//------------------------------// // Chapter 7. Signs // Story: As the Moon Rises // by MorbidTheBrony //------------------------------// July 6th, Streets of Canterlot, Friday Afternoon 01:49PM After the scene that occurred back at the mall, the girls all decided to let it go and continue with what they actually wanted to do. Have a fun day out. Pinkie was busy writing something on a page. "Okay, I think I have just the plan to make today a 'Mega Super Happy Fun Day'!" Pinkie said excitedly. "'Mega Super Happy?'" Twilight asked, smirking. "With a description like that, we'd probably think we were going to Equestria Land." Pinkie stopped and looked at her page. She then crossed something out. "Okay, a 'Super Happy Fun Day' it is." "What have you planned for us, Dear?" Rarity asked. "Only the best day of the summer!" Pinkie began bouncing. "C'mon, guys, follow me!" She dashed off, leaving the girls behind. Everybody paused for a moment. "You'd think she would wait for Rainbow Dash to be here before we had the 'best day of the summer'," Rarity said. Applejack nodded. "Yeah, Ah'd never think Pinkie would plan such a day out without us all bein' here." The group all just shrugged and followed their excited pink friend, who was now patting her foot impatiently. "Guys! Come on! We're going to have our 'Super Happy Fun Day'!" Pinkie was about to run off again, but Applejack stopped her by placing a hand on her shoulder. "Now hold on there fer jus' a second. We were just talkin' about why ya didn't wait fer Rainbow to be here to spend the rest of th' day with." Pinkie sighed. "I was going to, and I even messaged Rainbow to ask her when we'd see her next, but she just told me to forget about waiting for her and just spend the day with everyone else," she explained. "She must have been very scared when she encountered that wolf last night," Fluttershy said, looking downwards sadly. Twilight was still feeling very guilty after what had happened the previous night. She let an argument get herself distracted from their mission and it resulted in one of her best friends almost getting extremely hurt. Applejack noticed how Twilight was feeling and threw an arm around her. "Why don't we visit her later?" she suggested. "Ah bet she could use th' company." Everyone seemed to agree with that idea and Pinkie began scribbling something else on her list. "Let's get this party started!" Pinkie shouted excitedly. "For real this time!" Canterlot Mall Arcade, Friday Afternoon 02:05PM "Alright, first thing on my list... two hours at the greatest arcade EVER!!" Pinkie announced to the world. Everyone entered the arcade looking at all of the different games surrounding them. They ranged from video games to prize games to competitive games. "Well, it certainly has been a while since we last came here," Applejack said. "Ah forgot just how much we used t'uh love this place." "Mmhmm," Everybody agreed in unison. The girls explored all of the arcade, deciding which game they all wanted to play first. One game in particular caught Fluttershy's eye. "Hey Applejack, isn't this the game your brother used to always play?" Fluttershy asked. Applejack came to look at which game she was talking about. The meek girl pointed towards a boxing based game with the name 'Iron Will's Test of Might' printed on top. A punching ball hung from the top of the game. Applejack smiled. "Oh yeah! Whenever Big Mac was given the chance t'uh come 'ere, he'd always try this machine. I bet he still holds the high score." "You should totally give it a try!" Pinkie shouted, wrapping an arm around her cowgirl friend. "No can do, Pinkie. Big Mac has played this game fer many years to get this high score. It wouldn't be very kind of me t'uh take that away from 'im." Pinkie pouted and stepped back. "Okay, fine." She then dug her hand into her pocket and pulled out a couple of quarters. "But I'm gonna try it." "Heh. Good luck," Applejack concluded, patting a hand of both encouragement and sarcasm onto Pinkie's shoulder. Pinkie grinned as she inserted her quarters into the machine. The game came to life and a punching ball came from the game's ceiling. The pink girl breathed deeply as she brung a fist back and then spun if in circles like a wheel, finally throwing it with all of her might. The ball slammed back into its place and the points were rising. The points began to slow down and eventually stopped on 426 points. Pinkie threw up her punching hand and cheered, only to instantly bring it back down as she then shouted in pain, "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" Applejack rushed over her hurt friend and looked at her hand. "Geez, Pinkie, you can sure throw a punch. Might of done a lil' too much on your hand, though," she explained. "You gonna be