Pain Still There

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It has been sometime after New Years and everyone was going about their day at Canterlot High School. With the holidays over, the students were back to working through another semester at school. Although, the Holiday Season wasn’t exactly the best time of the year that time. That year, a mysterious blogger named Anon-a-Miss appeared out of nowhere and started posting the secrets of so many students at CHS. At first, everyone believed it was one particular student but eventually the true culprits came forward and confessed to everything. Although that fiasco has passed, and the Anon-a-Miss account has been taken down, some students still remain greatly affected by that incident.

After the final bell rang, all the students started leaving the school grounds and heading to their homes. All but five teenage girls, who were all waiting on the steps of the school’s front entrance for one of their friends to arrive.

“What’s taking her so long?” Rainbow Dash asked impatiently.

“Sunset should be out by now,” Rarity said.

“Ah heard her say she was goin’ ta meet with Principal Celestia today about somethin’ important,” Applejack informed them.

“I hope everything’s alright,” Fluttershy said.

“Relax,” Pinkie Pie assured her. “I’m sure whatever it is, it will be just fine.”

In the principal’s office, Principal Celestia was sitting at her desk looking through some papers while Sunset Shimmer was patiently sitting in a chair facing the desk. Both of them looked very uneasy and not very happy for some reason. Sunset Shimmer was a victim, actually the biggest victim, of the infamous Anon-a-Miss fiasco. But she wasn’t one of the people who got her secrets posted on the internet, she was the scapegoat that everyone, even her own friends, thought was the culprit. Although the real culprit confessed and everyone stopped thinking it was her, the pain never went away. Sunset had asked to meet with Principal Celestia to talk about a very serious and important decision she was about to make.

“Here it is,” Celestia said handing Sunset a form. “Just sign your name at the bottom. But before you do that, is there any way I can convince you to rethink your decision?” The principal had a look of sadness on her face. “If you still feel like you weren’t compensated enough for what you went through, I could have another talk with the Crusaders or your friends if that is what you need.”

“No, Principal Celestia,” Sunset assured her. “There’s no need for that. Besides, I’ve already made my decision.” She sadly began signing the paper.

“I know you’re still feeling pretty upset,” Celestia said. “But I took this job so I could teach and help young people grow into happy and responsible adults. But there have been a few times where I’ve failed some students. I just don’t want you to be one of them.”

“I appreciate your efforts, but I have to do what I believe is best. Not just for me, but for everyone else.” Sunset then finished signing the paper, handed it back to Celestia, put on her backpack, and started heading for the door.

“If you give us another chance, we can show you that you don’t have to be alone,” Celestia said to her in a slightly pleading tone.

“But I am alone,” Sunset sadly replied. “Always have been.” With that, she left the office and the principal to her thoughts.

Celestia stared down at the paper Sunset signed, her face showing visible sadness. Then she closed her eyes, lowered her head, and let out a heavy sigh. What just transpired in that room was something Celestia desperately wanted to avoid. But despite her best efforts, she had failed to stop it. The guilt of being unable to help a student and the feeling of being utterly useless was eating away at her insides.

“Oh Twilight,” she said to herself. “If you were here, you’d know what to do.”

Back at the school entrance, the five girls were still waiting patiently for Sunset. Their faces lit up with big smiles when their friend finally came out the doors carrying her backpack. They didn’t seem to notice the sad expression on her face.

“Well, it’s about time,” Rainbow said relieved.

“How did it go, darling?” Rarity asked.

“I had an important ‘issue’ to take care of,” Sunset told them.

“Well now that yer’ done with that, we all better head on to Rainbow’s house for our sleepover tonight,” Applejack said.

“YES!” Pinkie yelled and jumped into the air with excitement. “Let’s get this slumber party started!”

Sunset watched uneasily as all five girls started chatting excitedly amongst themselves about what their plans for the slumber party should be. She knew she had to tell them the bad news now.

“Girls,” Sunset said timidly in an attempt to get their attention. “I’m not going.”

The five instantly stopped chatting and turned their full attention to Sunset. They stared at her as if she had bat wings sticking out of her ears, snakes slithering out of her mouth, and thousands of spiders crawling out of her hair.

“Come again,” Rainbow said in a tone of disbelief.

Pinkie chuckled as if she just heard a funny joke. “Good one, Sunset.”

“I’m not joking, Pinkie,” Sunset said in a sad and serious tone.

“Why not?” a confused Rarity asked.

“Is there something wrong with my house?” Dash asked.

“No, it’s not that at all,” Sunset assured them. “I have something to tell you all: I’m leaving Canterlot High.”

All five girls’ mouths dropped in complete and utter shock. They all had a bad feeling but were desperately hoping this wasn’t what they were thinking it might be.

“What do you mean, darling?” Rarity asked nervously.

“I’ve just dropped out of school,” Sunset sadly confessed. “I’m no longer a student of CHS.”

“Wha… But why?!” Rainbow asked completely flabbergasted.

“Is somethin’ wrong, sugarcube?” AJ asked concerned.

“Don’t you like it here anymore?” Fluttershy asked just as concerned.

Sunset didn’t answer. She couldn’t. However, that seemed to answer the questions anyway.

“What’s wrong?” Rarity asked.

“Is someone making you miserable?” a serious and suspicious Pinkie asked.

Sunset didn’t reply, which gave them the answer they needed.

“Is it Trixie? Because if it is, I can see to it that she stops giving you trouble,” Dash said clenching her right fist in her left hand.

“Photo Finish isn’t making you look bad to anyone is she?” Rarity asked.

“Did Snips and Snails pull a mean prank?” Fluttershy also asked.

“Did another evil villain from Equestria become a student, put everyone under a spell, and turn them into their pawns for their diabolical plan?” Pinkie asked.

“No,” Sunset replied giving Pinkie a weird look.

“Then who is it?” AJ asked getting impatient. “Who’s givin’ you problems?”

“Everyone, including you!” Sunset cried unable to take the pressure anymore.

The five girls finally stopped and stared at Sunset in complete and utter shock and confusion.

“What?” Rainbow asked greatly confused. “But what did we do?”

“Do you all still remember what happened last holiday season?” Sunset asked starting her explanation. They all had very disturbed and somewhat regretful expressions on their faces indicating they did remember. “You all talked about how it is the most wonderful time of the year. But for me, it was the worst time of my entire life. The day when I realized friendship doesn’t always work for everyone. Anon-a-Miss was destroying the new image I’d been working so hard to build up and not a single person was willing to believe in me, not even you.” Tears started welling up in Sunset’s eyes as she spoke. “I know my first impressions on everyone weren’t the greatest, but I thought that after everything we’ve been through you all would’ve believed that I had truly changed for the better unlike the other students of CHS. I helped you all stop the Dazzlings, remember? But instead, you all started acting like I had returned to my old ways, even though I had no reason to do so. For the first time in my life I was happy, I had experienced the magic of friendship. But in one fell swoop, it was all taken away from me and I was left alone, thrown out like a broken vase.” At this moment, Sunset started to softly and tearfully weep. Her friends stared at her with sad realization in all their faces, they finally understood what was upsetting her.

“Sunset, that’s all in the past now,” Dash assured her.

“Your name was cleared, darling,” Rarity said in a tender tone.

“And we all made up,” Fluttershy gently said.

“It doesn’t feel like we did,” Sunset solemnly replied. “The pain I felt has never stopped hurting.”

“What are you going ta do?” Applejack asked nervously. She was afraid of what Sunset’s answer might be.

“I hate to say this, girls,” Sunset said with visible remorse on her face. “But until I figure out a way to clear this up, we can’t hang out anymore.”

This hit all five of them like a giant semi truck going 100 miles per hour. They looked absolutely devastated and heartbroken.

“Sunset, I implore you to reconsider this decision,” Rarity begged as her eye makeup began to drip down her cheeks.

“I’ll throw you a big party to make everything better,” Pinkie said trying to be as positive as she could.

“Sorry Pinkie,” Sunset apologized. “But I’m afraid parties can’t fix everything.” This made Pinkie’s poofy pink hair deflated and hung straight down as her face was etched with extreme sadness.

“Sunset, please let us help you out,” Fluttershy desperately begged.

“We just wanna make ya feel better,” AJ said on the verge of tears. “Can’t ya trust us?”

“I did once,” Sunset replied with tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry girls. I really am. But I can’t risk going through that again. I don’t think my heart can take it.

“So you were miserable being left alone,” Rainbow tried to reason with her. “Do you really think isolating yourself from everyone again is the right thing to do?”

“Don’t worry, it’s not like I’m not used to it,” Sunset sadly assured. “No offense.” Then she turned around and started walking down the sidewalk leaving the five girls she once called friends with miserable and remorseful faces. Sunset’s facial expression showed that she really didn’t want it to come to this, but the pain in her heart was just too much. Rather than risk another incident like Anon-a-Miss, she decided it was probably best to just distance herself from everyone entirely. She didn’t how long it would take for her to get over this and return. Perhaps she may never return to CHS and get back with her friends again. Her future was unclear.

“I’m sorry Twilight, I tried,” she said to herself. “I really wish you were here right now. Sometimes I wonder if there’s anyone in this world who has it just as bad or even worse than I do.”

Enough Is Enough (Edited 10/16/17)

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In the town of Royal Woods, Michigan, lived a big family called the Louds. The family consisted of two parents and eleven kids. Due to its large size, the family was notorious for causing quite a lot of mischief and noise, hence the name ‘Loud’. But for awhile, the Loud family had been having a string of good luck. Every event they had participated in has ended in happiness.

“AND THE SQUIRRELS WIN!” an announcer at a baseball game announced proudly causing the entire audience to erupt in cheers.

“YEAH!” Lynn Loud Jr., the pitcher for the Royal Woods’ Squirrels, cried triumphantly. She was 13 years old and a huge lover of sports. But what she loved more than playing and competing was winning. Lynn was also very superstitious and believed that good luck brought good outcomes. This belief extended to the rest of her family.

Lynn’s parents and nine sisters cheered for her and her team from the bleachers. All except a small person wearing a Royal Woods’ Squirrel mascot costume, who just sat and watched silently alongside the Loud family.

“ROCK ON ROYAL WOODS!” Luna Loud yelled as she finished her song at her rock concert. She was a 15 year old rocker with a passion for music and British musicians.

Her parents and nine sisters cheered for her, except the person in the squirrel costume who just sat quietly.

“And Lola Loud wins the Miss Lucky and Fortunate Pageant!” an announcer at a beauty pageant declared.

“YES!” Lola Loud squealed with pride as she showed off her looks to the cheering audience. She was 6 years old and the younger of two twins. The other twin was her sister, Lana, who was her polar opposite. While Lola was a pageant queen who prided herself on her beauty and wanted to make it known throughout Royal Woods, Lana was a tomboy who loved animals, playing in mud, eating gross things, and fixing things with tools.

Lola’s parents and nine sisters all congratulated her on her triumph, all but the person in the squirrel costume.

Later one night, the Loud family had arrived back to their little broken-down-looking house on Franklin Avenue. They all chatted happily as they exited the family van, which they affectionately referred to as ‘Vanzilla’.

“Well Louds,” Lynn Loud Sr., the patriarch of the family, said. “I have to say it’s been a great week for all of us.”

“Yes indeed, dear,” Rita Loud, the matriarch, agreed as she carried baby Lily in her arms. Lily Loud was 15 months old and the youngest of all her siblings. "We're very proud of your success in your golf tournament, Lori.”

“It was literally nothing,” Lori Loud proudly said. She was 17 years old and the oldest of her siblings. She loved being put in charge of her siblings by her parents and communicating on her phone with her friends (especially her boyfriend, Bobby Santiago). “But it was nice to have a little bit of luck on my side,” she said looking back at the person wearing the squirrel costume who was still sitting in the van.

“And my fashion show was, like, a huge success,” Leni Loud said happily. Leni was 16 years old and the second oldest of her siblings. She loved fashion, designing, and shopping. But her biggest flaw was her low intelligence.

“And Luan really got everyone at her comedy show,” Lynn Jr. said.

“It was lucky no one got too squirrely,” Luan said with a laugh as she looked back at the person in the squirrel costume. “Get it?” she asked her family, but her siblings all groaned at the joke. Luan Loud was 14 years old and was a passionate comedian. She loved jokes, puns, gags, pulling pranks on April Fool’s Day, and her ventriloquist dummy, Mr. Coconuts.

“Let’s not forget Lucy’s grave-digging competition, dudes,” Luna reminded them.

“If I had a heart, it would be bursting with joy,” Lucy said in a monotone and emotionless voice. She was an 8 year old goth who loved vampires, spirits, writing poems, anything supernatural and dark, coffins, and her vampire bust of Edwin from her favorite show ‘Vampires of Melancholia’.

“Or Lisa’s science fair,” Lana also reminded everyone.

“The chances of success were 1,999,999 to 1,” Lisa said bluntly. Lisa was 4 years old and the second youngest of her siblings. She was a child prodigy and loved science, inventing, tests, equations, and experimenting (mostly on her siblings).

“Well Louds, I say we order pizza in honor of such a lucky week,” Lynn Sr. announced which caused his family to cheer in excitement as they all entered the house.

As soon as they were all inside, the person wearing the squirrel costume finally stepped out of the van. Lynn Sr. and Rita’s kids all seemed very happy with how life was treating them. But Lincoln Loud, their only son, was not. Lincoln was 11 years old, the middle child, and the only boy amongst his siblings. He loved comics, video games, and watching his favorite TV show, ‘ARGGH! (Academy of Really Good Ghost Hunters!)’. Unlike his sisters, Lincoln didn’t have any special talent that made him very noteworthy to his family and was often overlooked and thought very little of. And because he was the only boy, it made him an easy target for teasing from his sisters and getting into trouble.

Lincoln took the squirrel head off his own head. His most distinguishing feature was his white hair. “Well, here we are again,” Lincoln said unhappily to the readers. “I try to convince my family I’m not bad luck only to be put in this situation.” The past few days had not been very kind to Lincoln at all. One day, his sister, Lynn, forced him to attend one of her baseball games. It was the first time Lincoln had ever attended one of her games. When her team lost, Lynn, due to her superstitious nature, blamed Lincoln for it and called him bad luck. At the time, Lincoln was longing for some alone time to himself. Due to the rest of the family sharing in Lynn’s superstitious beliefs, he thought the best way to get what he wanted was to play along with it. For awhile, everything seemed to work out well, his family (including his own parents and family pets) bought into the deception and banned him from all of his sisters’ events. But then, the belief got way out of hand to the point where he was banned completely from the house and forced to live outside. When he attempted to confess to his lie, Lynn still refused to let go of her belief and convinced the others not to believe him. In a last ditch effort, he snuck into one of Lynn’s baseball games disguised as the team’s mascot. When Lynn won the game, he revealed himself to his family. At first, it seemed that his family finally realized that he wasn’t bad luck after all. Shortly after, he began making him wear the squirrel costume everywhere they went thinking it made him good luck. Over time, the suit became very smelly and uncomfortable to wear, but his family didn’t seem to care. Lincoln was now more of a good luck charm than an actual family member. “While I do love my family and I believe deep down they love me too, and I’d do almost anything to make them happy, I’m beginning to lose my patience. I just don’t understand how anyone can be so easily fooled by a bunch of phony baloney.”

“Nice outfit, Loud!” yelled Mr. Grouse, the Louds’ grouchy and elderly neighbor, in a mocking tone. “What are you doing, training to be a squirrel?”

It was at this point that Lincoln had reached his limit. He had been suffering for over a week with no one showing him any sympathy. Now a loud and angry voice in his head was screaming to him ‘Enough was enough!’

“That’s It!” Lincoln angrily declared and marched through the front door of his home and immediately up to his room. His room was once a closet but was turned into his room as he got more and more sisters. Needless to say, it wasn’t as big as his sisters’ rooms. However, during the whole bad luck fiasco, his family had sold his furniture. Now there was nothing in his room but a laid-out blanket for him to sleep on one side and his backpack and a pile of his clothes in a corner on the other. This sight increased the anger he was feeling right now.

“Could you all excuse me for a minute?” Lincoln asked the readers. “I need to make a call.”

Downstairs in the living room, the Loud sisters were all gathering on the couch with plates of piping hot slices of pizza on their plates. They were getting ready to watch one of their favorite shows, ‘The Dream Boat’.

“Fresh pizza and a new episode of ‘The Dream Boat’. Yeah, I think I’ve earned this,” Lynn said proudly.

“I think we all have, dudes,” Luna commented.

“Wait, we’re missing something,” Lola informed everyone.

“Oh, the right shoes for the new episode?” Leni guessed.

“No, I think I know what we’re missing,” Lori assured her sister and then turned her attention up the stairs to her brother’s room. “Hey twerp, hurry up and get down here! The new episode of ‘The Dream Boat’ is on. And don’t forget to wear that suit, I don’t want to see Karen go for Bryant by mistake.”

However, Lincoln was dressed in his trademark orange polo shirt and blue jeans and was just finishing up making an angry call to his sister’s boyfriend. There was a time when Lincoln hung out with Bobby and the two got along quite well. Bobby was like the older brother he never had. Unfortunately, their relationship had been stained when Lincoln remembered seeing him with Lori and his family during the game he snuck into. He believed they had managed to convince him that Lincoln was bad luck too as he didn’t seem to mind that he wasn’t there. Like Leni, one of Bobby’s biggest weaknesses was his low intelligence which made it very easy for Lori to have her way with him.

“But Little Loud, I didn’t know how bad it was,” Bobby tried to explain himself over the phone.

“I can’t believe you let them fool you like that!” Lincoln yelled angrily into the phone. “And to think I actually thought you were cool and nice.”

“Wait bro, just let me explain!” Bobby desperately pleaded.

