Canterlot City
October 30th 2022
0725hrs
Sunset rode her motorcycle through Canterlot City on a bright Autumn Morning. She was on her way to school, and was in a very sour mood, because someone wouldn’t shut up.
“Aww. Is someone in a sour mood?”
Sunset rolled her eyes. “How the hay are you back? The elements of Harmony—“
“I have always been here Sunny, creeping in the back of your mind, WAITING for something I can draw from to become stronger. And your jealousy has been an excellent meal.”
“Whatever it is you’re planning, it won’t work. My friends—“
“Are weak! All of you are powerless to stop me! I exceed even the full power of your magical Geodes, which coincidentally, I will possess yours when I take control from you!”
“That will never happen. Once my friends know they’ll help me stop you.”
"If you ever tell them.”
Sunset groaned, when she heard another voice in her head, a voice she much preferred.
“Don’t worry Sunset, I will keep her at bay for as long as you need me to.”
“WHAT?! How are you here?!"
“Like you I have always been here. I was just more towards the forefront of her mind.”
“Grah! You cannot stop me! No one can!”
Sunset smirked, her mood finally improving a little. “Good to have you around Daydream.” She said.
“I will always be with you Sunset. That is a promise.”
Unbeknownst to all three of them, FOWL was watching them. In a room full of screens, a man walked up beside another man. He saw what was on the screens. “Is that her?” He asked.
“Yes. The orange flamey haired girl is the one.” His buddy responded.
“Good. Send agents to nab her, a certain demon is itching to make an appearance I’m sure.”
“Have the guys in the lab completed the required invention?”
“Finished it last night. Operation Sundown is ready to begin. Hehehe.”
Canterlot High
Canterlot City
October 30th
1200hrs
After a morning full of classes at school, Sunset and her friends all met up in the cafeteria for lunch period. And the talk of the entire room was the next day’s Halloween Dance. “I can’t wait for the dance tomorrow!” Pinkie exclaimed excitedly.
“It’s gonna be awesome.” Cheese said as he and Pinkie High fived.
“What’s everyone going to go as?” Rarity asked.
“Cheese and I are going as salt and pepper!” Pinkie responded.
Discord smiled as he pulled Fluttershy close with one of his arms. “Flutters and I are going as ponies.” He said, to which Fluttershy giggled and nodded in confirmation.
“Eh, ponies are ok. But Soarin and I are SO gonna win the best costumed duo contest with our true to life Daring Do costumes.” Rainbow said as she and Soarin fist bumped.
Applejack chuckled and turned to Sparkler and Twilight. “How bout you two TwiSpark.” She said, calling them by the ship name the group had collectively agreed on. “You two going to coordinate costumes for the dance?”
“Are you two even going for that matter?” Rarity asked.
Twilight and Sparkler blushed and couldn’t help but giggle when AJ called them TwiSpark. “As a matter of fact.” Sparkler said as she pulled out two tickets from her jacket pocket. “Just got around to buying our tickets this morning.” She said.
“Our first dance together. I’m so excited.” Twilight said.
“Have you guys figured out a costume idea?” Sunset asked.
“We aren’t telling.” Sparkler said. “It’s a surprise.”
“Oh come on!” Rainbow said. “The rest of us shared our themes.”
“Sorry Rainbow.” Twilight said. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes while Sparkler turned to Sunset. “How bout you?” She asked. “What’re you going as neighbor?”
“You’ll be going as nothing, because I will be in control. Mwahaha!”
“Eh, I think I’ll go as a Starfleet officer. Discovery pre TOS era.” Sunset said.
“Ooh. That’s cool.” Sparkler responded.
“Wait, Discovery? Isn’t that the one everyone hates?” Twilight asked.
“They don’t know what they’re talking about!” Sparkler and Sunset exclaimed at once.
“The only people who hate modern Star Trek are one of two things, or both. They are either internet trolls who have nothing better to do with their lives.” Sunset said.
“Or they’re fans of the original runs of Star Trek that can’t accept anything new just because “it’s not old trek”. So it’s not Star Trek that’s the problem, it’s the viewers. Plain and simple.” Sparkler said. “Any TRUE fan of the franchise can see that they are doing great things with Star Trek right now.”
