//------------------------------// // Knock Knock, It's the past. // Story: Supernatural | Burning Ghost // by DerpymuffinAuthor //------------------------------// Canterlot storms in November could last for hours. It was the soaking wet lead up to the snow-laden month of December. Sometimes, it shifted to light snow and hail at the start of the month. Fortunately, it was slightly warmer this night, but that didn’t mean much to the residents of Canterlot, many of which were sleeping comfortably in their homes. Sheets of rain poured down, forming a mist that blanketed everything in a wispy gray. It formed small rivers running into the street and down the drains, or drowned the lawns of the suburbs, leaving mud for the children to play in the next day, were they so inclined. It rattled drain pipes and created a soothing, rhythmic pace of rain hitting the any horizontal surface. A rhythmic pace broken up by rolls of thunder preceded by harsh cracks of lightning that reflected on the wet surfaces of roofs, abandoned toys, the street lamps, and cars. Sunset Shimmer attempted to drown out these rattling sounds with the TV; she had some success. Sunset was the only person still awake in the small apartment she shared with her girlfriend, Moondancer. Moondancer was asleep in their bed, having crashed after two consecutive all-nighters.   Doctor Sexy M.D was playing on the television, a show which Sunset and Moondancer usually watched.   Sunset flinched as thunder rolled overhead, the deep sound overlapped by the steady pattering of rain on the roof. Her grip on her can of soda (some off-brand, grape flavored type) tightened. The aluminum popped, bending inwards under Sunset’s grip. Sunset glanced at the can before she set it down on the table. It would pop back into its original shape quick enough with another obnoxious popping noise. She brushed a few stray strands of her hair out of her face and returned her focus to the TV, although her attention had already started to blur at the edges. It was a Friday night and despite the fact that Sunset had been celebrating Moondancer’s acceptance letter to law school with her friends, she refused to fall asleep. Sunset was only wearing some old sweatpants and a tank-top, her legs tangled in a blanket that kept away the vague chills since she was too comfortable to get up and turn the thermostat up a few degrees. The sharp noise of someone getting slapped knocked Sunset out of her brief daze that she hadn’t even realized she’d entered. The nurse was screaming at the journalist on-screen. Sunset snickered at the dramatic shouting, the complete disregard of passing hospital staff (one of them had an expression that clearly read ‘not this shit again’), and the way that the journalist stared back at the nurse with a shocked expression that the camera zoomed in on. “You tell him, Nurse Andi.” Sunset said with a smile, picking up her soda and draining half of it in one big gulp. It chose that time to pop back into its original shape, sending a few drops of purple onto her top and dribbling down her chin while startling her at the same time. She scowled at the can before she set it back down, licking the stray droplets off her chin. She half expected to hear Moondancer huff at her from the kitchen doorway. The next few rolls of thunder made some of the dialogue harder to hear. She simply turned up the volume of the TV and tried to tug the blanket up to her chest before ultimately giving up, not willing enough to force the rest up from where it was trapped under her feet. Minutes passed, the story shifting to focus on the brooding surgeon that Sunset couldn’t care about any less than she already did. Her head lolled back against the arm of the couch and her eyelids began to droop. It was only a few minutes later when something woke Sunset up. The story was still following the brooding surgeon. Sunset huffed, lifting up her head. Her face had been pressed into the back cushions, stubborn strands of hair clinging to her forehead and cheek. For a brief moment, she wasn’t sure what she had been woken up by, until she heard several harsh knocks on the front door. They were louder than the muffled noise of the storm outside, sendings quakes through the door frame.   Sunset groaned, rubbing at one of her eyes as she slowly half-rolled off the couch to her feet. The blanket tangled around her legs nearly sent her headfirst into the coffee table. Sunset huffed, pulling herself up and untangling her legs from the blanket. She took a moment to pause the show (the nurse and the journalist were sharing some very intense eye-contact, again) and then to roll her shoulders. Whoever was at the door knocked again with much more insistency. One knock was so heavy that it shook the door loud enough that Sunset was sure the people in the floor below could hear. “I’m coming- sheesh,” Sunset grumbled as she walked over to the door. She unlocked the door but left the chain in place, choosing to open the door a peek to see who could possibly be at her apartment in the middle of the night (or early in the morning, Sunset still had yet to get around to fixing the clock that hung above the big front window in the living room) in this weather. “Who is it?” Sunset asked, watching her volume so she wouldn’t accidentally wake up Moondancer. “Sunset?” There was a brief moment where Sunset found her vocal chords incapable of producing a sound. Even if they could, she probably wouldn’t have even been able to say anything coherent. Mouth hanging open, Sunset reached over to the door chain. The lights from inside were already illuminating the woman Rainbow was staring at. Sunset’s eyes confirmed the identity that the voice had already affirmed to her, though her brain was staggering to accept.   