//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Hostile History // by Jest //------------------------------// Sunset hoped they would be able to escape the mall parking lot without notice. Unfortunately for her, that hope turned out to be in vain. Their little group did manage to sneak into the back of the waiting crowd as police went through it—but not quite all the way to the vehicles. Their hope of escape vanished the second a set of black vans roared into the parking lot, each one polished to a sparkling shine and completely unmarked. Yet as they opened, Sunset saw near-identical figures in black suits emerge from one, while another dispensed a half a dozen people in puffy biohazard suits, pouring out of their transports like clowns in an act. “Well that must’ve been cramped,” Pinkie muttered, giggling. “Be serious, Pinkie,” Twilight demanded. “Lets try the other side.” The highschooler kept her voice down, gesturing for the group to move further towards the back of the crowd. Past the edge of the mall was maybe a hundred meters of scrubland, then sparse trees that separated them from the safety of low-density residential.  “Do you really think we could make it that far without being seen?” Sunset asked.  And leave your boyfriend behind. Sunset Shimmer thought, but did not say.  Not that Sunset wished ill will on Timber. But if he got upset at Twilight and everything fell apart, she certainly wouldn’t shed any tears. “I could,” Rainbow exclaimed. “How many times? Like, maybe ten? The cameras won’t even see me!” “Hold up.” Applejack put one hand on her shoulder, causing Rainbow Dash to nearly fall over as she tried to run. “That ain’t a good idea, Rainbow. Even if you could carry us each over there one at a time…” “Which I could,” Rainbow Dash pointed out. Applejack raised her voice just a little. “They’re watching us. There’s no way there ain’t way more of them hidden away, outta sight. Maybe cameras watching the whole group, just waiting for anything strange.” “Uh…” Fluttershy’s voice was timid. “Why are we hiding, again? Half of Canterlot knows our names by now. Those guys will just have to ask anyone, and…” Sunset practically saw it happen. At exactly that moment, someone further up in the parking lot pointed towards them, and a group of people in suits started moving. They didn’t have much time. “We should probably decide how much we want them to know,” Sunset whispered. “Because they’re about to get here in a few seconds. We should tell the same stories, right?” “Right,” Applejack exclaimed. “Pretty sure sheriff Silverstar knows about us. He’s always been okay with what we do for Canterlot. Who else was gonna handle something like that? But… I ain’t never asked, but I’m pretty sure he don’t get too specific on those forms. Guess they stopped believing him.” “I think the best way is to tell them the truth,” Twilight began. “Just not the whole truth. We can admit we’re the ones who saved everyone, but we don’t have to volunteer how. Explaining the magic would be… too hard.” There was no more time to debate. As the humans in suits got closer, the crowd of teenagers parted right down the center, giving the adults a direct route over. At least they didn’t run in with guns drawn, but they did surround the group, cutting off most potential escapes. Except three of them could fly if they needed to.  It’s okay, take a deep breath. We’re fine. We saved people today. Sunset Shimmer reassured herself. “Excuse me, girls,” announced the tallest man Sunset had ever seen. His skin was dark, and his eyes were darker still, and partially behind a set of mirrored sunglasses. This man could easily have given Bulk Biceps some serious competition in the gym, if he wanted. His suit looked like it wanted to give up and explode at any moment—but it held, at least a little longer anyway. “My name is Agent Foxtrot. I’m told you were involved in what happened here,” stated the towering man. To Sunset’s surprise, it was Pinkie who answered first. “Are we being arrested?” she asked. “No,” Foxtrot responded at once. “You aren’t suspects, and you haven’t been charged. We’re just… trying to get our information together.” “That means we don’t have to answer any of your questions,” Pinkie retorted, raising her voice just a little. “And you haven’t even told us our rights.” Foxtrot’s expression tensed just a bit. He reached up, adjusting his sunglasses. By the time he’d finished, his expression was flat once again.  “The Canterlot Mall was just destroyed. We don’t know how, we don’t know why. Do you want to know what I’ve just been told?” Foxtrot began, glancing from one girl to the other. He didn’t wait for an answer from any of them, speaking over Pinkie as forcefully as a truck into a snowdrift. “I’m told some kind of monster went rampaging through the mall, until it was stopped by a group of teenage girls. That’s you seven, by the way.” “If we did, you should be thanking us,” Rainbow added. “Just… if we did. Not saying that’s what happened.” “Obviously,” Foxtrot stated, obviously not even the slightest little bit convinced. “Listen carefully, girls, because I’m only going to explain this once. My organization has been hearing a lot of strange things about Canterlot in the last year. We get forwarded more hoaxes about this place than anywhere else in the country. Except… all these hoaxes seem to have a few things in common. Flying girls, teenagers lifting cars…” “None of that is illegal by the way!” Twilight interjected.  The girl’s voice was timid, and she clutched Sunset’s arm with two hands. But Sunset didn’t mind.  “I mean… Agent. If those things happened. They aren’t against the law,” Twilight added. Foxtrot shrugged. It wasn’t him who spoke next, but another of the people in suits. A woman this time, with bright orange hair in a tight military bun.  “The Department of Special Affairs is here to protect the people of Canterlot. Many have thought there was something to protect them from, but…” she gestured at the wrecked mall, and the crowd of terrified people. “Obviously we were wrong. Someone has to act.” “We don’t have anything to say to you,” Pinkie exclaimed, stepping up in front of the others and glaring at them. “We didn’t do anything! And anything we might have done was in service of helping people!” You guys aren’t very good at this, are you? Sunset Shimmer thought. We don’t need to make them angry at us! Just don’t answer the way they want. Make them bored. “Too bad,” Foxtrot said, adjusting his glasses again. “That’s a terrible way to open a relationship.” He gestured, and the other agents began to disperse back into the crowd. So apparently he hadn’t been lying about that—they weren’t going to be arrested today.  “You should know—we’ll be in town. We’ll be watching. Things will go easier for all of you if you’re working with us, instead of against us,” he reiterated. “If you really want to protect people, then we have the same goal,” the red headed woman added. “We’ve got an awful lot of interviews to conduct. There were about a hundred witnesses to what happened in there. If you don’t want to cooperate, then you can all go. We know where you live.” The seven teenagers immediately hurried away, through the crowd of their peers and to the parking lot on the other side of the mall. Timber was there, sitting on the hood of his pickup truck with the engine running. And he wasn’t the only one—plenty of people came rushing past them in small groups, hurrying over to their cars and speeding away as quick as they could. For every few cars that left, a new policeman took their place. “Hey girls!” Timber shouted, waving them over. “Nice work! Ambulance didn’t have anyone in it when it drove off. Guess that means you won!” Twilight hurried across the parking lot, separating from the rest of them and hopping up into his arms. Sunset looked away, cringing at the sounds the pair made.  It’s okay, it’s okay, deep breaths… Sunset Shimmer reminded herself. “Maybe now ain’t the time, Twi?” Applejack called. “We best be movin’ on. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and all but…” “They can’t change their minds about arresting us if we’re not here!” Rainbow exclaimed. “Not sure why they would. We didn’t do anything. But whatever.” Be careful. They’re probably listening to everything we say right now. Sunset thought, but didn't say, as she didn’t know how to communicate that information in a nice way.  “She’s right,” Sunset Shimmer added. “Fluttershy, can you fit one more in the van? Maybe we should…” “My place,” Applejack interrupted. “Come on, girls.” “You go ahead,” Twilight announced, finally breaking away to sit down beside Timber on the pickup. “We, uh… I think we’re still going to have our date. You can text me if there’s anything I need to know.” “We can’t,” Sunset whispered, typing out a few lines on the screen before turning it towards Twilight. “They’re probably reading our texts. And listening right now.” Twilight’s eyes went wide. She gasped, then covered her mouth with both hands.  “Catch you at school tomorrow,” Sunset remarked, waving halfheartedly.  The girl then quickly got into Fluttershy’s van with the others, and on the ride out, didn’t even panic at her pink-haired friend’s driving. Upon reaching the farm they talked for hours about the fight, just like they always did. But even Sunset couldn’t tell them much about the strange creature. In the end, they’d wrapped the stone in scrap cloth and buried it behind the farm, deep enough that it wasn’t likely to show up accidentally anytime soon. Sunset called the sushi shop that night, to find out when she’d be able to come back to work. “Dunno,” said the owner, in her usual thick accent. “Mall doesn’t know when it can open again. Month, maybe. Lots of cleaning, glass destroyed. Repairs to do. Call you again as soon as we open.” “Great,” Sunset said to now the dead line. “It’s not like I needed to pay rent or anything.”  She would do fine until next month, since she’d already paid for August. But once September first rolled around… Don’t think about it right now. One disaster at a time. Sunset thought before turning to skim social media that night, looking for images of the fight.  There were hundreds, including dozens of videos taken from either side of the mall. Even from shaky cell phone cameras through glass, there was plenty of suspicious stuff to pick out. Twilight had been near the entrance when she took off and flew across the room and there were plenty of clear shots of her wings. Another set of pictures had a clear view of Rarity using her shield-magic. They tagged us. We saved those people, and they tagged us in every one of those pictures. All the +1s and smiley emojis on those videos weren’t nearly as encouraging to Sunset as she was used to.  Of course, social media wasn’t the only place Sunset could go to vent. She had her diary, the gift from princess Twilight Sparkle she used both to summarize and reflect on life in the human world, as well as to communicate important messages back to Equestria. She wrote in it like she would a letter, even though Twilight rarely responded. Sunset could only hope the princess on the other side would take the time to read this time and that she wasn't busy fighting off another ancient evil of some kind. Dear Twilight, There was an attack today, worse than anything Canterlot has faced in a long time. I’ve never seen a monster like this before—made of tar, animated by enchanted gemstones. I think there might’ve been some kind of spirit inside, but I don’t know for sure. I never got into that kind of magic. It said something I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. It knew about the Elements of Harmony. Do you think that Equestrian magic could really brainwash ponies? I always thought they just cut the bad out, but… what’s the difference, really? How can you do one without the other? Did you brainwash me, Twilight? I don’t know the answer to that. I feel happier now. I like having friends. Thinking back on my life before, it felt so empty. All I wanted was to take things for myself. Take Equestria, take my revenge on Celestia for cutting me out of her life. But was I really unhappy back then, or do I only think I was? I don't know. You probably won’t even read this. I’m sure it’s nothing. I just hope whoever sent that monster doesn’t send more. It did so much damage that the human government is getting involved. Blowing up part of the school was pretty bad, but this was much worse. I dunno what I’ll do if they keep investigating me. Who am I kidding, you’re definitely not going to read this anyway. You’re too busy being a princess and a hero.  Would still appreciate your advice if you do though, Sunset Shimmer