There were three new concerns on the forefront of Sunset’s mind as she began the long trek back to her apartment.
The first was the matter of Applebloom and Sweetie Belle. Sunset needed to find a way to test Adagio’s theory about the two girls. If it turned out that the siren was right about them, then that would mean that Scootaloo would definitely need to be questioned as well. After all, the three friends did everything together.
The second issue was actually getting the three girls to come clean about terrorizing the school, assuming that they were all guilty. Intimidation wouldn’t work; she knew this thanks to her failed attempt at scaring Adagio. Trying to threaten them would only further strengthen the belief that she had slipped back into her old ways - not to mention the type of reception that she’d get from Applejack, Rarity, or Rainbow Dash. The plan was to get her friends back, not push them further away.
There was also the possibility that proving their guilt still wouldn’t be enough. Given her current status in the school, more than likely the students of CHS would dismiss her claims as a desperate attempt at dumping the blame on three innocent girls. This meant that not only would she have to get the three girls to confess willingly, but the confession would have to be done in a way that left zero room for doubt, and it would need to appear as if she herself had nothing to do with it. Once again, this was all assuming that Adagio was right.
Speaking of Adagio, she and her sisters were the final concern. The sirens were dying, and, just like with everything else that had gone wrong recently, Sunset was to blame for it. As much as Sunset wanted to help them, the choice wasn’t really hers to make. That honor went to the Princess of friendship herself.
It was only then that she realized just how insane her promise to Adagio actually was.
‘What was I thinking? Sure, Twilight has a heart of gold and all, but asking her to help out with something like this is a bit much. She’ll never go along with it, especially after how close they came to winning. I was stupid for getting involved. I guess that’s another thing I can add to my list of screw-ups. Way to go, Sunset, you’re on a roll.’
She continued to sulk until she had finally made it back to the apartment. After setting her things down on the floor, Sunset checked the clock and saw that she still had some extra time left before she was scheduled to rendezvous with her friends.
She sat down on her bed, punched in the digits on her phone, and then held the device up to her ear. It rang a few times before someone finally picked up.
“Hello?” answered the voice on the other end.
“Hi, Vice Principal Luna, this is Sunset.”
“Oh, hey! Celestia and I were starting to worry. Have you found anything out yet?”
“Yeah. As far as I can tell, Adagio and her sisters are innocent,” Sunset answered. “But, thanks to them, I’m pretty sure that I know who’s responsible now.”
“Oh, well that didn’t take very long. Who is it?”
“First things first, you might want to grab a pencil and some paper. I’ve got a lot to say, and you might find most of it hard to believe.”
There was a brief pause from the other end before Luna spoke again. “CHS has been visited by beings from a parallel world on about four or five different occasions that I know of. Two of those instances eventually resulted in me, my sister, and just about all of the students under our care being controlled against our will. You might be surprised by what I’m willing to believe nowadays.”
Sunset’s cheeks flushed a little at the memory of what had taken place after she had obtained the Element of Magic.
“Ok, first we need to talk about Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo …”
***
If there was one thing that Sunset hated about winters in the human world, it was the fact that the days were shorter and nights ran longer. Thanks to the Celestia from her world, Equestria never had that problem. The solar Princess usually kept the sun and the moon on the same time schedule all year round. At least that’s how things were before she fled through the Mirror Portal. With Princess Luna resuming her duties as one half of the Royal Equestrian Diarchy it was possible that things might have changed.
She checked the time on her phone and saw that she had arrived at CHS almost ten minutes late. She cut across the track outside the school and walked towards the back entrance, just as the message had instructed. A close inspection of the door revealed that it was cracked open slightly. There was an object preventing the door from shutting all the way, but Sunset couldn’t make out what it was in the dark.
Ignoring it, she pulled the door open and entered the building.
***
Perhaps it was due to the echoing of her footsteps being the only sounds that she could hear, or maybe it was the memories of being stared at with disdain by the other students and staff, but Sunset felt increasingly uncomfortable being on school grounds so late at night. Things only got worse when she finally made it inside the gymnasium and saw that none of the lights were on. Sunset considered turning around and going back home until she spotted her five friends all leaning against the bleachers in the back corner of the room. At least, she assumed it was them. She wasn't entirely sure because they were all wearing hoods.
