Darkest Sunset

by Pathious

Fluttering hearts

It wasn't even a couple seconds after Sunset had seen the horrible truth that she felt eyes on her neck. She turned around, tears in her eyes, mirroring those of her remaining friends. Sunset could feel the tear dam bursting. She was pulled into a hug as she and Rarity cried on each other's shoulders. She gazed around at all of her saddened friends. Rainbow Dash was the only one who seemed to be missing. That This made little to no sense. Rainbow and Fluttershy were friends since pre-K. Why wouldn’t Rainbow be the first to find out?

"Oh Darling,” she sniffled. “ I- I can't believe it. I just… can't." Rarity’s body trembled. Sunset felt Rarity’s sadness in their embrace, but pulled away before she could glimpse into more of her mind. Sunset’s lower lip trembled. She closed her eyes and tried to bite down the tears.

"I don't want to believe it." Sunset said as she started to feel the hot tears streaming down her cheeks. "I- I just can’t believe it. Who would want to hurt her? She was always so k-kind to everyone, she wouldn’t hurt a fly! She- she was the nicest girl I’ve ever known. And now… she’s gone." Sunset looked down at her feet, silently weeping. She felt like her heart had been hit with an asthma attack and was trying to punch out of her chest. Officer Phillips who was still dumbfounded by what he had seen happen to Sunsets eyes was observing the group, having given up on shunning the friends. "She seemed okie-dokie-lokie last time I t-talked to her." Pinkie said as her knees buckled. Her hair was slowly losing it’s volume, becoming less poofy than usual. Pinkie was hyperventilating so hard Sunset was worried she was going to lose consciousness. Pinkie finally opened her eyes, puffy and red from her pain.

Sunset felt like a part of her was missing now. Twilight, despite her shorter relationship with Fluttershy, just couldn't stop crying. The whole group was just a huge sniveling mess of crying and snot. Sunset shifted her eyes to see a CSI and an ambulance worker carrying a limp yellow body in a cadaver bag towards an ambulance. A pale hand was limply hanging out from the HRP. A quiet gasp emanated from the 5 friends.

Sunset knew it was over. Flutters was gone, and she never even got to say goodbye. All she wanted right now was to hunt down the person who did this.

Sunset froze. She looked down at her hands and started to tremble. She pulled her necklace out from underneath her shirt and looked at it. Sunset felt her tears resurge as she pulled away from her friends and ran towards the ambulance, a determined glint in her eye. Maybe there was time, maybe if she could just touch her, get one last glimpse at her most recent memories, she could see. See who did this. Time crawled to a standstill as several officers moved in to stop her from passing the yellow tape.

“No.” It was too late, the officers moved in and proceeded to herd her away from the scene. Sunset caught their annoyance before they let go of her. “Miss, we understand, we really do, all of us have lost someone, but we can’t risk you compromising the evidence needed to arrest the criminal who did this.” “If you just let me touch her, you wouldn’t need-”

“We’ve been bending the rules letting you and your friends stay here as long as you have. You need to calm down. Now. Or else your friend here won’t be the only wounded one.” “You’re supposed to serve the people! You can’t do this! That’s my friend, I need to just say goodbye, PLEASE!” She wept.

"Stop resisting or I will take you in for obstruction of justice." Officer Phillips said as he knelt down by her. "You’re being unreasonable. You can see your friend at the funeral, say your goodbyes then. Right now we need to take her into the coroner’s lab.” “You don’t understand, by then it’ll be too late-” “Miss.”

She knew that struggling was pointless. “Ok. You're right.” She softly admitted. “It’s just, she is- was one of my best friends. I… I just want to avenge her.” She said, tears now falling freely. The officers were supporting her and helping her towards a nearby picnic bench. “I just wanted to see her. I just- I just wanted to see her…”

Applejack and Rarity drifted towards her, only to halted by the officers. “We’re sorry, but right now, she needs her space.” They apologized.

Sunset was sitting on a bench the girls had slaved over for Fluttershy’s birthday. They figured a nice handmade bench to sit and look at her backyard duck pond. She had been absolutely thrilled and spent much of her time at the bench.

Everywhere she looked there was some memory of Fluttershy and her all-encompassing kindness. It was just too much to bear. Sunset sighed. “I’m sorry, officers. I just- I- She- and now-” “It’s alright, Miss. We understand. This is a very hard time for you and your friends. However, that was still Obstruction of Justice. We can let it slide this time, but you need to clear your head. I’ll help you all get home, but you need no stay away from the crime scene. There'll be justice, I promise.” The officer removed his hat and held it to his chest.

Sunset didn’t want to think anymore. This was all so overwhelming, she just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry. "Excuse us, can we please see Sunset now? We all need each other for comfort." Pinkie butted in with a weak smile. Her hair was like limp noodles, to match her similar demeanor. Not even Pinkie could find a positive to this situation.

Suddenly, the girls all let out a small gasp. Their necklaces were flashing.

~

"Stop! Come Back!" Rainbow was screaming as she held a her side, a large gash ripped through her flesh. She had been having tea with Fluttershy when it had come. She chased it all over town, but even her own super speed was no match for the slippery shadow. Rainbow could feel herself getting weaker and weaker. She couldn't run anymore, Her medallion blinking as if sending out a distress signal.

Clutched in Rainbow’s hand was Fluttershy's necklace. Her clothes were stained crimson, soaked in her own blood. She had sustained two stab wounds. She was the only one who knew what happened. She was the only one who knew who did it. No time to call the others; it was catch them now or let them get away. And they were not getting away.

She lost her traction running through a puddle and slipped. Her body was trembling from over-exertion and blood loss. She had to end this now.

