Trixie will get you this time!”

She walked away with a malicious grin on her face. She was very thrilled at the idea of proving Sunset wrong for believing she was just a phony. Trixie was the real deal when it came to magic, and no one can doubt her claims. No one.

She then hit something hard and fell onto her back. As she looked up at what hit her, she saw Bulk Biceps who looked apologetic. Remembering what the Rainbooms were talking about, Trixie felt extremely nervous now that she was right in front of what was possible the serial killer.

“O-Oh hey there, uh, Bulk.” She stayed in place, not really knowing what to say.

The big guy had a sorry expression and was about to say something which prompted Trixie to bail immediately, not wanting to stick around him any longer.

“Bye!” She ran past Bulk Biceps and fled down the stairs, much to his confusion. He simply shrugged off the strange interaction and went on with his day.

“Lucky sock, no. Firecracker, especially not; I’ll be in big trouble if they find out about the firecrackers! Magical laxative, sure why not.”

Trixie was rummaging through her things in search of a magical item that she could use to prank Sunset Shimmer and the Rainbooms. That was going to be her revenge for all the times they got in her way. A way to even the scores as she never seemed to win despite her best efforts.

“With this, you’ll be sorry to have ever wronged me. A great magician never kneels before adversity!”

A coin fell from her bag. She looked at it in consideration.

“But first, I’ll get more peanut butter cracker.”

Something hit her in the back and her face slammed into her locker’s door. “Gwak!” The force at which it happened could have only been accomplished by someone with a great deal of strength, like SKX. Frightened, Trixie spun around in a cowardly posture ready to beg for mercy to the killer only to see Snips and Snails wondering around on a scooter.

“Sn-Snips and Snails?” the terror in her eyes quickly turned into anger. “Watch where you’re going morons! And why are you on a scooter?!”

The phone Snips was holding kind of gave it away. “It’s for a YouTube video. Sorry.”

Trixie’s face twitched. “For a YouTube video. How about you stop doing reckless things for once?!”

“Uh, Trixie. Your nose is bleeding.” pointed out Snails.

Trixie quickly touched her nose and then looked at her hand. Yep, there was blood. She hit the locker hard enough to get a nosebleed. Fantastic. “Urgh! I’m not going to let you get away with this scot-free! You’ll have to make up for it.”

Snips though about it for a moment, and then. “Nah, we’re done being lackeys.”

Trixie took out a coin from her pockets. “But what if I pay you? Will you do anything for me? In exchange, you’ll get money!”
“Okay!” they accepted in unison.

She successfully swayed the two dumb, dumbs with money. A task that is perhaps, too easy since they never see through it. Good news for her, she gets two henchmen for a low price. With it, she could sabotage the Rainbooms, especially Rainbow Dash for several things related to music and guitars alike.

Although, she’d have to be careful not to get the killer’s attention. He had mostly murdered teenage girls, better stay far away from any potential suspect. She’ll simply wait for all of this to blow over while her new lackeys would do the dirty work for her.

Sunset Shimmer was walking home that afternoon, her mind so concentrated on future events that she was practically on autopilot. Tomorrow was going to be the day she and Rainbow Dash would sneak in Bulk’s room to look for anything that can prove he’s not SKX. It was going to be very stressful; Sunset couldn’t stop thinking about how this daring mission was going to go down.

They could get in serious trouble if they fail, something that was heavily bothering her as she was absent-mindedly crossing the streets, only looking around to spot incoming cars. Something truly out of the ordinary caught her attention, and it wasn’t just because it stood out, but because she recognised who this was. Lo and behold, a familiar man in a pickle suit stood there in front of her, staring her down. Once more, he had this disappointed and angry look on his face.

“Someone else just died, again. Another murder perpetrated at the hands of the serial killer. That’s now three deaths, three.” he lifted three fingers up as he repeated himself just to stick the point in. “This is extremely awful, and someone needs to atone.”

Sunset felt her blood boiling at the mere sight of this man. She ran up to him and grabbed him by the collar. “Where’s the book you stole from me?!”

The man’s expression didn’t change at all, still feeling confident about the situation since he was still speaking in a slow and methodical pace. “Why does it matter? The book means nothing in the grand scheme of things.”

“Yes, it does!” screamed Sunset. “It was the only way I could ca- find important information about the murders!” she continued.

“Calling Princess Twilight isn’t the way to go, Sunset Shimmer.”

Her heart nearly skipped a beat and she quickly let go of him in shock. She was starting to sweat, clearly this man wasn’t just the average joe roaming the streets. Not after the theft of her book, not after he uttered these words. He was much more than she initially believed.

“Wha- but how?”

“Face your own problems, Sunset. It isn’t up to Twilight to fix your mistakes. The blame’s on you, and you will have to make up for it.” He said while pointing an accusing finger at her. As soon as he was done speaking, he slowly turned around and left the scene.

Sunset was left in shock, feeling stressed out at the additional of weirdness added on top of this case. There had to be some way to explain the man in the pickle suit and figure out if there is a correlation between him and SKX.

Nonetheless, he seems adamant that SKX’s murders are her fault. I have done many terribly things in the past, but I can’t be responsible for what this serial killer is doing, right? She thought, but no matter what she did, she couldn’t calm herself down. That only led to more frustration as trying to figure out anything in this mystery basically felt like she was just hitting her head against a brick wall.

Frustrated and unable to take it anymore, Sunset crashed down on a bench in the city’s park, pondering about the entire situation. Her mind had turned into an endless spiral of conflicting thoughts and angry rambling. She couldn’t clear her head in the slightest which only made her frustration grow stronger.

“Enjoying the tranquility here? I must admit this is my favorite place to hang around in the afternoon.” a familiar voice pulled her out of the incoherent mess that had become her mind. The voice of an old man she recognised, Beelz. He was standing a few feet away from her, hunched over and relying on his cane to stay on his feet. His hands as always were trembling ever so slightly.

His smile was so sweet that it took away Sunset’s frustration almost instantly. “Beelz? I didn’t know you came here often.” she said, surprised to see this nice elder again.

“I thought everyone knew that old people like parks.” he jokingly responded, letting out a quiet giggle afterward. He looked at the bench for a moment before asking Sunset. “Do you mind if I take a seat? My legs are tired.”

“Sure!” exclaimed Sunset, quickly moving to the right to leave a seat for the elderly man. His face lit up as he took a few trembling steps towards the bench, then slowly but surely, turned around to take a seat.

He let out a sigh of relief as his posterior finally sat comfortably on the bench. “Gee, it must really be hard for you to stand up.” said Sunset with concern.

Beelz didn’t really look all that troubled. “It is, but I don’t really mind, nor do I envy the youth. My glory days are long gone, but I know I've led a good life. Nothing really bothers me anymore. You just got to stay optimistic no matter what, you know? Otherwise, you’d just live your final days feeling like you could have accomplished so much more.”

Sunset nodded. “That’s something I can agree with. You certainly look happy, Mr. Beelz.”

Beelz shook his head in amusement. “You can just call me Beelz if you want to, Sunset. I’m honestly tired of honorifics. Sometimes, it feels better to not be held in such high regards. It makes you feel free, less restrained by your entourage’s perception of yourself.”

“Yeah, I can relate. Sometimes, it feels as if the whole school relies on me, and that’s anxiety inducing...”

The old man’s smile slowly faded into a look of concern. “Are you feeling alright? You seem very tense. Did something bad happen?”

Sunset chuckled nervously. “You have no idea. So many strange things happened recently, and it feels like I'm being blamed for it all.”

“Really? I don’t see how a nice and responsible girl such as yourself could be responsible for any of this. You’re pretty good! A top student in Canterlot High and someone who prides herself on service.” He put a trembling hand on her shoulder, a reassuring gesture indeed. “Don’t be too hard on yourself.” he said with the most comforting smile he could muster.

It worked, as Sunset Shimmer’s anxiety died down. “You’re right. Maybe I'm being too hard on myself.” she turned to look at Beelz, smiling in return. “Thanks, I really needed to hear that.”

“It’s my pleasure.” he replied in a soothing voice.

Sunset looked at the ground for a while. Since Beelz was here, why not ask him a few questions about SKX? Surely with his knowledge he could provide more insight into the mind of a serial killer.

“Have you... kept up with the news?” she asked hesitantly.

“Yes, I'm still thinking about this killer’s messages. It’s, quite intriguing to say the least.”

“What do you think is going on inside his head? Like, what does he mean by “I could have accomplished so much”?” she added.

Beelz looked away for a moment, thinking about a response. Then suddenly, his whole mood darkened as he began his speech. “You know, not all killers are born evil. Some starts as just average people, with stable jobs and whatnot. But sometime, all it takes is just one bad day to ruin it all. Once it happens, they begin to feel angry, desperate and want nothing more than to take out their frustration on something. It’s a slippery slope, easy to fall into darkness when you reach this point.” his voice became deeper as he went on. Now, it was turning into a menacing growl. “Oh the darkness...” he turned to face Sunset. “A man can do terrible things when he’s lost his way... Terrible things.”

His expression quickly shifted into an apologetic one when he noticed that Sunset was shaken up by this sudden departure from his usual self. “Oh! I’m sorry, d-did I scare you?”

“Admittedly, yes.” she responded nervously as she stopped swaying around in her seat. “You sounded really intimidating at the end. I suppose it’s a leftover from your line of work?”

Beelz chuckled. “Guess I’m still stuck in the job’s mentality. I should really stop thinking like that, it’s not doing me much good from what I can tell.”

“Have you... accidentally scared off people that way?” she asked after a brief silence.

The old man frowned disappointedly. “Sadly yes. I guess you don’t have to be built like a brick wall to scare the soul out of people. I look like I could fall apart any moment and yet, they run off when I do that. It’s almost amusing, if I wasn’t so lonely...”

Sunset was curious to ask if he had a spouse but chose not to out of fear it might be a touchy subject for him. Judging from his age, he could have had one, and she could very well be dead. Instead, she took out her phone to look at the time and gasped when she noticed that it was getting late.

“Sorry Beelz; I’ve got to go now. I have a lot of things to do for tomorrow!” she said in a hurry, jumping off from her seating position.

The old man in purple had a sad look on his face, but smiled, nonetheless. “No problem. I’m not keeping you hostage.” He slowly lifted a hand, a simple movement that looked like it took a herculean amount of effort for him to do. “I hope to see you again, Sunset. I really enjoy our discussions!”

Sunset Shimmer ran off while waving goodbye to the old man. It was true when they say that the elderly are often the nicest people you’ll come across. During her walk back home, she thought a lot about his speech. The way SKX framed his messages really led her to believe that Beelz was right about his assumption regarding the killer.

From what she could remember, SKX was after her for something she most likely did to him. A man whose future was compromised by her very action. Tough to say who it could be; Sunset did a lot of bad things when she first came to this world, mostly to Canterlot High and its students.

Anyway, they’ll surely find out the killer’s identity by process of elimination if it should come to that. Something tells her he’ll make his presence known sooner or later.

7. Breaking in, Breaking out.

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Tuesday:

The Rainbooms gathered at the cafeteria to discuss how they were going to go about searching Bulk Bicep’s room. Their plan was to take place after school, which gave them not that much time to form one. All they knew, was that they needed to distract Bulk long enough for Sunset and Rainbow Dash to complete their search. Good, they just need to come up with a good distraction, one that’ll keep him busy for a long time.

Naturally, everyone turned to Pinkie Pie to figure that part out. She’s got all the qualifications to do it after all. She’s extroverted, highly approachable, charismatic and energetic. Perfect to get Bulk’s attention without raising much suspicion on his part.

The rest of the team would stay close by just in case something goes wrong on both parts. The consequences for getting caught breaking in someone’s house are quite bad indeed, they can’t afford to mess this up for it’s their only chance to clear Bulk of suspicion.

“You got something, Pinkie?” asked Twi, hunching over to look at the pink haired girl.

Pinkie was deep in her thoughts for a moment and funnily enough, it appeared as if a lightbulb appeared above her head with just how exaggerated her expression of excitement looked. “I know! I know! How about I throw a surprise party in his backyard? That’ll keep him distracted for many, many, many hours!”

“Distracting people sure sounds more in line with you. You can forget about the whole spying stuff, though, you’re not really good at it.” affirmed Rainbow Dash.

Applejack was quite sceptic about Pinkie’s distraction. “Are you sure you’ll have enough time to plan an entire surprise party... IN their backyard?”

“Don’t you worry about that! Aunty Pinkie’s got it all covered.” Pinkie Pie sure looked confident.

Applejack, however, had another cause for concern. “Okay, but how are his parents going to feel about that? You’ll basically be showing up uninvited in their propriety.”

“As I said, I got it all covered!” reaffirmed Pinkie, still sounding as jolly as ever.

“Okay Sunset, I just have one important question before we go.” started Rainbow Dash. Now that she had Sunset’s attention, she went on with her question. “What are we supposed to look for in his room?”

“Well, that’s the issue, Dash. We don’t know. Maybe we’ll find a hit list or maybe we’ll find his murder weapon.” answered Sunset. Not a very reassuring answer indeed. Once inside, they’ll have to scramble around like headless chickens and just hope that they can find something, or nothing, in which case it’ll mean that he’s innocent.

“Darn, that sucks.” said Rainbow Dash as she sunk into her seat with her arms crossed. Then, a thought came to mind.

“Wait, wait, hold up! SKX did steal my butterfly knife, didn’t he? That means that whoever has my knife is the serial killer!”

A surprisingly valid point. It was a small detail that they had almost forgotten, but thankfully, Dash’s strange attachment to this knife had proven itself quite useful in the end.

“Say, darling; if we find your knife back, will you show me the tricks you’ve learned? You’ve been boasting about it for nearly a week and that’s honestly got me interested to see them.” exclaimed Rarity with genuine intrigue in her voice.

Dash nearly slammed her hands on the table out of excitement. “Yes! Finally, someone’s interested in seeing my cool tricks! Thanks Rarity!”

“I see we’ve already derailed the conversation once again to be about the butter knife.” pointed out an amused Twi.

“It even got its own article in the school’s journal.” informed Fluttershy.

“What?! It did!?” nearly screamed Dash.

“Yeah, well... it was mostly about your tumble and its confiscation.” explained Sunset Shimmer, snickering while delivering the news.

“Argh! I should have seen it coming...”

“You don’t read the school’s journal, do you Dash?” followed up Sunset, snickering louder this time.

“Not surprising coming from the girl who thinks reading is for egg heads only.” mocked Applejack with a smug smile.

“Well, at least I can call myself a superhero thanks to my magic...” mumbled Dash.

“Speaking of magic, how are we going to deal with SKX once we confront him?” asked Fluttershy, a relevant question for they had only been talking about his identity and not how to deal with him.

“Maybe we just lure him into a room where we’ve stashed our instrument and just... play a tune to get our magic to work?” proposed Rarity.

“Music is the only method we know so far that reliably gets our magic to work, so I believe that’s our best bet for now.” responded Sunset.

Magic was a lot more complicated in the human world, mainly because it’s almost impossible to figure out its rules. They did try on numerous occasions to establish the rules for how their magic work. Unfortunately, the results have all been inconclusive and Sunset Shimmer had practically given up on understanding it, stating that it may simply be “beyond her”.

That only makes SKX’s methods only more frightening. He may be the first human to have mastered the usage of magic as he is able to consistently kill his targets in unorthodox ways. That was a scary thought for the Rainbooms, who always thought they were the only ones with magic in their world.

SKX would prove to be a challenging opponent, perhaps not on the same level as the Dazzlings, but still very threatening in his own way for he worked in secrecy. What can you say, a megalomaniac might not be as dangerous as a killer who wants to remain hidden from the public’s eyes.

“Then, it’s all settled. All that’s left now is to wait for school to finish so we can put our plan into motion. Everybody ready?” concluded Twi in a determined voice.

“You bet we are, Twilight!” screamed a feverish Pinkie.

The bell then rang and the Rainbooms dispersed, each going to their classes. Just a few more hours until they would search Bulk Bicep’s room for evidence. A task that hilariously enough, wasn’t very evident to perform.

When classes were finally finished, the students calmly walked over to their lockers to pack their stuff before they would leave. No one was really in a hurry for today was just an average day, except for Pinkie Pie who took a mad dash around the school to get her things quickly before she bolted out of there, apologising to everyone for her rush.

Once outside, she took out her phone and used a navigation app to find the way to Bulk Bicep’s house. She was short on time to prepare this entire surprise party, but she was fully confident she could prepare everything in time, as short as it was.

Many passersby gave her odd looks since she was basically sprinting around town with all sorts of objects in hand. And yet, nobody really cared that much for they had grown pretty accustomed to Pinkie’s antics, as bizarre and logic defying as they may be.

Finally, she had arrived at her destination. She hopped over the fence and was now in their backyard, ready to commence the preparations for her special distraction party.

She knelt and reached for something inside her bag. “Ah! Gummy, fancy seeing you here! Good old Pinkie needs your help with something!”

No response came from the stuffed animal, as expected. Though Pinkie acted as if he agreed to help her. Let’s not ask too many questions regarding how a stuffed animal is supposed to prepare a surprise party and instead, we’ll just go with Pinkie’s shenanigans. The pink haired girl took out a clipboard and quickly read the materials listed on it.

“We’ll need balloons!” She looked over at Gummy and sure enough, he had balloons attached to him.

“Now we need confetti!” She pushed a heavy cannon fired up with confetti, and another one, and another one... “Never two without three they say!”

She crossed them off the list and read the rest.

“Gummy! Have we brought banners? We’ll need to write the word “surprise!” on them!”

The banner they had brought was on the grass and Gummy was just standing there with a paintbrush in hand. She peeked at what he had written.

“Gummy! That’s not how you spell surprise! Here, let me show you.”

She took the paintbrush from the stuffed animal’s paw and rapidly corrected the mistake.

“There, much better!” she crossed the banner off the list. “Next one; the games!” Pinkie gasped. “The games! Have we brought any? I didn’t have much time to gather everything...”

Gummy was standing next to a sign that pointed upward. Pinkie Pie looked up and saw a bunch of balloons descending with various board games wrapped around the ropes.

“Incredible! Nice one Gummy!”

Her list was nearly completed. She just needed to check off one last thing.

A voice coming from the other side of the fence quickly caught her attention. “Special delivery; one giant green and yellow banana!”

“Perfect!” shouted Pinkie. “It’s here!”

She hopped over the fence to greet the delivery man.

“Just sign here, girl.” he said in complete apathy.

Pinkie Pie snatched the pen from the man and wrote down her signature. The delivery man barely even bothered to look at the signature and handed over the giant banana before leaving. The pink haired girl hopped over the fence, this time with a giant banana in hands.

“Alright, we’ve got everything we need for the party Gummy! See, I told you we were going to make it in time!”

She triumphantly placed down the giant yellow and green banana on the grass, looking over in the horizon fully prepared to greet the unknowing guests.

The rest of the Rainbooms, minus Pinkie, were waiting on the other side of the streets, desperately trying to look inconspicuous. Not an easy task, considering they are often side eyeing this house in particular. To add onto that, they were constantly looking around the streets in search of the residents.

“Wait, did I just see a giant banana over that fence?” asked Rainbow Dash.

The sight of this giant green and yellow banana got the whole group horribly confused as to what Pinkie Pie was scheming.
Well, Applejack wanted to find out immediately, calling her friend on her phone.

“Hey Applejack! Good news is the preparations are just about done!” responded Pinkie before even letting her friend say anything.

“That’s not what this is about, Pinkie. What’s with the giant banana?” demanded Applejack.

“Oh, the giant banana? It’s just in case of an emergency. You can always trust Pinkie to have a plan B!”

“I... don’t see how a giant banana is going to help.” continued Applejack, perplexed as to how and why a giant banana would serve as an emergency.

“You don’t have to know, because I won’t have to use it! Hopefully.” teased Pinkie.

Applejack sighed and ended the call. She turned to Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer, who looked nervous. What they were about to do was illegal after all, no wonder they were stressed out about sneaking inside.

“Okay, once Pinkie’s got them distracted with the party, you two will sneak in through this window right here.” she pointed at the window that led into Bulk Bicep’s room. “The rest of us will help ya get in there. Then, we’ll stick around on lookout duty.”

Fluttershy approached the two, concerned about their part in the plan. “Be careful in there, I don’t want any of us to get in trouble for this.”

“Don’t worry about it! Sunset and I will manage just fine.” replied Rainbow Dash as she tried to hide her anxiety.

Rarity spotted something in the distance. “Oh dear! Bulk Bicep’s coming home! Everybody; act normal!”

Apparently, normal meant to just pull out their phone and fake scrolling around. Bulk briefly stopped and gave them an odd look before shrugging it off, resuming his walk home.

Applejack quickly called Pinkie to let her know this was her cue.

“I’m on it!” Pinkie Pie barrel rolled over the fence, which immediately caught the big guy’s attention. “Hey Bulk! Aunty Pinkie’s got a surprise for you!”

He looked quite surprised but didn’t think much of it. He was quite excited to see what this extravagant girl had in store for him. For all he knew; literally anything could happen with Pinkie. She had that much of a reputation for being the school’s wildcard and partygoer, but mostly as a party doer.

She invited him to his backyard where the surprise party would take place. As she did, she lifted a thumb at her friends who were watching to let them know it was time for Sunset and Dash to sneak in.

The rest of the group hurried towards the window leading into Bulk’s room. Only problem was, his room was on the second floor of the house. The other problem was that they also needed to unlock the window to get in.

Thankfully, they were prepared for these two inconveniences.

“Here Sunset, take this gadget I fabricated a while ago.” said Twi as she handed over a small device to her.

“I assume it’s for opening the window?” she asked.

“Yep!” Twi answered proudly, readjusting her glasses in the process.

Sunset took a good look at the gadget but couldn’t wrap her around how it’s meant to be used. “Just one more thing Twilight; how do I use it?”

“Oh, that’s very simple. You just point it at the window and press the button!”

Fluttershy eyed the device out of curiosity, now having a question that was burning in her mind. “Twilight, why did you build a device that is meant to unlock windows from outside? I-I'm not accusing you of breaking into places you shouldn’t be in.”

Twi scratched the back of her head in embarrassment. “Uh, yeah, about that. I built it because I'd sometimes forget to bring my keys with me so when I'd return home, I couldn’t get in. Of course, Shining Armor would always arrive a couple of minutes later, but not all the time since he’d sometimes spend the rest of the day over at Cadance’s house.”

Sunset snickered. “I’m honestly not surprised.”

Applejack had already leaned against the wall, forming a chair with her legs. “Come on Sunset! You two gotta get in before his parents arrive!”

Sunset nodded and climbed on Applejack’s leg, barely reaching the window above. She did as Twi instructed and pointed the gadget at the window and pressed its button. A small rod quickly shot out of it. A rod that was thin enough to slip through the cracks and it unlocked the window from the other side. Sunset couldn’t help but let out a quiet “wow”. Twi really spent a lot of time designing gadgets for all sorts of mundane things.

She opened the window and hopped in. Soon after, Rainbow Dash followed, but not without a hitch. As soon as Dash laid a foot on Applejack, the latter yelped in pain.

“Dash! Why are you wearing your cleats right now?!” she nearly shouted. Her right thigh was now starting to bleed. The others clenched their teeth as they saw the injury.

“Applejack, you’re bleeding!” screamed Rarity, horrified at the sight of blood.

Rainbow Dash lifted her foot and examined her shoes. “Oh my gosh! I must have forgotten to switch back to my other pair of running shoes!” she looked back at Applejack with an apologetic expression. “Sorry Aj!”

Applejack took a quick peek at her bleeding thigh and groaned. “Just... take off your shoes and climb on.”

Rainbow Dash took off her cleats and climbed on Applejack, who let out a pained groan, courtesy of her injury. Finally, Dash had entered through the window. Their search could now commence as the rest of the team fled to the other side of the sidewalk.

Rarity examined the injury with pity. “Oh my, we’ll have to stop the bleeding before it gets worse!”

Applejack clenched her teeth, with her hands grasped around her thigh. “Don’t worry, I'm sure it’ll be fine.”

“Absolutely not! I won’t stand here with my arms crossed!” said Rarity as she fumbled through her purse. “Ha!” she pulled out some bandages and unrolled them. Then, she carefully wrapped them around her friend’s injury.

“Thanks Rarity. I owe you one!” promised Applejack once her friend was done. The bandages were already stained with red, which revealed how bad the damage truly was. “Now let’s hope nothing goes wrong...”

Now inside of Bulk Bicep’s room, Sunset and Rainbow Dash fumbled around in search of anything that can count as a clue. Drawers, closets, under the bed, anything that might hide something of value was a good place to start.

“Urgh! How are we supposed to find clues before his parents come back? We barely have 10 minutes!” complained Rainbow Dash as she trashed the drawers on the nightstand.

Sunset opened a closet and quickly scanned its contents. Something in particular caught her attention; a pair of heavy weights in the corner seemingly hiding an object behind. “Well, how about that? I think there’s something hidden behind these weights.”

“What? Really?” Dash walked over to the closet and looked at the corner where Sunset was pointing.

“You’ll have to help me out on this one, cuz I don’t think I'm lifting these weights by myself.”

The weights were quite big, not a surprise since they belonged to Bulk Bicep after all. With a name like that, you’d think his body was simply destined to be this buff.

Feeling overwhelmed, Rainbow Dash noticed the violin in the closet and got an idea. “Can’t we use magic instead to lift these heavy weights?” she said, pointing at the instrument so Sunset would catch on.

“Do you know how to play the violin?” she asked, clearly not convinced that this was going to work.

“I-I don’t. But, what about you?” pressed Dash with a nervous smile.

“...No.”

“What about a game of battleship?” joyfully asked Pinkie Pie as she showed the box to Bulk Bicep. “It’s a fun game!”

The big guy smiled and then nodded, taking a seat right as the pink haired girl opened the box and rapidly assembled all the components needed to play.

While she was preparing the game, she took a small peek at the time on her phone, her smile starting to show some nervous cracks. Ooh, you two better be quick. Pinkie’s not sure how long she'll l be able to keep this up!

On the bright side, Bulk wasn’t exactly the most perceptive guy in town which gave Pinkie a bigger margin of error should she mess up at one point.

“Uh. How do I play again?” he asked, unsure of what to do when presented with the all the pieces.

“Come on, just another pull and we’ll get it off the ground!”

Sunset and Rainbow Dash were both giving it their all to lift just one of the weights lying in Bulk’s closet. It’s not really easy to just lift a 100 kg weight even with both of your hands. Though together, they at least had a chance to move it.

“If we pull at the same time, maybe we might actually do something!” proposed Sunset Shimmer.

“Alright then, on the count of three?” Dash asked as she stopped to catch her breath.

“Yeah, I’ll count.”

One. Two. Three! With all their might, the two girls pulled as much as they could and successfully moved the weight, but it came at a cost.

They lost their grip on the weight for a moment and the sheer amount of force they had put behind their pull caused them to tumble backward and crash right into the nightstand next to Bulk’s bed.

The sound was loud enough to get the attention of both Pinkie and Bulk Biceps outside.

“Oh oh. I think we messed up.” affirmed Rainbow Dash.

“Hey Dash, I think you’re crushing me right now.”

Dash stood up to give Sunset some space to breath. Then, she ran up to the window and peeked outside. “Oh no, Bulk and Pinkie definitely heard it!”

Sunset bit her lips. “Let’s just hope she can somehow convince him that nothing happened.”

Bulk turned around and looked in the general direction of the strange crashing sound, slightly worried at its implications.

Pinkie Pie clenched her teeth for she knew that the consequences of Bulk finding out about their operations would be catastrophic. So, she had to somehow convince him that he didn’t have any reason to be worried about it.

She took a big breath and delivered a very energetic speech. “Oh my, did you hear something? I didn’t hear anything! Ooh, ooh! That reminds me of something cool I just learned about the other day. Have you heard of auditory hallucination? Well, I've read that they can come from a lack of sleep, stress and from certain medicines with strong side effects! It’s a bad thing indeed, but thankfully for those who don’t do drugs; it can be cured easily!”

Bulk spun around in intrigue, curious to hear more about auditory hallucination.

“Stress? Lack of sleep?” he looked rather worried now. “I haven’t been sleeping well these past few days...”

