//------------------------------// // 1: Attack // Story: Sunrise over the Horizon // by TwinAttorney864 //------------------------------// WARNING: THIS CHAPTER WILL FEATURE A SINGLE SCENE OF THREATENED RAPE, AS WELL AS DETAILED VIOLENCE. THERE WILL BE NO MORE OF IT MOVING FORWARD. I DON’T KNOW WHAT THE RULE IS ABOUT IF IT’S JUST A SINGULAR EVENT IN A SINGULAR CHAPTER, SO I’M PUTTING THE TW HERE NOW, BUT WON’T TAG IT. IF YOU DON’T LIKE THAT TYPE OF STUFF, THAT’S FINE. JUST HEAD OVER TO THE NEXT CHAPTER (WHEN I POST IT) WHERE I’LL INTRODUCE THE CHARACTERS IN A LESS VIOLENT MANNER. “I swear to you girls, IT’S NOT ME! PLEASE!” Sunset pleaded with them. She had come to Sugarcube Corner to convince her former friends to trust her, but it seems that all her efforts to go ahead and get them to listen are in vain. “Ah told ya’, Sunset, WE AIN’T GOING TO LISTEN TO YOU NO MORE,” Applejack growled out. Weeks of being teased by her childhood nickname had made the country girls bitter over Sunset’s supposed betrayal of their group of friends. “Now git’ outta the Corner, or I’ll whoop your ass out Mahself!” “Applejack, please,” Sunset cried out, though she slowly began to realize that it was in vain, “Do you really think that-” “GET OUT SUNSET!” A surprisingly loud voice shouted. Sunset turned around and found the source of the shout, which turned out to have come from the meek little Fluttershy. “WE DON’T WANT YOU HERE!” “Fluttershy…” Sunset whimpered out. She had always considered the shy girl the closest friends between her former friend group, and did all she can to go ahead and redeem herself for the years of bullying that she inflicted upon the girl, “Please tell me you don’t mean that…” She stared with tearful eyes at the girl. The cold, hate-filled glare she received, in turn, was all she needed to confirm it was true. With the reverence of a broken girl, she ran out sobbing, leaving the rest of the Rainbooms behind in the Café. “Well, good riddance, I say,” Rainbow scoffed, “At least we won’t have the She-Demon anywhere near us anymore.” The rest of the girls either grunted or nodded in agreement. They quickly finished their drinks, and each bid farewell to each other for the night. Outside, as Sunset barged out of the Café sobbing, she did not notice the three Crusaders that were about to enter the Café around the corner. As she ran off into the night, Applebloom suddenly stopped the two other girls. “Girls, look,” She said, pointing towards the running girl, “Think she already tried to tell them she was innocent?” “Well, now I feel even more crummy myself,” Scootaloo said dejectedly. She had been the other girl besides Applebloom to advocate for coming clean to their sisters, with Sweetie Bell firmly against it. None of them wanted to think about what their sisters would say once they fessed up, and with Sunset having just run off into the snowy winter night, they realized that now, more than ever, their sisters might be pissed. “Girls, I think we should just wait until tomorrow,” Sweetie said, twiddling her thumbs. “But why?” Scootaloo said, throwing her hands in the air, “They’ve already driven Sunset out of the Café. They would feel even more terrible once they realize that she was innocent this entire time. “…They would, wouldn’t they…” Applebloom muttered. “We should tell them tomorrow, at the start of school.” She stated defiantly, this time moving herself to side with Sweetie Bell instead. “But we agreed we have to tell them!” Scootaloo shouted, “They already drove Sunset out...” They already drove Sunset out, Scootaloo realized. If they realized now, in their elevated stress having just run off their so-called traitorous best friend, that she was innocent this entire time, there would be no telling what hell they would have to face. At least, when they all calmed down, it would have been easier to reason with them, but having just yelled at Sunset? They would kill them if they told them now. Applebloom nodded, knowing that Scootaloo just figured it out herself. “We’ll tell them, first thing at the start of school. By then, they should have cleared their heads and we could reason with them.” The two other Crusaders nodded, and they each went their separate ways home. None of them spared a second thought for the girl that just ran into the snow. Sunset did not know how far she ran; she only knew it was for a while. By this time, the midnight moon was fully in the night sky, and she had no clue where she was in Canterlot. Her phone was shot, broken into pieces by her after the countless amounts of threats she had received from the people of Canterlot High. All she knew was she was probably in the industrial area of Canterlot, as evident by the horrid stench of petrol and smoke everywhere she turned. Not wanting to risk being caught in the full cold, she opted to duck into one of the alleyways. At least in them, she reasoned, she would have some form of protection from the biting cold. She probably would have to skip school tomorrow. She did not want to get caught