“And Star Wars for that matter. I swear to god every time I see someone hating on the new Star Wars for having a female lead or whatever, I want to scream into a pillow because they’re making it out to be bad when it’s anything but. At worst, it’s entertaining media.” Sunset said. “AT WORST!” She exclaimed. She noticed that everyone around her was staring at her. She cleared her throat. “Ahem, sorry. Just get passionate about some things.”
“Oh, have you been watching Andor?” Sparkler asked Sunset.
“Not yet. Waiting for the whole series to drop so I can binge it.” Sunset said.
And just like that, Sparkler and Sunset got into their own little conversation about science fiction and all that. With Twilight nerding out with them at some points. Everyone else at their table just chuckled. “This week on the SunSpark Sci-Fi Show.” Rainbow joked.
“Now that I think about it, I do wonder if Sparkler really would have fallen for Sunset eventually if Twilight hadn’t come along.” Rarity mused. “They have just as much in common as Sparkler and Twilight.
“And Sunny and Twily have a lot of things in common, for real guys, we should totally get the three of them together in a three way relationship.” Pinkie whispered.
“How would we go about doing that?” Discord asked.
“Maybe the Halloween Dance?” Soarin asked. The rest of the group started their own little conversation, in whispers so that Twilight, Sparkler and Sunset wouldn’t hear. And while Sunset was enjoying the conversation, her inner self wasn’t.
“Ugh. Star Trek? More like Star Trash.”
“Don’t even start.”
Canterlot City
October 30th 2022
1725hrs
Several hours later, after school, Sunset decided to go for a walk after making sure her motorcycle was back at her apartment building. Unbeknownst to her, a pair of FOWL agents were watching her. After a few moments, they decided to follow her.
Sunset Meanwhile was trying to think. It has been two days since she heard the demon in her head again, and during those two days she had been taunting Sunset at every chance and opportunity. And Sunset was getting real tired of it.
“Just you wait Sunny. Come tomorrow, I will be in control, and nothing will stop me this time!”
“Not as long as I’m here.”
“I’m sorry but did you defeat me last time? No, you didn’t. And since that magical brat from our original Equestria isn’t here, who’s gonna stop me now?”
Sunset groaned. “Oh for the love of horsecrap cut it out!” She exclaimed. “I swear to god you have got to be the most annoying, insufferable demon I’ve ever—“
“Hey! You there!” A male voice cut Sunset off.
Sunset stopped in her tracks, turned to see who called out to her, and what she saw made her groan. She saw two hulking guys wearing Jackets which had what she now knew was the logo for the Fiendish Organization for World Larceny, the organization that tried to kidnap Sparkler. “Great. Just what I need right now.” She commented.
“You’re Sunset Shimmer aren’t you.” One of the guys said.
“And what if I am?” Sunset asked, crossing her arms.
“You’re the girl that prevented us from nabbing Sparkling Medley. We don’t like when people mess with our plans.” The second guy said.
“Yeah? Well I don’t like when some evil idiots try to ruin my friend’s date.” Sunset shot back. “Whatever you want with me, I ain’t interested so beat it.” She told the guys.
“You’re coming with us young lady. One way or another.” With that, one of the guys quickly pulled out a laser blaster and aimed and fired at Sunset.
Sunset attempted to dodge the shot, but the bolt was too fast and she was struck by it. She grunted as she fell to the ground, quickly losing consciousness. “Ugh…” was all she managed before she blacked out and succumbed to the stun of the laser shot.
The two guys smirked as she picked her up off the ground and dragged her off. “Let’s get her to the boss.” One of the guys said as they disappeared into an alleyway, with no one with a clue about what just happened.