Pinkie saw a good opportunity to pull his attention away from Sunset and Rainbow Dash’s mistake. “See? You didn’t actually hear anything. It was just your mind playing tricks on you! All you need to do is to get better sleep! You can look online for all sorts of tips and tricks to help you out!”

Bulk’s entire expression shifted from worry to gratitude. “I understand. Thank you, Pinkie!”

“Ha! Pinkie’s done it again!” Dash complimented her friend’s ability to bring everybody’s attention onto herself thanks to her charisma and energy.

Sunset rolled her shoulders around to wake them up since she had put a lot of effort into moving just that one weight. She looked at the closet and sadly, there was another weight still in the way. Did they really forget that weights always come in pairs?

“Gah! Not again!” groaned Rainbow Dash.

Sunset sighed and walked up to the weight, gesturing at her friend to assist her. “Guess there’s not much choice...”

On three. One, two, three! They lifted the weight after putting everything they had into that pull. Unfortunately, the floor was quite slippery since it was wooden, and Dash didn’t have her shoes on. Two plus two equals, she tripped. That would be bad enough as is, but to rub the salt in, she fell backward, and the weight landed on her.

She was now stuck on the floor with a 100 kg weight pinning her to the ground. The handle was right above her abdomen, slowly crushing her.

“Argh! Get it off me Sunset!”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” shouted Sunset as she immediately went to grab the handle in a desperate attempt to lift the weigh off of Rainbow Dash, but her friend didn’t really have a good grip on the object so it would be quite the arduous task to free her.

“What’s wrong with them? This is the second time they’ve made too much noise!” Twi was becoming increasingly anxious at the fact that their operation was slowly going hay wire.

Fluttershy voice her concerns too. “Can Pinkie Pie even keep Bulk from suspecting anything? At this rate, he’ll catch on to what we’re doing!”

“Woe to us! If the Biceps find out about our scheme; they’ll call the cops on us!” whined Rarity.

Applejack groaned as she clenched her wounded leg. But then she spotted movement in the corner of her eye. “Wha-” she panicked for a moment, thinking Bulk’s parents have already returned but thankfully, it wasn’t them. “Is that Trixie, accompanied by Snips and Snails?”

“Oh oh. That can’t be good.” softly said Fluttershy as she slowly hid behind her friends.

Trixie walked up to them and ran her hand through her hair flamboyantly. Now equipped with a smug expression, she was ready to fire. “Well well well. What are you girls up to?”

“It’s none of your business, Trixie.” fired back Applejack.

Trixie’s mouth slowly contorted into a smug smile. “The Great and Powerful Trrrixie kindly assumes you’re not up to something... bad?”

“Of course not!” Twi responded, sounding undignified. She quickly realised how suspicious her answer was and tried to correct herself immediately. “We, uh... are just hanging out around Canterlot. Th-That's all.”

Trixie chuckled. “I believe you, Twilight Sparkle.”

A sudden burst of confetti shot out in the sky, coming from the backyard of Bulk Bicep’s house. Snips and Snails looked at them in wonder.

“Are they throwing a party in there?” Snails said to Snips.

“Surely, I hope I’m invited!”

Trixie took her eyes off the rain of confetti to stare at Applejack with a malicious smirk. “Pinkie’s surely having a ball in there. So, tell me; why aren’t you joining her? You are her best friends after all.”

Twi, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity quickly exchanged worried glances at each other, wondering who was going to speak up. Trixie had already caught onto their scheme, or worst, she already knew what they were trying to do. They were practically held at gunpoint by the self-proclaimed magician.

“Well, you see... We, uh.” Twi couldn’t think of anything to say.

“Are we invited to Pinkie’s party?” asked Snips to Trixie.

She was about to dismiss him, but then an idea came to mind. “Of course! You two ARE invited!”

“Wow! Really?” Snails suddenly looked as if his brain turned on for the first time this day. “Come on Snips; let’s go!”

The Rainbooms watched the two guys run up to the backyard and wanted to stop them but realised that it would probably be a bad idea to do so. These two aren’t the brightest tools in the shed, clearly demonstrated by the fact that they haven’t caught on to their suspicious activity. It was best to keep them in the dark or else they’ll have to call it quits on their operation. Trixie on the other hand, would be easier to keep under control thanks to her narcissism and her theatrical ways.

This girl probably wanted to make a show out of their scheme so everyone in town would know, and that was the silver-lining. If they could just get it done before it’s too late; Trixie will lose any and all leverage over them.

“How about that?! Isn’t this just the best party ever!” Pinkie and Bulk were now basking in the shower of confetti coming down, both greatly enjoying the party.

Pinkie Pie was relieved to see that everything was going smoothly on her side, which allowed Sunset and Rainbow Dash to thoroughly search Bulk’s room. She had the entire party under control, though she knew that was only the case because she prepared everything beforehand. Should an unexpected third party come in, that’ll complicate her entire situation.

“Hey! We’re coming!”

Pinkie turned around to see Snips and Snails opening the fence, joining them for the distraction party. Now that was going to be a problem, but nothing she couldn’t solve on her own. After all, it was only two additional people, can’t be that hard right?

“Hi there! I’m so happy you finally got my invitation to the party!” she said joyfully, inflating two balloons in the process.

“Here you go!”

They looked at the balloon, but clearly their faces demanded more. “Can’t you like, make us a dog with these balloons?”

“But of course!” With expert handling, Pinkie squeezed and turned the balloons, eventually forming a dog for each of them. “Pinkie never disappoints!”

She then felt Bulk’s presence behind her. “Let me guess; you want a dog too?”

Bulk nodded excitedly.

“Say no more!”

She rummaged through her bag in search of balloons. Well, thankfully I've brought more than enough for this party. But now that I’m looking inside my bag; I can see that I've nearly drained all my resources. Please be quick up there.

“Once more, on the count of three! One, two, three!” Sunset and Rainbow Dash pushed and pulled as hard as they could to lift the terribly heavy weight. They managed to get the darn thing off of Dash. Now she could finally breath again.

“I could have suffocated if we didn’t act fast enough.” she said, struggling to catch her breath now that the immense pressure on her chest was gone.

“You said it.” responded Sunset, panting herself. Her arms were very, very tired from all the weightlifting. The good news was that they were done with lifting weights. “Now, let’s see what Bulk was hiding behind these weights!”

She reached out a hand to grab whatever was hiding in the corner of his closet and pulled it out, feeling greatly satisfied to have finally gotten her hands on it. “It’s... a love letter?”

“What?!” coughed up Rainbow Dash. She immediately got up and rushed to Sunset’s side to see it.

Yep, it was a love letter alright. To whom was still a mystery, but they honestly couldn’t care less. They had searched literally everywhere else in Bulk’s room. This was the last spot they had searched.

“I was almost crushed to death by a 100 kg weight just for a love letter?! That is so, so, so lame!” shouted Rainbow Dash.

“Dash, why were we hoping he was the killer again?” blurted out Sunset, still in shock that all this effort was essentially, meaningless.

“I don’t know anymore, man! Let’s get out of here before his parents return home!”

“Totally.” Sunset placed the love letter back in its rightful place.

They quickly head back to the window, opened it and climbed their way down.

“Now ain’t that wacky? So much effort for nothing. I can already say that you’re really good at wasting your time, Sunset Shimmer.”

Sunset looked around the entire room in search of the mocking voice but couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
“Come on, don’t just stand there; go!”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie will stop beating around the bush. I know what you’re doing here. You’re here to see if Bulk Bicep is this SKX you speak of.” Trixie confronted them about their plan. Now they were fully certain that she had eavesdropped on them.

“Great, you spied on us. Now what are you gonna do about it? Just threaten us?” spitted out Applejack, struggling to stand upright thanks to her bloodied thigh.

“I, the Great and Powerful Trrrixie, am much smarter than that. I took photos and videos of your little operation. You know what that means?” She waved around her phone in front of their faces, showing the photos and videos she had taken to prove the legitimacy of her claim.

“You’re blackmailing us!” shouted an angry Twi.

“Indeed!” rapidly said Trixie. She walked past them, making sure to look at each of their faces with a smug smile. “That means you’ve got to obey any and ALL of my wishes if you don’t want these incriminating photos leaked online.”

“Girls, look! Sunset and Rainbow Dash are done.” pointed out Fluttershy, everybody else turned to look at the two incoming girls.

“Trixie? What are you doing here!” Dash shouted when she spotted the magician amongst her friends.

“Glad you asked, Rainbow Dash. The Gre-”

The distant sound of a car caught all of their attention.

“Oh no, here they come!” uttered Sunset, signaling to the whole squad to bail out.

“Quick, send the signal to Pinkie!” demanded Rarity.

“On it, cowboy!” Applejack spammed Pinkie with multiple messages, which acted as the signal for her to end the party.

Then, they walked out of there, trying their hardest not to look suspicious to the car slowly pulling into its house.
Trixie left the other way, satisfied of her victory. It was a first win against the Rainbooms, her sworn enemy.

That only left Pinkie Pie, who had just gotten the message from Applejack. “Oopsy daisy! I didn’t see the time pass, but sadly it is time for me to go!”

Her announcement left the three guests feeling sad. “Does that mean the party’s already over?” asked a disappointed Snips.

Looking for an easy way out, Pinkie laid her eyes on one particular object; of course, the giant green and yellow banana.

“Aw, no need to be so sad; Pinkie’s got one last surprise for y’all!”

Their faces lighted up with a child-like excitement. It was quite the adorable sight. The pink haired girl hopped towards the banana and opened it, revealing its content to the partygoers.

Three scooters, now ain’t that wacky! Bulk, Snips and Snails jumped on each of the scooter, eager to try them out. As they raised their heads to thank Pinkie; she was gone, having leaped over the fence to run into the streets.

“Wha- Where did she go?” questioned Snails.

“Oh, where do you think she could have gone, bro? Over the fence!” answered Snips, annoyed that his friend didn’t realise the obvious.

“I still don’t know why I got a special surprise party.” informed Bulk Bicep.

Dark, cold and unwelcoming. That was a good description for the bathroom the killer was in currently. He just shanked a man to death, merely to vent his feelings. There was blood on his clothes, on his knife, on the walls. It was a mess and now, he could finally think with a clear head, something he could not do for a while. Though perhaps, this moment of clarity was secretly a curse in disguise.

He got to ponder on his life, what even brought him here to begin with. The mistakes he made, the heights he could have rose to, the life he could have led had it not been for...

“You were her best student to date. I must confess, I’m impressed how you did it. I wonder how close that you came.”

Now SKX got a sinking sensation. He was the top of the line, out of sight, out of mind. So much for fortune, fame, friendships and love... He looked in the mirror, getting overwhelmed by a feeling of disgust. The more he pondered, the more he came to realise; he was a broken man now. He can’t be fixed.

“You can’t take this kind of pressure, am I right? From the looks of it, one more misty day would be just a day too long for someone who looks like he could break at any moment.”

An awful thought suddenly came to his mind. Forgotten by his peers, by his people, had he truly become worthless?

“Ah yes! You’re worthless! Worthless! Worthless! Worthless.”

He started to hyperventilate, though normally you would start breathing heavily and rapidly in this situation, but he couldn’t. He grasped at his neck in a vain attempt to take a breath, but nothing came of it except for the repulsive sounds of his bones snapping. He couldn’t even feel his own heart beating and that only made the whole feeling much worse, even more sickening.

“Now this is quite amusing. I get my kicks out of witnessing other people’s misery, knowing I had a hand in it, one way or another.”

SKX finally calmed himself down. Slowly but surely, he turned his head around, his bones cracking with every movement, and stared at the corpse. He knew what to write now, what else could he write but this. “I am a broken man.”

“Who would believe they’d all forget about you this quickly?”

Wednesday:

I am a broken man. This sentence kept on repeating through Sunset’s mind. Once more, SKX had struck, killing another person to use their blood as a mean to spread his messages. The more he wrote, the more disturbed she felt. Almost as if she had this strange feeling that she already knew who it is. Yet, she still refused to even think of him. Was it shame, regret or denial that stopped her?

It was early in the morning, so she thought about going to the Sweet Snacks Café before her classes in hopes of sharing this news with Beelz. He really seemed to know what he was talking about for his guess was correct regarding the fact that SKX was probably once a normal person who turned to darkness because of a bad, bad day. Surely, he could provide more interesting theories regarding the situation.

She’d need all the help she can get. Therefore, she rushed to the café as quickly as she could. Sure enough, there he was, sitting by his lonesome, drinking a cup of coffee. His face was buried in the newspaper. Unsurprisingly, the headlines were mostly about SKX’s rampage.

She ordered a coffee and sat on the table next to that of the old man. He jumped and immediately brought down his newspaper.

“I’m sorry. Did I startle you?” started Sunset, sounding apologetic.

Beelz simply chuckled. “I don’t know. You tell me, girl.”

She looked around the place, feeling uncomfortable about going up to him just to ask more questions about the whole case, but she knew she needed his insight. “You, um, surely must have learned about the murder that took place yesterday, right?”

He lifted his newspaper up to her face with his trembling hands and showed the article he was reading. “You could say so.”

“I guess that means you were right about this serial killer. You know, when you delivered your speech at the park?” she specified.

Beelz’s eyes lighted up, indicating that he indeed, remembered their conversation. “I remember, Sunset. That... only makes me more worried than before.” He looked down at the newspaper. “A broken man is a man whose got nothing left to lose. They are extremely dangerous. It’s bad that he’s after you, because nothing will stop him from killing you.” He putted his shaking hands on her shoulders. “Sunset, you need to be placed under surveillance. The police will keep you safe from him.”

It was a solution that Sunset Shimmer considered long ago, but something kept her from going through with it. It was something that had to do with SKX himself. She couldn’t shake off the sensation that she knew him, not just as an acquaintance, but as someone who was much more to her. Couldn’t be romantically, because she had only ever been in a relationship with Flash Sentry before and she doubted it could even be him; he was slim whether as SKX was muscular. A muscular person other than Bulk Bicep...

“I know but... for some reason I feel like I must confront this killer, personally. He seems to mostly want me dead. All his other kills are just to communicate with me! If I make myself harder to reach...” she paused for a moment, staring at the headline in the newspaper. “He’d just kill more innocent people who have nothing to do with his grudge.”

Beelz frowned, not out of disappointment, he understood where Sunset was coming from, but he seemed unsure if that was truly the best option. Not like he knew what it was. “I see.” He slowly reached for his coffee and moved it up to his mouth. His incessant trembling caused a bit of it to spill on his white mustache. The burning pain caused him to quickly put the cup down. “Argh! I should be more careful when I drink.”

“Do you... have Parkinson syndrome, Beelz?” it was a question that she wanted to ask for quite some time now.

“Yeah, it was kind of the main reason why I had to quit my job a couple of years back. I’ve learned to live with it now. You don’t have to feel bad for me; I don’t envy anyone.”

“Do you know that there are spoons made specifically for people with Parkinson?” she asked.

Beelz chuckled for a moment, nearly letting out a hearty laugh. “Of course, I know! I only hope they’ll make coffee cups for people with Parkinson, so I’d stop spilling coffee over myself!” he finally let out a laugh, smacking his leg with his other hand.

Sunset giggled herself. “That’ll be interesting to see!”

Beelz looked at her for a moment with the brightest smile he could muster. “Just be careful out there. You are precious and you know it. Don’t let this serial killer bring you down, ok?”

Sunset smiled back at the old man. “Thanks, Beelz. I feel better now.”

8. The blurry line between Man and Monster.

View Online

Thursday Night:

Back to the shed again. For the past few days, he had been reflecting on everything that led up to this point. That caused him to be rather inactive in both his killings and threats. This was unacceptable and he knew it. He can’t keep on stalling for sentimental reasons.

“This was interesting in the beginning, but now you’re making me think you’re just a one-trick pony. Seriously, can’t you like, scare the soul out of her in person? That’ll be neat. Certainly better than to sit around and watch the paint dry.”

That was indeed what he was planning to do. He had snooped around Canterlot High a couple of days ago, so naturally he saw the various posters advertising the Halloween party. This was perfect. This was his golden opportunity to hide amongst the mass. His horrible appearance would thus, not raise any question since they’d all mistake it for a costume.

“A brilliant idea. That’s about what I expected from a man of your intellect, or rather, what’s left of it anyway. I’m honestly not sure if I accidentally scooped your brain during the whole process.”

Sunset Shimmer’s friends would surely get in his way, but that is only if they know his appearance. But then again, with his powers, what does he have to fear? No one, that’s what!

Sunset must know who he is before he swoops in for the kill. She must know what she’s done.

“Splendid! Splendid. We are taking this to the next level now! This is going to be the end of the second act.”

SKX has no idea what he was going on about most of the time, but then again, he knows that he’s very much surpassed by the malicious voice in every way imaginable. He can’t even say no to it.

Friday afternoon:

The door opened so suddenly it nearly startled Luna. Photo Finish had arrived as she was called to her office.

“I... am here!” she sternly affirmed.

“Yes, Photo Finish, I can see that.” Luna took on a more authoritarian posture before she explained to the student what she wanted her to do.

“The annual Halloween party is going to commence soon as you already know. Now what I want you to do is simple; the school’s journalists are going to write an article on the party, and they’ll need pictures. You’ll take pictures of the most eye-catching costumes and events you can come across.”

Photo Finish pulled out her camera with vigor. “I won’t disappoint once again! Off... I go!” she dashed out of the vice-president's office, omitting to close the door after she left.

“Come on, can’t you just close the door when you leave?” groaned Luna, forced to get off her chair to shut her door.

Trixie usually had some sort of magician-like attire when she went to school, but for Halloween, she went all in. Her main goal was to leave the Rainbooms speechless with her real magic, a proof that she was better indeed.

She scrolled through the pictures she took yesterday on her phone, smirking to herself as she did. These photos and videos were a weapon that she could use against them. The best part was that there was nothing they could do about it.
She watched as the school’s halls slowly filled with students, each proudly showing their costumes to one another. Every year, there’s a competition for who has the best costume for this year’s Halloween.

Trixie was all about proving she’s the top dog, so naturally her magician outfit was high quality. Most impressive is that it was also homemade to add on top of that. She had the cool hat, the flamboyant cape and the smooth suit to go along with the rest.

“This year, I, the Great and Powerful Trrrixie am going to knock ‘em dead!”

Just as he predicted, people didn’t really pay attention to him on Halloween as he wondered the streets. Everyone simply thought his horrible appearance was merely a costume. He could easily slip amongst the crowd in Canterlot High and get close to Sunset Shimmer. This time, he was going to reveal himself to her.

But first, he’s got to be careful, his bones constantly snapping are slowly attracting the attention of other people. The sound was a curse in every way imaginable to him, but it was something he’d have to bear in order to satisfy his vindictive needs.

“Okay, so I know quite a few things about Equestria... which only makes this world even more confusing to me. Like, it just doesn’t make any sense! Ponies turn into humans, okay but why then, do dragons turn into dogs? ‘Cuz I’ve seen dragons that turned into humans when they crossed the portal, which confuses me even further. Then there’s the fact that apparently the whole world revolves around Canterlot, even ponies that aren’t in Canterlot in Equestria are living there.”

The killer really didn’t want to pay any attention to the voice’s ramblings. It was rather inconsistent in how it acted towards him. Sometimes it would give him logical advice, other times it would talk about nitpicks that it had regarding him and his world. But hey, it’s not like he had a say in this whatsoever. He knew what he got himself into from the get-go and he’ll go through it no matter what.

“Now that I think about it, there is a town called Ponyville in Equestria. And there’s a forest in this world called the Everfree forest, just like in Equestria! Am I to assume that Ponyville exists here as well? Well, it if does, it’ll probably be named something else... like Humanville. Humanville sounds kinda stupid, innit?”

The more he heard this thing talk, the more he thought about... the contract. The very thing that sealed his fate, that made him who he is now, and that was going to take any and all hope he could ever have.

“Oh, boy. You really want to revise the terms of our contract? Now of all time?”

SKX heard the voice bellow. Its sound rattled his very bones.

“Fine, I suppose I've got nothing better to do anyway. Well, go ahead; tell me what’s wrong with it. I can read your mind, but only to a certain extent.”

He didn’t want to remain a puppet forever. The contract stated he was only allowed to keep his agency as long as he hasn’t finished his business with Sunset Shimmer. The moment he would have murdered her; he’ll become a slave to the thing.

“Oh, come on! You know how hard it is to find a good proxy? I’ve tried in Equestria before, but ultimately backed out of it for personal reasons. But you sir, you’re good. High quality stuff. If you want me to leave you alone, well, I'd have to find a better playmate. This revision you propose will be postponed for now... End of discussion.”

Evidently, he should have known that’s how this conversation would have gone simply based on the growl that came with every sound the voice produced...

It doesn’t matter. He should just focus on Sunset Shimmer for the time being. He’ll figure out the rest once the dirty deed is done, and it’ll be done dirt cheap.

Lyra and Bon Bon have chosen matching costumes for this Halloween. As best friends, and potentially more, they had no problem guessing what the other was thinking. It was a level of connection that was rarely found amongst their peers.
They decide to reuse the same costumes they used for their little competition before the Friendship Games because they still saw some use in them.

Lyra started the conversation. “It’s Halloween! There’s so much to do tonight like-”

“The corridor of frights!” quickly added Bon Bon.

“The mechanical bull ride!” followed up Lyra.

“And lastly...”

“The costume contest!” they finished in unison, something they were pretty good.

“Ha! I see we still got it, Bon!” Lyra playfully hit her friend on the shoulder. It was only natural that they’ve gotten good at reading each other’s thought considering they were friends since they were fillies.

They carefully observed everybody’s costume as they were walking along, trying to see if they would have some serious competition for this year. The costumes were all of fairly high quality, it would be difficult to win with this many competitors, yet still possible for them as they had made some improvements on their own costumes.

“I heard that we can go in teams if our costumes match. Shall we go together then?” asked Bon Bon as she flapped the wings on her costume.

Lyra giggled. “You’re giving me the illusion of a choice here!”

As they move along further, arriving near the entrance of the school, they noticed something peculiar. Every single person in sight were looking in the same direction. From the looks of it, something truly eye catching must have entered Canterlot High to have gotten everybody to stare with wonder in their eyes.

“Hey.” Bon Bon said to get the attention of Flash Sentry, who was standing in front of her. “What’s gotten everybody intrigued all of the sudden?”

Flash looked back, looking mighty impressed. “It’s this strange guy that just entered. Everybody’s fawning over his costume! You should check it out, it’s amazing!”

“A...mazing?” questioned Lyra, her competitive spirit slowly taking over. “Let me see!” she snuck around the crowd to see the new guy and... Yep, that’s going to be a problem.

His costume was to put it simply, superb. Whether as everybody’s else's costumes looked great, they still lacked that realistic edge that made them evident that they were just that, costumes. His, on the other hand, was so good that you couldn’t even tell if it was real or not.

His entire skin was brown, his eyes, empty and hollow like the abyss. His face and hands were filled to the brim with wrinkles to the point where he looked shriveled up, almost empty inside. His skin was also transparent to a certain extent, revealing the veins underneath his face. The colours on them were faded, somewhat lifeless. He had no lips to speak of, always exposing his teeth, that were perfectly white and clean. He sported a blue jacket with a white shirt underneath. Black pants and purple shoes completed his overall attire. He was also, extremely muscular. Like, muscular enough to the point that people simply assumed he was Bulk Biceps.

We both know however that’s not him. Just as he predicted, SKX’s true nature was unnoticed by the mass. Oh yes, THAT, was the true reason why he always operated in the shadows. Our killer here was a zombie, the real deal and in a Halloween party; he was right at home.

“You’ve gotta be kidding...” muttered Lyra. She quickly turned her attention back to her best friend. “How are we going to beat THAT? It’s too good!”

Bon Bon tried to calm her friend down. “Relax Lyra. Who knows, maybe he won’t participate in the contest?” she said. It didn’t really help much since she herself didn’t sound sure about what she was saying.

“With a costume like that why won’t he? You don’t just craft something this good just to walk around and do nothing! He’s participating for sure!” Lyra screamed out of desperation. “What are we going to do now?”

“Well, we-” Bon Bon stopped abruptly, causing Lyra to look back at SKX.

He took his first steps ever since he got surrounded by the students. Everyone moved out of his way, greatly intimidated by his physique and costume. With every step he took, his bones cracked and snapped though nobody noticed since the sound was muffled by all the chatting and murmurs coming from the crowd.

“Everybody loves you little guy! You have me to thank for!”

He evidently had a lot of disdain for the thing that followed him everywhere he went. The sad thing for him was that he knew all too well there was nothing he could do about it. Equestrian magic isn’t as prevalent here as it is in Equestria. Normally, he wouldn’t have any powers in this world but that wasn’t the case. He owed his powers to it and he knew that it could take them away should it wish to.

“Yep, that’s pretty much how it works. You don’t back out of a deal with me.”

All he wanted now was to break from the crowd that gathered around him. He didn’t want any attention considering his objective here requires a certain amount of discretion. Hard to be discreet when everybody’s staring at you.
He should stay focused on his goal. Find Sunset Shimmer. Find Sunset Shimmer. Fin-

“Oh no... Why is it happening?”

Out of all the people SKX could have landed upon; it had to be Bulk Biceps. There wasn’t and never was more than one strongman in all of Canterlot High. The presence of the two here at the same time would surely raise some question regarding him.

“Woah dude, the two strongest guys in the school are having a face to face!” shouted one of the students.

Wait, since when did they thought he was a student too? No time to think, SKX was already caught up in something else entirely.

“They should totally have a tug-o-war to see who’s the strongest!” proposed another student amongst the crowd.

“Can’t say no to that. You’ll just have to chase Sunset Shimmer down after the game. We do have all night after all.”

Bulk Biceps didn’t even get a say in this too as both were hurried into the cafeteria for this little game. SKX had to face the facts; he had no other choice but to play...

Rainbow Dash always dreamt of being a superhero, a dream that grew much stronger when she first got her magic alongside her friends. For this reason, she dressed up as a superhero for Halloween, more specifically, a speedster, her favorite superpower (go figure). Since she had magic, would it be too much to assume that she might one day get super speed?

She wasn’t going to let go of that dream any time soon, that’s for sure! And as it would seem, someone found that rather amusing.

It was Trixie of course, there’s no denying it; she still had a grudge against Dash for both were great guitarists but only one truly won the competition last year.

“Let me guess, with that killer around... you’re thinking about playing superhero. Save the innocent from this monster that stalks the students of Canterlot High!” she said, waving her arm around in an attempt to make her mocking speech seem more grandiose.

“You bet I am! We got real magic so why not use it to be superheroes?” Dash fired back.

Trixie seemed visibly amused. “And how are you going to take down your supervillain? By shredding him to death with your guitar?”

“She does make a good point.” Dash and Trixie briefly glanced at Octavia who simply dropped this comment as she passed by.

“I, uh.” Rainbow Dash couldn’t think of anything witty to say.

“Got nothing? Thought so.” mocked the self-proclaimed magician. “But I, the Great and Powerful Trrrixie don’t have to resort to using a guitar to perform my acts... of magic!”

“You’re gonna pull a rabbit out of your hat and beat the killer to death?” she asked, getting exhausted by Trixie’s aura of narcissism.

“How about I give you a demonstration, Rainbow Dash?”

She was about to say no, but then she heard a friend calling out to her. “Dash! What are you doing here? You told me to wait for you near the corridor of frights. Well, it’s been a couple of minutes now and ya still haven’t showed up. What’s taking ya so long?” It was Applejack, who sounded quite impatient.

“Trixie.” simply responded Dash, ditching the magician to join Applejack in the corridor of frights, one of the most popular activities on Halloween for the school.

“Hey, hold on. You can’t just ditch the Great and Powerful Trixie like that!” Alas, it was too late for Trixie; the two had already left before she could even show them her tricks. “Whatever, there’s still a couple of hours left. I’ll get my chance soon enough.”

“I-I wanted to see your demonstration.”

Trixie spun around and saw Micro Chips awkwardly standing there. “Were you listening to the whole thing?”

“Uh... Maybe?” sheepishly responded the techie.

Trixie sighed and left him, having lost all motivation to perform in here.

“I take it that’s a, no?”

Everybody watched in bathed breath as the two burliest guys in the school were going to have a strongman contest. They both sat down at a table in the cafeteria, surrounded by a crowd of onlookers who were eager to see how this was going to go down.

