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The Empath and the Sociopath

by Justice3442

Chapter 1: The first time they met

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“Alright, alright!” Sunset said with a tired smile she directed at her friends. “Thanks girls, but I don’t know if my new place needs three musical numbers!”

Pinkie quickly crammed the rest of a piece of pizza in her mouth, chewed and swallowed. “AAAaaaAAAwww~!” she warbled in a disappointed tone. “But that was gonna be a good one! I could feel it! And technically we’ve only had one for your new place.”

Rarity leaned forward, placing a hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “‘Every Place has Its Charms’ was about the local color, dear…”

Applejack raised an eyebrow in Rarity’s direction. “Still, it sounded to me like you wanted to sing something different.”

Rarity sighed. “Well, had I not known Sunset already paid her deposit and first month’s rent, I’d probably have sung, ‘We should leave quickly before we’re mugged or worse!’”

Pinkie pursed her lips in a thoughtful manner. “We should leave quickly now before we’re mugged or worse!~

“Hold on to that purse and get moving so you don’t end up on the news or in a Hearse!

“That alleyway doesn’t look safe, so let’s walk a little faster!

“You never know when you’ll be the target of a stab disaster!~”

Pinkie smiled and nodded to herself. “I know what we’re singing on our way back!~” She trilled.

Sunset chuckled with a levity clearly not shared by most her guests. “Okay, but there was still the one song as you helped me move and fix up this place!”

“But that could have gone so much better!” Pinkie insisted. Her face wrinkled as she tossed an accusatory glance towards someone. “Fluttershy!”

Fluttershy cringed. “Sorry…” She nodded and cast a very weary set of eyes to one spot in particular. “Er… I was not expecting to have to clean blood off the wall during ‘All This House Needs is some TLC’.”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “I’m pretty sure that was fake, Fluttershy. Maybe someone’s bad idea of a practical joke? You’d have to be an idiot to try and sell a place with blood still on the walls.”

Applejack took a deep breath then let it out. “Don’t change the fact that the last occupant died here…”

Pinkie Pie wiggled her fingers. “Under mysterious circumstances! OOOOOOooooOOOOOoooo!”

“Doesn’t that freak you out?” Rainbow Dash asked, a slice of pizza in her hand. “You’re renting a place that was owned by a dead guy!”

“Twinkle Shine,” Sunset said. “His name was ‘Twinkle Shine’.”

Rainbow Dash frowned. “Twinkleshine sounds like a girl’s name…”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Twinkle space Shine, Dash… Totally different… And he didn’t own the place, he was also a renter!”

“You know what I meant!” Rainbow Dash said. “Aren’t you at least a little creeped out?”

“Er…” Fluttershy tossed an errant glance at the same spot on the wall. “I know I am… A lot creeped out, actually.”

Sunset shrugged. “I deal with a bunch of weird stuff as it is. I mean… if this place is haunted, at least I know who to call if I need a ghost removed!”

“Oh!” Pinkie smiled widely. “You mean you’d need someone to help you giggle at the ghosty? ‘Cause I have a song about that, too!”

“What? Oh, not you guys.”

The girls looked at each other in confusion.

“Then who you gunna call?” Applejack called.

Pinkie raised a hand. “Ooo! Ooo! I know this one!”

“Aria,” Sunset answered.

“It turns out I didn’t know that one!” Pinkie said as she lowered her hand.

Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity all cringed.

“Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Rarity said.

Sunset smiled. “I’m sure it’ll be fine… Come on. I’ll walk you out…”

Rainbow Dash quickly scarfed down the slice in her hand as the girls made their way to the door.

“Are you sure you don’t want a house-warming sleepover?” Pinkie asked.

Sunset nodded as the girls filed out into a rather narrow hallway. “I’m beat, Pinkie… Moving all my stuff, two musical numbers… Maybe you have some crazy, never-ending well of energy, but I need some rest,” she said, passing another door on the way to the stairwell, a door that slowly opened without so much as a sound.

The girls made their way down a metal spiral staircase, casting their eyes one more on an extremely well-furnished living area.

Applejack shook her head. “Ah still can’t get over how big that TV is. They musta had to knock out a wall jus’ to get it in here.”

“I know, right!” Rainbow Dash agreed. “And it looks like every system that came out in the last decade or more is down here!”

