Sunset Shimmer and the Adventures of the Mysterious Mare-Do-Well!

by SkyeD63

BLOOD COLORED BLUE - PART 3: Sunset Vs. Iron WIll

AT THE DESTENATION DEAD END BAR IN CANTERLOT

I consider myself as someone who has experienced plenty of pain before. Back at Equestria, in pursuit of knowledge during my tenure as Princess Celestia’s pupil, I’d put myself in needlessly dangerous situations. Training myself to handle different types of powerful magic, and turning myself into a skilled fighter, much to Celestia’s dismay. You see, I wanted to be dangerous. I wanted to be someone that ponies feared, and I wanted to use all the power and skills I had acquired for selfish purposes. But my point is, I’ve felt pain before. Even during the Fall Formal, the magical blast that Twilight and her friends had shot at me didn’t exactly tickle. If I wasn’t in the form of corrupted magic that I was in at the time, I would’ve surely been turned into ash. I say all this so as to not undermine my pain tolerance. To highlight that I’m used to damaging my body and feeling agony. But the pain I had been feeling as the Mysterious Mare-Do-Well was something else. Something indescribable. For the past three weeks, I’ve been ganged up on, beaten with bats. crowbars, brass knuckles and kicked with steel toe boots. In a way it’s exhilarating, but unbearable at the same time. Still, none of the beatings could ever live up to the one I was experiencing tonight.

All I remember after being tossed across the bar by a man named Iron Will, was being hurled out of the window next to the door. Have I mentioned how awful it is to be thrown through windows? I’m not sure why, but I always had this preconception that making harsh contact with any glass object wasn’t painful. After all, in the movies the hero would always make dramatic entrances by smashing through windows, and I will admit that I have made dramatic entrances in such a manner. I would feel a little sharp sting throughout my legs, but the pain subsided shortly after. However, that is not the same as being picked up and forcefully chucked through one. It always feels like my backs on fire afterwards, and It’s difficult to stay in conscious, especially if the only cushion you have on the other side is concrete.

I felt my body crash onto the concrete floor, and skid across it until a metal dumpster halted my painful slide across the ground. A cool breeze tickled my exposed skin, as my sleeve had torn apart. I really should look into leather since the thin cloth tore so easily. It didn’t help that anytime my costume was damaged, I did a poor job at stitching it up. All throughout my uniform was tracks of stitches holding it together. Especially on my mask and cape. My fedora was already having tears. It’s times like these I wish Rarity knew who I was. She’d have this uniform look brand new every night.

With a surprising amount of difficulty, I managed to stand up from the ground, though my vision was already starting to blur. The injuries I had sustained during the previous nights still haven't healed, so my body wasn't in the best condition already. The swinging doors to the bar flung open, and the hulking giant slowly emerged from the disheveled bar. His eyes seemed to be completely white under the night sky. My heart was pounding out of my chest as he walked towards me. I had to move, but the aching pain in my joints told me to shut down. Eventually he was standing over me, cracking his knuckles one by one. Despite his massive size, he was fast as a snake. I couldn’t even process the speed of his movements. Within the blink of an eye, his massive hand was gripping my entire face, blowing my fedora off my head.

I could feel blood starting to pour out of my nose and eyes as his grip tightened around my face, and my muffled screams made me seem like nothing more than a child. His grip tightened even harder, and my body was being lifted from the ground. My pathetic attempts to punch at his massive forearms only made him laugh. After dangling me for a bit like a worm on a fishhook, he proceeded to slam me back and forth onto the dumpster and the wall. I could feel my ribs break, and my body going numb as I was slammed against metal and concrete. I was beginning to drown in my own blood, as more and more of my own red fluid was gushing out of my mouth and nose. Eventually, he stopped, and threw me again at one of the buildings windows. Crashing through it, my back collided with the bars of a metal walkway. Attempting to pick myself up, a sharp crack echoed from my back, and I howled in pain. I think I relocated a dislodged bone. The blood was seeping though my mask, and my breathing was heavier than ever. With my tired eyes, I scanned my surroundings. I was on top of a metal catwalk with the window right next to me. It appeared I had been thrown into the basement of one of the buildings, where what looked like a smelting factory was located. Although it was dark, the fuzzy moonlight from the window gave me a good look at the area.

It was a large factory, with furnaces, conveyor belts and smelting equipment all over the place. My mind was lost in the sheer size of the factory, but my focus quickly snapped back into reality as I heard Iron Will enter the catwalk through the broken window. I wanted to collapse so bad, but if I didn’t get out of this situation, I’d surely be dead.

“I like your tenacity crusader, but it’s not enough. Iron Will is going to break you,” exclaimed the brute.