“NO! Bros don’t do that to that to each other! They don’t turn their backs on one another when they need them. So as of right now, WE ARE BROS NO MO!” When he was done, Lincoln hung up and in a fit of anger threw the phone at the wall smashing it to pieces. After taking a few heavy breaths, he regained his composure. But he still had a great deal of anger stirring inside him. “Now to deal with the rest,” Lincoln announced to the readers and began heading down stairs. Without his squirrel costume.

Down in the living room, the Loud sisters were all ready to watch their show. While waiting for their brother, Lori decided to give her boyfriend a call.

“Hey, Boo-Boo Bear,” she said affectionately. “I just wanted to call and see how you're-” But then she was interrupted by what sounded like her ‘Boo-Boo Bear’ crying. “Bobby are you okay?”

“Sorry Babe,” Bobby said sounding very broken hearted. “But now’s not a good time.” Then the tearful young man hung up.

“Huh, I wonder what happened,” Lori said concerned.

Lincoln finally came downstairs and sat in the big chair on the left side of the couch. He sat there staring at the TV with a grumpy expression on his face paying no mind to his sisters, who looked very uncomfortable seeing him without his ‘good luck’ suit.

“Lincoln, aren’t you forgetting something?” Lola asked sounding a little annoyed.

“No,” Lincoln responded defiantly.

“Go get your suit,” Lola ordered her big brother. Out of all his sisters, Lola was by far the brattiest and always made him do whatever she wanted. But Lincoln was not having it this time.

“I don’t want to,” he defiantly replied again making Lola growl with anger.

“Do you want Karen to chose the wrong guy and ruin the episode?” Lynn asked in an annoyed and angry tone.

“Go put on the suit, Lincoln,” Lori ordered her little brother. Because she was the oldest, Lori felt it was her right to lord her superiority over all her younger siblings. She bossed Lincoln around more than she did her sisters. But Lincoln wasn’t having that either.

“It smells and it’s uncomfortable,” Lincoln talked back. “I’m not wearing it anymore.”

“That’s literally not my problem,” Lori said uncaringly. “Now go.”

“No,” Lincoln remained defiant.

“Do it,” Lori demanded. She sounded like she was getting angrier, and in the Loud house, making Lori angry was practically a death wish.

“No.”

“Now!” Lori demanded raising her voice.

“No!” Lincoln rose his voice too.

Now Lori was mad. “Do as I say, or I will literally turn you into a human pretz-”

But before she could finish her threat, Lincoln got out of the chair, stood in front of the TV, and faced all his sisters with a furious look on his face.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” he yelled loud enough to make sure he got his point across.

“We’re not liking your attitude, brah,” a dissatisfied Luna said.

“Don’t you guys think this has gone on long enough?” Lincoln angrily asked his sisters.

“What do you mean?” Leni asked confused.

Before Lincoln was about to explain himself, he noticed something out of place. He did a silent head count, and found he was only facing nine of his sisters. Lucy was missing. It didn’t take him long to realize she was standing silently right behind him. The goth had this annoying habit of sneaking up behind people which scared the living daylights out of them.

“Lucy, I’m not in the mood right now,” Lincoln told her without turning around. “So please get your spooky self out of my blind spot and where I can see you.” Sensing her older brother’s anger, Lucy obediently did as she was told. Now Lincoln was ready to speak his mind. “This whole bad luck/good luck thing has been going on for almost two weeks and I for one am sick of it.”

“It’s not our fault you’re not smart enough to get it, Lame-o,” Lynn retorted.

“Who’s the dumb one, Lynn?” Lincoln rhetorically asked his older athlete sister. Out of all his sisters, Lynn was the one he was angry with the most because she was the one who started all of this. “The guy trying to think logically or the girls giving in to a ridiculous belief that no one can prove is true?”

“Mom! Dad! Lincoln’s being mean and he won’t put on his squirrel suit!” Lola called to her parents who were inside their room right behind the couch.

“Lincoln, be nice to your sisters and put on that suit,” Rita told her son from her room.

“You heard her, now up up,” Lola said triumphantly and pointed upstairs to Lincoln's room.

“I’m not done!” Lincoln said refusing to comply. “I’m sick of you all making me your little scapegoat and good luck charm. I will not be treated this way any longer.”

“Mom! Dad!” Lola called to her parents again.

“Lincoln, don’t make us come in there and do our jobs as parents,” Lynn Sr. said sternly.

“There’s a first time for everything!” Lincoln retorted causing all his sisters to gasp in surprise. Lincoln was never one to talk back to his parents.

“What was that, young man?” Rita asked coming out of her room with her husband. They both looked very crossed by their son’s defiance, but Lincoln didn’t look intimidated in the slightest.

“Good, now that you’re all here, I have something to say,” Now Lincoln was going to give his entire family a piece of his mind and nothing was going to stand in his way. “You guys have been acting like crazy people over this whole luck superstition for almost two weeks and have been making my life more miserable than usual.”

“Look son,” Lynn Sr. calmed down and attempted to reason with his boy. “Things have been stressful lately.”

“Oh, really?” Lincoln said doubtfully. “Because it certainly looked like you were all having the time of your lives.”

“Lincoln, calm down,” Rita said feeling uneasy. “What’s your problem?”

“YOU’RE MY PROBLEM! YOU’RE ALL MY PROBLEM!” he shouted furiously shocking his whole family. The family pets; Charles the dog, Cliff the cat, Walt the canary, and Geo the hamster; all watched the scene in the living room while cowering under the dining room table. “You banned me from your family activities, kicked me out of the house, sold my furniture, and made me wear a stupid, ugly, stinky squirrel suit! All because you all stupidly gave into the Lynn’s stupid belief that I was bad luck! ARE YOU ALL INSANE?!”

“We said we were sorry,” Lynn argued.

“I don’t think you really meant it because right after that you made wear that dumb outfit for good luck. IT’S A STUPID MASCOT COSTUME! There’s nothing lucky about it!”

“Well we think it is!” Lola argued. “The day before yesterday, you came to school without it and I got a B on my test when I should’ve gotten an A!”

“There you go again, making me the scapegoat,” Lincoln said annoyed. “Somehow I don’t think the grade you got was entirely my fault. Maybe you didn’t study hard enough.”

“I did too!” Lola said angrily and defensively. “I’ll prove it.” She cleared her throat before speaking. “The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side.”

“That’s a right triangle,” Lincoln corrected her.

“Unfortunately Lola, he’s right,” Lisa bluntly told her older sister.

“DANG IT!” Lola yelled frustrated that she had just made herself look dumber than her brother.

“See what I mean?” Lincoln turned to everyone else. “And I still can’t believe that someone as ‘smart’ as you, Lisa, fell for that nonsense.”

“Okay, I admit for awhile I did open my mind to the possibility of luck,” Lisa bluntly admitted. “But now that I rethink about it, there were many logical explanations that would’ve put that crazy superstition to rest.”

This actually didn’t make Lincoln feel any better. Actually, it seemed to make him madder. “I bet you can’t calculate the exact percentage of how much it infuriates me that you could’ve done that at anytime and saved me a lot of grief.”

“Actually I think I can,” Lisa bluntly replied.

“I’m about to calculate my hand upside your head!” Lincoln said shaking his fist threateningly.

“Easy elder brother, there’s no need for violence,” the prodigy child nervously pleaded with her older brother while taking a few steps back. Lincoln had never threatened any of his sisters with physical harm before. No one had ever seen him get this angry or violent. The parents and other sisters were starting to get nervous too. Lincoln was clearly not in a good mood and his family was realizing that now.

“Lincoln, please stop,” Rita nervously told her son, but to no avail.

“But before I forget, I have something I want to say directly to you, Lynn,” he said glaring at his older athlete sister.

“Okay. What is it, Stinkoln?” Lynn asked. She was getting pretty annoyed with her brother’s defiant attitude.

“First, I want to congratulate you,” Lincoln suddenly changed his tone of voice to a more mellow and calm one. “Not for your victory in your recent game, but for achieving this title. I actually thought either Lori or Lola would be worthy of this. But congratulations, Lynn. You are officially…” Then he changed his tone back to anger and rage. “THE WORST SISTER EVER!”

“What?!” Lynn exclaimed.

“You threatened me with a baseball bat to come to your game, then you had the gall to blame the whole thing on me when you lost, turned the entire family against me, forced me to live like a homeless person, and then forced me to dress like a rodent! All because of your stupid superstitions! And you didn’t even care how much I was suffering! How selfish can you be?!”

“Selfish?! You’d know all about that wouldn’t you, Mr. I-Want-Some-Time-To-Myself-And-Not-Be-With-His-Family?!” Lynn argued aggressively. “I still can’t believe how dumb you were to play along with it at first just to get a little time to yourself. And you call me selfish?! So everything bad that happened to you, you totally deserved it!”

Lincoln's anger began to grow due to Lynn's arrogance and stubbornness of the rest of his family. But he kept his rage at bay. "I go to everyone of you guys' events and support you because as Lori said, 'this family supports each other.' But when have you guys ever supported me on anything?" This question caught the parents and girls completely off guard. None of them could think of an event where they supported Lincoln. "Where was the support I needed when I was miserably living like a hobo outside picking acorns out of my pants?" Each one of Lincoln's livid questions made the family think real deeply. Then it seemed like they had all just realized something. For all their talk about supporting each other, none of them had done anything to support Lincoln. It was like their eyes were finally opened to their hypocrisy. "Well if no one is going to support their 'son or brother', then I should at least be allowed a break from hanging around with you nutcases every once in a while. Does that not sound fair?"

While it looked like the rest of the family was having an epiphany, Lynn refused to let go of her stubborn pride. "Okay Lame-o, you want us to support you then go do something worth supporting for once in your pathetic life!"

Hearing that made Lincoln’s pupils shrink greatly in size as pure rage overcame him. “SHUT UP!” he screamed and delivered a good hard blow to Lynn’s left cheek knocking backwards and off her feet. At this point, Lily couldn’t take it anymore and started crying.

Lynn got back on her feet while rubbing her aching cheek. She glared back at her younger brother with murder in her eyes. “YOU LITTLE-” But before she could do anything, their father intervened.

“Enough!” Lynn Sr. shouted getting everyone’s attention. “Both of you.”

“Now Lincoln, please apologize to Lynn,” Rita politely asked her son. She didn’t like where this was all going and wanted it to stop.

Lincoln seemed to calm himself and do a little rethinking. “You’re right, I take it back. You’re all the worst! I work, slave, and sacrifice for all of you. I’ve even taken the fall for some of you!” He looked directly at Lucy when he said that last part. The goth girl sank shamefully into her seat on the couch, she knew what her brother was talking about. “And THIS is how you all repay me?!”

“We thought you were bad luck. What did you expect us to do?” Lana said.

“Okay, answer me these questions,” Lincoln turned to Luna. “Luna, I’ve attended your rock concerts before. Did anything bad ever happen?”

“No,” the rocker admitted with a hint of remorse.

“Lola, I’ve attended many of your pageants. Did anything bad ever happen those times?”

“No,” the spoiled pageant had to admit. She too sounded like she had a little remorse in her voice.

“And Lori, before you bring up what happened to your golf clubs, I broke them on purpose in order to make you think I was bad luck. But before that, I’ve attended a lot of your golf tournaments. Did anything bad happen any of those times.”

“No,” the eldest was forced to admit. “Literally nothing bad happened.”

“So why would any of you think that any bad or good luck would change any of that now?”

“Okay, we get it, Linky,” Leni said in a kind and seemingly understanding tone. “If you don’t want to wear that squirrel suit tonight, then you don’t have to. We’ll just deal with whatever bad thing happens.”

“I don’t want to wear that thing EVER again!” Lincoln angrily replied. With Leni’s low intelligence, he really shouldn’t be surprised.

“Well, you’re really pushing your luck,” Luan joked and laughed a little. “Get it?” But Lincoln shot her a very livid glare that told her he was not in the mood for her jokes, especially at his expense. “I’ll be quiet.”

“Have you learned nothing?!” At this point, Lincoln had had all he could take for a lifetime. “Well, if this is the way it’s going to be from now on, then I am done. No more poems, no more fashion modeling, no more mud pies, no more jokes, no more pageant couching, no more music, and no more sports!” All his sisters looked upset and devastated by his declaration of wanting nothing to do with them anymore. “I am sick and tired of having to deal with bossy, ignorant, annoying, pathetic, arrogant, ungrateful, creepy, disgusting, spoiled, self-absorbed, noisy, smelly, pesky, crazy, and superstitious excuses for sisters!” Each insult was like a knife tearing into his sisters. The parents watched in shock and sadness as the relationship between their children fell apart before them.

“Are you done?” Lori asked glumly.

“NO!” Lincoln yelled. He opened his mouth and let out a huge burp. Then he lifted his right leg and let loose a loud fart. Finally, he hocked a big loogie and spat it to his right. It hit something metal off screen and made a loud ‘DING!’ noise. “Now I’m done.”

“Okay Lincoln, you’ve made your point. Now can you please settle down,” Rita pleaded gently putting her hand on her son’s shoulder.

“Don’t touch me!” Lincoln angrily said smacking her hand away. Now it was time for him to tell off his parents. “How could you let this happen to me?!”

“Lincoln, we-” Rita tried to explain.

“You thought casting out your only son like a leper over such a ridiculous reason was what was best for the family? Am I not part of this family too? What were you going to do next? Put me up for adoption? Drop me off in the middle of nowhere far away? Deport me?”

Mr. and Mrs. Loud didn’t answer him. But they had nervous and embarrassed looks on their faces which seemed to tell him everything.

“Wow!” Lincoln exclaimed in shock and disbelief. He never thought his own parents would go that far. “So much for family.”

“Honey, we can work things out,” Rita desperately tried to reason with her boy. “Please listen to me, I’m your mother.”

“No, real mothers don’t turn their backs on any of their children no matter,” Lincoln told her, his voice full of disappointment. “Even animals who leave their children after they are born are better than you. You can write that novel of yours about someone else, because from the way you’ve treated me, I don’t think I’d want to read it.”

This left Rita heartbroken and on the verge of tears. Her own son had cast her aside, just like she did to him.

“And Dad,” Lincoln turned to his father.

“Yes son?” Lynn Sr. said nervously knowing it was his turn.

Lincoln walked up to his father and looked him in the eyes. “What’s the capital of Thailand?”

“Bangkok,” Lynn Sr. answered confused by this sudden and strange question.

“That’s right!” Then the boy threw his fist and hit his old man right in the area that defined his gender causing the rest of the family to gasp in shock. This was something none of them ever saw coming.

“OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I GET IT!” Lynn Sr. cried in pain as he held onto his aching personal area and collapsed on the floor. His wife and daughters all gathered around him to see if he was okay while his son ignored his pain and began walking up the stairs to his room.

Just as he made to the last step, Lincoln turned around to say one last thing to his so-called family. “All I wanted was a little break from all of you. But now I never want to see any of you ever again! You all make me sick!” With that, he stormed into his room and slammed the door leaving his family with their shameful thoughts.

Later that night, when everyone had gone to bed, Lincoln was in his room, still awake, and finishing a recorded message on his laptop.

“And I wanted to say: thank you for being such a good friend, Clyde. I wish you lots of happiness,” Lincoln sadly finished his message and turned off his laptop. Lincoln had been sending recorded messages explaining everything that had happened to him lately to all the people he knew truly cared for him. He sent one to his maternal grandfather, Albert, whom he affectionately referred to as ‘Pop-Pop’. He sent one to his girlfriend, Ronnie Anne Santiago, who was also Bobby’s younger sister. And now he had just finished sending a message to his best friend, Clyde McBride. He even wrote a little note for his family and left it on the squirrel suit.

After he was done sending messages, Lincoln put on his backpack and started sneaking downstairs, being very careful not to wake anyone. He was about to head for the front door when something came to his mind. Quickly and quietly, he snuck into the kitchen, searched through the refrigerator until he found what he was looking for, and then headed back to the front door. He was about to grab the doorknob when he heard the sound of a small whimper behind him. He turned around to see the four family pets staring at him with sad eyes.

“Well, if it isn’t ‘man’s best friend’,” Lincoln said with disappointment in his voice when he saw Charles. He remembered during the bad luck fiasco, Charles growled at him as if he were an unwanted creature. But now it looked like the dog was regretting it. Charles walked up to Lincoln and started rubbing his head affectionately against his leg. “Go away, Charles,” Lincoln said pushing the canine away. The dog let out a few little whimpers and stared up at the boy with apologetic eyes. Looking at those eyes, Lincoln couldn’t stay angry. “Sorry guys,” he said to the animal companions. “But I can’t stay in this madhouse another minute. Promise me you’ll look after everyone, especially Lily.” The four pets nodded in agreement and watched with heavy hearts as their young master opened the front door and stepped outside. “Good bye,” Lincoln softly bid farewell to the animals and quietly shut the door.

Lincoln started walking down the sidewalk, but then he was stopped by a sudden and very unpleasant voice.

“Loud!” It was grouchy neighbor, Mr. Grouse.

“Don’t worry, I prepared for this,” Lincoln told the readers and reached into his backpack. He pulled out a rectangular-shaped tupperware he got from the fridge and handed it to Mr. Grouse. “Here’s some of my dad’s lasagna. It’s yours if you don’t tell anyone you saw me.”

“What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?” Mr. Grouse asked suspiciously.

“What do you care?” Lincoln bitterly replied.

“Come on, what kind of neighbor do you take me for?”

“I’d answer that, but you’d probably not like what I say.”

“Sounds like someone had a bad day,” Mr. Grouse said in an uncaring tone noticing the boy’s attitude.

“Yeah, I’ve had a pretty awful couple of days,” Lincoln retorted. “And you didn’t help in any way either. You knew what I was going through and you did nothing to help me out. Even after my family and I helped you spend Christmas with your family. To think I was actually starting to see you as a friend.”