Rarity clicked her tongue. “How typical of you two, no mention of that gorgeous marble table or the beautiful rug it’s sitting on!”

“Not to mention that couch!” Pinkie took a running start from the stairs and flung herself onto a massive, black leather couch. “Ohhhh… Rich Corinthian leather!” she said rubbed a cheek against one of the cushions.

“Uh, Pinkie, dearest?” Rarity called out. “People’s derrieres touch that part, so uh…”

“Whoop!” Pinkie’s sky-blue eyes shot open wide as she bolted upright. “Hehehehe!”

“Er… Could use a little more light…” Everyone turned to look at Fluttershy who seemed to blush almost on instinct from being the sudden recipient of all the silent attention in the room. “Uh… There’s not much natural light here… erm…. Compared to Sunset’s room.”

“Hah!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “With sweet digs like this, you wouldn’t want a lot of natural light looking in!”

Applejack rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Come to think of it, yeah… Ah, mean… This stuff is really nice… too nice for a duplex in the crummy part of town. Er, no offense Sunset.”

“None taken,” Sunset replied with a shrug. “It’s nice for you guys to have issue with where I live instead of what I’ve done for a change.”

“Yes, but what kind of person lives like this?” Rarity asked as she cautiously stepped towards the living room and examined everything.

“Someone with lots of money, that’s for sure!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“And maybe not a lot of sense?” Fluttershy suggested.

Pinkie frowned at Fluttershy. “What?! How can they have lots of cents and no money?!”

“Sense, Pinkie,” Rarity stressed. “S-e-n-s-e!”

“Oh, oops… Hehehe…”

Rainbow Dash chuckled as she walked up to admire the video game console collection. “Maybe Sunset’s roommate is just so scary that anyone who knows about this place knows not to mess with it!”

Applejack looked over the massive TV in concern. “You don’t think they’re into anything illegal, do you?”

“Meep…” Fluttershy uttered.

“Like racketeering?” Rarity suggested as much as asked.

“Oh! Or selling drugs!” Rainbow Dash practical shouted.

“Or… erm… prostitution?” Fluttershy uttered.

“Uh… I was thinking more arms dealing…” Applejack said.

“Ooo! Ooo! Or maybe they’re the reason Sunset’s ghost roommate is dead in the first place!”

The room went uncomfortably quiet all of a sudden as there was a quick and sudden retreat from the furnished portion of the room.

Sunset just smiled and shook her head from side to side. “Guys, it’s fine! I already looked up my new roommate.”

“You have?!” five female voices suddenly called out.

Sunset nodded. “Yeah! I checked out her MyStable page,” Sunset whipped out a smartphone in an orange case as four of her five friends gathered around.

Pinkie’s eyebrows tighten. “Anyone ever worry that this world is seemingly obsessed with horses for no discernable reason?”

Sunset continued, “She’s like… the daughter of some rich foreigners from Eastern Europony or the Middle-East… maybe both?”

“Oh, Like Saddle-Arabia?” Applejack suggested. “Iraquine?”

“Yeah!” Sunset chimed in. “Lemme just get her on my app…”

Fluttershy turned towards Rainbow Dash. “Oh, erm… Isn’t that one Daring Do Villain from there? The Stalwart Stallion?”

“What? Dude, he’s from South Amarequinecoltia.”

“Okay, just me then,” Pinkie said as she joined the group.

“Uh… Sunset…” Applejack began as she noticed pictures begin to spin up oher friend’s phone, “isn’t this kinda an invasion of privacy?”

“Oh relax, AJ,” Sunset said. “I just did a basic internet search and found whatever was public. It’s not like I hacked the poor girl!”

Applejack frowned slightly. “Still doesn’t feel right…”

“I’m moving in with a stranger in what’s affectionately known as the 'glue factory’ of Canterlot city!” Sunset said in a slightly vexed tone. “I didn’t feel like taking my chances.”


“Uh… Ah, guess that’s fair?” Applejack said. “Ah mean… still kinda taking a chance moving here in the first place!”

“There’s a coffee shop on my way to school, alright!” Sunset said. “It’s convenient.”

“So’s not being robbed…” Applejack muttered. “But whatta Ah know…”

Rarity let out a squee of delight as Sunset flicked through her new roommate's page. “Oh, my gosh, she’s absolutely adorable! Those red heart-shaped glasses! That long green hair! That ashen skin!”