Her hair was soaked, clinging to her forehead, the sides of her face, and draped over her chest and shoulders in tangled locks. She wasn’t standing to her full height (she was hunched, arms folded around her front), but she was wearing her familiar, worn jacket. “Rainbow?!” Sunset’s hands fumbled with the chain, in an attempt to unlock it as quickly as possible. The moment it was unhooked from the wall, Sunset flung the door open and grabbed one of Rainbow’s shoulders to pull her into the living room. Rainbow took a brief moment to look out the doorway, up and down the hallway, before she carefully shut the door and turned to face the woman she had just pulled into her apartment. “What the hell are you doing here!?” She demanded, turning to face Rainbow as her brain finally started accepting the person before her. “I- uh… Came for a visit…” Rainbow said, weakly smiling. Sunset felt her throat tighten at the sight of red dripping down one half of Rainbow’s face, mixing with the water trickling from her hair. Now that Sunset was getting a good look at Rainbow, she could see there was more blood than that. Dark red was glistening on the front of her jacket, smeared over her neck, and staining patches of her ripped jeans. “Holy crap, what happened!?” “I-uh… Had a little… Altercation with a werewolf…  Uh… H-Half of this is his.” Rainbow tried to add a chuckle, but instead cut halfway through with a pained groan. “I- C’mon, there’s a- a first aid kit in the bathroom…” Sunset said, hesitantly placing a hand on Rainbow’s shoulder and starting to guide her to the bathroom. Rainbow sat down on the edge of the bathtub, blood dribbling down over the porcelain surface of the tub. Sunset grabbed a towel and the first aid kit, working on opening it up and getting things of importance out while Rainbow stripped off her jacket. “I- I can’t freaking believe this.” Sunset muttered, glancing over her shoulder and briefly watching as Rainbow fumbled with her torn, bloody shirt. If this were any other time, Sunset would have reached over and helped. This wasn’t any other time. But it sure as hell felt like it. Sunset drenched a towel in hot water, twisting it to drain out the excess. She watched as Rainbow managed to get the article of clothing over her head. Rainbow hissed as she accidentally pulled on her hair before she threw the offending piece of clothing aside. Sunset handed her the towel.    Just under Rainbow’s chest was a thin layer of gauze, clumsily pulled around her wounds and sticking to her skin thanks to a mix of blood and rain. The rest of her body was bruised and cut. Without her shirt on, Sunset could see the lightning storm cloud tattoo that stretched over Rainbow’s left shoulder. Sunset stiffened at the sight, more out of the brief shock of deja vu than out of squeamishness. The fact that this scene before her, a bloody Rainbow Dash on the edge of a bathtub and only a bra to cover her, was so familiar made her feel concerned.  She used to be so used to the scene, not even questioning it except for the rare moments of sudden self-awareness that it wasn’t normal that Rainbow (that they all) pretended she didn’t also have. Now, Sunset was more able to understand that this wasn’t normal because it had been her state for so long that she’d adapted to it.   “You gonna keep starin’ or are you actually going to help? I promise I’m not gonna bite you.” Rainbow asked, voice still a bit breathless as she slowly peeled away the bandages that Sunset realized she must have applied herself. Small noises of pain slipped past her mouth as she peeled bandages away from the cuts in her side. She accepted the towel when Sunset handed it to her, using it to clean away the blood smearing her side. She gritted her teeth, groaning in pain. “I… I still can’t believe this.” Sunset said quietly. She pressed against the sink, leaning back and taking a long minute to breathe before she walked over and crouched down next to Rainbow’s knee. “You remember how to stitch?” Rainbow groaned, lifting her arm up and hissing at the pulling on aching and damaged muscles. The claw marks started near her spine, just under her left shoulder blade, and hooked around towards her sternum. Sunset was half tempted to ask how she had gotten slashed like that, as well as how she managed to get the bandages around herself well enough to keep the blood loss at a minimum.    “I- yeah- but shouldn’t a professional-?” “Shut up an’ stitch me, Sunset.” Rainbow huffed, one hand hovering over the slowly dripping wounds. “I don’t… I dun wanna pass out ‘n your goddamn bathtub from blood loss.” “Right, right.” Sunset huffed, grabbing the needle and thread (she’d put them there, more out of her own concern than for an actual need for it. Most injuries in the house were paper cuts and bruises) from the kit. She took a brief moment to douse the needle and thread in alcohol, rubbing them in a towel for the sake of being easier to manage before she got on her knees at Rainbow’s side and went to work. There were several new scars on Rainbow’s exposed torso that Sunset didn’t recognize. Of course, to Sunset, any change to Rainbow that had occured over the past three years would be considered new. Rainbow’s relative calm with the situation wasn’t one of those new things. If Sunset didn’t know better, she’d think that Rainbow was bored with her injuries. Rainbow hissed, one shaky hand hovering above Sunset’s hands as if she was gonna try and stop her. Sunset paused, looking up at Rainbow. “You, uh… Got any alcohol?” She asked, tone light. Sunset went back to work, ignoring the way Rainbow’s muscles went taught as Sunset pierced skin with the needle. “Wine,” Sunset answered quietly, focusing on the wound. She repeated the actions in her head over and over again like a mantra. She only wanted to think about the wound right now. That was all she was supposed think about, she affirmed herself. It was either the wound or the fact that Rainbow was here, in Canterlot, when Sunset had never expected to see her again. “Wine? You really have-” She groaned again, her other hand curling around the edge of the bathtub.   Sunset Shimmer leaned back, grabbing the scissors to cut the extra length of thread when she had sewn up the biggest gash. Then, after sterilizing again, she went back to work. She kept her lips in a firm line, hoping that maybe her expression would tell Rainbow to shut up. Rainbow had always been able to read Sunset’s voice better than anyone else and she honestly wasn’t sure what emotions would seep into it now. “Home alone?”   Rainbow paused, briefly hoping that Moondancer hadn’t woken up to Sunset’s sudden visit. She wouldn’t be able to explain that very well without lying through her teeth or exposing Moondancer to what Sunset had left behind. Rainbow huffed at Sunset’s refusal to speak, but then she was hissing at the pain again so at least it wasn’t quiet enough for Sunset’s thoughts to make an entrance. Now she was starting to wish she had some sort of alcohol more potent than wine. With the most pressing of the wounds handled, Sunset recognized a tenseness she hadn’t realized was present in her lungs. She cut off the extra thread, slowly rising to her feet to avoid getting head rush. Her legs ached, having gone stiff from her resting on her knees on the tile of the floor. Sunset hadn’t realized she’d been working for that long, or maybe she had just sat wrong. Sunset put the thread and needle back into first aid kit, pulling out the gauze. Rainbow lifted up her right arm, bending her left arm so she didn’t pull on the muscles in her side. Sunset huffed, tempted to throw the roll at her and tell her to do it herself, but instead she wrapped a thin layer of gauze around Rainbow’s fresh stitches. “Thanks.” Rainbow huffed, her arms dropping down, the left one with more care than the right. “I think I can take care of the rest.” By the rest, Rainbow was referring to the cuts and scrapes which were mostly on her arms. There was a few shallow scrapes over her stomach, close to her waistline, but nothing more severe than the shallow gashes over her ribs Sunset set the first aid kit on the tub, next to Rainbow. “You do that.” Sunset had to force herself not to sprint as she left the bathroom, pulling the door shut behind her, slumping against the wall with a heavy exhale. “This… This is so surreal…” Sunset stared up at the ceiling. Saying it aloud didn’t make her feel any better. She looked down at her hands, suddenly aware of Rainbow’s blood smeared all over them. She didn’t want to go back in the bathroom, it didn’t seem much like an option, now. Instead, she headed into the tiny kitchen of her apartment. She flipped on the lights with her elbow, being mindful not to get blood on anything else as she turned on the facet and started to scrub away at her hands. The blood washed off easily, tainting the water a transparent pink. Sunset still rubbed viciously at her hands, taking out the internal frustration that came with the situation and was slowly tightening up her lungs without some sort of expression. Then, there was the feeling of exhaustion. Sunset turned off the water, slumping forward over the sink and sighing with all the air remaining in her lungs and then inhaling. “Sunset?” She stiffened, for a brief moment hearing and feeling her heartbeat in every fiber of her body, before turning her head and looking over her shoulder. Moondancer stood in the doorway, red hair ruffled and sticking up in some places from sleeping. She’d never made much of an attempt to tend to her hair before. Sunset made the odd connection at that moment that Moondancer