okay?" Pinkie hissed at the pain. "It's hurts pretty badly, but yeah, I'll probably be fine." "Well alright then. Though, it's best you lay off that hand for a while, ya hear?" Applejack lifted Pinkie back to her feet and patted her on the back. "Okay." Pinkie looked at her score again. "How close did I come to beating Big Mac's score?" "From the looks of it, you really only got a quarter of his score," Twilight answered, stepping next to Pinkie. "What? Only a quarter?" the Pink girl whined. "Jesus, your brother is strong, Applejack." Applejack smiled. "They don't call him Big Mac fer nuthin'!" Everybody laughed after that. Sunset was looking at the game. Pinkie had gotten a pretty high score, especially for a girl with her build. She tapped her chin smiling, wondering how good she could do. She then pulled out her own quarters. "I wanna try it now," she said, inserting her change. The girls all stepped out of the way of Sunset as she brought back her own hand and threw it towards the ball. However, her aim was a little off, hitting it only on its left side. Her score was 107 points. Frustrated with her score, she inserted more coins and tried again, making sure this time to aim for the ball. This round, she managed score 433 points, only just beating Pinkie. She smiled at her score, but felt as though she could do better. "Umm, Sunset. What are you doing?" Fluttershy asked. Sunset inserted more change into the machine. "Going for gold, baby." She drew back her hand and suddenly felt something surging through her body as she threw one last punch. This time, Sunset was close to almost breaking the machine as the machine almost bounced when the ball returned home. The points where rocketing up sky high, surpassing even 1000 points. Then 1200. Then 1500. Finally ending on a score of 2874 points. Everybody's jaw dropped as they all looked at Sunset's score. Sunset looked down at her hands. There was no way she was as strong as that. "S-S-Sunset?" Twilight began. "You managed to beat Big Mac's score by over one thousand points! How did you do that?!" "I-I don't know," Sunset said. "I just felt something as I was throwing the punch, and then..." The machine then powered down, but not before the words 'New High Score!' appeared on the screen. Applejack appeared to be the most shocked out of everyone. "He played this game hundreds 'a times jus' t'uh get this score... and you jus' beat it on yer third go..." "I really don't know what happened. One second I feel normal, then the next second I felt... well, amazing! Like I could take on whatever and win!" A thought came to Twilight's mind. She pondered over it. "Hey Sunset, are you wearing your geode today?" Sunset shook her head. "No, I didn't think I'd need it today." 'Strange. One minute she's as strong as Pinkie, then suddenly she's even stronger than Big Mac!' Twilight thought. 'What's going on?' Pinkie closely analysed Sunset's hands. She looked all around them for any sort of clue as to what just happened. She scanned them closely, almost as if she had x-ray vision. Later enough, she let go of Sunset's arms. "You look fine to me," she concluded. "I have no idea how you managed punch like that. Now we gotta move on! We're burning daylight just standing here wondering Sunset's punch power thingy!" How Sunset became so strong still bugged everyone just thinking about it, especially Twilight. But they knew Pinkie Pie was right, if they just stand there, they'll never get to have their 'Super Happy Fun Day'. So with what remaining time they had left at the arcade, they all continued to play games. Sunset was more careful with her hands for the time being, incase she accidentally broke another machine. Luckily, she managed to keep herself in check in time for them to leave for their next activity, lasertag! Starblasters' Entrance, Friday Afternoon 04:12PM They ventured the mall once again until they came across their next location. It was built to look like a space station. In bold, bright text, just above the entrance, read 'Starblasters: Laser Tag Arena'. Pinkie was bouncing excitedly as the girls all packed into the spacestation. "Hello there, would you like to book a match of Starblasters?" asked the cashier as he saw the group approaching his desk. "There's only a twenty minute wait until the next match." "Yessiree! We'd like to play one match for six please!" Pinkie announced, pulling out a poofy pink purse. "Alright, that'll be forty-eight dollars please." Pinkie pulled out only two twenties and laughed embarrassingly. "Hehe, it seems that I'm a little short. Anyone got ten bucks?" Rarity rolled her eyes and pulled out her own purse. "Honestly, Darling, I told you to not spend so much money on that crane game," she scolded. She handed Pinkie the remaining