Many took out their phones, ready to record the whole thing for their social media accounts, a common occurrence for the youth of this generation. Nobody knew who the zombie guy was, but they didn’t really care to know who it was. His disguise only added to the mystery, and everyone loves a man clouded in mystery. They just seem so cool, leaving much to the imagination of what could be going on inside their head.

It’s probably not all that cool if the only thing they are thinking about is murdering a schoolgirl, at which point it’ll be considered simply creepy. There weren’t really thinking about all the murders and other atrocities that occurred recently, not when the mood was overwhelmingly positive but it’s not like they forgot. They still remembered the danger that lurked around the city, but come on; was the killer really going to make a move in a place like this? Nah, he wouldn’t... or would he?

“Brace yourselves everybody! Bulk Biceps and the zombie are going to have an arm-wrestling bout! Who will win? Let’s find out right now!” shouted a girl to her phone, placing herself just right so it could record both her and the match that was about to start.

Bulk Biceps looked fairly confident, yet somewhat nervous.

SKX on the other hand had no expression to speak of. Whether it was because he felt indifferent towards the whole thing or simply because he had other things on his mind remained to be seen.

Bulk placed his arm on the table, his hand wide open. It was an invitation for SKX to prepare himself.

The killer performed the exact same movement, albeit slower and much more methodical in nature. His hands closed in on his opponent and now they were locked in place, ready to go.

All that was needed now was a countdown.

“Everybody! On the count of three!” shouted a girl in the crowd. She got everyone to count down in unison.

“3...2...1... It’s on!”

Bulk and SKX started pushing against one another. Their strength was even, with not one of them even managing to slightly push the other. It kept on going for a while, no clear winner in sight.

However, Bulk was noticeably struggling to keep it up after a minute. SKX, on the other hand, had no expression on his face whatsoever. His body had barely even moved since the start of the game.

In fact, it looked as if he wasn’t putting any effort in this match, even though that wasn’t true. He just wasn’t feeling anything, like, at all. Bulk Biceps was however, getting tired as any human would after exerting himself for such a long time. His arm was weakening, and slowly but surely, he saw his hand go down.

That simple sight gave Bulk a sudden burst of energy as he started to push harder than before. For a moment, it worked and SKX was on the losing side but not for long. The killer simply put more force in his arm, going to a point where it would normally be painful to do so.

Much to everyone’s shock, SKX pushed Bulk’s arm completely to the side until it brutally slammed against the table, declaring him as the winner.

“Unbelievable! The strongman of the school, Bulk Biceps, has lost to his mysterious student who just arrived for the Halloween party! Just who is this guy?!” said the girl on her phone, hyping up her audience.

Multiple cheers and jeers soon erupted from the crowd that gathered around the two, simultaneously celebrating the winner and expressing their discontent for Bulk’s loss.

Speaking of Bulk, the poor guy was clutching his tired hand, breathing heavily as a result of holding his breath for the entire duration of the match. SKX, on the other hand, stood as still as a statue, not paying any attention to the compliments he received from the crowd.

“Uh, why’s everyone gathered up in here?” Applejack and Dash barely arrived at the cafeteria after hearing about the hype. From where they were standing, they couldn’t make out the cause of all this excitement.

“Argh, come on! I wanna see the cool stuff!” Rainbow Dash was pushing through the crowd with Applejack in tow, slightly lagging thanks to her injured leg.

“Not so fast sugar cube! I can’t keep up!” shouted the country girl in hopes it would slow down her friend.

Eventually, Rainbow Dash broke out of the crowd and finally got to lay her eyes on the source of the hype. The fallout of the arm-wrestling match and namely, SKX himself, though she didn’t recognise him. “Oh. My. Gosh... That costume is so awesome!”

Her comment got the attention of the big man himself, who slowly turned his head to stare at her. He recognised Rainbow Dash from the yearbook pictures he looked at a week ago.

“Darn it Dash, can you please slow down every once and a while?” Applejack joined her friend and of course, her gaze locked with that of the zombie. “That’s uh... a mighty impressive costume.” was all the words she could find to describe it. It was eerily realistic.

The stare down between the three got really awkward. None of them moved an inch for what felt like an eternity. This strange moment was broken once the zombie rose from his chair with a certain sense of apathy and walked into the crowd, disappearing in it.

“O...k, that was pretty awkward.” admitted Dash. “But he had a cool costume, right?”

“No! Not good enough! Smile more! Lift your hands! Straighten your back!”

Once again, Photo Finish was at it under the orders of vice-principal Luna. Her methods were still as intrusive and obnoxious as ever, but they worked. Her incessant barrage of directions started to take its toll on the poor student who was forced into this photoshoot by the school’s photographer.

“Perfect! Off... I go!” She dashed out of there in an instant, her two lackeys following close by. The student was left in disarray but hey, at least the photos were great. Though the complaints he would file against Photo Finish were definitely justified.

Anyhow, the photographer was carefully observing everyone in her vicinity, looking for her next subject, the perfect one that will bring this whole operation home. She stared at the various costumes of the students, hoping to find a standout one.

Lo and behold, there he is, the perfect costume. It was the realistic zombie, a look of unparalleled quality. So good in fact, Photo Finish almost mistook him for a real undead.

The man’s gaze was constantly shifting from person to person, it was clear that he was searching for someone. A search that would soon be postponed for yet another distraction, this time coming from the photographer.

“Ah! It’s perfect!” she snapped her fingers and her two lackeys popped out of nowhere and shoved the killer into a nearby classroom. Photo Finish quickly entered as the scene for the photoshoot was being set.

A graveyard, with tombstones littered around. A fake brain resting on his hands, tattered clothing placed on top of his already existing one. Before he could even realise what was happening, the flash coming from the camera blinded him as Photo Finish was going ham on the device.

“Splendid! Lift the brain up!” Amidst the confusion, SKX didn’t comply, mainly because he still hasn’t processed what was going on. Two hands grabbed his arms and lifted them up almost to his face.

“Good! Good! Now hunch your back!”

They pushed on his back to hunch him forward. The tyrannical voice laughed at this absolutely humiliating scenario, having as much fun as it could possibly get out of this.

“You know you can’t quite complain there. You honestly deserve every bit of this.”

“Splendid!” this marked the end of the photoshoot. “Off I go!” Photo Finish and her assistants left as soon as they were done, barely leaving the zombie any time to process the situation. They did, however, take the props away as they left.

“Well, the moment has passed. Back to work my little human!”

The voice became more and more oppressive to the killer as time went on. Even after all this time, he still had no idea what that thing was. It barely told him anything regarding its nature, mostly because he didn’t think to even ask questions. Now, he couldn’t say anything, much less even make an audible sound with his voice. Corpses don’t talk, at least, not with decomposed vocal cords.

“Excuse me, but why are you just standing there like an idiot? Get with the program! You have a script to follow, buffoon. And may I add that you are trying my patience at that point? No thinking, only action!”

SKX turned around, once again in hopes he could catch even just a glimpse of the thing. For the first time, the voice had taken form. It was only its face, for there was a black mist where its body would be, making it impossible to make out any feature. Two black, empty eyes and razor-sharp teeth met his gaze.

“Your time is limited, make the most of it and never forget who’s in charge.”

The festivities were enjoyable for sure, but sometimes it’s nice to just take a break from it, just momentarily. That’s at least what Sunset believed, taking a small break from it all in the girl’s bathroom.

She didn’t need to relieve herself; she was just here because she needed some space to breath. Nobody was in here, oh how nice. The bathroom had a rather soothing feel to it in the present moment. Nothing but the warm buzz of the lights and the muffled sounds of the party outside made up the atmosphere in there.

It was exactly the kind of space Sunset needed right now. After all the stress she’s been put under, simply being away from it all truly helped.

She took out her bottle of water and took a few sips. She appreciated how cold it was since the school’s halls were getting hot, what with the big amount of people wandering around. The drink reinvigorated her, chasing the heat away, though it still did not stop her from sweating under her costume.

She wiped off the sweat with the back of her hands and then noticed that they were dirty. That’s to be expected for a Halloween party. There are candies, chocolate bars, jelly and even slime. No wonder she got her hands dirty.

Sunset Shimmer turned on the sink, placing it at warm water and washed away the stains absent mindedly. She was yet again lost in her thoughts, thinking about the murders, the man in the pickle suit and the guidance of the old man. So much has happened in barely a week, it was crazy.

Inevitably, her mind wandered back to SKX himself. Just who was he? Why did he hold a grudge against her? How did he kill his victims? So many unanswered questions, and they were just about him! Sunset still had plenty more regarding the other strange happenings. There was more to this story, she just knew it but couldn’t quite figure out what exactly.

Another Equestrian creature perhaps? Or a magical artifact, still from Equestria? Who know!

There was nothing to go off. For the time being, she could only speculate.

Once she was done washing her hands, she closed the sink and lifted her head to get wipe them. She stopped her movement once she noticed a tall figure standing behind her in the mirror. Tall, muscular and it certainly didn’t look like Bulk Biceps to her.

At that moment, she realised that this person was none other than the killer! She tried to scream, but SKX covered her mouth with his shriveled hand. Its size was big enough to nearly cover her entire face, leaving just enough space for her eyes to see. Her screams were muffled, too quiet for anybody outside to hear leaving her on her own with the man that was hunting her down all this time.

His grip was unfathomably strong, making any escape impossible. Sunset hit him in the abdomen with her elbows as hard as she could but no matter how much power she put in her strikes; the killer barely reacted. He expressed nothing but indifference towards her feeble attempt at breaking free.

Since hitting him plainly didn’t work, Sunset immediately reached for his eyes to gouge them. To her shock, her fingers didn’t even come into contact with any eyeballs. They just slipped through the cracks without any resistance whatsoever. The most repulsive of all, was that she could feel the inside of his head. She pulled her fingers out in a hurry and noticed that they were covered in a viscous liquid.

SKX hunched forward and slowly opened its gaping maw. There wasn’t any saliva in his mouth, and his tongue looked completely dry. His bones snapped the more he opened it and that’s when it dawned on Sunset that the killer in Canterlot wasn’t human at all. He was a zombie. No wonder he didn’t feel her hits at all. He probably wasn’t feeling anything in the moment.

Her heart was beating rapidly, his face was hollow from the outside, but she could feel his burning hatred. Two faint lights slowly formed in his empty eye sockets, probably what was left of his soul because he’d otherwise be a husk if he didn’t have one.

His mouth was wide open, stuck in a silent scream for his vocal cords were practically non-existent. The light in his eyes grew stronger as he overextended his jaw, snapping it. It dangled for a while because SKX let go of her mouth and vanished out of sight, causing Sunset to fall on the ground.

One could say that the bathroom had gone silent now that he left, but the fact of the matter is that it stayed quiet for the complete duration of this dreadful encounter. Sunset Shimmer was left in disarray, struggling to piece her thoughts back together as they were now a jumbled mess.

SKX’s nature raised some disturbing questions to her.

She knows that he detests her and now, that he was a dead man, quite literally. Long hair, muscular appearance, she was now catching on to his identity. No, it can’t be! It’s impossible!

“Um, Twilight? Are you sure you know where our friends are? Nobody said where we were going to meet.”

Fluttershy and Twi were wandering the hallways of Canterlot High in search of their friends. It was still early in the party, so they weren’t worried about losing too much time to enjoy all the games and shows available, but it would be nice if they could just hurry up and regroup as quickly as possible.

“Well, I was thinking about our usual practice room since that’s where we always hang out during recess. Is that good to you?” nervously said Twi as she looked over her shoulder to make sure Fluttershy was still following her. There were so many people around to the point that it felt claustrophobic to her. With her friends around, she’ll hopefully feel more comfortable out in the open.

But just as she turned her head back, she bumped into someone and nearly fell on her back. Thankfully, she was caught by Fluttershy. Twi readjusted her glasses and was about to express her displeasure but stopped when she saw the man.

It was SKX, but the two girls didn’t know it was him. But what they did know was that there was a hulking man in a zombie costume lingering in front of them. His jaw was dangling around, which was quite disturbing even for a costume.

This interaction didn’t last long however, as the man simply shoved them aside without a care and plowed through the crowd. “Wha- Hey!” shouted Twi to get his attention, but there was no response from the zombie.

“That was very mean of him!” exclaimed Fluttershy.

A door on their left suddenly opened and Sunset Shimmer came into view. Both girls smiled at the sight of their friend, but immediately noticed that she looked distressed.

“S-Sunset?” muttered Fluttershy. No response came from their friend. She was simply staring at the hulking zombie making his exit, her lips quivering with fear.

Twi put two and two together and figured that the man who bumped into them was the killer. Once she did, a strange memory suddenly popped back into her mind. Now, she finally remembered her first encounter with their serial killer X.

“No way... Don’t tell me that zombies are real.” was all that Twi could say.

9. The Shadow on the Moon

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Friday night:

The cracking of his bones had become unbearable to him. His emotions overcame him, and it resulted in a broken jaw that he was stuck trying to fix. He pushed and pulled so many times, trying his best to rearrange it. Eventually, it worked. He opened and closed it a couple of times just to make sure it was functioning.

His first objective was done; Sunset Shimmer had remembered him. Now, it was time to prepare himself for the kill. Of course, now that they knew his appearance, he’ll have to adapt and find another way. A way to lure Sunset to him. That’ll be difficult since she’ll be wary of his future moves.

SKX will have to get her trust, by finding his own proxy to do it.

“The proxy of my proxy is also my proxy. It’s going to get convoluted if you push it any further.”

With hypnotisation, it should be child’s play. Just find and isolate someone that Sunset knows, no matter who it is and get them to obey his every whim.

SKX left the alley he was hiding in and carefully observed the streets of Canterlot. The night was still young as evidenced by the many trick-or-treaters wandering around town.

The streets were full of parading citizens, each grouped up based on the themes of their costumes. Canterlot was evidently deep in the spirits of Halloween. SKX also at one point had a love for this festivity... only it was slightly different compared to this one.

Nevertheless, he had to find a student at Canterlot High for his plan to work. It was going to be hard to find one amongst the crowded streets, but he had plenty of time, and surely the tyrant would be lay a helping hand.

“In this town, don’t we love it now? They’re all knee deep in the festivities! I’ll take this opportunity to have some fun myself.”

The shadow looming over him vanished, SKX paid no mind to it, however. Perhaps it was best that he was left alone for once.

The sky turned a little crimson all of the sudden. Nobody seemed to notice it, except for the zombie. He followed the intensity of the colour, eventually landing his gaze on the crimson moon. There was a huge shadow on it now. The shadow of his tormentor and master, a shadow that was very much alive for it moved around, observing the city with great attention. Evidently, he had moved on to the next level, slowly seizing control of Canterlot before his very eyes.

Sweet Celestia, he should really get it over with. The tyrant is starting to scare him, a feeling that has been detracting him from his hateful mission to kill Sunset Shimmer.

“It’s my town! Everyone, hail to the tyrant’s song!”

The Halloween party at Canterlot High was over, and now it was time for the Rainbooms to regroup and track down the serial killer hiding amongst the mass. Sunset, Twi and Fluttershy clued the others in on SKX’s dreadful appearance.

The only problem with finding him was that Canterlot’s relatively big. Not only that but traveling as a group would only make it easier for the killer to see them coming. The best solution was to split up, but in two groups since going at it alone would be quite suicidal.

“Okay, so two groups. One of three and another composed of four.” pointed out Sunset Shimmer.

Something in Twi’s bag began to wriggle around, eventually popping out. It was Spike. “Don’t forget about me!”

“Cool! Spike’s going to be joining us now!” joyfully exclaimed Pinkie Pie.

The others were quite surprised that Twi decided to bring Spike along for the ride since she hasn’t brought him to school for a while.

“I was just... sick. I feel better now, don’t worry.” he explained before jumping out of the bag.

“That makes eight of us now. We can split evenly in two groups of four.” informed Twi as she closed her bag, double-checking to make sure it was firmly shut.

“So, who’s going with who?” asked Rarity.

The Rainbooms exchanged quick glances at each other, unsure of the group's compositions.

“Well just so ya girls know, I’m sticking with Dash.” affirmed Applejack.

“And I'm much too scared to go without them.” Fluttershy said as she moved in closer to the two.

Sunset thought about it for a moment, then came to the conclusion that she should probably go with them. Rainbow Dash can be dangerously impulsive and Fluttershy might be too scared to act quickly in the heat of the moment. That would leave Applejack as the one holding this group together, which is why Sunset chose to go with them; she’d be able to help Aj keep Dash in check.

“I see... In that case; I'm going with you three.”

Twi, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Spike have moved closer to each other.

Pinkie Pie looked quite excited to go on this search, despite the dangers it posed. “Then the groups have been formed! We’re ready to go now.”

Sunset laid out the plan before the Rainbooms, taking center stage to get everyone’s attention. “Twi, you and your group will look around Canterlot’s Mainstreet while we’re going to the parade.”

Spike expressed his uncertainty. “Gee, that street is always crowded during the night. It should be filled to the brim with people at the moment.”

“Well, it’s only logical to assume that our SKX is hiding in a huge crowd right now. We have no choice but search in the most crowded part of Canterlot.” defended Sunset. SKX couldn’t be anywhere else but in the city at the moment. He’s a zombie, which meant that this was the only time of the year he could slip amongst the mass unnoticed. Outside of his hideout is where he’ll be the easiest to find. “Now, let’s not waste any time and go before Halloween ends!”

The parade was the most popular Halloween event in all of Canterlot. Thousands upon thousands of people would come to watch in bathed breath. The chances were high that SKX would be amongst them since the parade takes place in the streets. The crowd would form on the sidewalk, meaning he could easily slip past them and wander the dark alleys from one street to another in complete and utter discretion. They were most likely going to intercept him here.

But to reach the parade, they must first traverse the park. Unsurprisingly, it was empty at this time of the night. The wind was howling, the trees were shaking and the distant murmurs of the festivities in the horizon all came together to bring a soothing atmosphere to this area.

It had a surreal feel to it in the moment, which oddly comforted the group as they were trekking through the gravel road in the middle of the park. The whole place was casted in darkness with only the lights looming above the road to cast the shadows away.

Sunset, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Fluttershy could now spot the parade happening in the distance. They were just a few minutes away, but that didn’t mean they were going to take their sweet time to get there. On their way, they approached a lonely bench in the park that was only accompanied by a flickering light above.

That was a creepy sight, but it wasn’t enough to get their attention. The subtle trail of blood, however, did as they came to a complete stop to examine it.

Fluttershy shivered at this sight. “B-Blood! Someone must be hurt!” She cuddled Rainbow Dash in her seek for comfort.

Sunset Shimmer and Applejack knelt forward to take a closer look at the trail.

The country girl followed the blood with her eyes. The trail led to a tree not too far from the path.

When the light flickered, they could barely make out what was off the path. What they saw was quite disturbing. A corpse, whose identity remained hidden by the heavy shadows casted underneath the tree.

“Gah! Another victim!” exclaimed Applejack out of shock.

Not knowing if the killer was indeed at the parade or still in the park, the four girls spun around frantically to make sure there wasn’t any danger lurking in the dark. Once they were certain that SKX wasn’t around, they began to slowly inch forth until they were near the body.

It was too dark to properly identify it, so Sunset pulled out her phone and activated its flashlight.

Rainbow Dash pulled back out of shock, Fluttershy shrieked and covered her eyes, Applejack nearly screamed, and Sunset stood motionless, staring at the corpse in dread.

These purple clothes, the small hat, the age of the victim... It was Beelz. Sunset took a few seconds to recognise him as his entire face had been melted by acid from the looks of it. His coat and hands were drenched in dried blood.

But why? Why was he murdered by SKX? Sunset couldn’t wrap her head around it for she was wracked with guilt. Beelz simply talked to her every once and a while but was never directly involved in the case. She couldn’t help but feel that it was her fault that this kind old man died a brutal death at the hands of the undead serial killer.

Her eyes began to water and that’s when her friends noticed that she wasn’t feeling well.

“Sunset? Are you alright?” asked Applejack even though she already knew the answer.

“It’s my fault...” muttered Sunset Shimmer under her breath. “He didn’t deserve this.”

The country girl wanted to comfort her, but Rainbow Dash’s odd look at the sky distracted her for a bit. She followed her friend’s gaze and saw something unnatural. The moon was crimson red. The shadow that SKX saw, however, was gone just as quickly as it had appeared. That can’t be her eyes playing tricks on her, the surrounding sky was also affected by this change in coloration.

“The...” babbled Dash before she regained her composure. “The moon’s red!”

Fluttershy noticed it too and now, everybody was nervous. All, except for Sunset Shimmer who was stuck in her bubble of regret and guilt.

She turned off her phone’s flashlight, unable to see the corpse’s face anymore.

A pair of footsteps caught the three girls' attention. Filthy Rich was walking alongside his daughter, Diamond Tiara, through the park. They were obviously heading for the parade since that was the main attraction of the night. What was strange about them was their ignorance towards the crimson moon.

Rainbow Dash ran up to them, startling the two. “Hey, you there! Don’t tell me you CAN’T see what’s wrong with the moon?” she shouted.

Her sudden appearance scared Diamond Tiara good and she was now trying her hardest to hide it, looking disgruntled. Filthy Rich, curious, peeked above only to look back at Dash in confusion.

“What about it?”

“Huh?” She couldn’t believe it. Filthy Rich literally looked at the crimson moon and BRUSHED. IT. OFF? “You gotta be kidding me?! The moon is red! It’s not supposed to be red!”

The middle-aged businessman readjusted his suit with distrust. “Red? I don’t see any red in the moon. Are you on perhaps on some, illicit substances? If so, then I urge you to get away from my daughter.” he said in a hostile voice.

“What?! Are you accusing me of being a junkie?”

Dash was about to get physical with him, but Applejack restrained her before she could do something stupid. “Dash! It ain’t worth it! Just let it go.”

Filthy Rich and Diamond Tiara walked past them, making sure to side-eye the two in the process just to rub it in.

As for Fluttershy, she stood near Sunset and tried her best to comfort her. Her caring nature did help to alleviate Sunset’s guilt, as she was finally able to take her eyes off the old man.

“Are you feeling better Sunset?” she asked in a tender voice.

After taking a deep breath, she responded. “Yes, thank you Fluttershy.” She looked back at the corpse, knowing what to do. “I’m going to call the police now.”

Unbeknownst to both the girls, one of his eyes had moved to look at them.

The parade was breathtaking, flashy and lively. The parading vehicles, the costumes, everything was near perfection, which only made the citizens more excited to participate in the spirit of Halloween.

And apparently, it got some of them acting lovey-dovey in this spooky yet colorful setting. There were plenty of couples making out in the alleys just off to the side.

The Great and Powerful Trixie paid no mind to such acts, however. She was more focussed on the spectacle happening before her very eyes, caught up in its wonder. The main reason why she loved to go to the parade was fairly simple; she always wanted to be admired, to be in the spotlight and most importantly, to one day participate herself. All eyes on her, what a wonderful thought that she dreamt of for years ever since she started referring to herself as the Great and Powerful Trixie.

Oh, she was great and powerful indeed! She just... didn’t get the chance to show it to her rivals. But she would, one day. Yes, one day, she’d rise to stardom like she always fancied.

There’s a new light shining down on the parade, casting down a crimson red on the performers. That’s kind of neat, if it did come from the spectacle itself. How could there be such a light when the surrounding buildings are far too short to illuminate the top of the parading vehicles?

Curious, Trixie looked up and that’s when she saw the anomaly in the night sky. The crimson moon, covered by an ominous shadow that loomed over Canterlot. Panicking, the wannabe magician looked at the various attendees of the parade, hoping that someone noticed this unnatural phenomenon. She didn’t pay much attention in her science class, but she knew for certain that a crimson moon was impossible.

Nobody seemed to realise, well all except for one. A tall person disguised as a zombie stared at the sky while everyone else was paying more attention to the show. It became quickly apparent that he caught on to the anomaly while everyone else was rather ignorant of this strange happening.

She snuck through the crowd in hopes of getting close to the tall guy. Now, what they could do about the shadow on the moon was... no, what could they do? She only wanted a bit of comfort in knowing she wasn’t the only one seeing this. She didn’t really want another world-ending problem in Canterlot.

“Excuse me sir but are you seeing this too?” she nervously asked. Her voice caught the man’s attention and he silently looked over his shoulder. Trixie awaited a response, but nothing came from him other than a simple nod of acknowledgement.

“Do you perhaps know if there are any evil spirits responsible for this? Or is the Great and Powerful Trixie just working herself up over nothing?”

The zombie glanced back at the moon for a moment, then shook his head. It was strange that he wasn’t saying a single word. Then again, maybe he was just mute?
Trixie didn’t really know what to do now. Should she just go along with everybody else and pretend that this isn’t happening? Or maybe she should return home just in case the crimson moon was a bad omen.

“Not much of a talker, huh? W-Well, nothing bad is happening right now, so I guess we shouldn’t worry too much about it.” There was just a slight hint of fear in her voice, but Trixie’s pride convinced her to hide it.

The bizarre man was still silently looking at her. His entire body was eerily motionless. This snapped her back to reality and unnerved, Trixie distanced herself from him.
Even as she was pushing through the crowd, she could feel his intense gaze still locked on her. One peek over his shoulder confirmed that the zombie was in fact, following her with his eyes.

SKX recognised her from the night he murdered her most recent acolyte, but Trixie didn’t know who he was. Deep inside her was magic, the killer could feel it. Nothing in the world was going to stop him now; he had his target.

Trixie stopped walking once she found a nice spot to observe the parade. She had found herself near the edge of the sidewalk which meant that there weren’t many people obstructing her view.

Now there were dancers parading the streets equipped with flaming sticks they were juggling around. Sweet! Pyrotechnics are always a wonder to witness. Then, the firebreathers came, impressing the crowd with strong burst of flames erupting from their mouths. None of it was magic, but Trixie was enjoying the technics employed to make it happen.

Then, she felt something cold grab her shoulder. It was so cold that it made her body shiver. Startled, she shrieked and turned around. The same zombie from earlier was inches away from her, staring blankly at the young girl.

This guy was bad news. Trixie could feel it. There was an aura coming from him, an aura of malice. A malice that was only reinforced by the empty eyes of the zombie. At this distance, the costume felt eerily realistic. For a brief moment she even thought he was actually a rotting corpse. After all, the moon was crimson, Twilight turned into a demon a few months ago, was a zombie really that improbable?

Trixie was about to scream for help, but the man pulled out a butterfly knife and poked her stomach with it. The knife might have pierced her skin, for she felt a brief, sharp pain. This gesture had the merit of being subtle enough to not arouse any suspicion. Nevertheless, the message was crystal clear; if she screams, he’ll plunge the knife in her stomach and let her bleed to death. Doesn’t matter that there’s an entire crowd surrounding them, a knife through your lungs will kill you before an ambulance would have even arrived on the scene.

The cold hand of the man grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the parade. His mighty strength allowed the zombie to push everybody in his path away with just one hand.

The conversations of the Rainbooms she had overheard suddenly flashed into her mind. Mostly, the ones about Bulk Biceps being the potential killer. The only evidence they had at the time was that the killer was big and muscular.

Big and muscular... that was exactly how she would describe the man currently trying to pull her into a lonesome alley.

“No no no no no...” It was the mysterious serial killer X that had murdered these students and the night guard that was now pulling her away from the public’s eye. “Wait wait wait! Please let me go!” she babbled, keeping her voice down enough so that he wouldn’t stab her on the spot. It was useless, he wasn’t having any of it.

The killer pushed through the crowd without any hints of slowing down. She had no choice but to face the facts now; her words were not going to make him reconsider. On the contrary, he pulled on her arm harder and with such force that it could dislocate her shoulder should he put just a little more power behind.

Now things were looking grim for poor Trixie. They had broken out of the crowded streets and found themselves in an alley. SKX doubled his pace and forced her to keep up. After taking a short turn, they had no eyes set on them. There’ll be nobody to come save her now.

The killer pushed her into a wall, slamming her head violently against it. Feeling disoriented and panicking, she spun around and hugged the wall as hard as she could, metaphorically of course. Curiously, SKX sheathed his knife inside his hoodie. What was he planning to do without a weapon?

“H-He-Hey, wh-what are you g-going to do... to me?” she babbled again, this much sounding on the verge of tears.