didn’t look at all as tired as Sunset did, which made more sense than she would realize. “Hey, Moondancer.” Sunset greeted, voice sounding way more energetic than any part of her body, as she turned around to face her girlfriend. Moondancer was wearing an old purple shirt and her hair was down, ruffled and a little bit tangled. “What’re you doing up?” “I heard noise. What’re you still doing up?” Moondancer frowned and Sunset realized she probably looked exhausted. Sunset slipped her hands into the pockets of her sweats, trying to push the fact that Rainbow was in the bathroom down the hall to the back of her mind. “I couldn’t sleep.” “Is something bothering you?” “No, nothing, I just can’t sleep, is all.” “Are you worried about your interview?” “Nah, just...” Sunset ran a hand through her hair. It probably looked like an awful mess.“It’s probably just... Insomnia- you know, you should be sleeping too.” “Don’t be hypocritical.” Moondancer grumbled, walking over and sliding her hands around Sunset’s wrists. “Come on, I’ve got some sleeping pills in my nightstand.” For a moment, Sunset forgot about Rainbow sitting on her bathtub. Her immediate excuse was lost as she let Moondancer pull her into the hallway, lured both by the prospect of sleep and Moondancer. She paused when she stepped in a puddle, which must have been a bit more noticeable in her threadbare socks. “What-” Sunset sucked in a breath. “Moony-” “Why’s the floor wet?” Moondancer let go of Sunset’s wrists to look at her foot and scrutinize the floor. “Is that…?” “I- uh...:” “How’d the floor get wet?” Moondancer repeated, less to Sunset and more to herself. “Uh, no idea… Here, how about you go to bed and I clean this up?” “I can help-” “I’ll be quick. Now go, I’ll be there in a few minutes.” “Did you go outside?” “No-” “Is this blood!?” Moondancer’s voice rose, still looking at her foot. She looked back up to Sunset with wide eyes. “I-” “Sunset, what the hell? Why- Why is there blood-?” “Easy, easy!” Sunset quickly reassured, placing her hands on Moondancer’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, okay?” “Don’t worry?” “Okay- look, uh… There’s…. You know what? It’s better to just show you.” “Show me what?” Moondancer asked as Sunset turned and walked over to the bathroom. She placed a hand on the doorknob. Sunset gestured at the door and Moondancer hesitantly walked over. Sunset opened the door quick, recalling Rainbow and Twilight’s debate over whether taking a bandaid of fast or slow was better. Clearly, the sight of a topless, injured stranger sitting in their bathroom was enough to shock Moondancer into complete silence that Sunset hoped wouldn’t be broken by screaming. They didn’t need to wake up the whole building. “Uhh, Sunset?” Rainbow called out, looking up as Sunset appeared in the doorway behind Moondancer and awkwardly smiling. Rainbow had been applying bandaids to the cuts on her arms before Moondancer saw her. Sunset could tell because one hand was pressed over one large bandaid covering a nasty cut on the underside of her arm, smoothing out the creases. “Uh, Moondancer, this is Rainbow Dash. Rainbow, this is Moondancer. My girlfriend.” Sunset said the last portion with a slight hesitancy that Rainbow didn’t miss, although she did give Sunset an odd look. “Hi,” she offered to Moondancer, clearly just as unsure and caught off guard by this situation as Moondancer was. Sunset mentally noted that Moondancer wasn’t screaming yet or demanding answers, which was uncomfortable on many levels. “Moondancer, can you go wait in the living room?” Moondancer looked over at Sunset, mouth open, perhaps in preparation to ask her typical twenty questions. “Please? I’ll explain everything, I promise.” Sunset wanted to put her hands on Moondancer’s shoulder, give her hand a reassuring squeeze, but she couldn’t get her hands to do anything. “You… You have a lot of explaining to do.” Moondancer said slowly, walking to the livingroom. Sunset turned back to Rainbow. “Girlfriend, huh?” “Yeah, going on two years now.” “Huh…” “What?” “Nothing.” “Why are you even here?” There’s a thick pause before Rainbow grabs another bandage and rips off its wrapping. The silence preceding is enough for Sunset to be reminded of the rhythmic tapping of the storm outside. “A visit. Now, you wanna help me or start explaining the supernatural to Moondancer?” Sunset stepped into the bathroom and reached for another one of the bandaids.    