money. "Here. Don't worry about having to pay me back." Pinkie smiled sweetly and pulled Rarity into a hug. "Aww! Thanks, Rares!" "You're very welcome, Dear," Rarity said, accepting the hug. After Pinkie had finally let go, she slapped the fifty dollars onto the desk and their wait for the next match began. They all sat around a table not too far from the entrance. "Okay, so when we get in there, I think we should split into teams," Pinkie suggested. "If I can remember correctly, there are three teams, and since there are six of us here, we can split equally and the winning team will decide what we have for lunch. That sound like a good idea?" Everyone seemed to like the idea and nodded. "Ah take it you'll need help payin' fer that too?" Applejack asked. "Well, duh! I only have two dollars from the change I got." "It probably would have been better if, y'know, didn't spend almost thirty dollars on a crane machine," Sunset said coldly. "All you got was a little pink horse!" "And she was worth every penny!" Pinkie said happily, hugging her prize close to her before stuffing it in her hair. "Anyway, teams! I choose... Fluttershy!" "Twilight!" Sunset was quick to choose. She quickly moved next to Twilight, slapping a hand onto her shoulder as if she was sticking a sticker that says she owns this. "Guess it's me and you then, Rarity," Applejack said, looking at her teammate. She held up her fist, pointing it to Rarity. Rarity gave Applejack a team-spirited fist bump. "Let's go kick some backsides! When the time comes that is..." She then noticed everyone was looking at her confusingly. "What is it? What are you looking at?" "'Kick some backsides'? Seriously?" Pinkie asked, unamused. "Rarity you're practically a grown woman. If you're gonna say things like that, do it right, please?" "Oh, be quiet, you! You all know I'm really not one for using profanities. It's immature and it does nothing but spread negativity. I'm sure Fluttershy can agree with me, couldn't you, Dear?" Rarity looked at Fluttershy now. Fluttershy thought about Rarity's statement for a moment before speaking. "Well, I guess so. But it isn't all too bad when they're used for something like... well, what you just said," she explained to Rarity. "Hmm, I guess you are right, but I'm still going by my word that they are immature." Rarity crossed her arms as she concluded her statement. "I'm not saying you shouldn't, it's just that when you say it the way like how you said it, it does sound a little weird," Fluttershy added on. Rarity cheeks were beginning to turn a bright shade of red. "Can we just drop it please!? I don't want to have this constantly reminded while Applejack and I are kick-" She tried to think of another way around it. "... erm... winning!" "Okay, okay, we'll stop saying it," Pinkie said almost on the verge of laughing. 'No we won't!' The girls - with the exception of an embarrassed Rarity - laughed and continued to wait for their match to begin. When that time finally came, the girls made sure they were with their teammate and picked a colour for their team. Sunset and Twilight were on the blue team, Pinkie and Fluttershy were on the red team and Rarity and Applejack chose the only other team, the yellow team. They were split up into three different rooms, each for the teams they were all on. They were all given the match rules before finally entering the darkly lit room and beginning their match. Each team started off on a different side of the map. The teams all split up, but the girls stayed together. Sunset was peering around the corners of all of the walls with Twilight protecting herself behind her. Sunset listened out for any oncoming enemies. "This way!" Sunset signalled. Twilight followed wherever Sunset went, as it seemed like she had a game plan. Upon approaching another corner, Sunset closed her eyes and focused on her surroundings. She could hear footsteps coming there way from behind the corner. She opened her eyes and signalled Twilight to stay quiet. Once the enemy was close enough, Sunset jumped from behind the corner and blasted a red enemy, then rushed off with Twilight following close. They continued this process, Sunset taking the front and Twilight taking the behind. They were both doing amazingly well. On the other side for the map, Fluttershy was becoming very paranoid as she kept hearing footsteps running and guns blasting. She stuck very close to Pinkie, who was sneaking around like a ninja. They have already been shot at and Pinkie tried her hardest to not let that happen again. "Pinkie, can you just slow down for a second, please?" Fluttershy asked, becoming a bit out of breath. "I-I can't keep running like this." Pinkie stopped and looked at her shy friend. "If we have a shot of winning, which we do, we mustn't