Sunset Shimmer felt a little better as she took the shortcut through the park a few blocks from her apartment. Her body still felt sore and bruised and she was still covered in grime, but the strange burning heat in her bones had faded to a dull throb and with no one around she didn’t feel quite as vulnerable and on display. Guilt continued to gnaw at her, and she could feel the familiar pulse of anger in her chest growing again, although this time it was directed at herself, but she would deal with that on her own time. One hand scrubbed wearily at her face, trying to get rid of the stiff, tacky feeling of dirt mixed with dried tears, and she absently noted that her jacket was going to need repairs…or to be replaced.

“…I liked this jacket too,” she mused to herself, before glancing up through the trees at the cloudless night sky. She could make out a fair smattering of stars against the void of space—the bare sliver of the moon didn’t outshine them for once. For a few moments, she just enjoyed the night, the silence and solitude, letting it wash over her like a balm over a burn; tension started to leak out of her shoulders as her mind stilled, thoughts winking out one by one as she simply took a moment to just…be.

That peace was shattered by a scream, and Sunset’s head snapped around towards the noise: a female voice crying out for help in a breathless tone that did not bode well for the situation. It was growing closer to her location, and she could hear footfalls now—a lighter set followed by several heavier ones. There was the sound of impact and a scuffle, and the laughter of several males reached her ears.

“Now now, girly…no need to scream.”

“Yeah…We’re just gonna have a little fun…Ain’t we, boys?”

“Oooo…She’s feisty!”

The laughter was dark and promised unpleasantness, especially when coupled with the sound of someone begging and crying for them to stop. Sunset’s expression twisted into a frown, and her feet carried her towards the scuffle. There was no way the redhead was going to ignore what she heard—no matter how horrible she had been, there were some lines that were never to be crossed, and this was one of them. Upon learning about it when she had arrived in this world, Sunset had taken careful pains to avoid being victim to such a situation, but she’d seen the end result in more than a few girls both on the street and in school. It was a trauma she wouldn’t have wished on even Princess Twilight, and she had hated the purple unicorn who’d replaced her more than she thought herself capable of hating someone.

“Hold still, and maybe it won’t hurt so much! Maybe you’ll even like it.” Sunset’s frown became a primal snarl that would’ve terrified the ponies in Equestria. She recognized that voice from a number of previous encounters, all of them bad and most of them ending in violence against one or more of the group to whom its owner belonged. Her anger and self-loathing transformed into a fury that had found a target other than herself. Or rather, several new targets.

Stepping out of the brush, Sunset counted three bulky male figures all standing over someone on the ground, with a fourth crouched, hands fighting with their victim’s shirt. The redhead barked out, “Hey! Back off!” Her mind, cleared and focused from her brief meditative stint under the stars began analyzing what she knew were going to be her opponents, taking in their body language, posture, builds, clothing and potential weapons. “Now.”

The youths all turned towards her, startled, and that was all the time she gave them before she lunged, soreness buried beneath adrenaline brought on by both rage and fear, as she fell into familiar patterns of movement, sending the closest teen sprawling away from their victim and face first into a tree. He let out a squeal of pain, blood flowing from a smashed nose and split lip, but she was already meeting her second target with a cheap one-two punch to the diaphragm that sent the wind out of him and made him curl forward. Her hands caught his hair, and with extreme prejudice brought his face into a sudden and violent meeting with her knee, before pushing his bulk into stereotypical unwashed teenage thug number three, unbalancing them both. The fourth, whose voice she had recognized, pulled a knife from his coat as he stood, swiping at her with it.

Sunset would’ve taken the time to roll her eyes at it, if she could’ve. His grip was terrible, and the knife was such a shoddy piece, she probably could’ve snapped it with her bare hands. Instead, she sidestepped his lunge, pivoted on her foot, and redirected all his force and energy right into the body of his first friend with the broken nose. Another sound of pain, and Broken-Nose collapsed, a bloody tear in his shirt along his side—it would bleed badly, but it shouldn’t be life threatening, she noted with somewhat disappointed detachment, her foot snapping out in a vicious stomp to the back of Knife-Boy’s knee. She heard the somewhat sickening pop of bone and ligament, and he let out a cry of agony. That was two down, and the knife was lost in the brush somewhere. Two left, one trying to recover the ability to breathe around a bloody bitten tongue, fat lip and a few loose teeth. She adjusted her stance as the one uninjured boy threw a punch, catching it along her arm, and sliding in with an attempt to end it quick.