Rainbow , at some point, stripped off her ripped jeans to take care of her scraped up knees better, so Sunset retrieved some of her own clothes for Rainbow to wear. Despite the slight temptation, she was pretty sure Rainbow would kill Sunset for letting her die of hypothermia (and if only that were hyperbole). Sunset handed Rainbow some old clothes and left her to change in the bathroom, lingering outside the door purely because it was either wait for Rainbow or go to the living room and have a conversation she wasn’t completely sure she was willing to have. Rainbow fit into the clothes (old jeans and an off-blue T-shirt with a wide neck) pretty well. It was a cooler color scheme then what she typically wore, but Rainbow had never really cared and it didn’t matter right now. “So, how much does she know?” Rainbow asked as she stepped out of the bathroom, trying to untangle some of her hair with her fingers. “Nothing,” Rainbow’s hands dropped down to her sides and Sunset frowned at Rainbow who frowned back. “Nothing? You told her nothing?” “You don’t tell your girlfriend stuff like that!” Rainbow turned, walking away from Sunset. “You do when you’re entire life has been dedicated to it!” Sunset resisted the urge to punch Rainbow in that moment. “You’re not planning on telling her.” Rainbow said blankly before catching up to Sunset in two strides. “What the hell are you going to tell her!?” “That you’re an old friend that decided to come visit and you got attacked by a dog... Or something.” “A dog? Yeah, dog. That’s convincing.” “Well, what do you want me to tell her? That every thing she’s ever seen in every bad dream she’s ever had is real?” The ‘no duh’ expression on Rainbow’s face only served to feed Sunset’s aggravation. “No.” “Sunset-” She stopped just outside the doorway to the living room. “No,” Sunset spun around to face Rainbow. “I left the hunting life years ago. You decide to drop in for a visit after getting ripped up by a werewolf, and now you expect me to drag Moondancer into it? No. She can go the rest of her life never knowing about this crap and I want her to.” “Sunset- wait-” Rainbow grabbed hold of Sunset’s shoulder when she started toward the couch where Moondancer sat and try to sell her cover-story for Rainbow’s sudden appearance to her. “What?” Sunset snapped, spinning back around and shoving her hand away. “What?” She repeated a second time in the same angry tone, just lower so Moondancer couldn’t hear. “I… I didn’t come here just to pay you a visit.” “Yeah, I know, you probably were expecting to kill that werewolf and go home.” Sunset wouldn’t have known about this werewolf unless it had been in her neighborhood, seeing as she had made herself a promise to not go looking for odd occurrences in the news which basically ruled out watching the news at all (and Sunset didn’t want to see those odd occurrences for the sake of sleeping at night and keeping a normal life). Sunset crossed her arms over her chest, frowning at Rainbow.     “That was more of a favor for a hunter. The werewolf practically gutted him last week… I actually was coming here originally to get your help.” “My help?” Sunset’s arms dropped to her sides. “Why- What do you need a retired hunter for?” “Retired makes you sound old.” Rainbow commented under her breath, which was still close enough for Sunset to hear. “You have Twilight and Shining for jobs. And the Apples.” “Yeah, well, the Apples are busy. And, actually, and that’s why I came to you. Twilight and Shining went on a hunting trip and they haven’t been home in a few days.” Sunset hated the chills those words induced, her body responding without her consent. It was difficult for anyone to miss, in a tank top and sweatpants. She hated the way her mind was already turning into high-hunter-gear and trying to evaluate the situation while also battling with the sudden thoughts of horrific ways to explain the sudden disappearance. Rainbow didn’t seem all that surprised by Sunset’s reaction. Sunset wasn’t sure if Rainbow was expecting it or was just too used to Sunset for her understanding of her to degrade much over two years. “Have you talked to any of the local hunters? They’d probably know.” “I doubt any hunters would be willing to give me any info if they had it.” Sunset found herself nodding. Hunters were typically isolationist basket-cases or obsessed families (or whatever remained of them). They rarely got involved with each other if a job, family, or romance wasn’t involved. “Sunset, look, I know you left for a reason. I just- I want you to help me find them. They’re your friends, too.” Sunset subconsciously thanks Rainbow for her use of present tense. “I have to go for a college interview.” “I know, Sunset, I understand- I just want you to come with me. Just for a few days. Just to help find them. Okay?” Sunset took a glance at Moondancer. She was staring at them from the couch, trying to deduce the situation without moving. When Sunset turned back to Rainbow, she had the same look; a look of a person so close to begging it was pitiful. Except it was Rainbow, so less pitiful and more like a feeling akin to a sense of duty. Soldier, Sunset’s mind supplied. A loyal soldier, willing to fight. It sounded eerily like the old woman Sunset was forced to bury years ago.   “What about Moondancer? What do I tell her?” “That you need to come help your friends. You don’t have to lie to her. Just don’t tell her what you might need to help your friends with. Unless you want to go ahead and explain the supernatural to her?” “Still don’t… I have to be back here by Tuesday morning at latest. I can’t be late for this interview.” “Right, right. So, you gonna go tell Moondancer?” Sunset nodded, turning and walking around to the front of the couch to face Moondancer. She settled on the edge of the coffee table. “Alright. Fire away.” Moondancer looked ready to fire off a barrage of questions, but she managed to only ask one. “What the hell happened to her?” Sunset opened her mouth, ready to cover it up with their given cover story. “A dog attacked me… It had a collar, so I don’t think it was rabid.” “Right… Must’ve been a big dog.” Moondancer analyzed bandaged injuries along Rainbow’s arms. “It was.” “Why haven’t you ever talked about Rainbow Dash before?” “Well, she’s… She’s an old friend. We stopped talking a while back.” “Then why is she here?” “Cause she needs my help. My friends need help.” Moondancer straightened up at that. “What kind of help?” “Nothing big, just… Rainbow wants me to help find them.” “Find them?” “Yeah… They’re pretty... isolated. Rainbow hasn’t been able to get in contact with them.” “... How long will you be gone?” Sunset was briefly surprised by Moondancer’s sudden acceptance that Sunset was going to leave. “I- uh, I’m not sure.” “We’ll be back by Tuesday.” Rainbow promised with some poorly placed certainty. “When are you leaving?” “Tonight, if we’re going to be back by Tuesday morning.” Sunset turned to glare at Rainbow. “It’s- Are you sure?” “Yeah… Don’t worry.” Sunset turned back to Moondancer, reaching out to cup her face. “I’ll be back soon, okay? It’ll be like I never left.” “You promise you’ll get some sleep while you’re gone?” “Only if you do.” “Okay…” “Alright. I’m gonna go pack my bag. I’ll just be a couple minutes.” Moondancer nodded as Sunset rose to her feet. Leaving Moondancer and Rainbow alone probably wasn’t the best idea, but Sunset did it anyway. As she walked towards the bedroom, lightning cracked outside the window, startling Sunset with the reminder there was still a raging storm outside. A dark, raging storm in the middle of the night. As if flicking a switch, Sunset’s brain recalled one lesson from one of her English classes from in high school. “Don’t start your story with a dark and stormy night.” Mr. Quill had said. Sunset burst into hysterical laughter. For a moment, the only thought she could bring to the surface was the situation at hand and it did nothing to stop the strangling bout of hysterics that would really bring her sanity into question, seeing as a sane person would more likely be having a breakdown, not dying of laughter in the hallway. Rainbow appeared at the end of the hallway with a vague look of concern. As if she was any more sane than Sunset. She only seemed to encourage the hysterical laughter more. The past coming back to bite you in the ass. “Sunset?” Sunset took a deep breath, followed by an exhale that sounded on the verge of more hysterical laughter. She was leaning - practically collapsed, actually- against the wall by the window. “You okay?” She lifted her head, finding herself smiling at Rainbow. The sight of Rainbow sent Sunset into another bout of hysterical laughter. The expression Rainbow wore (the did-you-finally-go-psychotic look? Sunset knew it well, even after the lack of it over the past three years) was practically speaking for her. “Yeah-” Sunset wheezed, finally managing to get a grip on herself. In the back of Sunset’s mind, she added whatever cosmic force arranged for this to the list of people she wanted to punch in the throat. It was a very long list. Waving Rainbow off, Sunset went into the bedroom. She grabbed a bag, specifically the old duffel bag she’d been keeping at the back of her closet. It was old and there were the faded remains of questionable stains as well as the peeling, color-drained symbol of Canterlot High School. Sunset tossed the bag onto her bed, not caring if it decided now, after nearly three years of sitting in the back of a closet, to tear apart at the seams. Sunset shoved in a couple changes of clothes and some toiletries she retrieved from the bathroom. She opened up the drawer at the bottom of her nightstand, lifting up the notebook at the bottom to reveal a dust-coated pistol. One trait of a hunter that Sunset picked up on easily -- as well as failed to lose-- was to hide weapons in easy to access places that no one would expect. There was a silver knife under her mattress (easy to grab) and a small storage of silver bullets underneath her dresser. Were she more paranoid and lacked a decent grasp on discretion, she would probably have more hidden around, but Moondancer would undoubtedly ask questions about why Sunset had some probably illegal weapons hidden in their bedroom and she wanted as few reminders of the hunting life as possible. Not that anyone would believe her if they were to see all the little things she kept. Sunset found it oddly amusing that, once she zipped up the bag, no one would really guess that this was for anything other than a normal road trip. Sunset had never gotten to experience one of those, no matter how close the experiences with Rainbow in highschool got. Sunset changed into a T-shirt and jeans before pulling on a pair of biker boots. She pulled the strap over her shoulder, forcibly stopping herself from spiraling into that familiar experience of intense, unwanted thinking about the hunting life she had left behind only to eventually return to. “Trust me, Sunset. Nobody ever really leaves this life once they get in it. It’ll suck you right back in. Could be a week, could be years, it’ll get you back in one day.”   