In the back of Sunset's mind, she added whatever cosmic force arranged for this to the list of people she wanted to punch in the throat. It was a very long list.
Sunset Shimmer has been happily living in Canterlot as a rather normal person for three years now. A normal person living with her dedicated girlfriend and working on beginning what she hopes to be a long, solid career. She's been living her dream of a normal person.
Then, on a dark and stormy night, as a lot of stories start, the harbinger of her past comes back for her.
Rainbow Dash, an old friend and hunter extraordinaire with a task that seems simple enough on paper. Find Shining and Twilight Sparkle.
Too bad anything involving monsters is ever anything but.
Canterlot storms in November could last for hours. It was the soaking wet lead up to the snow-laden month of December. Sometimes, it shifted to light snow and hail at the start of the month. Fortunately, it was slightly warmer this night, but that didn’t mean much to the residents of Canterlot, many of which were sleeping comfortably in their homes.
Sheets of rain poured down, forming a mist that blanketed everything in a wispy gray. It formed small rivers running into the street and down the drains, or drowned the lawns of the suburbs, leaving mud for the children to play in the next day, were they so inclined.
It rattled drain pipes and created a soothing, rhythmic pace of rain hitting the any horizontal surface. A rhythmic pace broken up by rolls of thunder preceded by harsh cracks of lightning that reflected on the wet surfaces of roofs, abandoned toys, the street lamps, and cars.
Sunset Shimmer attempted to drown out these rattling sounds with the TV; she had some success.
Sunset was the only person still awake in the small apartment she shared with her girlfriend, Moondancer.
Moondancer was asleep in their bed, having crashed after two consecutive all-nighters.
Doctor Sexy M.D was playing on the television, a show which Sunset and Moondancer usually watched.
Sunset flinched as thunder rolled overhead, the deep sound overlapped by the steady pattering of rain on the roof. Her grip on her can of soda (some off-brand, grape flavored type) tightened. The aluminum popped, bending inwards under Sunset’s grip.
Sunset glanced at the can before she set it down on the table. It would pop back into its original shape quick enough with another obnoxious popping noise.
She brushed a few stray strands of her hair out of her face and returned her focus to the TV, although her attention had already started to blur at the edges. It was a Friday night and despite the fact that Sunset had been celebrating Moondancer’s acceptance letter to law school with her friends, she refused to fall asleep.
Sunset was only wearing some old sweatpants and a tank-top, her legs tangled in a blanket that kept away the vague chills since she was too comfortable to get up and turn the thermostat up a few degrees.
The sharp noise of someone getting slapped knocked Sunset out of her brief daze that she hadn’t even realized she’d entered.
The nurse was screaming at the journalist on-screen. Sunset snickered at the dramatic shouting, the complete disregard of passing hospital staff (one of them had an expression that clearly read ‘not this shit again’), and the way that the journalist stared back at the nurse with a shocked expression that the camera zoomed in on.
“You tell him, Nurse Andi.” Sunset said with a smile, picking up her soda and draining half of it in one big gulp. It chose that time to pop back into its original shape, sending a few drops of purple onto her top and dribbling down her chin while startling her at the same time. She scowled at the can before she set it back down, licking the stray droplets off her chin. She half expected to hear Moondancer huff at her from the kitchen doorway.
The next few rolls of thunder made some of the dialogue harder to hear. She simply turned up the volume of the TV and tried to tug the blanket up to her chest before ultimately giving up, not willing enough to force the rest up from where it was trapped under her feet.
Minutes passed, the story shifting to focus on the brooding surgeon that Sunset couldn’t care about any less than she already did. Her head lolled back against the arm of the couch and her eyelids began to droop.
It was only a few minutes later when something woke Sunset up. The story was still following the brooding surgeon.
Sunset huffed, lifting up her head. Her face had been pressed into the back cushions, stubborn strands of hair clinging to her forehead and cheek.
For a brief moment, she wasn’t sure what she had been woken up by, until she heard several harsh knocks on the front door. They were louder than the muffled noise of the storm outside, sendings quakes through the door frame.
Sunset groaned, rubbing at one of her eyes as she slowly half-rolled off the couch to her feet. The blanket tangled around her legs nearly sent her headfirst into the coffee table. Sunset huffed, pulling herself up and untangling her legs from the blanket.
She took a moment to pause the show (the nurse and the journalist were sharing some very intense eye-contact, again) and then to roll her shoulders.
Whoever was at the door knocked again with much more insistency. One knock was so heavy that it shook the door loud enough that Sunset was sure the people in the floor below could hear.
“I’m coming- sheesh,” Sunset grumbled as she walked over to the door. She unlocked the door but left the chain in place, choosing to open the door a peek to see who could possibly be at her apartment in the middle of the night (or early in the morning, Sunset still had yet to get around to fixing the clock that hung above the big front window in the living room) in this weather.
“Who is it?” Sunset asked, watching her volume so she wouldn’t accidentally wake up Moondancer.
“Sunset?” There was a brief moment where Sunset found her vocal chords incapable of producing a sound.
Even if they could, she probably wouldn’t have even been able to say anything coherent.
Mouth hanging open, Sunset reached over to the door chain.
The lights from inside were already illuminating the woman Rainbow was staring at. Sunset’s eyes confirmed the identity that the voice had already affirmed to her, though her brain was staggering to accept.
Her hair was soaked, clinging to her forehead, the sides of her face, and draped over her chest and shoulders in tangled locks. She wasn’t standing to her full height (she was hunched, arms folded around her front), but she was wearing her familiar, worn jacket.
“Rainbow?!”
Sunset’s hands fumbled with the chain, in an attempt to unlock it as quickly as possible. The moment it was unhooked from the wall, Sunset flung the door open and grabbed one of Rainbow’s shoulders to pull her into the living room. Rainbow took a brief moment to look out the doorway, up and down the hallway, before she carefully shut the door and turned to face the woman she had just pulled into her apartment.
“What the hell are you doing here!?” She demanded, turning to face Rainbow as her brain finally started accepting the person before her.
“I- uh… Came for a visit…” Rainbow said, weakly smiling. Sunset felt her throat tighten at the sight of red dripping down one half of Rainbow’s face, mixing with the water trickling from her hair.
Now that Sunset was getting a good look at Rainbow, she could see there was more blood than that.
Dark red was glistening on the front of her jacket, smeared over her neck, and staining patches of her ripped jeans.
“Holy crap, what happened!?”
“I-uh… Had a little… Altercation with a werewolf… Uh… H-Half of this is his.” Rainbow tried to add a chuckle, but instead cut halfway through with a pained groan.
“I- C’mon, there’s a- a first aid kit in the bathroom…” Sunset said, hesitantly placing a hand on Rainbow’s shoulder and starting to guide her to the bathroom.
Rainbow sat down on the edge of the bathtub, blood dribbling down over the porcelain surface of the tub. Sunset grabbed a towel and the first aid kit, working on opening it up and getting things of importance out while Rainbow stripped off her jacket.
“I- I can’t freaking believe this.” Sunset muttered, glancing over her shoulder and briefly watching as Rainbow fumbled with her torn, bloody shirt. If this were any other time, Sunset would have reached over and helped.
This wasn’t any other time.
But it sure as hell felt like it.
Sunset drenched a towel in hot water, twisting it to drain out the excess. She watched as Rainbow managed to get the article of clothing over her head. Rainbow hissed as she accidentally pulled on her hair before she threw the offending piece of clothing aside. Sunset handed her the towel.
Just under Rainbow’s chest was a thin layer of gauze, clumsily pulled around her wounds and sticking to her skin thanks to a mix of blood and rain. The rest of her body was bruised and cut. Without her shirt on, Sunset could see the lightning storm cloud tattoo that stretched over Rainbow’s left shoulder.
Sunset stiffened at the sight, more out of the brief shock of deja vu than out of squeamishness. The fact that this scene before her, a bloody Rainbow Dash on the edge of a bathtub and only a bra to cover her, was so familiar made her feel concerned. She used to be so used to the scene, not even questioning it except for the rare moments of sudden self-awareness that it wasn’t normal that Rainbow (that they all) pretended she didn’t also have. Now, Sunset was more able to understand that this wasn’t normal because it had been her state for so long that she’d adapted to it.
“You gonna keep starin’ or are you actually going to help? I promise I’m not gonna bite you.” Rainbow asked, voice still a bit breathless as she slowly peeled away the bandages that Sunset realized she must have applied herself. Small noises of pain slipped past her mouth as she peeled bandages away from the cuts in her side. She accepted the towel when Sunset handed it to her, using it to clean away the blood smearing her side. She gritted her teeth, groaning in pain.
“I… I still can’t believe this.” Sunset said quietly. She pressed against the sink, leaning back and taking a long minute to breathe before she walked over and crouched down next to Rainbow’s knee.
“You remember how to stitch?” Rainbow groaned, lifting her arm up and hissing at the pulling on aching and damaged muscles. The claw marks started near her spine, just under her left shoulder blade, and hooked around towards her sternum. Sunset was half tempted to ask how she had gotten slashed like that, as well as how she managed to get the bandages around herself well enough to keep the blood loss at a minimum.
“I- yeah- but shouldn’t a professional-?”
“Shut up an’ stitch me, Sunset.” Rainbow huffed, one hand hovering over the slowly dripping wounds. “I don’t… I dun wanna pass out ‘n your goddamn bathtub from blood loss.”
“Right, right.” Sunset huffed, grabbing the needle and thread (she’d put them there, more out of her own concern than for an actual need for it. Most injuries in the house were paper cuts and bruises) from the kit.
She took a brief moment to douse the needle and thread in alcohol, rubbing them in a towel for the sake of being easier to manage before she got on her knees at Rainbow’s side and went to work.
There were several new scars on Rainbow’s exposed torso that Sunset didn’t recognize. Of course, to Sunset, any change to Rainbow that had occured over the past three years would be considered new.
Rainbow’s relative calm with the situation wasn’t one of those new things. If Sunset didn’t know better, she’d think that Rainbow was bored with her injuries.
Rainbow hissed, one shaky hand hovering above Sunset’s hands as if she was gonna try and stop her. Sunset paused, looking up at Rainbow.
“You, uh… Got any alcohol?” She asked, tone light. Sunset went back to work, ignoring the way Rainbow’s muscles went taught as Sunset pierced skin with the needle.
“Wine,” Sunset answered quietly, focusing on the wound. She repeated the actions in her head over and over again like a mantra. She only wanted to think about the wound right now. That was all she was supposed think about, she affirmed herself. It was either the wound or the fact that Rainbow was here, in Canterlot, when Sunset had never expected to see her again.
“Wine? You really have-” She groaned again, her other hand curling around the edge of the bathtub.
Sunset Shimmer leaned back, grabbing the scissors to cut the extra length of thread when she had sewn up the biggest gash. Then, after sterilizing again, she went back to work. She kept her lips in a firm line, hoping that maybe her expression would tell Rainbow to shut up. Rainbow had always been able to read Sunset’s voice better than anyone else and she honestly wasn’t sure what emotions would seep into it now.
“Home alone?”
Rainbow paused, briefly hoping that Moondancer hadn’t woken up to Sunset’s sudden visit. She wouldn’t be able to explain that very well without lying through her teeth or exposing Moondancer to what Sunset had left behind.
Rainbow huffed at Sunset’s refusal to speak, but then she was hissing at the pain again so at least it wasn’t quiet enough for Sunset’s thoughts to make an entrance.
Now she was starting to wish she had some sort of alcohol more potent than wine.
With the most pressing of the wounds handled, Sunset recognized a tenseness she hadn’t realized was present in her lungs. She cut off the extra thread, slowly rising to her feet to avoid getting head rush. Her legs ached, having gone stiff from her resting on her knees on the tile of the floor. Sunset hadn’t realized she’d been working for that long, or maybe she had just sat wrong.
Sunset put the thread and needle back into first aid kit, pulling out the gauze. Rainbow lifted up her right arm, bending her left arm so she didn’t pull on the muscles in her side. Sunset huffed, tempted to throw the roll at her and tell her to do it herself, but instead she wrapped a thin layer of gauze around Rainbow’s fresh stitches.
“Thanks.” Rainbow huffed, her arms dropping down, the left one with more care than the right. “I think I can take care of the rest.” By the rest, Rainbow was referring to the cuts and scrapes which were mostly on her arms. There was a few shallow scrapes over her stomach, close to her waistline, but nothing more severe than the shallow gashes over her ribs
Sunset set the first aid kit on the tub, next to Rainbow. “You do that.”
Sunset had to force herself not to sprint as she left the bathroom, pulling the door shut behind her, slumping against the wall with a heavy exhale.
“This… This is so surreal…” Sunset stared up at the ceiling. Saying it aloud didn’t make her feel any better. She looked down at her hands, suddenly aware of Rainbow’s blood smeared all over them. She didn’t want to go back in the bathroom, it didn’t seem much like an option, now. Instead, she headed into the tiny kitchen of her apartment.
She flipped on the lights with her elbow, being mindful not to get blood on anything else as she turned on the facet and started to scrub away at her hands.
The blood washed off easily, tainting the water a transparent pink. Sunset still rubbed viciously at her hands, taking out the internal frustration that came with the situation and was slowly tightening up her lungs without some sort of expression.
Then, there was the feeling of exhaustion. Sunset turned off the water, slumping forward over the sink and sighing with all the air remaining in her lungs and then inhaling.
“Sunset?” She stiffened, for a brief moment hearing and feeling her heartbeat in every fiber of her body, before turning her head and looking over her shoulder. Moondancer stood in the doorway, red hair ruffled and sticking up in some places from sleeping. She’d never made much of an attempt to tend to her hair before. Sunset made the odd connection at that moment that Moondancer didn’t look at all as tired as Sunset did, which made more sense than she would realize.
“Hey, Moondancer.” Sunset greeted, voice sounding way more energetic than any part of her body, as she turned around to face her girlfriend. Moondancer was wearing an old purple shirt and her hair was down, ruffled and a little bit tangled. “What’re you doing up?”
“I heard noise. What’re you still doing up?” Moondancer frowned and Sunset realized she probably looked exhausted.
Sunset slipped her hands into the pockets of her sweats, trying to push the fact that Rainbow was in the bathroom down the hall to the back of her mind.
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“Is something bothering you?”
“No, nothing, I just can’t sleep, is all.”
“Are you worried about your interview?”
“Nah, just...” Sunset ran a hand through her hair. It probably looked like an awful mess.“It’s probably just... Insomnia- you know, you should be sleeping too.”
“Don’t be hypocritical.” Moondancer grumbled, walking over and sliding her hands around Sunset’s wrists. “Come on, I’ve got some sleeping pills in my nightstand.”
For a moment, Sunset forgot about Rainbow sitting on her bathtub. Her immediate excuse was lost as she let Moondancer pull her into the hallway, lured both by the prospect of sleep and Moondancer. She paused when she stepped in a puddle, which must have been a bit more noticeable in her threadbare socks.
“What-”
Sunset sucked in a breath. “Moony-”
“Why’s the floor wet?” Moondancer let go of Sunset’s wrists to look at her foot and scrutinize the floor. “Is that…?”
“I- uh...:”
“How’d the floor get wet?” Moondancer repeated, less to Sunset and more to herself.
“Uh, no idea… Here, how about you go to bed and I clean this up?”
“I can help-”
“I’ll be quick. Now go, I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Did you go outside?”
“No-”
“Is this blood!?” Moondancer’s voice rose, still looking at her foot. She looked back up to Sunset with wide eyes.
“I-”
“Sunset, what the hell? Why- Why is there blood-?”
“Easy, easy!” Sunset quickly reassured, placing her hands on Moondancer’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, okay?”
“Don’t worry?”
“Okay- look, uh… There’s…. You know what? It’s better to just show you.”
“Show me what?” Moondancer asked as Sunset turned and walked over to the bathroom. She placed a hand on the doorknob.
Sunset gestured at the door and Moondancer hesitantly walked over. Sunset opened the door quick, recalling Rainbow and Twilight’s debate over whether taking a bandaid of fast or slow was better.
Clearly, the sight of a topless, injured stranger sitting in their bathroom was enough to shock Moondancer into complete silence that Sunset hoped wouldn’t be broken by screaming. They didn’t need to wake up the whole building.
“Uhh, Sunset?” Rainbow called out, looking up as Sunset appeared in the doorway behind Moondancer and awkwardly smiling.