What she wasn’t expecting was it to be a feint, drawing her in close enough for his other fist to slam into her ribs. The impact vibrated through her torso, and by all rights should have hurt like getting bucked by a yak, but all she felt was angry and annoyed. She had just wanted to go home, but noooo….these filthy, stupid, disgusting primates decided to try and rape someone in front of her. With a rasping scream of pure hate that would have impressed even a Saddle Arabian stallion, Sunset slammed her fist into his throat as hard as she could, and felt her lips curl into a smirk as he dropped, gagging and choking. Another swift kick rendered him out of the fight, and she turned on the last boy who’d finally caught his breath. He was staring at her in horror. She met his gaze, one monster to another. “Leave, and maybe I won’t break your legs,” she hissed, something primal that burned like lava rising in her as she locked eyes with him.

With a terrified yelp, he bolted like a rabbit, and Sunset moved around the moaning, broken, or unconscious forms to the girl huddled on the ground, suddenly unsure of how to proceed. “Hey…c’mon. Can you stand?” First things first, she needed to get the girl up and get them out of here. This dim, off the path part of the park was too exposed, too dangerous, and isolated, considering it was after midnight. The runner could come back with friends—this wasn’t the entire gang of ne’er-do-wells from the neighborhood. There were at least five more, and she knew those weren’t good odds, even if she had been fresh, especially while trying to keep them away from someone who didn’t seem to know how to fight back.

Her thoughts were broken as the girl bolted up from the ground and wrapped herself around Sunset, hyperventilating and sobbing, too twisted up in panic and hysterics to be able to speak. “Alright. I don’t know where you live, but we need to go somewhere safe. My place is near here.” She tried to keep her voice calm and level, to prevent from agitating her further. From the girl’s height and overall shape, Sunset pegged her as a fellow high-schooler, but it was too dark to tell much else. Especially with her half clinging to Sunset, face buried in Sunset’s filthy, battered jacket. She guided them along the path towards her apartment and the edge of the park, pausing to scoop up what she assumed to be the girl’s bag. “This is yours, right?” she asked, shouldering it on the side the girl wasn’t hugging.

No answer other than a sobbing half breath. “Right. Let’s go.” She had no idea what she was doing, but the anger had fizzled out into something else, something she couldn’t quite place. She needed to make sure this girl was safe and okay, and it overpowered just about anything else right now, even the guilt that was returning and her mind shouting self-recriminations for the fight she’d just won.

They managed to stumble out of the park onto a street with better lighting, and Sunset got a better look at the slim form clutching her like the only rock in a raging river. Dark hair was in a frazzled ponytail, marred by a magenta streak, and complimenting the lavender skin. Guilt vanished before incredulity as she tipped the girl’s face away from the collar of her jacket to get a look at her face—and Twilight Sparkle looked back at her with reddened eyes behind thick glasses.

“Ponyfeathers.” The universe either loved irony, or it hated Sunset Shimmer. Or both. She was willing to put her money on both right now. Either way, it was too late for her to back out of this situation, and not the time to fall into hysterical laughter. And Twilight Sparkle—who had to be the human world’s Twilight—was looking at her still, her breathing slowly returning to a normal rhythm. She clung to her rescuer, exhibiting all the signs of shock and emotional shutdown—understandable trauma given the circumstances. Sunset exhaled deeply, and turned them towards her building. “We’re almost there. Another few blocks.”

It was slow going and awkward, trying to walk with another body practically crawling inside her skin, but they made it to her front door, the narrow building sitting dark and unassuming but for the flickering porch light. “This is us.” She frowned, realizing her keys were in the pocket on the “Twilight side” of her body, because the girl had freaked anytime she felt Sunset move like she would pull away. “Look. My coat pocket has my keys. Can you hand them to me?” She struggled to keep her tone level.

