//------------------------------//
// Dragon Ball Sol: 8 against 1000 
// Story: The Many Destinies of Sunset Shimmer 
// by ratedoni 
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Now, let’s be honest; if you were right on the path of a veritable wave of humanoid warriors wearing high tech weaponry and armors falling right into you, I’m pretty sure you will most likely start screaming in fear and terror before succumbing to a cruel at the hands of those dangerous warriors. 

Sunset was not like them, in fact, she was not smiling neither grimacing. For Sunset, this situation was something that had become normal stuff by now. Yes, she was not in charge of defending a kingdom due to the higher ups being too lazy to get their big plots off a comfortable pillow. Her words, not mine.

Living on the human world had taught her that strange stuff would happen no matter how you prepared yourself before the shit hit the fan… never quite liked that phrase. She had been part of hypnotizing fishes, out of control plant witches, dangerous artifacts of elder power and now… well, she was fighting not for her life, but for her native planet. No matter how much time she had spent on her adoptive world, Equestria was still her home. Although, what Eizi had said, it left some doubts that were resonating inside her head. When he called her monkey, something told her that he wasn’t using the world as in ‘pre-evolved human’, but something else, as if he was making an insult to her species as a whole.

Ducking under the first attack took Sunset away from her reflections and was soon forced into the defensive… for a second at least. Sunset was no stranger to fighting; it was something she was not very proud of from her days as a bully. Intimidation tactics and blackmail could only take you so far in the search of hierarchy power so sometimes the correct application of a few well-placed punches and kicks could do way more than a few incriminatory photos, especially with those that wanted to usurp the power of the bitch in charge of Canterlot High.

After her humbling at the hands of Twilight Sparkle, Sunset went back to her own dojo, basically getting on her knees the moment she saw her old teacher. The way in which he welcomed her back after only taking a look at her was one of the few instances that let her face the way in which her school treated her. The other things that helped were how fast the girls she now called friends were ready to befriend her, first among them Rainbow Dash. The adrenaline junkie of Canterlot High simply said that after watching her get beaten by a rainbow was enough payback and were now even.

Smashing her fist right into one nameless grunt and hearing the satisfying crunch of bones inside the mouth satisfied Sunset in ways she wasn’t capable of explaining with words. Using her fists and legs to beat senseless one fighter after another was helping her work on her bottled up emotions, not enough to feel she get calm once again, but at least to the point where a red mist was lifting from her eyes.

There was just a small problem; just as she finished one other three took the place of their comrade. It was kind of pathetic mixed with bizarre, considering that here she was beating down soldier after soldier but the numbers didn’t seem to thin out nor where they losing their almost fanatical jump into the slaughter house, not that Sunset was killing them… at least she hoped so. It was getting ridiculous, but as she dodged a laser beam from one of those soldier’s arm gun, that same soldier was hit by a boulder several times bigger than him, slamming against other of his comrades sending them down into the ground.

Taking a second to breathe Sunset saw that the responsible for the boulder being thrown was none other than her friend Applejack. It was really easy to separate both since they all retained their human forms; also, the braided hair and teal colored armor/dress were clear signals of which Applejack had suddenly appeared at the battlezone.

“Ah have no idea what’s going on, but y’all can go to hell before I let you attack one of my friends!” The words and the clear feeling behind them were enough to make Sunset finally smile. After all the crap that politicians and nobles had put her the whole time, it was nice to finally hear something good directed at her. Sadly, the soldier quickly noticed Applejack and without even waiting for orders he and several dozen fighters flew right into the blonde’s location. Sadly for them, this Applejack wasn’t as defenseless as many ponies, not in her battle mode.

Twirling her body, Applejack’s foot impacted against one warriors sending him flying, she then used her momentum to spin and with her other leg she struck another, this time one of the most frog-like soldiers, with her heel. Keeping up she slightly hopped and did a double crane kick right into the chin of two more. Looking at her, Sunset was truly surprised by how strong Applejack was; that mixed with her own years of training at a Tae Kwon Do dojo, alongside her own experience as a magical fighter, made Applejack one formidable opponent.

As one soldier tried to get a cheap hit on Applejack’s back, Sunset was ready to help her friend before a blue blur knocked him out.

“Oh come on! You two were trying to hog all the fun! What kind of friends are you?” Rainbow’s boisterous voice made Sunset chuckle and Eizi raise an eyebrow in amusement. The rainbow haired girl then began to fly across the battlefield hitting soldier left and right with stiff punches and kicks, not much of a style, but using effectively her own speed.

“Now, don’t be so rash Rainbow Dash, we are here to help a whole world, not to have fun!” The precise strikes from open palms showed so much elegance that it fitted Rarity to a t. Alongside her good fashionista friend, even Fluttershy seemed to be taking her own battle mode for a spin, taking the arm of one opponent and twisting it over his head and with a little push he was send right into the ground with enough force to knock him out. At the distance, Sunset could hear the rumble coming from fireworks and party cannons and truthfully, she wasn’t interested in the mayhem Pinkie Pie brought to the battlefield. And just like that things seemed to go well for Sunset and the rest of her friends, even better when two purple hued magic beams hit several members of Eizi’s army. It was none other than both versions of Twilight Sparkle.

The wings, both magical and feathery on the back of both made something inside Sunset burn, not with jealousy, but at the sheer mockery of her life and what she had to go through, but she couldn’t hate the girl that got the wings, they were too nice to be hated, but she could at least hate other ponies for pushing and granting Twilight alicornhood.

“I may not be as good at fighting as our friends, but I just couldn’t let you fight by yourself,” the visor on the human Twilight looked just perfect for her and with how motivated she was, it was clear that she was way beyond worrying about going back to being Midnight Sparkle.

“She is right and I also know that there is something bothering you Sunset, something that has to do with me, but I’m sure that with the help of our friends we will be able to defeat everything, because friendship is magic!” it was such a corny line, but for some reason Princess Twilight made it work. Then, it was as if time itself had stopped, because in an instant, there was a hole right through one of Princess Twilight’s wings. Her screams of pain as she plummeted to the ground send shivers across Sunset’s body as she was left frozen, not being able to move to save her. Thankfully, the human Twilight caught up with her and gently put her on the ground.

“I’m sorry, was she still talking? It was just so boring, I mean, really? Friendship is magic? What kind of moron comes up with something as stupid as that?” Eizi’s smirk made Sunset swear something. She was going to hit Eizi so hard that she will erase that smirk from his face.