//------------------------------//
// The Fear (Edited) 
// Story: Navigating the Darkness 
// by CoverArt 
//------------------------------//

	Sunset and her friends walked into Canterlot High after seeing Twilight off. It was somewhat sad to see her go again, but it wasn’t like she could just stay there; she was needed elsewhere. The group had decided to do the sendoff before school started so they wouldn’t miss any classes, though as they walked in and heard the bell ring, they knew they didn’t have the luxury of putting books in their lockers. After a couple quick “see ya at lunch”s they separated and went to their different classes.
Sunset walked down the empty hallways. She still felt a lot safer without anyone in them to judge her. She may have help saved the school a couple of days ago, but that didn’t automatically mean everyone liked her. She had gotten nasty looks and whatnot while walking in the hallway and outside of school too. It still stung, even if she was feeling better about herself. So walking in the halls alone was her preferred option. What she didn’t prefer though was her first class: Math.



The morning classes had come and gone, and Sunset was more than happy to head into the cafeteria for lunch. As expected, Math and English were boring, though they were easy for her. Well, at least the former was easy. Coming from Equestria meant that Sunset essentially had to relearn the way she wrote, and while she had done so, it still wasn’t close to what most students her age could do. She could at least speak the language, and that was all she really needed in her opinion.
Then she had Criminal Justice and Biology. Both were very helpful for her understanding the world she found herself in, though that was when she first came to this world. Now, though, she just was interested in studying them. Her Biology teacher was especially nice today and let them leave ten minutes early, so Sunset was one of the first people to get into the cafeteria.
She walked in to find a handful of students strewn about. That was unsurprising; some people had a free period before lunch, most commonly referred to by both students and staff alike as ‘Double Lunch.’  Sunset couldn’t help but wince as she felt eyes on her. She couldn’t help but glance around the room to see where it was coming from. As her eyes scanned the room, she saw it was Lyra and Bon Bon looking at her… and talking.  She sighed. She thought those two would be one of the first people to be nice to her, but apparently they were still talking about her. Oh well.
She sat down at the table her friends usually sat at and rested her head on her hand, waiting for the bell to ring and for Fluttershy to come with the money for lunch. As she sat there, she noticed Lyra and Bon Bon get up and begin walking towards her. She wasn’t sure why, but she had a feeling it wasn’t for anything nice.
“Hey, Sunset, can we talk to you a second?” Lyra asked as they stepped forward. Her voice was concerned, not what Sunset had expected.
“Uh, yeah, sure. What’s up?” she replied.
“Well, you know the sirens, right?” Bon Bon asked.
“Well, I mean, yeah. Can’t exactly forget them, right?”
“Um… Well, Bon Bon’s mom found a couple of them.”
“Oh, that’s great. I never got to talk to them really after the Battle of the Bands. If I deserve a second chance, then they do, too, right?”
“Well… maybe not.” Bon Bon said, looking at Lyra sadly.
“You see, well… One of them is, well… dead,” Lyra finished for Bon Bon.
Sunset’s eyes widened, and her face lost a shade or two of color. “W-what? You can’t be serious.”
“That’s not all. My mom also saw another one of them running away. She was covered in blood. My mom tried to stop her but she ran like nobody’s business,” Bon Bon explained.
“You guys can’t be serious. This is a joke, right? If it is, it isn’t funny.” Sunset crossed her arms.
“It’s not a joke, Sunset. We think the one that ran away killed the other. My mom called the cops when she saw the body.”
Sunset lowered her arms and look down at the table. “Wow, you’re serious. This is pretty heavy… Thanks for telling me, girls. I’ll let the others know. Hopefully, we can find out where the other two went, try to figure out what happened.”
“Are you sure you should get involved, Sunset? If the one killed the other, she could still be dangerous,” Lyra pointed out.
“Yeah, but it could also mean one of them is being held against her will. She’s probably really scared, and we have to help her. We might not like them, but no one should have that happen to them.”
“Alright,” Lyra said.
“Stay safe,” Bon Bon added. The two started walking back to their table.
“See ya,” Sunset said.
As the two left, the bell rang. It wasn’t too long before the cafeteria started to fill with students. Sunset glanced around and shrunk down a bit. She was scared, but she was also thinking about what was just brought to her attention. There’s too many people here for me to tell the girls without someone else hearing about it, she thought to herself. Though, that is assuming no one else knows about it already. Better to play it safe than sorry, though.
Sunset waved to her friends as she saw them enter the room. They all seemed happy and talkative. There was no reason to ruin their day by telling them just yet. There wasn’t much any of them could do right then anyway. They were in school, and it was only lunch time. She’d tell them on their way to Sugarcube Corner after school.