She was implying something and SKX knew what it was, and it only made him angrier. He clenched his fists hard enough to see the veins bulging. A faint red light made itself known in his eyes, bringing more life to this hollow shell of a man.

“Oh man, s-sick costume bro!” A third party arrived unexpectedly. It definitely wasn’t a knight in shining armor, no. It was just a drunken man who just so happen to stumble on them.

SKX looked at the newcomer and Trixie saw an opportunity to make a run for it. But before she could even take her first step, the killer lunged at the drunk man and violently snapped his neck with so much force that it caused a piece of his spine to stick out. He was seeing red now.

The speed at which he murdered the poor man was almost inhuman, which wasn’t a good thing for Trixie as she just barely took off running. She was literally right next to SKX who had snapped his head back at her, his entire body displaying anger and impatience.

She turned the corner and saw the joyful crowd still present, the parade, still going strong. She reached out a panicking hand and screamed for help in teary eyes, but the noise of the spectacle drowned her calls for help. The deathly cold hands of the killer took a hold of her and before she even had time to realise what was going on, the murderer had her locked in a choke hold.

The immense pressure of his muscular arms slowly crushed her neck. She kicked and punched as hard as she could, gasping for air but it was to no avail. SKX was far too strong for her. Trixie’s world began to spiral as her vision became blurry and her body was slowing down. Her eyes began to close and the last thing she saw was the happy citizens of Canterlot... completely oblivious to her fate.

The police arrived on the scene of the crime. The old man’s body was left as is by the four members of the Rainbooms who had stumbled upon him. Once more, the police had another case on their hands, a number that was only growing the more crimes SKX committed. At this point, he was a plague, swiftly striking down his targets before leaving the scene just as fast as he arrived.

After they had done interrogating the girls on the crime, they placed multiple barriers around the corpse and began their examination. Sunset watched from afar, still struck with guilt. Things were looking grim now that they knew that SKX was a zombie. A revenant that walked the earth once again in search of satisfying his need for revenge.

“What a rotten way to die. Now, you blame yourself for his death but... No, you know what? I think you’re entirely right in placing the blame on you. It’s your fault this serial killer is on the prowl.”

The man in the pickle suit was back but this time, he dropped the slow speech pattern, instead opting for a more natural sounding one.

“You cannot hide anymore. You know he will never stop until he gets you.”

Sunset Shimmer turned around to face him. The man looked different now, mostly in his general expression. His entire face had a feeling of malice to it.
He walked away as he usually did but this time, oh no this time... Sunset wasn’t going to let him get away that easily.

“And where do you think you’re going?” she demanded, grabbing him by the shoulder.

For the first time, the man in the pickle suit expressed surprise. Now why would he think he was untouchable was anybody’s guess but one thing’s for certain, he wasn’t expecting her to act this quickly.

His surprise quickly turned into satisfaction as he responded. “So now you’re no longer in denial? Are you going to confront your sins, Sunset Shimmer?” His mouth slowly contorted into a large grin. “And confess to everyone you know?”

“I’m done sitting idly. I’m going to end this tonight.”

The man took a picture out of his pocket. It was the same mugshot he threatened Sunset with earlier. Next, he pulled out a lighter and burned the picture to a crisp, letting the ashes fall to the ground.

“No more lies, I trust you do the right thing.”

He walked away once again, but now Sunset was no longer curious to know who he was or what his deal was. She can’t take her mind off of SKX anymore. Her questions can be saved for later once the killer has been stopped for good.

Fluttershy, Applejack and Rainbow Dash approached their friend. They had just noticed the man in the pickle suit leaving, which got them wondering what was going on between the two.

“Just who in the hay was that?” asked Applejack. Her eyes were still locked on the pickle suit.

“Quite frankly; I don’t know but let’s not get distracted. SKX is still on the prowl, and he might kill someone else if we don’t act quickly!”

“Yeah! Let’s stop him and show all of Canterlot just how awesome we are!” said Rainbow Dash in approval.

“Let’s be careful everyone. I’m sure SKX knows we are coming for him.” warned Fluttershy.

Sunset stayed firm and determined. Enough was enough, the zombie had to be stopped no matter what. “I know. But if it’s me he wants, then I'll come to him.”

Crack, crack, crack... this sound repeated itself at irregular intervals and it took some time for Trixie to come back to her senses. Her head was terribly dizzy, her vision, blurry. It was as if she could feel the planet spinning. Strangely enough, she had her eyes open and yet, she couldn’t see anything.

She tried to stand up from her seating position but felt something holding her wrist down. Surprised, she looked down at her hands; they were tied down to the chair’s arms with duct tape. Trixie tried to open her mouth to say something and that’s when she realised that she was gagged. Her feet were also tied to the chair’s legs, truly preventing any escape.

Now she was starting to panic as the memories of what happened slowly resurfaced into her consciousness. Her current predicament had finally set in, she had been kidnapped by the serial killer that had murdered many students, female students at that. She was in a lot of danger.

Trixie wriggled around her restraints, trying her hardest to call for help through her gag. Her eyes darted around the dark room she had found herself in and that’s when she located the source of the cracking sounds. Hidden in the shadow was SKX, carefully observing her with a blank expression.

He acknowledged her struggle by taking a few uneven steps towards the self-proclaimed magician, his heels cracking each time his feet made contact with the floor. Once again, she tried to free herself from her restraints, putting even more strength this time but it was all for nothing. The killer was now in her face.

Tears began to slide down her face as her entire body shook in fright before the muscular six-foot frame staring her down. Then, she felt a cold and viscous liquid fall on her thighs. SKX reacted quickly by wiping his eyes in disgust, his entire figure expressing revulsion.

Trixie gazed at the liquid; it was green and slimy. Shocked, she looked back at the killer who was now convulsing while grasping at his face. The slimy liquid leaked through his visage, spilling on the floor. The whole sight was disgusting in every sense possible. It smelled horribly and felt repulsive to even touch.

SKX carefully took his hands off his face. His mouth was now wide open, dripping not with saliva, but with slime. The defenseless girl was almost about to faint now that she got to see the killer for what he truly is; a rotten corpse walking amongst the living.

He took another step and his bone nearly snapped like a twig. He raised a hand at her, trying to grab her by the head with his massive hands. She instinctively pulled her entire body back as much as possible in the chair.

“I smell another kind of magic. What have you brought to me?”

Both of them stopped entirely. The sinister voice echoed through the room, sending chills down Trixie’s spine. It sounded deep, unnatural and monstrous almost like a growl. There was someone, or something else in there with them.

The killer retreated into the shadows as a singular lightbulb activated itself just above Trixie’s head. The room was now deathly quiet, a silence that was unbearable for there were potentially two monsters inside with her, looking at her while she couldn’t see them.

The tyrannic voice laughed. The laugh was so powerful that it rattled her bones with its impressive strength. Then, it moved. Those weren’t just footsteps that Trixie was hearing, no...

They were stomps. Stomps, of something massive swiftly coming to her. Trixie closed her eyes and turned her head away, too terrified to even look at what was making its way to her. Her tears had doubled in volume at that point, tainting her eyes with mascara.

The stomps were now dangerously close to her and finally, they came to a stop. Something growled and sweet Celestia it was right in her face! She could feel it breathing on her face. Its breaths sounded like they came from another world. They sounded mechanical even though this beast was clearly flesh and bones.

“Trixie.”

It spoke her name. It knew her name! Trixie couldn’t handle it anymore. She whimpered in fear, going almost to the point of crying.

“Your ego won’t get you far. You will fall.”

The voice bellowed again with enormous power emanating from its mere words. It broke the lightbulb, casting the entire room in darkness. Well, not entirely; there was a new source of light in the room now, and it came from the beast.

“Open. Your eyes.”

Trixie obeyed even though she didn’t want to see the monster before her. Was it obedience out of fear? Most likely. Her heart stopped, and so did the shaking when she finally got to take a clear look at the beast.

Its teeth were razor-sharp and three times as big as hers. Its skin was a dark green and its eyes shined with a dark purple light that was barely strong enough to light up the beast’s head. Its eyes... they were the most sinister pair of eyes she had ever seen. Most curious of all was the black top hat resting atop its head.

Trixie was now deathly still, unable to even process the situation anymore. It was comparable to a person’s brain shutting itself down. Only, she was still very much conscious of what was going on.

I don’t want to die. Was the only thought running through her head. The unsightly beast was going to eat her alive, that’s what monsters with razor-sharp teeth do, right?

Its hand pierced the darkness, carefully moving towards her face. Trixie could do nothing but watch the enormous hand itching itself closer to her. It had long black nails on its fingertips, long enough to be classified as claws. The beast closed his hand, but left its index stretched. It wiped away her tears before it opened its horrid jaws again.

“Don’t be scared little girl. I don’t bite. Well, not usually.” Its mouth contorted itself into a large, malicious grin. “You’ll be of great use to us. So, consider yourself lucky to have magic, otherwise I would have taken a bite out of you.”

Its eyes slowly looked up as it was thinking for a moment, before clarifying. “Maybe I should let you know that what we’re about to make you do will probably ruin your entire life. Oh well, it’s still marginally better than to die, right?”

Trixie cried, unable to take it anymore as the monster retreated in the dark at an impossible speed, causing a strong gust of wind to snap the silence away. SKX took his place, appearing once more before the traumatised schoolgirl. His hollow eyes suddenly transformed into spirals.

A pan flute played a nice, soothing music that calmed Trixie down despite the situation, but she knew that it was a feeling forced down upon her.

The spirals in the zombie’s eyes were truly... hypnotising, enchanting. She felt all her worries go away and before she could even be aware of what was happening, she lost control of her own mind.

“Another puppet for the taking. I hope you won’t take it to heart when I say you’re going to be replaced soon enough, my little pony.”

Pony... now that’s something he hasn’t heard in quite a while. It’s a word that brings back awful memories, however. Memories of his fall, of the very reason why he’s stuck following the tyrant’s orders.

It all started so, so long ago...

The dragon was much faster than he could have ever anticipated. It swiped its claws at him, nearly cutting his head off. Stardust Radiant dropped to the floor alongside his diamond. The impact combined with the deafening sound of the air brought by the dragon crashing down upon him made his ears ring. The flying creature failed to snatch the shining crystal and from the looks of it; he wasn’t going to stop until he had taken it from the unicorn’s dead hooves.

The dragon swooped down yet again. Stardust was thinking about teleporting away, having to fall back on improvisation to lure the beast away from the town.

“Heh, it’s following a predictable pattern.” his companion’s voice echoed through his ringing ears. Stardust looked back at the mare who was charging up a powerful laser, aiming straight at the swooping beast.

She was aiming at where the dragon would be in a few seconds and fired. The incredible acceleration of the creature was far too great for it to stop his charge or even move out of the blast. The laser plowed through its chests, tearing his scales apart and spilling a lot of blood onto the two unicorns.

The dragon growled in agony and the pain inflicted by the laser caused it to fall, smashing through many buildings.

Stardust looked at the mare in anger. “We were supposed to lure it out of town before we could attack it!” he shouted.

“And let it tear you to shreds? Aren’t you a big old softie, Stardust.” she replied in a condescending tone.

“I would have figured something out.” he said, defending his stance. “That fall might have killed somepony! You’re irresponsible!” he finally lashed out.

The mare feigned her shock. “Woah. Woah! Don’t say that! You’re breaking my heart.”

This time, Stardust caught on to her dishonest nature. Although, it was perhaps he was a bit late considering many of his peers warned him that she was a snake. For so long, he denied their claims as he spent his entire colthood with her. She was the first and only friend he had ever known. To admit his peers were telling the truth would be too painful for him but subconsciously, he knew they were right.

The dragon got back on its hind legs, his eyes bulging with rage. It roared as it slammed its front limbs on the floor, causing a massive shockwave that was felt by the two unicorns.

“Tss.” The mare spun around to face the giant lizard. “It’s too late for your plan. We’re fighting it here.”

Her voice was cold, she didn’t even seem to care about the town’s safety. Was it to be expected from ponies with dreams of grandeur? Stardust should be wary of his “friend”.

The dragon charged at the duo, its mouth opening to cast down a torrent of fire on them. Frustrated, Stardust hurled the diamond at the beast. By some luck, the jewel smacked it right in the eye, gouging it with its sharp edge.

He nearly barfed at this gruesome, taking his eyes away in disgust. The mare, looked away, but not out of repulse but rather out of a sense of irritation. She looked at him with her teeth clenched.

You’re not gonna one-up me this time! She thought as she rushed inside of a nearby building with a plan in mind.

Unable to pull the diamond out of its eye socket, the dragon chose to ignore it for the time being. Now it was seeing red, staring down the stallion that had taken away its eye. It roared as its huge jaws opened to spit fire down at the streets.

Stardust wasted no time teleporting himself out of harm’s way. As he popped up on a nearby roof, he could do nothing but watch the streets being consumed with flames. Any and all ponies who were unfortunate to be caught in the dragon’s attack were burned to a crisp, their screams cut short as they melted near instantly.

The ground was no longer safe for the fire wouldn’t go away. The only safe haven was the buildings who were tall enough to keep him out of the inferno below.

He looked at the dragon, his expression of sheer horror having turned into anger. Stardust never liked violence. He always preferred to end conflicts peacefully. This dragon, however, asked for it now. It started this conflict, and it was going to pay for it now.

His companion popped out of a nearby window, gazing down at the inferno on the streets before climbing on the roof. She didn’t look like she cared much that many ponies have died at the beast’s hand. All that she was seeing was a monster to take down for her mentor. Doesn’t matter how she’ll do it, all that counts are the results. The end justifies the means.

Stardust Radiant’s eyes were drawn to a peculiar building. A building with a roof as sharp as a sword. He pictured how they were going to bring the dragon down. It was going to be brutal, but it was best to put an end to this conflict as soon as possible, before more ponies could get hurt.

“Hey!” he shouted at the mare to get her attention. “You see that building with the sharp roof over there?” She followed his gaze and nodded. “We’re going to slam the dragon’s head on it!”

She smiled. “That’s so unlike you, I think I love it.” she muttered under her breath.

They hopped from building from building, hiding from the dragon as it had lost sight of them. The diamond lodged in its eye created a blind spot for the two unicorns, so sneaking around the beast was child’s play.

They had finally gotten in position just behind the sharp building. Stardust used his vast knowledge of magic to conjure a magical rope. A rope that was long enough to wrap itself around the monster’s neck.

His companion grinned, having finally understood the whole plan. “I see. We’re going to get its attention, then you’ll wrap the rope around its neck and we’ll both pull on it with our magic until we slam its head on the roof. That is brilliant, Stardust. I command your quick thinking.” The disdain in her voice was much more subdued now. Her respect was begrudgingly expressed to him.

“Fire a quick laser. It doesn’t have to be powerful; it just needs to get its attention.” he said, his eyes focused on the angry dragon. Some would say they were throwing daggers at the beast.

The mare obliged and fired a beam of light. The blast scratched the dragon but didn’t harm it in the slightest. It turned around and spotted the two unicorns. Its last remaining eye was bloodshot, looking unhinged as it roared furiously. Its charge was twice as fast as before, but not fast enough to avoid the rope that wrapped around its neck.

The rope tightened with such intensity that it choked the beast. “Now!” shouted Stardust.

The two pulled with all their might. The dragon tried to resist but the combined force of the unicorns overpowered it. Its upper jaw slammed against the sharp roof, piercing it. It desperately tried to pull it out, but the stallion and the mare locked it in place as it let out a dying roar.

Exhausted, Stardust dropped to the floor while the mare was struggling to catch her breath. Then, he noticed something worrying.

The giant lizard’s body crashed down on the building in front of them. The debris flew straight at them. Startled, the mare teleported herself out of the way with the little magic that she could muster. The same couldn’t be said for the stallion who had not enough energy to cast another spell.

He ran as fast as he could in direction of the building right in front of him. It was quite far and by that, I mean an entire street apart from the stallion. But between making a leap of faith and dying, he chose to have faith.

He leaped with all his might and for a moment, it seemed as if he could make the jump. But it didn’t take long for him to realise he was just short of landing on the roof. His upper body slammed on the roof, and he held on for dear life.

He didn’t have the strength to pull himself up because of the toll all his spells had put on him. If nopony came to his aid, he’ll die. His eyes darted all around him in desperate hope that somepony would come to pick him up. His fear quickly turned into relief once he saw her looming above him.

With the most genuine smile ever, he said. “Sunset! Thank Celestia you’re here!”

10. The proxy of my proxy is also my proxy.

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The room was pitch black, way too dark for anybody to navigate in it and yet, SKX manoeuvred around the many objects with ease. He had practically become a nocturnal animal at this point, what with just how much time he has spent in the shadows since his abominable resurrection. His eyes were now as sharp as those of an owl. He walked over to a worktable where he had placed various items that would aid him in his mission. Namely, the stolen yearbook, the maracas and lastly, the acid.

Wait, the acid? He looked at the jars only to ascertain that they were empty. A bizarre observation indeed for he planned to use them on Sunset Shimmer to burn her face off. But now, he had to let go of that idea. He needed to find another painful way to kill her.

Low rumbling and quiet growls resonated behind his back. Could the Tyrant be responsible for this anomaly? Most likely, SKX knew that he can’t trust any of his words and advice period. The beast was a snake, he learned it the hard way. Being a zombie never figured in his plans, ‘cuz that was the Tyrant’s doing.

He had to act fast, put his plan into motion before the monster could change its mind.

Who knows what it would do next?

“Don’t you have more important business to do?”

Right, it knows all his thoughts. He shouldn’t think about it for now, it’ll only slow him down.

“Exactly! Don’t mind me, my little zombie.”

The fanfare of the parade hasn’t died down one bit. From what it looks like, this year was going to be the longest it has ever been. Guess the budget must have been bigger this time around.

The loud sounds coming from this whole event woke Trixie up. She was laying down on something rough which gave her a bad crick in the neck. She stood, her head still dizzy, and examined her surroundings. She was in an alley, more specifically on a pile of trash bags lying on the floor. The worst part was that there was a dumpster right next to the pile. Like, come on! People can’t be that lazy... can they?

“H... How did I end up here?” It seemed the traumatic memories of her kidnapping have been supressed, something an expert in the art of hypnotism could easily do. She looked around in hopes of finding a possible explanation as to why she passed out on a pile of trash but couldn’t find anything. How she got herself in this situation remained a mystery to her for the time being. Trixie examined her costume afterward. A bit dirty, but not damaged in the slightest.

Oh well, another strange happening but what can you do about it? Canterlot, at this point, is fairly known around the globe for its unexplainable phenomenon. Better not think about it for too long; the answers might not be pleasing.

Sweeping the dirt off her cape, Trixie returned to the parade to admire its beauty once more. What she hasn’t noticed however, was the zombie lurking in the shadows, observing her with great intent. Though this time, it wasn’t going to attack, it was going to wait for her to do her part. A part she didn’t know she had to do, but her subconscious did. When the moment would be right, she’d spring into action.

“Oh! So the pan flute is a powerful instrument when paired with magic. I should jot it down for my future games.”

The zombie stepped out of the shadows and followed her from a safe distance. The spell was still young which can cause some issues. If Trixie were to see him this soon after it had been casted, it might break the memory suppression part of the spell, the same would go if she heard the Tyrant’s voice again.

“Our hands are tied at the moment but... belief in patience will prevail!”

It will. SKX has not come this far to fail now. No matter how many obstacles are thrown his way, he’ll push through and won’t stop until the deed is done. Sunset Shimmer... A name he has grown to hate with a burning passion. A name he blames all his misery on. A name that makes him remember all the years of abuse he endured. A name that is responsible for making his name forgotten. Nobody knew who he was but her, and he’ll forever bury his legacy by killing her with his own rotten hands. Sunset Shimmer, it’s all her fault.

“Stay passionate about your hatred. It’s making things more interesting to me, and you know how important that is.”

It doesn’t matter what happens to him afterward. The Tyrant can torture him all he wants but as long as he can satisfy his need for revenge; he’ll feel whole again.

Trixie suddenly felt a strange urge to find Sunset Shimmer. Strange, where did that come from? Whatever, if she wanted to talk to her, then what was she waiting for? Trixie abandoned her previous activity and began to search through the crowd.

The Tyrant cackled. “It has already taken effect. Now my little zombie; it’s time we get in position. The plan has been put into motion.”

“How exactly are we going to find SKX in this crowd?” Rainbow Dash made a good point, there usually wasn’t this many people. It would seem this year is different, an ongoing trend in this world. Ever since Princess Twilight stepped foot in the human world, everything changed whether it was subtle or not.

“Uh, by persevering, I guess? I frankly don’t see any other way.” proposed Sunset Shimmer with uncertainty. They could have used some sort of magic tracking device similar to the one Twi built during the Friendship Games. The only problem was, she had grown to fear and resent magic ever since she turned into Midnight Sparkle. So, that idea was off the table.

“Then again, we’re lookin’ for a six-foot-tall mega zombie, Dash. I don’t think that’s gonna be too hard to find.” Applejack said as she skimmed the crowd with her eyes. “Sunset, ya said he was wearin’ a beanie and a blue jacket?”

Sunset confirmed with a simple nod. “He’ll definitely be hiding from us with a plan in mind. We should proceed with caution and always watch our surroundings the moment we walk into that crowd.”

“Do you have any idea how he kills his victims?” said Fluttershy in a worried voice. “I think it’s some form of hypnotism based on the autopsy report, but you seem to know a thing or two about him.”

Sunset nearly choked, realising that the way she’s been talking about SKX did imply that she knew him to some degree.

Whatever happens, she must not let her friends know what truly transpired between the two, or else it might kill their friendship for good. Cuz what she did... was unforgivable, even if she did change for the better. “I, uh... think that’s a good guess Fluttershy. You know, you made some good hypothesis during this whole case.” She let out a comforting smile. “You’re pretty good!”

Fluttershy blushed, avoiding eye contact out of embarrassment. “Gosh, y-you’re overestimating me.” she sheepishly responded, running a hand through her hair.

“Are we moving in or what? We can’t let this villain get away with all the harm he’s caused!” Rainbow Dash was visibly pumped about the idea of bringing this serial killer down. It was most likely a mixture of both a sense of justice and her fantasies of being a superhero or a cool detective.

“Right.” bluntly said Sunset Shimmer. She looked over at the crowd before putting on a determined expression. “Let’s go in.”

The main street of Canterlot had quite the traffic for Halloween. Many shops were open, selling candies and other goodies related to the festivities. The high amount of costumed folks made it a perfect spot for the killer to slip in undetected, and that’s why they were here.

Twi, Spike, Rarity and Pinkie Pie wandered around the crowded streets in search of a zombie that fit the description Sunset relayed earlier that night. Big and muscular, brown skin, a beanie and a blue jacket, specific enough for them to distinguish SKX from the innocent people dressed as zombies. He was quite different from the ways these flesh-eating ghouls were usually depicted in movies and games which played in their favor. Well, that and the fact that his “costume” supposedly looked realistic.

“Hey Twilight! Don’t you have a cool gadget that can detect magic? I know you can make one, cuz you made something similar back at the Friendship Games!” Pinkie Pie’s enthusiasm was still something Twi had to get accustomed too, courtesy of her introverted nature. Pinkie’s energy was still too much for her to handle at times but thankfully, Spike was here to lay a helping paw whenever she would be overwhelmed.

“N-No Pinkie, I don’t. I just don’t feel comfortable with magic, that’s all.”

Pinkie Pie pulled back. “Okay! Sorry if I troubled you!”

Spike poked his head out of Twi’s bag. “I think we can manage without. We do have other gadgets, right Twilight?”

Twi’s eyes flashed, knowing what Spike meant by other gadgets. “Thanks for reminding me Spike!” She placed her bag down just as her dog hopped out to allow her to rummage through her stuff. Much to Pinkie and Rarity’s wonder, Twi pulled out a drone. “Tada! I built a drone recently so that I could explore Canterlot safely from my bed! I worked on it ever since the murders first started and today, I finally got to finish it. I-It's still in beta, so I'm not certain if it will work as intended.”

The drone activated and began to fly above their heads. Twi’s friends got close to her so they could watch the drone’s camera on her remote.

“You’re truly prepared for everything, darling!” complimented Rarity.

Pinkie viewed the drone as a new toy to try out in the near future. “Could you let me play with it one day?” she cheerfully asked.

“Well... maybe, if you’re careful with it that is.” sheepishly responded Twi, almost embarrassed by the praise she was receiving.

It was only when the drones flew above all the blinding lights of Canterlot that the group noticed something was off with the sky and most importantly, the moon itself. It was crimson red. Last time they saw it, it was normal.

“Uh... Was the moon always red?” nervously asked Spike.

“I don’t think it has ever been crimson red before...” replied Twi, looking into the drone’s camera to get a better view of the unnatural coloration in the sky.

A man in a pickle suit passed by them and no one paid any attention to it, except Rarity. She found the costume to be simply hideous for her standards, but then something came to mind.

“So, I've been visited by this man in a pickle suit, and he keeps telling me cryptic things like he knows who I am and it’s super weird! Worst of all, he stole my magical book that I used to write to Princess Twilight.”

Yeah, it was Sunset’s strange rant about a man in a pickle suit. Was this the same guy she was referring to? Curiosity overtook her and she just HAD to talk to him for a moment. “Oh my! I've got to see if it's THE man in the pickle suit.” she said before walking up to the man.

“You'd look great in a pickle suit, miss Rarity.” absent mindedly said Spike for he was infatuated by her beauty.

“Spike!” Twi’s voice made him snap back to reality.

“O-Oh! My bad.”

The man in the pickle suit was walking slowly which made it easy for Rarity to catch up to him. Just as she was about to say a word to get his attention, he turned around almost as if he already knew that she was going to talk to him.

“Hmm?” He raised an eyebrow in an almost exaggerated manner.

Rarity struggled to keep her laughter in. Not only was he wearing a ridiculous pickle suit, but he also had these cool guy sunglasses on and the constant facial expression of a tough guy. You could not look any sillier than this! This guy had to either be the best comedian ever to keep a straight face or the densest man alive.

“Ex-Excuse me.” she wheezed before she got a hold of herself. “My friend talked a bit about you. Do you perhaps, know someone by the name of Sunset Shimmer?”

The man in the pickle suit tilted his head from side to side before responding. “You are Rarity, aren’t you?”

Rarity pulled her head back out of surprise. “You know my name?”

“Yes, you work at a fancy boutique in Canterlot. I must admit, your craft is pretty good. You’re pretty good.”

His flattering remark got to her, and she couldn’t help herself. He was stroking her ego, she had to get more compliments out of him. “Oh dear! Finally, someone who appreciates my work! Well, my friends also appreciate it, but they always seem more concerned with other things to pay any real attention to my sense of fashion.”

“I say they are missing out on a lot. You’re going to make it big in the future, I’m certain of it.” His expression didn’t change much with each sentence, the same went for his tone but Rarity wasn’t paying attention. Who knew that someone who appreciated fashion would also dress up in such a ridiculous costume?

“Ho ho! Stop it! You’re going to make me feel embarrassed!”

“Hold on a minute.” Spike sniffed the air around them, noticing that a particular perfume he liked was now gone. “Where’s Rarity?”

Twi and Pinkie Pie took a quick look around them. Rarity was now a couple of feet away talking to a man in a pickle suit. “Rarity!” called out Twi. “We’ve got more important business going on over here!”

Sadly, her friend was way too caught up in her ego being stroked by this complete stranger to pay any real attention to them.

“Welp, guess we’ll just keep on looking with the drone, at least until Rarity snaps out of it.” said Twi in defeat.

Suddenly, Pinkie’s face slammed into hers as she pointed at the camera on the remote, excited at what she had noticed.

“Oh look, look! It’s Sunset Shimmer! Come on, let’s go and say hi!”

At this point, the remote was pretty much in Pinkie Pie’s control as she piloted the drone to fly near her friend. Just as it descended, Sunset ran inside what appeared to be a slaughterhouse.

Spike poked his head further out to get a cleaner view. “Huh? Why is she going inside?”

With the hurry she was in, Twi could only assume the worst. “Do you think someone in their group might have been taken by SKX?”

“No time to panic!” screamed Pinkie. “We’re going to run all the way over there before something bad happens!”

Before Twi could react, Pinkie grabbed her arm and ran as fast as she could, pulling her along for the ride.

“... Fashion these days leaves so much to be desired. I don’t even know where to start! There’s just so much wrong with it.”

