Sunset dragged herself through the halls, exhausted. Ever since the “Shimmer Hate” pages had started appearing in her locker, her sleep had become wracked with nightmares once more, her subconscious tormenting her with a mixture of projected hatred and her own guilt, all twisted up together into an amalgamation of self loathing. Over and over she’d seen herself as the she-demon, enacting all of the horrific deeds that others believed her capable of, many of which made her wake up gagging and racing for her bathroom. She had spent more of the last few nights awake, staring at the ceiling and trying to remember how to breathe normally than she did resting.

It left her senses dull and somewhat numb, which meant she hadn’t been quite as alert as she should have been in the halls amidst her peers. She’d been tripped twice—which resulted in at least three people trampling her hands as she tried to gather her scattered books—shoved, body-checked into a wall four different times, and almost run face first into a locker door once. Now she was trying to hug the wall and get to the locker room so she could change for gym.

Just as she was passing the short hall with the busted overhead light—the same one where she had confronted Princess Twilight what seemed like a lifetime ago—laughter echoed in her ears from a male throat and she found herself being bodily slammed forward, arms flailing as she was caught by surprise. Her attacker carried her forward by the back of her coat, pushing her with force into an open, empty locker. Her nose hit the back wall of metal, and then the lights went out as the door was shut roughly on her.

“Hope you like metal coffins, She-Demon!” came the voice of Garble, one of the creeps at school who would have fit right in with the group that lived near her loft.

Sunset struggled to control her breathing and not panic—there was no way in the manure caked pits of Tartarus that she would give a slime like Garble that satisfaction. The locker was too small in width and depth for her, steel trapping her arms by her sides and constricting painfully on her breasts, hips, shoulders, chest, and rear. Every instinct in her hind-brain railed at her to balk in such close quarters, feeling trapped on all sides. The former unicorn forced herself to look upwards and close her eyes, alleviating the claustrophobic feeling digging into her senses, before trying to wriggle and shimmy her body around in the locker to try and hit the door latch from the inside.

It felt like it took forever just to turn herself enough so that her arm could shift and contort, making her whimper in pain as it felt like her shoulder would come out of joint before she could get her fingers to the mechanism. Six tries and the door finally popped open, and Sunset could breathe properly again as she practically fell out of the locker.

The bell had already rung while the redhead had been trying to free herself, and she raced down the hall towards the locker room. She got there without being stopped by any teachers, but even changing into her gym clothes as fast as possible didn’t stop her from still being late. Late enough that the gym coach sentenced her to running laps the entire period as punishment. He even kept her running until well after the other girls had all gone into the locker room, finally releasing her from the torture with only a few minutes before the next bell.

Sunset groaned, staggering into an empty locker room, heading for the showers in the back. It didn’t matter if it would make her late for her art class or not—her nose was sensitive enough to the sour, foul reek of human sweat that her own body made her feel gross, and she wanted to get the scent to go away. She turned the water on and set the temperature, before moving back to start stripping out of her uniform.

Sadistic laughter and running steps caught her attention, and she caught the briefest flash of two forms: one with dark clothes, bronzed skin, and stark white hair, and the other a minty sort of green complexion with golden hair, right before something that smelled even more foul than human sweat was upended right over her, container and all tamped down on her head as her assailants fled the scene with laughter. “A present from the Wondercolts to CHS’ own Carrie, Demon-Bitch!”

The metallic tang of blood and flesh assaulted her senses, not quite fresh, as warm liquid and squishy, solid bits cascaded over her body. Shuddering and trying to hold the contents of her stomach down, Sunset pushed the huge tub off her upper body and to the tiled ground with a clatter. In the lights of the shower area, she got a look at what had been dumped on her: blood and offal, which had soaked her current garb through and left stringy bits of organs and entrails in her hair and draped over her shoulders and chest.

