The next morning, poor Sunset tried to let everything go; to put her first world problems in perspective and move on with her life. Unfortunately, doing that proved a lot more difficult in practice than planning to do it. Every time she thought about Snails, or the bros at the bookstore, her blood boiled and her temples started throbbing — though then again, that was probably her cycle rearing its ugly head. She couldn’t even keep her breakfast down, which was nothing more than a plain bagel with cream cheese. Her period couldn’t have possibly come at a worse time.

Which was usually how it went. Given that she was on birth control, and had been for a couple of years, she usually enjoyed a few months of uninterrupted bliss. No muss, no fuss. Then it would hit with the force of a bucking bronco. That was always the case. Even though she really did prefer things this way, it still didn’t make her quarterly visitor any less horrible.

She was still trying to summon the desire to actually get up and do anything when she got a text from Rainbow. This time, it wasn’t Fluttershy-related; she just wanted to go over class notes.

‘Nopesorryfeellikecrap’, she replied. Within two minutes, there was a knock at her door.

“Hey! Sunset? You in there?”

“Blarghlgha,” she managed to groan. The key turned in the lock. “Oh, God… why? Just… just go and play outside or something. Be anywhere but here.”

“Nope,” Rainbow said as she loped inside, then winced as she took in Sunset’s appearance. “Whoa, dude. You’re looking… um, very rustic.”

“Thanks. I feel pretty rustic. More like a trash bag, actually.”

Plopping down next to her on the couch, Rainbow reached for the carton of cookies that Sunset was already halfway through. “You don’t have to go in today. Boss-lady switch schedules around; you’re back on Sunday, so at least there’s that.”

“Bitchin’. But… ugh, what if I’m still all achy tomorrow? It’s not enough time.”

“Well, call it in tomorrow and hope for the best today.” She cocked her head to the side and shoved an entire cookie into her mouth, chewing slowly. “This isn’t just period shit, though. What’s up with you?”

“Everything.”

“Vague that up a little more for me.”

A sigh turned into a groan as she rolled onto one side and pulled her favorite fluffy blanket around her shoulders. Patterned with the various Disney princesses, it was a remnant of her childhood which she kept around for only the worst of times, when she needed just a little extra Disney-level comfort.

And then she told Rainbow about everything that had happened that week. She vented about all the guys hitting on her, her dad letting her down again, and her mom being her usual sparkle-and-shiny self. Worst of all, she told her about the little ‘incident’ with Sir Snails of Douchebaggery.

“Wow,” Rainbow sighed as Sunset buried her face in one of her pillows to muffle another groan of agony. “Seriously, I’m really sorry. I had no idea all that shit had been going on.”

“S’no big deal,” Sunset mumbled through her pillow.

“It is! Aren’t you going to press charges?”

Another sigh. Sunset could already tell this was going to be a frequent thing over the weekend. “About what? He stopped when he finally got the message. Yeah, he acted like a giant dicksplash, but he didn’t do anything worse that to try and kiss me.”

“But what if you hadn’t scratch him?”

Sunset winced. “I’d… rather not think about that.”

“Sunset…”

“Look, dude,” she admitted, her voice so tight she thought it might snap. She suddenly wanted to cry, but didn’t feel like she would be allowed to. “I get what you’re saying. And normally, I would totally agree with you. But I honestly think he’s never even been within kissing distance of a girl before, and just kinda messed it up. Obscenely, yeah, but he didn’t do it on purpose. So I think the scratches were punishment enough, as long as he remembers what I said.”

Rainbow’s nod was slow, as if she didn’t really want to agree with this. But what she ended up saying was, “Well, it’s your life, Sunset. Just, well, if a guy tried that on me, I’d kick him so hard in the junk he’d cough up his own balls.”

Sunset snorted. “Don’t say that. I wouldn’t wish that on anybody.”

“I know, I know.” Then she rubbed her hand along Sunset’s arm through the blanket, soothing her as best she could. “But hey, if you want me to beat up this Snails buttwipe, the offer is on the table.