A few of them motioned with their hands for her to come closer. Sunset, although reluctant at first, cautiously did as requested. ‘This definitely doesn’t feel right.’
Sunset stopped just a few feet away from the girls before calling out. “Hey, girls? Not that I’m complaining, but this meetup feels a little … creepy.”
“That’s the idea.”
Sunset jumped back in surprise.
That voice, it definitely didn’t belong to any of her friends.
Suddenly, all of the lights cut on at once. Several other people began filing into the room, one by one. By Sunset’s estimation, there must have been between twenty and thirty of them all together, and they were all wearing hooded clothing. She couldn’t decipher who they all were, but somehow Sunset was able to discern one key fact. They were all CHS students. She understood now why the message sounded so strange. The entire thing had been a setup from the start.
Looking around the room, she noticed that there were at least three students standing guard at each of the room’s exits. The rest of the students were standing in various locations that would have interfered with any attempts at escape.
Sunset turned her attention back towards the five students standing against the bleachers. One of them she recognized as Gilda. Thanks to her imposing size and frighteningly short temper, she quickly became one of the most feared students in the school.
She had fallen down a few pegs on CHS’s social ladder after Sunset came into the picture. However, she had been slowly making a comeback ever since the fiery haired girl had chosen a more peaceful way of life.
Standing on Gilda’s left was a student who everyone called Dumbbell. He used to be on CHS’s wrestling team until he got kicked off because of his grades. Needless to say, he didn’t like his nickname very much.
Sunset failed to recognize who the other three students were, although one of them looked slightly familiar. She never got a chance to pay it too much attention thanks to Gilda.
“You know, I didn’t think that you’d actually be dumb enough to fall for this. Guess you aren’t as smart as everyone thinks, huh?” Gilda jeered in a mocking tone.
Sunset ignored the insult. When she spoke, her voice was calm and controlled. “What happened to Rainbow Dash? I got a message from her saying that there was an emergency.”
Gilda smiled, reached into her pocket, and then pulled out a bright red colored phone. She then pushed a series of buttons before raising the phone to her ear. Shortly after, Sunset’s phone started ringing. She checked and saw a message that read, “Incoming Call from Rainbow Dash.”
Sunset never answered, opting instead to let it jump to voicemail. “Out of curiosity, how exactly did you get Rainbow’s phone?” she asked.
“I went looking for you, you weren’t there, bumped into Dash instead. She had her phone out, and I wanted it. Plain and simple,” Gilda stated matter-of-factly.
Sunset arched an eyebrow in suspicion. “So, you’re telling me that she just handed it to you? Just like that?”
“Well, if you want to get technical, I might have jumped her after school and snatched it afterwards. Speaking of my old buddy, you really pissed her off with that post that you put up yesterday. Heck, you pissed me off too.”
For the life of her, Sunset didn’t know what Gilda was talking about. Due to all of the threats and hate mail that had been flooding her inbox, Sunset took down her Mystable account and deleted the app from her phone. From what she had just heard, it sounded as if things had gotten a lot worse since then.
“But enough of that,” Gilda put Rainbow’s phone away and began cracking her knuckles, “You screwed with the wrong school, you little freak. We don’t need Twilight to save the day. We’re gonna be the heroes this time.” She began smiling with excitement. “Hope you had fun messing with us. Now it’s our turn.”
One by one all of the students slowly began stalking towards Sunset, like a pack of wolves closing in on their prey. Sunset took a couple steps back and tried once again to locate a possible escape route. Nothing had changed; the doors were still being guarded.
The students had Sunset trapped within an enclosing circle now. Even if she did find a way outside the ring of students, there was still the issue of having to outrun Gilda, who had the strength of a lion and the speed of a cheetah. It appeared to be a no-win situation for Sunset.
‘Unless I change the rules.’