stop. We gotta keep- Watch out!" She pulled Fluttershy's head down and shot at a yellow who was aiming at them. When Fluttershy was set free, she quickly looked behind her and saw someone quickly run off. "You see what I'm saying, Fluttershy?" Pinkie said. "We were very lucky there. One more second and we would've been-" Suddenly, both of their packs lost their colour, signalling they had just been shot. "What the?" Pinkie looked in the other direction and saw two reds running off. "Was that Sunset and Twilight?! Oh-ho, those two are gonna get it now! C'mon, Fluttershy!" "Pinkie! Wait up!" Applejack and Rarity had control of the higher ground. Applejack was aiming her blaster over the edge like a sniper while Rarity was covering her. "Found anyone yet, Applejack?" Rarity asked, paying close attention to anything that moved. "Ah got a few people, though Ah keep seein' Twilight 'n' Sunset and they keep managin' t' get away faster than a cheetah on ice," Applejack explained. "Got a few reds and, like, one blue. How you doin'?" "Nothing yet." Rarity smiled devilishly. "Perhaps everyone's too afraid of coming up." "Don't jinx it now, Rarity! Ah got someone in mah sights! Two blues!" Sunset and Twilight were still sneaking around the arena. Sliding through different paths like snakes. Especially Sunset, she seemed very aware as to where to go and who was coming. Not once has she been shot at. Twilight was amazed at all of this. This whole game so far, Sunset had kept her completely safe. They stopped once again, standing behind a wall. Sunset peeked around the corner and could see a yellow pack standing atop the tower, scouting the lower level. From the looks of it, it looked as though this yellow pack was looking at them. Sunset looked back at Twilight. "I'm going to take out those guys up on the tower. Stay safe, okay?" She began sneaking around the other corner. Twilight was surprised that Sunset was just going to leave her on her own. "Sunset, wait for me!" But it was too late. As Twilight tried to stop her teammate from leaving her, she was already gone. "Any updates, Applejack?" Rarity asked, beginning to get bored. "Ah'm keepin' mah eye on those two who jus' hid behind that corner," Applejack said, keeping her focus. "Looks like they're on the move-! Wait, where's the other one? There was two of 'em!" Then came the sound of a blaster not too far away from the tower. Applejack looked around for whoever was there. She heard rushing footsteps running circles around the tower and then up the path leading to the upper floor, where Applejack and Rarity were. Rarity was now back in full focus mode. She held her blaster up, ready to shoot whoever was approaching. However, her pack was suddenly shut down. Someone had shot her. Then the same happened to Applejack. They both looked around the tower, but there was no one there other than them. Applejack scanned the map from the tower again. She spotted a red pack's light reflecting off of the wall next to it. Not too far from it, she could see a blue light going in the direction of the red's location. This blue player was moving very fast. She then saw that when the blue came around the corner to the red, the red lack was immediately shot at. It then rushed off to another location. "Applejack, can we go now? It's getting really boring here now," Rarity whined. "Hold on there, Rarity. Ah'm watching this blue player take out everybody. Damn, they're moving really fast..." Applejack thought aloud. Rarity looked over the edge with her teammate. "Fast? How fast are they moving?" she asked. Applejack shrugged. "Just, like, faster than an average person kinda fast. See? Look." She pointed in the direction of a blue player running through all of the different paths. "They're takin' out one player, then immediately movin' in the direction of another, kinda like they know where they are." Ducking behind another corner, Sunset was closing in on another enemy. Two reds this time. She peeked out and saw it was Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. Pinkie looked like she was completely focused, while Fluttershy was shaking in pure fear. Poking her gun out from the corner, she shot the two and ran off again. Pinkie and Fluttershy were confused as to who shot them both. "Hey! Come out with your hands up!" Pinkie shouted, firing in every direction. She stopped when she felt Fluttershy tapped her shoulder. "They're gone, Pinkie," she told her pink teammate quietly. Pinkie growled. "Damnit! I'm so sick of being shot and there's no one even there! Let's go, Fluttershy! We're taking the tower!" Sunset was still tearing it up. There are six on each team, and Sunset most likely shot at every enemy within the arena. But she didn't stop, she continued shooting familiar