Photo Finish, her two assistants, a techie boy named Micro Chips, and a drama girl named Watermelody had stopped at Photo’s house to get out of the snow storm that had been going on since Sunset Shimmer ran away. They all sat in the living room watching Micro Chips working on his laptop.
“Found any thing yet?” Photo Finish asked in her Austrian accent.
“I’m pinpoint the areas the snow storm will have the heaviest effects on.” Micro Chips explained. “If Sunset Shimmer’s smart, she try to avoid those areas because they’ll be extremely windy and cold. I hope.”
While everyone was focused on Micro Chips working on his laptop, they didn’t notice the front door, with a wreath hanging on it, open slightly. A ghastly, inhuman hand reached in and quietly snatched the wreath off the door, then replaced it with a similar looking wreath and quietly shut the door. Then two big eyes suddenly opened at the top part of the wreath. It quietly growled as it eyed the group of teenagers in the room, rows of teeth emerged from the hole in the center and tentacle-like vines emerged from its body.
Elsewhere, a truck was driving on an empty freeway. The vehicle was being driven by Bulk Biceps, his passengers were Flash Sentry and his bandmates, Brawly Beats and Ringo. Flash sat in the front passenger seat with a serious expression on his face staring out the window at the snow land hoping to spot even the smallest sign of Sunset Shimmer. His companions were starting to worry for him.
“Hey, Flash.” Brawly Beats tried to talk to his friend. “You okay, man?”
“We’ve got to find her!” Flash said clearly upset. “Sunset’s out there, freezing, and all alone. It’s my fault! She really needed someone to trust her. But I also thought she was Anon-a-Miss, so I kept my distance from her and didn’t care what happened to her. I should’ve known better! And now we just gotta find her, and make sure she’s safe!”
“Flash, you still care for her, do you?” Ringo asked.
Flash calmed himself down. “We’ve had a very… complicated relationship. Even after we broke up and the Fall Formal. Some of it is my fault and I must do whatever I can to make things right with her. I owe her that much.” Bulk smiled at the young rocker, deep down he was a good guy.
Then Flash felt his cellphone ring and answered it. “Hello, Micro Chips, any luck on your end?”
“SHTOP! HELP!” Photo Finish’s voice was heard along with some other people screaming.
Back at Photo’s house, the monster wreath had wrapped its strong tentacle-like vines around everyone and was dangling and shaking them around in the air while they screamed in terror and for help.
“FLASH! FLASH!” Micro Chips desperately yelled into his cellphone while struggling to get free of the vine wrapped around him. “RUN! RUN! GET OUT OF TOWN! THEY'RE COMING AFTER YOU! GET OUT OF-!”
“Hello, Micro?” Flash asked worried. “I can’t understand, you’re breaking up.” Then he lost connection entirely. The other guys looked at him, bewildered.
“What was that all about?” Brawly Beats asked.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, something landed on the front of the truck. A huge beast wearing a red cloak, wrapped in chains, a face hidden under a hood save for two glowing red eyes, and giant goat horns protruding from the top of the hood had pounced on the truck and was now staring at the boys through the front window. All the boys screamed in fright at the monster, Bulk let out a high-pitched scream that sounded like a small girl.
“WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?!” Brawly Beats screamed as the beast roared causing the window to fog up.
Bulk slammed on the brakes causing the truck to come to screeching halt before causing the monster to roll over the hood. When the creature was out of sight, the horrified hulking athlete immediately hit the accelerator and sped off. Then everyone heard a loud banging noise in the truck bed.
“Keep driving, I’ll check it out!” Flash told Bulk as he carefully climbed out of his seat, through the passenger window, over the hood, and into the truck bed. But the creature was nowhere in sight.
Then the beast swung up from the left side of the truck and into the bed where Flash found himself facing the large hooded monster. Flash was scared, but he summed up as much courage as he could. “Alright ugly, bring it on!” He threw a punch at the beast but it, with one swing of its right arm, knocked Flash on his back before he could even touch the fiend. Flash stared fearfully up at the monster who was towering over him. But then he felt something underneath his back, it was rope. Acting on instinct, Flash grabbed the rope and threw it at the beast, who got tangled in it. Seeing an opportunity, Flash rammed the creature while it was trying to get untangled, sending falling out of the truck bed. Satisfied, Flash climbed back through the passenger window and into his seat.