“Wait now, I-” Mr. Grouse attempted to reason with the angry boy.

“Oh forget it,” Lincoln interrupted. “Just take your lasagna, forget you saw me, and go back to looking after the most important person in your life: yourself. Good bye!” With that, the 11 year old started back down the sidewalk in a huff leaving the old man with his food and his thoughts. For a moment, Mr. Grouse watched him go with a look of sadness on his face before going back inside his home.

“I never thought it would come to this,” Lincoln told the readers as he walked down the sidewalk. “The day I would trade it for the world. Sometimes I wonder if there’s anyone else out there who has it just as bad or even worse than I do.” Lincoln continued walking until his image faded into the night. He had no idea where he was going, but to him anywhere was better than here.

Regrets

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It was a miserable day for the Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy at Canterlot High. Each girl was in a great state of depression. Applejack refused to tell anyone what was bothering her, in fact, she hardly talked to anyone. Rainbow Dash couldn’t concentrate and wasn’t doing as good as she was supposed to be when she practiced sports. Rarity had been designing outfits that didn’t look as magnificent as she was well-known for making. Pinkie Pie was in no mood for anything fun and just walked around with limp hair and an emotionless expression on her face, some could say she almost resembled her sister, Maud. Fluttershy had kept to herself for almost the entire day, not even talking with animals. Ever since Sunset Shimmer left CHS and broke up with them, they had become the saddest group of girls in the entire school. They all sat around the horse statue located right outside the front entrance of the school.

“Hey, how’s everyone doin’?” asked a concerned voice. The five girls turned to see three younger girls come out of the school entrance. The voice was revealed to be Apple Bloom, Applejack’s younger sister, who was accompanied by her two friends: Sweetie Belle, Rarity’s younger sister, and Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash’s biggest fan.

“A little slow today,” AJ said trying to hide how miserable she really was. “But other than that, everthin’s okay, sugarcube.”

“Applejack, we both know you’re not a good liar,” Apple Bloom said sadly unconvinced.

“It’s about Sunset isn’t it?” Scootaloo guessed.

The five older girls all nodded their heads ‘yes’.

“Ah’ know life here hasn’t been easy for Sunset,” Apple Bloom said sadly. “But ah’ just can’t believe it got this bad that she felt she had to leave.”

“It’s all our fault,” Sweetie Belle said tearfully. “We were the ones responsible for Anon-a-Miss.”

In the end, the true identities of Anon-a-Miss were none other than these three girls. They had gotten so jealous of their older sisters spending more time with Sunset that they created Anon-a-Miss and began posting everyone’s secrets in order to make her look bad so their sisters would spend more time with them and less time with her. Unfortunately, things went way out of control, the results of their plan were a lot harsher and damaging than they expected. With their jealousy replaced by guilt, the three Crusaders confessed to their crime. But by the time they finally decided to come forward, it was too late. The damage had already been done.

“No, it’s not entirely your fault,” Fluttershy said in a comforting tone.

“But it is!” Apple Bloom tearfully argued. “Anon-a-Miss was our idea!”

“We were the ones posting everyone’s secrets and blaming it on Sunset!” Sweetie Belle sobbed.

“We should’ve quit and came clean when we had the chance!” Scootaloo cried. “I mean, there’s still some people who still hate us for what we’ve done.”

“We’re the worst!” a tearful Sweetie Belle said.

“And now because of us, y’all lost your best friend!” Apple Bloom sobbed. “Probably forever!”

“No Apple Bloom,” AJ said with seriousness in her voice and gently grabbed her sister’s shoulders. “What happened with Sunset was just as much our fault as it was yours.”

“You may have been the ones behind Anon-a-Miss and post all those secrets,” Fluttershy told them. “But turning our backs on Sunset was our own choice.”

“But we tricked you all into thinking it was her,” Scootaloo insisted.

“But remember this was all after she helped save the entire school from the Dazzlings,” Rarity reminded them.

“Despite no one, even us, not trusting her,” Rainbow added. Then the regretful expression on her face became even greater. “Come to think of it, we treated her pretty unfairly back then too.”

“Yeah,” Pinkie sadly agreed. “We didn’t invite her to be part of our band, we didn’t defend her when everyone still thought she was evil, and we all ganged up on and antagonized her when she tried to help. We were horrible friends to her.”

“Twilight asked us to look out for her,” Rarity tearfully reminded everyone. “So not only did we fail Sunset Shimmer, we failed her as well.”

“Let’s face it,” Rainbow miserably said. “We’re horrible friends and horrible people.”

“No better than the villains we’ve fought,” AJ sadly added.

“If Twilight were here, she’d be so disappointed in us,” Fluttershy also added shedding a few tears.

“I can’t even make one poor innocent girl smile anymore,” a teary-eyed Pinkie said. “So what good am I?”

“It looks like the Dazzlings had the last laugh after all,” Rarity sadly concluded.

All eight girls stood and sat there quietly and miserably lamenting over the terrible decisions they’ve made that led to this tragic loss in their lives.

Later that night, in a small row house that stood alone somewhere in town, a certain amber skinned teenage girl with crimson and yellow hair sadly sat on her bed in her pajamas all alone in this world. Ever since she had dropped out of CHS and broke up with her friends, Sunset Shimmer had all but isolated herself from the most of the world. Ever since the traumatic and heartbreaking experiences she had during the Anon-a-Miss fiasco, she had become a lot less trusting of people. That being said, it did not stop her from being a good person and helping others out whenever she could. Despite losing a lot of trust in humanity, she couldn’t bring herself to hate them. It was like any part of her old self had been completely deleted from her DNA and all that was left was a sad lonely girl who just wanted to make friends. She often wrote messages in her magic journal to Twilight Sparkle (her former rival, friend back in Equestria, and Princess of Friendship) in hopes that she may give her some helpful advice and as a way of coping with her loneliness.
Dear Princess Twilight,

I’m sorry I have to tell you this, but I’m afraid things aren’t working out very well for me here in this world. I’ve tried everything to show everyone I’ve changed but in the end nothing works. I could save this world over and over again and it wouldn’t truly make a difference. No matter how much good I do, they’ll never forget all the bad I’ve done. Even the girls we both called friends will never let go of my past. The Anon-a-Miss incident showed me that. I’m afraid the Magic of Friendship doesn’t quite work in this world like it does in Equestria. I don’t think I can do this anymore. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful or impatient, I know you told me to stay strong and be myself, but this is taking way to long. I know you must be busy being Princess of Friendship, but I don’t know how much longer I can stand being in this world. Please give me a reply as soon as you can.
Your Friend,
Sunset Shimmer

Once she was done with her message, Sunset closed her book and put it away.

“I just wish I could meet at least one person in this world that understands me,” Sunset said to herself as she got ready for bed. “Someone I can relate to. Someone I can truly call my friend.” With that, she turned off the light in her room and fell asleep.

Meanwhile right outside the row house Sunset lived in, a small white-haired boy wearing an orange polo shirt, blue jeans, and a backpack was sitting on the steps leading up to the front door heavily breathing. Lincoln Loud had been walking for a long time and was exhausted. He was determined to get as far away from the madhouse he used to call home.

“I wonder where I am,” the 11 year old boy said to himself, then he turned to the readers. “Nice to see you again. As you can see, I haven’t quite found the perfect place to live yet. At least I’m away from all the crazies. Unfortunately, I doubt there’s anyone around here willing to let a random kid sleep in their home for the night.” Then he got to his feet and started walking around the row house for a place to sleep. Then he noticed a trash can sitting on the right side of the house. Curiously, he walked over to it, opened the lid, and looked inside. Luckily, there was no garbage in it. However, the inside was still a little dirty and had a foul smell. As much as he didn’t want to spend the night in a trash can, Lincoln knew that with his luck he should take whatever he could get. So he put his backpack inside and climbed in. “It’s not like I’m not used to this kind of thing,” he said to the readers before putting the lid back on the container and calling it a night. Little did he know was that the house he was sleeping next to housed someone who had more in common with him than he thought.

Consequences

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It was morning at the Loud residence and the ten sisters were all sitting down at the dining table having breakfast. However, the family wasn’t having a very happy morning due to what happened last night. No one had seen Lincoln all morning. They thought he was still in his room, but no one dared to try and bother him believing he still needed some space. The girls were still greatly surprised by what happened last night. Their brother did many things that none of them ever thought he would. He dared to talk back at all of his sisters at once, punched Lynn, talked back to his parents, hit his father in the family jewels, and got away with all of it.

“Do you think we did go too far with this whole luck thing?” a concerned Leni asked.

“Our sole male sibling was in a rather unpleasant state of emotion last night,” Lisa said. “Street name: bad mood. It was foolish of us to, how should I say, ‘push his buttons’.”

“I still can’t believe he almost knocked out some of my teeth,” Lynn complained rubbing her still sore cheek. She didn’t notice some of her sisters casting disgusted looks at her.

“So you’re still putting all the blame for this on Lincoln,” Lucy spoke in her emotionless tone bit with a hint of disgust in it.

“He was pouring his heart out last night and telling us about miserable he’s been this whole time,” a cross Luna said. “Did you even care how he was feeling?”

“Did you?” Lynn asked argumentatively. “Because if I remember none of you seem to care either.”

“Kids enough,” Rita scolded them.

“It’s not a good morning to start fighting,” Lynn Sr. told them while holding an ice pack on his groin area and letting out a few small painful groans.

“Jeez Dad, how hard did he hit you last night?” Lana asked.

“I think he put all his anger into that punch,” Lynn Sr. answered his daughter with a hint of pain in his voice.

“We should really have a talk with him,” Rita suggested. “Can someone go get him?”

“DIBS NOT IT!” the sisters said in unison putting their fingers on their noses. Leni was the only one who put her finger in her ear.

“Dang it,” she unhappily exclaimed and started heading upstairs. She stood outside her little brother’s room and gently knocked on his door. “Linky, are you awake?” she asked gently and kindly, but she received no reply. She opened the door and found he wasn’t sleeping on the blanket they left for him. Then she looked over to the squirrel suit lying on the floor and suspected he was probably inside it. “Can you come downstairs? The rest of the family needs to have a talk with you,” she said shaking the suit, but then the head rolls off revealing no one in it. “What the-” Leni exclaimed but then saw a note attached to the squirrel head’s face. She took it and silently read it to herself.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” a despair-filled cry sounded through the entire house so loud it could be heard from outside.

“Leni, what’s wrong?” Lori asked hearing her younger sister’s cry. Leni ran downstairs with tears flowing from her eyes and holding the note she found.

“LINCOLN’S GONE!” the blonde fashionista sobbed.

“WHAT?!” the rest of the family said all together in shock.

“I found this note,” Leni said handing the paper to them. Lisa took the note and began reading it out loud to her family.
Dear Family Former Family,

If you are reading this then it means you’ve finally discovered I’ve moved on. While I know it’s important to be there and support one’s family, a guy still needs some time to himself once in awhile, especially in a family as big as this. Surely some of you must feel the same way sometimes. That’s why I went along with Lynn’s belief that I was bad luck. I was so desperate for some ‘me’ time I was willing to be dishonest in order to get it. This proved to be a mistake that has caused me a lot of pain. I thought if I could prove that I wasn’t bad luck then everything would go back to the way they used to be. But instead, my life went from exile to a prison. I cannot bare to spend the rest of my life living as an outcast or a tool. Therefore, I’ve decided to leave Royal Woods and find someplace where I can live my life the way I want to as the person I want to be. Don’t try to look for me, you’ll just be wasting your time.
Sincerely your former son and brother,
Lincoln

Once Lisa was done reading, a great wave of guilt and sadness swept over the entire family. If Lincoln’s outburst last night didn’t completely get through to them, then this certainly must’ve been a little more effective.

“What have we done?!” Lola exclaimed visibly horrified.

“I literally can’t believe this has happened!” Lori said visibly upset.

“My dark heart is aching,” Lucy said.

“We’ve lost our only bro,” Luna said utterly devastated.

“I can’t even say anything funny right now,” Luan sadly informed everyone.

“We did go too far,” a very upset Leni said.

“Our little boy is gone!” Rita exclaimed bursting into tears as her husband tried to comfort her.

Poor Lily began to cry at hearing the news that her beloved big brother had run away.

Despite acting like she didn’t care for how Lincoln had been feeling, Lynn did in fact feel some regret for the troubles she had caused them. But her pride was like a wall that kept most of it out. However, after hearing what this note said, her face showed that some slivers had managed to penetrate the seemingly impenetrable barrier.

This devastating moment was soon interrupted by a knocking at the front door. Lori answered to find a teary-eyed 11 year old boy with glasses, Lincoln’s best friend, Clyde McBride. The boy was accompanied by his two adoptive fathers, Howard and Harold McBride, both looked very cross, Howard looked like he had some tears dripping from his anger-filled eyes.

“L-L-L-Lori, say it ain’t so,” the nerdy boy pleaded with tears in his eyes. Clyde had a huge crush on Lori. Usually when he saw her he’d bleed from his nose and act like a malfunctioning robot. But he did none of those things this time.

“What’s going on?” Lori asked confused.

“Lincoln sent me a recorded message last night,” Clyde tearfully explained. “He told me you guys called him bad luck, that you kicked him out of the house, that you made wear a squirrel suit.”

It felt very wrong, but Lori knew she had to tell the truth. She let out a remorseful sigh and confessed. “Yes, it’s literally all true.”

“HOW COULD YOU?!” the heartbroken nerdy boy cried falling to his knees and bursting into uncontrollable tears. He couldn’t believe the love of his life had done something so terrible to his best friend, her own brother. Lincoln had often shared his complaints about his sisters with Clyde, but he didn’t always agree with them. But now, after hearing this, his opinion of his friend’s family had changed greatly.

Watching the boy breakdown like that was gut-wrenching. Lori had always found Clyde’s obsession with her annoying and didn’t really care for his feelings for her. But she knew he was a good kid and didn’t deserve to suffer like this. The eldest of the sibling bunch was already feeling rotten as it is, but this made her feel a whole lot worse. Not only had she acted inhumanely to her only brother, but she had inadvertently and cruelly disillusioned a kind and innocent boy.

“You animals!” Howard yelled furiously. “Not only did you ostracize your own son and brother, but you also broke our little angel’s heart!”

“Now Howie, calm down,” Harold said. “They’re not worth it.”

“But I’m just so upset,” Howard replied with tears in his eyes.

“I know, I know,” Harold said comfortingly pulling his sobbing husband into a warm hug.

Just then, another car drove up and parked at the curb in front of the house.

“Lori!” It was Bobby who got out of the car and called to his girlfriend.

“Bobby!” Lori called back and ran up to him and gave him a big hug. “Oh Boo-Boo-Bear, you literally have no idea how terrible things have been lately.”

“I heard about Lincoln,” he said with a look of sadness on his face.

“You did?” Lori asked surprised. “When?”

“He gave me a call last night,” Bobby confessed with tears forming in his eyes. “He said because I sided with you, I wasn’t his bro anymore.” The look of heartbreak brought tears to Lori’s own eyes. She knew how close Lincoln and Bobby were. At first it annoyed her, but then she grew to accept it. But now seeing that her ‘Boo-Boo-Bear’ had lost the person he’d come to see as a little brother was unbearable. “He also left a recorded message for Ronnie Anne that explained everything as well as a farewell.”

“How did she take it?” Lori asked concerned.

“WHERE IS SHE?!” came an unearthly rage-filled voice from the car. Then an 11 year old, tough-looking, and very livid girl stepped out of the vehicle. Before becoming Lincoln’s girlfriend, Ronnie Anne Santiago used to bully him at school. But that was just her way of trying to get him to notice her. After some ‘meddling’ from his sisters, it finally worked. The two became a secret couple with only their families and closest friends knowing about it. Like Clyde, Ronnie Anne had some high opinions of Lincoln’s sisters and thought they were cool. However, just like Clyde, this bad luck incident had changed her view of them completely. “WHERE IS THAT ARROGANT, SELF-CENTERED, SUPERSTITIOUS JERK?!”

Inside the house, Lynn gasped in fear because she knew Ronnie Anne wanted her.

“Ronnie Anne, wait,” Lori tried to reason with the extremely angry girl. But she was in no mood to be told what to do by the brother-abusing teenager who dared to call herself her brother’s girlfriend. With one mighty punch to the gut, she knocked the wind out of the blonde teenager. Lori fell to her knees while holding her stomach and gasping painfully for air as Bobby ran to her side to see if she was alright. She felt as if she was about to lose her breakfast.

Ronnie Anne continued heading toward the house with murder in her eyes. Lynn realizing that Lori won’t be able to protect her, immediately ran up the stairs and into her and Lucy’s room closing the door behind her. However, the furious girl knew just where to look and went up the stairs after her.

“Come out of there, you loser! You’re dead!” Ronnie Anne shouted and started banging on the door. Lynn stood behind the door hoping to use her body strength to keep her brother’s livid girlfriend from getting in. Unfortunately, it proved no use. Ronnie Anne was able to kick the door wipe open and send Lynn flying to the other side of the room. The tough Santiago girl walked in and closed the door behind her. Now Lynn was trapped with no way out. Outside the room, everyone else could only listen with fear at what was happening upstairs.

“Ronnie Anne wait!” they heard Lynn desperately plead. “Just let me explain-”
BAM! They heard the sound of a fist landing followed by a loud painful groan.

“AAGH!”
POW!

“OWW!”
BOOM!

“AAH!”
BAM!

“OW!”
BAM!

“UGH!”
POW!

“AAH! Wait, what are you doing with my baseball bats? NO WAIT, THAT’S A METAL ONE!”
BASH!

“AAAAAAGGGHHH!”
BASH!

“OWWWWWW! STOP IT!”
WHAM!