A shaking hand snaked into her coat, and she could feel it fishing around for her keys, before withdrawing and presenting them to her. Smiling as best she could, she opened the door, urging them both in, before shutting it and locking it. “Okay. We’re inside. We’re safe now.” Her fingers found the light switch, and the darkness melted away to reveal the small loft she called home. She walked her charge over to the battered sofa. “Sit down for a minute. Relax and breathe.”

With a little encouragement, she got Twilight to sit on the couch, allowing Sunset to shed her jacket and figure out what to do next. Taking in Twilight’s muddy, grass stained clothes and tangled ponytail, her eyes flicked towards her bathroom and an idea bloomed. She moved to her dresser in the loft, pulling out a pair of sleep pants and a t-shirt, as well as a clean towel from her laundry. Those she brought to the bathroom, setting them on the sink, before fiddling with the shower, turning on the nice hot spray.

She returned to the main room. “Found you some clean clothes, and the shower is on. Go clean up. I promise, you’ll feel better if you wash the feel of those animals off you.” They hadn’t gotten any further than grabbing Twilight through her clothes and tearing a few buttons off her shirt, but that wouldn’t make any difference. Sunset could very well remember the few times she’d been grabbed by a creep at school and how, after decking said pervert into the lockers, all she’d wanted to do was shower and scrub until she stopped feeling the unwanted fingers pressing into her flesh. She made sure to keep her tone firm but neutral—for whatever reason, this Twilight wasn’t responding well to anything that wasn’t a direction. “There’s shampoo and body wash. Feel free to use it if you want,” she added, still feeling way out of her depth.

The dark haired teen rose and mechanically headed for the bathroom, the door shutting firmly behind her. Sunset let out an explosive sigh and collapsed on the couch. “Horseapples,” she uttered, head falling back with a thump against the cushions. “What am I doing?”

It was a question with no real answer. She had the human version of Twilight Sparkle in her shower, and she’d just beaten the stuffing out of four teenage boys who were planning on raping the other girl in the park. She had absolutely no idea what she was doing; the last twenty minutes had been absolutely by the seat of her pants. “I’ll…just…try and get her to calm down. Give her something to drink, offer to take her home. Then I’ll never have to see her again. Simple.”

That decided, Sunset hauled her body of the couch to go change into something that didn’t have half the dirt from the crater outside CHS in its seams and wait for her guest to get out of the shower.

---

More than an hour later the bathroom door creaked open, and a timid form slipped out, looking much improved from how she’d gone in. Sunset looked up from her makeshift kitchen counter—a long narrow table she’d purchased used online that held a microwave, a toaster and a stack of clean dishes—and offered out a steaming mug in a tentative hand. “Wasn’t really sure what you drink, but I thought some hot tea might feel good? I like it when I’m upset…so…” she shrugged.

Purple eyes looked at her and the tea was almost knocked from her grip as she found herself in a hug that was almost painfully tight. She let out a startled sounding snort, hurriedly putting the tea mug down. “Uh…”

“Thank you,” Twilight whispered. “You saved me from them…from…” A shudder traveled over her, the words failing to come from her throat, and the fear was practically palpable. Sunset brought her arms awkwardly around the smaller girl to complete the hug, and felt the body relax against her. “Thank you so much.”

With no real way to respond, Sunset just patted her back lightly like she remembered Celestia doing when she woke up from a nightmare as a filly. Just as it was getting awkward enough that she was starting to grow uncomfortable, Twilight let go of her. “I…Sorry. I just wanted to thank you.” Then she seemed to remember something, and had the grace to look embarrassed. “…I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

The former unicorn bit back the immediate and testily sarcastic ‘I know,’ that wanted to fall from her lips. It wouldn’t help do anything other than upset Twilight more, and she’d just calmed down. Instead, she settled for an awkward, “Sunset. Sunset Shimmer,” as she retrieved the tea and pressed it into the dark haired girl’s grip. “Here. Drink. It’ll help settle your nerves.” Her brows furrowed a moment later. “Do you have someone you need to call? I can give you a ride home, but its late so…”

Twilight found a seat again on the couch, curling up in a defensive position, both hands gripping the mug tightly and shaking slightly, as if she were chilled. “…I would, normally…but I had the house to myself tonight. My parents are out of town for a function and my brother got called into work.” She looked up and out the big window at the night. “…Can…can I stay here tonight?” she asked quietly. “I…I don’t want to be home alone right now…” She sipped her tea nervously.