“Don’t worry guys, he’s gone.” He assured everyone, but then the vehicle came to a sudden halt. After a moment, everyone felt the truck going backwards. Flash and Brawly looked out their windows behind the truck and saw the cloaked monster pulling the rope, which was revealed to be tied to the truck.
“FLOOR IT!” Ringo screamed. Bulk hit the accelerator as hard as he could but the vehicle was still being pulled backwards.
“This is insane!” Brawly exclaimed. “He’s pulling against like 200 horse power!”
“Bulk, put it in reverse!” Flash told Bulk who immediately shifted gear and the entire vehicle went speeding backwards toward the beast. The monster roared as it lifted its arms up defensively as it prepared for the coming impact.
WHAM! The boys felt the back of the truck hit something hard and then stop. They all started cheering and congratulating each other as Bulk switched gears again and slowly started driving forward. Flash and his bandmates poked their heads out their windows to see the beast they had taken down, however, the monster’s body was nowhere to be found.
“Hey, where’d he go?” Ringo asked confused.
“It couldn’t had just disappeared.” Flash said just as confused.
Then they all felt the truck stop and start rising in the air. Soon they all realized that the creature wasn’t dead and was now lifting the vehicle above its head. Then with one might throw, the beast hurled the vehicle and it crashed into a nearby tree. Dented and steaming, the truck was now a wreck. Flash and the other boys opened the doors and climbed out of the vehicle, dropping on their hands, and coughing. Flash attempted to crawl away, but he found himself cutoff by a giant cloaked, horned fiend staring down at him with glowing red eyes.
“You all shall receive judgement for your sins!” the monster said in a deep threatening voice to a visibly frightened Flash. Flash watched helplessly as the beast stretched out its long, thin, and hideous-looking hand and reached down for him. His vision went black as the hand came to his face.
Meanwhile, Twilight Sparkle, Spike, the Humane Five, and the Crusaders had found themselves in the middle of a snow field. Twilight was growing increasingly worried and frustrated that they had not found Sunset yet.
Twilight let out a loud, frustrated groan that made the others step back intimidated. “Almost midnight and we still haven’t found any sign of Sunset.” She then walked behind a nearby tree, she needed to blow off some steam and she didn’t want the others to see.
Spike walked over to the tree and looked behind it to find his mistress banging her right fist against the bark in frustration. “Twilight, are you okay?” the little dog asked concerned.
“Sorry Spike, I’m just so frustrated.” Twilight calmly said to her assistant. “I can’t believe anyone would do something like this to Sunset.”
Then the two noticed that the Humane Five had snuck closer and were peeking behind the tree to listen in, and they looked pretty sad.
“Twilight, darling.” Rarity spoke in a comforting tone. “We know you’re upset over what happened to Sunset. But please understand, while what Sweetie Belle and her friends did was pretty awful, they weren’t thinking straight.”
“Ya, sugar cube.” Applejack joined in. “While their reason doesn’t entirely justify what they did, and they are gonna to be punished for this, they’re still our kid sisters and they’ve learned their lesson and are tryin’ ta make amends as much as they can.”
“So please don’t be too hard on them.” Rainbow Dash pleaded.
“It’s not them I’m upset at right now, it’s you!” Twilight coldly replied shocking everyone. “I thought Sunset Shimmer was your friend, how could you all turn your backs on her like that?”
“Now darling, try to understand.” Rarity pleaded.
“Things were difficult during this time.” Fluttershy added.
“Someone was going around exposing people’s secrets and we didn’t know who.” Pinkie Pie explained.
“Well, you all thought it was someone, but in the end, you couldn’t had been farther from the truth.” Twilight coldly responded.
“Ya gotta understand why we all thought it was Sunset.” Applejack said. “All the evidence was pointed at her.”
“What evidence?” Twilight angrily asked.
“Well, you see.” Rarity tried to explain. “First it started with the ‘Piggy-Wiggy’ story about AJ, then pictures of everyone wearing some of my least proud outfits were posted, and it was Sunset Shimmer who took the pictures with her phone. With that and her past with all of us, you must understand why we all suspected her.” Rarity got out her phone and found the internet page with the pictures. She held her phone up to show Twilight but the purple girl angrily pushed it away not bothering to take one look.