“Huh… Chrysi…” Applejack uttered. “Now that’s a foreign name if I ever heard one.”

“It sounds pretty cute to me,” Fluttershy said.

“Yeah… she is pretty cute in general…” Rainbow Dash said as Sunset swiped through pictures of selfies, pictures at the malls, and pictures of meals ranging from fast food to possibly far pricier than any of the girls could afford without saving up.

“Eyes are kinda weird though…” Applejack quipped.

“Applejack!” Rarity cried. “There’s rude and then there’s borderline racist!”

Applejack shrugged. “Ah’m just saying what everyone is thinkin’!”

“I thought they looked cool,” Rainbow Dash said. “How old is she?”

“Rainbow Dash!” Rarity hissed. “It’s not polite to ask such things of a lady!”

“Okay, well… she looks like she’s about our age is all,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Oh my, yes,” Fluttershy agreed.

“She’s a few years older, actually,” Sunset said. “Looks like she graduated Crystal Prep a while back and has mostly decided to hang out here afterward.”

“Huh… Wonder why she decided to stay,” Rainbow Dash said.

Applejack chuckled as she leaned back from the phone. “Maybe they don’t have freedom back where she’s from,” she joked.

“Huh, or cows to kill more likely,” Rainbow Dash said. “I think this girl has a dead herd in her closet.”

“What’s wrong with that?!” Sunset asked in a slightly defensive tone.

Everyone looked up and quietly turned towards Fluttershy.

Fluttershy chuckled nervously. “It’s fine! I’m sure those cows feel a lot better in the great pasture in the sky knowing their skin is hanging off such a cute girl…”

Pinkie grinned. “Do you mean Sunset or Chrysi?”

“… Yes...” Fluttershy simply answered.

Sunset shook her head and put away her phone. “Look. The point is, she probably just has some rich parents who sent her to the States to learn and she’s decided to take it easy for a while and enjoy her independence a bit.”

“Or maybe that’s what she wants you to think!” Pinkie said. “You know! Lure you into a false sense of security then bam!” Pinkie pounded a fist into an open palm. “Your apartment is free again!”

The group went uncomfortably silent once more.

“Erm… Well… We didn’t see her while we were moving…” Fluttershy mentioned.

Rainbow Dash’s face lit up. “She could be scoring or selling a huge shipment of turbo drugs!”

Applejack nodded. “Or selling crates full of illegal weapons!”

Pinkie gasped. “Ooo! Ooo! Or buying or selling drugs with illegal weapons!”

Rarity chimed in. “And using those illegal weapons to charge a ‘protection’ fee to the local businesses…”

Fluttershy blushed slightly. “All while selling her body on the side…”

“Girls, it’s fine!” Sunset insisted. “I’m sure she’s a perfectly normal girl… erm… as normal as one can be when they have rich foreign parents.”

“Are you sure you don’t want us to stay?” Rainbow Dash said.

Sunset smirked. “What, you want to hang around and play video games?”

“Uh… Kind of,” Rainbow Dash said. “Though there’s still a worry that someone might get shot for that… including you.”

Sunset’s turquoise eyes made a rotation around their sockets. “Girls, relax! She’s probably just out at the mall buying more belts or other articles of clothing with buckles, or maybe she’s shy or something. Maybe she’ll open up to me a bit and I can tell you about how you have nothing to worry about!”

The girls said nothing, shifting around uncomfortably and exchanging worried looks.

Sunset smiled and opened her arms wide. “Alright, bring it in...”

Despite themselves, they all joined in a group hug full of pained groans and giggles before Sunset’s five friends made their way out, exchanging waves and “goodbyes” all the while and the door closed where Sunset could hear the faint sounds of the girls singing “We should leave quickly now before we’re mugged or worse!”

Sunset smiled to herself and turned towards the spiral, stainless steel stairwell. She placed her hand on the railing then took one more look towards the collection of very expensive items.

“Hello, new friend…” a female’s voice half whispered half hissed out.

Sunset turned and looked up with a start, her heart jumping in her chest. Her roommate was looking down at here from the stairwell, a coy, dangerous looking smile on her face. From her toes up to her shoulders, she was clad in mostly black, leather, and belt-buckles. Heck, Sunset counted twelve buckles on her platform shoes alone. Above those where a pair of holey tights that hugged long, slender legs up to a black miniskirt that wrapped around her thighs. Around that was a large gray and black belt with a big metal buckle that clearly only served as a fashion accessory as there’s no way that skirt was in danger of falling off, regardless of how thin the girl was. Around her chest, she wore a blouse that started as light-green at the bottom and made the gradual gradient change to a darker green above the girl’s nape. Wrapped around this was an admittedly killer looking leather jacket with three belt clasps and several metal studs on the shoulder pads.