Rainbow had been applying bandaids to the cuts on her arms before Moondancer saw her. Sunset could tell because one hand was pressed over one large bandaid covering a nasty cut on the underside of her arm, smoothing out the creases.
“Uh, Moondancer, this is Rainbow Dash. Rainbow, this is Moondancer. My girlfriend.” Sunset said the last portion with a slight hesitancy that Rainbow didn’t miss, although she did give Sunset an odd look.
“Hi,” she offered to Moondancer, clearly just as unsure and caught off guard by this situation as Moondancer was. Sunset mentally noted that Moondancer wasn’t screaming yet or demanding answers, which was uncomfortable on many levels.
“Moondancer, can you go wait in the living room?” Moondancer looked over at Sunset, mouth open, perhaps in preparation to ask her typical twenty questions.
“Please? I’ll explain everything, I promise.” Sunset wanted to put her hands on Moondancer’s shoulder, give her hand a reassuring squeeze, but she couldn’t get her hands to do anything.
“You… You have a lot of explaining to do.” Moondancer said slowly, walking to the livingroom.
Sunset turned back to Rainbow.
“Girlfriend, huh?”
“Yeah, going on two years now.”
“Huh…”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Why are you even here?” There’s a thick pause before Rainbow grabs another bandage and rips off its wrapping. The silence preceding is enough for Sunset to be reminded of the rhythmic tapping of the storm outside.
“A visit. Now, you wanna help me or start explaining the supernatural to Moondancer?”
Sunset stepped into the bathroom and reached for another one of the bandaids.
Rainbow , at some point, stripped off her ripped jeans to take care of her scraped up knees better, so Sunset retrieved some of her own clothes for Rainbow to wear. Despite the slight temptation, she was pretty sure Rainbow would kill Sunset for letting her die of hypothermia (and if only that were hyperbole).
Sunset handed Rainbow some old clothes and left her to change in the bathroom, lingering outside the door purely because it was either wait for Rainbow or go to the living room and have a conversation she wasn’t completely sure she was willing to have.
Rainbow fit into the clothes (old jeans and an off-blue T-shirt with a wide neck) pretty well. It was a cooler color scheme then what she typically wore, but Rainbow had never really cared and it didn’t matter right now.
“So, how much does she know?” Rainbow asked as she stepped out of the bathroom, trying to untangle some of her hair with her fingers.
“Nothing,” Rainbow’s hands dropped down to her sides and Sunset frowned at Rainbow who frowned back.
“Nothing? You told her nothing?”
“You don’t tell your girlfriend stuff like that!” Rainbow turned, walking away from Sunset.
“You do when you’re entire life has been dedicated to it!” Sunset resisted the urge to punch Rainbow in that moment.
“You’re not planning on telling her.” Rainbow said blankly before catching up to Sunset in two strides. “What the hell are you going to tell her!?”
“That you’re an old friend that decided to come visit and you got attacked by a dog... Or something.”
“A dog? Yeah, dog. That’s convincing.”
“Well, what do you want me to tell her? That every thing she’s ever seen in every bad dream she’s ever had is real?” The ‘no duh’ expression on Rainbow’s face only served to feed Sunset’s aggravation. “No.”
“Sunset-” She stopped just outside the doorway to the living room.
“No,” Sunset spun around to face Rainbow. “I left the hunting life years ago. You decide to drop in for a visit after getting ripped up by a werewolf, and now you expect me to drag Moondancer into it? No. She can go the rest of her life never knowing about this crap and I want her to.”
“Sunset- wait-” Rainbow grabbed hold of Sunset’s shoulder when she started toward the couch where Moondancer sat and try to sell her cover-story for Rainbow’s sudden appearance to her.
“What?” Sunset snapped, spinning back around and shoving her hand away. “What?” She repeated a second time in the same angry tone, just lower so Moondancer couldn’t hear.
“I… I didn’t come here just to pay you a visit.”
“Yeah, I know, you probably were expecting to kill that werewolf and go home.” Sunset wouldn’t have known about this werewolf unless it had been in her neighborhood, seeing as she had made herself a promise to not go looking for odd occurrences in the news which basically ruled out watching the news at all (and Sunset didn’t want to see those odd occurrences for the sake of sleeping at night and keeping a normal life). Sunset crossed her arms over her chest, frowning at Rainbow.
“That was more of a favor for a hunter. The werewolf practically gutted him last week… I actually was coming here originally to get your help.”
“My help?” Sunset’s arms dropped to her sides. “Why- What do you need a retired hunter for?”
“Retired makes you sound old.” Rainbow commented under her breath, which was still close enough for Sunset to hear.
“You have Twilight and Shining for jobs. And the Apples.”
“Yeah, well, the Apples are busy. And, actually, and that’s why I came to you. Twilight and Shining went on a hunting trip and they haven’t been home in a few days.”
Sunset hated the chills those words induced, her body responding without her consent. It was difficult for anyone to miss, in a tank top and sweatpants. She hated the way her mind was already turning into high-hunter-gear and trying to evaluate the situation while also battling with the sudden thoughts of horrific ways to explain the sudden disappearance.
Rainbow didn’t seem all that surprised by Sunset’s reaction. Sunset wasn’t sure if Rainbow was expecting it or was just too used to Sunset for her understanding of her to degrade much over two years. “Have you talked to any of the local hunters? They’d probably know.”
“I doubt any hunters would be willing to give me any info if they had it.” Sunset found herself nodding. Hunters were typically isolationist basket-cases or obsessed families (or whatever remained of them). They rarely got involved with each other if a job, family, or romance wasn’t involved. “Sunset, look, I know you left for a reason. I just- I want you to help me find them. They’re your friends, too.” Sunset subconsciously thanks Rainbow for her use of present tense.
“I have to go for a college interview.”
“I know, Sunset, I understand- I just want you to come with me. Just for a few days. Just to help find them. Okay?”
Sunset took a glance at Moondancer. She was staring at them from the couch, trying to deduce the situation without moving. When Sunset turned back to Rainbow, she had the same look; a look of a person so close to begging it was pitiful. Except it was Rainbow, so less pitiful and more like a feeling akin to a sense of duty.
Soldier, Sunset’s mind supplied. A loyal soldier, willing to fight. It sounded eerily like the old woman Sunset was forced to bury years ago.
“What about Moondancer? What do I tell her?”
“That you need to come help your friends. You don’t have to lie to her. Just don’t tell her what you might need to help your friends with. Unless you want to go ahead and explain the supernatural to her?”
“Still don’t… I have to be back here by Tuesday morning at latest. I can’t be late for this interview.”
“Right, right. So, you gonna go tell Moondancer?”
Sunset nodded, turning and walking around to the front of the couch to face Moondancer. She settled on the edge of the coffee table.
“Alright. Fire away.” Moondancer looked ready to fire off a barrage of questions, but she managed to only ask one.
“What the hell happened to her?” Sunset opened her mouth, ready to cover it up with their given cover story.
“A dog attacked me… It had a collar, so I don’t think it was rabid.”
“Right… Must’ve been a big dog.” Moondancer analyzed bandaged injuries along Rainbow’s arms.
“It was.”
“Why haven’t you ever talked about Rainbow Dash before?”
“Well, she’s… She’s an old friend. We stopped talking a while back.”
“Then why is she here?”
“Cause she needs my help. My friends need help.” Moondancer straightened up at that.
“What kind of help?”
“Nothing big, just… Rainbow wants me to help find them.”
“Find them?”
“Yeah… They’re pretty... isolated. Rainbow hasn’t been able to get in contact with them.”
“... How long will you be gone?” Sunset was briefly surprised by Moondancer’s sudden acceptance that Sunset was going to leave.
“I- uh, I’m not sure.”
“We’ll be back by Tuesday.” Rainbow promised with some poorly placed certainty.
“When are you leaving?”
“Tonight, if we’re going to be back by Tuesday morning.” Sunset turned to glare at Rainbow.
“It’s- Are you sure?”
“Yeah… Don’t worry.” Sunset turned back to Moondancer, reaching out to cup her face. “I’ll be back soon, okay? It’ll be like I never left.”
“You promise you’ll get some sleep while you’re gone?”
“Only if you do.”
“Okay…”
“Alright. I’m gonna go pack my bag. I’ll just be a couple minutes.” Moondancer nodded as Sunset rose to her feet. Leaving Moondancer and Rainbow alone probably wasn’t the best idea, but Sunset did it anyway.
As she walked towards the bedroom, lightning cracked outside the window, startling Sunset with the reminder there was still a raging storm outside. A dark, raging storm in the middle of the night.
As if flicking a switch, Sunset’s brain recalled one lesson from one of her English classes from in high school.
“Don’t start your story with a dark and stormy night.” Mr. Quill had said.
Sunset burst into hysterical laughter.
For a moment, the only thought she could bring to the surface was the situation at hand and it did nothing to stop the strangling bout of hysterics that would really bring her sanity into question, seeing as a sane person would more likely be having a breakdown, not dying of laughter in the hallway.
Rainbow appeared at the end of the hallway with a vague look of concern. As if she was any more sane than Sunset. She only seemed to encourage the hysterical laughter more.
The past coming back to bite you in the ass.
“Sunset?”
Sunset took a deep breath, followed by an exhale that sounded on the verge of more hysterical laughter. She was leaning - practically collapsed, actually- against the wall by the window.
“You okay?” She lifted her head, finding herself smiling at Rainbow. The sight of Rainbow sent Sunset into another bout of hysterical laughter. The expression Rainbow wore (the did-you-finally-go-psychotic look? Sunset knew it well, even after the lack of it over the past three years) was practically speaking for her.
“Yeah-” Sunset wheezed, finally managing to get a grip on herself.
In the back of Sunset’s mind, she added whatever cosmic force arranged for this to the list of people she wanted to punch in the throat.
It was a very long list.
Waving Rainbow off, Sunset went into the bedroom.
She grabbed a bag, specifically the old duffel bag she’d been keeping at the back of her closet. It was old and there were the faded remains of questionable stains as well as the peeling, color-drained symbol of Canterlot High School.
Sunset tossed the bag onto her bed, not caring if it decided now, after nearly three years of sitting in the back of a closet, to tear apart at the seams.
Sunset shoved in a couple changes of clothes and some toiletries she retrieved from the bathroom. She opened up the drawer at the bottom of her nightstand, lifting up the notebook at the bottom to reveal a dust-coated pistol.
One trait of a hunter that Sunset picked up on easily -- as well as failed to lose-- was to hide weapons in easy to access places that no one would expect. There was a silver knife under her mattress (easy to grab) and a small storage of silver bullets underneath her dresser. Were she more paranoid and lacked a decent grasp on discretion, she would probably have more hidden around, but Moondancer would undoubtedly ask questions about why Sunset had some probably illegal weapons hidden in their bedroom and she wanted as few reminders of the hunting life as possible.
Not that anyone would believe her if they were to see all the little things she kept.
Sunset found it oddly amusing that, once she zipped up the bag, no one would really guess that this was for anything other than a normal road trip. Sunset had never gotten to experience one of those, no matter how close the experiences with Rainbow in highschool got.
Sunset changed into a T-shirt and jeans before pulling on a pair of biker boots.
She pulled the strap over her shoulder, forcibly stopping herself from spiraling into that familiar experience of intense, unwanted thinking about the hunting life she had left behind only to eventually return to.
“Trust me, Sunset. Nobody ever really leaves this life once they get in it. It’ll suck you right back in. Could be a week, could be years, it’ll get you back in one day.”
Moondancer stopped Sunset at the door. “You sure you need to go?”
“Yes. But I’ll be back soon. Don’t watch any new episodes without me, alright?” Sunset pressed a kiss to the corner of Moondancer’s mouth before stepping outside where Rainbow stood waiting.
“Ready?”
Sunset nodded and the two headed to the stairs. They were only on the second level.
“So, why can’t you go to the Apples for this?”
“Like I said, they’re busy.”
“Hasn’t stopped them from helping before.”
“Look, it doesn’t matter, alright?” Rainbow snapped over her shoulder before storming off to the building’s garage. “We just gotta head out and make sure Shining and Twilight are still in one piece.”
Sunset paused at the sight of Rainbow’s car, which looked just as well-cared for as it had been when Sunset last saw it three years ago, the rainwater still clinging to its glossy surface. Rainbow circled around to the trunk, patting the top of it like it was a well-loved pet.
“So, how about you tell me more about this case that Twilight and Shining ran off on?” Rainbow’s smile vanished, replaced with a more grim expression. Sunset watched as Rainbow unlocked the trunk, opening it up and then lifting up what should have been a spare tire compartment to reveal the compacted armory inside.
“All things needed to kill all and anything known to hunter-kind.” Rainbow had said when Sunset first saw the arsenal (which Shining had personally installed). That wasn’t completely true, but Sunset hadn’t ever felt like expressing that Rainbow’s car was less than perfection on wheels. She valued her fully functional lungs.
Rainbow dug around in the arsenal, propping up the cover of the arsenal with a shotgun (which Sunset had only ever seen used for that purpose) before she pulled up a folder. The title was in Twilight’s neat handwriting in dark purple ink.
‘Disappearances, Hollow Shades.’
Rainbow flipped it open, revealing several printed out articles with portraits that took up a majority of the page. All had various titles that all followed the same theme of ‘missing persons.’
“So, why didn’t you go with them?”
“We were already busy with this voodoo thing in Fillydelphia when Shining found the case. I figured I could handle the rest of it, so they decided to go off together.”
“How’d that go for you?”
“Fine,” Rainbow huffed. Sunset would have to bother her about it another time. “Anyway, I tried to contact them the day after I handled that. They didn’t answer, figured they were busy. Two days later, I started to get worried-”
“So you took a job hunting a werewolf in Cloudsdale?”
“It wasn’t in Cloudsdale. Not at first. I tracked it down to Cloudsdale from someplace in Warmblood County. I didn’t plan on getting you involved, I actually did consider visiting you like a normal person. Until I got this, yesterday.” Rainbow pulled out a recorder from the depths of the Impala’s arsenal, holding it up between the two of them and hitting play.
“Rainbow, I-” Sunset flinched at the sudden burst of static. “Rainbow, something's-” another static burst, “-something is-” Rainbow’s gaze shifted to Sunset, communicating her own emotions at this but Sunset was barely comprehending it. “We’re gonna figure- it- out- It might be-” The static crackled and hissed, covering the voice. “F-ind Sun-set.” Sunset jerked back at the distortion in Twilight’s recording. “Be careful- We’re all- in danger.” Rainbow stopped the recording.
“Damn...” Sunset breathed, looking back at Rainbow as she lowered the recorder. “What do you think she meant?”
“By ‘we’re all in danger?’ No clue. But that’s why I decided to find you as soon as I got that werewolf.” Sunset frowned at the ground, insides squirming with guilt she couldn’t convince to go away. “But they found something and it was enough to get them to ditch a case.”
“How do you know?”
“It’s more of a hunch… You know, I’m disappointed you didn’t point out the EVP. You’re gettin’ a little rusty there, Sunset.” Sunset frowned but said nothing. “Anyway, I managed to decipher that from the recording. This is what I got.” Rainbow pressed play on the recorder again, but it wasn’t playing the same recording over, it was continuing it. There was a low crackly sound, but not really noticeable. Then the crackling abruptly increased, turning into a drawn out word in what sounded like the hoarse voice of a woman that was definitely not Twilight.
“I… Can never… go… home.” It gave Sunset shivers, which Rainbow looked ready to comment on but thankfully didn’t.
“Well, that’s a lead… What got their attention, anyway?” Sunset asked, turning to the folder and picking up one of the articles (the edges of which were all soft and worn), this one with a portrait of a man with silver hair and the start of a beard.
“Jack Steamer, thirty-two. He went missing a while ago. They found his car tangled in some bushes just off the road, no trace of him whatsoever.” Rainbow answered. Sunset set down that specific article, spreading out some of the others. “Harvey Harvest, forty. Went missing four days after Steamer. Also found his car swerved off the road.” Rainbow pointed to the man with slicked back brown hair in the photograph.
“This happens around every November, dating back about eight years. Steel Jester, twenty-one. Completely vanished, car on the side of the road. Ivory Victor, twenty-eight, missing the same week. Completely gone, car vanished. Jasper Gusts, fifty. They found his car spun around in the middle of the road.” Sunset listed off, pointing at the articles. “Tony Prickle, Johny Shortstack, Jamie Stones.” Sunset wasn’t listing off all of the missing persons, but even this many seemed like too many. “All men, all went missing completely with their cars still left behind, and it all happened on the same stretch of road in Hollow Shades.“ Rainbow said, jabbing her finger at the folder with a sense of finality. She leaned against the car, folding her arms over her chest.