“UUGGHH!”

“IF I EVER CATCH LINCOLN SLEEPING OUTSIDE OR WEARING THAT DUMB SQUIRREL SUIT, I’LL KNOCK YOUR HEAD OFF AND USE IT AS A FOOTBALL!”
BASH!

“AAGH!”
POW!

“AAH!”
BAM!

“OOW!”
BOOM!

“UUGH!”
WHAM!

“AAAGH!”

“Now come on! Everyone’s waiting for us.”
BAM!

“OOW!”

A moment later, Ronnie Anne came down with Lynn, who was limping, had a black eye, and was covered in bruises.

“Like, what happened to you, Lynn?” a clueless Leni asked.

Before Lynn could answer, Ronnie Anne shot her a very threatening look.

“Uh, I slipped and fell,” the athlete lied.

“Yeah, you should be more careful about what you do,” the Santiago girl commented threateningly.

“Mr. and Mrs. Loud,” Harold politely addressed the folks. “Now I don’t want to have to tell you how to be good parents-”

“Then I’ll do it,” Ronnie Anne interrupted and then angrily told off her boyfriend’s folks. “Good parents, ‘real’ parents, don’t throw out their own children just because of some stupid, ridiculous, ludicrous nonsense like ‘BAD LUCK’!” The Louds cowered and cringed at every fury-filled word that came from her mouth.

“You know what I don’t get?” Lola stepped forward to defend herself and her family against their accuser. “You’ve done things to our brother and that’s fine, but when we do things to him we’re the worst people in the world.”

“Yes, but the difference between us is reason,” Ronnie Anne counter-argued. “I know I used to be a bully to Lincoln, but that was because I was shy and was trying to get him to notice me. Okay, I admit it was probably not the best way to get a boy’s attention, but at least we do get along with each other. Unfortunately, most of the other kids at school think that our relationship is something to make fun of him about. So I continue to act like a bully to him to spare his reputation because he already has it rough as it. In other words, I do things to Lincoln in order to protect him, you do things to him for kicks and giggles. And don’t try to deny it.”

Most of the sisters hung their heads in shame. It was true that they all had quite a lot of moments where they treated Lincoln rather disgracefully, and sometimes for no real reason other than their own amusement.

“Mrs. Loud,” Ronnie Anne addressed the matriarch. “How could you do that to your own son? Turn your back on him when he needed you? I was taught that mothers are supposed to love, care for, and protect all their children no matter what. You and your husband should’ve stopped your daughters before they went too far. But instead, you too treated him like some bad luck-bringing monster. Well, it’s clear to me and the McBrides who the real monsters are.”

The look of absolute disgust on the Santiago girl’s face reminded Rita of that terrible night when her only son had renounced her, her husband, and the girls as his family. The woman quietly began to shed tears knowing the pain in her heart right now was very well-deserved.

“Mr. Loud,” Ronnie Anne turned to the patriarch. “I got so mad that I completely forgot what I wanted to say to you. I guess this will have to do.” Without warning, the girl swung her right leg up and nailed the man hard right in the sensitive area between his legs causing everyone to gasp in complete shock.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH! WHY!” Lynn Sr. screamed in absolute pain as he fell to his knees clutching his family jewels with both hands. A painful feeling of deja vu swept over him. “LINCOLN ALREADY GAVE ME ONE OF THOSE LAST NIGHT AND IT STILL HASN’T FULLY HEALED!”

“Well, sucks to be you,” Ronnie Anne replied unsympathetically.

“Okay, we literally understand what we did was wrong,” Lori spoke up not wanting anyone else to come to anymore harm. “But we’ll fix it by going out and looking for Lincoln.”

“P-P-P-Promise me y-y-y-you’ll find him, L-L-L-Lori,” Clyde begged his hopeless love interest with tearful puppy dog eyes.

“I promise, Clyde,” Lori said with deep sincerity.

“You all have five days to find your son and our Clyde’s best friend or we’ll call the Child Services on you,” Howard threatened.

“Wait, did we do something illegal?” a confused Leni asked.

“Absolutely,” Harold replied. “Kicking out a minor is considered child abuse, and is illegal in many states.”

Hearing this, a wave of fear and nervousness swept over the Loud family. Not only was the way they treated Lincoln utterly despicable, but it was also illegal. And now the McBrides had given them a limited number of days to make things right or face the grim consequences of their actions. They all felt like tiny mice that had been backed into a corner of many huge scary cats with only one way out.

“Is Michigan one of them?” Lynn Jr. asked nervously.

“But Lincoln has never worked in underground tunnels,” a confused Leni said.

“Minor not miner, Leni” Lisa corrected her older dimmer sister. “As in a person under the age of 18.”

“And is true that kicking those kind of people out is illegal?” Leni asked. “Mom? Dad?”

Both parents had extremely nervous and fearful expressions on their faces.

“I’m afraid it is, sweetie,” Rita timidly answered.

“I’m embarrassed to say we completely forgot about it until now,” Lynn Sr. nervously confessed as sweat dripped from his forehead and anxiety swept over his daughters.

“But I’m too pretty to go to jail!” Lola cried hysterically.

“Actually,” Lisa explained. “Only Mother and Father will mostly likely be sent to prison because they are adults.” Then a nervous expression formed on the young genius’s face. “However, most of us will likely be sent to Juvenile Hall, which is technically a prison for younger people. Except for Lily, who will most likely be put in a foster home.”

“Well then you all better get started,” Harold commented bitterly as he, Howard, and Clyde started leaving.

“I hope you succeed, Lori,” Clyde said to the girl of his dreams. “I’d hate to see you locked away for a long time.”

“You and me both, Clyde,” Lori commented nervously.

After the McBrides left, Bobby and Ronnie Anne started to follow suit. But before the two siblings stepped completely out the door, Ronnie Anne turned to say one last thing to the family.

“If something like this ever happens to Lincoln again, there is no good luck charm in this world that will save you from me!” the Santiago girl threatened. “Good day!” With that, she slammed the door shut on her way out.

The force of the slam caused a crack to appear on the wall which continued to form up and across the living room ceiling. Eventually the cracking caused a piece of the ceiling to break off and fall right on Lynn’s head.

“I think she means it, guys,” Leni said nervously.

“No kidding,” Lynn sarcastically responded while rubbing her aching head.

Just then, Rita immediately grabbed a nearby telephone and started dialing a number. When she was done, she listened to the ringing and waited for someone to answer.

“Hello?” asked a woman’s voice.

“Hello Mrs. Watson, it’s Rita Loud,” Rita nervously said. “Do you still have that bed my husband and I sold you?”

Light at the End of the Tunnel (Edited 9/16/18)

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The Loud family had contacted the people they had sold Lincoln’s furniture to, the Watsons and the Petersons. Aside from offering money, the desperate family also had to explain why they needed the furniture back. Needless to say, both couples weren’t very happy with the family’s deeds and made them pay more than what they bought the furniture for. They also got out some boxes containing more of Lincoln’s stuff from storage. Back at the house, some of the sisters were trying to move Lincoln’s bed and dresser up the stairs and in the right positions in his room. Lori, Lynn, Lucy, and Luna were struggling to move Lincoln’s bed back into its right position. Leni, Lola, Lana, and Luan were trying to do the same with his dresser. Lisa was instructing both teams to make sure they symmetrically perfect.

“A little to the left,” Lisa instructed the bed team. “Okay.” Then she turned to the dresser team. “A little more to the right. Perfect.”

“I don’t remember Lincoln’s stuff being this heavy,” Lynn said cracking her back.

“They seemed a lot lighter when Dad was helping us,” Lucy pointed out.

“He couldn’t help us this time because of his 'recent injuries',” Luna said.

“Yeah, I still can’t believe both the Watsons and the Petersons kicked Dad in the… uh… you know,” Lana reminded them with a tone of uneasiness in her voice. The other sisters cringed at the memory of it.

Meanwhile, down in the living room, Lynn Sr. was lying on the coach letting out painful groans as he held an ice pack on his aching groin with his wife, Rita, and baby Lily were sitting next to him doing whatever they could to comfort him and ease his pain. After confessing to the Watsons and the Petersons about how they’d recently treated their son, both couples let Lynn Sr. know exactly what they thought of him in a way he’d never forget.

“You doin’ okay, Pops?” Luna asked as she and the rest of her sisters came downstairs.

“I’ve been better,” Lynn Sr. answered in a painful more high-pitched tone.

“Well maybe when this is all over, we should all go do some mini-golf and hit a couple balls!” Luan jokingly suggested letting out some giggles. “Get it?” The rest of the family stared at her with unamused expressions on their faces. “Sorry, too soon.”

Then everyone heard the phone ring. “Hello, Rita Loud speaking,” Rita answered it.

“Hello Rita Loud, this is the Sunny Canyon Retirement Home,” the voice on the phone said. “Your father, Albert, has requested the presence of you and your family immediately.”

“We’ll be right over,” Rita said hanging up the phone. “Kids, that was the Sunny Canyon Retirement Home, they said Pop-Pop wants to see us all.”

“Can someone else drive Vanzilla? I don’t think I’m up for it,” Lynn Sr. painfully asked holding his groin area.

The family soon arrived at the Sunny Canyon Retirement Home. They all entered through the main entrance and approached the front desk.

“Hello, I’m Rita Loud,” Rita told the nurse at the front desk. “I received a call saying that my father, Albert, wanted to see me and my family.”

“Wait here, I’ll go get him,” the nurse said leaving the desk to get Albert. Eventually she returned with the elderly man they were here to see.

Albert was big and burly. His hair was white and greatly resembled the style of his grandson, Lincoln’s, hair. He also had an anchor tattoo on his right forearm. Usually the family were always happy to see their matriarch’s father and he was usually happy to see them. But instead of a warm greeting smile, Albert had a very sad look on his face.

“Is something wrong, Dad?” a concerned Rita asked her father noticing the look he had on his face.

“Well now that I see you, something is definitely wrong,” Albert answered observing his family. “It appears we’re missing someone.”

The family knew he was talking about Lincoln. Despite his poor eyesight, he could still tell that Lincoln wasn’t among the group. Out of all his grandchildren, Lincoln was Albert’s favorite. Lincoln always loved visiting and having fun with him. The boy was able to do lots of things with his grandfather that neither his sisters, his mother, or even his father were interested in.

“Come over here,” Albert said leading his family over to an area where some of his elderly friends were sitting. He walked over to a small table where his laptop was sitting, he opened the device up and turned it on. “I recently found a rather disturbing message Lincoln left me. I thought maybe you should see and hopefully help clear a few things up.” He turned the laptop screen toward his family and played the message.

An image of Lincoln sitting on the floor in his empty room facing the camera with a sad look on his face appeared. “Hi Pop-Pop,” the boy said. “It’s me, Lincoln. I hope you’re doing good. Me unfortunately, not so good. The last couple weeks have been an absolute nightmare. First, Lynn forces me to attend one of her baseball games, then when her team lost she blamed the whole thing on me and called me bad luck. Then she started telling everyone else and made the entire family think I’m bad luck, even Mom and Dad. Soon everyone started excluding me from family activities and even kicked me out of the house. But I can’t really put all the blame on her for that, I kinda brought it on myself too. I really wanted some alone time to myself so I played along with the accusations. Boy, did it all come back to bite me. I snuck into another of Lynn’s baseball games and disguised myself as a squirrel mascot to prove that I wasn’t bad luck. It looked like it worked but then everyone started forcing me to wear the squirrel costume to bring them good luck. Well, I just can’t take it anymore, being called bad luck or good luck. It’s like they don’t even see me as a member of the family or even a human being anymore. So starting tonight, I’m running away from home. Please don’t worry or try to look for me, I… I…” For a moment, Lincoln stopped talking to wipe a single tear from his right eye. “I just want you to know that wherever I am, I’m fine and I will always know that you are one of the people that will always and truly love me for who I am. And that I love you too. Goodbye.” With that, the message was over.

“Please tell me most of that was exaggerated,” Albert said with a stern and worried tone. “Because I really hope it is.” The other elders sitting in the area were also waiting with judging looks for the family to give a reasonable answer. Unfortunately, all his family could give him were nervous and guilty looks that told him everything he needed to know. “Wow!” Albert exclaimed with the same amount of shock and disbelief Lincoln had when he confronted his parents that terrible night. “So much for family.”

“Dad,” a nervous Rita tried to talk with her father. “I know how bad this looks and I don’t have any excuses for it.”

“Disowning Lincoln, your own son, just because you all thought he was bad luck?! Are you serious?” Albert said in a soft tone but almost at a complete loss for words.

“I’m sorry Dad,” Rita apologized shedding a few tears. “I… I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“It was my fault, Pop-Pop,” Lynn Jr. spoke up in defense of her mother. “I… I was so upset at losing my game and… and… I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize to me, I’m not the one you called bad luck and turned everyone against,” Albert told his granddaughter. Although he was very upset, he tried his best to sound as gentle and understanding as possible. “Junior, I know you love to win, but there’s more to being a great athlete than winning all the time and relying on silly superstitions.”

“Like what?” Lynn asked.

“I’m afraid that’s something you’re going to have to figure out for yourself, Junior,” Albert told her. Then he turned to his son-in-law with a slightly cross expression on his face. “As for you, Senior. This is going to leave quite a dent in our relationship. Just when I had finally begun to like you.”

Lynn Sr. lowered his head in shame and sighed. He and Albert had their issues in the past, but it seemed as if they’d finally put all that aside and built a good relationship between them. Until this happened. “I don’t blame you, Albert. I let a ridiculous superstition turn me and my family into crazy people. I still can’t believe I tried to push away my own son. What kind of father am I?! But I promise I’ll do everything I can to make things righ- AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Before Lynn Sr. could finish what he was saying, an elderly woman quietly walked up to him unnoticed and struck him in his personal area with her cane. The Loud family patriarch fell to his knees clutching his injured crotch. “OH, THAT’S JUST NOT FAIR!”

“Serves you right,” the old lady spat.

“Jill!” an appalled Albert scolded the elderly assailant. “They’re MY family, I can handle things myself!” Although he was upset with his son-in-law, he didn’t think he deserved that. With that out of the way, Albert turned his attention back to his family to take care of the more serious business. “I’m very disappointed in all of you. Especially you, Rita. I thought I raised you better than that.” Rita bowed her head in shame. “That being said, I don’t believe you’re bad people. You’re all capable of being the big happy family you wish to be. But don’t throw it all away because of some phony baloney.”

“I understand, Dad,” Rita said. “We promise we will find Lincoln and make things right.” Then the matriarch engaged in a warm hug with her father.

“I know you will,” Albert said in a warm loving tone to his daughter.

Back home, the once noisy and chaotic house was now as quite as a grave. Things really weren’t looking good for the Louds. First, their only son has had enough of their mistreatment and runs away. Then, his closest friends threaten to call the Child Services on them if they don’t find him. And now, their beloved grandfather was ashamed of them. The miserable family was trying to think of a way to find their missing boy and make amends to him. Unfortunately, they weren’t having much success. Rita had been calling the families of a few of Lincoln’s friends but no one knew where he was.

“Okay, thank you Mr. Spokes. Just let us know if you find anything,” Rita said hanging up the phone, then started sobbing. Her husband put his arms around her in an attempt to comfort her. “Oh Lynn, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do.”

“Neither do I,” he sobbed back.

Over in Mr. Grouse’s house, the grouchy old neighbor was sitting down at his table about to have the lasagna Lincoln gave him. But he couldn’t help but overhear the sad commotion going over at his neighbor's house. The sounds of Rita and Lynn’s sobbing and the memory of the angry things Lincoln had said to him that night made him lose his appetite out of guilt. The old man put his utensils down and picked up the tupperware in front of him as he got up from his seat.

Back in the Loud house, the gloominess was interrupted by a knocking at the front door. Leni answered it and was surprised to see it was Mr. Grouse holding a rectangular-shaped tupperware in his hands.

“Mr. Grouse, what are you doing here?” Leni asked.

“I couldn’t in good conscience let this go on any longer,” the old man said. Then he walked over to Lynn Sr. and handed him the tupperware of lasagna. “Here’s your lasagna back. Lincoln gave it to me the night he ran away so I wouldn’t tell you where he went.”

“You saw him?” Lana asked surprised.

“Where did he go?” Lola asked anxiously.

“Down that way,” Mr. Grouse pointed them in the direction Lincoln went.

“Why are you helping us?” Luan asked curiously.

“To prove him wrong.”

“To prove him wrong about what?” Lucy asked.

“That I’m not just a grouchy old man that doesn’t care about anyone but himself,” Mr. Grouse remorsefully explained. “Besides, Lincoln’s actually a really good kid. He deserves to give his family a second chance. No one should be without their family.”

“Thank you so much,” a tearful Rita gratefully hugged the old man, who was at first surprised but put on a warm smile.

“Is there anything we can do to repay you?” Lynn Sr. asked.

“Just don’t let anything like this happen again,” Mr. Grouse said. “And tell Lincoln I’m sorry for not caring about what he was going through.”

“Will do,” Luna happily agreed giving him a thumbs up.

A few minutes later, the Louds had packed some things and were loading up Vanzilla in preparation for their search for Lincoln. Eventually, they were all seated in Vanzilla ready to take off with new determination.

“Alright Louds,” Lynn Sr. said ready at the wheel. “You all ready?”

“Yeah!” his wife and daughters agreed.

“And so is Charles,” Lana said holding the family dog in her lap. “He wants to help find Lincoln too. With his nose, we’re sure to find him.” The dog gave a few barks in agreement.

“Alright everyone,” Lynn Sr. announced. “It’s time to put Operation Find Lincoln And Apologize To Him For Weeks Of Cruel And Emotional Abuse Due To Stupid Superstitions And Think Of A Shorter Nickname For This Operation into action!”