smelling like dumpster trash in the hallways. Suddenly, a small hope emerged. She looked into the alleyway across the street, only to be met by the sight of red and orange dancing in the fog. Fire, she realized. Probably lit by one of the homeless people that littered this side of the city. She thanked her lucky stars and made her way across the street, and into the alleyway. *THUNK* She did not register the original hit, all she felt was the immense pain that followed it. By the red haze that greeted her when she opened her eyes, she assumed that she was hit square in the head. A touch of her forehead confirmed Yep, she was bleeding. “Well, well, well, look who the cat dragged into the yard.” An ominous voice sneered behind her. Sunset twirled around, only to be met by a hard blow to her ribs. By the pressurized points, she assumed that it was the work of a brass knuckle that did her in. She tumbled and fell straight onto the concrete floor of the alleyway. She painfully tried to open her eyes and was met with the sight of a dark brown girl, with a punk leather jacket like hers. The girls sported left-parted white hair, and a nose ring accompanied the angry snarl she was giving to Sunset. “Hello there, Slutset Sinner.” The face sneered. Shit, its Gilda, Sunset thought painfully. She had run off Gilda a year back when she still ruled CHS. She took the Queen Bitch title from Gilda when she spread some unsavory rumors regarding her brother in the military. Sunset did not remember what the rumor she spread was, but she remembered it got Gilda’s brother dishonorably discharged and court-martialed from the military. “H-hey, Gilda,” Sunset said in a raspy voice, “H-how’s-s y-your brother-r?” She tried to crack a smile. Gilda only replied with one of her own. “Why don’t you ask him?” She grinned and moved out of the way to let Sunset examine the other person. This one wielded the bat that struck her initially. The face was almost similar in every way to Gilda’s, sporting the same nose ring and white hair that Gilda’s family was known for. The face, which would have been handsome in any other way, had a deep gash running down from one eyelid to the cheek on the other side. On his shoulder, Sunset could see a logo tattooed on it depicting a large beast swooping down and snatching a slithering snake before taking to the skies. The Mark of the Griffin Gang. “So, the Griffin’s, eh Gilda?” Sunset tried to crack a joke, “Never *hrgh* never pegged you two for the gangster types.” “Well, after you ran me out of CHS before graduation, and after you got my brother kicked from the Corps, there weren’t many options for employment,” Gilda said with a hint of malice, “No one would higher two ex-cons, so we had to go underground to help ourselves.” She walked up to Sunset, and lifted her chin with her hand, “At least we made it out better than you did, honey,” She sneered, “Been hearing about you and your little Anon-A-Miss racket online. You finally got caught, you squirming weasel!” She said with sadistic joy. Sunset could only writhe in pain, as she tried to free herself from the strong grip of the gangster. “So, with your reputation totally shot, you probably aren’t cared much for in CHS now, are you?” Sunset realized where this was going, and desperately tried to squirm out of Gilda’s reach even more. She had no social security, no paper or digital trial in the government. She was in process of getting one herself, but the finalization paperwork would not come for another week. With her reputation shot at CHS, who would bat an eyelash if Sunset Shimmer suddenly…disappeared? “Oh, you already know how this is going to work huh?” Gilda laughed, as Sunset tried in vain to kick the girl from her stranglehold on her. “I have to admit, I had this scenario playing in my head for years, wondering when I could get my grubby little hands on your ass. Eventually, I managed to figure out the perfect plan.” She slammed Sunset’s head on the ground and motioned for her brother to join her. “My dear old brother is going to release a years’ worth of frustration on you, to the point where you will eventually bleed out yourself.” She then brandished her own bat, a steel 14 inch one with the words Revenge has never been sweeter painted on it, “Than, I’m going to take my baby, and pop your anal cherry. Then, my brother will screw around with you until your body has gone cold, and we’ll just leave you to rot.” Sunset tried everything, from erratically moving, to shaking her head and pleading, but nothing she did in her weakened state would loosen the grip that Gilda held on her. All she could do was stare in horror, as Gilda gave her brother a curt nod, and the swings began to fall on her. She immediately felt pain like she never had before course through her head. With each fall of the bat, the red haze only crept more and more to cover the rest of her vision. Everywhere, from her arms to her legs, she felt total pain and fury coursed through her body. Surprisingly, her bones had not shattered yet, but