“Come on Sunset, get up. Get the Hell up you pathetic, useless piece of shit. Get up damnit,” I muttered to myself. With the support of the guard rails, I managed to get onto my feet. “You working for Prince Blueblood? Spoiled Rich? Or Sombra?” I tried to keep my Mare-Do-Well voice dominant, but it was difficult when all I wanted to do was scream in pain. Iron Will chuckled to himself as he began to unbutton his shirt.

“Well, you’re in the ballpark. My guy, Gary, told me about his encounter with you back on the docks. He works for me, but, well, I don’t need to tell you who we work for.” His muscles were now in full display as he threw his shirt over the guardrails. He began to dig through his pockets, and he pulled out a small box. Opening it revealed a syringe with some type of red liquid. His smile started to widen, and his voice was becoming cheerier. “You know, I never really get the chance to use this stuff. I always ask my boss if we could import more of this chemical, but he says it’s too much. I always want to use it, but everyone I fight ends up dead before I can get serious. So far, you’ve taken the beating, now we can have some real fun.” He lodged the needle into his arm and pressed down on it to inject the liquid. His chuckles slowly began to turn into maniacal laughter, and his muscles began pulsating. The red liquid could be seen traveling through his veins all over his body, and his size began to increase. His eyes were now all red. It had appeared that he was transforming into a true monster, a mutated juggernaut of some sorts.

“HAHAHAHAHA, IRON WILL IS GOING TO TAKE YOUR HEAD OFF.” The monster proclaimed. This was no time to worry about the state of my body, I had to move. Iron Will stomped his foot on the metal catwalk, and the poles holding us up instantly snaped in two. The catwalk was now caving in, and it was almost a two story drop to the factories floor. I grabbed onto one of the guard rails as I was now hanging on for dear life. I really need to get some sort of grappling hook. To my fear, I could hear Iron Will running towards my end from the other side of the now collapsed catwalk. The juggernaut leaped over the newly created pit, and with arms now bigger than my body, he wrapped them around me, pulling me away from the rails and towards the ground.

Thankfully he took the blunt of the fall, but pain was still felt everywhere. His grip loosened enough for me to slip out of his clutches and I plopped onto the floor. Quickly, I stood back up, ignoring the broken ribs that I had. It took him a second to get off his back, like a turtle trying to roll over. Eventually he did, and he stood as if nothing had happened. If I fell onto the floor like that, I would have surely been paralyzed. He grinned at me, and then took a running stance. My eyes widened, and immediately I jumped out the way. Iron Will charged right at me like a speeding bullet, crashing into the wall I was standing in front of. My jaw dropped at the hole in the concrete wall, and the hulking giant shook his head like it was nothing.

He then ran towards me again, throwing his giant fist at me. I dodged it, barley. The punch collided with the concrete floor, smashing a giant hole in it. I know that if one of those punches connected, it would been game over.

“Come on Sunset think. How am I going to beat this guy?”. I thought to myself. A straight up fist fight was out of the question. I’d probably just end up shattering my entire arm if I tried that. But I knew that I wouldn’t leave this place until I defeated him. Iron Will continued to wail at me. Throwing punch after punch. The only thing saving me from certain doom were the precious seconds it took for him to unclog his fist from the floor. Blood was spewing out of the large gashes of his split knuckles, though this barley seemed to phase him. Whatever was in that red liquid, it not only amplified his power, but it also seemed to make him immune to pain. Just what I needed.

It felt like minutes of just jumping away from each attack, narrowly avoiding the firestorm of cannonball sized fist hurling at me. Eventually, he had managed to back me into a wall. Taking no time at all, he hurled a right hook towards my head, but I managed to duck quickly, missing his fist by mere millimeters. The impact of his fist against the wall blew a hole in it, and rubble and small pebbles fell on my head. I had tried to run past him, but choked as I felt my cape being pulled. While one of his hands was logged into the wall, he tightly held onto my cape with the other. I tried desperately to take it off, but by the time I found my fingers, he had dislodged his other hand. With another howl of awful laughter, he grabbed onto my cape with both hands, and began to spin in circles at high speed. I was like the blade of a helicopter, suffocating from my own cape. Vomit began to erupt through my mask, now stained with blood. I couldn’t tell how long the giant meat head was twirling me, but eventually he let go, sending me flying to the roof. My head collided with one of the metal structural roof beams, no doubt leaving bloody gash across my forehead.

As I fell towards the ground, I crashed landed inside of a large smelting bucket hung from a crane on the roof. At this point the adrenaline took my mind off of the pain radiating from my broken body. While in a dazed state of mind, I managed to get to my feet and peak over the buckets rim, though it was difficult given the height. I had to use a lot of strength to pull myself up just so that my eyes could peer over. Iron Will was already climbing up the smelting equipment trying to reach me. There was no way I could get out of this thing without a rope or grappling hook, as I’d surely break my legs if I jumped out. But if he made it inside of this thing with me, he’d easily be able to beat me to death.