Sunset chuckled, “Thanks. I owe you for being so cool right now.”

“Hey, like I said, I’m just a cool person.” she patted Sunset’s thigh. “I have to get to work in an hour. But if there’s anything else you need before I go, let me know, okay? Just, Netflix and unwind. Let your body betray you and just get it over with.”

“Thanks, Dash. You’re a great friend.”

And that small sliver of compassion did more than Sunset ever expected. She even managed to go over the notes for class; it was to a lesser degree than she was normally capable of, but still a non-zero number of hours dedicated to higher learning. Rainbow cheered her up just enough to not start crying or raging again, and continue functioning like a normal human being.

But already at the end of her week, there was something churning in the back of her mind. The root of her problems were growing more and more pronounced that it had ever been before in her life.

Men.

All through her numerous gender and sexuality courses, she had been fighting against those radical feminist point of views that spout “All men are the scum of the earth!”, arguing with her classmates and professors, having long and tiring conversations trying to establish that that all humans were equal.

Equality is superior to feminism, right?

This week, however, she felt herself slowly leaning over to the dark side after so many repeated slights by the not-so-fairer sex. It was true that there were women who irritated her; her mother, Fluttershy, her old friend Rarity… but they didn’t do it purely because they had a uterus. There was a difference, and it was a stark different that Sunset was beginning to utterly dislike.

Part of her various piles of coursework included an essay on ‘Pagan’ rituals and how they compared to their counterparts within the more mainstream religions. The more she went over things, the more she began to think she didn’t have enough resources. The internet proved to be a surprisingly underwhelming font for references, and the campus library did nothing to help her quickly building stress. Sighing, she decided on to check in her professor happened to still be in her office.

As it turned out, she was.

“Hey!” Professor Shine gasped when she looked up to see Sunset in her doorway. “Sorry — you surprised me! Come in, come in. You aren’t really interrupting anything; just cleaning up before heading off.”

“I didn’t mean to bother you,” Sunset muttered hesitantly, fingering the hem of her jacket. “I just… yeah, I was hoping you could help me with some sources for the paganistic rituals assignment?”

“I think I can help you, yeah. Have a seat Miss Shimmer.” As Sunset sat, the woman continued to sort through a box of junk, muttering softly to herself as she tried to turn up whatever it was she was looking for. Sunset was surprised to find the usually conservatively-dressed woman had shed her coat — which she was never seen without — and wore simple beige slacks and a cornflower blue blouse. “Now, what seems to be the problem.”

“I was just wondering— I mean, tell me if I’m off the mark here, but you seem to know a lot of about this whole ‘magic rituals’ and nature stuff. So I was thinking you had something I could use; a book or something… not like the crappy— I mean, the usual stuff we have in the bookstore or library.”

In that moment, she wasn’t sure that to think of the twinkle in the professor’s eyes, but she attributed it to gratification that one of her students was genuinely interested in their assignment. That was the kind of thing teachers lived for, wasn’t it?

“I sure do. Just a second, I’ll go and see if I have something for you.”

Five minutes later, she returned from her storage room with an old, leather-bound book. That surprised Sunset; she had simply been expecting a more thorough resources than the ones in the bookstore. But this book looked like it had been around for centuries. The smooth, worn binding was faded and dingy, and didn’t have any markings other than a few shapes on the cover. Something was written on the spine, but it was in a language she couldn’t read, so she quickly gave up.

“Here we go,” she signed as she placed in on an empty spot on her desk. “Picked that up abroad a few decades ago. Between the… crap… you find in the library and this, I think you should be able to manage a pretty good assignment.

“Thank you so much,” Sunset breathed as she took the book, pulling in closer. She had half-expected it to shock her, or to suddenly start hearing voiceless chanting in her head, but there was nothing. It was just a book.

“No problem. I must say, though… I’m a bit surprised.”

“Huh?” Sunset blinked. “At what?”

With a shrug, the older woman leaned back in her chair, folding her hands around her middle. “That you care enough about this one assignment to look for deeply into the subject. I mean, this is something of a favorite subject of mine, but it’s not really critical to your grade.”