“What do they think it is?”
“Officially? Not sure. A couple of the residents there think its some freaky cult.”
“Freaky cult?” Rainbow gave a small hum off assent. “Alright. What about the cars?”
“All in decent condition. The way it was described, it was like all those guys just up and vanished into thin air. Kinda like the Bermuda Triangle. But, you know, on land. And Just with people.” Rainbow nodded at that. “As for what’s been snatching people? None of us had any clue. Werewolves and Vamps are too messy and as far as Twilight could tell there weren’t any witches in the area.”
“Right.”
“We should hit the road.” Rainbow said quickly, closing the arsenal and the back of the Impala.
Rainbow produced the Impala keys from her pocket and slipped into the front seat. Sunset threw her duffel into the backseat and settled in the passenger's seat. When Rainbow turned the key, the radio turned on a breath after the engine to some 80s rock station.
Sunset buckled up, not commenting on Rainbow’s lack of a seatbelt as she pulled the Impala out of the garage and into the pouring storm outside.
There was a half minute filled with the sound of the rain hitting the car, the purr of the Impala’s engine, and the radio’s guitar riff before Sunset finally spoke.
“So, how’ve you been?” If anything major had happened over the past three years, Sunset figured she would need to know. In the mind of a hunter, anything major included who died, new friends, new enemies, or learning about a new species of monster. The last one was somewhat uncommon, but new friends was typically rarer.
Hunters were solitary creatures, like wendigos. Like wendigos, bugging them was typically a one-way ticket to death. Rainbow had yet to meet a hunter who kidnapped people and ate them gradually over time, though.
“Good. None of us have been in Ponyville for a while.”
“How long is a while?”
“A while. The Apples aren’t exactly inviting us over for the holidays.”
“Why?” Rainbow briefly stiffened.
“They’ve been busy and we haven’t had much of a reason to. Twilight and Shining went to go help the Apples with a Vamp nest and there hasn’t been so much as a blip on the paranormal radar since.”
“You think someone’s managed to make one of those yet?” Such an invention, although it most likely would involve the use of witchcraft to function, would make hunting so much simpler. The closest thing to it was an EMF meter, and that only really worked on ghosts in abandoned farmhouses.
“Damn, I miss their cider.” Sunset mumbled, slumping back in her seat.
“Yeah, me too.”
The song ended and the announcer listed off the name and artist before playing a new song.
The song was halfway through and Sunset was starting to nod off against the window when Rainbow interrupted. “So, how’s domesticity been treating you?”
“Huh?”
“You know,’ the normal life.’ Anything like you expected?”
Sunset pushed herself upright to resist the urge to nod off against the window. “A little bit. I swore to drop the life and it worked.”
“Yet here you are.”
“Yeah, well… I promised you guys that we were always gonna be friends. And friends don’t leave each other behind. Or let their injured idiot friend go track them down alone.” Sunset added, realizing she was treading a dangerous line.
“Gee, thanks. Glad to know I’m loved...”
Silence followed. The radio briefly filled with the announcer’s voice before transitioning to a new song. Sunset knew exactly what she wanted to ask, but it had always been a subject you didn’t charge straight into. You tiptoed into it. Sunset didn’t want to deal with an unfocused or pissed off Rainbow Dash. No sane person did.
“You get any new tattoos?”
Rainbow had multiple tattoos. The storm cloud with the rainbow lightning bolt on her right shoulder, the anti-possession (a star in a circle of fire) symbol to the right of her lower back, the folded wings tattoo over her shoulder blades, and the small Wonderbolts symbol tattooed on her ankle.
“Nope. Figured I’d be good after the anti-possession symbol.”
“Guess nothing really changed while I was gone, then.
“Nope, you just gained a pound or two.”
“Hey!” Sunset shot back, slapping Rainbow over the shoulder.
By the time they reached the very edge of Ponyville proper, they had exercised all the completely non-hunter conversation topics that Sunset could think of. Rainbow’s wasn’t really into very much TV shows that weren’t available on the average cheap motel TV, so she couldn’t talk about any that she’d seen, and Dr. Sexy M.D was absolutely off the table.
“So, how are the Apples, anyway?”
“Still runnin’ their business. Shining says he’s pretty sure they’re teaching Apple Bloom how to fight with a knife.”
“Isn’t she a bit young?”
“Twilight said she learned how to use a knife when she was five.”
“That’s different.”
“Not really.”
Silence, once again. This time, Sunset wanted it to stay.
She traced the web of the faded scars on the palm of her right hand.
Sunset woke up from a brief nap when they stopped to grab an early breakfast at a drive-through for some obscure chain Sunset had never heard of, settled next to a gas station and tiny motel with peeling bright blue paint.
The surrounding landscape was rolling hills of grass and clusters of trees, large swaths of flowers, the river, and rocks jutting up from underneath layers of dirt being some of the only variations in the large waving progression of foothills until the large purple-ish rock spikes of Mount Canter and the thick forests preceding the more lumpy shape of the Foal Mountains.
Rainbow had still been moving stiffly. She had insisted that she re-fuel the Impala while Sunset retrieved their food, tossing a credit card (which was under the fake name Geode Sparkler) at her and telling her not to forget the onions on her burger. A wounded Rainbow Dash could be even more stubborn than normal (at least in Sunset’s experience), so she hadn’t argued. She did watch Rainbow carefully while she waited for their food.
“This brings me back.” Sunset commented as she leaned over the hood of the car, glancing at Rainbow who was leaning against the side of the Impala, right leg rapidly bouncing as she chewed on her own burger and staring down the gas pump. “Cheap, roadside food in the middle of nowhere, on our way to hunt down some thing in some small town.” She sighed, watching the shadow of a bird pass by overhead. “Ah, memories.”
A small, fond smile came to Rainbow’s face before she took another bite. Sunset took a bite of her own, eyes shifting to the dusty barren road that continued on. She couldn’t see the turn that would take them to Hollow Shades, but the map said it was there, a mile before a railroad cut over the river and continued on to Hollow Shades.
Even after the boom of car culture in the early 40s, trains and railroads were still used and valued as they had been nearly a century ago.
“Remember that time you got food poisoning while we were trying to find that ghost back in Clydesville?”
“Oh, for the love of God, don’t remind me.”
“Oh- remember that time where you and Shining got into a hot dog eating contest while we were on a case in that town near Vanhoover-”
The gas pump chose now to chime, which Sunset wouldn’t have let stop her, but Rainbow’s sudden response did. Rainbow pushed off the side of the car and set her burger down on the wrapping paper on top of the Impala.
“We should be at Hollow Shades in about an hour and a half.” Rainbow announced from behind the Impala.
“Unless you break the speed limit?” Sunset asked around a mouthful of burger.
“I was already planning on doing that anyway.”
Three minutes later, they were back in the Impala.
Then, they were back on the road. On their way to fight some paranormal monster, rescue their friends (or burn their corpses, but Sunset refused to tolerate that image), to the tune of some 80s rock song that sounded vaguely familiar to the early days, fresh out of high school and dealing with things no person ever should (even in the realm of dreams).
The sudden transition to a song that instantly had Sunset thinking screamo band reminded her that; one, she wasn’t fresh out of high school anymore. She was twenty-three years old. And two, she was just going to go help old friends. By Tuesday morning, she would be getting ready for a college interview and this weekend would seem like a painfully surreal experience, just as it had when Rainbow arrived.
Sunset forced down the rest of her burger at the memories that left a sour-sweet feeling in her gut.
They reached the edge of the forest surrounding Hollow Shades two hours later as Rainbow has estimated, the sky beginning to change color as the sun rose, turning the distant shape of Canterlot shades of gold, orange, and rosey pink.
The sun was just rising over the dark trees as they drove on alongside the railroad track, Rainbow taking speed going back down to the legal limit which was a very big difference than what she had been going at.
The connection to the radio got somewhat spotty surrounded by thick trees, inducing some crackly interruptions that made Sunset’s ears hurt. She turned the radio off, only receiving a brief look from Rainbow before she decided to initiate conversation for the first time in the past two hours. The last conversation they’d had was Rainbow asking how rough school must be to have Sunset looking so worn out.
“So, where was this patch of road you were talking about? The one where the guys got snatched.”
“It’s this road, just on the edge of town. Sorta like a shortcut, I guess. It’s not a very popular road. It goes from one part of town around to the neighborhoods.”
“This place’s got suburbs?”
“Nah, this place doesn’t get much in ways of people every year. Twilight told me the statistics but… But I wasn’t paying much attention to what she said.”
“This town has a hospital, though?”
“Uhm, yeah, why?” Rainbow glanced over to see Sunset opening the glove box, pulling an old phone from a shoebox and shutting the glovebox with her knee while she opened the phone. “What’re you doing?”
“I’m gonna check with the hospital, see if anyone showed up.”
“I already tried that yesterday.”
“Yeah, well, that was yesterday.”
Rainbow huffed before offering the number to the Hollow Shades Medical Center. Sunset thanked her as she dialed the number, but Rainbow sounded distracted with her ‘you’re welcome’ as she returned her focus to the road.
She offered some FBI agent’s name before Sunset could even get the whole question out to the man on the other end of the line.
The hospital didn’t have anyone admitted that matched the description. Sunset had to assure them a missing person report was already filed (throwing her horrible skills of lying in stark contrast to Rainbow’s) and that they didn’t need to keep an eye out for anyone.
“Alright, thank you.” Sunset said quickly, hanging up and taking a deep breath. “Hey, Rainbow, what’s the coroner’s-”
“Already checked there, too. They haven’t received any bodies -- or body parts -- in the past week. The coroner said with their sudden increase in missing persons, it’s concerning.”
Sunset couldn’t bring herself to say that it didn’t take an entire day for a person to fully die, especially not in their profession. Rainbow would probably push her out of the car or bash her skull in on the dashboard (wouldn’t be the first time cleaning blood out of the Impala) if Sunset even dared to say it.
Not like Sunset would know what she’d do if Twilight and Shining’s bodies were actually there. Her mind refused to consider that possibility longer than a few brief seconds in any greater detail than a sentence, much like a stubborn child.
“So, we gonna stop at the nearest motel?”
“Yup. Maybe ask if they’ve had any people check in within the past week.”
“Alright. And if that doesn’t help?”
“We try and hunt down whatever they were hunting. That’ll get us somewhere.”
The road stopped hugging the railroad, gradually curving away, about a minute before the welcome sign. A thick wooden sign, splintering through its paint with new plants deciding to use its legs to their advantage for maximum sun exposure. Carved into the sign in big letters was; Welcome to Hollow Shades.
The buildings that lined the streets of Hollow Shades were just what one would expect in a small town in the middle of the woods. All of them had a similar design, made of wood, concrete, and bricks. A style mix between Unicornia gothic and cabins you’d rent out for a camping trip in the middle of the White Tail Woods.
The two stopped at the first motel they saw which was probably the only one in town as the town didn’t get much in way of visitors that weren’t coming for family.
The lobby had a small porch out front, Hollow Roots Inn carved in big letters over the overhang, similar to the city’s welcome sign.
The inside of the lobby had red, patterned wallpaper and hardwood floors. Whatever walls didn’t have a window had a landscape painting. An old fan with a yellowed old lightbulb took up the space on the ceiling. There was a painting that was mostly sparkling green-blue ocean. Rolling hills and the distant, rigid shadows of mountains, and a large bridge spanned from high up into somewhere out of view. It covered a good portion of the wall behind an old wooden desk.
Entering the lobby triggered an old-looking bell above the door. An older man, gray starting to streak into his hair at the temples, stepped out of the door to the right of the desk and quickly shuffled behind it.
“Welcome to Hollow Trunk Inn. How can I help you?”
“One room, please.” Rainbow answered, dropping her credit card onto the desk. The man looked at the name.
“Geode Sparkler?” He murmured, not looking up.
“Yeah?”
“You’re Sweetie Sparkler’s sister?”
“Yessir.” Rainbow said without missing a beat. “Did she check in here as well?”
“She did, yeah, with her cousin. Didn’t catch his name. You havin’ a reunion or something?”
“Something like that, yeah. Have you seen her, recently? I tried messaging her but she didn’t answer, so...” Rainbow pulled her phone out of the pocket of her jacket just to wave in emphasis.
“No, sorry. Last time I saw them was… Two days ago, I think? Anyway, for that room o’ yours. One king?”
“No, we- me and her aren’t a thing. Two beds is fine.” The older man’s eyes briefly widened behind his spectacles.
“Oh, I apologize!”
“No problem. Happens quite a bit.” Rainbow said before Sunset could say anything else, not that she really had anything else to add.
“Here’s your key.” The man said after a long moment. Rainbow offered a quick thanks, taking back her credit card and nudging Sunset back outside. The tag on the key read Room 3, which Sunset would have started looking for, were Rainbow not already speed-walking over to the rooms. Sunset jogged up after her.
She took a quick peek into the window. “Goddamn curtains.” She hissed, trying to peer through the curtains in the next window. She continued on until Room 5, where she instantly pulled something out of the inside pocket of her jacket. Sunset stopped at her side, watching over her shoulder to see her unwravel the leather to reveal her lockpicking tools.
“Hold on, how do you know this is their room?”
“Check the windowsill.” Sunset did as Rainbow told her too.
The maroon curtains couldn’t hide the salt that was spilled over the yellow-ish windowsill. Rainbow looked back to Sunset.
“Keep your eyes out for me.” Rainbow said, shifting her position so lockpicking would be easier. Sunset turned around to keep an eye out for passersby. The motel door unlocked with a click behind her, but before she could turn around on her own, Rainbow’s fist was curled into the shoulder of her jacket and pulling her inside. Sunset had the brief consideration to shut the door behind her.
The inside of the hotel room had a similar style to the lobby. Hardwood floors, patterned red wallpaper, and another landscape painting of mostly ocean on the far wall.
However, this room had clearly been the victim of a hunter’s (lack of a) design sense.
Printed news articles, snippets of slightly-yellowed newspapers, maps dotted with highlighter and markers, pictures, and sticky notes covered in wide scrawling penmanship were stuck to any available space on the walls. Books in at least three languages and with symbols from at least twenty different cultures were spread out on the beds, on the dresser, and the floor.
One bed was made with utilitarian neatness, although the nightstand next to it was currently serving as a display case for a few empty beer bottles. Those were the only instances of alcoholism making a presence in the room as far as Sunset could see. The other bed wasn’t made nearly as neatly, the blankets ruffled and a lot of the bed having books of both the reading and writing variety spread out on it, plus a few scattered pens.
But, of course, the epitome of hunter chic was the salt. It ran in sparkly white lines against the wall. Opening the door had upset the salt line, spreading out every hunter’s preferred demon-and-ghost-repellant in an arch.
“They were here alright.” Sunset muttered as Rainbow stepped into the room with very clear precaution. Maybe she was suspecting one of the Sparkle siblings to jump out from behind the slightly ajar bathroom door and shoot her on developed instinct. Natural instinct was just to run away screaming stupid, according to a very drunk conversation between Twilight and Rainbow that Sunset had been lucky enough to bear witness to.
Sunset noticed the cats eye shells scattered across the dresser between the books and ugly lamp before Rainbow did. “Salt… Cats eye shells…”
“Went all out, huh?” Rainbow muttered, walking over to the nightstand and lifting one bottle up so she could try and see how much liquid was left. Unsurprisingly, there was none.
“Yeah, for a makeshift fortress. They were scared of something getting in here...” Rainbow had briefly crouched down to analyze the salt lines and one of the many books, but she bounced up as her gaze drifted to the bathroom. She speed-walked over and peered inside, frowning. “Nothing in here…” Her voice echoed from inside the small room. Rainbow peeked out. “Check under the beds.”
Sunset didn’t have to be asked twice, not with that tone, and she wasn’t sure what she expected when she looked under the beds. There wasn’t anything underneath them except dust.
“There’s nothing-”
“Nothing?”
“No, why-”
“They left.” Rainbow said quickly, stopping in the middle of the room. “But their books are still here. They- They were planning on coming back. Something stopped them.” Sunset pushed herself to her feet.
“When’d you get that message again, Rainbow?”
“The day before I came to you… Last time the guy saw them was two days ago, right?”
“Same day you got the message.” Sunset said slowly, mind pulling the pieces together into a more coherent looking mental jumble of pieces.