The bucket started to move rapidly, as if something was trying to pull it down. The sounds of heavy chains rattling told me that Iron Will had managed to grab onto one of the large, heavy metal chains that were dangling from underneath the bucket. Each time the bucket moved; I could tell he was slowly climbing up it. I looked up to what was keeping this thing suspended in the air. The bucket was attached to a large metal hook being lifted by steel cables. There was no way I was going to be able to move this thing. The hook and bucket alone must’ve weighed more than an eighteen-wheeler. But I could hear the chain rattling getting closer, and the buckets shift in weight told me that he was fast approaching. The impending approach of doom was when an idea popped into my head. A crazy, stupid idea.

Fighting the pain of my broken ribs, I pulled myself up from within the bucket and onto the rim. From there, I analyzed the metal hook. It was larger than I was, and bolted with a large screw that was the size of my torso. There was no way I was loosening it. But my eyes fell upon something else. Above the screw was a large safety pin that connected the cables to the hook. It was lodged in there and made of iron…but it seemed possible I could loosen it just enough for the cable to disconnect from the hook. The added weight of the mutated Iron Will was enough to drag this thing down if the pin was loosened. In other words, this heavy ass metal bucket would fall to the ground with Iron Will under it. Whether I survived was a different question, but one that I had no time, or choice, to ponder. I wasn’t sure if Iron Will would survive it. After the events of the Fall Formal, I don’t’ think I could live with myself as a murderer. Princess Twilight stopped me from being one, and I’ll be damned if I become one afterwards. Besides, I already hate myself enough. But, I was running out of options.

Using all of my remaining strength, I pushed both hands against the pin. At first, it seemed like an impossible task, but eventually I could feel the pin slowly slide as my muscles were being torn. My palms were starting to bleed against the metal, and my screams were escaping my mouth as my body was reaching its limit. Tears were soaking through my mask, and the bone in my arms were beginning to rattle. It didn’t help that all I had to stand on was the thin rim of the bucket. But the shaking underneath me as Iron Will was only a couple inches away from the bucket told me to use everything I had.

With a loud scream of desperation, I kicked my body into overdrive, giving the hardest push of strength I’ve ever given. I made the pin loosen more and more, until eventually the bucket began to sag. If it wasn’t for the weight of Iron Will, I wouldn’t have been able to accomplished it, but the pin flung right out of the socket, disappearing into the factory’s shadows. As the bucket began to unlatch from the cables, I jumped back inside it, and braced for impact. My stomach was turning into a knot, similar to when you drop from a high roller coaster. All I could see was that we were speeding down towards the ground. As the bucket crashed, the impact sent me flying out of it, and back onto the concrete floor. No doubt I had more broken bones. I laid there for a moment, wondering if I was dead.

I’m not sure why, but I thought of Princess Celestia. About how I took everything that she had to offer and spat it in her face. Sometimes I had dreams about going back to Equestria and begging her for forgiveness for my stupidity. Kneeling and bowing like a dog before her, hoping that she would take pity on a horrible creature like me. But I always received her laughter as an answer. I would raise my head, a miserable expression plastered on my face, and my eyes would meet Princess Celestia, accompanied by Princess Twilight. She would have the crown, proudly on top of her head, and she would stare at me with utter disgust. She and Princess Celestia would look at each other with looks of amusement.

“What should we do with her?” asked Twilight with a hint of pleasure in her voice. Celestia would look at me and giggle.

“I think that’s up to you Princess Twily. I would personally keep her as my pet, for that’s all she’s good for. Sending her to Tartarus would be too light. But she did try to damn you in the human realm, so maybe you should decide her punishment,” Celestia would always respond. Twilight would look back at me, and her smile would widen from ear to ear. Out of nowhere, her friends would appear around me. Dash, AJ, Rairty, Pinkie and Fluttershy would surround me, glaring down at me with eyes full of hatred. I would look up to Celestia and Twilight with desperate eyes. They would be on their thrones accompanied by Luna and Cadence, all laughing and giggling to themselves. I would then feel applejacks hooves buck my spine, paralyzing me from the waist down.

“I reckon you’re now as useless as ever Sunset,” AJ would tease. A blue magic choker would appear around my neck, forcing me to look up at its caster. Rarity would slam her hoof into my face, rubbing it aggressively in my eye.

“Oh Applejack, she isn’t Sunset. In fact, she isn’t even worthy of being considered a living creature. No, it is a she – demon,” Rarity would announce. Soon, the throne room would be full of all of Canterlot High, all laughing at me and cheering for the girls to finish me off. To exact their desires for revenge.

“KILL THE SHE – DEMON,” Flash Sentry would shout, now sitting right next to Twilight.