Sunset exited the school with Fluttershy and headed towards the statue to wait for the others. The rest of her day was pretty boring, all things considered. History went by with a bit of annoyance, as Rainbow used her head as paper football target practice, but that was about all she could complain about.
Fluttershy sat down next to the statue, while Sunset leaned against it, standing up.
“So, we’re going to the therapist tomorrow after school, right, ‘Shy?” Sunset asked.
“A little bit after, actually; Mom set the appointment for five. She gets out of work at four and has to drive here to pick us up.”
Sunset tilted her head. “Oh? Why does she need to pick us up? Isn’t the therapist in town?”
“Well, she’s lives on the mountain on the other side of town, so it’d be easier for her to drive,” Fluttershy answered plainly.
Had Fluttershy not been looking at a few papers at that moment, she would have seen Sunset’s eyes widen. Sunset was internally shaking at the mere thought of having to go somewhere that high up. She never had gone up to the houses on the mountain, but she heard stories of how steep some of the cliffs were.  She was suddenly rethinking most of her life choices, including agreeing to going to a therapist.
“O-oh, uh… alright,” she finally answered shakily.
“Sunset, are you o--Oh, hey, girls.” Fluttershy’s question was interrupted as she greeted the four girls walking out of the school. Rarity and Rainbow Dash both responded how they would normally respond, while Pinkie and Applejack seemed too busy in their own conversation that they didn’t even hear Fluttershy.
“What are they arguing about this time?” Sunset asked Rarity. The four girls entering the scene helped her mind get off of the previous conversation.
The purple haired girl rolled her eyes as she answered, “Believe it or not, Applejack owes Pinkie money now.” Sunset raised an eyebrow and glanced at the two arguing girls, listening in.
“Come on, Pinkie, you know Ah don’t have a lot of money. Whatcha’ say to a case of cider instead?” The blond farm girl practically begged. Pinkie took a moment to think before she answered.
“What type of cider?”
“What type of… Pinkie! You know I can’t give you any of our hard stuff! That’s illegal.”
“No, no, I’m talking about the new flavors you’re testing.” Pinkie winked.
Applejack’s eyes widened, and she put a hand to Pinkie’s mouth. “How do ya know about that? It’s a secret!” she demanded, though it quickly turned into a groan as Pinkie started talking through her hand. She lowered her hand as Pinkie continued to speak.
“…and then he threw a coconut, which fell from a spruce tree…” Applejack covered her mouth again and rubbed one of her temples with her free hand.
“What flavor?” she asked, giving in, making sure to uncover Pinkie’s mouth before she answered through her hand again.
“Cranberry Apple!” Pinkie answered happily. Applejack audibly sighed.
“Oh, Ah thought ya wanted one of the harder-ta-make ones.”
“Nope! Cranberry Apple!”
“Well, okay, Ah’ll have it for ya as soon as Ah can.”
“Okie dokie lokie!”
“Well, if we’re done here, why don’t we head to Sugarcube corner?” Rarity asked. Everyone answered in the affirmative, and they started off.