“YEAH!” the family excitedly shouted.

“Alright, let’s hit the road!” Lynn Sr. said ready for action.

“YEAH!”

A moment later, Leni had grabbed one of Lynn Jr.’s baseball bats, gotten out of the van, and was hitting the road with it.

“Like, take that! And this! And that! Had enough yet?!” she happily said while hitting the asphalt. “Like, how am I doing, guys?”

The rest of the family was sitting in the car staring wide-eyed at her in disbelief. Then they all, including Lily and Charles, slapped their foreheads and groaned in annoyance at the stupidity of the second oldest sister.

“We’re doomed,” Lisa said.

Fateful Meetings (Edited 10/29/17)

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It was morning, Sunset Shimmer was now awake for another glum and lonely day. After waking up, Sunset decided to take out the trash. Sunset walked out of her row house in her pajamas carrying a waste basket filled with trash. She walked over to the trash can on the right side of the building, took the lid off, and poured the trash from the waste basket into the trash can without looking inside it. Once the waste basket was empty, she put the lid back on the container and walked back inside her home to get dressed. Little did she know was that the trash she had poured into the can had become a slight inconvenience for the run away boy who was using it for a place to sleep.

“Ick,” Lincoln said popping out of the trash can brushing garbage off himself. Then he turned to the readers. “Just another day in the wonderful life of Lincoln Loud,” he said sarcastically as he climbed out of the trash can with his backpack. He started walking down the sidewalk when a car suddenly drove by and its wheels drove through a puddle drenching the poor boy. Lincoln stood where he was for a moment soaking wet with an irritated look on his face. Clearly the day wasn’t starting out very well, just like so many of his days in the past. “Well, at least it washed some of the smell off,” he said and continued walking down the sidewalk to find a place to have breakfast.

Back at her home, Sunset Shimmer had gotten dressed and had stepped out to find a place to have breakfast. She brought a satchel carrying her journal with her incase she felt like writing a message to Twilight Sparkle. Coincidentally, she headed down the same direction Lincoln had went.

After walking a bit, Lincoln came across a place called Sugarcube Café. Luckily, the morning sun had dried him off along the way. He walked inside and stood in line for people waiting to reach the counter and make their orders. Shortly after, Sunset arrived at the café and took a seat at an outside table all by herself. She wasn’t feeling very hungry yet because she had a lot of depressing thoughts on her mind. She decided to get out her journal and write a message to Twilight.
Dear Princess Twilight,

Haven’t heard back from you yet. I guess you must really be busy right now. It’s been almost a day since I left Canterlot High and broke up with my friends. I haven’t made any new friends yet. I don’t really think I can trust anyone in this town anymore.

While Sunset was outside writing her journal entry, Lincoln had finally reached the end of the line and was at the counter.

“Good morning, dearie,” Mrs. Cake said in a motherly voice. “What can I get you?”

Lincoln looked at the menu for a moment before making his decision. “I’ll take that, please.”

There really isn’t anyone around here I can really talk or relate to. If I don’t find someone that I know I can trust to be my friend, then I don’t think I can it bearable to live here anymore. I’m at the end of my rope and could really use your help or advice. Please get back to me as soon as you can.
Your Friend,
Sunset Shimmer

Back inside, Lincoln had bought a chocolate smoothie and was slowly drinking it as he walked toward the exit with a depressed look on his face. Even the sweet taste of chocolate wasn’t enough to make him feel good after everything he’d been through. As he approached the café doors, he failed to notice an older girl approach the doors about to come in.

With her message finished, Sunset was finally ready to have something to eat. She got up from her seat and approached the café doors. She was still so depressed that she failed to notice a young boy with a chocolate smoothie approach the doors about to leave. When she pushed the doors open, the force accidentally knocked the boy on his back spilling his drink all over his head and shirt.

“OH NO! I’m so sorry!” Sunset apologized as her state of depression turned to a state of anxiety. She quickly helped the young man back on his feet, grabbed a handful of napkins, and began cleaning him off as best she could all the while apologizing sincerely for her carelessness. “Are you alright? I’m very sorry.”

“I’m okay,” Lincoln assured the red and yellow haired teenager. “I’m sorry I accidentally got in your way.”

“No, it was completely my fault,” Sunset insisted. “I should’ve been looking where I was going, and I made you spill your drink. Let me buy you a new one.”

“No, that’s okay,” Lincoln kindly tried to decline the offer. “I don’t want to be guilty of costing you a few more dollars.”

“Nonsense,” Sunset insisted. “It would be my pleasure.” She gently took Lincoln’s hand and led him back to the counter. Realizing nothing he could say would change this girl’s mind, Lincoln decided to go along with it. “What did you order?”

“The chocolate one,” Lincoln answered pointing at the smoothie menu.

Before making the order, Sunset thought for a moment. “May I make a friendly suggestion?” she asked Lincoln getting an idea. “I find it interesting to mix a fruit flavor with something sweet like chocolate. What do you think?” Lincoln arched his eyebrow in curiosity.

A moment later, both Sunset and Lincoln were sitting together at a table happily drinking smoothies.

“Wow, you were right,” Lincoln said. “A flavor of fruit makes a perfect balance with the flavor of chocolate. Thank you, uh…”

“Sunset Shimmer,” Sunset introduced herself. “What’s your name?”

“Lincoln,” the boy introduced himself. “Lincoln Loud. Nice to meet you, Sunset.” Lincoln smiled warmly at the girl who looked to be around the same age as his eldest sister, Lori, but was far nicer than she ever was.

“So, how have things been lately?” Sunset asked trying to start a friendly conversation.

“Not so good I’m afraid,” Lincoln glumly answered.

“Oh sorry,” Sunset noticed the boy’s unhappiness. “Same here.” She decided to change the subject. “So, what school do you go to?”

“I go to…” Lincoln started. “Used to go to Royal Woods Elementary. What school do you go to?”

“I used to go to Canterlot High before I dropped out.”

“Why did you drop out?” Lincoln asked curiously.

“It’s a long story,” Sunset sadly replied. Then she changed her mood to a more light-spirited one. “What are you doing around here all by yourself? Do you have any family?”

“Oh yeah,” Lincoln replied with a hint of embarrassment in his voice. “My parents and sisters.”

“Having siblings in nice,” Sunset said.

“Not all the time,” Lincoln replied doubtfully.

“How many sisters do you have?”

“Ten.”

Sunset stared at Lincoln for a moment in surprise and shock after hearing his answer. “Wow!”

“I know, right?” Lincoln responded.

“The grocery bill must be a nightmare.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Lincoln said with a chuckle which made Sunset chuckle too.

“So are you waiting for them to meet you somewhere?” Sunset asked innocently.

Lincoln developed a nervous look on his face at that question. “Uh… Actually…” Before finishing his answer, Lincoln took a moment to observe his surroundings to make sure no one else was listening in on their conversation. Sunset had a puzzled look on her face at the boy’s secretive behavior, apparently what he didn’t want anyone to know was about to tell her. “My family doesn’t really know I’m here.”

“What do you mean?” a confused Sunset asked.

Lincoln let out a sigh before answering her. “The truth is I ran away from home, and no I have no intention of going back.”

“How come?” Sunset asked confused and concerned. “Did something happen between you and your family?”

“Yeah, something really bad. But I don’t want to talk about it.” Then Lincoln clamped his hands together in a begging fashion and looked at Sunset Shimmer with desperate pleading eyes. “Please promise me won’t tell anyone about this. I really don’t want my family to know where I am. Pretty please with a cherry on top.”

Sunset could see that this little boy really didn’t want to return to his family. It was apparent to her that whatever happened between them was serious enough that he felt he had to run away from home. “Alright, I promise,” Sunset reluctantly promised. “Do you have a place to stay?”

“I’m sure I can find a nice trash can or tree to settle in for the night, it’ll be fine,” Lincoln confidently assured her.

“How about not!” an utterly appalled Sunset refused to allow. “I may have promised not to tell your family, but a minor sleeping outside in the cold night is something I won’t allow!”

Lincoln was surprised that this strange girl was putting her foot down at letting a kid she’d just met sleep outside. She was already leagues better than his family. “What do I do then?”

“Why don’t you come stay at my place for awhile?” Sunset suggested.

“But will your family be okay with that?” Lincoln asked concerned. “I don’t want to be a burden.”

“Trust me, you won’t be,” Sunset assured him. “Besides, I don’t have a family.”

“Wait, you live all by yourself?” Lincoln asked shocked. Sunset nodded her head ‘yes’. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

“Don’t worry,” Sunset warmly assured him. “This way things work out for both of us. You need a place to stay and I could use some company.”

“Well, I guess if it’s okay with you,” Lincoln reluctantly agreed.

“Then it’s settled,” Sunset said happily. “You’ll stay at my place.”

“Where do you live?”

Soon enough, Sunset led Lincoln to the row house she lived in. Lincoln was surprised to see that it was the same place he slept next to in a trash can last night.

“What are the odds?” the astonished boy said to the readers.

“Come on, let’s go in,” Sunset said leading him up the concrete steps and through the front door.

Later that day, the Loud family had arrived in a town looking for Lincoln. Unfortunately, they weren’t having much luck, no pun intended. As their search produced little results, the sisters had begun to grow more and more restless.

“AAAAAAAHHHHHH!” Lola screamed in horror as she looked at herself in her little mirror. Her hair had been dyed black and she had very black eye shadow. With Lincoln, her favorite pageant couch, gone she had to ask one of her sisters to help her maintain her beautiful looks. She was just realizing Lucy wasn’t the best choice. “What did you do to my beautiful face?!”

“Brought out your inner darkness,” Lucy replied in her usual monotone. “You’re welcome.”

“I’m not going to a stinking funeral!” the angry pageant winner yelled. “I can’t believe I traded Lincoln for this!”

“Any of you have any luck?” Lynn asked her two younger sisters returning from her search. The word ‘luck’ suddenly triggered something in Lola.

“YOU!” Lola yelled angrily pointing at Lynn. “This is all your fault! You and your stupid superstitions!” Then the pageant princess viciously gave chase to the athlete with murder in her eyes.

The two of them ran past their eldest sister, Lori, who paid no attention to them and was answering a call on her phone.

“Hi Bobby,” she said into her phone. “How are you doing?”

“Could be better,” Bobby said. “How about you?”

“Haven’t had any luck in finding Lincoln,” Lori told him sadly. She immediately regretted saying that accursed word.

“Speaking of which, I hate to tell you this but if you don’t find Lincoln within the remaining days you have, I’m afraid I’ll have to break up with you.”

“What?! But why, Boo-Boo-Bear?” Lori asked utterly shocked and upset.

“I can’t keep living with the guilt for my ignorance. If I had known this whole ‘bad luck’ thing was this bad for Lincoln, I never would’ve let it happen. What you and your family did was absolutely inhuman! Also, Ronnie Anne says if I don’t break up with you if Lincoln’s not found, she’ll never speak to me again. I’m sorry, Lori.” With that, he hung up leaving Lori in a state of shock and anxiety. Her relationship with her boyfriend was one of the most important things in the world to her. She often saw her little brother as an annoyance that often got in-between her relationship with Bobby, whether intentional or not, and tried to push him away most of the time. But now in a vicious twist of irony, Lori realized the only way to save her relationship with her beloved ‘Boo-Boo-Bear’, was to find and make amends with the very person she used to see as a obstacle in that relationship.

“Lori, a little help?” Lynn appeared next to her big sister. She was still trying to avoid the wrath of her younger pageant sister. “Can you get Lola to calm down?”

The minute Lori heard Lynn’s voice, fury took over. This was the girl responsible for this mess they were all in. If it hadn’t been for her crazy superstitions, Lori and Bobby’s relationship wouldn’t be in this danger. “YOU!” Lori yelled furiously and gave chase to her younger athlete sister.

Lynn screamed in terror as she ran for her life from both Lori and Lola, who had caught up with them, and even the family dog, Charles, started chasing Lynn and barking angrily after her.

"Hey, get back here, Charles!" Lana called chasing after the canine.

“Kids please, this isn’t the time for this,” their father called to them in an attempt to reason and calm them down. But Lori and Lola were too much in a blind state of fury to hear him.

Lynn ran down a sidewalk desperately trying not to get caught by her two angry sisters and dog, who was being chased by another one of her sisters. None of them were looking where they were going and collided with a group of people. They were all lying scattered on the ground making painful groans when the rest of the family caught up. The people the four sisters and dog had bumped into were a group of five colorful teenage girls roughly around the ages of Lori and Leni.

“Ow!” exclaimed a rainbow-haired girl as she got back on her feet. “Where’s the fire?!”

“Oh dear, we’re so sorry,” Rita anxiously apologized to the five girls as she and the rest of her family helped Lori, Lynn, and Lola up. “Is anyone hurt?”

“Everythin’s fine,” a girl dressed a country style outfit and speaking in a Southern accent assured the matriarch while helping one of her friends, a very timid looking girl, to her feet.

“What seems to be the problem, darlings?” asked a pretty-looking girl with a Trans-Atlantic English accent while helping up one of her friends who had pink skin and hair.

“It’s nothing you need to worry about,” Lori said not wanting to cause the girls anymore trouble than they already had.

“Come on,” the pink girl pleaded sweetly. “I can tell when someone’s having troubles, and you’re all obviously having some troubles. Maybe my friends and I can do something to help.”

“No really,” Lori still insisted. “It’s literally nothing.”

“I SAID SPILL IT, STRANGER!” the pink girl said changing her tone from sweet to crazy. Realizing this girl wasn’t going to take no for an answer, the family decided to confess.

“We’re here looking for our missing brother,” Luna told them.

“Oh no, you poor things,” the timid girl said with sympathy in her voice.

“Maybe we can help y’ll look for him,” the country girl suggested. “Ah’m Applejack.”

“I’m Pinkie Pie,” the pink girl introduced herself.

“I’m Fluttershy,” the timid girl said.

“Rarity,” the girl with the Trans-Atlantic English accent introduced herself.

“Rainbow Dash,” the rainbow-haired girl said.

“Nice to meet you,” Rita said politely. “I’m Rita Loud and this is my husband, Lynn Loud Sr.” she introduced herself and her husband. “And these are our daughters: Lori, Leni, Luna, Luan, Lynn Jr., Lana, Lola, Lisa, and Lily.”

"And this is our dog, Charles," Lana introduced the family dog who greeted them with a few friendly barks.

"You forgot me," Lucy said suddenly appearing behind everyone nearly scaring the life out of them.

"Oh year, I almost forgot about Lucy," Rita said recovering from her fright.

"Story of my life," Lucy remarked.

The five girls were shocked to see how many kids the couple had.

“And ah thought mah family was big,” Applejack whispered to Pinkie Pie. “Y’all look famished. Why don’t y’all come over ta mah house? Granny Smith is makin’ her famous apple stew.”

“I don’t want my family to give you any trouble,” Lynn Sr. tried to politely decline the offer. He knew how troublesome his kids could get.

“Nonsense,” Applejack insisted. “Granny always makes enough to last a whole week.”

“It’s really good,” Pinkie excitedly added.

“Besides, maybe we can talk and see if we can figure out a way to help you find your missing son,” Fluttershy suggested.

After thinking about it for a moment, Lynn Sr. and Rita finally made their decision. “Alright, I guess we could use some help,” Lynn Sr. reluctantly agreed. At this point, they could use all the help they could get since their days were numbered.

“Yay!” Pinkie exclaimed happily pulling both Lori and Leni into a tight squeezing hug. “Dinner and slumber party at AJ’s house!”

Not only was this a good opportunity for the Louds to get some help in finding Lincoln, but it was a way for the Humane Five to help take their minds off the day Sunset had broken up with them which had been plaguing their minds for quite sometime.

Revelations Part 1 (Edited 04/19/18)

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At Sunset Shimmer’s place, she and Lincoln had just finished dinner and were washing dishes together. Both were clearly enjoying each other’s company. Lincoln was like the little brother Sunset never had and Sunset was everything Lincoln ever wanted in a sister. But each knew the other was hiding something and both were curious to learn more about the other.

“Wasn’t that good, Lincoln?” Sunset asked creating a conversation.

“Yeah, I haven’t had pizza in awhile,” Lincoln replied. “Much less seconds. In my family, getting seconds is almost impossible.”

“I bet,” Sunset chuckled. Then she noticed Lincoln had a sad look on his face. “Is something wrong, Lincoln?”

“No, it’s nothing,” Lincoln glumly assured her. Then he headed into the living room leaving Sunset with a concerned look on her face. “Thanks for the pizza.”

It was apparent to Sunset that the young boy was still greatly upset over whatever happened between him and his family. Her first idea was to see if she could try and help work out the issues he had with his family, after all, that’s what Twilight Sparkle would’ve done. But she didn’t even know what those issues were, and it was obvious that Lincoln wasn’t ready to talk about it yet.

At Sweet Apple Acres, the Humane Five had invited the Loud family to have dinner with them. Apple Bloom’s friends, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, were also invited and so was Maud Pie, Pinkie Pie’s older sister. Big Macintosh and Granny Smith had made her delicious apple stew and Maud had made a rock soup that was an old Pie family recipe. Most of the Loud family preferred the apple stew over the rock soup, with the exception of Lana. Everyone was getting along with each other quite well. Rarity got along with Lola and Leni the best due to Leni’s similar love of fashion and Rarity helped fix Lola’s appearance. Pinkie got along with Luan due to their love of jokes and laughter. Lana got along with Fluttershy due to their love of animals and Applejack because of her hardworking nature and dislikeness for overly girly things was something she could relate to. Lucy got along with Maud due to both of them not being very emotionally expressive. Rainbow Dash got along with Lynn and Luna due to Lynn’s love of sports and Luna’s love of music. Although there was no one Lisa could compare with, the Five all agreed she would probably get along well with Twilight Sparkle due to their love of science. Charles got along with the Apples’ family dog, Winona. Of course, everyone got along with Lily, the baby, even if her diapers were sometimes hazardous to change.