“They must’ve gone to hunt down whatever it is that’s been snatching people and not come back… They must still be out looking for it.” Sunset;s tongue refused to allow her to voice that, maybe, they had finally gotten the typical end for the hunters that they were. The mere idea pulled tightly at Sunset;s throat.
“But what were they hunting?” Rainbow muttered, glossing over Sunset’s sudden silence in favor of paying attention to the mess of paper on the wall.
Sunset walked over, stopping beside Rainbow to observe the familiar handiwork of a neatfreak and a military man. It was much neater than Rainbow’s work when it came to sorting information on a vertical surface, which was usually just slap it onto whatever available space there is on the wall and connecting the relevant things with red marker.
There was a newspaper article surrounding a grainy, black and white image of a huge tree, decorations of all sorts hanging from it’s vacant branches.
‘Hollow Shades Celebrates 200 Year Anniversary’
Attached to it was a copy of a page from some old book. There was a sketchy illustration of an old, dead-looking tree with many things hanging from its branches. Scarves, medallions, necklaces, other pieces of clothing, and other indiscernible shapes. A Memoriam Tree, according to the header of the page.
“Memoriam Tree?”
“People used to attach stuff to the branches… Blah, blah... It was usually grown over the first body in a cemetery.”
“Well, that sure doesn’t sound like a recipe for a haunting. You think maybe the tree’s been snatching people?”
“That’s a sentence I never expected to hear.” Sunset was slowly lowering herself to the point she was balancing on the balls of her feet, fingers tracing some invisible pattern over the theory wall that Rainbow couldn’t track. Sunset stopped at one page, which had some weird website name half-cut at the top of the page. The Witch Founders of Hollow Shades. There was a sketchy illustration of three old women in patchy robes and pointy hats surrounding a boiling kettle, a black cat weaving its way between one pair of legs, was placed alongside a gloomily colored photo of Hollow Shades from a bird’s eye view.
“Here,‘the truth’- according to this, Hollow Shades was a small safe haven founded by witches during the Equestrian Witch Burnings of the late 1700s. It was officially declared a town in 1804.”
“So, what, you thinking witches?”
“God, I hope not. I haven’t had to deal with a witch in three years and I don’t plan on breaking that streak anytime soon.” Sunset cringed at the idea of dealing with a witch. The last time she’d dealt with one, all she could smell was car exhaust for a week.
“Then what?”
“You already said that it can’t be vampires and it can’t be werewolves cause this is too clean.”
“Yeah, plus it only happens in November. No cases of this happening outside of November, ever.”
“What else did they gather?” Sunset asked, gaze shifting to a map, one road highlighted in neon green, small orange circles being placed on each side with varying distances. CENTENNIAL ROAD. It took Rainbow a moment too long to recognize that this was the road people were going missing on. The missing persons posters were lined up vertically alongside the map, seemingly in order of which spot their car was found on the given map.
“Well, it all looks like theory and guesswork from what I can see.” Rainbow’s attention was focused on a small stack of obituaries, stapled together at the corner. Once again, way neater than her typical work. Rainbow’s was flipping through them, curious. “These go all the way back to the 70s.”
Sunset nodded, wandering back over to the bed and picking up one of the notebooks from what was undoubtedly Twilight’s mess of a bed. A list of cemeteries, some crossed out in red, some having names Rainbow didn’t recognize scribbled in the margins in writing she could hardly read.
“Maybe we should check the road out. You know, see where it leads. Maybe we’ll find whatever snatched those poor guys off the road.”
“Yeah. Twilight and Shining are probably camping out there.”
“Sure. Camping in the middle of a hunt. Why not?” Rainbow shot her a scalding look before setting the stack of obituaries back onto the dresser. Fortunately, she didn’t say anything. Sunset was already mentally kicking herself in the head for her comment.
She paused, noticing a picture stuck into the corner of the mirror frame. Looking closer, she felt her chest tighten. It was a faded, creased old photograph of Rainbow, Applejack, Sunset, Shining, and Twilight standing in front of the Apple Acres Barn. Pulling it from the frame, she flipped it over.
‘Hunters in Arms! Sweet Apple Acres, 1996’ was written on it in handwriting Sunset recognized as her own, clearly written with her left.
“Let’s get going. Maybe we’ll see that dumb Mustang somewhere.”
Sunset hoped not. If the Mustang was on the side of that road, that likely meant Twilight and Shining weren’t exactly doing that great.
Fortunately, Sunset didn’t catch sight of any Mustang swerved off to the side of the road. What she did catch sight of was every damn detail because Rainbow suddenly seemed very interested in obeying the speed limit.
The foliage started to recede from the road the further they went, gradually fading into dirt that abruptly dropped down into a shallow river with a short bridge crossing over it.
Parked along the bridge and curved off the edge of the road were two brown and white police cruisers with the title of the Hollow Shades Police Department along the left side.
A blue car was also present on the bridge. It was swerved at an angle where only a person could squeeze past it.
Rainbow pulled over to the side of the road, careful not to steer the Impala too close to the bushes or trees or the police cars.
There was a police officer wearing a bulky jacket (it was November, after all) and peering over the edge of the bridge and shouting. Rainbow leaned over, popping open the glovebox and retrieving a scratched wooden box. Sunset found herself fondly smiling at the familiar object, although it turned somewhat bittersweet when she caught sight of the variations of Twilight’s stoic (or barely hidden smile) face staring back at her.
“Twilight’s badges?” Was out of her mouth before she could think.
“I swear to God, your mouth works faster than your brain sometimes.”
“Oh, yeah. Some of them.” Rainbow muttered distantly, grabbing one already in a small, worn leather wallet. Sunset caught the glint of the silver star seal. Equestrian Marshals Service. “Here it is. Let’s go.”
Rainbow slipped out of the car and Sunset followed her, briefly wondering if Rainbow had kept her fake IDs. Probably not.
Sunset zipped up her leather jacket, realizing that it was a lot colder here. Rainbow shoved her hands into her own jacket as she came to the same sudden realization.
Now that they were closer, Sunset could make out that the officer was shouting at someone in the river.
“Anything?”
“Nope!” Two people called back in sync that were still out of Rainbow’s line of sight, thanks to the abrupt drop off of the grassy bank and the railing of the bridge.
Rainbow managed to look more fit for the role of (fake) Equestrian Marshall than Sunset did. Maybe it had something to do with the look in her eyes.
Sunset decided not to think too much on that.
The officer turned his head at the sight of Rainbow and Sunset approaching. Once they were on the bridge, Sunset could take a glimpse over the side of the bridge to see two men wandering around in the shallow waters of the river in wetsuits. She shivered in sympathy.
“Who’re you?”
“Equestrian Marshall Blitz. This is my partner.”
“You two look a bit young for Marshalls.”
“Deputies, actually. And thank you.” The officer took a brief moment to stare at Rainbow’s face. Maybe he picked up on the look in her eyes, or maybe he was just too damn tired to care if the shadows under his eyes were anything to go off. “You’ve had how many other cases like this?”
“Three in the past month... This would be the fourth.” The officer gestured to the car.
“Who’s the victim?” Rainbow asked, trying to peer around the officer at the car, despite the fact it was clearly empty.
“In Hollow Shades, you have to make an effort not to know anyone. The neighbor’s dog dies, you can get a tragedy in the papers. You can make a guess how five people going missing feels.”
Sunset nodded, hoping she projected sympathetic and not ‘yeah, life sucks, get on with your explanation.’ The officer briefly looked at her and didn’t seem offended, so Sunset took that as a success.
“What’s the popular theory?”
“Serial kidnapper. Left the cars behind, not the people. Issue is, no sign of struggle. Just that the car went out of control.”
“And all the victims were male?”
“So far. Ages and occupations don’t seem to matter.”
“Mind if we go back to the Sheriff’s Department, get a look at what you’ve got?”
“At this point, a fresh pair of eyes might do some good. Two FBI agents dropped by but they didn’t ever get back to me. Just tell Perry that Officer Tang sent you to look into the missing persons case.”
“Thank you.” Rainbow said with a nod as Sunset spun around on her heel and started walking back towards the Impala with an unsubtle burst of speed. Rainbow nearly had to jog to catch up.
“He mentioned FBI agents. I’m thinking it was Twilight and Shining.” Rainbow said, once she was sure they were out of earshot. “They haven’t gotten back to him, yet, though.”
“So they haven’t gotten very far ahead, then, or they would have left behind notes or something, right?”
“No, actually. They might have the stuff we’re missing with them.”
“Dammit.”
“Yeah, our luck hasn’t exactly improved over the last three years.” Rainbow muttered as she wrenched open the driver’s side door of the Impala and dropped into the seat. The moment Sunset was in the Impala and her door was shut, the car was pulling back onto the road towards the Sheriff’s Department.
“You know, that was kinda… Easy, all things considered.”
“The getting info part or the lying part?”
“Both.”
“He’s tired, I don’t think he really cares as long as they find everyone. Even their bodies, I bet. Anything, as long as he knows. It’s better than not knowing.”
“Yeah, I hear that.” Sunset muttered, pressing her fingers into her eyelids in an attempt to lose the suddenly provided images in the vibrantly painful spots. Werewolves, vampires, every monster Sunset had ever heard about (even zombies and rabid birds) were suddenly spilling into her mind’s eye with a vengeance for Twilight and Shining and, by extension, her.
“So, this is the fourth victim in the past month. Last victim was just a couple days ago.” Rainbow said, whether or not she was aware of Sunset’s current mental struggle with reigning in an imagination she was despising the existence of didn’t matter. Sunset had a feeling she was talking just for the sake of it.
“How long has this lasted before?” Rainbow took a moment to think, chewing on her lip.
“About a month before it stops, last I checked. For some reason, they haven’t linked the pattern yet. Then again, they usually don’t.”
“I see your opinion of law enforcement hasn’t gotten any better.”
“And yours has?”
“You were breaking laws since before I met you.”
“Only sneaking out and being places I shouldn’t be. You were the one impersonating government agents.” Rainbow shot back.
“And look how bad of an influence you were.” Rainow said with a smirk.
“I told you not to get involved. You wouldn’t like it.”
“Yeah, well, its better than getting into some lame trade school.”
“You’re crazy.” “Must be contagious.”
“Ass.”
“I have a very nice ass, thank you.”
Sunset snorted, head lolling toward the window. “Yeah, right.”
It was a comfortable minute before Rainbow spoke again.
“So, you have a girlfriend now?”
“Yeah.”
“She reminds me of Twilight.” Sunset stiffened, turning to look at Rainbow.
“What is it?”
“Nothing, nothing, just… She seemed to really care about you.”
“She does. And I care about her.”
“Then why haven’t you told her?”
“Because I care about her!”
“That’s not a good idea, Sunset.”
“I don’t care.”
Rainbow was silent for a moment.
“So, you’re just gonna keep this a secret from her? For how long?”
“Forever.”
“Forever… So, are you gonna go on to get your degree or whatever, get married, get a job, and have a house with a white picket fence?” Rainbow asked, almost sounding like she was trying to make casual talk about Sunset’s future. As a normal person.
“Uh, yeah, I guess. Not, counting the picket fence.”
“Sounds nice.” “I know. I’ve… Thought about it a lot.”
“You gonna invite me to the wedding?”
“I dunno.”
“I’ll bring some of that hard cider.”
“Huh. Didn’t think you’d know anything about weddings.”
“I’m offended that you think I’d know so little.” A retort came quickly to Rainbow’s mind, but she managed to stop it before she could even start to voice it.
“Offended, yeah.”
“So, is that an invite?”
“Have you ever even been to a wedding?”
“Have you?”
Rainbow pulled the car into the small parking lot for the Sheriff’s Department without answering the question.
“Here we are. Come on, Sunset, we got some evidence to check out.” Rainbow hummed, checking to make sure she still had the fake Marshall ID.
Perry, as it turned out, was a middle-aged woman (older than Rainbow by only a few years) with a messy bun and sharp eyes set in a narrow face. She was several inches taller than either Rainbow or Sunset. When Rainbow showed her the ID, she squinted at it from behind her leopard-patterned glasses.
She relaxed somewhat when Rainbow told her that Officer Tang sent them, leading them to a small room in the back with ceiling-high locker units covering two of the walls and a metal table in the center.
“Here’s all we got for the missing persons case.” Perry said, handing Rainbow a clipboard and stepping back, hands resting on her hips. “Which is a load of absolutely nothing.”
Sunset decided to analyze the things spread out over the table. Most of it was typical roadside trash. Soda cans of both big brands and knock-offs, food wrappers, and some scraps of fabric. She leaned forward a little bit, keeping her left arm close to her side.
“So, Officer Tang said the popular theory was a serial kidnapper?” Sunset asked, trying to find something noticeable among all the garbage.
“Yup.”
“No eyewitnesses?”
“None that saw anything important.” Perry huffed, her arms shifting to fold over her chest. “Only people that have been going missing in the past few months are the ones in the vehicles. Last time anyone knows, the victims are always heading to Centennial and then we find their cars. Either swerved off the road or blocking it. No trace of any of them in the car or out.”
“And none of the cars have been tampered with? At all?”
“Had the local mechanic check every single one. I checked every single one. Cars are all in the same condition as when they were last seen. Whoever kidnapped these people just wanted the people.”
“Yeah, these are nice rides.” Rainbow muttered, reading the provided list. “None of the valuables were taken?”
“Nope. Cash, keys, everything is in the cars except the driver. It’s like a sick joke.”
“And none of this fabric belonged to the victims’ clothes?” Sunset asked, leaning back.
“Far as we can tell, no. Makes it even worse, honestly. No traces of any kind. You can’t just snatch four people and not leave behind some sort of trail.”
Sunset and Rainbow shared a look that Perry didn’t catch. As Sunset’s gaze briefly shifted to Perry, Rainbow’s eye caught on something and her shoulders went tense. Sunset followed her gaze to the evidence table.
Dog tags.
Pulling a pen out of her pocket, Sunset lifted up (so quickly she almost dropped them) the dog tags by their chain so she could read the engraving. She tilted it so that Rainbow could read it, the light glinting on the scratched metal.
Sparkle Shining A.
“Where does Centennial Road lead?” Rainbow asked, managing to not sound the way Sunset’s insides felt.
“Well, it originally was used to get to the lumber mills. Then they stopped using those. Then there were some residences built down there. Then those burned up. No one wants to live there anymore. They think it’s cursed land or something.”
“Cursed land?”
“It’s a bunch of stories. I don’t know the details, you’d have to ask one of the older locals, but it’s all a bunch of paranormal crap. The town’s history is full of it.”
Rainbow nodded at that, but Sunset noted the sharpness of her eyes, still focused on the dog tags. She wasn’t genuinely listening to Perry anymore, Sunset guessed.
“So, the last person to see the victim? Troy Polis?” Perry’s breath suddenly left her lungs. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before opening her eyes.
Small town, Sunset reminded herself.
“His girlfriend, Lily Mythic. She’s putting up posters downtown for him. She said she was on the phone with him when the connection cut out.”
“The connection on Centennial isn’t good?”
“No, actually, it’s nearly as good as downtown’s. We think it might have something to do with the bad weather.”
“Let me guess. You found his phone in his car?”
“Left on the console.”
“Damn…”
“I think that’s all we need for now.” Sunset interrupted, suddenly regaining her ability of speech.
“You sure you got everything you need?”
“Absolutely. Thank you for your time.” Rainbow said, handing Perry the clipboard. Perry gave her a curt nod, watching as they slowly walked out of the room. Her eyes followed them from her desk until they left the station and any available line of vision from the windows
Miraculously, they managed to get to the Impala before talking or even displaying one sign of internal panic. At least Rainbow did. Sunset had no idea if she was managing it well or if anyone who looked at her for longer than fives seconds would know there was a massacre of Twilight and Shining doubles via any paranormal (and normal) methods Sunset knew trying to form in her head. Maybe not in those exact specifics, but something close.
“They were already out there hunting for it.”
“What?”
“They found Shining’s dog tags. Think about it. He’s a guy. He fits the description for whatever it is catching people off of Centennial.”
“They didn’t find his car. There wasn’t a 1970 Mustang on the list.”
“Dammit!” Sunset growled, hitting the top of the Impala with a pale fist. Rainbow scowled at her.
“Come on. We’ve got some kids to talk to.” The way she talked, Sunset would have assumed (if she couldn’t understand English) that Rainbow was planning on going to shoot someone, not talk to a bunch of kids.