enemies. She didn't know how she was doing it, but she has managed to go through the entire match so far with no one coming close to shooting her. It was like she could detect when there was someone nearby. She was also suddenly really fast. One second she is right behind an enemy, then the next she is gone. After an insane streak of shooting, Sunset found Twilight again, hiding in a corner. "Where have you been?!" Twilight asked angrily, getting right up into Sunset's face. "I've been shot at countless times after you left! There were these kids that just wouldn't leave me alone!" Sunset backed away with her hands up. "Sorry Twi. I had to deal with Applejack and Rarity up in the tower. They'd have probably found us if I didn't do something," she explained. Sunset did not actually think they would have found them (what with how well Sunset was doing), but she needed a reason. "Also, you probably could've just used your telekinesis to scare those kids off or something." "Oh-ho-ho! Believe me, I was so tempted to, but I figured that that would have been cheating so I didn't. Anyway, where have you really been this whole time? It doesn't take you that long to take out the tower." Twilight tapped her foot impatiently. Sunset was about to explain but then she heard footsteps not too far from them both. So, Sunset took Twilight quickly by the hand and brung her to hide behind a close by wall. Sunset peeked out and saw Pinkie trying to act very sneaky with Fluttershy trying to keep up with her. They eventually both wondered off somewhere else and Sunset let out a sigh of relief. Twilight then looked around the wall. "How did you know someone was coming?" she asked, more calmly. "I could hear their footsteps," Sunset answered, not taking her eyes off of where her other friends once were. Twilight was a little confused. "Well I couldn't hear anything, also you were a little harsh when you brought me behind you." She gently squeezed the wrist Sunset had grabbed, which now had a red ring going around it. Sunset rubbed the back of her head guiltily. "Hehe, sorry Twilight... again." Twilight smiled and rolled her eyes. "It's fine, Sunset. So, where to now?" For the rest of the match, Sunset and Twilight stayed close. They were completely safe together. While Twilight was mainly just following rather than shooting, she watched as Sunset was destroying everyone in the game. It was really cool, but also very strange. Twilight had never seen Sunset act so stealthy and aware before. It was probably just because she wanted to win, but to make sure, Twilight was going to keep a close eye on her and her actions. After a long match, everybody was pretty puffed out, especially Fluttershy. They all hung up their blasters and packs and left the arena to check their scores. While everyone was proud of their own scores, everyone was amazed when they saw Sunset's score. Everybody had scored inbetween 2000 to 2500 points. Sunset completely outdid everyone else, holding a score of 8900 points! The group slowly turned from the scoreboard over to Sunset, who was just standing there eye wide. She knew her friends were all staring at her, but she did nothing about it. She cleared her throat to break the long silence. "Uh... Guess that means Twilight and I won. We get to choose lunch... or in this case, dinner now." Sunset had hoped at least this would get their attention onto something else, but to her disappointment, it wasn't so. She then was beginning to get very uncomfortable with everyone staring at her. "Girls, could you all stop looking at me like that please? You're all creeping me out." "How are you doing this?" Pinkie asked. Her expression finally changed from shock to a loud, sudden amazement. "This is now the second time today you've kicked such ass! First, you annihilated Big Mac's score along with the machine! Now, you're at the top of the leader board by a landslide! What! Is! Your! Secret?!" She finished, shaking Sunset's shoulders rapidly. Doing nothing to escape from her grasp, Sunset only answered with, "Luck... I guess?" Pinkie glared at the winner. "Bull that was luck! Nobody wakes up with the strength of a bull or the speed of a cat! Please tell me what your secrets are!!" She finally stopped, now all puffed out from the unnecessary shouting, which gained the attention of quite the amount of people. Rarity stepped forward and took Pinkie away from Sunset. "Dear, I think we will put that to an end there and we can all go and get some dinner, how's that sound?" she whispered to her bubbly friend calmly. After a few deep breaths from Pinkie, everybody decided to resume their plans. "So... uh, where to, Twilight and Sunset?" Applejack asked. Twilight and Sunset looked at eachother and shrugged. "I guess we should just explore