Sunset winced inwardly. “Well. okay. I screwed up a little last semester.” She shifted in her seat, letting her eyes wander around the room. “My grades weren’t bad, but they weren’t perfect either. My mom was constantly on my case, and I was kinda stressed, and I just… I don’t know. You don’t have to listen to this.”

“No, no, it’s perfectly fine. Being a teacher, I’m no stranger to academic pressure. I won’t judge you.”

Sunset sighed heavily. “Thank you. Anyway, that’s why I’m trying to keep on track this year — to make up for the last one.”

Nodding, her professor glanced down at the book between them. From the way she regarded it, it was clearly one of her favorites. All of the minute creases and water stains were from decades ago, not just a couple years. “It’s shown in your work this semester. Top marks so far.”

“Yeah,” Sunset said with another sigh. “In most of my classes, anyway. I hope I can keep it up, even though I have no idea what I’m going to do when I leave.”

“Oh? Directionless? Well, I can’t help you there. Even if I tried, you’d still have to be the one who makes the final decision. But I trust it will be all right when the time comes.”

“I know. I’ll figure something out.” Picking up the took, she wobbled slightly from the weight; it was heavier than she expected. “Whew! I mean, um, thank you!”

“Anytime. And if you have any more questions about what you find in there, my door is always open.” Then she tilted her head to the side, considering. “Well, actually, no it isn’t. But that’s what email is for.”

“I’ll remember that.” Sunset laughed, waving as she took her leave, trying her best to balance the book while she slid it carefully into her bookbag. It took a while, but she finally succeeded.

The book was an enormous help, even if it was a chore to make heads or tales out of most of the text. By itself, Sunset would have failed miserably, but combined with the other books she had checked out from the library, she was finally able to get through her essay.

Including a break to the local pizza joint with Rainbow — during which, the scruffy-looking guy at the register kept staring at her chest the entire time — she was able to get a rough draft finished a little before midnight. All in all, she felt motivated and accomplished; better than she felt since last Monday morning.

The material was interesting, which helped a lot to keep the assignment from being a chore. There were dozens of actual ‘spells’ listed, of both the good and evil varieties, and they were detailed painstakingly, the original author's words — all in some obtuse, wierd language — crossed out and written over by the book's current owners over the years, each providing their suppositions about what motivation might be behind crafting such spells in the first place. As obtuse as the text itself could be, she did feel like she had a better understanding of what the hell she was writing about.

However, there was a minor setback in her finally going to bed. After changing into pajamas and brushing her teeth, she was extremely displeased to find that her box of tampons was empty. No pads, either. Haven't there been at least two or three left? No better results from the bottom of her purse, or the outside pocket of her backpack.

“Fucking shit on a shingle,” she growled as she texted Rainbow. Then called her. No answer to both; either she was out, her phone was dead like it was half the time, or she was just passed out from pizza overdose. There wasn’t anyone else she knew enough nearly to make it worth asking — other than old Mrs. Cake, who had already been through ‘the change’ and wouldn’t bother stocking such supplies — and she really didn’t feel like sneaking into Rainbow’s apartment to raid her tampons.

Not after the last time, when Fluttershy threw a lamp at her because she thought Sunset was a burglar. She had stuttered an embarrassed apology afterwards, but Sunset still remembered nursing that goose egg for the entire week.

Bleary-eyed, Sunset pulled on her shoes and a bleach-stained hoodie and set out, wallet, keys and phone in the hoodie pockets. There was no sense even getting in her car with the corner store about two blocks away, even though she didn't feel like walking. She felt like driving even less.

Her stomach lurched strangely as she approached the counter, and the cramps set in with twice their usual intensity. She was glad she wasn’t just getting tampons, but Midol as well; anything to take the edge off, at least for a little while. If she had been a few months older, she would have put a bottle of whiskey up there, too.

“Wow,” the young man behind the counter said as she turned back around from whatever her had been restocking. Cigarettes, maybe. His name tag read ‘Snips’, and even if Sunset felt the need to comment on the name, any humor she felt died when he followed up with, “You look pretty awful.”