Stay here? Sunset stared, her brain starting and stopping several times. Finally, she answered the only way her guilt ridden psyche would let her. “…It would be better if you went home, Twilight. I’m…I’m not the kind of person you should spend time with, even just for a night. I’m a monster, and I hurt people.” Sunset winced, the echo of flesh deforming under her hands with the sound of crunching bone and popping ligaments ghosting through her mind. She could practically hear Princess Celestia scolding her over her disproportionate response, just as much as she could hear the laughing of her demon self, waiting for the fireball to kill six teens in front of hundreds of others. She moved to sit on the floor near her TV, so Twilight didn’t have to look over the couch’s back at her. “Its safer for you to get away from me as soon as possible.”

Brows furrowed behind damp bangs and thick glasses. “What do you mean you’re a monster? You…you saved me. You brought me here and helped me through a panic attack.”

“Yeah, but I hurt them badly and….I’m not much better than they are. You don’t know me…not really. You don’t know what kind of awful, terrible person I’ve been…a truly horrible person. I’ve made a lot of people suffer because I was a selfish brat.” She curled up, bringing her knees to her chest, feeling raw and exposed again, the memory of wings and claws and reddened skin burning in her mind. “I don’t know the first thing about being a good person.”

Twilight studied her, head tilted slightly. “I don’t think that's true.” At Sunset’s protest, she shook her head. “Not about your past. If you say you did bad things, I believe you. But….listen to yourself. You’re worried about hurting me. You’re sorry you hurt people in the past. You’re upset and calling yourself a bad person. Someone who was really evil and terrible…they wouldn’t care….Like those boys…” She glanced down, her trembling becoming more noticeable. “I bet the only thing they cared about was getting caught. They didn’t have any second thoughts or considerations about the prospect of…” Twilight halted, trying to get her breathing under control.

After a minute of some weird breathing exercise with her fist in front of her chest, she turned back to Sunset. “You care. You didn’t have to save me. You did, and risked yourself to do it. You didn’t have to bring me here—you could have left me in the park, but you didn’t. You brought me here, loaned me clean clothes, and you made me a drink, all to make me feel better. You just offered me a ride home, and were concerned that I would have someone worried about my whereabouts.”

“Maybe you don’t know a lot about being a good person, but maybe you know more than you think.”

Sunset stared at her, eyes wide and startled. She still felt like her soul was on display, vulnerable and without her barriers, but it no longer felt so much like a gaping wound that was being prodded and jabbed. She’d put it all out before this girl, and instead of condemnation or fear, she saw trust and warmth. She couldn’t remember the last time anyone had looked at her like that, not even Princess Celestia. Something tore loose in her chest, and she broke into bitter, painful sobs that wracked her entire body, all of the shame and hurts she held inside her for years pouring out of her amidst hot tears.

Shifting fabric dimly told her that Twilight had abandoned the sofa, and then arms were around her again, the other girl just holding on to her as her emotions finally overwhelmed her. Sunset fought it at first, trying to regain control, but the feeling of the warm embrace being offered freely with no judgment made that slip through her grip like grains of sand, and the loneliness she’d buried for years under anger and hate rose up, drowning her. She fell apart, collapsing into the hug and for the first time in her life, surrendered.

Time passed without her knowing—for all she knew, she’d spent an eternity weeping like a foal into Twilight’s shoulder, soaking the fabric with pain and tears, fingers clutching at her back. She could feel more than hear the soft, tuneless humming against her hair, and a hand rubbed gentle circles on her shoulder, giving her time to work through it at her own pace. Eventually sobbing petered out into sniffles, and she pulled away, scrubbing at her face. Twilight withdrew her arms slowly, watching her for a long moment. “Better?” she asked carefully.

Sunset nodded, not half as embarrassed as she should have been, and she exhaled. “…I…I’m sorry. It's…I guess it's been a rough night for both of us.”