There was no stopping it. Sunset went weak in the knees and threw up everything she’d eaten that day, tears running down her face. She couldn’t tell what animal the offal had come from, but the size of some of the parts suggested it had been large. She just hoped beyond measure that it was bovine and not equine, before squelching that thought and quickly stripping as much of her clothing and the gore off and into the bucket—which had ‘Griffen Meats’ stenciled plainly on the side in black—it had come from. The blood had soaked her clothing beyond help, and all of it was used as rags to clean up the gore and reeking vomit. All she could think about was how she didn’t want to get into trouble for the mess, her brain wrapped in the cottony sensation of shock. Just clean it up, Shimmer, she told herself. One hoo—hand after the other.

Once the bulk of the mess had been cleaned up off the tile, she retreated to the shower head, scrubbing herself raw until she was certain she was completely free of gore, going over every inch of skin and hair to make sure she’d gotten every bit. She dried off with a towel she kept in her locker for the rare occasions she showered after gym, and threw her jeans and shirt back on, cringing at her lack of undergarments and how weird it felt to be in a public place without them. The former unicorn didn’t have much choice but to do so, since they had been just as ruined as her gym clothes. She chose to zip her jacket up as much as possible, then hauled the bucket of filth out the back door of the locker room so she could toss it in the dumpster behind the school.

By the time Sunset had finished cleaning the showers and herself, the day was over and she had to head in for detention. Her brain was foggy and she felt half frozen as she accepted her daily chores from Luna and she and Applejack got to work pushing brooms and emptying trash cans. She was mostly silent the entire time, her responses carefully schooled to not give away just how bad off she felt—it was nice to know her acting skills hadn’t deserted her. By the time she bid the blonde goodbye for the afternoon, she was ready to just collapse. She lowered the hand that had waved at Applejack, taking a moment to lean on the nearby wall, when someone spoke behind her.

“So now you’ve conned AJ into doing the bulk of your work in detention with your pathetic act. I can’t say I’m too surprised, Shimmer.” Rainbow Dash’s tone was scathing and accusatory.

The former unicorn whipped around, flinching at the sudden appearance of someone who radiated displeasure and mistrust the way Rainbow was. “…I…no. That’s not it at all. She just shows up. I didn’t ask her to the first time and I don’t ask her now,” she tried to defend herself, exhaustion making it hard to put her thoughts into words.

“We both know that’s a complete load of bullshit, Shimmer,” the athlete bit out sourly. “You’re just playing one of your long games to make us let our guard down again. When we do, BAM! You’ll close the trap on us—but I’m not stupid enough to fall for your shit anymore.” Dash took several stalking steps towards her, aggression and intimidation more than making up for the fact that she was almost half a foot shorter than Sunset Shimmer. “I’ve learned your game, you scheming bitch,” she snarled, jabbing the redhead in the chest pointedly with a finger. “And I’m going to protect my friends from you, no matter what, you got that?”

Nostrils flaring, Sunset cringed back until she was flat against the wall, her heart racing. “…I’m not scheming anything,” she protested, eyes watering. “…I just…I just…I’m trying to be better, really…” She felt like a foal caught by an Ursa, her pulse thundering so loud and fast in her ears that she felt light headed and black spots danced before her eyes.

“Better at being a manipulative, psycho she-demon, maybe! You better watch your back, Shimmer. The instant I find out what you’re up to, your ass is grass!” One more pointed jab of the finger, and Rainbow stalked off down the hallway like a scalded cat.

Fluttershy wasn’t one for confrontations. She avoided them if at all possible, and when faced with them, she often capitulated easily to keep from ruffling feathers. She was shy around strangers, and even with friends she often just melted into the background. At the end of the day, she was always more comfortable around animals than people. Animals she understood, animals she trusted.

