Holy shit, and I mean HOLY SHIT

You do this universe all kinds of amazingly well

Shortly after, I was asked to leave the premises for reasons that totally weren’t connected to me attempting to break into a filing cabinet.

“...Should’ve hidden in the bathroom and tried it after dark.

You know, I can't help but visualize The Eye listening in like always and, at that last part, doing a double-take.

“Apparently, some dog at the shelter came in with rabies. It got violent, escaped, and had to be put down. I think Fluttershy was a bit traumatized, poor thing, and she’s gone to get some kind of… rabies booster, I guess?”

always snapping pictures of us on the field with her old Polaroid.

Takes notes, Sunset, take notes!

The cafe’s new special was called ‘elasticini con besciamella’; or, rubber bands with white sauce.

The white sauce was hand lotion.

I know that The Stranger is likely doing this just for kicks, but I very nearly barfed

Applejack’s phone -- but no Applejack.

F! Start digging, start digging!
Hold on, AJ!

10848359

You do this universe all kinds of amazingly well

aaahhh ty!

You know, I can't help but visualize The Eye listening in like always and, at that last part, doing a double-take.

I always tend to think that the Eye has a fairly intimate relationship with its Avatars, as far as entities go; less so than the Web, maybe, but sort of like the connection you might have with your favorite TV show. So Gertrude was always good for a nice big explosion, Jon brought the drama, Jonah/Elias was... there, and Sunset is proving to develop in some very interesting directions...

“For file #0210817, I went to the extension office and asked about the ‘guy’ or ‘creature’ that Trixie mentioned. I was informed that he had been brought on as a temporary replacement for the previous crafts instructor, who had left town abruptly in late May. I was not permitted to view his employment record. Shortly after, I was asked to leave the premises for reasons that totally weren’t connected to me attempting to break into a filing cabinet.

“...Should’ve hidden in the bathroom and tried it after dark.

Sunset, something tells me it’s hard for you to get over your old habits.

“Apparently, some dog at the shelter came in with rabies. It got violent, escaped, and had to be put down. I think Fluttershy was a bit traumatized, poor thing, and she’s gone to get some kind of… rabies booster, I guess?”

What?

Sunset sighed as she reclined on her bed, bouncing a leg nervously. This wouldn’t exactly be her first time sneaking around Canterlot after dark, but there was a difference between a little light graffiti and digging up a cemetery. What if they got caught? What if they got stuck at the bottom of the pit they dug? What if they found exactly what you’d expect to find in a cemetery? Sunset had too many questions. She hated all of the answers.

Graffiti?

“Truth is beauty, and beauty is truth.” That’s the old saying, right? I always believed it, in the sort of way you believe “Early to bed, early to rise,” and stuff like that. It’s just something people say. You don’t question it.

Recently, though, I’ve had a lot to think about with regard to truth and beauty, and I think it’s only half right. Truth is beautiful. But beauty isn’t always the truth.

What does that mean?

I didn’t have much time to think about it, though. Almost as soon as we opened, our little cafe was flooded with eager diners. They never stayed long, either. They just ordered something, took a picture of it when it arrived, and left. Most of them didn’t even take a bite. They were interested in a different form of consumption. The flash of phone cameras was dizzying. They took pictures of the food, the decor, and even the staff, before sending it hurtling into the internet. I can’t even guess how many photos of me exist now. How many iterations of I.

Did they pay?

There’s a lot that I can’t fix an exact date to. Like, when exactly we started taking one customer’s untouched meal and serving it up to another. It wasn’t as though it mattered. No one was trying to eat them anymore, not since the guy who tried to take a bite of his ice cream cone discovered that it was covered in carefully-sculpted lard.

What’s lard?

The cafe is still there, although there weren’t as many customers as I remembered. Maybe Vignette moved on, took the attention somewhere else. I looked through the window -- Vignette apparently went through with the rebrand, as it’s been painted with the figure of a laughing clown and renamed ‘Gaslighters’. Pretty on the nose, if I say so myself. But looking in from across the street, I saw the tall, distended figure of Sunny at the register. In the back, the disturbingly muscular form of Short flipped something that probably wasn’t a pancake. And in the middle of it all, someone was waiting tables. She wore the cafe’s apron, a wide smile, and my face.

How is that possible?

“End statement.” Sunset put the last piece of paper down, her brow furrowed. “This… raises many questions. At the very least, this account details a known quantity in the realm of the supernatural, in the form of Vignette Valencia and her… editing skills. However, there are elements of this that don’t fit. When I encountered Valencia, she was only able to replace my friends and I with simple holograms, not physically distort bodies or remove faces. Furthermore, she mentioned a ‘patron’, one with a fondness for clowns.”

So she’s met valencia?

Sunset was silent for a long moment. “I cannot begin to guess what this might mean for my investigation,” she said at last. “I can only assume that there is some figure behind the scenes, granting power to people and locations for some unknown purpose of their own. Valencia’s phrasing suggests that this is done intentionally, and that she has had direct contact with this individual. Finding Valencia is, therefore, a priority, though of higher priority is finding a way to protect myself and others from her chicanery.”

So there’s basically something giving people powers? Where’s their location?

My eyes had never been so inhumanly wide, like something out of a cartoon.

And in this world, that's saying something!

Fascinating Vignette vignette, made all the more disturbing by the familiar face. It's definitely a lead, but is it one Sunset wants to pursue? And that's before getting into whatever happened to Applejack...

Exquisitely unsettling. You're far too good at this, and I mean that as a compliment.

...Well I now know who bought all the manure in their state. Frig!