Rainbow drug herself out of the puddle and over to a wall that she rested on as she examined her wounds. "Oh fuck." she said as she angrily kicked the ground, only to yelp in pain. The wounds were much deeper than she had previously assumed, and she had let the killer get away. "Fluttershy… I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry!" she yelled out, gaining the attention of the residents.

Several lights flickered on from the inside of apartment complexes. Rainbow let out a weak call for help as she started to black out.That was when she heard a sliding door open to her right. She groaned and cringed from her pain as she slid her arom out to the door. Her eyes still clenched in pain, she wrapped her arms around the leg of her savior. Rainbow caught a gentle whiff of perfume from the blurry figure she had now arms around. She opened her eyes to try and see who it was even with her now blurred vision. She saw a dark purple boot and lavender tights with dark triangles on them. Her eyes slowly started to look up to what the boot was connected to. The stocking on the leg was a light purple with a lot of darker colored triangles on them.

"I-it's you." The person said in a soft and surprised voice as Rainbow’s consciousness drifted away. "G-girls, Girls! Come out here and help me! She’s-”

~

Sunset was looking at the group’s neckwear before the blinking suddenly came to stop. She was thankful the cops had thought nothing of a few flashing necklaces. For all they knew, they were just some cheap, Bit Store plastic LED necklaces.

Sunset’s eyes were still very watery in as she was stared down at her necklace. She scared enough as it was. She was could now add confused to the list thanks to the random light show her jewelry had just put on. Her friends were all sitting by her for comfort. She knew she had to go home and wait for the forensics to do their thing. It was the last thing Sunset wanted to do, but she knew she had to.

"Come on, Sunny. We best do as they ask us." Applejack said as she wiped her eyes.

"Ah don't think we’re very welcome as is."

"Applejack is right... We should leave before they evict us." Rarity said as she was nervously scrapping her foot on the ground. As much as she didn't want to bail on Fluttershy and go home, she agreed with AJ.

"You’re right, girls... as always.” She let out a weak smile.”We probably should go home... Do you girls think we should all stay together? None of use should be alone right now." Sunset said, nervously fingering her pendant. "Speaking of being alone.." Pinkie said, still sad. "Where’s Dashie?... Did she not get the news or something?" Pinkie sounded worried.

"I was wondering the same thing." Sunset said as she gazed up from the crystal amulet. "Rainbow and Flutters have known each other since pre-K, plus she’s got super speed... I would think she would be the first to come." Sunset said as she slowly got up and looked at her friends.

"I don't know as much about friendship as you guys, but that does seem very logical." Twilight said as she wiped her eyes. "They are very close..." Twilight said as she twirled her hair in distress. "I’m really worried about her." She concluded.

"Well, I reckon she's still asleep... We should still mosey on over to her house and see how she’s doing though." Applejack said as she held a hand on Sunset’s shoulder. Without warning Sunset's eyes busted into a bright white light again.

"Sugarcube, what’s wrong?" I asked, holding my friend's hand.

"Nothing... I just.. It’s nothing..." Fluttershy mumbled as she turned away from me, pulling her hands out of the embrace. The calendar on her wall marked four days since the Camp Fundraiser.

"Fluttershy, don't you lie to me.. I can tell something’s bothering ya. Now what’s troubling you?" I put my hand on her shoulder.
"Alright. Applejack, someone... S-someone.." Fluttershy was shaking very badly. "Someone is following me." She let out in a panicked breath.

"It’s alright, Flutters.” I patted her shoulder. “Do ya know who’s following ya?” "I don't know who it is... Please Applejack, Don’t tell the others, but… I’m... I'm scared." Fluttershy said, quivering in fear.

"Ah promise. Are you okay? Are you having bad nightmares?" I gently prodded her

"I can't tell the difference between life and nightmares anymore." Fluttershy said as she started to weep.

Comments

[nothingtoseehere]

I like the story. The whole murder mystery/thriller thing is a perfect way to examine Sunset's new powers and what they mean in the larger framework of her human life and relationships. Your writing, however, needs some work. You should look into getting an editor or proofreader.

[Pathious]

7612764 believe me i have tried but no one is willing to to help me. thanks for the tip though

[Galactic Raincloud]

7612799 I'll be willing to edit! I don't have any work I can show you but I can edit a chapter for you and you can see if you find me halfway decent or not! I have no idea if editors charge or not (probably not???) but if they do I won't. I don't like money. Money loses itself and in return gives you magical talking rainbow horses with incorrectly styled, brushable manes...

[Pathious]

7618246 Please do Edit if you wish. I would love it if you did. :D I take great pride in this story and hope for it to be good.

[Galactic Raincloud]

7618320 Alright! Sweet! Huzzah! Other interjections used to express happiness! I don't know if you do docs or straight on the site, but when you need me Private Message me and we can figure this out! If you want these existing chapters edited too, go ahead and make me feels like a smaller social outcast contact me so I can does grammars well!

[TwiRaptor]

Sunset felt like a part of her was missing now. Twilight, despite her shorter relationship with Fluttershy, just couldn't stop crying. The whole group was just a huge sniveling mess of crying and snot. Sunset shifted her eyes to see a CSI and an ambulance worker carrying a limp yellow body in a cadaver bag towards an ambulance.

To be honest with you this part got me, I am not sure if I liked it or not..it really made me upset but I know its just a story.

"Come on, Sunny. We best do as they ask us." Applejack said as she wiped her eyes.

Applejack, the worlds best at stating the obvious. Thank you dear for being there for Sunset right now. We best do as they ask us, Confucius say

Applejack said as she held a hand on Sunset’s shoulder. Without warning Sunset's eyes busted into a bright white light again.

FLASHBACK INITIATE!!

I would like to apologies for the late comment, really good so fare, more so with the editor! great work!