The man in the pickle suit was patiently listening to her rant, though it was clear that he cared very little about her message.

He was only waiting for her to drop her guard so that he can get out of sight.

Thankfully for him, Pinkie came to his rescue. “Rarity! We have no time to explain! Follow us!”

By follow, what she meant was essentially “I’m going to drag you alongside Twilight to the slaughterhouse.” That finally gave the prompt for the man to leave, off to do whatever business he had planned for the night.

Though something suggests it ain’t going to be mundane. That strangely sinister smile was a good reason to be worried.

Now, Sunset, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Fluttershy were knee-deep in the massive crowd that were enjoying the show. Finding SKX wasn’t going to be easy but with how tall he was; it at least gave them a chance to spot him since there’s not that many people in Canterlot who are his size. The four girls broke from the crowd to get some space for themselves. There, they could discuss how they were going to go about finding him.

“SKX isn’t going to attack us in public. We’ll take advantage of that to split up and search for him.” started Sunset “If any of you see him, quickly send a message. The map on our phones also gives away your position, so we’ll use that feature to get to you as soon as possible. And no matter what, don’t confront him alone.”

The others nodded. “I see... We just need to stay far away from the edge of the crowd when we’re going to search for him.” specified Fluttershy.

“That’s right!”

Rainbow Dash was eager to put the plan in motion, ready to take on another superhero-esque mission. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

Once more on her own, Sunset pushed through the many spectators of the parade. This time, she wasn’t going to let fear overcome her, nor would she let regret bring her down. If she can stop SKX fast enough, then... there won’t be a need to explain to her friends what transpired between the two. Friendship preserved, simple as that.

Out of nowhere, someone bumped into her; it was Trixie who just so happen to be passing by. “Why don’t you watch where you’re going? The Great and Powerful Trrrixie hates people who aren’t paying attention.” There was a strange sense of hurry in her voice since she spoke faster than usual and didn’t perform any flamboyant gesturing.

“I’m kinda in a hurry right now.” bluntly responded Sunset. She was just about ready to push her aside when Trixie said something that immediately caught her attention.

“So am I! I believe I’ve seen the killer hiding away in some place and I was about to tell the police in hopes of receiving something substantial.”

“Wait! You saw where the killer went?” said Sunset mere milliseconds after Trixie had finished her sentence.

The magician looked at her with contempt before giving in. “I can show you where he went if you’re THAT curious.”

Trixie spun around and walked in a specific direction, with Sunset following closely behind. After a few minutes of walking, they had left the parade and arrived at a closed building, a slaughterhouse. At this time of the night, it was closed and there wasn’t a guard patrolling such a haunting place during Halloween. In short, a perfect place for a monster to hide in.

“I can see why he chose this place...” muttered Sunset Shimmer.

Trixie looked at her, slightly annoyed. “I didn’t say he was in there for certain, I only believed I saw him.” she specified.

“And you were potentially going to waste the police’s precious time? That could put you in a bit of trouble.”

Outraged, Trixie took a few daring steps towards the slaughterhouse. “Fine then, I’ll prove to you that he’s really in there!”

It was at this moment that Sunset began to worry. If SKX was indeed in there, getting that close to the slaughterhouse would be extremely dangerous. “Uh, you don’t really have to put yourself in potential danger just to prove a point, you know?”

Trixie was now right in front of a window, peeking through it intensely. “You underestimate the lengths that the Great and Powerful Trixie will go to score a win!”

Sunset walked up to her, fearing that something bad might happen should they stay too close to this building. “Come on Trixie; let’s not be that petty about it.”

The magician spun around, offended by her adversary’s remark. “Petty? I, the Great and Powerful Trixie am not-”

The window behind her smashed open and a zombified hand grabbed her by the head, pulling her closer inside. Trixie screamed as she trashed around in a desperate attempt to break free.

Sunset ran in as fast as she could, but it was too late; the killer’s arm wrapped around the girl’s stomach and finally pulled her inside. Sunset jumped, trying to at the very least grab onto Trixie’s legs but she instead hit her hand on the broken glass.

She got up and quickly examined the cut on her hand. It wasn’t too deep thankfully so it shouldn’t be a problem for now. Sunset took out her phone and sent a quick message to her friends before rushing in. This was obviously going against the very plan she laid out to them, but she couldn’t let Trixie die at the hands of SKX.

The door opened with a loud creak and Sunset found herself confronted with nothing but darkness inside the slaughterhouse. She looked over at the broken window since that was where she last saw the two. The faint light from outside couldn’t bright up the interior, so she’d have to use her phone.

Not even a second spent inside and already the door slammed itself shut in a terrible cacophony. Sunset jumped, nearly dropping her phone on the ground. She looked back and tried pulling on the door only to realise that it had somehow locked itself. Then, something laughed. It was a laugh that sounded like a broken recording of a man laughing. It was anything but natural, or even human.

Couldn’t be SKX, for he hasn’t spoken even once during any of their encounters. Gotta face the facts; there’s something else inside with them. That only served to make Sunset even more nervous.

But just as she was starting to second guess, she heard Trixie’s wails coming from somewhere in front of her. She activated her phone’s flashlight and moved towards where she believed the wails were coming from.

Something fell on the floor, causing a loud bang to erupt mere inches away from her. Sunset screamed and pulled back almost instantaneously. Nothing, nothing but a crate that fell down. Must have been badly stacked. She thought, observing the stacks of crates to her right.

She lowered her flashlight and was about to keep on moving until... she saw movement on the ground near the crates. Too late, whatever had moved was gone now. The only thing her peripheral vision had managed to distinguish was that something slithered away like a snake on the floor. Slithered away? That couldn’t have been a man for sure.

Never has Sunset wanted to leave a place this badly. Nobody else but her was aware of the mysterious third party involved with SKX. She was suspecting that whatever that thing may be; it was in most likely working in conjunction with the killer and that it was stalking her.

“The odds are stacked against you. He he. Sunset: you will fall.”

The voice originated from somewhere behind. She spun around only to be met with nothing. She previously referred to this thing as a ghost, but of course that couldn’t be further from the truth. This monster, whatever it was, felt like it came from a world other than Equestria and the human world.

“Sunset! Help!”

Trixie’s scream came from just beyond this door. Wandering alone in the dark was extremely disorienting, even with a light to help navigate. Sunset practically had no idea where she was.

She crossed the door and found herself in a large room filled with the remains of cows strung up on meat hooks. They had already been skinned to look like the meat they were going to be turned into. It was a disturbing sight that was fairly mundane to those who worked inside.

The only bad thing about this room was that the visibility was greatly hindered by the many cows strung up. SKX could easily sneak up on her, but she couldn’t let Trixie suffer at his hands. No more will die at his hands. He only held a grudge for her, but it was a grudge strong enough to justify murdering those who had nothing to do with this conflict.

Movement, she spotted movement just on her left. She shined her light on the strung-up cow and quickly noticed the pair of legs just below it. One leg moved back, and Sunset knew what SKX was about to do. The zombie pushed it with all his might. She placed her arms in front of her face right as the cow swung into her face.

It smacked her much faster than anticipated and she fell on her back, dropping her phone in the process. She hit her head in the fall which horribly disoriented her. The room was nearly pitch black, but the flaming hatred in SKX’s eyes gave away his position, inching closer to his victim. Sunset saw her phone on the floor, just barely in reach. Just in time, she grabbed her phone and flashed the killer with its bright light.

He covered his eyes, but not before lifting a foot up to stomp on her head, an attack that Sunset barely dodged with a roll. She got back on her feet, making sure to keep her light on the wrathful zombie to keep him blinded.

Then, something flew by her face, cutting her right cheek open. Surprised, Sunset stared at the object that hit her; it was a playing card, something that obviously couldn’t do this much damage, unless...

“I told you I can do real magic! Watch, as I make this simple playing card as hard as steel!”

It was Trixie, looming above her on a flight of stairs. Now that she was paying more attention to this place; nothing felt natural. Somehow, the interior of this slaughterhouse was vastly bigger than what could be seen on the outside.

“Tr-Trixie?! Why are you helping him?” screamed a confused Sunset Shimmer.

“I, uh...” Trixie’s eyes darted around, trying to find a reason why.

“Obey.”

The powerful voice brought certainty into the magician. “I can’t stand the fact that you hogged away all the fame and recognition that I, the Great and Powerful Trixie, so humbly deserve!”

Sunset saw it. A pair of purple eyes briefly appeared behind Trixie before fading away instantly.

SKX finally made a move, walking closer to her with his hands clenched into fists. His eyes had turned a bloody red and his veins popped out more from under his skin. The red-haired girl backed away, there wasn’t much she could do about Trixie. Getting out of this nightmarish building was now her top priority.

Suddenly, she felt an immense pain in the back of legs. Something violently smacked her with enough power to make her fall on her back right as SKX picked up the pace.

Sunset was yet again in a vulnerable position and this time, she got to see what slithered away. It was a gigantic, reptilian tail that retreated in the shadows, going so fast that it cracked like a whip. What followed was a laugh that sounded like a pale imitation of how a human sounded.

The killer’s hands wrapped around her neck, and he lifted her off the ground with his immense strength. His grip got stronger with each passing second and her consciousness began to slip away. She had already suffered a concussion before he strangled her, which only made her attempts to fight back all the more inefficient. Her punches did some damage, but the zombie couldn’t feel any pain. He wasn’t going to let go.

Sunset gasped for breath, but no air could even enter her lungs anymore. SKX was far too strong for her, let alone for any man. Now, she didn’t even have the strength left to raise her arms, causing them to flop on to her sides. Her eyes were getting redder as they began to close. This is it. She thought, knowing that there was no way out.

But then, SKX stopped strangling her. It wasn’t because he thought that she was already dead, no, he’s not that stupid. Instead, he raised his head to look at something. Something that was so intriguing in his eyes that he stopped his murder attempt midway.

One hand let go of her throat as the zombie dragged her to something that was in front of him. Sunset was still recovering her strength, so she wasn’t able to see what the serial killer was doing, but the sound of a heavy door opening gave her a slight hint as to what.

The red-haired girl was tossed inside a cold room. She coughed incessantly, grasping at her throat. She could still feel the pressure on her neck even though SKX had let go of her. It was so cold in here and that’s when Sunset finally pieced it together; she was in a freezer.

Freezers can be locked from outside, and guess who was out of there with the keys. Unfortunately, her body hasn’t fully recovered, so all she could do was watch as SKX slowly closed the door.

Behind him was Trixie and the purple eyed monster, grinning at what was going to be her resting place.

“How about we give you some time to reflect on everything?”

The door slammed shut. There was truly no way out this time. With the harsh temperature in there, she only had about a few hours left before she would freeze to death. The only hope she could cling on to was the hope that her friends would come to her rescue just in time.

11. Confrontation

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Finally, they arrived at the slaughterhouse. Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy got there as fast as they could after receiving Sunset’s message. Now, two options presented themselves; either they go in immediately, or they wait for back-up.

“What do y’all think?” asked Applejack.

Rainbow Dash was obviously the first to speak her mind. “I say we go in and help Sunset! She’s in serious danger without us!”

Fluttershy looked around in hopes that the rest would arrive, but when it seemed that they weren’t going to be there for a while, she had to choose. “I would have preferred to wait for Pinkie, Twilight and Rarity, but we can’t let Sunset handle this on her own! We’re in this together.” Despite her desire to save her friend, Fluttershy was still horrified at the idea of even entering a slaughterhouse, a place that kills and maims animals in masse to sell their meat.

Applejack nodded. “Then it’s settled.”

But just as they were about to enter, Pinkie’s voice could be heard.

“We’re coming Sunset!”

Pinkie was dragging both Twi and Rarity along with both hands. She was much stronger than she looked and these two got to learn about it firsthand. “Oh hey you three!” Pinkie followed up with a smile.

“Ain’t that perfect timing!” Rainbow Dash was thrilled to see the gang all reunited. Together, there wasn’t much reason to be afraid. The killer might be bigger and stronger, but they outnumber him. He’ll be the one at a disadvantage should they confront him directly. “Let’s not waste any time and go!”

Twi nervously looked at the slaughterhouse. The place didn’t look inviting at all, even more so after she watched a documentary regarding the despicable methods employed at this establishment in particular.

“I... don’t really feel comfortable right now.” said Spike as he slowly retracted into Twi’s bag.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack had already opened the door, fully committed to waltz in no matter the dangers that lurked within this eerie place.

Pinkie grabbed Twi by the hand. “Don’t worry! If you stick close to me; nothing bad will happen! I pinkie swear!” she said in a comforting and confident voice. It succeeded at easing Twi’s fears, but not to eradicate them.

“And I’ll stay in there... for moral support of course.” nervously spouted Spike.

Twi could obviously feel the stress in her pet, it was up to her to be the brave one of the two. “Uh, thanks. I guess.”

The rest had already entered and now it was up to them to join their friends inside.

The door creaked; its infernal sound echoed throughout the empty slaughterhouse. Nobody was in there, that much was certain since practically everyone in Canterlot was out celebrating Halloween. The place was gloomy but that was a given considering what kind of establishment this is.

A fitting hideout for a serial killer, even more so for a zombie. Despite knowing that Sunset had entered a couple of minutes ago and that the killer was inside, it was deathly quiet. Not even a single footstep outside of theirs could be heard. They were the only one making noises in the dark slaughterhouse. Once the door closed behind them, the place got even darker, now only lighted up by the faint light coming from the windows.

Their advance was hesitant, fearful yet determined to reunite with their missing friend. To turn back would be to give up on Sunset. They were, however, unaware that she was locked inside a freezer to turn into an ice statue.

Once they got past the entrance, it was pitch black which forced them to pull out their phones and use the flashlight feature to brighten their path. Twi lowered her head to activate her phone’s flashlight at the same time as everybody else but when she looked forward, everyone was gone. She could no longer feel Pinkie’s grip. She only took like what, five seconds to pull out her phone? They couldn’t have left her behind. They were her best friends, right? In any case, they disappeared, and she was all alone.

“Uh... G-G-Girls?” she asked, now terrified at the prospect of being alone in the dark with a zombie lurking in the shadows.

“Wh-Wh-Where are you?” She took one step forward, the sound echoed through the empty halls of the slaughterhouse. It was so loud that it startled her. Twi definitely wasn’t cut for this, but these girls were the first friends she ever made. She looked over her shoulder only to find that Spike was also missing, which seemed impossible since he was literally mere inches away from her.

“S-Spike?”

They helped her where everybody else left her out of disdain. Something was wrong, they’d never leave her behind.

“C-Can you hear me?”

She heard distant shuffling, coming from a few rooms ahead. Thinking that it could be them, Twi cautiously moved forward. She stopped in front of an unremarkable door. The shuffling came from behind. After a few seconds of waiting in the dark, she lifted a trembling hand towards the handle.

It rested on it for a while before Twi mustered up the courage to make a move. She turned the handle and the noise it sparked caused the shuffling to stop instantly. Twi also stopped, wondering if this was a mistake.

Then, the shuffling returned, only, it was moving towards the door. Scared, she pulled back, unwilling to take her eyes off the door that was separating her from who knows what was on the other side.

She backed away, and backed away, and backed away until her back touched the wall. The wall had a strange texture to it. It felt like cloth and had a strange bent that she felt around her waist.

Wait... that’s not a wall. Something growled behind her, and Twi froze, too scared to even move a muscle. It was a growl that sounded strangely mechanical and yet, it still sounded like an animal. A big, big animal.

The beast’s snout came into contact with the top of her head, and it sniffed her. Then, it made its way down to her neck before it opened its jaws to snarl. Twi trembled; her teeth chattered with fear and her breath became laborious. In the corner of her eyes, she spotted a large shadow moving to her sides.

“Run.”

The commanding tone in its voice convinced her to make a run for it, whatever was on the other side of that door couldn’t compare to the danger this monster posed.

But she couldn’t run far for something wrapped itself around her legs and tripped her. The fall knocked her glasses away, blurring her vision. In her moment of panic, she looked back at the enormous beast behind. It was inches away from her now. As she looked down, it became clear that the cause of her fall was the monster’s long, muscular tail.

The tail pulled Twi closer as the beast got on all fours and opened its jaws as wide as it could. It’s so big, so big in fact that it could swallow her whole.

Twi screamed in sheer terror, and it was at that moment that the tail stopped pulling. The Tyrant slowly raised its eyebrows as it took a closer look at her.

“Younger, inexperienced. Too dependent on others. A poor vision, a different hairstyle and an almost crippling fear of magic... You’re nothing like his Twilight.”

Its tail let go of her legs and the Tyrant retreated in the shadows, his purple eyes fading away until he was completely gone. Twi couldn’t take her eyes off the dark corner that it fled to. It was like being in a trance.

“Twilight! Where have you been?!” a familiar, concerned voice brought her back to her senses.

Rainbow Dash stood above her; the rest of the group was not too far behind. “We turned around for a moment and it was like you just disappeared! Spike even fell on the ground as if you just popped out of existence!” she exclaimed.

Twi remembered that SKX used hypnotism and various other illusions with his magic, what she witnessed must have been just an hallucination inflicted by him, though that didn’t explain the whole Spike thing. “I... think he’s trying to separate us with illusions.” she finally said after being pulled up by her friend.

“Then let’s stay even closer!” immediately followed Dash, glancing over her shoulder to see if the rest had caught up to her.

“Next time, tell us when you’re gonna start runnin’, Dash!” Applejack said in a displeased tone, the rest of the squad was catching their breaths since, they aren’t all athletes like these two.

“I didn’t want to leave Twilight on her own for even another second!” defended Rainbow Dash.

Applejack looked at the others, then shook her head. “Tirin’ the whole group out like that ain’t a bright idea. We ain’t in any condition to fight back if we’re tired.”

“Fine.” Dash pouted. “I’ll give you a heads-up next time.”

Spike bounced into Twi’s hand, looking terribly worried. “Twilight! I thought we all lost you for a moment!”

Not really knowing what to say, Twi simply patted Spike on the head before letting him jump back into her bag. “I, uh, will be more careful next time.”

So cold, it’s too cold. Sunset gave up on banging on the door, she had instead curled up in a ball, leaning on a crate where she trembled to keep herself warm. She putted her hands in her sleeves and buried her face in her arms, hoping that that would be enough to keep the heat.

Her friends were her last hope. Her one and only chance to get out of here. As she sat there in loneliness, she remembered the stories she heard of people dying inside freezers after being locked in there accidentally. The only difference with her situation was that she was locked in there intentionally to freeze to death.

Her neck began to hurt, forcing her to pull her head back for a moment to ease the pain.

“You don’t look so good, Sunset.” A familiar voice echoed in the freezer. The voice of an old man whose corpse Sunset stumbled on earlier that night. She slowly turned her head to her left where she saw Beelz sitting next to her with his adorable smile. Unlike her, he wasn’t trembling because of the cold. He looked unfazed by it even.

“B-B-B-Beelz?” she stammered, pushing through the cold to get her words out.

The elder dropped his smile. “You know I'm not real, right? Just... a figment of your imagination.” He looked at the freezing floor with a thinker’s eye. “You really valued my advice, didn’t you? Here I thought I wasn’t going to make that much of an impact.” he said, almost chuckling to himself.

Sunset took her eyes off him; she couldn’t bear to look at him knowing that she may have been responsible for his untimely demise. “I... s-s-s-suppose I was just d-d-d-desperate, to find some guidance.”

“I’m happy to know I’ve at least been of some help. Most people just brush me off because of my age. You know, I only wanted to stay relevant amongst the youth, I didn’t have anything left to speak of. I, thought of you as my only friend... well, had I lived longer.” he said in a sorrowful tone.

Sunset teared up. Her tears streamed down her face as she struggled to blink because of the cold. She wiped away her tears and remained silent. The words have completely left her mouth now that she was overcome with emotions.

“Don’t cry now. I didn’t have a lot of time left anyway. Just be happy to know that you’ve made my final days that much better.” He raised a trembling hand and touched her shoulder. Sunset couldn’t feel it. It was just her mind playing tricks on her and yet, he felt real. Somehow, she could feel his warmth.

“I know you feel guilty about SKX or should I say, Stardust Radiant. The guilt is eating away at you, you blame yourself for all of the murders that have happened here.” He inched closer to her. “You can’t erase your past, Sunset, but you can change the present and the future. The past doesn’t define who you are. It never will. You can fix your mistakes and show the world that you’re a different person from who you once were. You can still... redeem yourself.”

Sunset choked up, wiping her tears away as they just kept on streaming down her face with growing intensity.

“Your friends have always believed you could be a good person, they helped you when everybody else rejected. I believe in you too. You saved Twilight from her demons, and now, it’s their turn to save you. You just gotta have faith, Sunset.” He placed his other hand on her shoulder, urging her to look at him in the eyes.

“We believe in you. We always have!”

Sunset felt her body warm up and she closed her eyes, having come to terms with her situation. The freezer was thrown into silence once more, but not for long.

She could hear low rumbling just a couple of feet away from her position. Slowly lifting her head, her eyes clashed with those of something wicked inside the freezer. Dark purple eyes lighted up parts of its face. Strangest of all was that its breath sounded mechanical, but it was clearly a living being and not a robot of sort.

Tall, big and certainly inhuman in nature, the monster stared at her with its sharp eyes. The cold atmosphere of the room created dense mist that only allowed her to make out its silhouette. The three most striking feature were the long snout, the top hat and lastly, the muscular tail slithering near her legs.

“Still clinging on to life? How bold, you might be worth my time after all.”

With these words spoken, the Tyrant retreated in the mist to disappear, leaving Sunset Shimmer to freeze all by herself.
“Just... need to hold out a while longer.” she repeated to herself, clinging on to the hopes that her friends would come rescue her from this terrifying and lonely way to die. “I have not... come this far... to die now.”

The Tyrant left his side, a rare occasion for SKX and that’s exactly why he didn’t like it. The beast had made its interest of the Rainbooms loud and clear to the zombie on multiple occasion. If he left, then surely that must mean that they’re nearby, maybe even inside. He had the keys to the freezer, so if he just hid for a while, then they won’t be able to save Sunset Shimmer.

Run and hide, that was the name of the game. It didn’t matter how strong he was, it’s six on one. He didn’t like these odds. The only problem was the Tyrant itself. This monster screwed him over on multiple occasion just to raise the stakes. No way in Tartarus would he ever approve of his strategy; he’ll lead the girls right to him.

“You can’t run, and you can’t hide. There must be bloodshed! Or else... you will experience real suffering for the second time. Got it?”

Bad, real bad. He made the Tyrant angry. He grasped at his face in a slight panic, expecting a horrible punishment to come, yet nothing happened. Nothing, just two bloodied eyes meeting his. The monster was staring him down, establishing his dominance with its simple gaze.

“A brawl is surely brewing, wouldn’t you agree? Now go!”

“Eek!” Fluttershy shrieked when she saw the carcasses of all the cows. This place was truly her biggest nightmare.

Rainbow Dash stayed near her to bring her some comfort, which meant that Applejack was the one to lead the group in this nightmarish slaughterhouse.

“Y’all are still here?” she asked, looking back to make sure no one missing.

“No one’s missing, Applejack.” responded Twi, still remaining at the rear, but this time accompanied by Pinkie who was holding onto her as best as she could.

“We haven’t disappeared yet!” shouted Pinkie.

“Still here!” exclaimed Spike as he poked his head out.

Applejack briefly smiled before turning around to continue their exploration. It didn’t take long for her to stop again. There was movement in the corner of her eyes, SKX most likely. She silently pointed in what she believed to be the location of the killer, a gesture that the rest understood.

His bones cracked ever so slightly, giving them a vague idea of his location. All they knew was that the cracking was getting closer, closer.

A loud slithering sound boomed behind them, causing Fluttershy and Twi to let out a scream of surprise. Applejack looked back to see what it was but was suddenly hit by one of the dangling cows. The impact knocked her to the ground. Rainbow Dash quickly moved in front of her to shield her friend from a potential attack on SKX’s part. But nothing happened.

The killer moved away from the group and slowed its movement to a crawl which made the cracking sound much quieter and harder to hear.

Dash helped Applejack get up. Once she was back on her feet, she wiped away the blood that had stained her costume.

“He’s usin’ the ol’ tactic of hit and run. We’ll have to intercept him at the right time.”

“Twilight? You got any cool gadget we can use against this zombie?” asked Rainbow Dash.

Twi pulled out her bag and rummaged through it, Spike eventually popped out, holding a pair of googles in his mouth.

“Oh sweet! Are these night vision googles? You never told me you had one!” Dash was clearly excited to try these on. Twi nodded and took out more.

“Since we were planning on trick or treating, I thought we could use these... just for fun, you know?” she explained with a sheepish grin.

“That’s our Twilight! Always coming up with strange idea, but hey, you get used to it eventually.” affectionally exclaimed Spike.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack wasted no time putting the googles on so they could scan the surroundings with ease. Now, SKX could no longer hide in the dark, which was of course, his biggest advantage over the girls.

Speaking of the killer, he heard the Tyrant’s voice speak to him once more in a somewhat belittling tone.

“Now you’ve lost your one and only advantage in this bout. If you had a gun, you could just shoot them but don’t count on me to bail you out. Just remember; you have the keys to the freezer. In other word, the one thing that dictates Sunset’s fate, so you can always just... run away like a coward and that’ll be that: a win. Unless...”

Its head swerved up to his face. “You still have a bit of honor left in you? Or perhaps there’s something you desperately want to say to her before her untimely demise? Whatever it is, I shall grant it just as long as it’s not an obvious advantage in battle.”

“He’s hiding over there!” shouted Rainbow Dash, pointing a finger just to make sure everyone was looking in the right direction.

SKX looked at the table on his right, mainly at the tools laying on it. The one that caught his attention the most was one whose shape could only indicate that it could be used as a weapon. It had a trigger on it, something he had never truly seen before yet somehow, he knew what it could do.

“That is a slaughter gun. More specifically, it’s a tethered armour-piercing projectile pistol or as it’s commonly known; a matador. It fires a short-range round that pierces the skull of the target, mainly used to knock out animals before they are slaughtered. Heh, I'd like to see you bash their skulls in with this.”

Applejack squinted through her night vision googles. “He’s, uh, holdin’ some sort of cylinder lookin’ thing.”

Twi gasped, knowing what this tool was. “Girls, it’s a matador! It’s a weapon meant to stun the animals before they are killed!”

“Your knowledge disturbs me, Twilight.” squealed Spike.

Fluttershy shuddered and grasped onto Dash. That... wasn’t something she wanted to know, nor did she even want to be here. But good friends don’t quit when one’s in danger.

The zombie was closing the distance rather quickly. He pretty much gave up on his initial hit and run strategy. Instead, he’ll rush in and kill as many as he can. After all, they didn’t really know that Sunset Shimmer was locked inside of the freezer, nor did they know that he had the key.

Panicking, Twi searched through her bag in hopes of finding a gadget suited for the situation and that’s when she noticed that the remote for her drone was missing.

“Look out, the magic drone is sweeping in!” it was Pinkie Pie who possessed the remote. She somehow piloted the drone inside the slaughterhouse and got it to fly above them.

The drone swooped down at the killer and struck him full force to which he barely had enough time to shield his face with an arm. The propellers on the drone cutted through his arms, slightly damaging the bone underneath.

Much to SKX’s shock, a yellow liquid poured out of his open wound rather than blood. He stared in awe at this strange happening before the Tyrant returned to explain this phenomenon.

“Want to learn some fun facts about blood? I’m sure you do. You see, 55% of blood is plasma, the other 45% is a mixture of erythrocytes and other elements. Erythrocytes are mainly known under the name, red blood cell. They are the reason why blood is red while plasma, on the other hand, is a slightly yellowish liquid. Therefore, if you strip a person of all his erythrocyte, then you’re left with just the yellow plasma.

Erythrocytes have no core, unlike most cells, so they are fated to die eventually. In 100 to 120 days, they become too old. At this point, macrophagocytes will arrive to phagocytize them, which is essentially eating the blood cells if you didn't know. Each time one is phagocytized, another is produced in the bones, more specifically in the red bone marrow. You see where I'm going with this, aren’t you? Zombies don’t have a functioning body, so no blood cells are produced. All that’s left of their blood are the elements that can’t perish, like plasma. Now you know why you have yellow blood. Stay tuned for more fun facts with me.”