The instant that the mob of students came within a reasonable distance, Sunset pulled her phone back out and, without missing a beat, chucked it as hard as she could at Gilda. From that close of a distance, the other girl wasn’t able to dodge and she fell to the ground clutching her face in pain while screaming out profanities. The action had its desired effect. The students were too stunned to move, obviously not expecting her to fight back.
Taking full advantage of the opportunity in front of her, Sunset ran towards the section within the circle that looked the weakest and bulldozed her way through with enough force to knock a few students onto the floor.
Having forced her way outside the circle, Sunset took off and didn’t look back. She was like a runaway locomotive, and anything that got in her way was going to get obliterated.
Her sights were now aimed at the students who were standing guard at the gym’s upper left entrance. The plan was simple, use her momentum to charge through the door, cut down the hallway, and then make a beeline for the school’s front entrance. If she could make it outside, then all she had to do was gun it for the Mirror Portal where she’d be safe. She figured that it was unlikely that anyone would dare follow her back into Equestria. Even if a few students were feeling gutsy enough to take the challenge, she doubted that any of them had had any practice with running on all fours.
Sunset had gotten so close to the exit that the students blocking her way were debating whether or not to move aside for fear of getting rammed. They were only a fraction of a second away from getting knocked aside until Sunset felt a sudden resistance along her midsection, resulting in her falling to the floor.
Sunset quickly identified who had just tackled her from behind. It was a girl named Lightning Dust, an athlete who had transferred to CHS two years ago.
“Hurry up! I got her!” Lightning shouted out. Sunset looked over and saw that the other students were gaining on her. She threw the hardest punch that she could at Lightning, blasting the girl directly in the nose. The strike resulted in Lightning losing her hold.
Sunset managed to kick Lightning Dust off of her and rose back onto her feet. Unfortunately, before Sunset could properly regain her footing, a hard impact to the side had sent her tumbling back down onto the ground. The students who were guarding the door had jumped in and had gone on the attack. While she was trying her best to fend them off, the ring of students from before had managed to catch up. They descended on their target like a swarm of locusts.
What followed next were several minutes of Sunset trying in vain to shield herself from a relentless barrage of punches, kicks, and stomps. Every time she tried moving to protect one section of her body, another part became exposed. She wanted to scream, she wanted to cry, but the most that she could muster were pained grunts.
Sunset wasn’t sure how much longer the attack went on for, but she soon became aware of the sensation of being lifted into the air. She tried opening her eyes, but she could only get one of the two visual orbs to follow her orders. For some reason her other eye was stubbornly refusing to open.
She now noticed that she was being pinned against the wall by a long muscular arm that had a vice like grip on her coat-collar.
The world around her had become blurry, as if Sunset was watching the events unfold from the other side of a foggy window, but she was fairly certain that the one who had grabbed her was Dumbbell. He said something to her, but she couldn’t hear it very well, it was probably an insult. Then he punched her in the face, hard. At least Sunset thought that that’s what he had done.
Her body felt numb, but based on the way that her head had suddenly jerked and bounced off the back of the wall, she assumed that she had likely gotten hit pretty hard.
‘Why?’
There were three more hits to the torso. Sunset was too delirious to tell if they were all from Dumbbell or if someone else had taken over.
‘I just needed … a little more time.’
Their laughter and cheers, which seemed to be coming from every direction at once, was beginning to blend together into a giant, distorted, mesh of sound.
More strikes to the head, her sides, every exposed body part. Was she still being pinned to the wall, or had she been dropped back onto the floor?
Sunset felt one final blow, followed by something warm trickling down the side of her face.
She began to hallucinate. She was standing in Sugar Cube Corner, joined by her friends. Twilight and Princess Celestia were there too. Everyone had smiles on their faces. They all looked so happy.
‘I ... was so ... close …’
The image faded away as Sunset’s reality finally crumbled into darkness.
Unfortunately, i kinda want Sunset to die just so that her friends feel the guilt for the rest of their lives. I'm evil that way.
