A mighty rumble shook the air, like a demon's roar resounding all over the place.
The little Apple Bloom is shaken out of her sleep. She sits on her bed with her body shaking and her heart thumping against her ribs. It takes a few seconds to realize that the sound was thunder outside, a part of the storm raging outside.
She lets out a sigh of relief and takes a deep breath to calm her heart. Her ears pick up the howling wind and the din of the rain on her window and roof.
Finding herself too awake to get back to sleep, she gets up and leaves her room in the direction of the bathroom for a glass of water. Upon reaching the bathroom, she flips the light switch, only to be met with unbroken darkness. She flipped the switch fruitlessly a few more times before groaning at the storm-induced power outage.
Not wanting to go back to her room for a flashlight, she decides to make do with the faint illumination coming through the small window in the bathroom. She takes the plastic cup from the counter and fills it with tap water to drink, savoring the cool water in her mouth and throat, instantly calming her down. She lets out a sigh when she finishes.
When she looks up, she sees her tired face in the mirror, along with something else...
There’s a shadow right in front of the bathroom door.
The sight makes her drop the glass and turn quickly. It’s very difficult, but she eventually manages to make out a silhouette of the last person she’d want to meet alone on a dark, stormy night.
"Sunset ..."
Sunset stands motionlessly, standing between the girl and the door, staring with that disturbing gaze, which seems to glow in the almost total darkness.
"What... What’re you…?"
Her words die, and she feels her whole body freeze under that cold look. Her legs weaken, and she falls to the ground, but she can’t break her gaze fromthoseeyes.
In a desperate attempt to save herself, Apple Bloom hastily backs up until her back hits the opposite wall. There, she keeps her eyes on Sunset. Neither Sunset’s body nor her eyes move an inch.
Flashes of lightning flood the sky and light up the room. In each flash of light, the terrifying girl disappears, returning with the shadows in the next instant.
The little girl's eyes shed tears and her small body starts trembling again, strong shudders that wrack her whole body. She tries to speak or scream, but she can’t make a sound. She tries to move, but her body feels like stone.
Suddenly, the power returns to the house, and light returns to the bathroom, eliminating all the shadows. As for Sunset...
The little one is alone in the bathroom, surrounded by light, her body still frozen except for the tears falling down her cheeks and her chest moving with her shallow breaths.
*S*A*S*
Her mind had been shut down for quite some time. Instinct was what made her run out of the room and down the hall to her own room.
She slams and locks her door and throws herself on her bed, covering herself completely with the blankets. As safe under the blankets as she dares feel, she spends the rest of her night trembling and letting her tears flow from tightly closed eyes, trying to forget that gaze while repeating apologies to the empty room.
"Ah'm sorry, Ah'm sorry, Ah'm sorry, Ah'm sorry, Ah'm sorry, Ah'm sorry, Ah'm sorry..."
The storm outside ended not long before morning, but a more frightening storm still raged inside the little Apple.
*S*A*S*
Friday morning is gloomy, with dark clouds dimming the sky and a chilly wind blowing at anyone unlucky enough to be outside.
The atmosphere almost feels depressing, and it’s certainly affecting the students of Canterlot High School; the students are less animated, and everyone is looking for their friends and companions to distract themselves from the bad weather.
It is during a break between classes that the Rainbooms decide to go to their practice room to try to play, "try" being the key word.
The noise produced by those instruments is without even a hint of rhythm, much less harmonic sense, and with each discordant bar, the girls get more and more desperate to unite their tunes, without any success.
The rainbow-haired athlete groans and screams,"Enough!"with fury, throwing her guitar against the ground."What the hell is wrong with us? Why are we playing so bad?"
None can give an answer to that question.
"Believe it or not, Ah even think that every day, we play worse,"the farmer says.
"Why?! We were the best!"Rainbow yells.
Rarity looks at her keyboard."It's strange. It's as if our instruments don't want to work."
"I bet Sunset has something to do with this,"Rainbow says with suspicion.
Applejack looks at her curiously."Sunset? Why’s that?"
"Maybe she did something to our instruments before she left!"
"Come on, Rainbow, that ain’t possible,"Applejack says.
"And why not? She's already done a lot of damage at school. I wouldn’t be surprised if she also wanted to ruin our band."
Rarity supports the blonde."I'm sorry to poke holes in your theory, but I've taken my keyboard to be checked at several stores, and there's nothing wrong with it."
"And Ah carefully inspected my guitar. Nothin’s wrong with it, neither."second AJ.
"Maybe it is not something normal,"Rainbow theorizes, then smacks her fist into her palm in realization."That's it! She put a curse on us!"