SKX looked back at the group, who were now fully prepared to deal with any incoming attack, although they did lack experience with these kinds of situation. That was the only real advantage he had, but he knew that it wasn’t enough to overcome the odds.

“Oh? You’re asking me to lend a helping hand? Sure, I'll try something out.”

The glee in the beast’s voice was for the first time, reassuring to him.

Pinkie looked at the drone’s reading on the remote. “It’s still good! I was worried that I might have broken it for a moment.” she nervously giggled.

But before she could prepare the drone to ward off SKX once again, she felt herself levitating. Well, not really levitating, she felt a strong grip around her abdomen pulling her upward. “Uh, girls?”

Everyone, including SKX, watched in surprise as Pinkie was flung high up in the air, though she seemed to enjoy her momentary flight. “Wahoo!”

“Can someone care to explain what is going on?” blurted out Rarity in a panic.

A maniacal laughter echoed throughout the entire slaughterhouse, and SKX took advantage of the panic to gesture at Trixie to make a move. At this point, she was fully under his control, convenient considering the predicament he’s in.

“Beware foolish Rainbooms, for I, the Great and Powerful Trixie have joined the fray!”

“Tr-Trixie?! Why is she with him?” shouted Rainbow Dash. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing, especially since Trixie was as worried as everybody else in Canterlot High regarding the murders.

“She must be under some sort of spell!” reasoned Applejack.

“As much as I find her to be insufferable, I won’t let her be this freak’s puppet.” said Rarity.

Trixie jumped down from her vantage and pulled out a bunch of playing cards. “Look into my cards and watch, as I make them as hard as STEEL!”

Applejack raised an eyebrow, clearly not believing Trixie’s bold claim. She threw a card at Applejack, and it brushed against her cheek, spilling blood much to the latter’s surprise. “W-Woah! She ain’t lyin’!” she said as she caressed her injured cheek.

Rainbow Dash didn’t even hesitate to tear off one of the hanging carcasses from the meat hook to use as a shield. “Now let’s see if your cards can pierce this!”

Trixie chuckled. “Oh, I believe steel’s tougher than a dead cow. Watch.”

While Applejack and Rainbow Dash were busy dealing with Trixie, Fluttershy, Rarity and Twi were having a stand-off with the killer. Even together, they weren’t strong enough to take him on but thankfully, they had a plan to push him back at the very least.

Fluttershy stepped forth, directly challenging SKX. His eyes shined brighter than before. He knew something was up, they couldn’t be that desperate.

“Hey! Leave Sunset alone! She has done nothing to deserve this!”

Something snapped in SKX. His anger rose to an unbelievable degree. She’s done nothing to deserve this? A lie. A terrible lie that she believed in. Not only did the thought of Sunset being completely innocent drove him mad with fury, but the sheer audacity on display made him even angrier. Was she really pretending to know more about the situation than him?

His jaw opened wide, and his eyes turned to a bloody red. His entire body began to crack right as he lifted his weapon, and he started moving at a rapid pace towards Fluttershy.

Fluttershy took a few steps back, constantly looking over her shoulder at her friends. “I-I-It worked!”

“Darling, I think we already know!” Rarity responded.

SKX picked up the pace, now running straight at them until he suddenly tripped. He couldn’t feel anything period, so he wasn’t even aware that Spike was biting down on his ankle. He only noticed once he looked at his legs to find that his right ankle was badly damaged to the point that he could only stand up on one leg.

Now the tables have turned, a switch that was demonstrated by the incessant laughter of the Tyrant. “Now that was an amazing performance... by the OTHER TEAM!” Thankfully for him, he had the beast on his side; surely, he can work something out.

“Yeah, a fair trade and I’ll fix your ankle.”

SKX took out the keys to the freezer and chucked them as high as he could. The object being suddenly flung in the air caught the girl’s attention, which bought him enough time to make his getaway.

“Alright then. One functioning ankle coming up. Next time, try not to get triggered this easily. You have some serious issues, you know?”

His ankle now fixed; the killer ran away. He got out of there in mere seconds.

Spike returned to Twi’s side and looked at the keys on the floor. “Hm? Why would he be holding on to this?”

Twi read the initials written on the key, deducing that it was linked to a freezer somewhere. At first, she was just as confused as Spike. That was until she connected the dots. “Sunset!”

“Oh my! That fall sure did a number on my back!” Pinkie Pie returned to them with her back hunched over.

Twi didn’t bother to explain anything, with the amount of time it took for them to get here, Sunset might not have much time left. “To the freezer, quick!”

Sunset’s shivering slowed down with each passing second. Her costume wasn’t keeping her warm in the slightest and at this state, she was going to die within mere minutes.

During what she believed to be her final moments, she thought about her friends, how they would do without her. Hopefully, they’ll do well without her around. She wasn’t the one that united them, she only tried her hardest to study Equestrian magic in the human world... and failed.

Equestrian magic... Her thoughts switched to Stardust Radiant, the stallion that she spent most of her life with. The more she thought about him, the more her heart was being swallowed in regret.

Then, she felt a hot breeze caress her face. The door had opened and behind it was Twi, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie. They ran up to her, holding back tears once they saw the terrible state she was in.

Sunset Shimmer was barely responsive to their calls, the cold had seemingly slowed down her mind to the point of having nearly stopped. She did, however, feel immense relief to see her friends again.

“Hold on Sunset! We’ll get you of here!”

Applejack and Rainbow Dash were hiding behind the carcasses to avoid the cards being flung at them. The cards were thrown at a pretty regular pace, which only made it weirder when nothing happened for several seconds. Hesitant, one of them peeked to see what was going on.

From the looks of it, something snapped in Trixie’s mind. She looked around in confusion, wondering why she was holding a bunch of playing cards, but that wasn’t the weirdest part for her. Why was she in a slaughterhouse? A place so crude and repulsive had no business with a showrunner with refined taste such as her.

“Whe- What am I doing here?”

SKX has fled the scene and in the process, unknowingly dropped the spell. Her mind was freed, though the memory erasure still persisted.

Someone approached her in the darkness, causing Trixie to take a step back. “Trixie! Oh, I'm so glad to know that you’re okay!” She recognised that voice.

“Fl-Fluttershy? Why are you also in here?” If you just think about it from Trixie’s perspective, why WOULD the animal lover be inside a slaughterhouse?

“Oh! It’s not important, just know that we came here to save you.” responded Fluttershy in a soothing voice.

“Save me?” repeated Trixie. “Save me from what?”

Fluttershy pointed at the few drops of blood on the floor. “From the serial killer.”

Trixie’s eyes widened and then darted around her surroundings. “He’s... no longer here, isn’t he?”

“Don’t worry Trixie; he’s gone... We should probably leave now.”

The magician nodded. “Yeah, I, the Great and Powerful Trrrixie... have an awful crick in the neck. Well, that and I’m also very tired. I can’t remember what I even did this night, but it must have been exhausting.”

Fluttershy looked away, feeling sorry for what she must have gone through, even though she doesn’t appear to remember a thing. “It certainly seems so.”

Rainbow Dash was furious that SKX managed to slip away. That was their best shot yet at stopping him. “Gah! I can’t believe we flopped! That’s mega uncool!”

The rest of the group joined them with Sunset now back in the group. She covered herself with a blanket that was offered by Pinkie Pie.

Sunset didn’t appear too worried about it. She had finally warmed up, regaining a bit of vitality in the process. Just enough to form a full sentence. “Relax, Dash. We’ll get a second chance. He’s not going to stop until I'm dead, so as long as I'm alive; he’ll show his face.”

The rainbow haired girl calmed down. “You’re right. He’s probably done killing other people for now, so at least we don’t have to worry about that anymore.”

Twi yawned, and soon, everyone else followed. It was at this point that the Rainbooms realised that it was terribly late. Spike was barely able to keep his eyes open. The adrenaline had stopped pouring in and now they were feeling its effects, or lack thereof. They should get some sleep for next night will probably mark the end of SKX’s murder. They’ll stop him tomorrow but first; they must recuperate.

Pinkie’s eyes shined with excitement. “Does this mean we get to have a sleepover at my house?”

“I wouldn’t be opposed to that idea, darling.” yawned Rarity, barely able to stand up.

“Same goes for me, I've been up and runnin’ all night.” added Applejack as she hunched over out of fatigue, still caressing her bloody cheek.

Finally, the Rainbooms got to leave this dreadful place in direction of a much more welcoming spot to spend the night. A night, they were all glad was finally over.

Rainbow Dash seized the opportunity to throw in one last complaint. “Aw man, that was the worst Halloween I ever spent.”

12. Lost to Time

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Everyone had no trouble sleeping tonight in spite of the stressful encounter they had. Everyone but Sunset Shimmer who rolled around on her mattress for what felt like hours to her. She was too lost in her thoughts to find some sleep and after a while, she finally found herself falling asleep...

Only to wake up out of the blue. Her surroundings were completely alien to her and yet, familiar all the same. She was in a bed this time and definitely not in Pinkie’s bedroom. She was in a castle, Canterlot’s castle to be more precise.

“W-Why am I back here?” she asked herself out loud. She got out of the bed and noticed something odd; she was still in her human form despite being in Equestria.

“You’re still sleeping, Sunset Shimmer. You’re simply imagining my old bedroom.”

Sunset froze. That voice, it belonged to...

“Stardust Radiant. A name that nopony remembers, except for you. Oddly poetic, isn’t it?”

He was in her dream, but not under his actual appearance as a unicorn. Rather, he was in human form too, but not as a zombie. His clothes were mostly the same, except for the fact that his jacket had darker sleeves and didn’t have patches of fur on his collar. He was wearing fingerless gloves and lastly, his eyes were entirely covered in shadows, giving him a more ominous look to boot.

“You’re... just a figment of my imagination too, I suppose.” said Sunset, sounding disappointed to not see the real Stardust in his true light.

“No.” His response shocked her. “I’ve been brought into your mind by that wretched beast. Honestly, I’m quite happy that he did. Now, it’s time... we take a trip down memory lane you and I.”

The whole world around them began to distort before fading back in, taking them to a whole new setting.

In the garden next to Canterlot’s castle sat a young filly who was reading a book. She was studying its content for this was a book documenting all of the known spells in existence. This filly was none other than Sunset Shimmer who was, at the time, Celestia’s student for she had a special talent with magic. A talent that warranted her a place in Canterlot’s school for gifted unicorn. She was constantly showered with praise by her teachers for she surpassed all expectations. But this talent came at a cost. Despite the various praises she received from her peers, nopony wanted to be with her out of jealousy. She who was better, she who was smarter than her comrades. It evoked nothing but ire in their eyes. Nopony liked an egghead, they’d often say.

This left her all by herself, with nothing but her talent in magic to give her some worth. Without magic, what was she?
Unbeknownst to this little filly, however, there would soon be competition. Competition, that came in the form of a colt walking alongside Princess Celestia. This colt would soon come to challenge her own self-esteem and that can only lead to disastrous consequences, though not unforeseen.

As soon as her mentor came into view, Sunset lowered her book and hopped out of her seat to come great her, eager to show her what she has learned during her reading session.

“Princess Celestia! Princess Celestia!” she happily said while bouncing in front of the majestic alicorn. “Look what I learned!”

She placed a small glass in front of her and with her magic, she tore off an apple from a nearby tree and hovered it above the glass. Then, she closed her eyes and concentrated all her magic into this singular apple. In no time at all, the fruit began to crush itself into millions of tiny pieces, filling the glass with what was now apple juice.

Celestia lifted the glass and took a sip. To her surprise, it was really good. “Oh, my little pony; it’s really good!” She lowered her head to get on Sunset’s level. “You really seem to enjoy studying, don’t you?”

Sunset joyfully nodded. “I love studying magic! One day, I’ll be just as great as unicorns like Starswirl the Bearded!”

Celestia giggled, finding the little filly’s enthusiasm quite endearing. “I have no doubts you’ll do great things.” The alicorn suddenly felt something pulling on her back legs. She remembered what she wanted to say to Sunset. “I have some great news for you, Sunset. I have taken another unicorn under my wings.” She gently turned her head at the colt hiding behind her. “Come greet your new classmate, Stardust.”

Intrigued, Sunset Shimmer moved to the side to get a better look at this young unicorn. The colt looked horribly nervous, constantly avoiding her gaze. Celestia eventually gave him a gently push so he could finally break the ice amongst the two.

“H-Hi. My name is Stardust Radiant.” he said. His voice was really quiet, which made it hard to hear what he just said but Sunset thankfully understood his words.

“My name’s Sunset Shimmer. Nice to meet you!”

Celestia smiled, happy to see that the filly welcomed him with open hooves. “Well, now that you’ve been properly introduced; I'll show Stardust his bedroom.”

“Uh? His bedroom?” asked Sunset. Why would he get his own bedroom in the princess’s castle?

Princess Celestia briefly avoided her gaze for a moment. “Yes. You see... Stardust doesn’t have a home like you do.”

Now that she mentioned it, Sunset took a closer look at the colt. He was dirty. It was as if he didn’t take a shower in weeks.

“Don’t worry Sunset; I don’t have a favorite student. In fact, I love you all equally. It’s just that I want to give all my students an equal chance to succeed. I hope you can understand.” continued the majestic alicorn.

The filly didn’t think much of it. Princess Celestia was always right, no point in questioning her decisions. She simply nodded in response.

“The orphanages were full at the time. With nowhere else to go and with great talent to boot; Celestia took me under her wing.”

Next to the whole scene was an older Stardust Radiant in his human form. The older Sunset Shimmer was by his side, both observing this distant memory.

He was avoiding any eye contact with her as he continued onward with his speech. “You were quick to accept me as a new friend. So quick in fact, I had become your best friend within mere days of our first meeting.”

Sunset let out a saddened chuckle. “Yeah, most ponies thought I was too good for them and never really bothered to befriend me. Celestia must have noticed it and saw an opportunity to teach the both of us about friendship.”

Finally, Stardust turned sideways to face her. “You were so innocent when we first met, Sunset. Even to this day, I still wonder what in Tartarus happened to you.”

Sunset choked up a little and looked away out of remorse. “Believe me, I'm not proud of all the things I've done.”

“Hmm, we’re done here. Let’s go to the next memory.”

Now, the two found themselves back inside of Canterlot’s castle in its expansive halls. A young Sunset Shimmer was trotting happily along the corridors, making her way to Stardust’s new bedroom.

A guard passed by her and greeted the filly before going on with his day. Sunset really appreciated the respect she was being given by Canterlot’s Royal Guard; it truly was an honor to be held in higher regard by them.

She arrived at his bedroom and promptly knocked on the door, awaiting a response. The lower portion of the door soon opened, and Stardust peeked out, wondering why Sunset was here.

“Sunset Shimmer? Why are you here?” he asked curiously.

“Why I only came to play with you of course!” she answered vigorously.

Stardust looked back in his room and frowned. “But I need to study. Celestia told me to.”

The young Sunset giggled and swung her hoof. “You can always study when we’re done playing, silly!”

The colt’s head kept rocking back and forth between the pile of books on the floor and the filly in front of him. Eventually, he made up his mind with an excited smile. “I wanna play!”

Sunset spun around and ran, prompting Stardust to follow her. “Where are we going?” he asked.

“I know a cool place to play! I’ll show you the way!”

Observing the scene were the two older versions of Sunset and Stardust. The latter was the first to comment on the memory.

“You were my first friend, and my first playmate. I was afraid of the world before Celestia and you eased me to it. Never knew who my parents were no matter how hard I tried. I don’t believe I truly had any family at all. I was practically thrown on the streets and left there to die.”

Sunset looked back at her younger self who, at the time, didn’t know anything about Stardust’s rather tragic life before he was found by the alicorn. “It took me a long time to find out you were an orphan. I suppose it was simply because foals have a fairly limited view of the world.”

“You could say that.” Stardust walked in the direction that their younger selves had taken, prompting Sunset to do the same.

“Let’s follow them. Wouldn’t wanna miss anything while we’re here.”

The two foals made their way to the tall maze near Canterlot’s castle, a place that Sunset liked to visit often. This time, she brought a friend to double the fun. “Tada! We’re going to play in this maze!” she proudly announced to the colt.

The young Stardust looked at the sheer size of the maze, unsure if it was a good idea to play inside. In his mind, they will get lost if they venture but that wasn’t a problem for the filly since she’s practically a regular there. “Are you sure we won’t get lost? It looks really big.”

“Pff, no way! I know this maze like the back of my hooves! Come on, it’ll be fun!”

Her confidence eased his worries, though he was still nervous. It would be the first he ever got to play with somepony.

But before they could enter the maze, something truly extraordinary happened. In the sky, something exploded suddenly, breaking the sound barrier and creating a ring-shaped rainbow. The two foals witnessed for the first time a Sonic Rainboom. Something that would later be more common once Rainbow Dash grew up.

“Woah... W-What was that?” Stardust was frozen in awe.

“It’s... beautiful. It’s so awesome!”

Behind them lied their older counterpart. “The Sonic Rainboom. A singular event that changed the future forever, though I wasn’t alive long enough to see its effects.”

Sunset felt a new wave of sadness fill her mind. “It unknowingly brought together the new bearers of the Elements of Harmony.”

Stardust Radiant continued on, seemingly not caring too much though the slight hints of vitriol in his voice indicated he was hiding his anger. “And from the looks of it, they put them to good use. I may have wielded one of the Elements, who knows? It sure would have been nice to see for myself how things evolved outside of Canterlot.”

“Well...” Sunset stared in direction of the school for gifted unicorn, getting Stardust to do the same. “You at least got to see one of its consequences for yourself.”

“Hmm, yeah, I remember her too. Celestia took a new student under her wing after she displayed an impressive amount of magic, just like us. Twilight Sparkle was her name, correct?” His memories were still clear from the looks of it.

“Yes, Twilight Sparkle was the third to join us. Although, we never really got to interact with her much because she was always lost in her books.” Sunset couldn’t help but let out a close chuckle. “Who would have believed she’d become the princess of friendship?”

“I guess we also could have earned that title... but we both know how THAT turned out in the end.” Stardust walked away, leaving Sunset to observe her young self-entering the labyrinth with enthusiasm. More specifically, she was looking at her foalhood friend, the same one she knew she would later go on to backstab.

“The fault’s all on me... I know.”

The man stopped momentarily. “You’re starting to understand, good. Now, let’s move forward in time... just a bit.”

On the streets of Canterlot, Sunset and Stardust, now a little more grown up, were chatting about their current progress regarding their studies under Celestia’s tutelage. Now, despite knowing about Twilight Sparkle from her, they both had yet to meet the unicorn for she was rather asocial. It was a trait that earned her many mean comments from her classmates who couldn’t understand why a pony would be so much against socialising, even at the most basic of level.

They did try to approach her, often waving a hoof at her to try to get her attention, but it was no use. Every time they’d call out to her, she’d ignore them, too captivated by her books to pay any real attention to what was two potential friends just waiting to be made.

Today, they saw Twilight passing by them and they wanted to try their luck again. Hopefully, this time she’d notice them.

“Hey Twilight!” said Stardust Radiant.

Just as expected, she passed by them without saying hello for she was lost in her book yet again.

“Uh, still nothing. You think this will eventually work? Maybe we should just go straight up to her face.” proposed Sunset Shimmer.

“But that’ll be impolite! Celestia always told us to be polite to other ponies.” protested the colt.

Sunset, however, was much in favor of her idea. “But how are we supposed to make her our friend? She won’t listen to us!”

Twilight Sparkle suddenly bumped into a stallion who looked to be not that much older than her. It was Shining Armor, her older brother. Her B.B.B.F.F as she referred to him. The little filly smiled, happy to see him again.

“So that’s Shining Armor. Celestia also talks about him a lot.” pointed out Stardust Radiant.

“Yeah, about how promising he looks. I wonder why Princess Celestia hasn’t chosen him as one of her students.” added Sunset.

Stardust looked at the two interact. They were pretty adorable together, two siblings that would both do great things in the future. Unlike his sister, Shining Armor was more outgoing and social, a far cry from Twilight’s behavior. Ponies sometimes wondered how they could be related.

“I heard that he wanted to join the Royal Guards when he’s older.” finally said the colt.

Sunset turned her head to look at Stardust. “Really? Maybe that’s why Celestia hasn’t chosen him.”

“Probably.”

The human Stardust finally stepped into the scene, drawing the older Sunset’s attention to him instead.

“Twilight Sparkle, huh? Must have changed a lot since I've last seen her, not that I care much; I barely know anything about the princess of friendship.” he spoke in a rather cold tone.

“She... got around to make some friends in Ponyville, after being instructed to go there by princess Celestia herself.” responded Sunset, though she could tell it didn’t pique his interest whatsoever. He already made it clear that he cared little about anything outside of her specifically.

“And to think that you valued friendship in your youth. As time went on, you began to reject it and by proxy; you rejected me.” The vitriol in his voice got under Sunset’s skin. He looked perfectly calm on the outside, but she knew that he was still very angry underneath his apathic façade.

She tried to reason once more. “Stardust, listen I-”

He got up in her face, startling Sunset who took a step back. His left eye was now visible, and it was a bright red that glowed with indignity. “Am I a joke to you?”

She wanted to say no but paused for a moment. She hasn’t treated him the best in the years following this memory, she remembered it all. Her answer could easily make the situation worse if she says no, but no matter what; she’ll speak from her heart. “N-No... I was wrong to have treated you this way.”

His red eye faded away, though his frown remained sternly on his face. He cocked his head back, almost in disgust of her.

“And yet you continued to act this way even after you murdered me. It took you a few more years to truly change... We’re moving on from this memory. There’s still much to see.”

Now, the two found themselves near the fountain located in the center of Canterlot. Sunset looked around, trying to find her younger self, but noticed that Stardust Radiant had already spotted them.

The two were trotting around town, looking forward to throw out a bit in the fountain. They wanted to make a wish. Sunset immediately recognised this memory. “I... I remember this one in particular. We first met him right here, didn’t we?”

“Sketch Pattern, yes. Yes, we did.” bluntly answered the man. “The second friend I ever made.”

The filly jumped on the sides of the fountain and gazed at the water, impressed by the large number of bits inside. The colt joined her, although struggling a bit to make the jump.

“Why were we going to the fountain again?” he asked curiously.

The filly gestured at him to look at the bits underwater. “Don’t you know the special properties of fountains?”

“Uh... n-no?”

She raised her head and proudly exclaimed. “If you throw a bit in a fountain, your wish will come true!”

The colt’s eyes slowly filled up with wonder as he took a deeper look at the structure they were standing on. “That’s amazing!” But then, he realised that he had no bits on himself. “Aw, I don’t have any bits to chuck in the fountain.”

Sunset smiled and pulled out two from her saddlebag. “Well it’s a good thing I have more than two left!” she offered one to a very happy Stardust. “Now we can both make a wish!”

“Thank you, Sunset! I want to wish for a-”

“No no no no!” interrupted the filly. “You’re not supposed to say your wish out loud. If anypony hears your wish, then it won’t come true!” warned Sunset.

“O-Oh! My bad.”

The two foals tossed their bits and made their wish, without telling each other of course. Then, just as they were about to leave, a young, almost squeaky voice called out to them.

“Hi there! You two looked adorable! Do you mind if I quickly sketch you two?”

A new colt has joined them, holding a sketchbook and a pencil in his hooves. He was sitting right next to them. How long as he been here?

The older Sunset chuckled. “I can’t believe we didn’t notice him at the time. He was right next to us.”

“Foals always have tunnel vision.” firmly replied the older Stardust.

The young Sunset stared at the earth pony in confusion. “Um, who are you? I don’t think I've seen you before.”

“My name is Sketch Pattern! I love to draw things!” he enthusiastically introduced himself.

He had a Cutie Mark which consisted of a sketchbook and a pencil, go figure. Well, with a cutie mark like that, surely, he can conjure up something good.

Stardust was very eager to see a drawing of himself, so he obliged. “Sure, I want to see your drawing when you’re done!”

“Huh? But I don-” her objection was cut short by the scratchy sounds of the pencil brushing against the sketchbook.

“Like I said, you two look like you like each other very much.” Sketch Pattern stopped for a moment to look back at them.

“Are you two a couple?”

“What?” they both said in unison.

“My parents told me that when a mare and a stallion get together, that’s because they’re in love!”

Both Sunset and Stardust blushed, diverting their eyes from each other. “No! We’re not in love!” Sunset quickly shut down the idea.

Sketch nervously chuckled. “Oh, come on! I saw how you two were looking at each other.” He immediately went back to his work. The speed at which he was drawing the lines impressed the two foals. This colt was really, really good at drawing. Not only that, but his movement was surprisingly precise for such a young pony, an earth pony on top of that. No magic, only a great expertise in this form of art.

Sunset titled her head a little, trying to see Sketch’s drawing, but he immediately took his eyes off. “Don’t move! Don’t move! You gotta stay still or else it will mess everything up!”

“S-Sorry.”

Finally, he stopped drawing after a few more seconds and carefully examined his craft. Stardust took a few steps towards him, far too excited to wait just a little longer.

“Here it is!” he proudly exclaimed as he flipped the paper over to reveal his quick sketch of the two.

“Wow! Chuckled Stardust. “You’re pretty good! How can you draw so fast?”

Sketch laughed. “Just look at my Cutie Mark and you’ll understand!”

The two glossed over at his Cutie Mark and immediately understood where his talent came from. “That’s a cool talent!” admitted Sunset Shimmer. “What will you do when you’ll become a stallion?”

The young colt flipped through some pages on his sketchbook, eventually landing on the page he wanted to show. “A comic book artist!” he proudly said before showcasing his work.

“For a colt his age, he was quite extraordinary when it came to drawing. You think his parents already knew what he would do later on?”

Sunset asked that question to the older Stardust Radiant. He was always a firm believer of fate ever since he was found by Celestia.

“The same could be said for many ponies. It’s as if our lives are decided the moment we come into this world. This begs the question, Sunset...” He turned his head to look at her, his red eye coming back into view. “Was it destiny that killed me? Or was it you?”

“It was...” Sunset stopped, still debating whether she should say it or not. Their friendship was already broken at that point, nothing could make it any worse, so she chose to follow through. “It was me. The world never rejected you, Stardust. It was only me...”

“Funny you say that; I get the feeling that it’s the other way around.” His response was sharp, almost cutting her off with how quick he was.

“W-What do you mean?” she said, slightly disturbed.

“If the world never rejected me then explain this; Why did everpony forget about me? Why did you forget until now? Why did all my teachers forget? Why did all the Royal Guards forget? Why... did Celestia forget about me?”

Sunset was taken aback. Everypony forgot he even existed? Sure, she could understand why she would have tried to forget about him considering he brings back terrible memories but... the rest of his entourage didn’t even remember him? Not even the town he sacrificed himself to defend?

“I... I didn’t know.”

Stardust clenched his fist, trying to hold his anger back for just a while longer. “So apparently, I'm just a ghost who never even exited to begin with. Great.”

While they were busy talking to each other, their younger counterparts have just befriended Sketch Pattern. With this new friend, they formed a group of three, ready to take on the world and all its challenges together.

“Let’s meet together after school at this fountain!” announced the young filly.

“Sounds good to me!” replied Sketch.

The three then went on their separate ways. Sunset returned home and Stardust went back to the castle. Sketch waited for a bit, looking at his drawing of the two friends he just made. After a few seconds, he took out his pencil and quickly drew himself next to them.

“Gosh, I can’t wait to tell my parents about my new friends!”

“Still at the fountain...” noted Sunset. Their environnement hasn’t changed one bit. Not even the time of the day seemed to have switched. She noticed Sketch Pattern was still sitting on the fountain and quickly pieced out what memories this was.

“This was the moment we decided on a name for our group.” she said with an air of nostalgia behind her voice.

“Deep down, you still long for the olden days, don’t you?” asked Stardust Radiant. “So am I.”

“I’m certain you have better reasons than me.” she said with an uncertain smile.

The fallen man noticed her attempt at bringing some levity to the situation and just for a moment... it seemed like he appreciated.

Now the interesting part was about to happen, indicated by the arrival of their younger selves.

They hopped on the fountain and greeted their brand-new friend. They were excited to see what he had drawn since their first meeting, a sentiment that he adored, as any artists would in fact.

The human Sunset Shimmer observed the scene with nostalgia, then her mind rapidly diverged to Sketch in particular.