“Thanks,” she deadpanned as he reached for the tampons and medicine. When he cocked a wry smile, she lifted an eyebrow and said, “What?”

“That would explain it,” he remarked, his inflection twangy and clearly not local. He shook the pill bottle briefly before scanning it.

Sunset’s expression darkened slightly. “Yup.”

“Hang on… these aren’t ringing up.” It was the tampons; he’d already bagged the Midol. Still incredibly amused for whatever reason, he grabbed the microphone and, before she could even stop him, announced to the rest of the store, “Al, price check on Tampons! Price check on tampons! Kotex?!”

“Sweet Jesus!” she hissed, one of her hands clamped over her ear as the other clung to the counter. “Try again, dude! I don’t think they heard you on freaking Mars!”

“Why?” he laughed, his pockmarked face completely innocent-looking, but his smile anything but. “You ashamed of Satan’s little cotton fingers?”

“No, I’m not exactly— it’s just— you didn’t have to… what the… ugh!”

“Hey, quiet your riot, babe. You’ll get your corks just as soon as I confirm the price.”

A few seconds later, ‘Al’ came out of the back. He didn’t have a name tag, but was a lot more groomed than his fellow employee, and had to be the manager, if Sunset was going to guess.

“What, Snips?”

“Tampons aren’t ringing up,” he said flatly, sending a glance over in Sunset’s direction. By now, there were two or three other people waiting in line behind her, all of them also looking on at the proceedings.

“I’m so sorry I picked the wrong brand,” she snapped at both of them.

“Are you serious?” Al asked, one eyebrow raised. “You called me up here to do that?”

That seemed to take some of the wind out of Snips’ sails. “They… they didn’t ring up, and I have other customers. Aren’t we supposed to—”

“Here.” A few seconds later, the other man had grabbed the box and swiped them across the scanner. The price came up immediately. “Snips, we talked about this. You can’t just do this to get a rise out of the customers. That’s not what we do.”

“It wasn’t that!” he protested, though he had started to look a little guilty. “Seriously, she watched me scan them — didn’t it say ‘item not found’?”

“Hey, what do I now?” Sunset sneered. “I’m just a girl on her period!”

Everyone went silent and still when she shouted that. After a few seconds, Al smiled as disarmingly pleasant as he could manage. “Ma’am, we—”

“No, don’t ‘ma’am’ me!” Sunset snapped, slapping her hands on the counter. “I’ve just been through the worst fucking week of the semester, and then, at the end of it, I’m fielding heavy flow. My insides are shredding themselves to shit, and I’m leaking fluids and chunks like a motherfucker. So no, It’s not funny when Miss Sassy Sass-a-lot over here starts fucking with me because he’s a dick, and I’m a chick! I’m never shopping here again for the rest of my life.”

“Big deal,” Snips bit out. “Good luck finding your precious tampons somewhere else this late.”

‘“My precious— are you… are you shitting me? Are you shitting me right now?! Do you have any fucking idea—”

“Ma’am, ma’am!” Al laughed genially, his eyes flicking around the room. She didn’t have it in her to turn to face all the other customers -- not with her cheek burning red and her eyes watery, it was too embarrassing a prospect — but his reaction indicated that at least one of them was on her side and equally furious about the situation. “We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience — in fact, your entire purchase is on us! Free of charge, to make up for the trouble!”

Snips was shocked beyond all reason. “Hey, wait! Are you serious? Just because she threw a hissy fi—”

“You will shut up right now if you want to keep working here,” Al hissed sharply. Snips promptly shut up. And then to Sunset, “Would that be acceptable?”

Sunset thought it over. Normally she would just nod, let them ring up her two items, and then leave. But she had been pushed too much too many times, and she was beyond pissed.

“Yes,” she said evenly. “If… you throw this in.” Acting hastily, she snatched a pack of gum and tossed it on the counter.

“Deal.”

“And these.” Two handfuls of candy bars joined them. “And one of these.” A stick of beef jerky.