"A curse? Please, ya can’t be serious,"Applejack says skeptically.
"Come on, she’s magic, right? She must’ve cast some kind of spell to throw us off our game!"
"Sunsie wouldn’t do that..."Pinkie Pie says sullenly.
"Of course, she would! She’s a demon!"
The dressmaker tries to calm her friend."Now, Rainbow Dash, Sunset Shimmer doesn't have that kind of magic."
"How do you know?”Rainbow demands.“Do you know something we don’t? You in league with Sunset or something?"
"Excuse me?!"Rarity replies, scandalized.
"Calm down, Rainbow Dash. You're bein’ paranoid,"Applejack says, upset.
"Please, don't fight,"Pinkie says quietly.
There is silence for a short time, after which Rainbow sighs and shakes her head."Yeah, you're right. We shouldn’t be fighting each other. The real enemy here is Sunset."
"I doubt that Sunset is involved, darling,"Rarity says.
“Of course, she’s involved. How else would you explain what’s happening to us?”Rainbow says heatedly. She turns to Fluttershy.“You’re with me, right, Fluttershy?”
"Eep!"the shy girl squeaks at the sudden attention.“Wh-What?”
"You agree with me, right? Sunset did something to us,"Rainbow says again.
"Um, I-I-I, uh... The truth is... I don't believe that Sunset... I..."
"Ugh, not you, too, Fluttershy,"Rainbow says, exasperated.
"Rainbow, please don't be like this,"says the dressmaker."Things have been difficult for all of us."
Applejack sighs."Rarity’s right. It's only been a few days since Sunset left and even less since the Anon-A-Miss page closed. The wounds are still open."
Pinkie looks at the floor."I wonder why she shut it down."
Rainbow says with disdain,"Duh, Sunset was already expelled. Game over. She’s probably off hurting people at her new school or something."
Fluttershy takes the floor."Um, actually... no one actually knows if she was expelled... I mean, um..."
"That doesn’t matter, anyway,"replies AJ."The fact is Anon-a-Miss ain’t gonna bother us anymore. Now, it's almost time for next period. We'd better get goin’."
Nobody gives objection, and the five leave the room with a somber farewell. As the girls file out, Fluttershy notices Pinkie stay in her place with an unusually downcast look and an uncharacteristic silence.
"Um, Pinkie, are you okay?"she asks softly.
The answer takes a few seconds."I just want things to go back to the way they were."
The unexpected answer saddens shy girl, who sighs and nods in agreement. Finally, Pinkie leaves wordlessly, and, seeing herself alone in the room, Fluttershy does the same.
*S*A*S*
The last day of Sunset’s first week at her new school.
With her face resting on one hand and her elbow on the table, Sunset glumly eats her lunch as she contemplates her first week.
She knew that Crystal Prep would be strict, but she never imagined that it would be this sadistic. Tons of homework to do, tests to take, and projects to prepare all combined to wear Sunset to the bone.
She would have to devote the whole weekend to study if she wanted to pass those exams. Surely, no teacher would accept the excuse of "I'm new" if she got bad grades.
Thinking it through, though, Sunset found that losing her weekend did not matter; it wasn’t like she had a social life anymore, anyway.
A tired sigh escapes her as she wraps the thin strands of her meal around her fork and brings them to her mouth.
The cafeteria served noodles that day, which was absolutely fine by Sunset, considering that she forgot to prepare her lunch. At leastsomethingwas going well. The only problem was that the noodles came with meatballs, forcing Sunset to pick around them to get to the vegetarian-friendly food underneath.
Out of the corner of her eye, she sees someone stopping at her side. She turns her head slightly and sees the siren again, standing beside her with her lunch tray. Sunset may have bothered to looked surprised if she weren’t so tired.
There are no words as the girls look at each other. Sunset notices a strange expression on the siren’s face, a mixture of what looks like fear and something that she can’t distinguish. Still, Sunset says nothing, waiting for the siren to begin.
Finally, after a few seconds, the blue girl hesitantly says,"Um... I... Can I... Can I sit here?"
The former equine manages to raise an eyebrow, displaying her confusion; she is the only one sitting at that table, sure, but there were many free seats in the cafeteria, so why does the siren want to sit with someone she clearly fears?
The siren, noticing the lack of response, bites her lip and, looking away, says,"I-It’s just that... I’ve spent a lot of time in this school, but actually... I don't really know anyone here, so I usually eat lunch alone, but... it's so boring, and, well, we both tried to conquer the world, so we have that in common, so, uh, what do you say?"