I want Sunset to survive to make a longer story. :)
Sunset's a survivor, that's always been a fact. Though this will still probably end with a trip to the hospital and there will probably be police involvement now, which, if I recall, Principal Celestia said she wanted to avoid.
Still, I've seen bad school mob beatings (and I ain't just talking fiction), but this one takes the cake by far.
Sunset's probably going to unfriend Rainbow Dash when she finds out she went along with this willing (though probably didn't know how brutal it would be).
This cannot end with Sunset dying. It just can't!
If anything, you should make this a hope-in-the-darkest-hour story. Now that everything's crumbled, I want to see if you give this story a happy ending...
Survives. No tragedy tag. Simple as that.
Well, there's no tragedy tag, just a dark tag, so I'm willing to put my money on the fact that she survives.
I don't read tragedy stories - they're not good for my heart Best pony always dies in tragedy stories and I hate reading about that.
This one has managed to make me feel sick enough with this chapter...I was really hoping that Sunset would manage to get away. That her magic would kick in and protect her or...something.
But Sunset is definitely a fighter. She can pull through for sure.
I would feel angry at them all....But I honestly just feel scared for them. Twilight is going to absolutely MURDER them....and if she doesn't...Celestia will...
I hope she survives. For the reasons I've stated previous times before, of seeing how Rainbow tries to mend their friendship, how these same students would act towards her after finding out the truth, and just the fact that it would give the story so much potential, especially for a sequel. Whereas if you have her die, it's pretty much just everyone else going "Oh, woe is me." When they find out the truth....and thats pretty much the end of the story.
Read from the moment she enters the gym, while listening to this
I know it's not long enough to last the entire time your'e reading, Lol, but it pretty much sums up the scene in song
yeah, fuck rainbow dash.
Doesn't matter if she lives or dies....thou i want her to live don't get me wrong, please please she lives!
But back to the point was about to make, no matter what happens...something will die, and it Friendship.
Adagio warning will repeat itself in her head and if she recovers, she won't be friends with any of them anymore, as the bonds they had were destroyed by Rainbow Dash's betrayal.
Huh, and here I thought they would do something worse than beating her up. I should be thankful.
I'm expecting (hoping) that Sunset will survive the story however I'm also predicting that the story will end on a more bitter note.
The scenario I can predict: Sunset will live but this event will leave an emotional mark on everyone.
Twilight will find out that Sunset was injured and will take her back to Equestria. The Friendship between Sunset and the Human main 5 will be shattered beyond repair, especially as far as Rainbow Dash in concerned as this is something that's pretty much unforgivable. The elements will no longer work for the Humane 6 and even if some of them manage to mend their friendship with Sunset, they will no longer be considered trustworthy and will have to say their good-byes to Sunset as she'll be moving back to Equestria and as agreed by the Equestrian Princesses the portal will be closed permanently as the Human World will be seen as dangerous. Friendships within the group will be in a rough patch, some completely broken. As for Sunset, while she will have close friendships in Equestria (Twilight, Celestia), she will have trust issues, especially with her former friends' Equestrian counterparts as a result of the incident. (If this is a case, I hope there will be a sequel with Sunset adjusting to life in Equestria again and recovering from the incident.)
There are actually several ways that this could turn out, depending on how seriously Sunset is hurt and how soon she wakes up:
1. Sunset comes to and manages to call for help (assuming her phone isn't broken or someone didn't make off with it).
2. Sunset wakes up and goes through the mirror portal to Equestria (essentially pulling a "Screw this, I'm outta here" until the whole Anon-A-Miss thing blows over or perhaps even deciding to leave permanently, though I'd imagine she'd go back for her stuff).
3. Sunset gets found the next morning (I can't remember if it's a Friday in the story) and gets sent to the hospital.
4. Sunset succumbs to her wounds and dies (which I sincerely hope is not what happens).
Survive but definitely has some form of permanent damage and psychological hate and/or fear for the entire school. I think she's definitely going to be wanting to go back to Equestria after this little fiasco.
............................................
Make that mugging.
Well, I hope they're proud of themselves.
.........................give me one second.