“Still... I wonder how’s he doing nowadays. It’s been so long since we last talked to him.”

“Hope he’s doing better than you.” brutally said Stardust.

Sunset looked away, unable to bare this painful feeling any longer. She knew that if she couldn’t convince her old friend to abandon his vindictive quest, then she’ll have to confront him once more. Before this, she had an easier time going against him since all she saw was a rotten corpse vaguely carrying his features but now, she was talking to him, she was seeing him again as a person and not a monster. Could she truly have the guts?

Unlike Twi, Stardust had not only hurt innocents; he murdered them. Simply getting him to stop and apologise wouldn’t be enough. It would mean to disregard the crimes he committed purely because her feelings wouldn’t allow her to.

Justice stands above feelings, she knew that. Justice is incorruptible whilst feelings are. In the end, it’ll be best to leave her friends to judge the right from the wrong in this situation for they wouldn’t hold as much bias as these two.

“I must admit; I did try to get in contact with him.” Stardust tilted his entire body to her. She had his full attention now.
Worst of all was that for the first time, he had a look that showed something other than anger or indignity. Sunset looked back at him; her disappointed look quickly shut down his hopes. “I couldn’t get a response from him.”

“If you’re the one who comes out of this victorious, then please; try to at least visit him for me.”

His voice cracked a little. Compared to her, Stardust never hated Sketch Pattern. In fact, he always viewed him as his best friend, a brother even. He also considered Sunset as his sister, but that was a long time ago.

“I’ll try, I swear. I won’t let you down, it’s the least that I can do...”

“The three musketeers?”

Sunset shook her head vigorously. “No! That sounds lame! We can come up with a cooler name than that!”
Sketch simply shrugged. “It ain’t easy coming up with a cool name for a team of three. All the cool teams have four members!”

“Then how about... Triple Trouble!” proposed the young filly.

“It makes us sound like we’re up to no good.” complained Stardust.

“You’re right.” sighed Sunset.

“Then how about... the Wild Cards?” continued Stardust.

“The Smiling Friends?” hesitantly said Sketch Pattern.

Both Sunset and Stardust looked at each other in consideration. “We’ll take it... as a placeholder.” affirmed the filly.

“Meh, good enough.” supported Stardust.

“Well, now that that’s out of the way; let’s do something cool for today!” finished Sketch, eager to play with his new friends.

The memory began to fade away, leaving nothing but darkness around the two. “Moving on.” abruptly said Stardust.

“A... little late there.”

He looked at her, subtly frowning once more. “I’ve shown you our foalhood. It was nice indeed, but we both know the problems arose later on in our lives. Now, it is time we go to the root of this conflict.”

The school for Gifted Unicorns, a school meant only for the top of the cream in terms of unicorn magic. A school that brought unicorns from all around the continent to study the ins and out of magic. What made it so enticing was the fact that Celestia always kept a close eye on the student’s progress to observe who would be deemed a good candidate to be her successor. Unbeknownst to everypony in Equestria, the princess of sunlight’s reign was going to come to an end in the coming years. But for that to happen, there must be another pony on the throne.

So far, there were three unicorns that she was closely observing. These three were Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer and lastly, Stardust Radiant. All three have displayed great potential in various domains of magic but of course, there was something missing in all of them to be her successor.

Twilight Sparkle was loyal, studious and great in magic but... she was rather inexperienced in making friends or even holding a conversation with anypony outside of Celestia and her family.

Sunset Shimmer mostly held the same qualities as Twilight, but she could be rather impulsive and impatient at times.

Lastly, Stardust Radiant had a very limited knowledge of the world as well as being somewhat underdeveloped due to his parent’s absence when he was a foal. Add on top of that his immense naivety and you’d understand why Princess Celestia was wondering whether she should still consider him as a potential successor.

Nevertheless, with enough time and effort, each could reach their full potential and become a worthy ruler for Equestria. They just needed a push in the right direction, perhaps a change in their routine to force them to experience the world in a different light. Anything really to get them to move past their flaws.

But all these thoughts had to lay off for the time being. The alicorn was simply going to enter the classroom and observe her three student’s progress.

The test the young unicorns had to do was fairly simple; to accelerate a plant’s lifetime so that it could blossom. Now that sounds easy on paper but let me tell you; it’s not as simple as it sounds. The speed at which its life is accelerated must be perfectly controlled or else it will wither away as quickly as it blossomed.

This same spell can also be applied to other living beings, but it is much more difficult to pull off successfully to the point that almost next to zero unicorns have ever been able to learn it, not that it’s really all that practical to practice on ponies.

With enough creativity and control over magic, one can add some flair to their plant, and that was what Princess Celestia was truly interested in seeing.

The students were all forming a line with their desk so the alicorn could have an easier time seeing their work. Passing by, she noted the results one by one. Some failed to blossom the plant, others outright killed it by aging the plant too much and lastly, there were those who succeeded. She comforted those who failed with kind and encouraging words to keep their spirits up, after all, it’s just one test amongst many others.

Finally, she got to the interesting part and that was her three students. Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer got pretty similar results; their plant was beautiful, lively. They certainly surpassed the other’s, not surprising for it was what Celestia came to expect from these two.

Stardust, on the other hand, was something else. His plant grew three times, unlike Twilight and Sunset’s being two times. It was also magnificent with its vibrant colors and detailed patterns. This... was rather unexpected coming from the unicorn who previously lived on the streets of Canterlot.

How and why would somepony throw away such a wondercolt is to put it simply, bewildering.

“Very impressive, my little pony!” she finally said after carefully examining Stardust’s plant.

Of course, not to neglect the other two, the alicorn congratulated their valiant effort too. She really didn’t want to have a favorite, but her plans decided otherwise. The princess of the Sun needed a successor, which meant that not all her students will be given the same amount of attention. It’s a fine balance to walk through, but Celestia knew she could manage without hurting the other feelings.

Unbeknownst to her, somepony’s feelings had already been hurt, and it was Sunset Shimmer. The little filly, who dreamed of one day being a princess, had just learned that she had a rival. A strong rival that could potentially crush her in this competition.

While she was giving her speech to the whole class about the importance of perseverance, Sunset pouted in the back of the class, constantly gazing at Stardust for a brief moment before staring back at the wall next to her.

“So... all of that was over a blossomed flower?” insulted the older Stardust Radiant. “That day sparked some hostility in you, and our friendship took a turn for the worst. After years of being the best of buddies, you turned your back on me. And now... I'm turning my back on you.”

Sunset simply listened out of sadness, not really knowing what to say back. She was still hurt from all of these painful memories of the stallion she once considered to be her best friend.

“Way past the point of bargaining?” she said in a defeated voice.

Stardust walked forward, examining the plant his young counterpart blossomed. “That was years ago, Sunset. Years ago...”

Some time has passed since the last memory, and Sunset’s discontent for Stardust only grew stronger. At this point, she was a fully grown mare, which meant that it would soon be time for Celestia to make her final choice.

Somewhat insulted by Stardust’s progress, she often came to visit him just to make sure he wasn’t surpassing her too much. However, that one fateful day sparked even more hostility and hate in him, vile feelings that came in the form of a conversation she eavesdropped.

While wandering the corridors of the princess’s castle, Sunset Shimmer heard the voice of Celestia not too far from her current position. She didn’t think much of it, but quickly had a change of plans once she heard Cadance too. Hiding behind a statue, she supressed her magic to make herself undetectable and listened carefully to their conversation.

“You know I won’t be ruling over Equestria forever, Cadance.” The alicorn’s harmonious voice sounded a little sad this time, a rare sight indeed or... sound if you prefer.

“I... see what you’re trying to say.” Cadance had been an alicorn herself for many years. She had become one even before she became a mare, quite impressive for a unicorn.

“I have no idea when that time will come, but I must prepare somepony to take on the mantle just in case it will happen sooner than I expected.”

Now this discussion has gotten Sunset’s full attention. She was going to stay there for hours should she need to. With dreams of being an alicorn, of having all the power, she’ll be respected and admired by all, a feeling she doesn't quite have at the moment. The unicorn needed to know who Celestia had in mind.

“And you’re struggling to decide who it should be, isn’t it?” finally responded the princess of love.

Celestia nodded. “It is not a minor decision. The entire balance of Equestria will rest on the hooves of the pony I've chosen. I must be certain it is the right choice.”

“So, you want to know my opinion?” Cadance had a slightly worried expression on her face, her opinion could potentially make a drastic impact on the majestic alicorn’s final pick.

“Yes, you’ve seen what each of them can do and I know that you’re especially close to Twilight in particular.”

“Won’t that make my choice a little biased?” questioned the young alicorn.

“Cadance; I trust that you can be impartial for this matter. It’s an important quality for a princess.” affirmed Princess Celestia. “Who do you believe would be the best candidate to rule over Equestria in the future?”

Sunset Shimmer was now more intrigued than ever, going so far as to slightly lean out of her hiding spot to better hear the discussion. She was awaiting Candance’s opinion with bathed breath.

“All three of them have displayed a strong will and great talent in magic...” the alicorn paused for a moment. “But I can’t for the life of me choose between Twilight and Stardust.”

Celestia let out a brief smile. “I had the same two in mind.” She stopped for a moment, clearly thinking about the one who was left out. “Sunset is a great student, I have no doubts, but I believe she may be a little too... rash and impulsive. I prefer not to risk it, otherwise I'd be placing a burden far too heavy on a pony who may simply find more joy in something else.”

Sunset nearly broke her cover when she heard the princess’s words. She didn’t believe that she’d make a good fit to become an alicorn? The unicorn felt her blood boiling, Twilight Sparkle would be tough to surpass, but it was entirely possible. Their magic was fairly equal, so it was no big deal but Stardust? Now he was something else. Sunset Shimmer couldn’t even imagine herself ever rising above him in terms of sheer magical prowess. The stallion was a prodigy amongst prodigy, almost like a certain Starswirl the Bearded she read about.

She’d have to find a way to get him out of the picture.

The older Stardust reappeared before the human Sunset. He looked at the unicorn with disdain. “You wanted to be an alicorn. You wanted nothing but power to the point that you felt justified in murdering me.” He turned around to face his nemesis. “Why? Why did you want power in the first place?”

Sunset crossed her arms, feeling uncomfortable but determined to admit the truth before the apparition of her reanimated friend. “I was better than everypony at magic and they showered me with praise. I guess I just... let it get over to my head and believed that I deserved everything as a result. My ego dictated all my decisions, and it was hurt to find that it wasn’t going to get what it wants.”

His red eye shined through the shadow of his face once more. “So it was a spoiled brat that killed me? Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, you stick the knife in some more.”

Sunset looked away, desperately trying to avoid any eye contact with Stardust Radiant for her remorse was too great.
Nonetheless, she could still feel his intense stare burning her very soul with its hatred. “Yeah, I was just a spoiled brat who couldn’t let her pride take a single blow. You’re entirely justified in hating me, but I want you to know that I've bettered myself since then. I’m not the monster I once was, everybody deserves a second chance.”

“Easy for you to say when you’re still allowed to have one. I only got one chance, and you blew it for me. Bravo Sunset. Bravo.” he said, sarcastically clapping his hands in the process.

The world around them began to distort, slowly reforming into yet another memory. Evidently, there was still a long road ahead of them. A road that would eventually lead to Stardust’s untimely demise. A horrible scene she would be forced to watch unfold all over again... and again... and again.

It was a bright and sunny day on the great city of Canterlot. On such a beautiful day, what better place to eat than outside, just under the Sun? The trio had taken a liking to the name “The Smiling Friends” as they thought it sounded kind of cute, which is why they kept it around long after they were just foals. The three were sitting at a table on the terrace of a nearby restaurant, looking at the menu.

“Grilled cheese? That must be new, ‘cause I don’t remember seeing it on the menu last time I went.” mentioned Sketch Pattern while he was glancing over all the meals.

“Why would they be grilling cheese? That doesn’t sound tasty at all.” innocently said Stardust.

“It’s more like a sandwich, if you looked closer at the menu you wouldn’t be asking this.” corrected the earth pony with a bit of amusement in his voice.

The stallion spotted it on the menu and began to laugh nervously. “I should probably think before I speak.”

“And here I thought it was Sunset’s whole shtick.” teased Sketch.

This finally got Sunset Shimmer to put down her menu. “Real smooth, Sketch.”

For breakfast, they had a lot of option. Usually, they’d stick to the same meal every time they went, but this time, they wanted to experiment a little and pick something that was out of their comfort zone.

“I don’t eat muffins that much... you think that’ll be a good pick?” asked Stardust Radiant after careful consideration.
“If you want to, it’s your personal decision after all.” responded Sunset.

Sketch Pattern winced, trying to evaluate if what he was about to choose would be a good idea. He eventually just shrugged it off and went for it. “Meh, I think I'll just eat a whole buncha fruit and hope that it’ll go down the drain smoothly.”

“...Lovely image there.” Sunset didn’t look comfortable with the earth pony’s lack of restraint.

“What? I can’t be the only one with this problem.”

The three had a strange dynamic, but nevertheless, their friendship carried through to the present day. They had gone a long way since they were just foals meeting each other for the first time. Sunset and Stardust were studying under Princess Celestia, both in a competition to become her successor, although the stallion was unaware of it all. Sketch, due to being an earth pony, was going in an entirely different direction from the unicorns. His drawing ability, as well as his overall speed, had greatly increased and he dreamt of one day working on the famous series of Daring Do which became extremely popular in a matter of weeks since their first inception.

Of course, that implied that their path was going to diverge one way or another and they knew that they wouldn’t be able to see each other all that much. The line of work that Sketch wanted to branch in was mostly located in cities outside of Canterlot, meaning he had to leave his old life behind at some point should he want to pursue his dreams.

That alone created a more sorrowful atmosphere between them. It was a topic they’d rather avoid, so they could focus on the present and enjoy the time they were spending together before it would come to an end.

But denial can only go so far...

“Oh finally! Breakfast’s here.” announced Sketch as he saw the waiter arriving with their plates.

“This time, Sketch; try to keep your bladder in check. In other words, don’t drink too much apple cider.” playfully warned Sunset Shimmer.

Stardust looked at Sketch incredulously. “You drink apple cider for breakfast?”

“What? You’re telling me that’s not normal?”

Sunset giggled. “Only alcoholics do that I believe.”

Sketch looked at her with wide eyes before gazing at his cup of apple cider. “I don’t have a drinking problem.”
“I wasn’t implying, I was affirming you had a bit of a problem.”

At this point, the earth pony was the one holding the group together unbeknownst to him. Whenever he was around, Sunset Shimmer’s growing dislike of Stardust took a backseat, going so far as to almost forget about her hate completely.

“All good things must come to an end.” The current Stardust Radiant reappeared before our Sunset. “Sketch’s presence kept our friendship somewhat intact, but it wasn’t enough to fix it.”

He stopped to look back at the memories of themselves, mostly at the stallion he still called his friend. “When you murdered me; has Sketch Pattern ever come to mind? Did his feelings ever come into consideration, or were you just blinded by hate?”

The red-haired girl stared at the earth pony, feeling even more remorseful. It’s been so long since she last saw him, much less contacted him. The trauma of what she had done led her to supress nearly all of her memories of Stardust and by proxy, of Sketch. Now that they were unlocked, she finally got to realise that she had hurted another pony with her reckless and spiteful actions.

“N-No... He didn’t come to mind when I left you to die.”

Her answer sparked a new wave of wrath in Stardust, his eye shined even brighter, and his teeth were clenched with such intensity that you could hear them crack. Then, he looked away, avoiding eye contact with Sunset for the first time. A few tears spilled down his face as he looked once more at the memory of the stallion. “You didn’t deserve this, old friend...”

Time jumped forward yet again and now; the two humans found themselves at Canterlot’s train station. Both of them choked up once they realised what this memory was.

The “Smiling Friends” were all present, awaiting the arrival of the train. All three looked awfully sad, trying to hold back their tears. Sketch was in front of the two unicorns with a couple of luggage that they generously helped him carry.

This was the moment the two had to say goodbye to their foalhood friend. A difficult moment to live through as they had spent more than a decade together. Despite knowing for a year that he was inevitably going to leave, they were not mentally prepared.

The air carried a feeling of sorrow as it brushed against their mane. Dark grey clouds filled the sky. This combination really didn’t help to lighten up the mood.

Sketch Pattern was leaving for Manehattan where he hoped to work on the Daring Do comics that were currently in production. Recently, he had been feeling rather uninspired in Canterlot. The city was beautiful, yes, but there weren’t many jobs in the domain of art available. Not only that, but he had spent his entire life there and he had grown tired of it. The inspiration just wouldn’t come anymore, and, in the end, he had to make the difficult choice. It was either his friends, or his passion, the driving force behind his life.

He chose the latter, a decision that the unicorns understood. While they could have persuaded him to stay, they knew better than to control somepony else’s life.

“So... this is it, huh?” Sunset was the first to break the saddening silence. “Never thought this day would come so soon...”

“So did I.” responded Sketch. He looked at the floor, struggling to find to his words. “Crazy how fast a year fly by.”

“But we made the most of it, didn’t we?” said Stardust, trying to add a bit of optimism to the situation.

“You two sure did. I only followed along ‘cause I had nopony else.” Sketch struggled to finish his sentence. A few drops of rain fell from the dark clouds. “Frankly, I don’t know how I would have gotten through my life without you. I just... hope I won’t be all alone in Manehattan.”

Sunset trotted up to him and placed a hoof around his shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll be able to make some friends there.”

“Like Celestia always said; friendship is magic.” added the stallion. “I’m sure you can get along with you coworkers. I mean... that’s how Sunset and I first met. Right, Sunset?”

Sunset didn’t say a word. Instead, she nodded for she her emotions were overwhelming the poor mare.

Sketch’s eyes began to water. “I promise you I’ll send you letters from Manehattan. I won’t ever forget about you two.”

Stardust moved closer to him and after a long moment, hugged him. “Promise me you’ll come visit us, please.”

The earth pony was taken aback by the affectionate gesture but quickly embraced it. “I promise.”

The human Sunset watched the scene with teary eyes. This memory already hurted enough to relive, but she knew what happened afterward and it only made her sadness worse. The three never got to reunite after this fateful day. This was the last time they were together. However, they did receive a letter from Sketch a couple of days later, but never met him face-to-face again. Then... nothing. No more letters all of a sudden. They had truly drifted apart, seemingly forgetting about their friendship. Perhaps this was why Sunset had a strong dislike for Twilight. A dislike strong enough to warrant stealing her crown and escaping into the human world for this alicorn had it all, friends and a lovely home.

Stardust Radiant seemed just as sad for he was crying. No sobbing, no weeping, only a stream of tears dripping down his face as he silently watched his past self say his final goodbyes to his best friend, the only one who hadn’t betrayed him. In the end, he dropped to his knees, his face appearing exhausted. “I can’t take this kind of pressure.” His head slowly lifted upward to look at the dark sky. “You failed us both, Sunset Shimmer. Failed us both...”

He suddenly got back on his feet and stomped towards Sunset with a vengeful look in his red eyes. He grabbed her by the collar and pulled her closer to him. “I helped you realise your true potential. Showed you what you were capable of alongside Celestia. We all put our faith in you. We all said you could achieve great things. And you respond by letting me be engulfed in a sea of flames. I’ve said it once and I'll say it again; Am I a joke to you?”

Sunset didn’t know what to say. She could only look at him with sadness in her eyes for it spoke a million words. Eventually, he dropped her to the ground and began pacing back and forth. He was in a state of distress, a state that only grew worse each time he got to see Sketch Pattern again.

“Stardust, we can still make amends.” said Sunset with desperation in her voice. She wasn’t pleading for him to let her go, no, she was pleading for him to let go of his hate and return to the light. “I swear I'll do everything I can to bring you back from the dead. Please, allow me to help. Allow me to fix my greatest mistake.”

The man didn’t move a muscle. “Sunset...” His voice had regained its composure. “I am beyond saving. I’ve spilled the blood of those who were undeserving. I don’t deserve your pity.”

“B-But why did you kill them? Was it just to send a message?”

Stardust looked at his hands, human in appearance but he knew it was just an illusion casted by this dream. “Do you know how it feels to be dead? No, of course you don’t.” He turned around to face her once more, one hand gripping his chest as his head looked down. “It’s a real nightmare. You don’t feel anything, no joy, no pain, not even the wind blowing on your face. You only feeling like you don’t belong anywhere. This torment grew worse with each passing day. I thought that maybe if I did something horrible, then... I’d get to feel something even if it’s guilt.” He raised his head to reveal his bright eyes that pierced the darkness around them. “Nothing. I felt nothing when I killed that guard, nothing when I murdered these innocent girls, nothing when I mentally tormented that wannabe magician. Nothing. I... am a monster, and monsters don’t deserve second chances.

I’m going to bury you with me...”

Now they have finally arrived on that fateful day. The last day Stardust would spend amongst the living. Some terrible complications forced Celestia’s hooves elsewhere, but the threat of the dragon couldn’t be ignored, hence why she sent Sunset and Stardust. Out of all her three students, they were the most prepared for battle.

Inside the majestic throne room, the two unicorns were readying themselves to embark on their long journey. Stardust Radiant paced around frantically, deeply lost in his thoughts while Sunset silently stared at him in disdain.

Should they succeed, Princess Celestia would feel more justified in choosing the stallion over her but at the same time, if she tries to sabotage the mission, she’ll get in big trouble. She somehow had to find a way to paint Stardust in a less than flattering light if she wants to get a shot out of becoming a princess.

“Are we planting tents or what? We should get moving already!” she shouted. The stallion was startled by the strength in her voice.

“Oh, sorry. I’m just terribly nervous. I mean, Princess Celestia never prepared us to fight a dragon!” he responded, his hooves nervously clapping against the tiles. “She wouldn’t send us to our death, right? She must have faith in us! I mean, of course she must! Why else would we be sent to stop a dragon from burning down an entire town!”

Sunset Shimmer groaned. “Get a grip on yourself, Stardust! You’re the most powerful unicorn in Canterlot at the moment! With me, you got this in the bag.”

Ever since Sketch left for Manehattan, the mare has only gotten more violent towards the stallion. She comforted him with harsh words and belittled his efforts. To him, it was just because she was still saddened by the earth pony’s departure. What he failed to realise was that this behavior was still very much present during their later foalhood, only it was not as pronounced and much more subtle back then.

Nothing truly changed, she was only more straightforward with her harsh behavior. “Okay, I think I’m ready to go.” Stardust picked up his saddlebag and stretched his legs.

“Good, let’s not waste any time then. We have a dragon to stop.”

The human Stardust watched the scene with weary eyes. “Now that I finally get to see these memories again, I feel nothing but shame for not noticing the signs.”

“Don’t blame yourself for anything. It was entirely my fault it even happened.” Sunset came to his defense, despite being the culprit behind his death.

“But I would have lived had I been more vigilant, and most importantly, not blinded by the past. I overlooked everything and found excuses for your behavior when there were none.”

Sunset didn’t know what else to say, Stardust was too far gone. He seemed unable to free himself from his past mistakes and she hoped that she could somehow make him move on, even if she has to die for it. Monster or not, he deserved a second chance. After all, it’s reasonable to assume that his spirit must have been corrupted in some form when he was brought back as a zombie. The dead do not rise from their grave because of a virus, no, it takes the forbidden magic of necromancy to bring a ghoul to the realm of the living.

Whatever reanimated Stardust Radiant could have accentuated his anger or even manipulated him into killing innocent people. Yes, mind control, it must have something to do with that tyrant that always appear whenever the zombie was nearby.

And yet, there was a nagging thought in the back of her mind. The thought that maybe, this giant had nothing to do with Stardust’s killings. The thought that maybe, his anger had consumed all his morals.

“You’ve seen our history together and remembered the rest. There’s no point in wasting more time around here; it’s time you witness your crime. Let it sink in what you did.”

“Sunset! Thank Celestia you’re here!” Stardust was holding on for dear life. Too exhausted to pull himself up from the inferno below him, he needed to have somepony else give him a helping hoof.

Sunset Shimmer looked at him and looked like she was about to pull him up, but then she stopped to consider. The stallion was terribly confused as to why she was pondering what she should do in a moment like this. I mean, it was fairly obvious, wasn’t it?

“Uh... are you going to pull me up? I can’t hold on much longer!” he shouted in desperation. The unicorn kept on looking below him, getting more and more nervous each time he saw the fiery streets. He wasn’t going to live through a fall like this, especially without the use of magic, to which his exhaustion prevented him from casting any spells at the moment.

His strength was waning, enough to the point that his right hoof lost its grip. Now holding onto the building with just one leg, Stardust was getting more desperate. “I’m... I’m going to fall! Pull me up, please!”

Finally, after a long moment of sitting idly, Sunset Shimmer grabbed his last remaining hoof. A powerful wave of relief washed over Stardust as he was now waiting for her to pull him out of harm’s way. However, nothing happened for a few seconds. That was, until the mare opened her mouth.

“You know... I find it rather amusing how similar we are in some ways. You’re defined by your talent in magic. I’M defined by my talent in magic. Both, lonely ponies who never got to experience friendship.”

Unsure what to say, Stardust nervously laughed. “Yeah, it is rather amusing now that I think about it... You’re not going to let go, aren’t you?”

“However, I can’t help but notice just how superior you are to me in magic. So far, you’ve dwarfed me in every spell that we learned, even those that I have learned before you.” continued Sunset as she ignored the stallion’s words. “In the end, it was you who was picked to receive all the glory. As for I? I don’t know what will happen to me. Magic’s all I can do right. Without it, I'm nothing.”

“S-Sunset? What are you getting at?” weakly said Stardust.

“I’ve always dreamt of being an alicorn like our mentor! But you... you took away my dream, my hope! Thanks to you, I have lost my only chance at achieving my one and only dream. I’ve got nothing left now unless... you’re out of the picture.” A sinister smile slowly formed on her lips as her head closed the little distance that remained between the two.

Stardust’s eyes began to water. He wasn’t about to cry because he knew he was about to die, no, he was devastated to see that his closest friend had just betrayed him. The one pony he always looked up to since he was a colt.

Sunset chuckled maliciously. “Long live the princess.”

With one swift move, she pushed the stallion’s hoof away and watched as he fell down the pit of fire. What was rather chilling was the fact that he didn’t scream as he fell. Instead, his face was locked in an expression of pure betrayal, an image that had burnt itself into Sunset Shimmer’s mind. The one image that she remembered the most about her deceased friend.

As the mare walked away from the scene, she felt her heart pounding at a pace she never experienced before. She committed murder and on top of that, the victim was her best friend. Betrayal and murder, two terrible crimes that sadly mesh well together.

But on the bright side, with him out of the picture, she can achieve her dream of being Celestia’s successor. She just... needed to close her heart to the pain.

After returning from her mission, Sunset lied about how it went down. She painted Stardust’s death as being a heroic sacrifice, though she did portray herself in a more positive light all the same. The sadness she expressed while explaining the whole thing to Celestia was a both genuine and fake. It was... a strange feeling. The stallion’s death still hadn’t set in. A part of her body was in denial, especially after spending all these years with him. The unicorn just felt unstoppable, there was no way he could have died and yet, she killed him. Two conflicting emotions, two conflicting stances, how was she supposed to feel?

The confusion was still fresh. During the funeral, Celestia and Cadance both mourned his death. But Sunset? She just stared blankly at the stand where all his memorials were placed. She was still unsure how to react to the situation. She thought she’d feel satisfied if he was gone, no longer there to surpass her in magic.

But as time passed, she only felt more horrified at the atrocity she committed. Her progress plummeted over the days and Celestia didn’t blame her for it. She was grieving, so the alicorn was more lenient and instead offered some help to make her feel better.

Then, something odd happened. The weeks flew by, and things started to go back to normal. The two alicorns looked happier and Sunset, dissatisfied to hear that she still wasn’t being considered to go to the next stage of Celestia’s studies. Strange considering a few days ago they were still mourning the death of Stardust Radiant. The stallion had somehow faded away from their consciousness, like he never existed.

His death, his legacy... gone. That extended to everypony in Equestria without exception. The once great and powerful unicorn had become nothing more than a ghost.

The memory distorted into an incoherent mess. Random buildings were floating in the sky, the ground was a combination of grass, stone tiles and wood. Everything turned inside out and that’s when the human Stardust reappeared before Sunset Shimmer.