The nervous girl finishes her rambling and looks hopefully at Sunset, who merely keeps her neutral expression and silence. Slowly, the siren’s hopeful expression melts into one of sorrow.
"... I... Sorry, forget it. I-I'll go..."
With her eyes downcast, the siren turns and starts sullenly walking away. Sunset watches her for a moment before sighing.
"Wait,"Sunset says. The call surprises the siren, who stops and turns to regard Sunset expectantly."What’s your name? I never got it."
“S-Sonata Dusk,”Sonata replies.
Sunset sighs silently again.“Sit down.”
"Really?"Sonata asks, her hopes risen.
Sunset doesn’t answer verbally, simply nodding with her eyes closed. Squealing excitedly, Sonata plops down on the seat across from Sunset and begins to eat her lunch.
The two eat in silence for a while, until Sonata, perturbed by the prolonged silence, says,"So... what do you think of the school?"
Again, Sunset doesn’t answer verbally, but she does let out an exasperated moan while her mouth is full.
Sonata continues,"Yeah, this place sucks, but it’s a school, so what do you expect?”
A slurping of noodles is the only "answer" from the fire-haired girl.
"Yeah, it's really different from Canterlot High. I mean, the food’s fine, and the bathrooms are cleaner, but CHS had tacos."
Sunset takes a gulp of fruit juice in response.
"I wanted to go back to CHS, but… it's not like anyone wanted me there, and Adagio thought this place would be better for my studies anyway."
Finally, Sunset’s eyes fix on Sonata, and Sonata notices the questioning look. It doesn’t take long for her to figure out the unasked question.
"Oh, Adagio’s the one with the orange hair. She’s Adagio Dazzle, and the last girl is Aria Blaze."
Sunset makes a gesture of understanding and continues with her lunch.
"So, uh, yeah, I'm doing fine, overall. It's really boring here, though. I mean, school is supposed to be boring, but it’d be nice to have someone to talk to, you know?"
Again, Sunset gives no verbal response, just a very slight movement of her head.
"So anyway, studying’s all I’ve been doing since the Battle of the Bands. What about you?"
After swallowing her mouthful, Sunset turns her gaze away from the siren, her silence taking on a sadder quality.
Sonata nervously backpedals."Uh, I understand if you don't wanna tell me. I mean, it's not like we're friends or anything. That reminds me, though. Are we… still enemies?"Sonata finishes slowly.
Sunset wordlessly shrugs.
"Personally,”Sonata continues,“I don’t wanna be anyone’s enemy. I just want to, well... be me."
Silence falls as Sonata finishes what she has to say with an awkward chuckle. The two stare at each other until Sonata gets nervous and starts looking anywhere else but Sunset’s eyes. Eventually, her gaze falls on Sunset’s untouched meatballs."Are you going to eat those?"she asks. Sunset looks at her plate, then quickly pushes it towards Sonata, who gladly takes the meatballs to her own plate."Thanks! I prefer fish, but beef’s not bad, either."
Sunset watches as the smiling Sonata scarfs the meatballs down, and soon, Sunset returns to her own meal. There is no more talk after that, and eventually, the lunch hour ends.
*S*A*S*
Sunset walks down an empty hallway to her last class.
Just one more class. After that, she could go back to her apartment, rest for the remainder of the day, and use the weekend to go to the city library, catch up on her classes, and not fail the exams.
"What’re you so nervous about? It’s not that hard,"comes a voice from a nearby side hallway. Sunset stops and turns towards its origin.
"Please, let me go. I’m going to be late for class."
Thatvoice was unmistakable.
"Twilight ...?"Sunset mumbles in surprise. Her final class forgotten, she cautiously approaches the origin of the voices.
"Don’t worry. We’ll let you get to class as soon as you promise to help us,"says another voice, different from the first.
Sunset hides behind a corner and peeks at what’s happening. There, at the end of the corridor, Twilight is cowering against a window while two male students stand in front of her, each boy wearing a strange smile.
One of the boys, a muscular, red-skinned boy with orange hair, says,"Look, we all know that Mr. Trig’s tests are unfair. Just pass over some answers during the test and help us pass. That’s all we’re asking."
"B-But that cheating!"Twilight responds, appalled.
"Come on, do us a favor,"the other boy, a leaner, white-skinned boy with white hair, says with a hint of pleading."Isn’t helping out your fellow students the right thing to do?"
"I… I'm sorry, I can’t do something like that,"Twilight says.“I can help you study, but I’d like to talk about it after class.”She tries to move past the boys, but one of them roughly shoves her back against the window and clamps a hand over her mouth to stifle her scream.