(Runs towards gilda's group with a bat)
(comes back covered in blood)I'm back hows every one doing.
These students need to get punished for this. And I there's only one person I know who is capable of taking care of masses like this:
6619049 RANDY ORTONS DOIN SOME SLITHERIN!
I'm with her will died. Wanna see more tragedy in the story. AHAHAHAHAHAAA!
alright wheres my path blaster
*looks for blaster*
found it!
hey Guilda!!
*fires*
6618823
Gotta go with this guy here. Even IF this whole mess gets resolved properly, Sunset is AT BEST looking at needed reconstructive surgery should she survive. I mean, just from the descriptions along I'm thinking massive head trauma, possible bleeding inside skull, damage to the eye might be permanent, to say nothing of her other limbs in general!
Overall...damn that was brutal...well played, but now I NEED to know how this goes...for my own sake.
Premeditated assault. There are about twenty people looking to spend the rest of their school years in juvie. And if they can prove attempted murder, some of them won't be getting out until they're thirty.
As for Rainbow Dash, there's no coming back from this. Even if it's never revealed, she betrayed Loyalty. No more ponying up.
I'm almost scared to see how this train wreck ends.
What would be awesome is if "Anon-a-Miss" keeps posting new stuff without knowing what happened to sunset and then people realizes just how badly they all Fed up. Also imagine how bad the real "Anon-a-Miss" will feel when they find out what they caused.
Goddamn you, comment section. Stop coming up with scenarios that make me sad!
(Doesn't mean I don't want them to happen)
Yea, I take she'll live but have major trust issues and go home.
Damn you people for beating me to it!
Where IS Rainbow in all of this? What's the matter Dash? Can't handle watching your former friend get beaten half to death? Is your conscience bothering you? Is the guilt to much to bear??....I hope it is.
Also, I imagine Dumbbell to look and act like something similar to Moose Mason from Archie comics, Lol, Duuuh....
Except Moose is cool, he wouldn't hit a girl....He'd just take his anger out on Reggie, LOL
6619925 I know. Heck, that worries because probably some of those students are too sensitive for the Big House.
6619503 FORGET THE VIPER! YOU NEED THE TEXAS RATTLESNAKE!
6619795 It kind of seemed like she might have even had an eye punched right out of her skull.
6619925
Rainbow Dash's punishment should be to take care of Sunset while she recovers from her injuries.
I'm looking forward to the mob's reactions when they go to school the next day to see Anon-A-Miss still posting stuff. Though that might lead to some assuming she had an accomplice.
I wonder how they'll catch all the students involved. Rainbow can at least identify Gilda and a few others, but all of them? Maybe the school has security cameras or one of them was stupid enough to post the beating on-line. Unless Celestia/Luna "bluff" them into thinking they know. I wonder if they can bluff/trick the Crusaders into confessing?
Principal Celestia/Vice-Principal Luna (over the intercom and currently out of fucks to give): Attention students will all those who took part in the beating of Sunset Shimmer know that they are now expelled effective immediately-as in get out we better not see you on school grounds again, yes we know who you are we have this thing called "security cameras", e-mails will be sent out to your parents informing them of your transfer to the nearest juvenile detention hall.
Oh by the way Sunset is not Anon-A-Miss. The real perpetrators have been caught and will be punished accordingly. We will not reveal their identities at this time to avoid a repeat of what happen to Sunset.
6620405
Dumbbell
6621618 Oh, THAT'S Dumbbell! LOL, I thought he was just an OC
6618603
6618104
They just got done stomping Sunset out pretty bad.
That could come back to haunt them later when you consider that she can identify some of them.
You think they're just gonna leave her there and run the risk of her waking up or someone finding her later?
6618603
It's currently Wednesday in the story.
6622065
I......thought that's what was going to happen....Right up until you said that...
Oh snap....This ain't gonna turn into some "Popped" story is it? (Popped by "Tapoff")
6622182
Wait and see.
6622214 HOLY MACKEROL DUDE! YOU'RE KILLING ME!! Honestly, I actually did think about that as a possibility of what might happen in this story, but I kinda just dismissed it, I didn't think this story would get THAT dark....Honestly though....I kinda hope it does go that way....It would make this story SO intense...