In spending years volunteering at the shelter, she’d learned a lot about animals, and also a lot about the things humanity was capable of. She even had a bit of a reputation among the volunteers, vet staff, and even the behavioral experts: when an animal seemed beyond hope, unable to be helped because it was too damaged by its experiences with humans, it was Fluttershy’s turn. Wild or feral or domestic didn’t seem to matter—the soft spoken girl with the pink hair could get through to them when no one else could. She’d coaxed beaten dogs and feral cats to her lap, soothed and nursed a former dancing bear back into health after it had been seized from an illegal roadside ‘circus’, calmed sharp beaked raptors and cleaned more than a few wounds and infected cuts that would have required tranquilizers for anyone else to do the same. When anyone asked her secret, she would smile and try to explain it, that it was all about learning their language and letting them come to you, but she never could fully make her point.

Still, the experiences had taught her something about abuse and neglect and how it affected its victims, knowledge she never wanted but had found handy in the most unusual of places: school. She could see its hand in the various bullies that populated first her middle school and later high school. The ways they lashed out, bit first to prevent being bitten themselves, of old hurt and pains being nursed behind a veneer of arrogance and swagger.

Which meant she’d recognized Sunset Shimmer’s motivations from their very first encounter as bully and victim. It was one of the biggest reasons she never fought back, tried to make herself as non-threatening as possible, and for the most part, it worked. Sure, the redhead had blustered, shouted, and threatened, but she’d never gone through with her threats. Fluttershy considered that a win—words were just words, no different than a dog barking to warn you off, and while sometimes they startled or upset her, it was still just words.

It was why she had remained quiet when they’d offered the former bully a second chance, why she’d watched in silence since Sunset had started joining them for lunch. It was why she didn't agree with Rainbow Dash and her outbursts, and why she had continued to take it all in, studying Sunset’s behavior the same way she did the animals at the shelter.

Sunset had given off much of the same confusion initially that she saw in dogs when they expected to get hit and didn't for the first few times. She’d also looked at Fluttershy with shame and guilt, and actively tried to avoid her as much as possible. Fluttershy had wanted to talk to her, but between school, Sunset’s detention, her work at the shelter, and both of them having separate weekend plans, she hadn't found time to get her alone without Rainbow looking over her shoulder.

That was why she’d stayed late today, hoping to catch Sunset after detention but before she went home for the weekend. The girl seemed to be having a particularly hard week, jumpier and more on edge than she’d ever seen her, and maybe a little kindness would do her good.

As she turned into the hall where Sunset’s locker was, she could hear the faint sound of exhausted, frustrated sobbing coupled with the squeak of liquid and metal and vigorous scrubbing. She moved slower, moving carefully to avoid startling the person making the sound, and came to a halt, horrified by what she saw.

The former bully was struggling to scrub her locker door, the whole surface marred by black ink. From her unseen vantage point, Fluttershy could read some of the ugly slurs written on the metal. Her expression morphed into a frown, and she stepped back as silently as she had come, racing to the office as quickly as she could.

After everything else that had happened today, Sunset was well and truly beyond her breaking point. So when she started the daily ritual of scrubbing her locker clean of graffiti, it didn’t take much to push her over the edge—in this case, the stubborn refusal of permanent marker to give way to the chemical cleaner she was using. Coupled with her exhaustion, stress, the still lingering icy numbness in her limbs, and now, building anger, the task was proving to be near impossible. The former bully had started crying from sheer frustration some time ago and banged her fist on the metal savagely, the throb of pain a welcome ripple in the sea of despair trying to swallow her up.

“Sunset Shimmer? What is going on here?”

She whipped around, finding both the principal and vice principal, with Fluttershy a few paces behind them. She flinched back, looking wildly between the administrators and locker door, only a bare quarter of the graffiti wiped off. Her mind was sluggish and tired and she found herself tripping over her own words.

“…I…I’m sorry…. I'm trying to keep up with it, I really am,” she babbled, strength going out of her legs. “I’ve been cleaning it every day…but there's just so much lately…and I just…I’m sorry! Please…don’t be mad…I’ll pay for it if I need to…” Words failed her as the two woman frowned, exchanging looks with one another, and she was afraid that she had incurred their ire.