"Hey Lily," Pinkie said playfully to the youngest Loud sister. "Can you say 'Pinkie'?"

"Poo-poo," Lily said in her adorable little voice.

"No, 'Pinkie'."

"Poo-poo." Then the baby made a flatulent noise. The party girl took a whiff of the air and immediately covered her nose.

"Oh, I get it," Pinkie said uncomfortably and she held her nose to block out the terrible smell.

“Thank you Miss Rarity for fixing my beautiful face,” Lola thanked the fashionista.

“It was my pleasure, darling,” Rarity told the young pageant princess. “I know it’s hard to keep up one’s beautiful appearance, especially at your age. Who helps you keep up your good looks?”

“My… my… big brother, Lincoln,” Lola answered with great sadness and remorse in her voice.

“Oh dear,” Rarity said realizing she’d accidentally reopened some wounds. “I’m terribly sorry, darling.”

“It’s okay, you didn’t know,” Lola assured her.

“You know AJ, your granny’s apple stew would taste even better with a little rock in it,” Lana told Applejack while putting a rock from Maud’s rock soup into a bowl of a second helping of apple stew.

“Thanks, I’ll see if I can talk to Granny about that,” AJ reluctantly said. Even she found the young girl’s taste buds weird.

“So, you like expressing yourself through poetry?” Maud asked Lucy in her usual emotionless monotone voice.

“That’s right,” Lucy replied in her usual emotionless monotone voice.

“Neat,” Maud replied back. “Do you also have someone close to you?”

“This is Edwin, my soulmate,” Lucy said presenting her precious vampire bust.

“This is my pet, Boulder,” Maud said presenting her pet rock.

“Neat,” Lucy replied.

“I can see we have a lot in common,” Maud said.

“Hey Pinkie, what do you call it when someone bakes you in a pastry?” Luan asked the pink party girl.

“I don’t know, Luan. What do you call it?” Pinkie asked excited to hear the punchline.

“A Pinkie Pie!” Luan said with a laugh. “Get it?”

“Yes!” Pinkie replied bursting into laughter. Finally Luan had met someone who found her jokes funny.

Elsewhere in the house, Rainbow and Lynn were throwing a ball to one another.

“Hey Lynn, go long,” Rainbow said tossing the ball to the younger sports girl.

“Got it!” Lynn said triumphantly catching the ball.

“Nice catch,” Rainbow complimented.

“So Lisa, what kinds of studies are you into?” Fluttershy asked the little genius.

“Our Lisa’s an expert in biology, psychology, and anthropology,” Lynn Sr. proudly said.

“And scatology,” Lisa added.

“Oh, I didn’t know you had your hand in that,” Pinkie Pie obliviously commented which caused the rest of her friends to give her disgusted looks at her poor choice of words.

“Pinkie please, I just ate,” Rainbow told her.

Rarity and Leni were looking over some selfies they took with Rarity’s phone. As they were looking over the photos, they came across an old one that all five colorful girls, but with a sixth girl who had yellow skin, a leather jacket, and red and yellow hair.

“Oh, who’s that?” a curious Leni asked. “I didn’t know you guys had another friend you like to hang out with.”

“We don’t,” Rarity said with a suddenly sad tone. “Not anymore.”

Suddenly, the cheerful mood turned glum as the Five and the Crusaders all donned sad and heartbroken expressions on their faces which the Loud family picked up on.

“You guys okay?” Lynn asked concerned.

“Yeah, it’s nothing,” a glum Rainbow assured, but no one was buying it.

“It’s about that friend of yours, isn’t it, dudes?” Luna guessed.

The Five all took a deep breath and started to explain.

“Her name was Sunset Shimmer,” Applejack began. “And she was once a very close friend of ours.”

“What happened?” Lucy asked.

“A very very terrible mistake,” a miserable Fluttershy said.

Back at Sunset Shimmer’s place, Sunset was setting up an air mattress for Lincoln to sleep on in the living room while the boy was curiously looking around her place.

“Nice place you’ve got, Sunset,” Lincoln complimented. Then he noticed a small picture of Sunset with five other girls sitting on top of a shelf. “Hey, are these your friends? They all look nice. Maybe someday you could introduce us and we’ll all have a fun day together.”

“Don’t bet on it,” Sunset said in a sudden sad tone. “Looks can be deceiving.” She then took a break from setting up the air mattress, walked over to where Lincoln found the picture, and turned it face down. Then she returned to setting up the boy’s sleeping place with a miserable expression on her face. Lincoln noticed this and became concerned and curious.

“Are you alright, Sunset?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” she assured him, but he wasn’t convinced.

“If something’s troubling you, you can tell me and I promise I won’t judge,” he said in kind tone. “Maybe getting it off your chest will help make it feel a little better.”

“It’s nothing that concerns you,” Sunset insisted.

Hearing that brought back an unpleasant memory for Lincoln. The day when all his sisters got into a huge ridiculous dispute with each other and they all inconvenienced him and refused to let him do anything to help, they called it their ‘Sister Protocol’. He wasn’t going to be shut out this time.

“Please, don’t shut me out when I’m trying to help,” Lincoln pleaded shedding a single tear. “You’ve helped me so much already, I could never live with myself if I didn’t at least try to do something for you.”

Sunset could see the desperation in the boy’s eyes, and gave in. “Alright. But I must warn you, it’s a long and unpleasant story.”

Back at Sweet Apple Acres, the Five and the Crusaders had finished telling the Loud family about their former friend, Sunset Shimmer. First, they told them about how she used to be one of the most powerful bullies at CHS before she finally sought redemption. They left out all the magic parts to avoid sounding crazy. Eventually, they told them about the Anon-a-Miss fiasco that happened last holiday season and how it had ruined their relationship with Sunset Shimmer. The big family looked very saddened by what they all just heard.

“That is literally the saddest story I’ve ever heard,” Lori said on the verge of tears.

“That’s dark even for me,” Lucy stated.

“I can’t believe you all lost such a good friend,” Lola said wiping away her tears with a handkerchief.

“Normally, I don’t care for human emotions, but…” Lisa said before bursting into tears like the 4 year old she was.

“And it’s all our fault!” a guilty-looking Apple Bloom said.

Sweetie Belle was hugging Rarity who returned the hug as her younger sister sobbed on her shoulder.

“We became so desperate for our sisters’ attention that we caused an innocent girl terrible pain,” Scootaloo said clearly disappointed in herself. “And no, it wasn’t worth it.”

“It’s okay sugarcube, it ain’t all yer fault,” Applejack comforted her little sister. “Most of it is ours.”

“Yeah. How can we even call ourselves her friends if we were willing to turn on her just like that?” Rainbow remorsefully added.

“The only thing your Anon-a-Miss stunt did was show us what we really were,” Rarity tearfully finished.

The Louds watched with sad and sympathetic looks on their faces as the five teenagers and their little sisters all mourned the loss of the friendship. At this moment, the family realized that they were not that different from these young girls. They both had committed acts that were deemed illegal and had extremely hurtful effects on someone they loved. For the Louds, it was child abuse and for the Crusaders, it was cyberbullying. This also reminded the sisters of when Lincoln was eager to win his first trophy for a video contest at school and posted embarrassing videos of them on the internet. Needless to say, they were all furious at him for that. So much that he filmed embarrassing footage of himself in order to make it up to them. After seeing how regretful the Crusaders were and the fact that they never meant to cause that much harm, the sisters began to think that they might’ve been a little too hard on their brother back then because just like the Crusaders he never meant any real harm and was trying to make his family proud of him for once.

“Wow! I never knew how much damage cyberbullying could really cause,” Lori said looking at her phone. “Oh no!” she exclaimed as she had a horrible realization. She began looking through her phone’s photo gallery and started anxiously deleting all embarrassing photos and videos she had taken of Lincoln in the past, one of which was a picture of when she threw up on him in the van while they were on a road trip and sent it to Bobby. After hearing this sad story, the phone-obsessed teen realized that she might’ve committed the same hurtful stunt like the Crusaders. When she was done, she saw that she had only a few decent pictures of Lincoln, which made her realize that she had not been a good big sister to him at all.

“I heard that kind of bullying is illegal,” Lucy stated.

“Yeah, we were lucky Sunset decided not to press charges,” Scootaloo said. “Even though we would’ve deserved it.”

“Speaking of luck,” Rita said looking nervously at the rest of her family who returned the same expression. It was clear to them that she thought it was probably an important time to tell these girls about why they were looking for their missing boy in the first place. Although, they all had a nervous feeling that their new friends will not be so friendly after revealing their shameful secret. “You girls remember us saying we’re here in this town looking for our son, right?”

“Yeah, y’all said he went missing,” AJ said.

“Actually, he ran away from home,” a guilty-looking Lynn Sr. confessed.

“Oh no! That’s awful,” Fluttershy said.

“Do any of you have any idea why he ran away?” Rarity asked.

“Oh yeah,” Lynn Jr. answered in a nervous and absolute tone.

Meanwhile, Sunset had just finished telling Lincoln about her life at Canterlot High from the day she enrolled to the dreadful Anon-a-Miss fiasco, minus all the magic parts to avoid sounding insane. Needless to say, the white-haired boy found the story very tragic.

“Oh Sunset, I’m so sorry about what happened between you and your friends,” Lincoln said shedding tears of sadness at the story.

“Most of it is really my fault,” Sunset said sadly. “I really didn’t make a very good first impression on everyone. For about three years, I was a selfish tyrant who ruled the school with an iron fist, until the girls I called friends knocked some sense in me. But no matter how much good I do for everyone, it’ll never be enough for them to completely get over my past. To them, I’ll always be a cruel manipulative monster. The whole Anon-a-Miss thing showed me that. So rather than go through another painful experience like that, I chose to leave and live all by myself, no friends or family.”

“But don’t you ever get lonely?” Lincoln asked.

“All the time.”

“Sunset,” Lincoln said in a soft and sympathetic tone. “When I first met you, I didn’t think you were a cruel manipulative monster.”

“Thanks,” Sunset said grateful for the boy’s kindness, even though it didn’t make her feel entirely better.

“You are one of the kindest and most friendly people I’ve ever met,” Lincoln continued. “And if it makes you feel any better, I know what it feels like to be treated like an outcast, even for something you were innocent of. My family wasn’t exactly the warm and loving type. Why do you think I ran away?”

“I appreciate your understanding and know that something bad happened between you and your family, Lincoln,” Sunset said. “But whatever it was, I doubt it was worse than what my friends did to me.” Then she bowed her head in sadness thinking about all the good and bad times she had with the Five in the past. Right now, she felt like the saddest person in the entire world. Lincoln noticed this and stared at her for a moment with extremely sympathetic eyes. Eventually, his sad facial expression turned into a warm smile and he couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle that got Sunset’s attention.

“Wanna bet?” the 11 year old boy asked slyly.

Sunset arched her left eyebrow in curiosity as Lincoln prepared to tell her his tragic story.

Revelations Part 2

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Over at Sweet Apple Acres, the Loud family had just told their hosts about their shameful treatment of Lincoln over a ridiculous superstition. The atmosphere in the house became less warm and cheerful as the Five, the Crusaders, and the rest of Applejack’s family stared at the Louds in shock and disbelief. Never had they heard such an awful story. The Louds had shameful and guilty expressions on their faces.

“And that is literally the entire story,” Lori said finishing the story with a sad and remorseful look on her face.

“Y-you didn’t,” Rarity said in complete disbelief.

“Of course they didn’t, Rarity,” Pinkie Pie confidently assured her friend. The party girl in denial that a whole family could make such a ridiculous and obviously hurtful mistake. “They’re probably too ashamed to tell us the real story. Even I think this all sounds too crazy to be true. There’s no way Mr. and Mrs. Loud would’ve let something so inexcusably horrible happen to their only son, or worse been involved in it.”

Pinkie looked at the couple hoping get some confirmation to her claim. But all she saw was the two parents donning very nervous and guilt-ridden facial expressions with sweat dripping from their heads.

“Wow!” Pinkie exclaimed now utterly appalled at learning it was all true. “So much for family.”

“I have heard stories about children being abandoned by their families,” Fluttershy said. “All of them very sad.”

“Usually it’s because they can’t afford to take care of the child or just don’t love it,” Rarity added.

“But this,” Applejack spoke. “This is different. The reason behind this one is beyond unthinkable.”

“I-I can’t believe this,” Rainbow Dash said in complete shock.

“Now we know how that sounds-” Lynn Sr. attempted to speak but was soon cut off.

“ARE YOU ALL LOCO IN THE COCO!?!” Pinkie shouted. The Louds were completely taken back by her sudden outburst.

“Well to be fair, Lincoln kinda brought some of it on himsel-” Lisa tried to explain.

“It doesn’t matter what he did anymore!” AJ interrupted. “Because that’s nothin’ compared to what y’all did ta him!”

“It’s still wrong!” Fluttershy added.

“And I thought we were the worst people in the world after the Anon-a-Miss incident,” Sweetie Belle whispered to her two friends.

“What kind of folks throw out one of their own over some crazy superstition?!” an appalled Granny Smith asked.

“That’s really low,” Maud said in her usual emotionless tone.

“Eeyup,” Big McIntosh sternly agreed.

“No wonder he ran away,” Rainbow said angrily. “If I were treated like that, I’d run away too.”

The members of the Loud family hung their heads in shame at each and every disgust-filled word.

“And we can’t even contact him because my found his phone smashed to pieces in his room,” Leni said sadly.

“More rock soup please?” Lynn Sr. shamefully asked for seconds as he held up his bowl while sitting in his chair at the dining table. Maud walked over to the miserable patriarch carrying the pot that held her soup. She took a ladle full of soup and brought it over to the man’s bowl. Unfortunately, she missed and poured the hot steaming broth all over his lap. “AAAAAAHHHHHHH!” Lynn Sr. screamed in pain as the crotch of his pants was drenched in scalding hot soup. It got even worse when a big rock fell out of the ladle and onto the man’s already stinging personal area. “OOOWWWW!”

“Whoops,” Maud said. “Sorry.”

“That was on purpose, wasn’t it?!” the patriarch painfully accused.

“Was it?” the elder Pie sister responded in a suspicious and deadpan tone.

Lynn Sr. stared suspiciously into the emotionless girl’s eyes. After a moment, Maud walked away.

“I can’t read that girl,” the patriarch whispered to his wife.

“Here’s some ice for that, Mr. Loud,” Granny Smith said appearing with a big bag of ice and offered it to the man. But as he reached to grab the bag, the old lady let the big heavy bag go too early and it fell right on his stinging gender identification area.

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!” Lynn Sr. painfully wheezed.

“And you two call yourselves adults,” Rarity commented at the parents with disgust and disappointment.

“Look dudes,” Luna got up to speak. “We realize now that the way we treated our bro was wrong.”

“We literally became so concerned with the amount of luck in our lives that we didn’t care how much it was hurting him,” Lori spoke next.

“If I had a heart it would be aching,” Lucy voiced her regret.

“I admit I have given those who follow the path of science a bad name,” Lisa admitted clearly disgusted with herself.

“Ah’m surprised someone as smart as you, Lisa, actually fell for that kind on phony baloney,” a confused and disappointed AJ said. “But ah’m also very upset with you, Lori, cause you’re the oldest. Y’all should know better than ta treat your own family like that. Especially after tellin’ Lincoln that ‘this family supports each other’.” Lori lowered her head in shame at being reminded of her hypocritical words. “It’s clear to all of us that ya don’t truly know how to be a true oldest sibling. Right Big Mac?”

“Eeyup,” Big Mac agreed.

“Well, lucky-er, I mean, good for you, Big Mac here can give you a few tips on how ta be one,” AJ said.

“I know someone too,” Pinkie announced and then dialed a number on her phone. After listening to it ring for a moment, her call was answered. “Hi Limestone, it’s Pinkie, I’m going to need you to make a quick trip down here tomorrow as soon as possible.” She paused for a moment to listen to a response. “Yeah, I know you’re busy with the farm, but it’s really important. I have someone who really needs some lessons on how to be a good oldest sibling.” She paused again to listen to another response. “It’s a long story, but I’ll explain it tomorrow. So will you come down here?” She listened to the response. “Thank you, I Pinkie-Promise you this is very important and worth it. Bye.” Then she ended the call.

“And you, Lynn,” Rainbow said accusingly to the younger athlete and the catalyst of the entire mess. “What is wrong with you? You lose one little game and it’s all your brother’s fault?!”

“But I’ve never lost a game before in my life, I’m Lynn Loud Jr.” the arrogant athlete defended herself. “That was the first game of mine he ever attended. The game after that, he wasn’t there and I won. Then the game after that was when he snuck in disguised as our team’s mascot and I won. I believed the mascot suit must’ve cancelled out his bad luck. Why doesn’t anyone else understand that?! How would you explain that?”

Rainbow stared at the athletic Loud girl with disappointment and disgust. It was clear that despite all the recent troubles that had befallen her and her family because of their ridiculous actions, her big wall of pride still prevented her from completely realizing just how wrong she was. But she instantly formed a plan that would surely break that wall down.

“Okay, champ,” Rainbow said in a challenging tone. “How about tomorrow you prove your ‘amazing’ skills to all of us. And since your brother won’t be around, you won’t have to worry about any bad luck. Okay?”

“Okay,” a confused Lynn agreed. She had a little suspicion the older rainbow-haired girl was up to something. But her mountainous ego just couldn’t pass down a chance to show off her skills.

“Good, I’ll make a few calls and tomorrow we’ll see who’s the better athlete,” Rainbow declared. “And person.”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Fluttershy quietly asked Rainbow.