Sunset sharpens her gaze and clenches her teeth.
The boys bear down on Twilight, who shrinks into herself in fear, unable to get away.
"Look, four-eyes, we're asking you nicely. Look at it this way: If you help us with this test, we can help you withyourproblems. Like your bully problems,"White says.
"But if you don't, then you’ll haveanotherproblem,"Red threatens.
Twilight was speechless with fear as both boys look at her menacingly. Tears threaten to break the surface of her eyes, and her whole body begins to tremble.
That's when Sunset's patience ends, and she comes out of hiding."Makes you feel tough to intimidate a girl, huh?"she demands. The two boys turn to see the fire-haired girl standing in the middle of the empty hallway."How about takingthisgirl on, then?"
Twilight stares at Sunset, her surprise reflected in her eyes, while the boys exchange glances.
"Who’s she?"Red asks White.
"Dunno,"he responds, just as confused.“Must be new here.”
"Hey, this doesn't concern you. Get out of here,"Red barks at Sunset.
"Why don't you make me, asshole?"Sunset snaps.
Both boys look at each other again before turning back to Sunset in irritation.
"Look, bacon, we’re giving you one last chance. Get out of here if you don't want problems,"Red says, pounding his fist into his other palm threateningly.
"Maybe Iwantproblems,"Sunset replies coolly, no doubt or fear in her voice.
Once again, the boys exchange glances before shrugging and advancing on Sunset. Twilight, released, falls to the floor, breathing deeply as she watches in fear.
"Listen, bitch. We're in the middle of something important,"Red says.
"Something that doesn’t concern you,"White continues.
Both look threateningly at Sunset, who stares back, unfazed."Oh, it concerns me, alright. A couple of jerks scaring a girl half their size? Makes me sick."
"Then piss off. No one’s making you watch,"Red barks.
"Yeah. You don’t want to make us angry,"White says.
Sunset snaps back,"No,youdon’t want to makemeangry."
Red scoffs."Think you're brave, don’t you, bacon?"
"Get over here, and I’ll show you just how brave I am,"Sunset responds impatiently.
Red looks her in the eye for a moment, then smiles."You know, I like your attitude, bacon. Here’s a lesson about Crystal Prep: You wanna get by here, you gotta be ruthless. Why don't you join us and help us ‘convince’ four-eyes here to help us out?"
"Screw you."
"You don’t seem to understand,"White clarifies."Here’s a multiple-choice question for you. A) You leave and forget you saw anything here, B) you join us, andwepretend you didn’t try to stop us, or C)"White smirks,“Well, I’m sure you know what C is. So, what do you choose?”
Both watch Sunset with confident, almost sinister smiles as they await her answer. Twilight watches, terrified. Sunset, though, raises her eyebrow as she pretends to think about it.
"I choose D?”Sunset says. "None of the above"
Incensed, Red steps forward and tries to grab Sunset’s shoulder, but Sunset instantly grabs his wrist and twists his arm behind his back, and Red yelps in pain. White angrily throws a punch at Sunset, who twists to shield herself with Red, who takes the blow in the face.
She pushes her shield against his partner, and they fall to the floor. They quickly stand up and look at her in anger.
"You’re dead,"Red seethes.“You miserable bitch. I’m gonna—"
Red’s threat dies in his throat as he takes in Sunset’s eyes, White looking equally shaken.
In those emerald eyes was anger, contempt, and a stronger hatred than either boy had ever seen or felt.
"You’re gonna what?"Sunset asks Red quietly. That voice, that sinister voice combines with her eyes to shake Red to his core, and though he tries to keep a tough front, the sweat on his forehead betrays his fear. His companion, free of Sunset’s attention, takes the opportunity to take a few steps back.
Sunset keeps her eyes on Red as she slowly approaches him until she stands right in front of him.
"Towhat? What are you going to do?"Sunset demands.
Red doesn’t respond, but his legs and fists tremble. When noticing the silence, Sunset turns her attention to White, who gives a start at the sudden glare and, managing to make his legs respond, runs away in terror. Without his friend to back him up, Red begins to panic.
Sunset returns her glare to Red, who follows his friend’s lead and runs around Sunset and down the hall away from Sunset.
Sunset keeps her eyes on Red’s fleeing form, making sure they don’t come back, then, satisfied, walks to the girl sitting on the floor and extends her hand to her.
"Are you okay?"Sunset asks.
Too shaken to answer verbally, Twilight simply accepts the hand and lets Sunset help her up.
"They didn't hurt you, did they?"Sunset asked.
Twilight just shakes her head without taking her eyes off her savior.