Rainbow slid back into the driver’s seat and Sunset took her place in the passenger seat.
Downtown was not a very big space, which made finding Lily taping missing posters on the brick exterior of the only theater in Hollow Shades easy. The one specific wall already had posters in various stages of neglect. Pages printed in only one specific color with grainy images and choppy words worn away by time or pages held onto the wall only by stubborn pieces of tape. The view of all the faded, darkened posters was rather depressing.
The entire town seemed that kind of way. A few passing cars, some scattered passersby, but it was still incredibly vacant. It wasn’t like Canterlor on a Sunday morning, sure, but it made the town seem even smaller than it actually was. There weren’t even very many Hearth's Warming Eve decorations set up, which was odd, as that was always something to be expected no matter where Sunset was in Equestria during the months leading up to Hearth’s Warming. The guy who lived in the apartment across from Sunset and Moondancer already decorated his entire front door. Meanwhile, the most festive thing Sunset could see was a currently inactive electronic snowman in a shop window framed in festive lights.
Lily was pinning up posters while accompanied by a gothic-dressed friend, or maybe she followed the tradition of wearing black during periods of grief, which was about as uncommon as a unicorn (read: it exists somewhere, Sunset just hasn’t seen it).
“Yes?” Lily’s pale hands lowered from a poster, her gothic friend holding onto the tape dispenser. It wouldn’t be much effort for the wind to whip off the posters with simple office tape (as if to tease the concept, a breeze whipped by, making the posters quiver) and Sunset would say as much if she couldn’t see the eyes of the two. Lily’s eyes were red-rimmed and glassy. Her friend’s expression looked on the verge of a sad frown.
“We’re Troy Polis’ aunts. I’m Dash, this is-”
“Sunset.” She supplied before Rainbow could use some other alias “We heard about what happened, figured we’d drop by. Troy loved to talk about you.”
A faint blush came to Lily’s face, but Sunset suspected it was because of another chilly breeze. “He’s never mentioned you.”
“Sounds like him. We’re up in Cloudsdale, so we’re only around on occasions.”
“You’re putting up missing posters?”
“Yeah, I mean, he’s still missing.”
“Well, we were hoping to try and help. We were asking around, someone said to ask you.”
Lily was quiet, mouth pressed into a line. “Ask me about what?”
“Just some stuff. If you don’t mind.”
“No, not at all. Anything to help find Troy.”
Lily and her friend (Azure, as Rainbow and Sunset quickly learned) brought Sunset and Rainbow into a nearby cafe. It was relatively vacant, just like the streets outside. It had an orange color scheme. Peach walls, orange surfaces, and yellow and orange checkerboard tile. It was quiet with some festively colored streamers stretched from corner to corner.
Lily and Azure slid into the available chairs (bright orange plastic) on one side of a table by the big windows.
“So, when was the last time you saw him?” Rainbow asked, hands resting on the table.
“Last time I saw him was at school... I was the last person to talk to him before he… disappeared.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I was asking if he could come hang out. He said no because he had work in the morning and then the signal cut out… They found his phone in the car.” Lily spoke like someone gossiping at a funeral. “I just wish I knew what happened.” She huffed, resting her chin in the palm of her hand.
“So do I.” Sunset answered, gaze shifting briefly before returning to Lily. “Was Troy acting weird at all, the last time you saw him?”
Lily pursed her lips in thought briefly before she shook her head. Azure copied her, eyes going glassy for a brief moment.
“Nope. He was acting the same as he always did.” Azure nodded.
“He didn’t say anything weird or mention something unusual? At all?”
“No,” Lily said slowly, Azure squinting somewhat at Rainbow.
“Why do you ask?”
Rainbow took in a deep breath -- which Sunset had a strong suspicion was only theatrical-- and cast a brief look to Sunset before looking back at the girls.
“Look, the way that Troy vanished… Something’s not right. I know you know that, so if you do know anything…”
“Anything, right?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow added, noting the way Lily’s eyes shifted to Azure.
Lily took in a breath, flattening her hands on the edge of the table. Whatever she planned to say, Azure seemed to understand and speak first. She leaned forward.
“There’s this… There’s a local legend about Centennial Road. Story goes, this one girl got murdered out on Centennial while she was hitchhiking out there and she’s supposedly still out there. Anyone who pick her up, vanishes.” Azure suddenly leaned back, hands folding on the edge of the table. “That’s the story, anyway.”
Rainbow and Sunset briefly shared a look.
“Are there any other local tales around Centennial?”
There were multiple stories surrounding Centennial. One had something to do with the founding witches and another was about the fire that took out most of the homes along that road. None of them really fit the disappearances like the hitchhiker tale.
Due to Rainbow’s lack of a laptop, the two decided to go to the Hollow Shades library (which surprised Rainbow merely with its existence) which was only around the corner from the cafe.
It didn’t have very many people in it, either. There was a single woman at the front desk, staring blankly past Sunset and Rainbow as they passed. The exterior of the building looked slightly like a lodge, but the inside had glass walls divvying up the rooms and shiny wood floors.
There was a small, empty room decorated with brightly colored cushions and display cases for children’s books surrounding an old navy blue recliner in the same large room with walls covered in children’s artwork. Rainbow’s eyes caught on a relatively poor drawing of a man with angel wings. In scrawling blue crayon, it read ‘Goodbye Daddy.’
The more Sunset stared, the more she realized that seemed to be a sort of theme. Somehow, sketchy outlines made by kids with poor motor control and poor art supplies tugged painfully at her heart.
Sunset’s shoulder brushing Rainbow’s as she walked past in the direction of the book room was what reminded Sunset of what they were here for.
Rainbow’s right arm swung back and forth with each step, but her left remained relatively stuck to her side.
The only people in the room was a handful of high school students milling around, scattered among the shelves, and the librarian lingering behind a tiny desk near the doorway.
Rainbow and Sunset only received a few passing glances as they headed to the computers on the other side of the room. Sunset dropped into the swivel chair, leaning forward as she started typing with a familiarity Rainbow had forgotten about.
Sunset pulled up the swivel chair for the neighboring computer, watching Rainbow look through a local news archive over her shoulder, typing in keywords in hope of finding something.
Female murder hitchhiking didn’t bring up any results. Neither did Female murder Centennial. Then Female death hitchhiking. Rainbow huffed, slumping back in her chair.
“Hey, try… Try ‘missing.’”
Rainbow replaced murder with missing.
One result popped up, titled Search for Missing Girl Continues.
“Good job, Sunset.” Rainbow murmured, opening up the article. She read it aloud, but quietly, considering the subject.
“Jade Welsh, just turned twenty-three the week before she went missing… Last seen hitchhiking at Centennial Bridge… Looks like this happened about ten to eleven years back.” Rainbow looked over at Sunset to ensure she was still tracking before looking back to the computer screen. She typed in Jade Welsh, which brought up several new results. One was about a candle-lit vigil, another about the mother hoping for her daughter to come home, and then- Multiple Remains Found.
Sunset picked that one, of course, and automatically grimaced at what she found.
“They found parts of her body in some guy’s trailer.” There was a grainy image of the trailer (from behind police tape), plus a photo of the killer. Sunny Charge, 30 was listed under the photo. There was a third photo, showing several officers digging holes. “And six bodies buried in the backyard.” Sunset scowled as Rainbow scrolled down the article. “It doesn’t mention where she’s buried.”
“What happened to all the other bodies?”
“Returned to their families and buried in proper graveyards or cremated.”
“Look for that Sunny Charge guy.”
Searching for Sunny Charge, they found an article explaining that the man had committed suicide before he could be delivered to prison.
“Godammit.” Sunset huffed, dropping back in her chair. She had forgotten how depressing researching could get with ghosts, watching as Rainbow’s fingers drew along her own face and briefly exposing the pink of her eyelids.
“Guess we go ask her mom.”
“If she’s still alive.”
“I’m sure she is. We just have to get her address.”
“Right…” Rainbow muttered, glaring at the computer screen. Sunset patted Rainbow on the shoulder before she got to her feet. “I just gotta print out some of these articles.”
“So, we have Shining’s dog tags, four missing persons, the most recent being last night, and what might be the local ghost.”
“And we don’t know where she’s buried.” Sunset added, apparently feeling more masochistic than usual. “Or where the hell Shining and Twilight wound up.”
“Camping.” Sunset offered, earning a sharp look from Rainbow. Sunset’s hands attempted a placating gesture that did absolutely nothing for Sunset, which made sense; it was less a ‘woah, calm down’ gesture and more like she was just patting her thighs.
“Gameplan is we figure out where that girl got buried, burn her remains to dust, and find Twilight and Shining so I can beat the shit out of them.”
“Yeah,” Sunset hummed in distant agreement, gaze drifting to the dark world outside the car. “When should we check out the burned buildings?”
“This ghost seems to like snatching boys in the dark of the night like a creep. So, maybe we should look at it in the morning.”
“Hey, Rainbow?”
“Yeah?”
“How have Shining and Twilight been, exactly?”
“About as good as hunters can get. The cops haven’t been after us in a while, there’ve been no debilitating injuries in the past few weeks, and Twilight managed to score this damn good bottle of whiskey. We all got completely shitfaced.”
“Off one bottle? All three of you?” Rainbow glanced over at Sunset.
“Eh, some drank more than others. It was really strong whiskey. Say, when was the last time you had a drink?”
“Me and Moondancer went out for celebratory drinks.”
“Celebrating what?”
“Nightmare Night.”
“Just then?”
“Yeah, alcohol isn’t the only coping method.” Sunset flinched a little at her own words and the accompanying sight of Rainbow pausing.
“You’re right. But it is the easiest. Speaking of coping, how the hell have you been dealing?”
“When you’re not constantly throwing yourself at monsters, it’s not that hard.” Sunset wanted to bite her tongue.
“Bullshit,” she said quietly. Sunset’s lungs decided air was something they needed again. “If all you needed to deal was take a break every once in a while, we’d all be perfectly fine.”
“Well, Moondancer kinda helped.”
“How’d you two meet?”
“... At a bar… Several times.”
“Now who sounds like an alcoholic?
“I wasn’t the one drinking all the beer at Sandal Woodson’s party when I was sixteen.” Rainbow waved dismissively.
“Tasted like crap, anyway. I was doing you poor guys a favor. Wasn’t too bad of a party, though.”
“Yeah, right; you were complaining about it the whole time until someone pulled out spin-the-bottle.”
Sunset smiled. For a moment, she could forget why she was here, why they were out in some small town in the woods, and pretend this was just them hanging out and catching up like friends are supposed to.
“Alright, well, let’s go check up on the notes Twilight and Shining left.” Rainbow hummed as she they pulled up in front of the motel.
“Found it.” Rainbow announced, pulling Sunset’s attention from the paper mural on the wall.
“Sapphire Mask, lives at Oxfern Road, 229.” Sunset took a quick peek at the familiar handwriting.
“Alright. Well, let’s go. Time to go play reporter.” Sunset grabbed her leather jacket, pulling it on while Rainbow closed the notebook and set it down on the bed. “I’ll go check the map.”
“I’ll be out there in a second.” Sunset reassured, watching as Rainbow slipped out of the motel room towards the car. Honestly, a shower sounded oh so tempting, but Sunset didn’t have the time. Instead, Sunset checked her pockets for her phone.
She frowned, noting her phone was absent.
She glanced around for her phone. It took the phone vibrating with an incoming call for her to realize she had been blankly staring at it on the dresser.
She picked it up. “Hello?”
“Take off. They found me.”
“What?”
“The cops. They’re out here and they’re looking at me. Take the Impala and get to Sapphire Mask’s place. I’ll meet up with you later- Hey officer-!”
Sunset jotted to the door, cracking open the door.
There were two pairs of police officers. One pair was standing with the motel owner, next to one of the two cruisers, and the other pair was talking to Rainbow.
“Where’s your partner?’
“Uh- partner? What partner?”
The officer, which Sunset recognized as Officer Tang, frowned.
“Can’t believe I believed that Deputy Marshall bull. So, you got a fake ID, fake credit card… Do you got anything that’s real?”
Rainbow grinned, that cocky smirk that Sunset could recognize a mile away.
“Yeah; My dick.”
Sunset flinched away from the door when Officer Tang grabbed Rainbow by the arm and spun her around to handcuff her.
Sunset shoved her phone into her pocket and sprinted into the bathroom. There was a window above the toilet, wide enough for Sunset to squeeze through.
Sunset locked the door behind her before jumping on top of the toilet, pressing her hands on both sides of the window frame and shoving, her thumbs pressing down on the latch release.
The window creaked as she pushed, up until it suddenly snapped open, briefly offsetting Sunset’s balance.
The exit led to a dark, barren strip of dirt between the motel and a line of concrete. No one was around to watch as Sunset pushed her upper body through the window.
The landing wasn’t graceful whatsoever. Sunset’s back hit the ground with a thud that she felt through every bone in her body. Fortunately, the ground wasn’t wet, and the dirt was easy to brush off her jacket once Sunset scrambled to her feet.
She jogged around to the other end of the motel and peered around the corner.
Officer Tang shoved Rainbow into the back of his cruiser before getting in with his partner and pulling out into the road. The other pair approached the motel rooms, the motel owner leading them to Twilight and Shining’s room.
The door opened with a click and the officers entered the room, hands on their holsters.
Sunset took a deep breath and speed-walked over to the Impala. The driver’s door was unlocked, as Sunset discovered with a tug on the handle, and the keys sat in the seat. A map of Hollow Shades, presumably from the motel’s
She snatched up the keys, jamming them into the ignition as she slid into the seat and shut the door behind her. She flinched at the noise, the hum of the engine filling all the silence before.
Her heartbeat suddenly accelerating at the sight of the officers’ shadows shifting around inside the room, Sunset pulled out of the parking lot with all the grace of a rock and sped off in the direction of Sapphire Mask’s home.
Sapphire Mask lived in a small house in a very quiet portion of one of the tiny neighborhoods that made up Hollow Shades. There was a middle-aged woman across the street watering some very vibrant flowers as Sunset pulled up in front of the house, double-checking the address Twilight had written down and cross-referencing it with the mark Rainbow left on the map, before slipping out.
She had found a notepad in the glovebox and there was a semi-functioning pen clipped to the notebook. So, Sunset went under the guise of a reporter.
The woman was tall, thin, and older than her neighbor across the street if the gray roots and wrinkles were accurate to her age.
“Can I help you?”
“Uh, yes. I’m a reporter for the Equestrian Globe. I’m writing a piece about the Sunny Charge case and I was hoping I could ask you a few questions?”
“Well, I didn’t know the man much. Never wanted to, truly. Why ask me?”
“I understand your daughter was one of the victims. Jade Welsh?”
Sapphire’s face paled and she swallowed briefly. “My daughter…”
“You don’t have to talk about it, ma’am, I understand it must have been… Traumatic.”
“No, no… It’s just… I have time for a few questions.” The woman resolved, stepping aside and opening the door further. “Come in… I’ve just made some tea.”
“Thank you.”
Sapphire Mask brought her to a tiny table and gestured to the seats. Sunset awkwardly settled into one as the old woman walked over to her stove. “I’ll try not to take too much of your time.”
“Don’t worry about that. I don’t have much to fill it with.” Sapphire Mask carried over a tray with a kettle and two mugs. She set them down on the table before pouring the still-steaming tea into the mugs and handing one to Sunset. She took the only other seat across from Sunset. “What's your name?”
“Phoenix Streak.” Sunset said, taking a sip from her tea. She winced at the surprise sweetness of it.
“Well, Phoenix, what would you like to ask me?”
“Well… How about… What did you know about Sunny Charge?”
“I only ever saw him a handful of times around town. I don’t know where he worked, frankly cause I didn’t care… I should have asked… Maybe I would’ve realized sooner.”
“Was he a friend of Jade’s?”
“Well, I saw them chat a few times. They didn’t act close. She never talked to me about him, even when I asked… The police were the ones who told me his names.”
“What was Jade like?” Sunset asked, noting the way Jade’s eyes shifted to the floor.
“Quiet. At least, at first. She was a sweet girl, she just got… She got in with the wrong crowd, I suppose. She liked to pick flowers. Every summer, our house would be full of ‘em. She’d get all sad whenever they withered up and run out to pick some more.”
Sunset smiled at the image it gave her. “Do you have any photos of her? I noticed the one in the article they made when she disappeared looked like a yearbook photo.”