“That’s not the evidence I was talking about.” Twilight said.
“Okay, how was she able to convince you it wasn’t her?” Rainbow asked confused and annoyed, but this seem to make Twilight even angrier.
“The fact that you need to ask that makes even more disappointed in all of you than before.” This cut the five girls like a knife. “Sunset did do some terrible things in the past, but when she was finally defeated, she had become a lost girl who wanted a second chance. If I’ve learned anything in my life, it’s that almost everyone deserves a second chance. When I came here the second time, I was amazed at how much Sunset’s character had changed; all she wanted through out my entire visit was to be helpful to us. It was then I realized she deserved her second chance. But why didn’t you?” The girls said nothing, they were too ashamed to speak. “Remember it was Sunset who ultimately help us defeat the Dazzlings in the Battle of the Bands, was that not enough for you?” The girls still said nothing. “All the good times you all had, did none of that matter?” Still nothing, Twilight’s anger was increasing. “I asked all of you, as friends, to look out for her. So when you turned your backs on Sunset, you also turned your backs on me.” The girls’ faces of shame turned to ones of anxiety. Forsaking their friendship with Sunset might have also cost them their friendship with Twilight.
“We were only doing what we thought was right.” Rainbow said in an apologetic tone that begged for pity. It was her last shot and she was on the verge of tears.
“Well, you didn’t.” Twilight replied coldly.
Rainbow felt as if a big hole had been blown through her chest. Instantly, the memory from the Battle of the Bands when Sunset tried to help and they all mercilessly snapped at her.
“I’m sorry, I just wanted to help.”
“Yeah, well, you didn’t.”
Rainbow’s emotions burst like a volcano. She collapsed on her knees and buried her face in her hands as tears poured through her fingers like little waterfalls. The once proud athlete had been reduced to bawling mess of regret and self-loathing. The others didn’t look any better. Rarity produced so much tears, her eye makeup washed away. The once cheery and childlike Pinkie Pie was now crying like a child. Fluttershy was no stranger to crying, but it was rare to see her crying this hard. AJ had always been a tough girl who believed she could handle anything, unfortunately nothing she learned on her farm could’ve prepared her for this. The mighty cowgirl was reduced to nothing more than a weeping pile of remorse.
The Crusaders had watched the entire thing and were weeping as well. They couldn’t stand to see their sisters so miserable. They began to wish they had never come up with Anon-a-Miss in the first place.
Twilight stared at her crying friends. Her anger and disappointment slowly turned to pity. She began to feel that she had been too hard on them.
“Oh, Twilight, you’re right. We’ve been terrible friends!” Rarity managed enough strength to say.
“We should’ve known better than to doubt Sunset after everything she’s done for us!” AJ barely said through her tears.
“All we want now is to find her and tell her we’re sorry.” Pinkie said wiping away her tears.
“I don’t expect you to forgive us, I doubt Sunset will forgive us.” Fluttershy said, tears still streaming from her eyes.
“But we won’t give up. We will find Sunset and try to make things right.” Rainbow said wiping away her tears and maintaining what little pride she still had left.
“I know we will.” Twilight said giving them a forgiving smile. “I know if we work together as friends, we will be able to find our friend.”
“You can count us in too.” Apple Bloom said. She and the other two younger girls had smiles that told them they could be trusted.
GGGGGRRR! Everyone suddenly heard a growling noise that almost made them jump.
“Sorry, that was me.” Pinkie said. Her stomach was what made the noise. “Anyone hungry? I brought some gingerbread cookies.” She took out a large circular-shaped tin container.
Everyone else nodded yes. They sat down in a circle and Pinkie handed each person a gingerbread cookie. Then she put the container behind her and they all started munching on the people-shaped cookies. While they were eating, a creepy and inhuman-looking hand emerged from a bush behind Pinkie and snatched the container. Then it replaced it with an identical looking one and went back into the bush.
“Come girls, let’s get going.” Twilight said. Everyone got to their feet. Pinkie grabbed the container that looked like hers and put it away. Then everyone resumed walking through the windy night, hoping to find their lost friend, and unaware of the dangers that were befalling the other students and were advancing on them.