that is not to say that they are safe. They would be considerably weakened, and possibly internally bruised in the attack. Wanting her to stay conscious enough to at least let her feel what they were about to do, the two of them deliberately avoided critical organs and nervous systems like her spine, but that did not stop them from inflicting massive amounts of pain on her. Lastly, the brother would hit her one more time, right on her forehead. Thanks to her previous blows to the head, this one inflicted more pain on her and sent Sunset spiraling into a coma. With the coma, her brain would begin working into overdrive, where it would attempt to shed parts of itself in order to retain enough power to function the critical parts. With the final blow, the brain was in danger of losing its motor control functions and was forced to shed a part of itself in order to snap itself out of shock in order to work properly. With no other options left, the brain decided to shed the first part that, at least to its functions, was optional. Sunset’s memories. In mere moments, the brain would begin a full memory wipe of Sunset. It would shed her identity, her memories of both the pony world and the human world in an attempt to divert more energy into making sure that it wouldn’t shut down. With her brain shedding her memories to survive, it would keep on working which, to itself, was more important in the case of survival rather than retaining her identity. In seconds, Sunset would forget Celestia, Twilight, CHS, and her friends. She would forget Fluttershy’s kindness to be one of the first people to help her redeem herself. She would forget Pinkie Pie and her attempts to make her smile after Sunset’s depression spiral after the Fall Formal. Rarity’s generosity in giving her new clothes and money to pay for her apartment after she revealed she had no job. Rainbow Dash and her unwavering loyalty to Sunset after she was consistently heckled at in the weeks following the Formal. Applejack and her honesty that everything would be alright, and that she would always be a part of her family even during the holidays. All of it, gone with a single swing. “Now that she’s KO’d, whaddya say we screw around with this bitch?” Gilda sneered. But before either of them could make any moves on Sunset, several flashlights fell upon the three of them, “Hey, what the fuck is going on here?!” One voice yelled. “Alex, keep it down, we don’t want to disturb the-SON OF A BITCH WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!?” A second voice rang out. Gilda and her brother froze like deer in headlights, and they were met with the stares of three individuals’. Tourists, by the looks of it. They bore considerably more expensive clothing than what the average person owned in this part of Canterlot if the two larger boys wearing Nike Airs were any indication. They held the latest in Samsung and iPhone, and they looked considerably cleaner and more refined than the people on this side of Canterlot. One of them, Alex, brandished his switchblade while the other boy he was conversing with pulled out his baseball bat. “Holy shit.” The second boy called out, “Andy, call the ambulance.” “Already on it, Cameron,” ‘Andy’ replied, already punching in 9-1-1. “Cameron, get the boy. I’ll take the girl.” ‘Alex’ stated, flipping his switchblade out. “On it, Alex.” ‘Cameron’ said, already running at the boy. Gilda and her brother, realizing they have been caught, sprinted the other way into the alleyway. While Cameron watched if they ever would come back, Alex immediately rushed beside Sunset, and put two fingers on her throat. “She’s breathing, but barely. I’m going to need some bandages.” As Andy began talking over the phone for the dispatcher to send paramedics, Cameron took off his shirt and donned his winter coat. Alex went to work, ripping the shirt into pieces to tie around the bleeding areas. As he did this, Cameron began CPR to make sure Sunset would not choke on her own blood. When paramedics finally came, they took over from the two boys and began administering medication for the bleeding head as the three of them explained what they saw when they came here. “We’ll call the cops, and have an APB put out for the assaulters.” The head paramedic nodded, “In the meantime, you boys ought to ride with us to the hospital, to get checked out for any injuries yourselves.” With not much else to do, the boys nodded, and they piled into the ambulance. “Andy, text Michael, tell him to drive over to the hospital to meet us,” Alex said, and Andy nodded as he began typing away at his phone. With not much else to do, Alex and Cameron sighed and leaned into their seats. When they loaded Sunset into the ambulance, they quickly took off, leaving the scene of the crime to police that just arrived. As they barreled down the midnight roads, Alex turned to Cameron, “And you just wanted to stay in the hotel and play more Pokémon Go.” He said cheekily. Cameron slugged him in the arm. Andy shook his head and muttered, “Winter Break, huh?”