The tears fell faster, and she curled in on herself against her locker, crying tiredly into her hands. She was so worn and distressed that she almost missed the building pressure of her magical senses flickering. What she didn’t miss was Fluttershy, who had stepped from her place behind the administrators and dropped next to her, arms going around Sunset’s shoulders. The normally timid girl hugged her tightly, drawing her into a warm embrace and rocking her like a foal.

“Shhh…” the soft voice whispered soothingly in her ear. “Its okay. You don't have to be afraid—you haven’t done anything wrong. They aren’t upset with you. Deep breaths. Let it all out, and just tell us what happened.”

Sunset hiccuped and wept, the story coming out in bits and pieces, how she’d started finding messages scrawled on her locker after the dance, simple and few at first, how she kept cleaning them up, each day, how they'd gotten more and more complex at the end of each day. When she admitted to seeing it as part of her punishment, Fluttershy’s grip tightened and she spoke with quiet, firm steel in her voice for the first time in the years Sunset had known her.

“Sunset Shimmer, I want you to look at me right now.”

She tilted her head to look at the girl she had bullied for years, and found herself trapped by the intensity in those eyes.

“Now listen to me. No one deserves this—this isn’t punishment or penance. It’s meanness and spite, just to hurt someone. It doesn’t matter what you think you’ve done—this is hate.” Fluttershy produced a tissue from her pocket and wiped the redhead’s face. “All this? The people doing it are worse than you ever were. It’s why I went and got Principal Celestia.”

“I…I don’t understand…I treated you worse than anyone in school! Why are you doing this? Why are you trying to help me?” She didn’t understand how Fluttershy could just…let everything go.

“I forgave you a long time ago, Sunset…and you needed me to care today. Everyone needs a little kindness sometimes, no matter how tough they appear.”

Warm magic passed through Sunset and vanished, but it took some of her hurt with it, and she hugged Fluttershy back. “I’m sorry for everything I did to you,” she confessed.

“I know. That’s why you were avoiding me—but you don’t have to. You’re sorry and I’ve forgiven you. We can move on now, and we can try to be friends?”

Sunset gave her a watery smile. “I…I’d like that.”

Throat clearing turned their attention to Luna and Celestia. The Vice-Principal was inspecting the locker. “And this is happening daily, you say? Do you have any idea as to who?” Sunset shook her head. “Hmm. First things first, I am assigning you a new locker, one closer to the office and in view of the cameras. Second, you are not responsible for anyone else defacing school property. If it happens again, you are to report it to me. Understand? Fluttershy is correct—you deserve to suffer consequences for your past crimes, but this is not a justified punishment. It is nothing more than that petty revenge.”

Sunset nodded dumbly, her emotions too overloaded to do anything else. Right now, she just wanted to get out of the school, get on her bike, and drive to Twilight’s house. After the way the week had spiraled out of control, all she wanted was to hold Twilight in her arms in the safety of Twilight’s bedroom.

Celestia looked at her with concern, while Luna studied the graffiti closer. “Are you going to be okay, Sunset?” she asked gently. The image of the human was overlaid for a brief moment by the mare she’d known.

“Yes ma’am,” she answered, feeling drained. “I just want to go home,” she added, and realized with a weird sense of fuzziness to her brain that Twilight’s house was becoming just as much home as her loft was. “Can I go home now?” The question came out in a small voice, making her sound more like a tentative foal than a near adult.

The sisters exchanged looks, and Celestia nodded. “Come by the office Monday morning for a new locker assignment. Go home, Sunset, and try to get some rest. You look tired. Fluttershy, will you make sure she gets to her vehicle?”

The pink haired girl scooped up Sunset’s messenger bag along with her own backpack and walked with her all the way to her bike. As Sunset moved to put her helmet on, she looked at the other girl. “….thank you, Fluttershy.”

I wanted to offer you guys a little treat considering the whole world has gone completely insane. Have an extra chapter this week on me!

Heres to the benefits of preferring internet socialization over physical!