“YEAH, KILL IT,” Trixie would add. Eventually the chanting was unified, as the entire school had gotten together for this occasion.

“KILL THE SHE–DEMON, KILL THE SHE–DEMON, KILL THE SHE-DEMON,” they would all chant. With watery eyes, I would look over to Luna, begging her to end this nightmare. But all she did was laugh and inform her that this wasn’t a nightmare. That this was true justice. That this was what I deserved. Eventually the girls would all take turns beating me and tearing me apart limb from limb like savage animals. The school would then jump in, taking the opportunity to spit on my corpse and parade around the severed parts of my body. All of them were finally happy, rejoicing over the death of the she-demon. Twilight would use her magic to levitate my head towards her and the other princess’, smiling at my severed head as if she had won a trophy. She would then keep my head as a souvenir, placing it atop of her throne. I’ve had this same nightmare ever since the Fall Formal, and since this isn’t Equestria, there was no Luna to comfort me in my own thoughts of Hell. But I knew better. Even if she was there, she wouldn’t help me. Because I don’t deserve her help. I deserve to be locked in my own thoughts of self-guilt, and hatred. I deserve to view myself as nothing more than a putrid creature, deserving of death. I hate you, Sunset Shimmer. I think that’s why I always go out at night, to save myself from sleep. To keep myself from looking in the mirror and spitting at my own reflection. I hate looking at myself. I hate hearing my own voice. I hate being alive, it’s not fair to any of the people or ponies I’ve ruined. I was hoping I’d be dead, but the slow opening of my eyes disappointed.

I saw a dust cloud covering the crashed bucket. The cold ground sent a chill through my sleeveless arm. I tried to prop myself up, but a sharp pain ran through my body, causing me to cry out. Slowly, I got to my hands and knees, lifting my mask up halfway to cough out a large amount of blood. The red substance was leaking from my nose and mouth, and I’m pretty sure my eyes too. It took a while, but I managed to get myself onto my feet. One arm was pressed tightly against my abdomen, and my other hanging limply down my side, I limped over to the crash site. As the dust cleared, I saw Iron Will underneath a mountain of destroyed metal. Thankfully, I could see he was still breathing, though he was in bad shape. His nose ring was ripped out of his nostril and was laying right beside my heel, followed by a bloody trail back to Iron Will. With that, I took a deep sigh of relief, knowing that I had won the fight. But my moment of peace was interrupted by the sounds of someone climbing up the ladder to the catwalk behind me. Turning around, my eyes landed on the two guys from the bar. Gary and the other grey one. They must’ve followed us into the factory and watched our fight. But I wasn’t going to let either of them escape. I picked up a piece of the destroyed ground and aimed it at the grey man who was in front of Gary on the ladder. With my good hand, I threw the debris right at the grey one’s head. The hollow clock echoed around the factory as the concrete bounced off his head, knocking him out instantly. His limp body fell off the ladder, knocking Gary down with him. As they crashed onto the floor, I quickly limped over to them, kicking the grey man’s body off Gary, who was no doubt seeing stars right now.

Despite being a heap of pain, I still needed answers, or all this effort would be useless. I slammed my boot onto Gary's throat. Applying ample amounts of pressure as to not choke him to death, but still enough to where he struggled to breathe.

“You still have answers to give me”, I growled. This time I didn’t need to try to sound intimidating. I was just beyond pissed at this point that any word that escaped my mouth was covered in hostility and rage. Gary wrapped both his hands around my boot, trying to lift off some of the pressure, but I wouldn’t allow him.

“Okay, okay. Fuck me. Me, Larry and Iron Will answer directly to Prince Blue Blood. Right now he’s running a large trade deal of drugs from across the country”, Gary spewed out.

“Does he answer to Spoiled Rich? What does she want with drugs? It’s never been part of her MO,” I demanded.

“No, he doesn’t answer to Spoiled Rich. They both answer to someone higher. Neither of them really has interest in the drug market, but the man above them does." At this point, I applied more pressure on this throat.

“WHO?” I yelled.

“Sombra. The Kingpin Sombra.” He answered. A chill ran up my spine. Although I haven’t heard of him in this world, The name was familiar. I just didn’t know if we were talking about the same Sombra.

“What drugs were being shipped from the warehouse?” I asked, slightly releasing my boot from his throat. I have my theories, but I’m hoping I’m wrong.

“I don’t know. Seriously. But it’s something I’ve never seen before. Sombra found these dark crystals. No one knows from were. But the properties in them make you go…crazy. They turn you into a savage beast full of untapped power. What Iron Will just took was a sample of it”. My heart dropped, and my worst fear had come true. I lifted my foot and slammed the heel of my boot onto Gary’s face.

“Take me to Blue Blood”.