“Absolutely,” Al sighed, looking a little regretful of his promise.

“Do you have any lottery tickets?’

Al swallowed. “Now that we can’t do. It’s a state law, I’m afraid.”

Nodding deeply, she accepted that and said, “Just the stuff on the counter, then.” He rang her up and punched in some code that nullified her need to pay for anything. Snips sulked while he bagged them up and handed them over. “Thank you.”

“No, thank you. And come again!”

“I doubt it!” she called back over her shoulder as the door slid shut behind her.

Of course, as Sunset walked home with her free swag, the tiniest seedling of regret began to sprout in her mind. Al hadn’t wronged her in any way; he had been really helpful and courteous. The only point against him was that he hadn’t given Snips more hell for the way he treated her, but then again, she could reasonably assume he would be doing that in private, like any decent manager would.

She had a feeling he would catch part of the blame for this incident, and didn’t want that on his record… but as long as Snips bore the bulk of the punishment, she supposed it would have to do.

“The nerve of that guy,” she muttered to herself, kicking a rock off the sidewalk and watching it skitter across the gravel. “Fucking… he actually did ring that up wrong just to mess with me. Unbelievable. Completely fucking unbelievable. Here I am, walking around at midnight to buy something I don’t even want, and he fucking thinks…”

By the time she got back home, she was beginning to feel like collapsing. Between the horrors her body was putting her through and the ones coming from the universe at large, she really didn’t know if she could handle anything more. But she had to at least get herself inside and lock the door, which she barely managed.

“No big deal,” she grumbled under her breath as she tossed the plastic back onto the kitchen counter, ripping a tampon from the box. “Just my whole life, sucking more than Kirby. Getting progressively worse as I get older. Fine. Just… totally… fucking fine.”

Then, once she was inside the bathroom, she was staring at her reflection in the mirror and started hating that too. Hating that she just lets this kind of shit happen over and over, that the world was that unjust. That she hadn’t hauled off and decked every single one of those guys who had slighted her, who had had her feel like she wasn’t worth being treated with respect and dignity.

“Publicly shame me… you’ll see. You’ll all see!”

But… who was she kidding? There was no way to actually follow through on such an empty and vague threat. She was just frustrated, and crampy, and tired. And so very much done.

As she moved to sit down, prepared for the inevitable gush of blood that she might have to clean up off the seat if any of it missed, her elbow bumped the book her professor had loaned her. Handsome in its leather, innocent enough on its own.

Had she left it there in the bathroom? Right next to the toilet? It was almost as if…

And before she could stop herself, before reason and sense could stop her thoughts… a plan began to shape in her mind. A wild and reckless plan — one that she would probably think differently about when the morning came. But she was through thinking about things. She was so over being sensible, through living up to everyone's expectations. Toeing the line. Instead, just this once, she wanted to simply do whatever she wanted, and damn the consequences.

She wanted to push back a little.

It took a few seconds to find the page she had stared at in alarm when writing her essay, and only a few more minutes to gather the necessary materials, light a few candles she already had in bathroom, and then transcribe the words of the ‘spell’ into her own handwriting on a sheet of paper. Not only was the spell especially ambiguous in its design; she had no idea if it was dangerous at all — but it required a sacrifice of blood to complete — probably form an animal sacrifice or something, but any blood would do. The a few others had added a few notes about how blood was common in rituals like this, and went on about how it was actually the life force that fueled the spell being cast.

“Well,” Sunset murmured dryly as she drew the seemingly random pictographs on the bathroom floor — a few diamond-shaped figures, some oblong circles, what looked suspiciously like apples and butterflies, among others — with an eyeliner pencil, of all things. “It’s not like I’m in short supply of blood at the moment.”

As she read over the words on the paper, feeling a fresh wave of cramping that only served to push her onward, she sat down on the toilet. The tampon switch was made, and before her usual procedure — to wrap it in toilet paper and toss it in the garbage — she first held it over the star-like symbol in the center of the magic circle. Just long enough for a few drops of blood to fall, to fulfill the requirements. Then it was in the trash and she was washing her hands as she read aloud from the notebook paper she had lain atop the opened book.