6622261
And to think that I tried making this story rated E when I first started typing things out ...
6622291 I'm glad you didn't go that way....I LOVE suspense/thriller/dark stories
All aboard the fanart train, someone get on it!!
6622319
Then you might want to check out some of the stories that were written by a friend of mine who encouraged me to write.
His user name is "jmj".
All of his stories are dark, and I guess that rubbed off on me.
Try taking a look at this story he wrote called "Pinkamenace II society".
What happened to Sunset in this chapter is pretty tame compared to some of the things he writes.
Here's a little something to lighten the mood in this chapter...(Kinda)
Have the song play from 2:39 and on, starting right after the moment sunset throws her phone at Gilda and begins her mad dash, until the other students catch up to her.
Here's how i'm seeing it...
Sunset throws the phone at Gilda, she falls to the floor cursing, students are stunned, sunset starts her mad dash as the song starts from 2:39, and she breaks through the ring of students at the word "Feet". "Get up on ya feet now."
As the song continues, she runs for the entrance. She gets really close, and is about to ram through the students at the entrance at the words "Here we go" "Give it to me, here we go"
She gets knocked over by lightning at the word "feet" again. "Get up on ya feet now"
Lightning struggles to hold her down, and yells to the other students to hurry up, and Sunset punches her in the nose at the words "Yippee Yi Yay"
"Hurry up, I got her!" Yippee Yi yay!, yippee yi yo!"
Sunset kicks her off, and gets back up on her feet as the words "Get up on ya feet now" plays a final time, before immediately after, the music halts,(should be at 2:58) and the students blocking the door knock her down again, before the rest arrive, and the mood goes back to its regular dark setting.
6622792 Ya, I might check out his stuff...The kinda dark stuff I like on fimfiction are stories like "Twilight's inferno", "this story", "Love in all its forms" (Even though that one is only categorized as sad), "Popped", "Adagio is"....and those kind of things, but there are a LOT of dark rated stories on fimfiction I wont even give a second glance to....I'm kinda picky like that, Lol
Loved the Pony Parade. Made me feel better.
And now it's time for... Anon-A-Miss Behind The Scenes!
*Sunset having Lightning Dust on top of her.*
"It's cool, you can put your full body weight on me."
"This is my full bodyweight."
"......HOLY MACKEROL You're like a freakin chihuahua!" *Both laugh hysterically*
(Dialogue taken from a hunger games, behind the scenes picture with Jennifer lawrence and the girl who plays clove, that I saw.)
Sooo....I was re-reading this scene, and I got to thinking...What would I do in this situation?
Well, desperate times, desperate measures...Soooo....If I were in Sunset's shoes, I would do the ONE thing that would be sure to send everyone running AWAY....I'd drop my pants
If they STILL kept coming...I'd just scoff and call them a bunch of pedos.
In short...Probably what Discord would do...
...................that has got be one of the worst positions any human being can be subjected to, when you are surrounded and they continuously beat the living sh*t out of you to within an inch of death and feeling all that pain and torment................it sounded like a VERY unpleasant experience.
7173254
That's...actually not a bad idea
Let's start a scary (true story) chain!
there was one time I was home alone... it was around midnight, and I was in my living room watching tv in the dark.
My front door is right by my living room, and suddenly my garage light comes on outside. I look out the window, and there's a group of about 6 guys coming up my driveway, and to my door.
Now I'm already nervous about the fact that six guys I have never seen before are coming up to my door at the middle of the night, but then, when they get to the door, they don't even knock or ring or anything, they just attempt to open the door. (My door had already been locked)
By now, my heart's beating like an indian pow wow, they look into the window and see me on the couch, where I just look back to them with an expression on my face like:
then they look amongst themselves with confused expressions of their own, before leaving and going to the house next door.
My guess....Party at the wrong house, LOL
Still gave me a good scare though...
Well damn... harsh...
Nicely written.
Pony Parade just makes everything better.