“Oh, only a few. She never liked to take photos. You know, typical kid behavior. They can’t stand still long enough to set up the camera. It was odd, that she never had any baby photos.”
“She never had any baby photos?”
“Oh, no. All she had were the clothes on her back when she arrived.”
“Arrived?”
“I adopted her. I was alone and I could -- Well, I could never have kids of my own.”
“How old was she?”
“About eleven years old. You’ve heard about the old buildings down near Centennial, right?”
“Yes, the ones that burned down?”
“She used to live there… Poor baby…” Sunset nodded, taking a hesitant drink of her tea again. The sweetness still hit her taste buds by surprise. “Would you like any photos for your article?”
“Oh, no! Ma’am I wouldn’t ask to take any of these photos.”
“It’s quite alright… I’m just clinging to them.”
“Well, then I can ask for you to send us one to put in our article, if that’s not too much trouble?”
“Not at all. Oh, one moment!” She set down her cup and walked away. A minute passed, then another, before Jade returned with a book. A Yearbook.
“So… Did Jade have any friends?”
“Well, she kept to herself. She only had a couple of friends over ever, which I was okay with because they seemed like such sweet people.” Sapphire supplied, taking a sip of her tea. “Oh… She was so close to graduating, too….” She abruptly shook her head, handing the book to Sunset. It was opened to Jade Welsh’s class and Sunset found her photograph easily. It was a small class.
Sunset noted the false smile, recognized it from her first yearbook photograph in Canterlot High School. It was a haunted look that Sunset recognized whenever she looked at another hunter’s face long enough. They were all messed up, somehow, and they’d never be able to recover.
Jade’s wasn’t nearly as haunted, of course, but it was enough to notice.
“Then she started hanging out with some bad eggs. There aren’t that many in Hollow Shades, of course, but there’s always some. You understand, right?”
“Absolutely.”
“Well, she started… She started drinking, staying out, who knows what else… I tried to help, of course, talk to her like any good mother… But she didn’t want my help, kept it to herself... And then she went and hitchhiked from some boy’s party. They moved out of town years ago. I always told her not to, cause you don’t know who is nice and who isn’t, but she didn’t… She didn’t listen.”
“And then they found her, in Sunny Charge’s trailer?”
“Parts of her.” Sapphire corrected, voice choked. Sunset felt the shudder go down her spine and into her stomach. The tea was an isolated patch of warmth.
“Parts...?”
“I don’t know where he buried her… None of them do… He kept her there for months… And then the bastard went ahead and got his way out of his goddamn sentence-!”
“He deserved worse for what he did.” Sunset agreed, letting the heat spread into her tone.
“Exactly! He- He took my little girl away from me and didn’t even have the guts to face the consequences!” Sapphire set down her cup, taking a shuddering breath as tears began to roll down her face.
“No… No one should have to endure that.”
“No, no one should… But it’s an unkind world we live in, isn’t it?” Sapphire asked, smiling bitterly as she looked back to Sunset.
“The world’s full of awful shit. Every time we kill one of those things that hurt people? I like to think we make it a little better.”
“Yes… Yes it is.”
The sun was starting to crawl below the treeline when Sunset finally got out of Sapphire’s house and back in the Impala. It was typically around this time she’d be eating dinner with Moondancer, but listening to a grieving woman give her daughter’s life story to who she believed to be a reporter was enough to kill whatever appetite Sunset could have.
It was a little frightening, how easy she fell back into the lying.
Sunset dialed up 911. She tried not to think of how easy it was for her to fake a slightly shaky voice as she claimed she heard gunshots on the other side of town from Centennial.
Next she drove, barely conscious of the road signs.
She parked outside the Sheriff’s station. She didn’t know if Rainbow had gotten out quick or was still inside. It didn’t help the anxiety any more than hoping Twilight and Shining were still alive.
It was maybe fifteen minutes after Sunset placed the call that her cell phone rang, and she quickly answered it.
“Rainbow?”
“Fake 911 call? That’s pretty illegal, Sunset.”
Sunset swallowed down her sigh of relief. “Just cause I gave up hunting doesn’t mean I forgot everything.”
A beat of silence. It felt as if Sunset had just opened one of the windows to the November chill. “Twilight’s journal?”
“Yeah, and- she left these coordinates on the last page.”
“Where’d they find it?”
“I don’t know, they wouldn’t tell me. It couldn’t have been their motel room, though.”
“Do you know where the coordinates lead?”
“I think it might’ve been the next hunt. I’ll have to check it, though.”
“You can wait on that. I talked to Sapphire Mask.”
“Figure out where she’s buried?”
“That’s the issue. No one knows. They didn’t find all of her, she could be stuffed in some tree for all we know.”
“Morbid. But, you’re right… Why don’t you come grab me and we head over to her old house, or what’s left of it… You do have her address, right?”
“Yeah. I managed to get it before the woman burst into tears.” Sunset said the last part with a little more menace than she needed. It wasn’t really Rainbow’s choice for her to play journalist for a grieving on woman, although indirectly it was her fault.
“... Right, well, I’m just a couple turns away from the Sheriff’s department. I’m outside some kind of antique store. I think.”
“Okay, which direction did you go?”
About eight minutes later, Sunset managed to find Rainbow standing in a dusty phone booth just outside of a dingy looking shop. It had a colorless sign that read ‘Closed’ taped to the inside of the door.
No one was around as the Impala pulled up to the sidewalk except for Rainbow and a few birds scattered along a telephone line overhead.
Sunset didn’t say anything as Rainbow slid into the passenger seat, breathing out a sigh of relief. She patted the dashboard. “Told you I wouldn’t be gone long.”
“You can make out later, we’ve got a ghost to handle.”
“You’re just jealous.” Rainbow shot back, although she didn’t smile. Sunset started the Imapala towards Centennial.
“You think we’re gonna get to grab our stuff from the motel room later?”
“Probably not.” Sunset groaned, resisting the urge to brain herself on the steering wheel. She hadn’t lost anything recently. She hadn’t dealt with any police in a while, either, and she really didn’t like the idea of being tied back to a case when she got back to living a normal life in Canterlot.
“So, how was being arrested?” Sunset could vividly recall Rainbow asking that to her after pulling her out of the police station in Lusitanaton, but the question rang hollow now.
“They were pretty mad about me faking in this case. They weren’t lying when they said this was a pretty intimate town. They acted like I spit in their drinks or something.”
“Well, we’re gonna get out of this town soon. Just gotta grab Twilight, Shining, stop this ghost and and leave.” Of course, this plan did not account for the possibility of having to pull a fresh salt and burn for Shining and Twilight’s bodies. “How do you salt and burn a body you can’t find?”
“You don’t. Or you find it, I guess. All I can guess is find some object she’s attached to at her place.”
“What about Sunny Charge’s place?”
“Place got bulldozed two years ago. You didn’t read any of the articles I got, did you?”
“No.”
“It’s called research, Sunset, you and Twilight would never stop riding my ass about researching”
“Cause you kept running in with your gun half cocked and almost getting yourself killed!” Rainbow’s mouth snapped shut.
The engine’s roar seemed to get louder.
“... You okay?”
“Yeah, i’m fine. I just… Forget it. It’s nothing.”
“Right,” Sunset’s voice was tight.
“Save the sap, Sunset. It’s fine.”
Before Sunset could interrupt, Rainbow turned on the radio.
The neighborhood that Centennial Road led to had been abandoned for close to twenty years, and it showed.
The buildings were either burned down to blackened studs or had been partly reclaimed by nature. Rainbow and Shining were always the ones to run headfirst into those kinds of buildings, very rarely to stop a ghost.
Rainbow made a strangled sound when the car hit a pothole, having been distracted by the view of the decrepit homes.
“Okay, this one.”
The house that used to be home of Jade Welsh had been the main source of the fire. It had once been three stories, although the second had mostly collapsed into the first, taking the third with it. The fire had clearly spread to the next few houses, although not leaving as severe a result as it had on the house. Sunset could recall the report. Two bodies were found charred beyond recognition in their bed. Jade Welsh’s mother and father.
“Damn, did they not have a fire station or something?”
“Rainbow, this was barely even twenty years ago. I’m pretty sure they had a fire station.”
“Well, they clearly weren’t very fast.” Sunset rolled her eyes. Pulling the car over somewhere level, she cut the engine and stepped out of the car. Rainbow quickly followed, walking around to the back. She popped open the back trunk, propping it open with a sawed-off. Sunset stood off to the side, hands twitching for the weaponry.
Rainbow handed her a shotgun, a pocketful of salt shells, and a flashlight. Sunset watched as Rainbow grabbed a duffel bag that she quickly stuffed with a stick of accelerant, a can of salt, and some more salt shells.
She put the sawed-off back down so she could shut the trunk. Pulling the duffel over her shoulder, turning to Sunset.
“Alright, let’s go.” She lifted her flashlight in the direction of the crumbling remains of Jade Welsh’s house and started walking.
The lawn had grown back over and around the charred debris, weeds twined around most of the still-standing fenceposts. There was a small pile of charred debris overgrown with weeds close to the fence that could have once been a shed.
There was still most of a wall to the face of the house, a door still hanging in the doorframe, and so Rainbow approached it.
She reached out, planning on pushing the door open.
The door disconnected from its hinges, clattering to the ground in a puff of dirt and splinters. “Holy-!”
Rainbow jerked back, nearly knocking Sunset into the weeds. She stared at the door for a second before looking back to Sunset.
“Rainbow!” Sunset hissed at her. Rainbow shrugged as Sunset dusted off her jacket.
The inside of the house didn’t look any better than the outside. The only difference was there was a lot more cobwebs. One support beam, which had meant to be supporting one half of the second floor, had snapped in half and thus half the second floor had collapsed in with it.
However, there was still a large portion of space to walk around and look. The fireplace was charred, but solid.
It was too dark inside the building, even with the dying light of day reaching through the gaps, without the flashlights. Sunset could see the dust motes floating in the sunlight.
Rainbow flicked on her flashlight. Sunset kept close, following as Rainbow continued onward.
“Here, ghostie ghostie.” Rainbow hummed, turning away from the collapsed half of the building and walking around to the bay window, its windows having been shattered aside from a few stubborn pieces of dirty glass. Sunset hung back towards the door.
“Really?” Rainbow turned to look at Sunset.
“What?”
“You- know what? Nevermind.” Sunset waved dismissively with her flashlight, walking towards the fireplace. She could recall at least two cases where the body (or what was left of them) had been stuffed into the chimney of some abandoned place.
The floorboards creaked under Sunset’s weight.
“You gained some weight while you were off at college?” Rainbow asked, earning a sharp look in response. This wasn’t exactly a good setting for banter. Not like that had ever deterred Rainbow before.
“Lost some, actually. You should try eating something healthier than fast food for a bit.”
“Nah, I need the calories.” Sunset scoffed, turning back towards the fireplace. Each step had the floorboards protesting. Sunset froze when the floorboards started to dip under her weight. Maybe she shouldn’t be walking on an abandoned, fire-damaged, twenty-something floor. There was a hole a few feet left of the fireplace. It looked like the floorboards had been snapped in half. A sliver of fabric stuck out between the jagged edges of two boards.
Sunset paused, tilting her head and squinting. She took one hesitant step forward, then a second, and then another, until she was closer to the hole. She lowered herself towards the floor, reaching out for the fabric.
“Hey, Sunset, maybe you should watch-” Rainbow’s warning was cut short as the creaking suddenly grew sharp. For one moment, it was statue-still.
The next, the floor gave out beneath her.
Sunset shrieked, clawing desperately as the boards shattered and she fell through faster than she could properly process. She heard Rainbow yelping and more floorboards creaking, but all she could focus on was stopping herself from falling through. Her elbows banged against the floorboards, shotgun and flashlight clattering to the ground as Sunset tried to get a grip on the charred floor. Bits came off, digging under her fingernails as she slid down, more floorboards caving inwards to turn the new and old hole into one.
They scraped at her neck and hair, pulling out a couple strands and scraping her leather jacket.
Her desperate attempts to stop her fall failed and Sunset found herself in midair for one terrifying moment, and then she was hitting the ground, legs first.
Sunset rolled the second she hit the ground, yelping as the pain shot through the marrow of her bones and spread into her muscles with fiery vengeance. Somewhere, she heard her flashlight and shotgun fall after her.
She collapsed forward, a few stray chunks of floorboard falling down after her. Sunset could feel wood digging into parts where she’d landed on them, but beneath that she felt something solid and cold.
Passing out seemed like a very pleasant idea at the moment.
“Sunset!? Sunset!”
Her first attempt at speaking was an agonized wheeze. Her second attempt came out as a drawn-out moan.
“I-” Sunset’s voice shook. “I- I’m alive...” She heard Rainbow huff out a sigh of relief.
“Holy fuck… You alright?”
Sunset really didn’t want to move. A piercing headache had just spawned at the base of her skull and was starting to rise into her eyes. But she slowly pushed herself up enough to roll slowly onto her back, her arms shaking. The motion made her want to shut down everything, at the moment, she would describe her brain as feeling like it was liquefied and sloshing around in her skull.
She moved her legs, hissing at the instant pain. “N-Nothing seems broken… Hurts like hell, though...”
“Alright- uh… Stay put! I- I’ll find a safer way down.”
“Y-yeah… You... do that.” Sunset groaned, lowering her head back to the floor and closing her eyes.
A head-pounding few moments passed. Sunset could hear Rainbow moving around upstairs.
“Sunset?” Another voice, hoarse and scratchy, set Sunset’s heartbeat racing again as she opened her eyes and tried to take in her surroundings.
She must have fallen into a basement or something. The floor had largely been damaged and she could see the beams and charred remains of the subfloor. Salt ran along the entire perimeter of the room and something dark was smeared across the floor. Slumped against the wall past Sunset’s feet was the shape of a man.
Sunset lurched upright, lifting up a hand to support her head which bobbled with the motion.
Her other hand reached for the flashlight.
“Sunset! Sunset- it-” The man’s voice cut off abruptly and he coughed a bit before continuing. “It’s Shining!”
Sunset blinked, trying to get the spots out of her vision.
“Shining?”
“Hey…” He wheezed, shifting forward and crawling on his hands and knees out of the shadows and into the light shed through the holes in the floor above. Shining wasn’t the same as when Sunset had last seen him three years ago, which wasn’t really surprising. He had let his beard grow out a little, his hair was definitely an inch longer, and right now he looked like a wreck. His left leg was covered in dry blood, a strip of what was presumably his shirt tied over it. The fabric in the floorboards, Sunset realized, was from Shining’s tattered old jeans. The dark smears on the floor must have been his blood.
“Oh… Thank god! We- We’ve been looking for you!” Sunset looked around, becoming acutely aware of the absence of one particular person. “Where’s… Where’s Twilight?”
“She’s… Not with you…?”
“No, Shining, we came here looking for you two… How long have you been down here?”
“I… I dunno.”
“Alright, well… Rainbow’s gonna get us out of here.”
“Water…?” Sunset shook her head. All she had was a flashlight and shotgun.
Sunset turned around, trying to see if there was a door that could bring her and Shining back up to the next level.
“T-There’s a door… It- jammed...” Shining was right. A very simple door, much like the one upstairs, only much less charred, was one of the only things in this room aside from an old camo duffel. Shining’s duffel bag. Sunset noticed a small flask. Shining always kept a flask of holy water on him.
That explained the hoarse voice.
Sunset tried to pull herself to her feet, only to stagger and drop back to the floor. The muscles and bones in her legs burned and her vision spun with the movement. She got up again, this time making it to the wall. She subdued the pained noises trying to climb out of her throat.
The wall was a solid, grounding mass of cold. It didn’t soothe her aches, but it kept her upright.
Leaning down, carefully, she picked up her shotgun and made her way around to the door. She tried the rusted doorknob. Her scraped up palms prickled in aggravation. As Shining had said, the knob jiggled, but it didn’t open.
Sunset glanced at her gun, then at the door.
She moved over to the center of the room, pointing her shotgun at the door. Her legs shook, ready to buckle, but Sunset did her best to still her aim.
Then she fired.
“Sunset!?” Rainbow shouted a moment after. “Sunset, you alright!?”
A hole appeared in the old door, creating a big enough gap for Sunset to put her arm through with minimal splinter risk. The sound of the gun echoed in the small room, adding some extra ammunition to Sunset’s headache.
Sunset stumbled over to the door, dropping her gun on the way. She leaned against the door, sticking a hand through the hole she made, and tried to turn the doorknob.