“You took everything away from me. My voice, my freedom. My LEGACY. And then you have the audacity to make my death meaningless.” He clenched his teeth and curled his hands into fists. His red eye stopped giving off this look of apathy, being replaced with wrath.

“Wake up, Sunset Shimmer. Wake up and... prepare yourself. I’m coming for you, and I won’t stop ‘till you’re dead.”

Suddenly hit with a strong spasm, Sunset finally woke up from her terrible dream. Now, she was back at Pinkie’s house where all her friends were peacefully sleeping. Everything was back to normal... except for the giant shadow looming above her. Yeah, the giant shadow with purple eyes. That constituted as anything but normal.

It was the Tyrant, who else could it be? The poor girl was frozen, both out of fear and awe at the intimidating size of the beast. The creature was looking at her, but it wasn’t moving.

“You have quite the history, I must admit I was very intrigued by what I saw. I just want to... dig more inside your brain. See what else I can find, especially on my little Twilight.”

Sunset didn’t move a muscle, her eyes still widened at the sight of the impossible horror that was just right above her. Its face suddenly winced.

“Doesn’t it feel weird to you that poor Stardust Radiant vanished from the collective consciousness of Equestria? It feels like a big, big thing to just gloss over.”

A large grin formed on the beast’s face. Sunset’s jaw nearly hit the floor. “No...”

“I had my eyes on you for quite some time. I just didn’t take action as I believed there was a more opportune time to make my move. Lo and behold, I found it. Then, I just had to let go of my clutch on your mind and help you remember.”

Sunset tried to raise her back from the mattress she was laying in, but her body wouldn’t move.

“Who said you had any power? I am the King of this world. I am the one who has all the cards... and you’ll just have to deal with the hand I give you.”

13. The Plan

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The first rays of sunlight shined through the windows of Pinkie’s bedroom. A few minutes later, Sunset felt her body rocking back and forth. Then, she heard a voice calling out to her.

“Sunset? Get up, you’ve been sleeping for a while.” that voice belonged to Twi.

It was at that moment that Sunset realised she has fallen asleep again. She must have somehow passed out after her encounter with the Tyrant.

“’ight... I’m getting out of bed.” It did, however, took several more minutes for her to truly step out. Even though she slept well, her body was still tired. Her mind on the other hand was going haywire, theorising and speculating about all the strange happenings in Canterlot. She caught herself laughing a bit when she realised that she was approaching this situation the exact same way as Twilight would. Ok, maybe we’re more similar than we think.

Sunset Shimmer joined the rest of the Rainbooms downstairs where they were making breakfast. Pinkie’s family was still sound asleep, leaving them as the only people awake at the moment.

“Hey Sunset! Come on, I left a seat just for you!” Pinkie’s voice invited her over.

“We need you to help us form a plan to finally stop SKX once and for all.” informed Twi in between as she took a bite of her toast.

SKX... that was the name they agreed on for the killer since they didn’t know who he was, but now Sunset was one hundred percent certain of his identity. Moreover, she couldn’t keep them in the dark as to who he is and what his motives are.

This will be hard, but she’ll have to tell them all the truth. She’s changed for the better after all, lying and abusing just isn’t her style anymore. Coming clean will only help in the long run.

“His name is Stardust Radiant.” she said rather bluntly.

Everyone was surprised to finally learn the name of the killer. Mostly, they were wondering how their friend knew.

“Huh, how’d ya know?” asked Applejack.

Sunset Shimmer took a deep breath and sat next to Pinkie. “I knew him personally. We were close friends a couple of years ago.”

“Wait what?!” screamed Rainbow Dash, nearly spitting out her cereals. “But he’s a zombie now! What happened to him?”

Sunset’s hands grip on her legs tightened, feeling extremely uncomfortable but nevertheless, she must tell them the whole story.

And so, she began to recite the tale of her life with Stardust Radiant, the colt-wonder who was murdered out of jealousy. She began by telling them how her foalhood was like in the Equestrian version of Canterlot. Then, she told them about Stardust’s arrival with Princess Celestia.

She told her story with clear hints of nostalgia and regret in her voice. The wound had just reopened, so she often took breaks during her reciting to not break down into tears. The images of the human and zombified Stardust were haunting her mind with every word she spoke. The first side’s face of apathy was heavily contrasted by the other’s rage.

The feeling was awful, but as they say, no pain, no gain. Sunset needed to get it off her chest so that she’d hopefully find inner peace and forgiveness.

Her friends were quite shocked and horrified when she finally got to Stardust’s untimely death. A death she was entirely responsible for. Then, the story abruptly stopped when she was overwhelmed with emotions and shed a few tears.

The room went silent, with everyone giving each other worried glances. It was a shocking new for them, but that didn’t mean that they’ll get angry at Sunset for something she had done years ago. She changed a lot since her first steps into the human world and with how hard she worked to redeem herself, they were entirely willing to forgive her.

Yet, no one was willing to make a move for they were unsure of how exactly they should go about comforting her. Sunset Shimmer was sobbing, there was no time to waste; they had to calm her down.

Fluttershy was the one who took the initiative and inched herself closer to her crying friend. She placed a hesitant hand on the girl’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry about what happened, but I want you to know that I’m not going to leave your side because of what you’ve done in the past. I mean, you worked so hard to fix all the damage you’ve done in Canterlot High, and I found that admirable. You’re amazing Sunset!”

Her speech gave Pinkie Pie enough confidence to speak her mind. “You’re super fun to hang around with! I’m glad I have you as my best friend... uh, one of my best friends. Didn’t mean to undermine you girls.”

Then, it was Applejack’s turn to cheer her up. “You’re quite smart and level-headed. I’d say this group coulda used someone like you from the get-go. We’re lucky to have ya, girl.”

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to make her own statement but realised that she didn’t know what exactly to say. “Uh... yeah, what she said.” she babbled, scratching her head out of a slight feeling of embarrassment.

All the combined affection of her friends made Sunset Shimmer feel warmer, not just on the inside but on the outside as well.

Well okay, maybe she felt warmer on the outside because Pinkie Pie was hugging her tightly but that’s beside point.

Sunset cracked a smile through her teary expression, happy to see that her friends handled the shocking revelation well. It would appear that friendship might be the hardest thing to kill. She started to value it more after her initial defeat at Canterlot High but now... she finally understood why Twilight Sparkle and Princess Celestia believed in friendship this much. “Th... Thank you.” she finally said in a broken voice.

With that out of the way, the Rainbooms could finally focus all their attention on stopping the wrathful zombie from claiming Sunset’s life. Funnily enough, while Stardust Radiant wanted nothing more than to tear her limb from limb, Sunset Shimmer, on the other hand, wanted to save him from his cruel fate. The Tyrant that has gotten a hold of him must surely be tormenting him at every twist and turn. Perhaps, it was even angering him further so he wouldn’t stop his hunt.

The irony in this situation was particularly amusing to said Tyrant, who was observing them as they were discussing their plan.

“Just like with the Dazzlings, we’ll have to use the magic of friendship to overcome Stardust because, just like us, he has magic.” briefed Sunset to the rest of the gang.

“You mean... DARK MAGIC?” specified Pinkie Pie in a melodramatic tone, going even as far as to shine a flashlight at her face for extra effect. This simple act got a few chuckles here and there from her friends.

“So, we’ll use our magic to strip him of his?” questioned Rarity. Spike was sitting on her laps, demanding her to pet him, which she obliged for she found the dog to be too adorable to say no.

Sunset thought about it for a moment. If she wanted to save Stardust, then taking his magic won’t be the way to go. A zombie isn’t a natural being, go figure. Their existence can be entirely attributed to magic. Thus, without magic, there’s no more Stardust. It’ll practically be killing him all over again, something the red-haired girl felt uncomfortable with.

No, to save him, they needed to find an alternative usage of their magic, one that’ll render him defenseless without killing him. But how was she going to convey the message properly to them?

“I think we'll kill him if we take away his magic.” she said, subtly shooting down Rarity’s idea. Twi seemed strangely fine with this, despite being the least sympathetic towards the serial killer. It’s an observation that was overlooked by the other Rainbooms.

“But he murdered a bunch of people! Who cares if we kill him?” complained Rainbow Dash. Her complaint warranted a hit on the shoulder, courtesy of Applejack who sat next to her.

“Dash, that zombie in question was an ol friend ‘o’ her. I don’t think she’s too keen on killin’ him yet again.”

“Oh... right. Almost forgot.”

“Pardon me if that sounds kind of stupid Sunset, but have you tried talking it out?” said Twi, though she didn’t wholeheartedly believe her own idea.

“I did try. Needless to say, it didn’t work. Stardust will never let go of his hatred, which is why I believe talking it out might work if he’s left defenseless.” She then sighed deeply. “I just hope he’ll forgive me and move on. Yet, I still can’t omit the fact that he killed innocent bystanders. I... don’t know how I should really approach this. It’s awful.”

It’s true, there must always be a punishment for a serial killer. Fluttershy thought of something regarding the unique situation they were dealing with. “W-Well, since Stardust is a zombie, then I don’t think it’ll be necessary to bring him to justice. We just have to let his spirit move on.”

“That’s... a fair point Fluttershy. No matter how we go about dealing with Stardust, there will be nothing left to punish in the eyes of the justice system, so we don’t have to worry about that.” affirmed Twi, supporting her friend’s claim.

“Great. With that out of the way, can we go back to the plan? All this talk about the justice system is boring.” interjected Dash in hopes of putting the conversation back on tracks.

“I’ll admit, talking about justice really can be dull at times what with how much rules and procedures there is.” sighed Twi.

Sunset stood up to get everyone’s attention. “Stardust wants only one thing and that’s to kill me. The silver lining here is that he’ll follow me wherever I go, which means we get to decide where we’ll confront him. As long as there is sunlight, he won’t show up, so we’ll have to plan out everything during the day.”

“Anyone got an idea?” asked Rarity as she was looking at herself thanks to her mirror.

Spike lifted his head up for a brief moment. “What about Applejack’s barn?” he asked.

“Well, my barn might be a good place to set up.” affirmed Applejack, the rest of the Rainbooms seemed fine with the idea. “We should have enough time to make some space inside for the band.”

“We’ll set our instruments up inside that barn and place down some additional lights to blind Stardust long enough for us to play a tune which will automatically activate our Equestrian magic. I’ll lure him inside.” briefed Sunset Shimmer.

“And I suppose we’ll take away just enough magic to render him defenseless?” guessed Fluttershy.

Sunset nodded. “Yes, he should be more willing to listen then.”

Pinkie slammed down her bowl of cereal with vigor. She had already eaten everything in record time. “Okay! I’m ready to go!”

Surprised, Rainbow Dash doubled the speed at which she was eating all the while Rarity giggled. “Darling, I don’t think we’re all quite prepared to go just yet.”

“Oh my... you have a date planned for tonight. I’m sorry, I was gonna ask you if you were available to repair the broken window.”

The window inside the shed was cracked. A bird flew into it during that night, how unfortunate. The Tyrant found it quite funny, for he always adored to see stupid creatures doing stupid things.

“Well, not that it matters really. We only rented this place after all... speaking of which, where are the owners?”

Stardust Radiant didn’t answer, much less make a single move to indicate a potential response. Nonetheless, the beast figured it out.

“Nice, I knew you always had it in you to be a monster like me. Say, since this is most likely going to be your final night; how about a present, hmm?”

“What’s the catch here?” Stardust’s eyes shined with surprise. He just spoke, though the words didn’t come from his mouth. His voice sounded ghostly, echoey mostly but that didn’t matter to him. He can talk now.

“Yeah, I’m feeling VERY generous right now. In fact, I've been terribly generous these past few years but what can I say; I’m still so happy about my ultimate victory. Heh, it’s a victory I didn’t even do anything to achieve and yet, I obtained practically everything I ever wanted from it. I became the King of two worlds by doing absolutely nothing.”

His voice had a sinister tone to it, but it was an ominous feeling that Stardust didn’t care about. I mean, why would he even care? He’s going to truly die tonight, whatever happens afterwards is not his business in the slightest.

“I appreciate the kind gift.”

The Tyrant chuckled and took something out of his pocket.

“Hyeh he he he... Hamburger”

14. Fall of the Monster

View Online

The moon had risen on the city of Canterlot. This time, however, the moon was not crimson red, which was a pleasant surprise thought it didn’t mean that whatever caused this bizarre phenomenon was gone. Sunset Shimmer was waiting outside in the dark, a good distance away from the barn. She patiently watched over the horizon, wondering when he’ll finally show up.

Since she had nothing to do, she’d often check her phone to see if her friends sent her any messages regarding their situation inside. They must be fully prepared before the killer’s arrival or else they’d have to fall back on their plan B, which Sunset wasn’t a big fan of. Stardust Radiant didn’t deserve a second chance, she knew that, but his spirit did deserve to be put to rest.

Almost done, Sunset. You gotta keep him busy for a couple of minutes when he’ll arrive. Texted Applejack.
A branch somewhere in the distance snapped, causing Sunset to put her phone back in her pockets. Since she looked at its bright light, her eyes hadn’t adjusted to the darkness so she couldn’t make anything out... except for the two glowing eyes piercing the night itself.

“Sunset Shimmer... I can see we’re both going to end this tonight.”

The red-haired girl was taken aback by the ghostly voice of the killer. Not once has he uttered a even a single word in his ghoulish appearance, so it was surprising to hear him talk. Her eyes had now adjusted to the dark and thus, she could make out the silhouette of the hulking behemoth.

“Got nothing to say?” said Stardust, this time sounding impatient.

“You can talk.” she started under a slightly panicked tone. “Why didn’t you say anything when you ambushed me in the bathroom? Was it just to scare me?”

“I couldn’t. I had no vocal cords with which to scream.” Swiftly answered the zombie. Strangely enough, his mouth wasn’t moving when he spoke. “I was just granted the ability to speak again a few hours ago. But I see no point in having my voice again. You and I have nothing to say to each other.”

Sunset sighed, knowing that diplomacy’s out the window. They will have to solve this conflict this violence whether she liked it or not. “Alright then... Come get me.”

Stardust’s eyes flashed red, and he took out the butterfly knife he stole days ago. With one swift movement, he opened his jacket to reveal something that shocked his adversary. He had strapped tons of flammable substances and he had a detonator in hand now. “Once the deed is done, I will burn in the flames of Tartarus. Such is the fate I chose for myself, don’t try to save me, Sunset for I do not want your pity.”

He stored the detonator inside his jacket and marched towards his victim in an aggressive manner. Sunset ran back to the barn; thought she didn’t appear too scared or anxious. She was feeling a little bit of both, but it wasn’t enough to Stardust’s liking, so he suspected that something was up.

He stopped his hot pursuit and examined his surroundings. No longer hearing his thundering footsteps resonating behind her, Sunset slowed down and looked back at him. “Come on... I’m here! Come and kill me, I’m here! Kill me!”

Stardust stared at her, almost with a disappointed look. “This place must be booby trapped.”

Indeed, it was, and Sunset Shimmer knew that this would happen. The unicorn was always known for being quite smart, and it seemed that he had gotten more perceptive since then. Thankfully, they prepared everything with that notion in mind, so she kept her cool despite this setback.

The zombie picked up a big rock from the ground and threw it at a specific place he was eyeing for a few seconds. Once the rock made contact with the floor, it tripped a wire that sent a bucket filled with heavy objects swinging down. It would have hit the killer in the face had he tripped it himself.

Stardust looked nervous now, his victim knew where all the traps where, and she’d surely try to lead him through each and every one of them. Was this their plan to bring him down? No, couldn’t be. Where were her friends? Could this whole booby-trapped field be just a façade to hide their real plan? The questions were flowing through his mind at a rapid pace, and he failed to notice that an awful lot of slime was dripping down every single orifice on his face.

Sunset felt her stomach-turning upside down as she watched the vicious, almost mucus like liquid pouring down from the zombie to which the latter noticed. He wiped the slime away before taking his first steps down the booby-trapped field. His approach was hesitant but determined all the same to reach his prey. “I’ll stop at nothing to get you. You may have the magic of friendship on your side, but I have something greater.”

The ground began to shake as the Tyrant reared its ugly head. His purple eyes and pearly white teeth pierced the darkness of the cold night. “You could use some friends for a change, Stardust. I think it’ll do you some good.”

The beast moved towards Sunset, triggering every trap that separated her from the killer before he vanished into thin air with a maniacal cackle. Holes that were covered with leaves, sharp instruments being shot out from cannons and more, there was nothing standing in the way now.

Stardust Radiant glared at Sunset as he opened his jaw wide as his ghostly voice roared before he charged forward with the knife in hand. The red-haired girl ran closer to the barn where she knew there would be more traps to slow him down. She wasn’t an athlete by any means and so was Stardust but as a zombie, he had unlimited stamina which tipped the scales in his favor.

She reached the next checkpoint and thus, took a break to catch her breath. The murderer stopped dead in his tracks, sensing more danger. He examined the surroundings methodically and that’s when Sunset gestured off in the distance. Suddenly, a large sound broke the eerie silence of the night, and many objects flew into Stardust’s left side. He didn’t feel the pain, but he did feel his entire body losing balance and being knocked to the ground.

“Nice shot, Pinkie!”

Hiding in the dark was Pinkie Pie who was armed with one of her special cannons. “Always there to help!” she exclaimed before she ran inside the barn.

Stardust got back on his feet relatively quickly. His entire left side was oozing with plasma which definitely wasn’t a pretty sight. Annoyed, he pulled out the sharp knives that were lodged into his arm and leg one by one, showing no hints of pain. For a zombie, suffering grievous damage is more infuriating than anything, a by-product of having no functioning pain receptors whatsoever.

“You can’t run away forever. Get back here and face me, monster! I will tear you open with my bare hands!” The zombie was angrier than before, a feeling that was translated by his uncontrollable shaking.

“Hey, come get me! I’ll have nowhere to run inside that barn.” shouted Sunset as she opened the large door and headed inside.

Stardust waited for a bit, examining every inch of land in front of him to see if there were any traps laying around. He saw Pinkie Pie enter, which meant that there were two people inside that barn for certain. The rest of the Rainbooms were also high likely to in there. It’s a seven on one, or eight if you counted Spike. These odds weren’t in his favor, but all he wanted was to kill Sunset, just one of them essentially.

A large shadow formed over him, indicating the presence of the Tyrant. “What’s the matter, scared? You’re a hulking zombie in case you forgot, dummy. I literally put you in easy mode, so why are you being so anxious to make a move? You had plenty of chances to kill her, you know and yet you didn’t. You had the situation all under control and now you feel like you’re losing said control. Or... maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you’re just doubting yourself. It’s pitiful. You’re a monster. Kill for Pete’s sake. Kill for your King.”

Suddenly overcoming with a blind confidence, Stardust walked forward without any signs of hesitation. He stepped on a cleverly hidden rake on the grass and the hilt slammed him in the face. The impact broke a few teeth but didn’t slow him down whatsoever. No pain, no gain but that statement sure didn’t apply to him at all.

His shoes stepped on various nails and broken glasses lying on the ground, piercing his feet but the damage wasn’t great enough to hinder his approach.

“I think we may have to fall back on a plan B!” whispered Pinkie Pie as she observed the incoming zombie behind the barn’s door.

“Our traps didn’t cause enough damage. Guess we’ll have to distract him.” muttered Sunset under her panicked breath.

“Uh, how exactly are we supposed to distract him? He’s twice our size!”

Looking around, Sunset spotted a couple of farm equipment laying around. “We’ll hold him off with these!” she said as she tossed a pitchfork at Pinkie.

“Hmm, not usually my style but, that’ll do.” she exclaimed in a somewhat lighthearted tone.

The red-haired couldn’t help but be impressed at how easily her friend was keeping it together. “Gee, you really have nerves of steel, you know that?” She armed herself with a leftover rake.

The animals around the barn were getting more and more agitated by the seconds, a sign that the zombie was drawing near. The two girls took deep breaths to prepare themselves for the confrontation that was sure to prove itself painful.

The creaking of the door announced their last stand. Stardust finally entered; his body was oozing with blood though his injuries were merely superficial. Seeing the weapons in their hands, he chuckled a bit, mostly out of joy that this pitiful chase had reached its end. “Good, let’s get down to business.”

An immense shadow formed over to their side. It cackled as it took out a large bag of popcorn. “Make this entertaining, ladies. I want to see blood, so don’t be afraid to get rowdy.”

“Is that a dinosaur?” curiously asked Pinkie, not too fazed by the Tyrant’s imposing stature.

Stardust began his charge, though was surprised to notice that he was now limping. Nevertheless, his burly body gave him a strong advantage. Sunset swung her rake full force to which he blocked the hit with his left arm and grabbed her by the neck to lift her off the ground.

He lifted his knife up to stab his nemesis but rapidly diverted his attention to Pinkie Pie.

“Here it comes!” she exclaimed as she thrusted her pitchfork into the zombie. A last-minute block left Stardust with a badly injured arm. The tool had pierced many ligaments, which weakened his left arm. “Woops, guess I shouldn’t have announced myself like that.”

The killer kicked Pinkie away, launching her into a pile of hay before returning his attention to Sunset Shimmer. Before he could make a move against her, she kicked him in the chest will all her might. The resulting impact loosened his grip, and she broke free.

All the while, The Tyrant was cheering on the battle, taking copious amounts of bite out of his popcorn bag." Kick his scrawny butt back to the grave, Sunset!” He shouted before looking at Stardust. “Gouge her eyes! Split her skull in half! Come on, you can do it!”

Although difficult to notice, there was some bias in his voice. Guess who he was truly cheering for.

Stardust went for a powerful jab, but Sunset evaded the attack and countered with a chop to his throat to little effect. The zombie delivered a brutal knee to her stomach. Fighting someone who can’t feel pain isn’t an easy task. They can’t be staggered, can’t be stunned. Each hit you dish out must deal a meaningful amount of damage or else it would have been for nothing.

“Come on... Finish her! I want to see a fatality! Please your King, he gets off to brutality.”

His body was moving like a berserker now and not much like a human. Stardust was giving in to the monster inside as he picked Sunset up the head and lifted two thumbs up to her eyes.

“Oh! You took what I said literally. I’m touched.”

Then, the lights turned on, revealing the rest of the barn’s content. There was a stage in the back with speakers everywhere.

On that stage was the rest of the Rainbooms with their instruments in hand. They were wearing ear mufflers, quite foreboding indeed.

“We’re done prepping up! Now prepare yourself to get shredded, zombie!” screamed Rainbow Dash. Yeah, that was an awesome one-liner, Dash!

“Well, you’re screwed, zombie.” Mechanically said the Tyrant.

The group began to play their tune, the high volume of their music disoriented Stardust who suddenly lost balance. Sunset and Pinkie took out their own set of ear mufflers and put them on. The murderer then heard nothing but silence as his ears broke, leaving him nearly deaf. The Tyrant seemed unimpressed with their performance but quickly began to feel just a little nervous when he saw them ponying up thanks to their magic, all except for Twi but that didn’t impact the result too much.

“Friendship magic! Better play it safe and leave for the moment...” he muttered under his breath before vanishing in a cloud of smoke.

A beautiful rainbow erupted from each of the Rainboom’s instruments before it fused to form one wave of magnificent colors. It descended upon Stardust Radiant, who, looked at it with a solemn expression. He didn’t try to resist or even move an inch as it came into contact with him and tore away a significant portion of his magic out of his hollow body. It wasn’t painful in the slightest, no, it felt rather warm, pleasant.

Once it was over, he dropped to his knees. His red eyes have died down into a faint yellow light that barely illuminated his face. The feeling that emanated from him had changed completely. Gone was the insatiable rage, replaced with fatigue and regret.

Noticing their victory, the Rainbooms stopped playing and took out their ear mufflers before approaching the vanquished killer. Just like with Sunset, their Equestrian magic changed Stardust on a deeper level.

“It’s over, Stardust. There’s no use in fighting anymore, we don’t want to hurt you any further.”

More slime oozed from all of the orifices on his eyes, nose and mouth alike. He was looking at the floor, seemingly struggling to even lift his head. “You’ve grown too soft, Sunset. I’ll repeat one last time; I don’t need your pity. I’m a monster, an insult against both ponykind and humankind. I shouldn’t be here in the first place.” His eyes now crossed with Sunset, whom the latter kneeled to match his current height.

“You’re not a monster, Stardust. We both made terrible mistakes but it's never too late to seek redemption.” she spoke with an optimistic tone, something the zombie didn’t reciprocate.

“Easy to say when you’ve only got one murder under your belt. My list of crimes extends far beyond just one and unlike you; I didn’t feel the slightest remorse up until now. You want to help? Just kill me already. I’ve got nothing left to live for.”

A singular tear formed under Sunset’s eye as she tried her best to hold it in. The guilt hurted much more now when she finally got to see the broken stallion that used to be her best friend, now a human zombie, a form that made him truly unrecognisable.

“The magic left in me is keeping me alive, but I don’t want it anymore. I’ve got no goals left, no ambitions. I’m just a husk, and it’s not a life worth living.” Moving even just a single part of his body was a hassle. The little magic in him was the bare minimum required to make even the slightest movement. Appearing only to the rotten corpse was the Tyrant himself, coming to bid farewell to his most prized toy.

“You’ve been an enjoyable punching bag, but I'm afraid I've got no interest left in you. You know what this means, right? It’s time to die, Stardust Radiant. Speak your last words.”

Sunset placed a hand on Stardust’s shoulder, then leaned in closer for a hug. The zombie was taken aback by this affectionate gesture and for the first time since he rose from beyond his grave, he felt something, warmth. “I’m... sorry.” she said in a broken voice.

“So am I.” responded Stardust. His voice sounded at peace. He didn’t belong to this world. He was dead, and he should stay that way. Messing with life and death can never lead to good thing, but the Tyrant clearly didn’t care as long as it was amusing him. “My vengeance... is over.”

As Sunset let go of the undead, his body slowly turned into ash. His skin and muscles were blown away by the wind, leaving behind only his bones. In a matter of seconds, all that was left of the once terrifying killer of Canterlot was an inanimate skeleton.

The Rainbooms watched the scene in silence. Some of them even started to feel sort of bad for the zombie while the others weren’t quite sure how to feel. Sunset didn’t move a muscle as her eyes were still on the remains of what was once her best friend.

Fluttershy approached her, terribly concerned about her feelings. “Are you okay, Sunset?” she asked in a tender and caring voice.

Sunset stood up as if her friend’s voice brought her back to reality. “Yes. I’m going to be fine, don’t worry about me. I guess I just needed closure, that’s all.”

Rainbow Dash yawned loudly, bringing everyone’s attention onto her. “I’m tired. We’ve been working our butt’s off for this entire day. Now that this case is closed, why don’t we go back to sleep and talk about it tomorrow instead?”

Spike was barely able to keep his eyes open, which Twi noticed very quickly. “Yeah, I think we all deserve some rest after what we’ve accomplished.”

The whole group slowly dragged their tired bodies out of the barn while Sunset collected the remains of Stardust Radiant, placing them in her bag before leaving herself. But just as she reached out for the door, an ominous presence made itself known.

“I’ve got something to confess myself. Have you ever received a response from Sketch after all these years? No? How quaint, I wonder why he isn't being a good friend right now.”

Sunset’s eyes widened.

“I see I don’t need to say more. I got the message across. To be fair, it wasn't exactly me who did it. It was more or less the work of someone I once considered my greatest enemy, but now he's no longer among us.”

She didn’t say anything, rather, the implications behind the Tyrant’s meddling sent her in a deep state of shock and she simply left. The beast laughed manically as she watched her exit the barn.

“Oh, you’re a vile one... and that’s why you’re the King of Tyrants.” The monster said to himself with a fond tone.

Now is it over? No, I believe I still have one last thing to say. Stay tuned, for I'll be taking this story in hand.

Fear The Hypnotist

by JeSuisLaPorte

1. A Day like any other

2. Stranger Danger!

3. First Blood

4. He's coming to get you, Sunset!

5. You're on your own now.

6. Figuring out a course of action

7. Breaking in, Breaking out.

8. The blurry line between Man and Monster.

9. The Shadow on the Moon

10. The proxy of my proxy is also my proxy.

11. Confrontation

12. Lost to Time

13. The Plan

14. Fall of the Monster

Purple Eyed Freak