Moondancer stopped Sunset at the door. “You sure you need to go?” “Yes. But I’ll be back soon. Don’t watch any new episodes without me, alright?” Sunset pressed a kiss to the corner of Moondancer’s mouth before stepping outside where Rainbow stood waiting. “Ready?” Sunset nodded and the two headed to the stairs. They were only on the second level. “So, why can’t you go to the Apples for this?” “Like I said, they’re busy.” “Hasn’t stopped them from helping before.” “Look, it doesn’t matter, alright?” Rainbow snapped over her shoulder before storming off to the building’s garage. “We just gotta head out and make sure Shining and Twilight are still in one piece.”   Sunset paused at the sight of Rainbow’s car, which looked just as well-cared for as it had been when Sunset last saw it three years ago, the rainwater still clinging to its glossy surface. Rainbow circled around to the trunk, patting the top of it like it was a well-loved pet.   “So, how about you tell me more about this case that Twilight and Shining ran off on?” Rainbow’s smile vanished, replaced with a more grim expression. Sunset watched as Rainbow unlocked the trunk, opening it up and then lifting up what should have been a spare tire compartment to reveal the compacted armory inside. “All things needed to kill all and anything known to hunter-kind.” Rainbow had said when Sunset first saw the arsenal (which Shining had personally installed). That wasn’t completely true, but Sunset hadn’t ever felt like expressing that Rainbow’s car was less than perfection on wheels. She valued her fully functional lungs. Rainbow dug around in the arsenal, propping up the cover of the arsenal with a shotgun (which Sunset had only ever seen used for that purpose) before she pulled up a folder. The title was in Twilight’s neat handwriting in dark purple ink. ‘Disappearances, Hollow Shades.’ Rainbow flipped it open, revealing several printed out articles with portraits that took up a majority of the page. All had various titles that all followed the same theme of ‘missing persons.’ “So, why didn’t you go with them?” “We were already busy with this voodoo thing in Fillydelphia when Shining found the case. I figured I could handle the rest of it, so they decided to go off together.” “How’d that go for you?” “Fine,” Rainbow huffed. Sunset would have to bother her about it another time. “Anyway, I tried to contact them the day after I handled that. They didn’t answer, figured they were busy. Two days later, I started to get worried-” “So you took a job hunting a werewolf in Cloudsdale?” “It wasn’t in Cloudsdale. Not at first. I tracked it down to Cloudsdale from someplace in Warmblood County. I didn’t plan on getting you involved, I actually did consider visiting you like a normal person. Until I got this, yesterday.” Rainbow pulled out a recorder from the depths of the Impala’s arsenal, holding it up between the two of them and hitting play.    “Rainbow, I-” Sunset flinched at the sudden burst of static. “Rainbow, something's-” another static burst, “-something is-” Rainbow’s gaze shifted to Sunset, communicating her own emotions at this but Sunset was barely comprehending it. “We’re gonna figure- it- out- It might be-” The static crackled and hissed, covering the voice. “F-ind Sun-set.” Sunset jerked back at the distortion in Twilight’s recording. “Be careful- We’re all- in danger.” Rainbow stopped the recording. “Damn...” Sunset breathed, looking back at Rainbow as she lowered the recorder. “What do you think she meant?” “By ‘we’re all in danger?’ No clue. But that’s why I decided to find you as soon as I got that werewolf.” Sunset frowned at the ground, insides squirming with guilt she couldn’t convince to go away. “But they found something and it was enough to get them to ditch a case.” “How do you know?” “It’s more of a hunch… You know, I’m disappointed you didn’t point out the EVP. You’re gettin’ a little rusty there, Sunset.” Sunset frowned but said nothing. “Anyway, I managed to decipher that from the recording. This is what I got.” Rainbow pressed play on the recorder again, but it wasn’t playing the same recording over, it was continuing it. There was a low crackly sound, but not really noticeable. Then the crackling abruptly increased, turning into a drawn out word in what sounded like the hoarse voice of a woman that was definitely not Twilight. “I… Can never… go… home.” It gave Sunset shivers, which Rainbow looked ready to comment on but thankfully didn’t. “Well, that’s a lead… What got their attention, anyway?” Sunset asked, turning to the folder and picking up one of the articles (the edges of which were all soft and worn), this one with a portrait of a man with silver hair and the start of a beard. “Jack Steamer, thirty-two. He went missing a while ago. They found his car tangled in some bushes just off the road, no trace of him whatsoever.” Rainbow answered. Sunset set down that specific