“Sunset!? Answer me!”
The doorknob was wedged stuck. Sunset lowered, her legs quaking when she bent her knees, as she looked through the hole.
It was an old wood chair, it’s two parallel wooden slats that made up its back wedged around the doorknob. That wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t for the heap of charred debris that had collapsed in on what was plausibly the hallway. Sunset couldn’t tell from her angle, and her legs buckled when she bent them to much.
“Sunset!?” Rainbow shouted again. Sunset had the vague fear she’d send the rest of this house collapsing down with her shouting and thundering footsteps. It echoed all around her.
“God-” Her fingers clawed at the door, the charred flakes from the floorboards above pinching at the flesh under her nails. She hissed, cradling her hands against her chest for a moment. She’d lost fingernails before, she could handle some annoying stray flakes of charred wood. Later. When Shining wasn’t slowly withering away on the other side of the room. “There’s a basement! The door’s blocked!”
“I found another gun! I think it’s-”
“It’s Shining’s! He’s down here!”
There’s a brief pause. Maybe Rainbow was taking a moment to think, to breathe out a sigh of relief that Sunset somehow couldn’t hear.
“Twilight?”
“No,” Sunset managed to choke out. They can worry about that later, she quickly told herself. Her organs twisted as if in protest of that idea.
“Alright… I’m gonna try and find a staircase… There’s gotta be one… Somewhere… Can you try and get out?”
“I… Oh! Rainbow! Throw down your lockpicking tools!”
“What?!”
“Do it!” Sunset listened to Rainbow’s footsteps. She stumbled over to the part of the room where she could look up through the hole in the floor. Rainbow didn’t approach the edge, but her leather-wrapped lockpicking kit fell through and hit the floor with a metal-on-metal noise that startled Shining.
Sunset shakily lowered herself and snatched up the kit. She fumbled with the string, unrolling it as she walked over to the door.
She started with the bottom hinge first. Her fingers shook and burned. Rainbow’s footsteps and angry cursing became background noise. It was a relief to Sunset’s legs, however.
Getting back up to handle the top hinge was a little hard and a lot more shaky, but soon enough Sunset had the door hinges undone.
She tossed the kit to the side and set her feet so she could move the door. She pushed at it, the door moving a little. Sunset kicked the door, wincing in pain.
A minute of shuffling later, Sunset managed to shift the door out of its frame. She jerked back, half expecting it to fall on her, but it didn’t. It simply tilted dangerously with a loud scraping sound.
Shining made a rough noise from his spot by the wall. Sunset hoped he could stay conscious long enough to get him out of the house. Two days without water and food hadn’t done him any favors. At least, Sunset assumed he’d been running about about two days without water.
Sunset hissed as the wood pricked at her palms while she pulled on it.
The door groaned. Sunset got down onto her knees, going underneath the door. She reached out to the chair legs and began to push up.
When the chair dislodged from the doorknob, it fell back and Sunset quickly released it as it clattered to the ground. Sunset sucked in a breath as the door tilted. Sunset scuttled backwards, the floor prickling her exposed hands. Once she got out of here, she would have to spend a while tending to her hands.
Pushing up to her feet, she grabbed the door and pulled.
The door dislodged, falling inwards with Sunset’s pull. She released it last second, jumping back as it clattered to the floor. Dust puffed up and Sunset quickly tried to step out of its range, which didn’t keep her from inhaling a lung-full of dust.
“Sunset!?”
“I’m fi-!” Sunset called, triggering a harsh coughing fit. “I’m fine!”
“What the hell was that?”
Sunset cleared her throat. “The door. I pulled it out.”
“Can you get out, now?”
Sunset couldn’t see very far into the hall, but she didn’t exactly feel optimistic.
She picked her flashlight up from the floor and turned it on. The hall was charred, but not as severely as the rest of the house. There was a clear-ish path to the stairs. Sunset felt the air rush out of her lungs in relief.
“Yeah, I think so.”
Sunset approached the stairs and pointed her flashlight up at the ceiling above. The walls had gone from wood to concrete and the stairwell led to a trapdoor.
Climbing to the top of the stairs, Sunset gave the trapdoor a push. It shifted just enough for Sunset to realize how heavy it was.
Sunset climbed back down the stairs, her heart lurching for her throat with each creak and groan of the boards. Once she was back in the room (which she guessed must have been a cellar), she shouted up through the hole.
“Hey, Rainbow!”
“Yeah?”
“There’s a trapdoor, I think it leads outside! Can you go check?”
“Yeah!” Her footsteps rattled the floorboards as she rushed outside. Sunset turned to Shining, who was staring at her with a tired look.
“We’re gonna get you out of here, buddy.” He gave a weak nod. Sunset walked over to him, crouching down to pull one of his arms around her shoulders. He groaned as Sunset forced him to his feet and Sunset groaned as a majority of his weight was pushed onto her.
Moving was slow and stumbling, which gave Rainbow a long enough time to start banging and shaking the trapdoor. She shouted something, but it wasn’t discernable anymore.
Shining’s legs gave out on the first stair, his weight imbalance almost forcing Sunset’s face into one of the higher up steps. He hit the stairs with a pained grunt.
“Hey, Shining, we’re almost out.” Shining didn’t respond. Frowning, Sunset walked up to the top of the stairs and pushed at the trapdoor as hard as she could.
There was a brief pause, followed by a response thump.
Sunset sat down, the muscles in her legs and arms burning.
The sharp scraping sound of metal on metal nearly sent Sunset falling down the stairs. Her head jerked in the direction of the sound.
Rainbow pushed the trapdoor upright and Sunset sucked in a deep breath of fresh air as an evening breeze drifted into the stairway. Rainbow’s left arm was stiff at her side, clutching her flashlight.
“Oh, thank you, God.” Rainbow breathed out, seeing Shining collapsed over the bottom of the stairs.
“See any bones up there?”
“Nope. C’mon, let’s get Shining out of here.”
Sunset went back down to the base of the stairs, grabbing onto Shining’s arm once she reached him.
“C’mon, Shining, we’re almost out.” Shining groaned, pushing himself upright and letting Sunset half-drag him up to the exit.
He dropped to the grass like a shit-faced Moondancer. He groaned, shifting just enough to look up at Rainbow.
“Hey, hardass.”
“H- ey…”
Rainbow stood up, picking up her duffel bag from beside the trapdoor, wincing when she initially tried to hold the weight with her left arm.
Sunset hooked an arm under Shining’s, trying to pull him back to his feet.
Rainbow kept her flashlight out, which helped Sunset see where she was walking as she lead Shining back to the Impala, wincing everytime he stumbled on rubble or crumbling asphalt.
Rainbow opened the door for Sunset to dump Shining into the backseat. Rainbow then went ahead and opened the passenger door so she could root about. She handed Shining a bottle of water. Sunset didn’t want to ask how old it was.
“I bet the diner’s still open. We can go grab you some food after we patch up that leg.” Shining sat up as he drank the water, finding some refreshed energy in the old water.
“Twilight.” He gasped, wiping away the dribbling water from his face with the back of his hand. It smeared dirt across his pale face.
“What about Twilight?”
“She was-” He cleared his throat. “She was suppos’d to get help. That’s what she was gonna do.”
“That explains the missing Mustang. Shining, any idea where she might be?”
“The motel?”
“We already checked there.”
“She may have left town.” That got both Shining and Rainbow’s attention.
“What’d you mean?”
“You still have Twilight’s journal?”
“Oh, yeah.”
Rainbow pulled something out from her duffel and held it up. It was a worn, leather-back journal that had seen both some pretty nasty bars and fights. The latch had been resewn at least once.
“Twilight’s journal.” Shining wheezed, eyes wide.
“The police had it, but what makes you think Twilight just left town?”
“Without me?” SHining whimpered.
“Twilight wasn’t at the police station, but they had her book, and Twilight was the one who sent us the message to come help. If the Mustang isn’t here, Twilight’s not here, and she left us that message.”
“Why the hell would she just ditch like this?!”
“I don’t know. Let’s just patch up Shining and get out of here, alright?”
“What about the ghost?”
“The-” Shining broke into a cough. “She’s not here.”
“Well, it was a long-shot in the first place.”
“We should leave, then. Get out of town before the police try to find us.”
“Police?” Shining asked, eyebrows furrowing.
“Oh, yeah… The police caught on.”
“Hope you didn’t leave anything important in that hotel room cause all of its probably been confiscated.” Shining groaned, slumping back in the seats.
“Please don’t tell me you left any of your fake IDs in there.”
“We didn’t.” Shining snapped, rubbing at his eyes.
“Well, that’s good.”
“Yeah, yeah, let’s just get out of here.” Rainbow huffed, walking around to the driver’s side of the car and dropping into the seat. Sunset shut the door to the back before taking her place at the passenger's side.
The only lights came from the headlights of the Impala. They cast sharp shadows on Shining’s face when Sunset glanced back at him.
“Hey, Sunset… How’s college?”
“So… What college?” Shining asked as he settled into a chair.
“It’s… It’s alright. I’m gonna try and get a full ride for the next year.”
“She’s got a girlfriend.” Sunset shot Rainbow a sour look.
“Oh.”
“Yeah.” There was a minute’s pause.
“Is she pretty?” Sunset took a moment to find her words. They usually came easy.
“Yeah. Her name’s Moondancer.”
“She’s an egghead, just like Sunset.” Rainbow hummed, smirking.
“Hey, Shining, how’s your leg?” Sunset’s phone vibrated in her pocket, miraculously unbroken from her previous fall. She could only guess who was on the other end of the line.
“Really bloody.”
“Well… Sunset, you can take care of that, right?”
“Uh, yeah, but-”
“But what?” Sunset pulled out her phone, flipping it open to see the photo of her and Moondancer, smiling and giddy on New Years Eve. “Sunset, your girlfriend can handle you being gone for just an extra day or two to help make sure Shining’s leg’s alright. Hell, you don’t even need an extra day. I can pull over right now-”
“What about Twilight?”
“What?”
“How are you and Shining gonna find Twilight?”
“Uh, gee, I dunno, follow the journal? She left some coordinates in there.”
“Sunset, you’re not coming?” Shining asked, causing Rainbow to pause and actually stare at Sunset for a solid minute. It was a good thing they were on some abandoned road in rural East Equestria and not in Canterlot somewhere.
“I mean… I have college, I could get a full ride-”
“Twilight could be in trouble, Sunset, and you’re more concerned over whether or not you’ll get a full ride?”
“Twilight can handle herself!”
“What, and your girlfriend can’t?”
“Don’t bring Moondancer into this-”
“Why not? She’s the reason you’re so insistent on staying out of hunting, isn’t she?”
“You know what, Rainbow Dash? Go fuck yourself.”
“Guys-!”
“Oh, that’s so mature.”
“Rainbow-” Shining tried to interject again.
“Look, I came here to help you find Shining and Twilight. You found Shining, you know where Twilight is, I did my part, now I’m going back to being a normal person where monsters only exist in books and the biggest risk to my safety is a damn car!”
“But they don’t just exist in books- They’re everywhere, Sunset. You can’t pretend they’re not.”
Sunset took a breath, holding up her hands. “You know what? I don’t care. I. Don’t. Care.”
“Sunset…” Shining murmured from the backseat. Sunset recognized the voice, the one he used when Twilight had a meltdown or went way too far.
“Don’t. I’m not getting dragged back into this shit, alright? I’m not.”
“Sunset, Rainbow, we still have a ghost to handle.”
Sunset had completely forgotten about Jade Welsh.
“Right. Did you figure out where she was buried?”
“No, no… But I have an idea.”
“What?”
“Twilight found a pattern. A lot of the guys the ghost went after were liars, or were suspected of cheating.”
“So, Jade’s not just going after guys cause one killed her?”
“No, she’s going after ones that told big-ass lies. Like cheating on their girlfriends.”
“You have a plan, don’t you?”
“Yeah. I don’t know if you two would like it, though.”
“Lay it on me, Shiny.” Rainbow hummed, her tone still just as tense.
“I can kiss one of you.”
Sunset choked on air.
“You know, if you ever wanna, you just gotta-”
“No, I mean, I just kiss one of you. That works as infidelity, right?”
“Not if you don’t have a girlfriend.” Shining was silent for a long moment.
“What?”
“Just trust me.”
(4) Missed Calls (8) New Messages
“Dammit,” Sunset shut her phone and put it back into her pocket as Rainbow dropped back into her seat, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand.
“You’re not telling Twilight about this, right?” Rainbow asked.
“Hell no.”
There was a long moment where the three sat in their seats, ears perked, every sense waiting for the ghost to make herself appear.
“Should we… Start moving?”
“Yeah, I guess. Shining, start screaming if you see her.” Rainbow flippantly commented over her shoulder before pushing the gas on the Impala.
Rainbow turned on the radio to a Shadow Man song.
“There’s ghosts in my head
And they tell me imma’ wind up dead
Don’t got anywhere to go--”
Of course, before it could get very far, the music dissolved into fuzzing static.
“I… Can never… go… home…” The radio hissed, the lyrics of the song distorted and underlaid by a scratchy voice.
Sunset paused, staring at the radio. Sunset had seen what was meant to be Jade Welsh’s home, her mother. It was odd that she wouldn’t ever want to go home, when home was probably one of the few nice places in Jade Welsh’s memory.
“-SHIT!” Shining yelped from the backseat. Rainbow swore, her whole body jumping and sending the Impala halfway off the road. She stamped on the brakes, the car protesting with a slight squeal.
Sunset whirled around, her gaze meeting the cold, glazed eyes of a young woman in the backseat.
“Take me home.” She said, staring directly at Shining between the tangled locks of black hair, her neck twisted unpleasantly.
Sunset nervously swallowed, a chill creeping up her neck. Shining croaked. “No.”
Jade’s eyes narrowed, her mouth turning into a frown.
“Take me home.” She repeated, with more force.
“No.”
Rainbow was staring at Sunset, wide-eyed, and breathing out swears.
Jade’s hands, the pale bordering on a light tone of blue, curled into fists.
The door locks clicked.
Rainbow spun around, hands held up in uncertainty of what to do with them.
The Impala’s engine roared as it put on a rush of sudden speed, sending Rainbow slamming back in her seat. Sunset nearly tumbled into the backseat, her fingers grasping for purchase on the door handle and the leather seat.
“Shining- you alright?” Rainbow shouted, eyes wide as she tried to not be viciously bounced around by the ghost’s sudden possession of her car.
The ghost’s hand reached for Shining, the fingernails jagged as if they’d been pulled and chewed at.
“What the hell?!” Rainbow huffed, clutching tight to the steering wheel. Sunset could see the muscles in her arms tense, but the wheel turned the other way that Rainbow was clearly trying to pull.
Sunset spared a glance over her shoulder. Jade Welsh was still there, glaring at Sunset as her body distorted like she was on a poor quality TV.
The car suddenly jerked to the side and stop, sending Sunset slamming into the window and Rainbow sliding out of her seat, her head bouncing off the dashboard with an unpleasant sound. Shining cried out in pain, but Sunset’s vision was spinning too fast for her to even comprehend to look back.
The door opened with a click, sending Sunset falling back-first onto overgrown grass and the burned remains of a picket fence.
“Rainbow,” she croaked, eyes screwed up in pain.
“Get off! Get- GET OFF!” Shining’s voice devolved into agonized yelling.
Sunset rolled onto her stomach, heartbeat thrumming in her throat as she forced herself to her feet, slumping against the side of the car.
Jade Welsh was on top of Shining, her long fingers sunken into his chest as he writhed about underneath her, kicking and screaming.
Sunset spotted Rainbow’s duffel, half buried under her motionless form that was slumped on the floor against the seats.
Sunset reached forward, grabbing the handle of the shotgun and pulling it forward, only to spin and point it at Jade.
Jade screeched as the bullets went straight through her, her distorted shape quickly vanishing. Shining sucked in a breath, clutching at his chest. Sunset took a moment to breath, eyes wide, her heart hammering in every part of her body. She did not miss this.
“Honey, I don’t mind-
Oh, look at the time.
I don’t got anywhere to go.
I run along solo.”
“She- She’s gonna come back-” He choked out, entire body shaking. “T-the salt-” He pointed to Rainbow’s bag with a shaky hand.
“My honey, you say it’s fine
But oh this ain’t no home of mine.”
Sunset dove for it, pulling out a can of it. Her knuckles grazed the recorder that Rainbow had showed her the other night.
