//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 - Despair 
// Story: Solar Eclipse 
// by hattafan2593 
//------------------------------//

The sick thing was, Sunset wasn't even surprised.

This week had gone to absolute hell. One minute, she was having the time of her life, hanging out with her friends at their slumber parties. The next thing she knew, she was accused of a crime she hadn't committed, all her friends dumped her, and she found herself beaten to a pulp, tied to a pole in an old abandoned factory some 20 miles outside Canterlot, with the intent of leaving her there to freeze.

And now she had just learned from her old lackeys, Snips and Snails, that Rainbow Dash, her friend, the wielder of Loyalty, had orchestrated this entire thing.

She recalled the conversation she had had with Adagio.

"And what do you do with a dog that starts biting the hand holding  its leash?  Get rid of it.  They've been playing you like a pipe since  day one." 

She had never felt more stupid in her life.

"At first Gilda was just gonna round  up a few of us and then corner you in the girls’ bathroom or something  like that.  We never got the chance because you didn’t come to school  today." Snips said, his tone sympathetic.  "Then Rainbow got the idea to send you a phony message.  And did  you know that she told everyone where your apartment was?  We were  supposed to snatch you up outside if you didn’t fall for the trap."

Sunset was silent for a moment, before letting out a bitter laugh. "I guess I should be used to it by now.  It’s always like this  in the end."  The hurt in Sunset’s voice was evident.  If the other  students had gotten too carried away she could have been killed.  She  didn't believe for a second that Rainbow wasn't aware of this.

It just wasn't fair.

The room suddenly began to get warmer. Snips and Snails exchanged a worried look and looked about the room. They noticed that several of the windows had begun to crack.

"Back  in my world, Celestia is a princess,” Sunset explained.  "All she ever  tried to do was help me.  I returned the favor by throwing it all back  at her, because I thought that she was holding me back.  I had the  chance to start over with a clean slate when I came here and I used that  second chance to bring other people down, just to make myself feel  better.  I finally made a few friends for the first time and tried  turning over a new leaf, but that didn’t work out either.  And as a  bonus, one of those friends nearly got me killed ..."

A black aura began to envelop Sunset, and the two boys backed up in fear.

"Boss?" Snips asked nervously.

"It seems  that no matter what I do, I always end up causing way more harm than  good in the long-run......"

She finally looked up, and the boys gasped.

Sunset's sclera were completely black, and there were black veins at the edges of her eyes. Tears were running down her cheeks, and she was smiling. A sad, broken smile.

".....I was stupid.....so stupid......"

A single tear fell from her face, and landed on the floor with a plop.

The black aura exploded, and Snips and Snails were thrown back from the blast. The windows shattered from the force and a strong wind whipped about the room. The boys grabbed onto the nearest object and hung on for dear life.

Sunset's limp body began to rise in the air, her bondings having been destroyed by the deathly aura. The wind surrounded her in a vortex, the aura growing brighter and brighter, until she disappeared altogether.

Snails, shielding his face, cried out,

"SUNSEEEEEET!!!!!!!"




Dumbbell huffed impatiently as he searched the building. Those two brats had been gone for thirty minutes. What were they trying to do, fill a lake?

His head snapped up when he heard the sound of multiple windows smashing. Suspicious, he ran towards the room were Shimmer was being held. 

He skidded to a halt when he saw a bright light coming from the doorway.

He narrowed his eyes. "Just what the hell did those idiots do?"