article, spreading out some of the others. “Harvey Harvest, forty. Went missing four days after Steamer. Also found his car swerved off the road.” Rainbow pointed to the man with slicked back brown hair in the photograph. “This happens around every November, dating back about eight years. Steel Jester, twenty-one. Completely vanished, car on the side of the road. Ivory Victor, twenty-eight, missing the same week. Completely gone, car vanished. Jasper Gusts, fifty. They found his car spun around in the middle of the road.” Sunset listed off, pointing at the articles. “Tony Prickle, Johny Shortstack, Jamie Stones.” Sunset wasn’t listing off all of the missing persons, but even this many seemed like too many. “All men, all went missing completely with their cars still left behind, and it all happened on the same stretch of road in Hollow Shades.“ Rainbow said, jabbing her finger at the folder with a sense of finality. She leaned against the car, folding her arms over her chest. “What do they think it is?” “Officially? Not sure. A couple of the residents there think its some freaky cult.” “Freaky cult?” Rainbow gave a small hum off assent. “Alright. What about the cars?” “All in decent condition. The way it was described, it was like all those guys just up and vanished into thin air. Kinda like the Bermuda Triangle. But, you know, on land. And Just with people.” Rainbow nodded at that. “As for what’s been snatching people? None of us had any clue. Werewolves and Vamps are too messy and as far as Twilight could tell there weren’t any witches in the area.” “Right.” “We should hit the road.” Rainbow said quickly, closing the arsenal and the back of the Impala. Rainbow produced the Impala keys from her pocket and slipped into the front seat. Sunset threw her duffel into the backseat and settled in the passenger's seat. When Rainbow turned the key, the radio turned on a breath after the engine to some 80s rock station. Sunset buckled up, not commenting on Rainbow’s lack of a seatbelt as she pulled the Impala out of the garage and into the pouring storm outside. There was a half minute filled with the sound of the rain hitting the car, the purr of the Impala’s engine, and the radio’s guitar riff before Sunset finally spoke. “So, how’ve you been?” If anything major had happened over the past three years, Sunset figured she would need to know. In the mind of a hunter, anything major included who died, new friends, new enemies, or learning about a new species of monster. The last one was somewhat uncommon, but new friends was typically rarer. Hunters were solitary creatures, like wendigos. Like wendigos, bugging them was typically a one-way ticket to death. Rainbow had yet to meet a hunter who kidnapped people and ate them gradually over time, though. “Good. None of us have been in Ponyville for a while.” “How long is a while?” “A while. The Apples aren’t exactly inviting us over for the holidays.” “Why?” Rainbow briefly stiffened. “They’ve been busy and we haven’t had much of a reason to. Twilight and Shining went to go help the Apples with a Vamp nest and there hasn’t been so much as a blip on the paranormal radar since.” “You think someone’s managed to make one of those yet?” Such an invention, although it most likely would involve the use of witchcraft to function, would make hunting so much simpler. The closest thing to it was an EMF meter, and that only really worked on ghosts in abandoned farmhouses. “Damn, I miss their cider.” Sunset mumbled, slumping back in her seat. “Yeah, me too.” The song ended and the announcer listed off the name and artist before playing a new song. The song was halfway through and Sunset was starting to nod off against the window when Rainbow interrupted. “So, how’s domesticity been treating you?” “Huh?” “You know,’ the normal life.’ Anything like you expected?” Sunset pushed herself upright to resist the urge to nod off against the window. “A little bit. I swore to drop the life and it worked.” “Yet here you are.” “Yeah, well… I promised you guys that we were always gonna be friends. And friends don’t leave each other behind. Or let their injured idiot friend go track them down alone.” Sunset added, realizing she was treading a dangerous line.   “Gee, thanks. Glad to know I’m loved...” Silence followed. The radio briefly filled with the announcer’s voice before transitioning to a new song. Sunset knew exactly what she wanted to ask, but it had always been a subject you didn’t charge straight into. You tiptoed into it. Sunset didn’t want to deal with an unfocused or pissed off Rainbow Dash. No sane person did. “You get any new tattoos?” Rainbow had multiple tattoos. The storm cloud with the rainbow lightning bolt on her right shoulder, the anti-possession (a star in a circle of fire) symbol to the right of her lower back, the folded wings tattoo over her shoulder blades, and the small Wonderbolts symbol tattooed on her ankle. “Nope. Figured I’d be good after the anti-possession symbol.” “Guess nothing really changed while I was gone, then. “Nope, you just gained a pound or two.” “Hey!” Sunset shot back, slapping Rainbow over the shoulder.