the place until we eventually see something," Twilight suggested. "If you're all okay with that that is." Everyone nodded. "Alright, let's get moving then," Sunset finished, beginning to strut away. Everyone followed after her. Canterlot Mall, Friday Evening 05:34PM They explored the mall again, this time, not knowing where they were going. They passed a lot of different cafés and restaurants that all looked so good, it would almost be impossible to choose only one. Suddenly, a smell treated itself to Sunset's nose. She stopped and started sniffing the smell that had found her. It smelled amazing. It smelled delicious. "Do you girls smell that?" she asked, smiling with amazement. Everyone copied her smelling, but turned up with nothing. They all shrugged at Sunset. "What's it smell like?" Applejack asked. "It smells amazing, and warm, and juicy, and delicious!" Sunset almost began drooling at the scent. "That's what she said!" Pinkie whispered, snickering. Her joke was resulted by a slap on the back of the head from Rarity, who glared at her. Sunset started following the smell which took her deeper into the mall. Confused, her friends kept following her. It seemed as though the smell trail was travelling wherever it wanted to, as Sunset constantly changed direction. Eventually, they closed in on a restaurant that nobody would ever imagine Sunset to describe as delicious. "Umm. Sunset? Why are we at a steak house?" Fluttershy asked. "I thought you were a vegetarian." Fluttershy was completely ignored by Sunset who was looked through the windows of the restaurant. She could just look at of the delicious and big slabs of meat that sat on everyone's plate. The smell was stronger than ever, and the food was within her sight. Her mouth began filling up with lots of saliva and began leaking out her mouth. The girls weren't confused anymore. Now, they were very concerned for Sunset. First, there was the strength game, then her score during lasertag, and now she's drooling over a food she doesn't eat. "Hey! Earth t'uh Sunset! You okay?" Applejack waved her hand in front of Sunset's face to put her attention onto something else. Luckily, her plan worked as Sunset shook her head and swallowed whatever saliva she still had. "You alrigh' there, Sugarcube? You've sure been actin' quite strange t'day." "Uh, yeah, I'm fine. I'm just feeling a bit weird today," Sunset said, stepping away from the window. "I don't know what's going on with me. I just feel really, really weird." "Well, whatever it is, always remember that you have us at your side!" Rarity announced happily. "Now, let's just get you away from this restaurant before you start something else." Then they were just wandering around the mall again, occasionally slapping some sense into Sunset whenever she could smell something. They still didn't know what they could do for lunch. There were some cafés and restaurants they had in mind, but they all had to agree on one, which was the problem. There were a lot of 'What about here's and 'This place looks nice's. "Ugh! This is hopeless!" Rarity groaned in annoyance. "Why don't we just go to Coinky-Dink?" "Don'chu feel like we go there a bit much, Rarity?" Applejack asked. She saw that Pinkie was glaring at her now. "Now don't get me wrong, Ah do love th' diner, but why not try out a place we've never been to before? You guys have t'uh agree on that." Everybody around her nodded, but there was something missing... She looked at all of the group and noticed they were missing someone. "Uh... girls, where's Sunset?" "Well, she was standing right he-" Fluttershy began before looking at where Sunset once was. "Oh boy, she's gone..." "But gone where?" Twilight asked. It didn't take long for them all to realize, so they all started running back through the mall again to find her. The Steakhouse, Friday Evening 05:58PM Sunset was now standing within the steakhouse. It smelled so much better on the inside. The smell of the greasy, warm meat filled her with pure bliss. She had to eat here. Why else would her nose bring her here? She took seat and looked at the menu. Her eyes were the size of dinner plates as the looked at all of the items onto it. There were so many huge steaks and hamburgers. They were a little pricey, but she could get at least something. But then there was the main problem, waiting for the food to finish. She didn't know how she possibly could sit there waiting for her food while everyone else in the restaurant gets to enjoy there's. Then, a devilish idea came to her head. It wasn't a good idea, but it could save her the wait. She sneaked out of her chair and explored the restaurant. She was looking for any table that has been served but no one was currently sitting there. Fortunately for her, she almost immediately