"That's good. Geez, anywhere you go, there’s always some jackass wanting to take advantage of others,"Sunset says heatedly. Her bad mood is deepened when she thinks,"Sounds kind of like me, really… "sending her thoughts into dark territory.
As the former equine starts losing herself in her self-deprecating thoughts, she doesn’t notice Twilight’s voice at first. It’s only when Twilight hesitantly taps Sunset on the shoulder that Sunset is startled out of her thoughts.
"Ah! What happened?"Sunset yelps, jumping.
"I, uh... um... Thank you..."Twilight stammers out.
Sunset waves her hand dismissively."Hey, you don’t need to thank me."A clumsy silence follows. Sunset seems to hesitate before extending her hand."I'm Sunset, by the way. Sunset Shimmer."
"Tw-Twilight... Sparkle..."
They shake hands awkwardly, and silence returns between them, until Sunset notices something alarming.
"Crap, we have to get to class! Come on."
To Twilight's surprise, Sunset takes her wrist and pulls her to start running.
"H-Hey, we can't run in the hallways!"
*S*A*S*
The teacher holds up a book for her class to see.
“‘The Tell-Tale Heart’,"names the teacher."If you remember, on Monday, I asked everyone to read a copy of this work. I assume that everyone has done so."
An affirmative answer comes from the children in the class, some more certain than others.
"Well, then, who can tell me in their own words what this story is about?”The teacher looks throughout the class.“Apple Bloom, why don’t you start?"
"Ah?"Apple Bloom starts, having been zoned out. She doubtfully answers,"Oh, yeah. Um, from what Ah read, is it about a man who murders an old man?"
The teacher responds smiling."Correct. What else can you tell us?"
"Well, suddenly, while the police are investigating, the murderer starts hearin’ the old man's heartbeats under the floor where he hid the body."
"Very good. Tell me, Apple Bloom: What do you think caused the man to hear the heartbeat?"
The girl seems doubtful, almost scared, when she responds,"Um... maybe... his guilt...?"
"Very good, Apple Bloom. The guilt he felt at his crime was too much for him, and he started hallucinating the heartbeat."
All students keep their eyes on the teacher during her explanation, except for Apple Bloom, who looks down at her desk, her mind hazy.
"This is a somewhat advanced topic for this class, but the biggest takeaway here is that powerful emotions, such as guilt, can directly affect our mind."
For three particular students, the room somehow seems to darken and become much colder than it was.
"I’m sure everyone in this room knows what I mean. When you do something wrong, your regretful feelings can build up, especially when someone was hurt due to your actions. That’s guilt."
The teacher’s words make Sweetie Belle's belly begin to hurt again, and Scootaloo looks away with sorrow. As for Apple Bloom, the teacher's voice seemed very far away, echoing as if from an abyss.
"The brain is a sensitive organ, and it’s very easy for our emotions to alter our thinking, and this work is an example of what an emotion, especially a negative emotion, can do to us. It can deceive our mind and make us hear or see things that in reality are not there."
Apple Bloom grabs her arms, feeling an intense chill. She looks up, and to her horror, she sees a shadow behind the teacher. The older woman does not seem to notice the shadow, which soon solidifies into a disturbingly familiar form, and then, Apple Bloom sees them again.
Those eyes.
She starts sweating and trembling as her terror takes hold of her, unable to tear her eyes away from the horrifying silhouette.
Scootaloo notices Apple Bloom’s change in demeanor, and, not caring about interrupting the class, says,"Apple Bloom? Apple Bloom!"
She didn’t respond. She couldn't; she was too focused on those eyes, eyes that watched her without compassion, that froze her insides and clouded all her senses.
She felt herself enveloped in darkness, where she could only see the girl, and those eyes...
The touch of the teacher's hand on her shoulder makes the girl come back to herself. The darkness and shadow disappeared, and she found herself again in the classroom.
The woman looks at her with concern, and the other students look at her confusedly, while her friends look at her with fear and concern.
"Are you all right, Apple Bloom?"the teacher says with concern.
The little girl takes a moment to assess the situation and responds,"Ah... Ah'm fine..."
The teacher touches Apple Bloom’s cheek."You're pale and cool. Do you want to go to the nurse’s office?"
"N-No. Ah'm fine, really. Sorry for interrupting the class."
The teacher looks skeptical but decides not to press the girl anymore and continues her class, changing to a different topic.
The youngest Apple remains seated, her eyes downcast and somewhat fearful. Both Sweetie and Scootaloo watch her worriedly. They have an idea of what may be happening to their friend, and it hurts to know they can’t help.