“I can never go home…”
Sunset dropped the salt like it had burned her, shooting upright.
“There ain’t no place I can go.
That can hold my weary sou-” The song once again dissolved into static.
“Sunset!” Shining called, but Sunset didn’t listen. She pushed herself into the driver’s seat. She grabbed the wheel, foot over the gas.
“What are you- SUNSET!” Sunset pressed on the gas, bracing herself.
The Impala drove forward, crashing through the front porch of the old house. Rainbow’s body bounced on the floor.
Sunset turned around, grabbing the shotgun again. She desperately felt around in her pocket. Her fingers hooked around a salt shell and she pulled it out, shoving it into the gun and pointing it at Jade, who had re-appeared over Shining’s body. She fired again and Jade vanished with a second angry screech.
“Oh, no home, no place, nowhere that I can go.”
Sunset dropped the gun, leaning down and pulling Rainbow upright by her shoulders.
“Honey, I’ll go alone.”
“Rainbow!” She hissed, placing two fingers against Rainbow’s throat. She breathed out a sigh of relief as she felt the small pulsations of her heartbeat.
“Cry me a river of tears,
I ain’t ever gonna stay here-”
“Come on, wake up!” Sunset huffed as the white noise filled the car again, pulling the salt out of the duffel and tossing the can to Shining Armor. She didn’t look to see if he caught it, instead looking for Jade.
Jade was standing in front of the Impala, glaring at Sunset with what she could only call a pout.
Sunset sat up slowly, watching as Jade’s eyes shifted from her to her surroundings. Her eyes went big, like an owl, as she slowly turned. Sunset followed her gaze to the doorway by the fireplace as two ghosts, gray and far more transparent than Jade, appeared. They walked forward, hand-in-hand. Jade took a step back.
“You came home…” The woman spoke, her husband standing beside her and staring ahead with a furrowed brow.
“No…”
“Come here.” The woman reached out, smiling. “Come back to us.”
“No- NO-!” The two surged forward, grasping Jade in their arms.
The ghosts distorted wildly, stretching and distorting as flames formed at their feet, licking up as a chorus of screams echoed throughout the old house. Out of all the screams, the small scream of a little girl was the most distinguished to Sunset.
And then the ghosts collapsed inward, sinking through the floorboards and vanishing with the screams.
Sunset let out a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding, dropping onto the floor of the Impala, grasping the dashboard to keep her upright.
“Oh, I go solo!” Sunset jerked, the sudden guitar riff startling her. She quickly turned the radio down, her head pulsing with her erratic heartbeat.
“Sunset?”
“Solo, honey!” It sounded like a whisper, now.
“I- I… Holy shit…”
“And you know what that means.”
“Is she gone?”
“Yeah,” Sunset breathed out. “Yeah, she’s gone…” She could hear Shining breathe a sigh of relief in the backseat.
“Rainbow Dash?”
Sunset looked down at Rainbow’s face. Blood dripped from her nose and a bruise was forming on her face around a shallow break in the skin. Dark purple, rimmed in greenish yellow. Rainbow would have a headache for a while, probably. Perhaps even a concussion.
“She’s… She’s breathing.” Sunset offered, poking Rainbow in the face. “Hand me your water bottle.”
Shining weakly handed it to her and Sunset unscrewed the cap, dumping a generous amount on Rainbow’s face.
Rainbow groaned, only to let a small amount of water into her mouth.
Sunset sat back, watching as Rainbow came out of her coughing fit to groan again. She winced as her hand grazed over her bruising forehead.
“Shit…” She stiffened for a moment, looking up at Sunset and then practically lurching into the backseat to look at Shining, who still remained sprawled on his back but not screaming nearly as much as he had been before Rainbow had been knocked unconscious. “Where’d she go?’
“She’s gone.”
“What?”
“Her parents or… Or something -- I dunno. They came back, took her with them.”
“Huh… Wait a sec-” Rainbow pushed herself upright and stumbled out of the car. “Why the fuck is my car in the house!?”
“Yeah… I… I kinda had to take her home.”
Rainbow looked at Sunset for a long moment before pointing with a shaky hand.
“If you messed up my baby, I’m gonna fuckin’ murder you.”
Sunset held up her hands, wiggling back into the passenger seat. “Got it.”
“Can you patch Shining up?”
“What about you?” Sunset gestured to the bruise, bold even on Rainbow’s slightly darker complexion.
Despite Sunset’s doubts, Rainbow managed to get the Impala out of the Welsh house and back onto the crumbling road. She grumbled about the broken headlight, but the Impala was miraculously still in decent condition. She, thankfully, did not fulfill her murder threat.
She did drive relatively slow.
By the time they were out of the woods, Sunset had patched up Shining’s leg best she could. It wasn’t broken, but there was a gash up the side from under the ankle joint up to his knee. It would need stitches, but Sunset didn’t want to try and apply them in a moving car. Instead, she just disinfected the wound best she could and wrapped it tightly. Rainbow pulled into the same gas station they had stopped by on their way to Hollow Shades.
Rainbow decided to use a Shining’s credit card she had available and she sent Sunset in to grab something to serve as their late dinner/early breakfast. Unfortunately, the drive-through was closed.
Sunset grabbed some beef jerky for herself and Shining and some candies for Rainbow, since she didn’t seem to have a taste for anything vaguely healthy. She grabbed the strongest over the counter painkillers in the gas station plus some extra water and a highly-caffeinated soda since Rainbow seemed insistent on driving the rest of the way to Canterlot.
Sunset took the opportunity to stitch up Shining’s leg while Rainbow filled the gas and then munched on her tiny breakfast.
“Why don’t we stay at the motel?” Shining asked, swallowing down a painkiller. Rainbow had refused to take any if they would make her drowsy. She was very determined to stay behind the wheel all the way to Canterlot.
“Sunset’s got an interview on Tuesday morning.” Rainbow hummed, leaning over her seat.
Sunset paused in putting everything back into the first-aid kit, realizing it was Sunday morning. They’d be at Ponyville in a couple hours, Canterlot before the sun would set.
“A job interview?” Shining turned to look at her. She felt trapped in the backseat, unable to duck away from Shining and Rainbow Dash.
“College interview. I could get a free ride next year.”
“Really?” Shining was painfully good at keeping his emotions out of his face. Sunset could only guess he was unhappy, at least a little, about how Sunset didn’t tell him.
“Yeah, she’s really into the whole normal life thing, now.” Rainbow hummed, resting her head on her right arm.
“But, what about Twilight?”
“What do you mean, what about Twilight?”
“Aren’t you gonna help us find her?”
“Yeah, ol’ cripple over here isn’t gonna be able to help much.” Rainbow gestured to Shining, who frowned at her.
“I… I want to help, guys, but-”
“But this life is more important?” Rainbow asked, voice harsh with judgement.
“Rainbow, leave her alone.”
“What- Are you supporting her, now?”
“Last I checked, you don’t decide things for her.” Shining’s voice was harsh, but not like he was about to rip into Rainbow for being an asshole.
“Now, how about you buckle up and drive?” He looked to Sunset with the hint of a smile. “I’m sure Moondancer is worried.”
Rainbow Dash huffed before properly settling into the driver’s seat. She didn’t buckle up like Shining had asked, but she did pull the Impala onto the street and continued driving, leaving Sunset stuck in the backseat with Shining. It seemed preferable to sitting up front with Rainbow, however.
Sunset tucked the medical kit under the seat before settling comfortably against the door and drifting off to sleep.
“And if I could,
I’d fly with you.
Baby, I would.”
Sunset woke up to the sound of a slow song, something extremely out-of-place when Rainbow was manning the radio.
Shining was sprawled out on the rest of the backseats, propped up against the door and his folded up jacket serving as a head support. He was snoring away. He looked peaceful, even covered in dirt and coagulated blood. Sunset could see the scars criss-crossing over his forearms in the light of the afternoon sun pouring through the window. Canterlot mountain appeared much larger from this distance.
“Baby let’s dance,
Cause I can’t fly,
But honey remember,
Enjoy the time
While you’re alive.”
Sunset slowly righted herself, noticing there was another voice, undistorted by the radio speakers.
“Oh, baby!
Let’s dance tonight.
Don’t stop, baby,
Except to hold me tight.”
Rainbow Dash was tapping along to the soft beats of the song on the steering wheel.
“And we’ll kiss til the sunlight.
Touches your face. And do it all again tomorrow night.
Baby, I can’t fly.
But that don’t mean,
I don’t try.”
Sunset had never heard Rainbow sing along to a ‘sappy’ love song. She preferred the epic songs about gunslingers, cowboys, adventure.
Sunset waited until the song faded about before letting out a yawn to alert Rainbow to her.
“Hey,” Rainbow jumped in her seat. She glanced over her shoulder just a moment.
“Oh, hey.”
Awkward silence as Rainbow quickly shifted the radio to some other station in the middle of a guitar solo.
“We’ll be at Canterlot in about two hours.”
“Good… That’s… Good.”
“You figured out what you’re gonna tell Moondancer? She’s probably gonna want some kind of explanation for why you’re so roughed up.”
“I fell.”
“Yeah, like she’s not gonna question that.”
“I… I don’t want to lie to her.”
“Then don’t. Tell her the truth. It can’t be that hard, right?”
“It is when we’ve been dating for two and a half years.”
“Yeah… She’d probably kick you out faster than I can run the 50 meter dash.”
“Thanks.”
“... Hey, look, Sunset… About what I said. I… I know you really care about Moondancer and this whole college thing.” She gestured with one hand. “You… You’ve worked hard and shit, so… I get why you wouldn’t wanna get dragged across the continent on a search party.”
“Are you trying to apologize?”
“No! I’m- I’m just saying that I get why you’re not gonna come with us. I don’t agree or anything, but I can’t exactly stop you. Last time I tried, it didn’t really work out.”
“Yeah... Well, thank you… I think.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“... Any ideas on what I should tell Moondancer?”
“You went on a hike in the woods to reach your friends, that they’re relatively okay, and you fell like a dumbass.”
“Brilliant.” Sunset shot back, voice dripping with sarcasm.
Thanks to traffic, it wasn’t until the sun had set when they finally reached Sunset’s apartment. The time had been spent listening to old songs while the group recounted some bar stories. Hunting was kept out of the conversation as much as possible, which was weirdly easy now that Sunset had other stories, other experiences that she could recount. Rainbow added a handful of comments during those stories, but never something important.
Sunset felt her smile fall from her face as they pulled up to the apartment complex.
“We’re here.” Rainbow needlessly pointed out. The windows to Sunset and Moondancer’s shared apartment were dark.
“You guys gonna be alright?”
“Yeah. We’ll call you when we find Twilight.”
“I can have my friends look out for her, try and figure out where she went-- I- I can try and help from here.”
“Thanks. Guess we’ll be talking to you soon, then?” Shining asked as Sunset stepped out of the Impala.
“Yeah.”
“Let us know how your interview goes.” Shining adjusted himself in the seat.
“I will. And, Shining, be careful.”
“You too.”
With that, Shining pulled the door shut and the Impala continued on its way. Sunset watched for a moment before turning and heading up to her apartment where her girlfriend and her normal life along with her, awaited.
The hallways were agonizingly quiet, compared to the din of Canterlot’s major streets and the purr of the Impala’s engine that Sunset had unwittingly gotten used to again.
The clinking of the keys set her hair on end, the clicking of the door lock made her flinch, but once she was in the familiar surroundings of her apartment, her heartbeat settled.
“You’re being paranoid.” She flipped on the nearest light.
A plate of cookies wrapped in plastic wrap sat on the counter with a sticky note attached. In eccentric red writing, it said:
Congrats Moondancer! Love, Minuette.
The wrap had been cut into and then retucked. Moondancer always thought plastic wrap was a nuisance to handle.
Sunset undid the plastic wrapping just enough to sneak a cookie before heading for the bedroom. She paused outside the bathroom, noticing the sound of the shower running. It was relatively early in the evening, Sunset shouldn’t have expected Moondancer to be in bed. However, with all the lights turned off, she had been.
For a moment, Sunset considered knocking to let Moondancer she was home. However, she also didn’t want to give her girlfriend a heart attack, so she didn’t.
Sunset let out a breath as she entered the bedroom, shoving the remains of her cookie into her mouth and dropping onto the bed. Soft and comfortable, unlike the motel bed or the backseat of the Impala.
Her muscles went heavy as Sunset relaxed against the bed. Her worries for Twilight, for Shining, it all blurred and faded as sleep began to sink in. Her nap in the Impala was insufficient.
A droplet touched Sunset’s face. She jerked her head, frowning. Was the apartment above her leaking? Another drop landed on her forehead. Followed by another one a second later. She opened her eyes, scowling at the ceiling.
Her heart lurched into her throat, a breathless gasp filling the silence.
Spread out above her, as if she was laying on the floor, was Moondancer.
A gash torn through her shirt, through her stomach. Red dribbled from her mouth, from the wound that was, by some sick power, clean. Her eyes were wide and glassy, hair clinging in wet locks.
Sunset wanted to throw up. Throw up, scream, cry, everything but all she could do was gawk in horrified silence.
And then, Moondancer went up in flames.
Sunset only managed to scream.
“MOONDANCER!”
She scrabbled, trying to shift upright on her bed. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t stop screaming. She couldn’t-
“SUNSET!”
She didn’t turn. Didn’t move, her body was coiled, ready to leap.
Her brain couldn’t decide to run for the door, or reach for Moondancer. Pull her from the flames in hopes she was still alive. Rainbow made the decision for her.
Hands, cold, not as hot as the room, grabbed onto Sunset’s shoulders. The paint on the ceiling shriveled and burned, falling to the floor like black snow.
Sunset couldn’t fight. She could barely breathe, she just kept screaming and crying.
Some part of her wanted to stay, to help.
“Come on, we gotta go! FUck- fucking- fucking move, Sunset!”
Sunset staggered on the stairwell, distantly recognizing the screeching of the fire alarm.
There were other people, rushing, unaware of Sunset or just not caring. They just wanted away from the fire.
Rainbow pulled Sunset along through the throng of people until she was out in the cold, wet air.
Her legs gave out beneath her and Sunset dropped onto the wet grass. Her heartbeat was in her toes, her vision was blurring and pained. She couldn’t breathe through her nose, she couldn’t smell.
A gross mix of beef jerky and chocolate chip cookie filled her mouth, spilling onto the grass.
Sunset’s nails dug into her palms, shaking.
“Wake up.” She croaked, squeezing her eyes shut. “Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up!” She sucked in a deep, greedy breath, tilting her head up towards the sky.
“Sunset…”
“Wake… Up…”
“Sunset, hey,” a hand settled on Sunset’s shoulder. “Sunset, it’s not… It’s not a dream.”
Sunset tried to blink away the tears. Her knuckles had gone pale, pain aching in the very bones. She relaxed her fingers, revealing sharp red crescents dug into her palms.
“Wake… Up…” Sunset repeated anyway, her voice choking up as her eyes filled with a fresh wave of tears. She curled forward, burying her face in her hands.
Above all the chatter of the confused neighbors and residents, a high pitched wail ascended into the night.
Sunset sat in the backseat of the Impala, clutching a blanket around her shoulders. Shining was sitting behind her, watching as the firemen put out the fire flaring out of the windows of Sunset’s apartment.
Nothing would be left inside. Moondancer, her acceptance letter, all the past three years, burned to a crisp.
Rainbow walked back over to the Impala, where she’d just been talking to one of the police officers.
“They think it’s an electrical thing.” She announced once she was in earshot. “Something went wrong with the lighting in the walls, or the ceiling.”
“Damn…”
“It wasn’t an electrical failure.” Sunset’s voice was surprisingly even. Shining jumped in surprise at her sudden decision to speak. Sunset looked up to Rainbow Dash. “You saw her, right?”
Rainbow shifted awkwardly. “I just saw fire.”
“She was on the ceiling.” Sunset said, voice low.
“What?” Sunset turned to look at Shining. His face was deathly pale.
“She was on the ceiling. She was… She was already dead...”
“Just like mom.” Shining and Sunset said in unison.
“Di-” Rainbow cleared her throat. “You see it?”
“No.”
“But… Maybe Twilight did.”
“What?”
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Twilight ran off the same time as this bastard showed up.” Shining gestured to the smoldering apartment. “It’s gotta be connected, somehow.”
“Well, if it is him, we better find Twilight. Power in numbers and all that.”
Sunset looked up at Rainbow with a sort of resolve in her eyes.