“Trust me,” Rainbow quietly assured her. “I know what I’m doing.”

“Well, we all better get some shut eye fer now,” Applejack suggested. “We’ll set up some places fer y’all ta rest in our home.”

“And we’d better get going,” Rarity said with Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie by her sides. “With a family this big sleeping here, I’d hate for us to take up anymore space.”

As the four friends were getting ready to return to their homes and the Apple family were setting up places for the Louds to sleep, Rita walked over to one of the windows and stared out into the night. She was shortly joined by her husband.

“You okay, dear?” Lynn Sr. asked concerned.

“I miss him, Lynn,” Rita sadly replied. “I miss our little boy.”

“We’ll find him,” he said in an attempt to comfort his wife.

“He’s out there somewhere, alone, and thinking there’s no one in the world that cares about him. I can only imagine how he must be feeling right now.”

Meanwhile, at Sunset Shimmer’s home, Lincoln was just finishing telling her his tragic story.

“And so I packed up as many things as I could take, made my way to the nearest town, and here we are,” Lincoln finished. After he was done, the sad and heartbroken expression on Sunset’s face was completely replaced by one of shock and appall. The fiery-haired teenager had never had such an unfair and unlikeable tale. Lincoln stared at Sunset’s dismayed expression for a moment and then started laughing. “You should see the look on your face!”

Pretty soon, Sunset couldn’t control herself and started laughing with him. After a minute or two of laughing, the two began to settle down.

“Okay, that’s pretty awful,” Sunset admitted. She thought that even made her sad story look like a happy one in comparison.

“I know, right?!” Lincoln said with one last chuckle. “But I can’t put all the blame on them for the whole thing. I kinda helped make it worse for myself by lying and going along with Lynn’s crazy accusation. But even when I try to tell the truth, no one listens to me. They don’t realize how much I’m suffering.”

“I hope you won’t be offended by this, Lincoln,” Sunset said sincerely. “But what your family did was nothing more than a prime example of extreme selfishness and ignorance. Sure, what you did was wrong, but it was nothing compared to what they did. And the fact that they didn’t properly compensate you for everything you went through didn’t make it any better.”

“Yeah, I didn’t even get my room back the way it was,” Lincoln sadly agreed.

“And if they don’t learn from their mistakes, they’re going to be in a lot of trouble someday.”

“I can’t help but feel a little sorry for them if that happens.” Despite the unjustified treatment they inflicted on him, deep down Lincoln still held soft spots for his family. “Even after all the trouble I’ve endured because of them, I still love them. But I can’t find it in my heart to trust them anymore.”

Sunset gently pulled the sad eleven year old into a warm hug. “Lincoln, if you don’t have anywhere else to go, you can stay with me as long as you want.”

“Really?” Lincoln said surprised. “You’d let me stay with you? You won’t try to talk me into going back to my family and try patching things up?”

“After hearing your story, I think you’d be a lot happier here with me,” Sunset kindly replied. “Besides, it gets lonely here all by myself.”

Lincoln was touched. Despite the bad things she did in the past and all the unfairness she endured trying to turn over a new leaf, Sunset Shimmer was without a doubt the kindest person he ever had the honor of meeting. He could also tell that she needed him just as much as he felt he needed her.

“That just depends, if you don’t mind allowing a ‘troublesome, white haired, chipped-toothed, bad luck bringing jinx’ to live with you in your house,” Lincoln said in a sly tone. He was obviously testing her in joking manner.

“Not as long as you don’t mind hanging out with an ‘evil, power hungry, manipulative, secret stealing bully’,” Sunset replied in the same sly tone. She was doing the same thing to him now.

Both of them stared at each other with sly grins on their faces before bursting into laughter.

“Not at all,” Lincoln replied extending his right hand. Sunset gasped his hand with hers and the two shook on it cementing their newly developed long-lasting friendship.

With that, both people felt a huge relief. Like a lot of weight had been lifted off their shoulders. They had shared their sad stories with each other and developed a mutual trust of each other.

“Well, we’d better get some shut eye,” Sunset said yawning. “We’ve got a lot of fun things to plan for tomorrow.”

After awhile, they were both dressed in their pajamas and ready for bed. Sunset setup an inflatable mattress in the living room for Lincoln. She also provided him with a couple soft extra pillows and a big warm blanket.

“Good night, Sunset,” Lincoln said in a sweet and grateful tone as the teen tucked him in.

“Good night, Lincoln,” Sunset replied in the same tone and planted a little kiss on the boy’s forehead before heading up a flight of stairs that lead to the small floor almost wall-less floor that was her bedroom.

As she started to fall asleep, she took one last look down at Lincoln who was now sleeping comfortably and happily. It warmed her once broken heart to have helped a poor soul find a place where he could feel at home and it made her happy to find someone she could trust and call a friend after what she went through last Christmas. Sunset lay in her bed, closed her eyes, and fell into a deep comfortable sleep. One that she had not had in a long time.

Wake Up Call

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The next morning at Sweet Apple Acres, the members of the Loud family were waking up and getting ready to start the day. Lori and Leni had been sleeping in a spare guest room upstairs. The eldest Loud sister sat up in bed, yawned, stretched her back and arms, and opened her eyes to find a very grumpy-looking girl with bluish gray skin, opalish gray hair, and light green eyes standing at the foot of her bed glaring at her.

“Is your name Lori Loud?” the girl asked in a gruff and unpleasant tone.

“Yes,” Lori nervously answered. The gruff gray stranger walked around the bed closer to her and leaned forward till her face was inches away from Lori’s.

“Gaze into the eyes of Limestone Pie, eldest of the Pie sisters,” she introduced herself while holding her eyelid wide open. “Ma and Pa put me in charge of the rock farm back home and I keep it running. My sister, Pinkie, tells me you’re the eldest of your siblings, but you don’t take your responsibilities seriously.”

“Well I…” Lori tried to speak but was interrupted.

“Well lucky for you, Big Mac and I are here to teach you them,” Limestone said. “Now get out of bed and meet us in the barn. We got a lot to teach you and very little time.” With that, she left the room to allow Lori to get dressed.

“She seems nice,” Leni commented with a smile.

Meanwhile downstairs, Rainbow Dash had been making some calls to some of her fellow athletes to form teams for herself and Lynn Jr. for their big game. LJ was outside warming up for the upcoming game. The 13 year old was feeling pretty confident. While she didn’t have Lincoln around to wear the mascot suit to ‘boost her luck’, he wouldn’t be around to ‘jinx the game’. Back inside, Rainbow had just finished making all her calls while her friends, Granny Smith, Maud, the Loud parents, Lily, Lisa, Lana, Luan, and Luna were all having breakfast together in the dining room.

“You’ve been making a lot of calls, Rainbow Dash,” a concerned Fluttershy said. “Are you feeling a little tired?”

“Don’t worry, Flutters,” the rainbow-haired athlete assured her shy animal-loving friend. “I’m saving most of my energy for the big game today.”

“Good luck with that,” Lynn Sr. said proudly. “Our LJ has only ever lost one game.”

“She’s so good, the only way she could ever lose is by some miracle,” Rita boasted.

The Loud parents’ boastful comments were met with bitter and disapproving looks from everyone in the room, which made the folks and their children really uncomfortable. After a moment, the Equestria Girls and their family members left the room with without saying anything.

“Was it something we said?” Lynn Sr. asked concerned and confused.

In the barn, Limestone and Big Mac were now ready to begin Lori’s tutoring on how to be a proper big sibling.

“Your sisters have already told me some interesting stories about you, Lori,” Limestone began. “Tell me, do you consider yourself a good big sister?”

“Well, I may not be perfect, but I think I’m pretty close,” Lori answered confidently.

“We’ll see about that. Alright, it’s time to begin,” Limestone announced to her and Big Mac’s new pupil. “Since you and your family are in a bit of a hurry, we’ll try to make this go as quick as possible. Ready big guy?”

“Eeyup,” Big Mac answered.

“First, we’ll see what you currently know. Now take out your phone and pretend your talking to someone on it while in your room.” Lori did as she was instructed. Then Limestone walked closer to her. “Now I will pretend to be one of your siblings and I happen to walk into your room while you’re on your phone. What do you usually do when that happens?”

“Hey, you little twerp!” Lori said aggressively. “You know the rules, stay out of my room or I’ll turn you into a human pretzel!”
WHACK!

Lori suddenly received a hard smack upside her head from Limestone which almost caused her to drop her cellphone.

“Are you crazy?!” Lori angrily scolded. “I almost dropped my phone!”

“Oh no, that would’ve been a terrible tragedy,” Limestone retorted in a very sarcastic and uncaring tone. “Is that how you always get your siblings to listen to you? Threaten them with physical violence?”

“Well, I just want my siblings to respect my needs and boundaries,” Lori timidly explained. Limestone’s aggressive attitude was intimidating her.

“Respect, right,” Limestone replied in a sarcastic tone while giving the eldest Loud sister a very disapproving look which Big Mac also shared. “Alright, let’s try something else.” She led Lori and Big Mac over to a door in the barn. “Alright, for this next lesson, Big Mac will act like your younger sibling and he needs to use the bathroom, you want to use it too. How do you usually handle this situation?”

Big Mac stood in front of the door they were pretending was the bathroom. Then Lori suddenly cut in front of him.

“Beat it, I’m using the bathroom,” Lori said in a demanding tone.

“But I was here first,” Big Mac complained in a calm tone.

“Well, I was born first,” Lori disrespectfully replied.
WHACK!

Lori received another hard smack upside the head from Limestone.

“Is treating everyone like dirt the only thing you know?!” Limestone said angrily and making the eldest Loud sibling nervous. “I think I see what kind of person you are. You think that just because your ma and pa brought you into this world first that you’re better than the rest that followed you. Well, I got news for you, phoneaholic! There are A LOT more important things about being the eldest sister than getting your way all the time.”

“There is?” Lori asked confused and surprised.

“We got a lot of work to do,” the eldest Pie sister said to the eldest Apple sibling in a disappointed tone.

“Eeyup,” Big Mac replied just as disappointed.

Over at Sunset Shimmer’s home, the former student of CHS had just woken up to a very delicious smell coming from the kitchen. She followed the scent to find Lincoln was already awake and making breakfast.

“Lincoln?” Sunset said surprised.

“Good morning, Sunset,” the white-haired 11 year old greeted her. “How do you like your eggs?”

“Sunny side up,” the red and yellow-haired teen answered. “I didn’t expect you to be up cooking breakfast.”

“It’s no problem. I used to cook breakfast for my entire family when Dad didn’t feel like it.”

“Wow!” Sunset exclaimed amazed. “You’re pretty responsible.”

“Well, since Mom and Dad spend most of their time hiding in their bedroom and Lori spends almost all her time talking or texting on her phone, someone has to be,” Lincoln replied in a slightly bitter tone.

“Sorry,” Sunset apologized. “I didn’t mean to remind you-”

“It’s alright,” Lincoln reassured her.

“I can only imagine how stressful it must be having to deal with ten troublesome sisters.”

“Yeah, but I was lucky to have Clyde and Ronnie Anne to talk to and hangout with to get away from all that for a bit. It’s nice to have friends.”

“I stopped trusting and seeing my friends,” Sunset reminded him in an awkward tone.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Lincoln apologized for inadvertently reminding his new friend of her old friends.

“It’s fine, don’t worry,” Sunset warmly assured the boy. She was a little surprised to realize that he was just as bad at small talk as she was. “How about I help out with breakfast?”

“Sure, How about you make the pancake batter?”

“Sounds great,” Sunset said excitedly as she started gathering the ingredients needed to make pancake batter.

Both of them smiled as they cooked breakfast together knowing that they were going to have a great day ahead of them.

At the Canterlot baseball field, the Five, the Crusaders, their families, the Loud family, and some students from CHS had all gathered there to participate in and watch the game.

“You’re sure you got this, Dash?” Fluttershy asked her friend in the coach’s box. “You haven’t played baseball in a very long time.”

“Don’t worry, Flutters,” Rainbow Dash reassured her friend. “My skills might be a tad rusty, but I’m positive I’ll be able to handle this kid.” With that, the rainbow-haired athlete grabbed a bat and walked onto the field and took her position at home plate.

Lynn’s entire family cheered as she took her position on the pitcher’s mound and waved to them. Then she started doing some weird things like lift her leg, turn her cap, toss some dirt over her shoulder, pat her right cheek, and do a Cossack dance while chanting “Hutta-hut!”.

“I thought this was a baseball game, not a dance contest!” a confused and irritated Rainbow called to the young pitcher.

“What is she doing?” Applejack asked. She was sitting with the rest of her friends and next to the rest of the Louds in the bleachers.

“That’s Lynn’s good luck rituals,” Rita answered.

“She performs before every game,” Luna finished, then she and the rest of the family resumed cheering for their little athlete.

“Well if I might interject, those ‘rituals’ just make her look positively ridiculous,” Rarity commented to her friends who all nodded in agreement.

“Are you ready yet?” Rainbow asked impatiently.

“Oh yeah!” Lynn answered very confidently.

Rainbow raised her bat ready to hit, then Lynn swung her arm and hurled the ball.

Meanwhile, Sunset and Lincoln had finished breakfast and cleaned up the kitchen together. Now it was getting close to lunchtime.

“Well Lincoln, I have to say you’re a pretty good cook when it comes to breakfast,” Sunset complemented.

“Thanks, it’s one of the few good things I learned from my dad,” Lincoln warmly replied. Even though he didn’t have a good opinion of his father at the moment, he had to admit he was still a great cook.

“Now what to do for lunch,” Sunset wondered. “I was thinking I’d cook us up a couple burgers to eat. Does that sound good?”

“Absolutely.”

“I’ll handle this one, you just relax while I fix lunch for us.”

“Okay.”

While Sunset walked into the kitchen to cook the burgers, Lincoln decided to read a few comics he brought with him. So he pulled a couple out of his backpack, but he didn’t start reading. Lincoln had this habit of reading comics… in his underpants. He took his orange polo shirt off and then undid his belt and let his pants drop to the floor.

“Uhhhh...” he heard an awkward sounding voice behind him. He turned to see Sunset standing in the kitchen doorway staring at him with an extremely shocked and awkward look on her face. Immediately, Lincoln’s eyes widened and his face reddened. How could he forget?! His sisters may have slightly tolerated this habit of his at home, but now he was in a different house with someone he had just met.

“Oh sorry!” Lincoln anxiously apologized and immediately pulled his pants back up. “It’s… it’s a habit of mine! I like to read comics in just my underwear. If it makes you uncomfortable, I won’t do it.”

“It’s fine, Lincoln,” Sunset warmly assured the boy. “If you feel more comfortable reading comics in your underwear, then go ahead.”

“Wow! Thanks Sunset,” Lincoln expressed his gratitude with great delight and undid his pants again. “My sisters hate it when I do this.”

“Well, I’m not like them,” Sunset said with a friendly smile. “It took me awhile to get used to wearing clothes constantly in this world,” she thought to herself.

“So you don’t find it at all weird or gross?”

“No. Besides, I’m doing something that some people would probably find just as gross and weird.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m making you a hamburger, and making myself a hayburger.”

“A hayburger?!” Lincoln said bewildered.

“Yeah, I’m a bit of a vegetarian,” Sunset explained. “I only keep a few meat products incase of guests. I know it might sound like a weird thing to eat.”

“Nah, my favorite sandwich is peanut butter and sauerkraut,” the white-haired boy replied. “Even Lana refuses to eat something like that, and she eats all sorts of disgusting things.” Then the two of them burst into hysterical laughter.

“Well, I better get back to cooking lunch,” Sunset said calming herself down. “Just relax until it’s ready.”

“Okay,” Lincoln responded and took a seat on the living room couch with his comic in hand.

Both Sunset and Lincoln were enjoying each other’s company. While Sunset was cooking the burgers, she was trying to think of things they both could do together later on and the next day. In the living room, Lincoln was thinking the same thing while reading his comic. They had just met, but were getting along so well. Both had a lot they wanted to show and tell the other. For the first time in a long while, both felt happy.

Back at the baseball field, the game was over and Rainbow Dash’s team had emerged victorious. However, Lynn had not taken the outcome well at all. It was the second loss she had ever suffered in her entire sports career. After the final scores were declared, Lynn instantly started to believe Lincoln was hiding somewhere close by. And since they all knew he didn’t have his lucky squirrel suit with him, there was nothing to counteract his bad luck. Lynn desperately searched everywhere but her brother was nowhere to be found. Even with a few of her sisters assisting her they found nothing. Everyone else just watched this pathetic scene with pity and disappointment.

“Anyone found him yet?” an anxious Lynn asked the sisters who were helping her.

“Nope,” answered Lana.

“Not a thing,” Lola answered right after.

“I’ve literally looked everywhere,” Lori reported.

“Guys, I found him!” Leni excitedly announced and appeared holding a young boy by the wrist. The boy was wearing an orange polo shirt and blue jeans, but there was a VERY distinguishing feature that was out of place.

“Uh Leni, Lincoln has white hair,” Lori awkwardly pointing out the boy’s obvious brown hair.

“Oh, I thought there was something different about him,” Leni said realizing her mistake.

“Let go of me, you weirdo!” the kid said freeing himself from Leni’s grip and running off.

“I don’t see him anywhere either. Guess none of us are having a ball!” Luan joked and laughed at her own pun. “Get it?” But the others just let out pained sighs.

“Has anyone found any sign of Lincoln?!” Lynn asked, her voice growing more anxious and irritated.

“Not a thing,” Lucy reported appearing behind her older athlete sister scaring her.

“He’s gotta be here! How else could I have lost?!” For Lynn, the only possible reason that she could’ve lost this game was if Lincoln was hiding somewhere. There was no other explanation.