found a table. This person was having a decently sized steak that already had a few pieces cut from it. Sunset smiled. This person would never notice if one piece was missing, or two, or three! Before she could realise she was getting carried away, she had eaten the entire thing and it tasted... amazing! It was so juicy, so chewy and so so delicious! Sunset quickly turned away before the person finally came back. She sat herself back down in her seat and begin thinking of the taste again. But she figured, why stop here? There had bound to be other tables. Which there were many of. Sunset snuck around and continued to steal the ever so delicious meat from peoples' tables. Big and small steaks. After a while, Sunset finally became full and sat down on her chair, patting her stomach. It was like nothing she had ever tasted before. It felt amazing, it felt so warm, it felt... wrong. Then she remembered what Fluttershy had said earlier on about her being a vegetarian, and she was right, Sunset is a vegetarian. So, why is she eating all of this meat all of a sudden? Sunset had a thought, was it a coincidence that this was all happening to her? Was it Equestrian magic on the loose again, or was it... something deeper. Then it hit her. Werewolves were known to have great body strength, and the ability to sneak and run as fast as a predator, and to have a better sense of smell and most importantly, have a taste for meat. Sunset snapped herself back into the real world and realised what she was doing. 'I just ate an animal...' she thought, pupils shrinking. 'I just ate a once alive animal...' Suddenly, the steak wasn't sitting well in her stomach anymore. So she rushed out of her seat to the nearest bathroom to let the meat free. She knelt down over toilet and began to empty her stomach. She could not believe she would actually do something like this. This was not her at all. After a few minutes of sitting with her head hanging over the toilet, she heard the bathroom door open. "Sunset? Are you in here?" Twilight called out. "Be out in a second," Sunset answered, her voice cracking from the sick feeling. She then tried coughing up whatever was left, wiped her face and flushed the toilet, finally leaving. When she looked at the girls, they all had a face that either read disappointment or sorry. Sunset then sighed. "I'm sorry for leaving you girls like that, I just couldn't keep myself away from this place for some reason." Sunset was then unexpectedly hugged by everyone. Once they all let go, Rarity was the one to break the silence. "So, are you feeling better now, or do you need another minute or two?" "I think I'll be fine, now that I've learned my lesson." Sunset glanced back at the toilet. "So, what now?" "We still haven't found a place to eat," Pinkie said. "But we still have time to visit Rainbow Dash." "That's only if she wants company right now," Rarity added. Sunset did not feel comfortable with the idea of visiting Rainbow Dash after what she had done to her own friend. Just the thought of the possible outcomes caused her stomach to gurgle more. "We thought we would jus' order a Mama Gemma's pizza," Applejack suggested. "If you're feelin' okay, you can have some." While Sunset did love a Mama Gemma's pizza, she wasn't quite feeling up to it. "Uh... no thanks, I think I'll just go home and rest for a bit, you all go and get pizza without me." "Are you sure, Sunset?" Twilight asked. "We were planning on getting stuffed crust~" Sunset laughed. "No, no. It's fine, really. You all enjoy yourselves. I'm still not feeling the best." She began to leave the bathroom, her friends followed her out of the restaurant. "Well, if you're absolutely sure, Ah guess we can't stop you," Applejack concluded, hands on her hips. "Thanks, AJ. See you guys again soon." And with that, Sunset left the mall and her friends. "Tell Rainbow Dash I said hi!" she called back. She had a lot of time to herself about everything that had happened today. She was more than sure that this was all related to the werewolf. What else could it be? So now, the werewolf not only takes over during the night, but now it's like it's controlling her during the day, which makes everything worse for the people around her. Especially her friends. She was no longer safe around anyone anymore. What is she to do? She cannot control her actions. And what about her beloved pet Ray? Not even he was safe around her anymore. She might have to give him back to Fluttershy, Sunset knows that she will take special care of him. And then there was this Musket guy. At this point, he has probably hatched a fool proof plan to catch her. Her brain began to hurt from all of the terrible possibilities. From this point onwards, Sunset Shimmer was a danger to the human world.