About halfway through their journey, Sunset decided it would probably be a good idea to tell the others about what she heard.
“Hey, girls? I think I should tell you something.” She was at the front of the pack of girls, so she turned around to see them. They all looked up at her, waiting to hear what she had to say.
“Lyra and Bon Bon talked to me in the cafeteria before lunch. They told me Bon Bon’s mom found two of the Dazzlings.”
“Really?” The other girls replied nearly in unison, though they all had their own tones in how they said it. Fluttershy had a rather hopeful tone, while Rarity’s seemed to be more of curiosity. Rainbow and Applejack’s tone seemed to have a hint of anger. Sunset knew they didn’t hate the Dazzlings, but she understood the two girls being angry at the sirens. She was a bit, too, even now.
“Yeah, but there’s a problem, though,” Sunset continued.
“Hm?” they all said in unison again.
“Okay, we gotta stop doing that; it’s creepy,” Rainbow said, looking at the others.
“One of them is dead.” Sunset winced as she said it.
“What?!” They said unison yet again this time in shock.
“That’s not all,” Sunset said as they continued walking. “They also said that they think it was one of the other two who did it. Bon Bon’s mom saw one run away covered in blood.”
“Really?” Fluttershy squeaked. The others seemed too shocked to really reply themselves.
“I don’t know if it’s true or not, but we should probably look for them. If anything, at least one of them must be terrified. For all we know, what they said is true, and one of them is holding the other against her will.”
“I don’t know, Sunset. This is pretty big, I mean, we’re awesome and all but dealing with murder… That’s not exactly our job,” Rainbow said.
“But Sunset is right, Rainbow. If we don’t help them, they might get inta some serious trouble.” Applejack exclaimed.
“I have to agree with Applejack, darling. They may have been our enemies, but they deserve a second chance. Their fashion sense is also fairly nice, too. I’ll want to talk to them about that. It’ll be a good icebreaker,” Rarity added.
“Thanks, girls, I know we don’t have the best past but we have to try to HELP!” Sunset said, yelping as the left side of her foot dropped, causing her to tumble to the left. She was saved from falling fully by a railing… of a bridge… over a river.
Sunset was now facing directly down a fifty-foot drop. Her pupils shrank to pinpricks as she gave a small squeak, pushing herself backwards and falling to the ground, her back against the concrete barrier that separates pedestrians from cars. She was visibly shaking, and her breath was becoming erratic.
She didn’t even notice when Fluttershy and the others knelt by her, trying to find out what was wrong. All she saw was her attempted suicide play over and over in her head. Eventually, after a few seconds, it was too much for her, and her brain shut down. She fainted.



Sunset slowly opened her eyes. She was prepared for the blinding light of the sun, so she was very surprised, though not disappointed, to discover that what greeted her was darkness. She groaned and sat up, realizing that she was lying down. The last thing she remembered was sitting on the sidewalk after... She shuddered, not even attempting to think of that.  She glanced around the dark room. Through the darkness, she could make out that this was Fluttershy’s room. It was also her own room, since she moved in with her, but she never could call it her room.
“Fluttershy?” she called out softly. She heard a small gasp, and a shadowy figure vaguely shaped like Fluttershy stood up from the floor.
“Sunset, you’re awake!” she said. The figure moved over to the light switch and flipped it, bathing the room in light. This, of course, caused Sunset to shield her eyes for a moment as they adjusted. Once they did, she was able to tell the figure was indeed Fluttershy.
Fluttershy rushed over to Sunset and hugged her, which Sunset gladly accepted. It usually made her feel better, and this was no exception.
“We were so worried about you, Sunset.”
“I’m sorry, Fluttershy. What time is it?”
“It’s about ten o’clock.”
“I’ve been out that long?”
“Yeah. What happened, Sunset? You kind of, well… freaked out and wouldn’t respond.”
“I--Well, I got flashbacks, back to… you know.” She shuddered.
“Oh! I’m so sorry, Sunset. I understand… kind of… it’s heights, isn’t it?”
“Yeah…”
“Come on, why don’t we go downstairs and get some hot chocolate?”
Sunset smiled and giggled slightly. “Yeah, I think I’d like that.”
The two made their way out of the room and downstairs. They had to be quiet, as Fluttershy’s mom was sleeping. Though, as they got to the bottom of the stairs, their efforts proved to be futile, as the doorbell rang. Fluttershy looked to Sunset, who just shrugged.
“Who would be coming here at this hour?” Fluttershy asked.
“Maybe one of the girls? They were worried about me, too, I assume.”
“Well, yes, but they would have texted me if they were coming over.”
“Well, only one way to find out, really.”
Sunset went over to the door. She was slightly nervous about who was on the other side but decided it was better to get it over with. She opened the door and gasped slightly as she saw Aria and Sonata standing on the porch.