Gone were the cute heart glasses. Instead, she looked down with those somewhat inhuman-looking jade eyes framed on either side by a long, glistening web of dark cerulean hair, with a strand dangling like an open noose from between her eyes. The girl had a lean and hungry look to her. Something well beyond the fact that she was crazy thin. She had the look of a predator to her… A look Sunset was all too familiar seeing from some of her other associates.

A part of Sunset told her it was time to run. Time to escape. However, she was never one to do anything but meet life head on. Besides, she knew from experience that anyone with that look would consider her easy prey if she ran. Sunset promised to herself then and there to never show the woman standing above her an ounce of fear.

“Hi!” Sunset greeted with a wide, friendly smile as she stepped up the stairs and got up back up to the hallway with Chrysi. Sunset extended a hand. “You must be Chrysi! I’m your new roommate, Sunset Shimmer!”

Chrysi inched back a moment, clearly caught off guard by Sunset’s willingness to rush right up to her. Still, the devious smile quickly returned to her face and she took Sunset’s hand.

Sunset noted a firm grip which she returned. Though no attempt to squeeze too hard… Curious…

“Welcome to the neighborhood.” Chrysi greeted as she retracted her hand. “Sorry for not coming out sooner.” She chuckled. “Your friends and you seemed like you had things well in hand and song moving you in.”

Sunset chuckled. “Oh, they love their numbers! We’re all musicians, you know?”

Chrysi cocked her head slightly. “Oh?”

Sunset nodded. “Yeah… Just some High School band… The Rainbooms.”

Something flashed behind Chrysi’s eyes. “Never heard of you…”

Huh… A lie, perhaps? Still… “Oh, I’m not surprised! It’s not likely anyone outside of CHS knows about us.”

Chrysi nodded and gave Sunset another smile as she put a hand on Sunset’s shoulder with a nearly ethereal pressure, yet somehow Sunset could sense the girl could strike with an unexpected and somewhat lethal strength with that hand if she so chose. “Well, Sunset Shimmer—”

“Oh, you can call me ‘Sunset’! All my friends do!”

“Sunset, then…” Chrysi hissed out in a whisper. “If you need anything… and I mean anything…” Chrysi nodded to the other door in the duplex. “You know where to find me.”

With that, Chrysi turned and began to walk away.

“Shouldn’t we exchange numbers?”

Chrysi paused. “What?” she asked, a perplexed expression on her face.

Sunset chuckled. “I mean… it’s not like either of us is just going to stay in our rooms all day!” she said as she pulled out her phone. “Here! What’s your number? I’ll text you…”

Seemingly momentarily taken aback, Chrysi started patting pockets on her jacket. For a split second, Sunset was sure she saw Chrysi, pull out the edges of a smartphone, examine it, then put it back before producing another one entirely. Chrysi swiped at the phone in her hand and almost embarrassingly admitted. “I don’t know the number to this one…”

“That’s okay!” Sunset assured. “I barely have my own number memorized! Not like I even bother with any of my friend’s number… Anyhow, my number is 555-555-3442.”

Chrysi nodded and swiped and tapped at her phone a few times. Soon Sunset was rewarded with a text message containing nothing but a heart emoji. “Got it!” Sunset answered.

Chrysi nodded and took a few more steps. Seemingly being struck by a thought, she turned and flashed Sunset a venomous smile. “It’s been a pleasure meeting you, Sunset. I really hope you last longer than the previous occupant of that room…” Chrysi let out a laugh that would make most cartoon queens green with envy and disappeared into her room, Sunset catching the briefest flashes of black-light and neon before the door closed.

Sunset quickly got to her room and closed the door behind her. She took a little bit to tidy of the leftover pizza and store it in her mini-fridge then practically collapsed into her office chair and thought, Twinkle Shine… I need to figure out what happened to Twinkle Shine.

Author's Notes:

Another short stories collection regarding some crazy idea that was fed to me by Nova Quill/Firimil

Next Chapter: The second time Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 41 Minutes
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