Unknown location
October 31st
Time unknown
Many hours after her kidnapping, Sunset would eventually awaken from the effects of the stun shot. “Ugh…” she groggily grumbled as she slowly opened her eyes. At first her vision was blurry and she couldn’t make out where she was, but when she tried to move, she found that she couldn’t. She tried harder to move as her vision cleared up, but she remained in place. “What the?” She looked around the thankfully lit room, and she saw what was keeping her from moving. Rope was wrapped around her waist and arms and she could feel her back pressed against a pole, it took all of three seconds to realize what was going on. “Are you kidding me right now?” She asked as she kept struggling with the rope, which held firm. “Grrr. Alright! Whoever the idiot was that left me here, you’re gonna regret this big time!” She shouted, aiming for someone to hear her. “Eventually someone is going to come for me!”
At that moment, the door to her apparent cell opened, and Sunset saw a pair of people, one in a lab coat and the other in a fancy suit, walk in. One thing she could see that was consistent between the two was that they were both wearing FOWL badges. She couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “Ok before anything else. You guys REALLY need to think about NOT wearing your organization on every bit of clothing you have.” She said. “Not a good look.” She said snarkily. “And now that we got out of the way, WHEN I GET LOOSE YOU ARE GOING TO REGRET IT BIG TIME!” She growled at the guy in the suit.
The guy in the suit chuckled. “Oh don’t hold your breath. You’ll be free to go very soon.” He said. “But before that, you have something that we want.” He told her.
“And what might that be?” Sunset asked, momentarily glad that her geode couldn’t be removed by force.
The scientist held up a picture for her to look at, and when she saw it, she froze. “This is your demon form isn’t it?” The scientist asked.
Sunset’s mind suddenly started racing with why these guys were interested in Demon Shimmer, and every scenario she ran through was bad. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She lied. I gotta get out of here!!
“Oh come on. They couldn’t even get my good side?”
The scientist put down the photo and got out his phone, he showed Sunset the screen and she could see a video from the night she turned into Demon Shimmer. “This video was taken the night you turned into her. You see, Miss Shimmer, our goals align somewhat with your demon self’s goals and we believe we can mutually benefit from an arrangement with her.” The scientist explained.
That narrowed down the possible scenarios in Sunset’s head, panic slowly creeping up within her as she struggled.
“Hm. I think I can hear these guys out, if they can help me first.”
“No! Bad Demon!”
“Well…it’s not like you can reach her anyway. She was destroyed that night.” Sunset lied.
The guy in the suit chuckled. “Oh Miss Shimmer. Our demons are more durable than we want them to be. Your demon self is in there somewhere, waiting to re-emerge. And we intend to help her out.
“Oh. I think I like these guys.”
Sunset really was panicking now, she couldn’t get out of the ropes, she didn’t even know where she was, she was trapped, and at the mercy of whatever these lunatics had in mind. “And how are you supposed to do that?” She asked.
The scientist reached into his concealed holster and pulled out a pistol like device. “My newest invention, the akumatizer. Designed to turn people into their demonic selves.” He explained.
“Oh NOW we’re talking baby! Come on nerd! Hit us with it!”
“No!”
Sunset was panting as she continued to struggle. “N-no! You can’t!” She exclaimed.
“Oh but we can, and we will.” The guy in the suit said. “Professor?” He asked.
The professor stepped back a bit, aimed the device at the struggling Sunset, and pulled the trigger. “The demon shall rise again.” He commented.
Sunset stared down the laser in absolute terror and panic, hoping to the last possible second that it wouldn’t work, but it did, and the laser hit her squared in between the eyes. She hissed through her teeth as she could feel the laser boring into her mind, corrupting it. “No! Stop! You can’t do this!” She exclaimed. She could feel the demon getting stronger and stronger with every second. The demon within her was laughing maniacally.
“Mwahahahaha! Yes! YES! I can feel it! The power surging through me is incredible!”
“NOOOO!!!!”
After only a couple of seconds, there was a sudden surge of power that discharged from Sunset, and a bright glow of light that forced the two FOWL guys to shield their eyes. A few seconds later, everything went quiet. The guys uncovered their eyes and looked around to see the cell in rough shape, but standing there, where they had placed the girl, stood someone not held by ropes. The guys smiled as the person opened their eyes, and gave off an evil laugh. “Mweheheheh. At last, I'm free. Mwahahahaha!”
To be continued…