The Five had been watching this whole thing playout long enough. The delusional young athlete’s panicking and vain attempts to find something to blame for her loss was really starting to get on their nerves. But what was even more irritating, was that none of her family was doing anything about it and some were even going along with this childish behavior.

“Was I ever this deluded?” an embarrassed Rainbow asked herself.

“Well, Mr. and Mrs. Loud,” Rarity addressed the Loud parents. “What do you make of this?” She along with her friends were eager to see the folks put a stop to this immaturity.

“This is the second time our Lynn has lost a game,” Lynn Sr. said in disbelief.

“And if Lincoln isn’t here, then…” Rita added.

“We have no idea,” both parents said in unison.

The Five stared at the two parents as if octopus tentacles were coming out of their eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouths while the matriarch and patriarch stared back at them with confusion and cluelessness etched on their faces. Instantly, the Five realized what the problem with this family was and it filled them with great disappointment that these so-called parents hadn’t figured it out by now.

“Alright, that’s it!” Rainbow said unable to take it anymore and began walking towards Lynn Jr.

“Where are you, Lincoln?!” the delusional and panicing sports fanatic called out. “I know you’re here, so show yourself! Don’t you think you’ve angered the softball gods enough? All you had to do was wear that good luck squirrel suit! NOW COME OUT!!!”

“Lynn, your brother’s not here,” Rainbow told the younger athlete.

“No, he has to be!” Lynn anxiously insisted. “How else could I lose? Please, you gotta help me find him, then I can prove to everyone that I’m right!”

“This is your problem, Lynn!” Rainbow said. “When something doesn’t go your way, it’s always someone else’s fault.”

“Now hold on—” Lynn Sr. said as he and his wife were about to stop the rainbow-haired high schooler from arguing with their fifth born. But their path was blocked by the four other girls.

“You two are gonna stand right here and watch her do what y’all shoulda’ done a long time ago,” AJ said in a threatening tone.

“Now let’s take a moment to examine other factors here,” Rainbow continued. “We decided to have this game yesterday so you barely had enough time to practice, you were going up against people who’ve had more experience than you, you wasted most of your energy performing those silly good luck rituals, and you hardly gave any of your teammates a chance to play, not to mention the state they’re in.” Looking over at the team she had assembled for Lynn, she noticed that they all looked like they were in pain. Great internal pain. “What happened? You all looked fine when I assembled you here.”

“Our so-called team captain wouldn’t let any of us use the bathroom!” a girl named Cloudy Kicks complained.

“Don’t any of you know the old saying?” Lynn explained. “‘Never go number two until we are number one’.”

“That’s disgusting!” Dash said with great disgust.

“But it works every time.”

“Well it didn’t work today.”

“That’s because my little brother is hiding somewhere close by, not wearing his good luck suit, and jinxing the game!”

“Listen Lynn,” Rainbow was starting to lose patience. “You obviously think very highly of yourself, trust me I know. But you also think everyone else is beneath you, so you let your ego get the best of you. You’re just blaming other people for your own mistakes, hurting those close to you, and you don’t even care.”

This argument was beginning to remind Lynn of the one she had with Lincoln before he ran away. In her entire sports career, no one had ever tried to tell Lynn that something was her own fault. Why should they? She was Lynn Loud Jr., the best athlete in Royal Woods. These blows to Lynn’s ego caused anger to boil up inside her.

“Oh yeah?!” the younger athlete retorted accusingly. “Just like you let your ego get the best of you when you blamed and drove away one of your friends for a crime she didn’t commit?! I don’t think you’re in any position to—”
SMACK!

Before Lynn could finish what she was saying, she received a hard slap across the face by a furious Rainbow Dash. There are some buttons that shouldn’t be pressed. Lynn stood in shock as she held her aching left cheek which had a big red hand mark on it. After a moment, Dash finally calmed herself and resumed her argument with Lynn.

“Are you going to blame your brother for that too?” Rainbow angrily asked but the younger athlete remained silent. “Because if you are, then you’re even more pathetic than I thought. Lynn, I’m going to tell you something that your family should’ve told you a long time ago, so listen and listen well.” After making sure she had the sports fanatic’s undivided attention, Dash said what she needed to say. “GROW UP! You dream of being a great athlete who never loses a game, but that’s all it is. A dream and nothing more! A life without failure is a life without experience. I’ve lost a few games in my sports career, and I’m still considered the best athlete at CHS because I believe in my skills, used those losses to motivate me to improve those skills, and am not stupid enough to believe that someone else could have any sort of responsibility if I lose. And from what my friends and I have told you about what happened last holiday season, that stupidity threshold is pretty broad.” There hints of sadness and shame in her voice when she said that last sentence. “But you have some nerve having that big an ego when you believe more in superstitions than your own skills!” Every word Rainbow said was cutting Lynn like a sharp knife. “However, your own pride isn’t the only thing that contributed to the mess you and your family are in now.”

“Mr. and Mrs. Loud,” Fluttershy addressed the Loud parents. “We can tell that you’re both very proud of your daughters.”

“But you’re a little too proud,” Applejack added.

“Your pride of their accomplishments have blinded you to their flaws,” Rarity said. “Not only have you failed to acknowledge their behavioral issues, but now you’ve played along with them and caused your only son unnecessary misery.”

“Come to think of it, I don’t remember any of you mentioning anything about your son that makes you proud,” Pinkie suspiciously pointed out. “Guess that tells us a lot about how your people think of him.”

After hearing those words, Lynn Sr. and Rita both looked very visibly upset as great realization set in. Their parenting flaws had made their ten little angels not so angelic and made their only boy miserable.

“What have we done to our kids?!” the parents exclaimed in unison, both very visibly distraught.

“Lynn Loud Jr., you are the biggest sore loser I have ever met!” Rainbow Dash continued. “And unless you and your family start cleaning up your acts, you’ll never get Sunset Shimmer back!” Everyone suddenly turned their attention to Rainbow confused at the last thing she just said. Realizing what she just said, the older athlete corrected herself. “I mean… you’ll never get your brother back! It doesn’t matter how many victories or trophies you’ve won, you’ll never be a real winner with such poor sportsmanship. You weren’t even that much of a challenge today. So why don’t you grow up, figure out what’s more important in life, and stop making everybody’s lives harder than they already are! Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going home now. See you tomorrow, Lynn.” With that, Rainbow Dash was finished with her speech and started leaving the field leaving the defeated and broken Lynn to her family and thoughts.

“Do you think you might’ve been a little hard on her, Rainbow?” a concerned Fluttershy asked her friend.

“Had to be done, Flutters,” Dash replied. Her tone made it clear that she wasn’t proud of what she did, but she knew she had to do it. “Had to be done. Can't let them make the same mistake we did.”

Lynn fell to her knees and sat where she was in puddle of misery. Rainbow’s scolding really did a number on her. It seemed that the sporty Loud sister’s seemingly impenetrable wall of pride had finally crumbled allowing guilt and regret to fully takeover now. The once proud athlete began rapidly shedding tears of remorse over the way she’s behaved, the brother she hurt, and what she’s become. The rest of her family gathered around to try and comfort her, as they too were now having the same realization as she was. They had foolishly allowed themselves to become obsessed with superstitions and drive their only son and brother away for absolutely nothing.

“Lincoln!” Lynn wept. This time she didn’t want him to appear to prove her superstitions true, but to tell him just how sorry she was for everything she put him through. But he wasn’t there.

Sweet Dreams

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The Humane 5 were walking down a hallway of Canterlot High. None of them looked very happy. Then they saw someone standing in a dark corner of the hall with her back turned to them. After a moment, they recognized it as Sunset Shimmer and their spirits were lifted. Huge smiles started forming on their faces.

“Sunset! Sunset, you’re back!” Pinkie Pie ran happily over to her friend with open arms. But she was cut short when Sunset turned around to face them. She didn’t have a warm and welcoming face of a friend. Instead her eyes were glowing red, she had a couple of blood veins on her forehead that looked like they were going to burst, and her teeth were clenching really hard, any harder and they might break. It was a face of pure rage. Everyone went from happy and excited to utterly terrified.

“S-Sunset, what’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked nervously.

“I tried to be nice!” Sunset said angrily as she walked toward the Five who proceeded to take a few steps back. “I tried to be your friend! I even saved this entire school one time! And THIS is how you all repay me?!”

“Sunset please let us explain ourselves,” Rarity tried to calm the angry red and yellow haired girl down but to no avail.

“No matter what I do, everyone will only see me as a horrible monster!”

“But Sunset-” Pinkie tried to explain but the furious Sunset just ignored her.

“Well if it’s a monster you want?” Sunset pulled something out of her jacket that made everyone’s eyes grow wide with terror, Twilight’s crown. “Then it’s a MONSTER YOU’LL GET!!!”

“SUNSET NO!” Applejack screamed, but it was too late.

Sunset placed the crown upon her head and began to transform. After a moment, the magic and dust had cleared, and to everyone’s horror, Sunset Shimmer had once again turned into the terrible she-demon like she did during the Fall Formal. The newly transformed demon girl cackled as she inspected her form. Then without another word, she used her magic to levitated several rows of lockers out of their places and hurl them at the five girls. The girls instinctively ran for it and all of them barely managed to dodge the flying lockers by darting left into another hallway. The noise made by the flying lockers drew the attention of several students and teachers in the hall. Suddenly, the demonic Sunset flew into the hall that the Humane Five had just entered and everyone started running and screaming. Demon Sunset used her magic to enchant backpacks, lockers, and even custodian equipment into attacking the panicking people, all the while laughing. The three young Crusaders cowered in a corner as Demon Sunset approached them. She took out her phone, aimed it at the frightened girls, and took their picture. Once the flash from the phone’s camera had died down, the Crusaders were gone. Demon Sunset looked at her phone’s screen and laughed at the sight of the three little girls she had trapped in Anon-a-Miss’s newest blog.

The girls ran out of the school to where the school statue and portal were located. Screams could be heard from inside and classrooms looked like they being set on fire. The Humane Five suddenly spotted Twilight Sparkle who was about to enter the portal back to Equestria, for some reason she didn’t look fazed by the obvious chaos that was going on behind her.

“TWILIGHT!” Rainbow shouted trying to get her attention but she didn’t respond, so all five of them ran toward her.

“Twilight, where are you going? We need your help!” Pinkie called to her.

Twilight turned to face them with an emotionless expression on her face. “I’m going home. What’s it look like?” She said indifferently.

“But you can’t go yet! Sunset Shimmer has turned into that she-demon again, and—”

“That’s no longer my concern.”

The five girls were shocked to the core when they heard this.

“What do you mean this is NOT your concern?!” Rainbow said angrily, “Of course it is! Sunset’s gone mad again and is destroying everything, you have to help—”

“Last time Sunset was doing horrible things to innocent people, she had to be stopped then,” Twilight retorted, “This one you all brought upon yourselves!”

“So yer just gonna leave us?!” AJ asked visibly horrified.

“Sorry, but this is your problem now.”

“But why? I thought we were friends?” Fluttershy asked with tears in her eyes.

“So did I,” were the last words Twilight said before she disappeared into the portal.

“No, no, no, no, NO, NO, NO!” Rainbow cried as she pounded her fist against the statue wall for the portal to open, but it was too late, it was gone and Twilight with it.

Suddenly, Demon Sunset crashed through the front doors of the school and was hovering in the air. She spotted the Humane Five cowering in front of the school statue.

“So long, my dear FRIENDS!” She yelled as she raised her hands above her head and created a giant fireball, all the while laughing. Then with all her might, she hurled the ball of fire right at the five frightened girls who braced themselves for the end.

“AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!” Raindow cried as she nearly jumped out of her bed. She calmed down and took a moment to catch her breath. She looked around and found that she was not at Canterlot High, but back in her own bedroom. It was all a nightmare. After settling down, the rainbow-haired athlete went right back to sleep. Although, she felt lonely and empty. Despite trying to act tough for everyone, deep down Rainbow felt extreme guilt and longing to see her once dear friend again.

Back at Sweet Apple Acres, the Loud family weren’t sleeping well themselves. Lynn Sr. and Rita were struggling and making uncomfortable noises in their sleep. After a moment, both parents woke up and found themselves back home in their own bedroom.

“Lynn, I just had the strangest dream,” a confused Rita told her husband.

“Me too, honey,” Lynn replied. “Lincoln ran away and we met a group of strange multicolored teenagers.”

“That’s exactly the same dream I had!” Rita said in amazement.

“Talk about coincidence.”

Later that morning, Lynn and Rita called their ten daughters down for breakfast. However, they noticed someone was missing.

“Girls, where’s your brother?” Rita asked.

“I think he’s still outside, dudes,” Luna answered.

“Outside?” Rita was confused by this answer.

“Oh no!” both parents said in unison as they started to remember certain current events.

“Lincoln?!” Rita said as she hurriedly opened the back door in the kitchen. To everyone’s surprise, Lincoln was standing outside in his orange pajamas with his hand being held by a gruff looking middle aged woman wearing sunglasses and a business suit.

“Child Services!” the woman announced in a gruff and serious voice while holding up a badge to confirm her identification. “We received a report that an eleven year old minor had been kicked out of his home by his own family.” Then she snapped her fingers and suddenly hordes of police officers surrounded the area. “You’re under arrest!”

Lynn and Rita both gasped in shock and horror as they found themselves facing a very angry-looking judge in a very dimly lit courtroom.

“Mr. and Mrs. Load,” the judge said in a deep intimidating voice mispronouncing their family name.

“Um, it’s Loud,” Lynn Sr. timidly corrected the judge, who ignored him and continued.

“Have you anything to say before your SENTENCE is carried out?”

Both parents trembled nervously in their seats unable to think anything to say that could help them get out of this frightening predicament.

“Mom! Dad!” Lynn Jr. whispered to her parents. “Don’t worry, just plead insanity and they’ll let you off easy.”

“I hear ya, LJ,” Lynn Sr. smiled agreeing to his fifth daughter.

Then both parents then got on their knees and started desperately pleading insanity like their athlete daughter instructed. They even made goofy faces to try and make it more convincing. The judge’s expression soon changed from angry to confused.

“Well, considering the motive behind your crime, I guess you two are a little insane,” the judge said. “Therefore, you two won’t be sent to prison.” Hearing that made the family all cheer in happiness. “Instead, you will be sentenced to shock therapy while your nine eldest daughters will be sent to a youth detention center.”

“WWWHHHAAATTT!?!” the whole family suddenly exclaimed in surprise.

“Oh crud!” Lynn Jr. said realizing her idea just backfired.

Some bailiffs began escorting the girls away while others escorted the parents away. Soon both Rita and Lynn Sr. found themselves strapped in electric chairs with the wired caps fastened to their heads.

“Has the governor called yet?” Lynn nervously asked the guard who was sitting next to the switch reading a magazine.

“No, I’m afraid not,” the guard casually replied. “Hey, can we get this over with? My kid’s piano recital is in twenty minutes.” Then he flipped the switch and continued reading his magazine while ignoring Lynn and Rita’s screams of pain as electricity flowed through their bodies.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!” Lynn Sr. screamed as he nearly jumped out of bed. But then he caught his breath and let out a sigh of relief as he looked around the room and realized it was just a bad dream. He then turned to his wife who was still sleeping. “Hey Honey,” he whispered to her gently trying to wake her up. “Rita?”

His whispers finally managed to wake her. But when she turned to look at him, her face wasn’t that of his beautiful human wife, it was the face of the ugly squirrel suit that he and the rest of the family had forced Lincoln to wear.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” Lynn started screaming again as the squirrel’s big ugly eyes stared creepily into his.

“Lynn? Lynn? Lynn!” he heard the voice of his wife calling him. Then he woke up and found himself in the real bedroom he and Rita were sleeping in. He looked up and saw his wife leaning over him with a concerned look on her face. “Lynn, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Rita,” he assured her. “Just had a bad dream.”

“Was it about Lincoln?”

“Yes, actually.”

The Loud matriarch lay her head pack on her pillow with an expression of great sadness on her face. She missed her only son so much and regretted all the things she did that drove him away. “I miss him so much, Lynn.”

“I miss him too,” Lynn said trying to comfort her. Lynn looked as if he was feeling more guilt than his wife. Both he and Lincoln were the only males in the family. He was supposed to be a good role model for him, someone he could trust and relate to in an ocean of girls. But he failed miserably. “But I’m sure we’ll find him and when we do we’ll make things right.”

“I just wonder where he is right now. He’s probably out there cold, alone, and feeling like the most unloved person in the world.” The dreadful thought brought tears to Rita’s eyes.

At Sunset Shimmer’s place, both Sunset and Lincoln were sleeping soundly. Sunset slept in her bed while Lincoln slept comfortably on the inflatable mattress in the living room. Both had warm expressions on their faces as they shared the same dream.

In the dream, both Lincoln and Sunset were skipping through a beautiful field of daisies as they felt the warm rays of the sun shine down upon them. Then Sunset sprouted bright wings and took off into the sky with Lincoln holding her hand. They both laughed together as they soared through the beautiful blue sky high above the ground.

“Lincoln,” Sunset said to the boy. “You’re the best friend anyone could ask for. And that’s no secret.”

“And Sunset,” Lincoln replied. “Anyone would be lucky enough to have someone like you as a sister.”

Both giggled affectionately at one another as they continued flying through the air.

Back in the real world, both sleepers smiled happily as they continued dreaming believing that everything was finally alright with the world.

Equestria Louds: Of Secrets And Superstitions

by EquineAvenger

Pain Still There

Enough Is Enough (Edited 10/16/17)

Regrets

Consequences

Light at the End of the Tunnel (Edited 9/16/18)

Fateful Meetings (Edited 10/29/17)

Revelations Part 1 (Edited 04/19/18)

Revelations Part 2

Wake Up Call

Sweet Dreams