“Laughter, Generosity, Kindness, Honesty, Loyalty and Magic; I call upon the elements here and now.”

Nausea washed over her and the candles flickered. She was almost done. There was no stopping now — even though the initial blaze of anger was burning itself out and she was beginning to feel a little stupid. Here she was, a grown woman reading a spell from a leather-bound book in her bathroom. She had done sillier things, but this was pretty far up there.

“Friendship ties everything together, and makes it all complete. I call upon the magic of Twilight, to come to me tonight!”

Whatever the magic of ‘Twilight’ was, Sunset hoped it would be what she wanted. She had gotten the distinct feeling that the spell was inherently benign; only forming to the nature of the caster in its effects. If the caster was evil, then the result would be something dangerous. If they were good and just, then something good would happen. Sunset, however, just wanted to be treated equally. She wanted others to feel her pain, and to get a taste of their own medicine. She wanted revenge.

That wasn’t evil… right?

“Element of magic, you are bound to me, to do my bidding until thy work is done! Come to me!”

And then it wasn’t so stupid anymore.

The thing that made her jump in surprise was the bathroom mirror cracking right down the middle; it was so loud and unexpected that half of her candles blowing out didn’t even occur to her. The towels and toilet paper flapped in a breeze that shouldn’t have been there. Sparks formed from nothingness, blinding her for a few seconds — especially with the light bulbs winking out. The air pressure was high, and her ears threatened to pop, which hadn’t happened in years; the last time was when she had dived into the deep end of her friends pool in middle school.

“Um,” she found herself saying aloud. It wasn’t much, but it was all she had. Was this seriously happening right now? Maybe it was some sort of freak occurrence — like an earthquake or a tornado. Those things happened, right? And most certainly didn’t have anything to do with reading from a dusty old book.

Denial because a lot less applicable when she heard a large ‘whump’, and even less feasible when she opened her eyes to see a purple haze of smoke surrounding what definitely looked like a humanoid figure in the dim light of the room.

She was no longer alone.

“Poor… unfortunate souls…”

“H-huh?” Sunset whispered, hearing her own voice as though it came from far away. Meanwhile, the new voice in the room sounded like gravel grinding together at the bottom of a well. Dark, dank, and evil.

Holy fuck, she was going to die.

“Poor unfortunate souls… in pain, in need…” the shape crooned, its words echoing in the tiny bathroom. “This one longing to be thinner, that one wants to get the girl. And do I help them? Yes, indeed. Those poor… unfortunate… souls…”

Glowing red eyes turned toward her, peering out from the midst of a shaggy, dark mane. Below a single, wickedly sharp-looking horn jutting out from the center of its forehead, a slice of white appeared as the figure smiled, teeth glistening menacingly. What could only be wings grew out of its back, stretching up and out so far they filled all the remaining space in the room.

“So sad, so true. They come flocking to my cauldron, crying, ‘Spells, Ursula, please!’ And I help them… yes, I do…”

It was then that something began to feel off to Sunset. Even though she still felt like she might be about to soil herself, both of her eyebrows drew together in the middle. Though she couldn’t believe she was about to say what she was to some kind of—of… monster who had just appeared in her apartment, she could blame it on the shock.

“Are you… are you quoting The Little Mermaid at me? That was Pour Unfortunate Souls... right?”

Dark, rich laughter bubbled up from a semi-visible throat as ghostly hands lifted to rest on hips, and Sunset knew instinctively that she was dead.

And then it spoke again. In a distinctly feminine voice.

“Oh thank Celestia you got the reference! Took you long enough. I was starting to think I’d be stuck with another boring old woman who just wants to off her ex-husband. Those are the worst, you know? It really gets old after a few hundred years.”

The smoke started to dissipate and the figure became clearer, and Sunset blinked rapidly as she took in the thing — the girl — that she thought had been a demon sent to kill her.

“You’re… you’re purple…”

That was the last thing Sunset thought before she lost consciousness.