A lavender hand brushed her arm. “Do you want to talk about it? I’m not always…the best at talking, but I can listen.”

The redhead’s face twisted into an expression that was half grimace, yet the truth poured from her mouth anyway. “…It's like I said. I’ve been a terrible person for years, and I did a lot of bad stuff. I used my school like my own personal kingdom and plaything, and tormented people there. Tonight was…a new girl came to the school this week, undid all the damage I’d caused…and then stood up to me in front of the entire school at a dance. She took everything from me that mattered to me…and in the process…” Blue-green eyes dropped to stare at her hands, seeing the claws and red skin flash across her vision. “…In the process…she made me see myself for what I am. A monster who has nothing at all, who doesn’t know how to do anything other than hurt people and tear them apart. And everyone else saw it too.”

Twilight nodded. “…It sounds like you don’t want to be like that anymore,” she observed.

“…No…I…I never wanted to be a monster. I was just…I was so angry. I thought I was being denied something I deserved, something I wanted more than anything…I did a lot of things…hurt po—people that didn’t do anything wrong, and didn’t listen to advice from those trying to help me. I was awful, for a long time…so long that I don’t remember if I ever knew how to be any other way.” She grabbed some napkins from the coffee table, leftover from the last time she’d gotten take out and used them to blow her nose.

Purple eyes remained on her. “…I think you do. Nothing you’ve done for me was monstrous. So maybe you have a lot to learn, but you know more than you want to believe about being a nice person.”

“Guess we’ll just…have to disagree then,” Sunset responded tiredly.

Twilight Sparkle gave her a bright smile. “For now. I’ll just have to work at getting you to change your mind.”

Brows furrowed, Sunset peered at her. “What?”

Instead of clarifying, the other girl was studying her intently. “…have you never had a friend before?” she asked.

Sunset flinched from the question, Princess Twilight’s declaration about friendship echoing in her memory. “…No. I…didn’t have time for them at first…then I didn’t see the point—other people were either useful or a waste of space…and now…” Her head dropped into her hand. “…Now that everyone knows me for what I am, I’m fairly certain no one will want to even try.”

“I would.”

For the second time that night, Sunset’s head jerked up in a snort of surprise, and she stared at Twilight. “….I…you…what? Are you…did you hit your head?” Sarcasm. She could do sarcasm. That wasn’t totally mean, was it?

“No, I didn’t hit my head, and yes, I would.” Twilight’s expression was nervous but not because of Sunset. “Truthfully I don’t know a whole lot about social interactions, but I have had a few friends in my life.” She pushed her glasses up on her nose. “And…I would like to be your friend. You say you’ve been awful, and I believe you did the things you say you did…but that's not the person I’ve seen—and as a scientist, I prefer to deal in concrete facts and readily observable data. What I’ve observed is that while you may have previously acted in a negative manner to others, you have expressed desire to change that. If nothing else, I need more data before I reach any kind of conclusion.” Her smile never faltered. “…although I already have a hypothesis, if you want to hear it.”

Blinking, Sunset was not sure how to respond. “…Sure…?”

“I hypothesize that I will not regret being your friend, because I believe that you will turn out to be a very good friend if given a fair chance.” Then her face fell. “I mean…if…if you don’t think being friends with me would…be unpleasant or boring.”

“…I’m more worried that I’m going to mess this up, Twilight. I don’t know the first thing about friendship. I…like I said. Not a good person.”

The smile was back. “I promise you I will keep that knowledge in mind.”

Definitely the universe loving irony and hating Sunset Shimmer. Why else would she be in this situation where the first and likely only person willing to make friends with her was the human counterpart of the pony Princess she’d hated with a burning passion up until about three hours ago? A laugh borne more from exasperation than any humor at the other girl’s words escaped from her. “…Alright. I can see you’re going to be persistent about this.” She pushed herself up, pulling Twilight with her. “C’mon. Let’s get the couch set up for you. If you’re going to stay the night, you should be comfortable.”

The joy in her new friend’s smile stirred something in Sunset’s chest, a warmth and satisfaction that surprised her even as it soothed some of the painful edges of her soul.

Next Chapter: Chapter Three: New Beginnings Estimated time remaining: 58 Hours, 26 Minutes